Sophistic, Eristic and Philosophy in Isocrates’ Proemium to Helen

The proemium to the Encomium of Helen has revealed itself to be a perfect example of how interesting the study of Greek literature is, in so far as what barely seemed likely to yield promising results, namely a prologue to one of the least favourite literary genres, opened up new perspectives for unravelling the secrets of Isocrates’ allusive technique, the major one being that his polemic in the encomium was not launched against all the spiritual currents of his time, as previously thought, but only against the Sophistic, eristic and Antisthenes, his rival in a bitter struggle for the legacy of Socrates. After a long and deep analysis of the text, we came to the conclusion that Isocrates should be viewed as the forerunner of the new sophistic movement, instead of being regarded as “organizer of the spirit of the ancient sophistic,” as is evident from the fact that his method of montage, applied to the encomium as a whole and essentially based on the Socratic and Platonic concepts, won general acceptance among the exponents of the Second Sophistic.