Between Hipparchian Cynicism and Priscillian Montanism

Tatian’s Oration to the Greeks ( or. ) contains a list of twelve ancient Greek philosophers whom Tatian berates for their arrogant stupidity ( or. 2.1-3.7). In this list can be found a brief note ( or. 3.6) in which Tatian singles out the Cynic Crates of Thebes (ca. 368/5-ca. 288/5 BC ) and asks who would want to be a witness at his “dog-marriage” (κυνογαμία) or not reject the arrogant “tongue-madness” (γλωσσομανία) “of people like him” rather than “seeking that which is truly worth pursuing.” This paper aims at contributing to an improved understanding of this sentence and in particular of the two words, κυνογαμία and γλωσσομανία. For this purpose it looks 1) at Crates’ background, in particular his marriage with Hipparchia of Maroneia, and 2) at the wider context in which Tatian is writing, in particular the phenomenon of early Christian ecstatic prophecy personified by the leading Montanist women prophets Priscilla and Maximilla

Art · Context (archaeology · Cynicism · Epistemology · Greeks · Linguistics · Literature · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Sentence · Stupidity · Witness · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology