Dionysodorus (Greek: Διονυσόδωρος,Dionysódōros, c. 430 – late 5th century or early 4th century BCE) was anancient Greeksophisticphilosopher and teacher ofmartial arts, generalship, andoration. Closely associated with his brother and fellow sophistEuthydemus, he is depicted in the writing ofPlato andXenophon.
Plato'sEuthydemus features Dionysodorus and Euthydemus as prominent interlocutors. According to the dialogue, the brothers were born on theAegean island ofChios before relocating as colonists toThurii inMagna Graecia of modern-dayItaly.[1] After being exiled from Thurii, perhaps in 413,[2] they came toAthens. According toSocrates in theEuthydemus, the two taught fighting in armor and legal oration before developing an interest in sophistry.[3] Xenophon in theMemorabilia further attributes the teaching of generalship to Dionysodorus specifically.[4]
Additionally, an individual named Dionysodorus appears inLysias'Against Agoratus speech,[5] who potentially matches the sophist on several biographical details.[2] This Dionysodorus was a general andtaxiarch who supported the democracy; if the general and sophist are one and the same, Dionysodorus may have become a naturalized Athenian citizen along with many other foreign residents before theBattle of Arginusae.[2]
Throughout theEuthydemus, Plato depicts Dionysodorus and his brother employing a string oflogical fallacies against Socrates and his student Clinias (III), son ofAxiochus. Scholars have suggested that Plato here chose the brothers as token sophists worthy of ridicule.[6]Aristotle preserves, and refutes, a specific argument of Euthydemus, which implied that "a man knows that there is a trireme in thePiraeus because he knows each of the two things ['a trireme' and 'in the Piraeus'] separately."[7][8][9]
In Xenophon'sMemorabilia, Socrates examines a student of Dionysodorus who appears not to have learned basic elements of generalship. The implication seems to be either that Dionysodorus has shamelessly taken the student's payments without giving him his money's worth, or that Dionysodorus himself is ignorant of the very art of generalship he claims to teach.[4] This is apparently in keeping with Plato's critique of Dionysodorus, although the biographical details are in conflict.[citation needed]