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Iccus of Tarentum: Testimonia

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These are the ancient testimonia about Iccus of Tarentum, an athlete and trainer of the fifth century BC, collected by Diels and Kranz among the early Pythagoreans. No writings of his survive. The set consists of brief references in later authors, beginning with Plato's Protagoras, where Protagoras names Iccus among those who practised sophistry under the cover of another art, in his case gymnastics.

Iccus was remembered in antiquity as an Olympic victor in the pentathlon, famed for strict self-restraint during training, and Plato cites him as a model of discipline. Later sources call him a physician and made 'Iccus' dinner' a proverb for a frugal meal. The testimonies show how athletic training, diet and ideals of temperance were linked in Greek thought.

About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: DK 25 A 1–3). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).

Ancient Greek · Philosophy
Testimonia
Iccus of Tarentum · every word parsed
1
PLATO Protag. 316 D ἐγὼ δὲ τὴν σοφιστικὴν τέχνην φημὶ μὲν εἶναι παλαιάν, τοὺς δὲ μεταχειριζομένους αὐτὴν τῶν παλαιῶν ἀνδρῶν φοβουμένους τὸ ἐπαχθὲς αὐτῆς πρόσχημα ποιεῖσθαι καὶ προκαλύπτεσθαι, τοὺς μὲν ποίησιν οἷον Ὅμηρόν τε καὶ Ἡσίοδον καὶ Σιμωνίδην, τοὺς δὲ αὖ τελετάς τε καὶ χρησμωιδίας τοὺς ἀμφί τε Ὀρφέα καὶ Μουσαῖον, ἐνίους δέ τινας ἤισθημαι καὶ γυμναστικὴν οἷον Ἴκκος τε ὁ Ταραντῖνος καὶ ὁ νῦν ἔτι ὢν οὐδενὸς ἥττων σοφιστὴς Ἡρόδικος ὁ Σηλυμβριανός.
—de legg. VIII 839. 840 ἆρʼ οὖν οὐκ ἴσμεν τὸν Ταραντῖνον Ἴκκον ἀκοῆι διὰ τὸν Ὀλυμπίασί τε ἀγῶνα καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους, ὡς διὰ φιλονικίαν καὶ τέχνην καὶ τὸ μετὰ τοῦ σωφρονεῖν ἀνδρεῖον ἐν τῆι ψυχῆι κεκτημένος, ὡς λόγος, οὔτε τινὸς πώποτε γυναικὸς ἥψατο οὐδʼ αὖ παιδὸς ἐν ὅληι τῆι τῆς ἀσκήσεως ἀκμῆι; PAUS. VI 10, 5 Ἴ. δὲ ὁ Νικολαΐδα Ταραντῖνος τόν τε Ὀλυμπικὸν στέφανον ἔσχεν ἐπὶ πεντάθλωι καὶ ὕστερον γυμναστὴς ἄριστος λέγεται τῶν ἐφʼ αὑτοῦ γενέσθαι. STEPH. Byz. S. V. Τάρας· Ἴ. ὁ Ταραντῖνος ἰατρὸς ἐπὶ τῆς οζ [(?)] ὀλυμπιάδος· μέμνηται τούτου καὶ Πλάτων ἐν Πρωταγόραι. EUSTATH. z. Hom. p. 610, 28 Ἴ. ὅπερ ἐστὶ κύριον ὄνομα σοφοῦ ἰατροῦ Ῥηγίνου ἐξ οὗ παροιμία ʼτὸ δεῖπνον Ἴκκουʼ διὰ τὸ εὐτελὲς τῆς ἐκείνου ζωῆς. Z. Dionys. Per. 376 ὅθεν Ἴ. ἦν ὁ Ταραντῖνος ἰατρός, ὃς ἐπὶ βίου εὐτελείαι εἰς παροιμίαν κεῖται τὴν λέγουσαν ʼἼκκου δεῖπνονʼ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀπερίττως δειπνούντων.
IAMBL. V. Pyth. 267 Ἴκκος.
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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Liddell, Scott & Jones (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: odyCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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