Hermann Diels: The Beginnings of Philology and the Greeks

Abstract

The article presents Slovene translation of the first part of the paper Die Anfänge der Philologie bei den Griechen, which was given by Hermann Diels at the 50th symposium of German philologists in 1909. His study includes the beginnings of reflection on language and the development of the classical philological awareness in ancient Greece, from the first puns of the Orphics to the etymological explanations of Heraclitus and Hecataius and the linguistic observations of Herodotus. The author treats with particular attention the importance of ancient Greek philosophical schools for the development of linguistics. He further points out the difference between the linguistic teachings of Heraclitus and Parmenides, which are recorded in Plato's Cratylus, and throws light on the role of the sophist movement in the formation of classical philology in Hellenism. With the translation of Diels's study, Keria marks the 75th anniversary of the death of the prominent author of the Fragments of the Pre-Socratics.