Ἐπὶ τὸν τρώσαντα ἐλθεῖν? Lukians Nigrinus und die hermeneutische Bewegung

Abstract The present article proposes a new reading of Lucian’s Nigrinus , contending that the speech of the philosopher Nigrinos, in interaction with the framing dialogue and the dedication letter by „Lucian”, contains markers which teach the reader how to critically approach not only the Nigrinus itself, but philosophical speech in general. At the end of the dialogue, the two speakers, plunged into rapture by the philosopher’s words, invite themselves and the reader to return to his λόγος with a critical eye and reassess its negative impact on their intellects. This „second reading” entails revisiting Nigrinos’ speech with a heightened degree of sensitivity to intertextual allusions and ironic refractions – which, when uncovered, cause the philosopher’s words to lose their enchanting power. In an anecdote in which Nigrinos describes the shrewd methods used by the Athenians to convert a conceited stranger to philosophy, the contradictions between the pretensions and the effect of his own speech become apparent. At the same time, the convert, through his ability to understand the Athenians’ subtle remarks, provides both Nigrinos’ audience and the reader of the dialogue with a model for approaching the ambiguities of philosophical and literary speech. Scrutinized closely, the λόγος itself revokes the effect it initially had on its recipients. For the reader, the Nigrinus unfolds its hermeneutic potential through its literary form and the interplay of its three different narrative levels (the letter, dialogue, and Nigrinos’ speech): their mutual subtle interactions constantly open up new interpretive possibilities. A comparison with other works by Lucian reveals that in the Nigrinus , the λόγος – as a literary text which reflects back upon itself – takes on the hermeneutic role which Lucian otherwise assigns to the Λόγος in the sense of critical reasoning or Socratic ἔλεγχος , namely: to spur the reader to constantly re-examine the words and ideas he is confronted with.