Isocrates Macedonia Belong To Analyze Problems

"The question of Macedonians" in4th century Greece mainly reflected in the heated debate between anti-Macedonian party and pro-Macedonian party on whether Philip II was a Greek or a non-Greek. Isocrates, as a member of pro-Macedonian party, justified Philip’s Greekness in his speech To Philip by drawing attention to origins of Philip II’ancestors in Peloponnesian Argos and his descent from the Panhellenic hero Heracles. In order to make the relationship between Isocrates’Panhellenism and the methods he used in defining Philip’s Greekness more clearly, my dissertation attempts a thorough analysis of Isocrates’To Philip, with a particular focus on the complex definition of identity produced by the author in defending Philip II’s Greekness. This dissertation is divided into five parts, and its arrangements are as follows:Chapter1provides a general review of scholarships on "Macedonian Question" and the primary contradict between Demosthenes and Isocrates, and offers a literature review of researches on Isocrates’ To Philip. Chapter2explains the thought background on which Isocrates composed his To Philip. The first half of this chapter demonstrates the intertwined development of Panhellnism and Greek identity in the course of time; the second half analyses Isocrates’ Panhellnism and his perception of Greekness. Chapter3is an exhaustive text analysis of To Philip, involving investigations of the content, the structure and the potential audiences of this speech. Chapter4examines how Isocrates adjusted and utilized the myths of both the Argos origin of the royal Macedonian family and his descent from the Panhellenic hero Heracles to define and justify Philip’s Greekness in pursuing his Panhellenism. Chapter5makes a comparison between Isocrates and Demosthenes, intending to illustrate the real difference of those two authors. By way of conclusion, I intend to suggest that the definition of Greekness is very flexible in different authors’works; thus it can be modified to serve as a potent non-material basis for an author’s intention to promote his own propaganda.