person
Prodicus of Ceos
Prodicus
also: Prodicus Cius, Prodicus of Ceos
Sophist of Ceos (5th century BC), noted for precise distinctions of synonyms and the fable 'The Choice of Heracles.' Cicero (Brutus 30) lists him among the great teachers of speaking.
Reading notes
- On the Nature of the Gods §1.118 Prodicus of Ceos
A fifth-century BC sophist who explained the gods as deifications of things useful to human life (the sun, rivers, grain, wine). Cotta cites him among those who leave no religion standing.
- On Duties §1.118 the story that Prodicus tells of Hercules
The famous parable, ascribed to the sophist Prodicus and preserved in Xenophon's Memorabilia, in which the young Hercules meets Virtue and Pleasure at a crossroads and chooses the harder path of Virtue. Cicero treats it as an ideal not generally available to ordinary men.