Χαραδριοῦ βίος: life of a stone-curlew or of a small torrent? Some considerations on Gorgias 494b

Abstract

The objective of the present essay is to review the traditional interpretation of the passage of Gorgias 494b, where Socrates says to Callicles χαραδριοῦ τινα αὖ σὺ βίον λέγεις, that has generally been translated as «on the contrary, you refer to a life of a stone-curlew». Nevertheless, we consider that Socrates could be referring not to the χαραδριός, a bird of uncertain identification, but to χαράδριον, diminutive of χαράδρα, ‘small torrent’. To justify our proposal, we analyze the ancient scholarly testimonies (scholia and works of lexicographers and paremiographers) that comment on this passage, as well as others in which the bird χαραδριός is mentioned; secondly, we analyze the use of the term χαραδριός in other literary testimonies and, finally, the semantic and pragmatic context of the expression χαραδριοῦ τινα βίον in Grg. 494b.