PROTAG'ORAS (Lat., from Gk. flpidra)apac) (c. -IS5-c.411 n.c.). A famous Greek sophist of the fifth century B.C., born at Abdera in apparent ly humble station. Ile came to Athens ass early as we. 445, and in that city and in Sicily won his fame as a teacher and philosopher. About B.C. 411 he was charged with impiety, because of his agnostic writings, and forced to flee into exile. He met his death by drowning in the Sicilian Sea.• Protagoras was the first to call himself a sophist and to teach for pay: his instructions Were valued so highly that tradition reports that he received as much as 100 mini ($1500) from a single pupil. Ile enjoyed the intimate friend ship of Pericles and won great reputation for his brilliancy and skill. His chief works were entitled. Truth. or 'Ar7ti.nytioi) and On the Gods (ITEai TCJI' OH DV). His doctrine was a form of agnosticism, which declared that there was nothing absolutely good or bad—that such qualities are based simply on convention; hence it follows that each individual is his own final authority. This teaching is summed up in the
now proverbial) phrase, *Man is the measure of all things.' Protagoras further turned his at tention to grammar and the explanation of diffi cult passages in the poets; the distinction of genders and moods is also attributed to him. Consult Frei. Quirstiones Protagorew (Bonn, 1845) ; Weber. Qmrstiones (Marburg, .1850) ; Blass. A ttische Beredsamkeit. ter and Preller. Historic Philosoplikr Grireir (7th ed.. Gotha. I888) : Zeller. Philosophic der Gricchen, vol. i. (5th ed., Leipzig, 1892) ; L'eber weg, history of English translation, vul. i. (New York, 1872) ; Erdmann, History of Philosophy, English translation, vol, i. (New York, 1890). •