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In 386, shortly after his conversion, Augustine gave up his post as professor of rhetoric at Milan to devote himself, together with a group of relatives, friends and students, to the otium philosophandi in Cassiciacum. There, together with his familia, he deals with questions of classical philosophy. The discussions that Augustine led at this time formed the basis for the Dialogues of Cassiciacum Contra Academicos, De beata vita, and De ordine, which had just taken place thereafter.
In the introduction of De beata vita, which is dedicated to Theodorus, Augustine compares the human life with a stormy sea. The salvation of man is the port of philosophy, from where one reaches the mainland of the beata vita. The metaphor is very detailed. A central spot in the entire picture is dominated by the inmanissimus mons, which is located in front of the harbor and presents a great danger to sailors.
There is no clear interpretation of this passage in the secondary literature. The aim of the present text is to propose in parallel reading of two passages from Confessiones with De beata vita to explain the image of the huge mountain as a metaphor for Neoplatonism.
Az ember életét végigkísérő „személyes daimón” gondolata először Platónnál jelenik meg a görög filozófiai hagyományban. A platóni corpus idevágó szöveghelyeit megvizsgálva azt találjuk, hogy az elképzelés komoly változáson esett át Platón filozófiáján belül, azonban az alapgondolat végig ugyanaz marad: a személyes daimón az ember sorsának a beteljesítője. Platón utódai megpróbálták mesterük olykor ellentmondásosnak tűnő elképzeléseit összeegyeztetni egymással. A tanulmányban sorra veszem azokat a szövegeket, amelyek a személyes daimón kérdésével foglalkoznak. Ezek a művek középplatonikus és újplatonikus szerzőktől maradtak ránk. A szövegek arra mutatnak, hogy a platonizmus egyes korszakaiban a személyes daimón elképzelése bizonyos sajátosságokat hordoz: míg a középső platonizmusban Sókratés daimonionjának az alakjával összeolvadva az erkölcsös életre való buzdításra szolgál, addig az újplatonizmusban a lélek megszabadulásában játszik szerepet.
Abstract
The present paper has in its focus a letter written in Buda in the mid-1480s by a mysterious Hungarian author, Ioannes Pannonius, whose figure is shrouded in obscurity. After a brief overview of the letter, the paper summarises the misconceptions and uncertainties surrounding the identity of the mysterious author and then attempts to outline his biography on the basis of fragmentary information. Contrary to the Anglo-Saxon scholarly literature, it argues that the Hungarian author is neither a fiction nor an intellectual “avatar” of Ficino, whom he could challenge in the public ring of contemporary intellectual space in order to defend his own Platonic theory. And if he is not a fictional author, the significance of the short letter is not only that the head of the Florentine Platonic school, Marsilio Ficino, anticipating the later theological debates around Platonism in the 16th century, replies to the letter, but also that it is perhaps the first known, highly publicised debate in the history of Hungarian philosophy.
Summary
This chapter aims to reconsider an inscription from Consilinum (3rd century CE), in which we find the problematic mention of a mundus Attinis. This inscription has been almost neglected by scholars: it has been analyzed in a systematic way only in an article in Latin language back in 1978. It is not easy to explain what mundus exactly represented to the ancient Romans, but we can assert for sure that it was a holy place in connection with the worship of the gods of the underworld. The connection between Cybele, Attis, and the underworld is well known, but this is the only mention we have of a mundus Attinis i.e. Attidis. It might be connected to the (mystic?) rites in honor of the dead Attis, symbolized by a pine, who, during the Hilaria, was carried in an underground chamber for lamentations, before his new life. In my opinion, we might also think of the mundus as a sort of reversed womb, related to the figure of the Magna Mater, in which birth and death come together and overlap.
The conflict between the pagans and the Christian authorities of the Eastern Roman Empire has given birth to numerous polemical discussions among modern commentators, which is due to the fact that our sources on the subject were often biased. The closing of the Neo-Platonic Academy in Athens in 529 has nevertheless been cited as the end of pagan philosophy, even though its last leader, Damascius, would continue his philosophical activity around the Persian border. My paper deals with the persistent reception of one subject that was at odds with the Christian dogma, the cosmogony.
Damascius is also known for his De principiis, a lengthy treaty about the One and the Ineffable that precedes it. Although the work itself is first and foremost an answer to previous Neoplatonists, it is also an extremely valuable source for other lost Pre-Socratic cosmogonies, namely the Orphic ones, which are interpreted alongside other non-Greek creation myths in the final pages of the treatise.
On the other hand, John Lydus provides an intriguing adaptation of such creation myths in De magistratibus reipublicae Romanae, where he combines Platonic and Aristotelian ideas in order to build an explanatory model for the contemporary decline in offices of state. His choice of sources shows, however, that he was likely a pagan himself and that he had professed the official religion in order to avoid persecution. Thus, he bases his argumentation on a pagan cosmogony as a form of resistance against recent changes in Byzantine bureaucracy.
This study treats the brief of Porphyry to Marcella. The short literary work can as a philosophical protrepticus to interpret, that include the six principal proposition of the Neoplatonic philosophy, what Ammonios in his Isagoge formulated at the close of the 5c AC.
Ammonios in his Isagoge formulated the six principal propositions of Neoplatonic philosophy. We can find these propositions in works of Julian the Apostate. The study investigated their context.
It is highly probable that Latin and Greek religious hymns written in hexameters between the early 4th and the early 6th centuries under a more or less evident influence of theological concepts of neoplatonic origin, contain anti-christian polemics expressed indirectly, that ist to say by alluding to Christian terminology. In doing so, the poets make use of exactly the same apologetical method Christian authors had adopted in the period prior to 313 in order to make their own works acceptable also for pagan readers. To prove the existence of so called 'Cryptochristianisms' (a term created by Jacques Fontaine some thirty years ago) in the pagan hymns of the Late Antiquity, three pieces have been analysed, two of them written in Latin (Hymn to Sol, Anthologia Latina 385 Shackleton Bailey, and Tiberianus, poem 4, the 'Versus Platonis de deo') and one in Greek by the famous neoplatonic philosopher, Proclus (hymn 4).
Abstract
The study investigates one arresting detail in Julian's Caesars (333B) that is related to Marcus Aurelius: “four-square and made without a flaw” – τετράγωνος ἄνευ ψόγου τετυγμένος. The central concern is to examine the background which could have influenced Julian's Neoplatonic thoughts in the 4th century AD by the Syrian Neoplatonist, Iamblichus. Marcus Aurelius as a symbol of perfection in Julian's opinion is another interesting question that needs to be answered.
As a first step towards the exposition of the contents and character of King Matthias’ natural scientific erudition and the exploration of the background and motives of the ruler’s literary patronage, we have investigated the king’s natural scientific and philosophical interest. Data from already well-known fields (astronomy and astrology, alchemy, magic), as well as evidence that has been neglected so far show that from among the studies on nature the king most intensely dealt with occult sciences, and this interest also dominated his scientific patronage, mainly his significant support of astronomy. It also influenced his affinity and commitment to Neoplatonism, the basis of which consisted of the knowledge of the teaching of Apuleius, who was well known and also honoured as a magician throughout the Middle Ages, and called by the epithet “platonicus” due to the corpus of his works. In his De vita dedicated to Matthias, offering much occult-hermetic knowledge, Marsilio Ficino adapted himself to this taste of the king. Before the making of Ficino’s translations and his Platonism, the works of Apuleius were one of the most important Platonic sources to the West and to Ficino himself; they cleared the ground for the reception of Plato’s works and of Greek Platonic-Hermetic philosophical writings.
