Theodora of Emesa

Last updated

Theodora of Emesa was a member of an intellectual group of neoplatonists in late fifth and early sixth century Alexandria, and a disciple of Isidore. Damascius dedicated his Life of Isidore, also known as the Philosophical History, to Theodora, having written it at her request. [1]

Contents

Biography

The daughter of Kyrina and Diogenes, Theodora was, like Iamblichus, descended from royal line of Emesa.

The Athenian neoplatonic school had developed a following among Syrian and Egyptian pagan students at the turn of the fifth century, [2] and Theodora, along with her younger sisters, had studied philosophy at the school of Isidore in Alexandria. This could have been in the 480s when Isidore was already well established within the intellectual Alexandrian millieu, or in the 490s after his return from Athens. She was also accomplished at poetics and grammar, a mathematician versed in geometry and higher arithmetic. [3]

She was a neoplatonist of the Iamblichean type, so a devout pagan. According to Photius, writing three centuries later, she performed pagan rites and theurgical operations: he describes her as a ‘Hellene by religious persuasion,’ and her ancestors as ‘all of them first prize winners in idolatrous impropriety.’ [4]

Damascius’s Life of Isidore illustrates the ease with which the philosophical circle to which Theodora belonged moved in the late fifth and early sixth centuries between Athens, Alexandria and Aphrodisias. [5]

There is no record of Theodora fleeing to Persia after Justinian’s order to close the Platonic school in Athens in 529, along with Isidore, Damascius, Simplicius, Priscianus Lydus, Eulamius of Phrygia, Hermias the Phoenician, and Diogenes the Phoenician. [6]

The Life of Isidore

Theodora was also taught by Damascius, who was another disciple of Isidore and the last head of the neoplatonic school in Athens. It was at Theodora’s request that Damascius wrote the Life of Isidore, and to her that he dedicated it. This work, also known as the Philosophical History, was composed between 517-526, and provides an account of the lives and times of the pagan neoplatonic communities in Alexandria and Athens at the very end of antiquity, structured around the biography of Isidore.

All that are left of its 60 chapters are excerpts, preserved in Photius’s Bibliotheca and Suda , which, generally regarded as the revised version of notes that he had made in the course of his reading over the previous 20 years, are not necessarily accurate transcripts. [7] Photius remarks that Damascius ‘does not so much write the life of Isidore, as that of many other people, both his contemporaries and his predecessors; he collects together their activities and also tales about them through a generous and even excessive use of digression’. [8]

Polymnia Athanadassi describes the work as ‘a critical, often humorous, appreciation of the character and achievement of individual men and women… Set firmly against a wide geographical, historical and political background, these people are shown to move in two disparate and often clashing worlds, those of paganism and Christianity.’ [9] But Edward Watts claims that ‘Ancient philosophical culture was not defined exclusively by religious concerns and doctrinal ties… Platonists shaped themselves into an intellectual community held together by doctrinal commonalities, a shared history, and defined personal relationships.’ [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Ammonius Hermiae was a Greek philosopher from Alexandria in the eastern Roman empire during Late Antiquity. A Neoplatonist, he was the son of the philosophers Hermias and Aedesia, the brother of Heliodorus of Alexandria and the grandson of Syrianus. Ammonius was a pupil of Proclus in Roman Athens, and taught at Alexandria for most of his life, having obtained a public chair in the 470s.

Ammonius Saccas was a Hellenistic Platonist self-taught philosopher from Alexandria, generally regarded as the precursor of Neoplatonism and/or one of its founders. He is mainly known as the teacher of Plotinus, whom he taught from 232 to 242. He was undoubtedly the most significant influence on Plotinus in his development of Neoplatonism, although little is known about his own philosophical views. Later Christian writers stated that Ammonius was a Christian, but it is now generally assumed that there was a different Ammonius of Alexandria who wrote biblical texts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Library of Alexandria</span> Library in ancient Alexandria, Egypt

The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts. The idea of a universal library in Alexandria may have been proposed by Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled Athenian statesman living in Alexandria, to Ptolemy I Soter, who may have established plans for the Library, but the Library itself was probably not built until the reign of his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The Library quickly acquired many papyrus scrolls, owing largely to the Ptolemaic kings' aggressive and well-funded policies for procuring texts. It is unknown precisely how many scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height.

Hypatia was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire. She was a prominent thinker in Alexandria where she taught philosophy and astronomy. Although preceded by Pandrosion, another Alexandrine female mathematician, she is the first female mathematician whose life is reasonably well recorded. Hypatia was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and a wise counselor. She wrote a commentary on Diophantus's thirteen-volume Arithmetica, which may survive in part, having been interpolated into Diophantus's original text, and another commentary on Apollonius of Perga's treatise on conic sections, which has not survived. Many modern scholars also believe that Hypatia may have edited the surviving text of Ptolemy's Almagest, based on the title of her father Theon's commentary on Book III of the Almagest.

Simplicius of Cilicia was a disciple of Ammonius Hermiae and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He was among the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Persian court, before being allowed back into the empire. He wrote extensively on the works of Aristotle. Although his writings are all commentaries on Aristotle and other authors, rather than original compositions, his intelligent and prodigious learning makes him the last great philosopher of pagan antiquity. His works have preserved much information about earlier philosophers which would have otherwise been lost.

Damascius, known as "the last of the Athenian Neoplatonists," was the last scholarch of the neoplatonic Athenian school. He was one of the neoplatonic philosophers who left Athens after laws confirmed by emperor Justinian I forced the closure of the Athenian school in c. 529 AD. After he left Athens, he may have sought refuge in the court of the Persian King Chrosroes, before being allowed back into the Byzantine Empire. His surviving works consist of three commentaries on the works of Plato, and a metaphysical text entitled Difficulties and Solutions of First Principles.

Isidore of Alexandria was a Greek philosopher and one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He lived in Athens and Alexandria toward the end of the 5th century AD. He became head of the school in Athens in succession to Marinus, who followed Proclus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Platonic Academy</span> Ancient philosophical, research and educative center, founded by Plato

The Alexandrian school is a collective designation for certain tendencies in literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences that developed in the Hellenistic cultural center of Alexandria, Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Olympiodorus the Younger was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astrologer and teacher who lived in the early years of the Byzantine Empire, after Justinian's Decree of 529 AD which closed Plato's Academy in Athens and other pagan schools. Olympiodorus was the last pagan to maintain the Platonist tradition in Alexandria ; after his death the School passed into the hands of Christian Aristotelians, and was eventually moved to Constantinople. He is not to be confused with Olympiodorus the Deacon, a contemporary Alexandrian writer of Bible commentaries.

Dexippus was an Ancient Greek Neoplatonist philosopher from the 4th century AD, whose wrote a commentary on the Categories of Aristotle which is partially extant.

This page is a list of topics in ancient philosophy.

Sallustius of Emesa was a Cynic philosopher, who lived in the latter part of the 5th century AD.

Neoplatonism was a major influence on Christian theology throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the East, and sometimes in the West as well. In the East, major Greek Fathers like Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus were influenced by Platonism and Neoplatonism, but also Stoicism often leading towards asceticism and harsh treatment of the body, for example stylite asceticism. In the West, St. Augustine of Hippo was influenced by the early Neoplatonists Plotinus and Porphyry. Later on, in the East, the works of the Christian writer Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, who was influenced by later Neoplatonists such as Proclus and Damascius, became a critical work on which Greek church fathers based their theology, like Maximus believing it was an original work of Dionysius the Areopagite.

Zenodotus was a Neoplatonist philosopher who lived and taught in Athens. He was described as "the darling (paidika) of Proclus." Zenodotus served under Marinus of Neapolis when Marinus succeeded Proclus as the head (scholarch) of the school. He was a teacher of Damascius when he came to Athens to learn philosophy. Whereas Marinus taught mathematics and scientific courses to Damascius, Zenodotus taught the more conventional philosophy courses. He was an important philosopher in Athens during the time when Marinus and Hegias were contending for the leadership of the school, but he seems to have been overlooked as a possible scholarch on more than one occasion.

Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common ideas it maintains is monism, the doctrine that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One".

Polymnia Athanassiadi is a historian specialising in the religious and cultural history of Late Antiquity, in particular the transition from Neoplatonic to Islamic theology. Athanassiadi was a Professor of Ancient History at the University of Athens.

Severianus of Damascus was a Roman pagan politician who served under the emperor Marcian (450–457).

Gessius of Petra was a physician, iatrosophist and pagan philosopher active in Alexandria in the late 5th and early 6th century.

References

  1. ↑ Photius, Bibliotheca Codex 181
  2. ↑ Edward Watts, Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia in the Journal of Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 45 (2005), p289
  3. ↑ Maria Dzielska, Learned Women in the Alexandrian Scholarship in What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?, ed. Mostafa el-Abaddi and Omnia Mounir Fathallah (Brill, Leiden) 2008, p146
  4. ↑ Maria Dzielska, Learned Women in the Alexandrian Scholarship, in What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?, ed. Mostafa el-Abaddi and Omnia Mounir Fathallah (Brill, Leiden) 2008, p146, footnote
  5. ↑ Polymnia Athanadassi, Persecution and Response in Late Paganism: The Evidence of Damascius, in the Journal of Hellenic Studies Vol. 113 (1993), p2
  6. ↑ Cristina D’Ancona, Review of Damascius: the Philosophical History, by P Athanadassi, in Mnemosyne Fourth Series, Vol. 55, Fasc. 2 (2002), p252
  7. ↑ L. D. Reynolds and N. G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature, p55
  8. ↑ trans. Polymnia Athanassiadi, Damascius: The Philosophical History (Athens: Apaea Cultural Association) 1999, p337
  9. ↑ Polymnia Athanadassi, Persecution and Response in Late Paganism: The Evidence of Damascius, in the Journal of Hellenic Studies Vol. 113 (1993), p3
  10. ↑ Edward Watts, Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430 – c. 550 C.E.), in Classical Philology Vol. 106, No. 3 (July 2011), p226
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.