Olympiodorus: Life of Plato and On Plato First Alcibiades 1–9HT the AWOL Blog.Michael Griffin (Anthology Editor)
Open Access
Paperback
$51.95$46.75Hardback
$175.00$157.50
Product details
Published Jun 30 2016
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 256
ISBN 9781474295642
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series Ancient Commentators on Aristotle
Publisher Bloomsbury PublishingDescription
Olympiodorus (AD c. 500–570), possibly the last non-Christian teacher of philosophy in Alexandria, delivered these lectures as an introduction to Plato with a biography. For us, they can serve as an accessible introduction to late Neoplatonism. Olympiodorus locates the First Alcibiades at the start of the curriculum on Plato, because it is about self-knowledge. His pupils are beginners, able to approach the hierarchy of philosophical virtues, like the aristocratic playboy Alcibiades. Alcibiades needs to know himself, at least as an individual with particular actions, before he can reach the virtues of mere civic interaction. As Olympiodorus addresses mainly Christian students, he tells them that the different words they use are often symbols of truths shared between their faiths.
This book has been around for a while, but now it's free. It may be of interest to readers who would like to read another ancient life of Plato, albeit one centuries later and even more apocryphal than the one by Diogenes Laërtius. Alas, it doesn't give an account of the circumstances of Plato's death.
For the context regarding the newly recovered fragments from Herculaneum of what appears to be a life of Plato by Philodemus, see here and here.
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