Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre: The Limits of Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Greek Culture in the Roman World)

Porphyry, A Native Of Phoenicia Educated In Athens And Rome During The Third Century Ad, Was One Of The Most Important Platonic Philosophers Of His Age. In This Book, Professor Johnson Rejects The Prevailing Modern Approach To His Thought, Which Has Posited An Early Stage Dominated By 'oriental' Superstition And Irrationality Followed By A Second Rationalizing Or Hellenizing Phase Consequent Upon His Move West And Exposure To Neoplatonism. Based On A Careful Treatment Of All The Relevant Remains Of Porphyry's Originally Vast Corpus (much Of Which Now Survives Only In Fragments), He Argues For A Complex Unity Of Thought In Terms Of Philosophical Translation. The Book Explores This Philosopher's Critical Engagement With The Processes Of Hellenism In Late Antiquity. It Provides The First Comprehensive Examination Of All The Strands Of Porphyry's Thought That Lie At The Intersection Of Religion, Theology, Ethnicity And Culture-- At The Limits Of Hellenism: An Introduction -- Part I. A World Full Of Gods : Porphyry The Theologian. Porphyry's Taxonomy Of The Divine ; Salvation, Translation, And The Limits Of Cult ; The Master Reader: Contexts Of Translation -- Part Ii. A World Full Of Nations: Porphyry The Ethnographer. Knowledge And Nations: Porphyry's Ethnic Argumentation ; Ethnic Particularism And The Limits Of Hellenism ; The Way Home: Transcending Particularism -- Epilogue: Translation After Porphyry -- Appendix 1: Annotated Table Of Select Fragments -- Appendix 2. Translation Of Select Fragments. Aaron P. Johnson. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 347-371) And Index. Contents 9 Acknowledgments 10 Abbreviations 11 Abbreviations of Porphyry's works (used in the notes) 11 Chapter 1 At the limits of Hellenism 13 Hellenism in the third century AD 13 Porphyry as translator 21 Porphyry's life and works 27 Philosophy in fragments: Porphyry's works 33 Philosophy from Oracles 36 On the Return of the Soul 39 On Images 42 On the Styx 43 On Free Will 49 Against Nemertius 50 Philosophic History 52 Letter to Anebo 54 Commentary on the Timaeus 58 Against the Christians 59 Conclusion 61 Part I A world full of gods 63 Chapter 2 Porphyry's taxonomy of the divine 65 Singularity and divinity 70 Plurality and divinity 84 Visible gods 86 Gods and oracles 87 Philosophy and daemonology 95 Porphyry's daemons 96 Daemons and/as gods 108 Conclusion 112 Chapter 3 Salvation, translation, and the limits of cult 114 Salvation, or the path to the gods 117 The fall of the soul 122 Astrology and divination 125 Approaching the divine 134 On Abstinence 135 Philosophy from Oracles 138 Sacrifice in other works 148 The Letter to Marcella 148 Letter to Anebo 149 Forgetting the body: the ascent of the soul 151 Conclusion 156 Chapter 4 The master reader 158 Platonic pedagogies 160 Porphyry the pedagogue 167 The didactics of dialectic 169 Teaching texts 171 Oracular and iconographic pedagogies 176 On Images 177 Philosophy from Oracles 184 Pedagogy and privilege: the hierarchy of reading 190 Conclusion 195 Part II A world full of nations 199 Chapter 5 Knowledge and nations 201 Racial thinking in Porphyry 203 Ethnic argumentation in a philosophical corpus 213 Ethnic exempla 214 Ethnographic doxographies 222 Conclusion 232 Chapter 6 Ethnic particularism and the limits of Hellenism 234 Barbarian wisdom and the Interpretatio Graeca 236 Against the Greeks: Phoenicians and the Interpretatio Graeca 243 Philo of Byblos 244 Maximus of Tyre 247 Porphyry and the Greeks 255 Conclusion 268 Chapter 7 The way home 270 Nation by nation 272 Egyptians 273 Persians 276 Chaldeans 278 Syrians and Phoenicians 282 Jews 285 Indians 294 Ethnic particularism under empire 298 Images of the Romans 300 “What is that to us?” Civic obligation in Porphyry 304 Porphyry the cosmopolitan 308 Conclusion 310 Epilogue Translation after Porphyry 312 Appendix 1 Annotated table of select fragments 319 1. Commentary on Platos Republic 319 2. Philosophic History 320 3. On Free Will 323 4. On the [inscription “Know Thyself” 323 5. Against Nemertius 324 6. On the Return of the Soul 325 7. On the Philosophy from Oracles 328 Book 1 328 Preface (frs. 303-306) 328 On the gods (307F-313F) 328 On sacrifice (314F-315F) 329 On images (316F-321F) 329 On the oracles (322F) 329 On barbarian wisdom (323F-324F) 329 Book 2 330 On the highest God (325F) 330 On daemons (326F-329F) 330 On astrology (330F-342F) 330 Book 3 331 On Christians and Hebrews (343F-346F) 331 On binding the gods (347F-350F) 332 8. On Images 333 9. On the Writings of Julian the Chaldean 333 9. On the Styx 334 10. Commentary on the Timaeus 335 Book 1 335 Book 2 337 Appendix 2 Translation of select fragments 343 1 On the Styx, fr. 376 Smith ( Stobaeus 1.3.56)1 343 2. On the Styx, fr. 377 Smith (= Stobaeus 1.49.53) 345 3. On the Styx, fr. 378 Smith (= Stobaeus 1.49.54) 348 4. Philosophy from Oracles, fr. 323 Smith (= Eusebius PE 9.10.1-2) 350 5. Philosophy from Oracles, fr. 324 Smith (= Eusebius PE 9.10.3-5 (= 14.10.5)) 351 6. Philosophy from Oracles, fr. 325 Smith (= Fragmente Griechischer Theosophien 173.17-174.22 Erbse) 352 7. Philosophy from Oracles, fr. 325a Smith (= Fragmente griechischer Theosophien 30, p. 174.23-25 Erbse) 353 8. Commentary on the Timaeus 31b5-c2, fr. 57 Sodano 353 9. On daemons, of uncertain location, fr. 471 Smith (= Psellus)63 354 10. On Free Will (lit.: On What Is Up To Us), fr. 271 Smith (= Stobaeus 2.8.42) 354 Works cited 359 Index 384 "Porphyry, a native of Phoenicia educated in Athens and Rome during the third century AD, was one of the most important Platonic philosophers of his age. In this book, Professor Johnson rejects the prevailing modern approach to his thought, which has posited an early stage dominated by 'Oriental' superstition and irrationality followed by a second rationalizing or Hellenizing phase consequent upon his move west and exposure to Neoplatonism. Based on a careful treatment of all the relevant remains of Porphyry's originally vast corpus (much of which now survives only in fragments), he argues for a complex unity of thought in terms of philosophical translation. The book explores this philosopher's critical engagement with the processes of Hellenism in late antiquity. It provides the first comprehensive examination of all the strands of Porphyry's thought that lie at the intersection of religion, theology, ethnicity and culture"-- Provided by publisher Examines Porphyry of Tyre's critical engagement with Hellenism in late antiquity, emphasizing philosophical translation as the key to his thought