This book, a history of a religious category of ancient philosophy, is the first synthesis on the notion of daimōn in the Platonic tradition. It focuses on the relationship between demonology and, respectively, cosmology, the philosophical hermeneutics of religion and theories of the soul. Histoire d’une catégorie religieuse de la philosophie ancienne, ce livre représente la première synthèse sur la notion de daimōn dans la tradition platonicienne. Il étudie les relations de la démonologie avec la cosmologie, l’herméneutique philosophique de la (...) religion et les théories de l’âme. (shrink)

That the most poetic of all the Greek philosophers should also be the severest judge of the poets was a perpetual embarrassment to his disciples and an invitation to enemies who could never have found their way into the difficulties of his thought. At the hands of Colotes, an early Epicurean, Plato became the butt of his own asperities; the allegorist Heraclitus, showing equal contempt for Plato and for ‘the Phaeacian Epicurus’, found that philosophy lent itself to vices for which (...) the Iliad and the Odyssey had no name. Proclus, in his Commentary on the Republic, has the task of reconciling Homer with Plato, and of showing that the mythopoeic faculty is an instrument of the profoundest thought in both. (shrink)

'Middle Platonists' is a work that focuses on the period of intellectual activity which flourished from the time of the "dogmatist" Antiochus Aschalon (ca. 80 BC) to Ammonius Saccas (ca. 220 AD), the mysterious "teacher" of the great Plotinus.

The Heirs of Plato is the first full study of the various directions in philosophy taken by Plato's followers in the first seventy years after his death in 347 BC - the period generally known as 'The Old Academy', unjustly neglected by historians of philosophy. Lucid and accessible, John Dillon's book provides an introductory chapter on the school itself, and a summary of Plato's philosophical heritage, before looking at each of the school heads and other chief characters, exploring both what (...) holds them together and what sets them apart. (shrink)

The fragments of Iamblichus' commentaries on Plato's dialogues (Sophist, Phaedo, Phaedrus and Timaeus). Greek text with English translation and notes.

Homere fascine, et son rayonnement demeure encore immense et ce de l'Antiquite a nos jours (Paul Claudel, Gabriel Audisio, Joyce, Cavafy, Kazantsakis). Mais certains ont severement critique la poesie homerique (Xenophane, Platon, Epicure). Xenophane (6e a.C.) reprochait a Homere de donner aux dieux une image peu flatteuse et immorale; quant a Platon il estimait que l'etude la philosophia devait sublimer l'etude la poesie homerique alors fondement de l'education de la jeunesse grecque. Pourtant les Anciens n'ont cesse de se pencher sur (...) les mythes d'Homere afin d'y deceler des arriere-plans. Ils leur fallait reconcilier la poesie homerique et la philosophie dans une recherche de la signification cachee des mythes. C'est ce qu'on nomme l'exegese allegorique. Elle debute des le 6e a.C. avec Theagene de Rhegium et perdure jusqu'a Proclos (5e p.C.). Pour les Grecs, le mythe est une enveloppe trompeuse dont il faut percer le secret et tirer l'idee de l'image. L'exegese homerique s'est developpee dans trois directions: La physique: pour les allegoristes, les mythes d'Homere recouvrent des notions scientifiques sur les structures memes de l'univers. Exemple: les dieux ne sont rien d'autres que des elements primordiaux (air, ether, eau, feu, terre) qui se livrent a des conflits cosmiques. La morale: les mythes sont une reflexion sur la vertu (Plutarque, Maxime de Tyr) et apprennent aux individus a avoir une conduite heroique, raisonnable, sage. La theologie: pour les neoplatoniciens (Porphyre, Proclus), les dieux d'Homere trouvent leur correspondance avec les dieux et les demons du neoplatonisme et dans la croyance a la transmigration de l'ame (aventures d'Ulysse de Calypso, de Circe, des sirenes). Les mythes d'Homere revelent la structure de la realite du monde car ils ne sont plus des fictions mais des verites pures. La tradition de l'exegese allegorique restera vivante jusqu'a l'epoque byzantine et jusqu'a la Renaissance. Felix Buffiere etait un ecrivain, professeur de langue grecque a l'Institut catholique de Toulouse. Le Pere Felix Buffiere etait helleniste, specialiste d'Homere mondialement reconnu. (shrink)

Proclus' Commentary on Plato's dialogue Timaeus is arguably the most important commentary on a text of Plato, offering unparalleled insights into eight centuries of Platonic interpretation. This edition offers the first new English translation of the work for nearly two centuries, building on significant recent advances in scholarship on Neoplatonic commentators. It provides an invaluable record of early interpretations of Plato's dialogue, while also presenting Proclus' own views on the meaning and significance of Platonic philosophy. The present volume, the first (...) in the edition, deals with what may be seen as the prefatory material of the Timaeus. In it Socrates gives a summary of the political arrangements favoured in the Republic, and Critias tells the story of how news of the defeat of Atlantis by ancient Athens had been brought back to Greece from Egypt by the poet and politician Solon. (shrink)