HESIOD'S HOLISTIC AUTHORITY IN NEOPLATONIST EXEGESIS
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Published:2023-07-03
Issue:
Volume:69
Page:153-172
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ISSN:1750-2705
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Container-title:The Cambridge Classical Journal
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Camb. class. j.
Author:
Wood Connor Purcell
Abstract
The Neoplatonist scholarch Proclus defined three categories of poetry: inspired, ‘middle’ and mimetic. Traditionally it has been thought that he considered only Homer to have excelled in all three, while other poets could fulfil one or at most two functions. It will be shown that Proclus also conceived of Hesiod as excelling in all three types and thereby assimilated Hesiodic authority to Homeric. He also considered Orpheus but assigned his poetry to just one category, not all three. In doing this, he increased his own authority as a teacher-hierophant, contributing to the dialogue between pagan Platonism and Christianity over the inspiration of texts.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Literature and Literary Theory,Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics,Classics
Reference34 articles.
1. Brisson, L. (1987) ‘Proclus et l'Orphisme’, in Pépin, J. , Saffrey, H. D. (eds.) Proclus: Lecteur et interprète des anciens. Actes du colloque international du CNRS, Paris 2–4 octobre 1985, Paris, 43–104.
2. Hesiod: The Other Poet