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Storytime: Reading Damascius’ Philosophic History, Part I: Text, Context, and Themes
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[There’s some weird crusty-sounding feedback or something for a while in the middle of this one, folks. Apologies, but it’s not too brutal, so I’m going to go ahead and put it out rather than re-recording]
Damascius’ Philosophic History, a.k.a. Life of Isidore, is a gold mine of crucial and delicious information about the philosophical and religious lives of the final generations of late-antique Platonists. It’s a gossipy, embittered, rather flawed work, and moreover, one which survives only in the most exiguous fragment-salad. But, boy, is it worth going through!
In this episode, Part I of a three-parter going through this extraordinary work, we set the stage: we discuss the state of the text, the history of scholarship leading from Photios and the Suda to modern editions, and some of the main themes of the work.
Works Cited in this Episode:
Primary:
The Suda entries citing Damascius are too many to list here, but do be aware that all of them can be handily accessed through the fantastic Suda Online project (text by Adler, comments by numerous scholars), often with an English translation.
Damascius, Philosophic History (all numbers are citations of fragments in Athanassiadi’s edition/translation. She includes a correspondence between her numbering and Zintzen’s as an appendix, so if you want the Zintzen numbers, start with Athanassiadi and she will lead you to them).
For Eunapius’ Lives of the Sophists, see Wright’s edition/translation: Wilmer Cave Wright. Philostratus and Eunapius: The Lives of the Sophists. William Heinemann/Putnam, London/New York, NY, 1922.
Secondary:
Ada Adler, ed. Suidæ lexicon. Teubner, Leipzig, 1928–1938.
Alejandro Amenábar dir., Agora, 2009.
Johann Rudolf Asmus. Zur Rekonstruktion von Damascius’ Leben des Isidorus. Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 19:265-84, 1910a.
Idem. Zur Rekonstruktion von Damascius’ Leben des Isidorus. Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 18:424-80, 1909.
Idem. Das Leben des Philosophen Isidoros. Leipzig, 1911.
Polymnia Athanassiadi, editor. Damascius. The Philosophic History. The Text with Translation and Notes. Apameia, 1999.
Clemens Zintzen, editor. Damascii vitæ Isidori reliquiæ. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, 1967.
Recommended Reading:
A chart of the Athenian and Alexandrian schools in late antiquity.
Daniel White
December 6, 2024
Thank you for this overview Earl. I just finished Athanassiadi’s version last month that I borrowed via inter-library loan since the book is cost prohibitive. What is your take on the story related by Damascius where he discusses (chapter/section 67) Zeno the Alexandrian, a Jew, who converted to Platonism and drove a white donkey through a synagogue on the sabbath to announce his conversion/renouncing his ancestral religion “in the traditional manner.” Is there a significance to a white donkey? Is this action an allusion to Seth as a donkey in relation to the Jews, Egypt and the Hyksos? Is it simply a way to desecrate an “Abrahamic/monotheistic” temple? Do you have any insight into the “traditional manner” that Damascius is alluding to? There are many thoughts that come to mind but I’m curious to hear yours.
Earl Fontainelle
December 9, 2024
Daniel,
Short answer: I don’t know. However, friend of the podcast and esoteric donkey-expert Emily Selove suggests the following: “I suspect … it has something to do with the donkey-worshipping libel against the Jews and the complex reality of the earliest Jewish communities and their relationship to donkeys, now somewhat hidden in the mists of time.”
I suspect you’ll want to follow this up, in which case we can suggest the following (and tell us what you find!):
For comprehensive donkey-lore generally:
@Book{Vogel1973,
author = {Vogel, Martin},
title = {{Onos lyras: Der Esel mit der Leier}},
address = {Düsseldorf},
publisher = {Gesselschaft zur Forderung der systematischen Musikwissenschaft},
year = {1973},
}
More focused on things Jewish:
@Book{Way2011,
author = {Way, Kenneth},
title = {Donkeys in the Biblical World: Ceremony and Symbol},
address = {University Park, PA},
publisher = {Pennsylvania State University Press},
year = {2011},
}
And also maybe check out:
@Book{Harris2019,
author = {Harris, Max},
title = {Christ on a Donkey: Palm Sunday, Triumphal Entries, and Blasphenous Pageants},
address = {Leeds},
publisher = {Arc Humanities Press},
year = {2019},
}
Eso-donkeys for the win!
Sylvain Dion
December 8, 2024
Thank you for this. Its very good. But where can i find this book? I need to know more about the bird noise in ritual context…
Earl Fontainelle
December 8, 2024
Hiya, Silvain,
The various editions and versions of the work are as discussed in the episode. I recommend, Athanassiadi as listed in the Secondary bibliography above, but as to where to find it …. access to a university library might be your best bet. I assume it’s out of print, and, as our previous comment shews, likely to be pretty expensive. Alternately, there might be pdf’s available online through, ahem, unofficial channels, which I of course do not endorse in any way.
Sylvain Dion
December 8, 2024
Thanks for the reply. Do you know if there is a french translation?
Earl Fontainelle
December 8, 2024
J’en doute, malheureusement.
Sylvain Dion
December 8, 2024
Maybee its a good thing they would have translate all the names of the poeple in horrible way…