Neoplatonism

ANNE SHEPPARD

I begin this time with two important editions, one of Proclus Hymns by R.M.van den Berg1 and one of the fragments of Iamblichus De anima by JohnFinamore and John Dillon.2 In the case of van den Bergs edition of ProclusHymns, I have to declare an interest, as the co-promotor of the Leiden PhDthesis which gave rise to the book. One of the reasons why I enthusiasticallyaccepted the invitation to act as co-promotor was that although ProclusHymns have always aroused some interest among literary scholars they havereceived very little study by scholars familiar with Proclus philosophy. Thissplendid edition combines sound literary and linguistic scholarship with thenecessary understanding of Proclus philosophy and in particular of his the-ory of poetry. The rst part, modestly entitled Essays, is in effect a mono-graph on the relationship between Proclus hymns and his philosophy. Theauthor relates the hymns both to Proclus theology/metaphysics and to his the-ory of poetry. Hymns are a form of worship and the most original and strik-ing aspect of this part of the book, in my view, is the way in which v.d.B.connects Proclus hymns with his religious practice and in particular withtheurgy. The more I think about his suggestion that the hymns are to be under-stood as a form of theurgy, the more attractive I nd it. V.d.B.s discussionof Proclus theory of poetry also includes an important and original treatmentof the distinction between ekn and smbolon, on pp. 120ff. Readers whoseinterest is mainly in the Hymns themselves may wish to start with the secondpart of the book, which offers a full traditional commentary on the poems,with a Greek text (that of Vogt, with a few changes), an English translationand a commentary which combines overall interpretation of each poem withcareful discussion of many details.

Iamblichus De Anima, like Proclus Hymns, has hitherto lacked a fullscholarly edition. This text survives only in fragments preserved by Stobaeusbut is extremely important for the understanding of later Neoplatonic philo-sophical psychology. F. and D.s edition makes it accessible as perhaps neverbefore. The volume contains a brief introduction, a Greek text (taken from

Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Phronesis XLVIII/4Also available online www.brill.nl

1 R.M. van den Berg, Proclus Hymns. Essays, Translations, Commentary. Leiden,Boston, Kln: Brill, 2001. Pp. xv + 341. Euro 94. ISBN 90 04 12236 2.

2 John F. Finamore and John M. Dillon, Iamblichus De Anima. Text, Translationand Commentary. Leiden, Boston, Kln: Brill 2002. Pp. xi + 299. Euro 89. ISBN 90 04 12510 8.

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Wachsmuths edition of Stobaeus, with a few changes), an English transla-tion and a very full philosophical commentary. Iamblichus distinctive doc-trine of the soul as a mean, his account of the souls descent, his division ofsouls into three classes and his view of the afterlife all receive thorough dis-cussion. An appendix contains text, translation and commentary of the pas-sages relating to Iamblichus De Anima found in Ps.-Simplicius commentaryon the De Anima and in Priscians Metaphrasis of Theophrastus. The ques-tion of the authorship of the commentary on the De Anima ascribed to Sim-plicius is tackled on pp. 18-24 of the introduction to the whole volume: F. and D. hold what seems to me the very reasonable position that this com-mentary is not by Simplicius but cannot be shown to be by Priscian either;they suggest that the common ground, and the differences, between the com-mentary and the Metaphrasis are to be explained by two authors followinga common source, Iamblichus, but articulating different aspects of his doc-trine. (p. 23).

Much work on Neoplatonism continues to appear in the form of collectionsof papers. Michel Fattals tudes sur Plotin3 contains ten papers on differentaspects of Plotinus thought, many of them offering close readings of partic-ular passages of the Enneads. For me, the most thought-provoking paper wasThomas A. Szlezks Linterpr tation plotinienne de la th orie platoniciennede lme, arguing that Plotinus view that there is a higher part of our soulwhich does not descend arises from his exegesis of Plato, Republic 10.608c-611a. A list of the other authors and topics will indicate the full scope of the volume: Suzanne Stern-Gillet discusses Plotinus refusal to have hisportrait painted, in the context of Plotinus overall view of art; AlexandrineSchniewind considers Plotinus view of ethics, starting with a passage in 2.9and ranging over a number of other Plotinian texts; Alain Petit examinesPlotinus view of eternal recurrence, focusing particularly on 5.7; Luc Brissondiscusses how Plotinus uses the term gkow; Raoul Mortley considers someaspects of Plotinus philosophy of language; Jean-Yves Blandins paper, Penser,cest regarder en direction du Premier, expounds 3.9.9.1-12; Kevin Corrigandiscusses what Plotinus understands by self-re exivity in 5.3; Mara IsabelSanta Cruz examines Plotinus exegesis of Plato in 6.8.18.43-54; and F. him-self concludes the volume with a paper on the ways in which the Plotinianconcept of lgow is transformed into something rather different in the medie-val Theology of Aristotle.

Gnosticism and Later Platonism4 is a different kind of collection, the prod-uct of a long-running seminar held at the annual meetings of the Society of

3 Michel Fattal, tudes sur Plotin. Paris and Montreal. LHarmattan, 2000. Pp. 272.No price given. ISBN 2 7384 8822 6.

4 John D. Turner and Ruth Majercik (eds.), Gnosticism and Later Platonism.

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Biblical Literature between 1993 and 1998. The resulting publication is valu-able in bringing together contributions from scholars working on Gnostic textswith those from scholars working in ancient philosophy, and I am sure thatthe seminar at which these papers were presented gave rise to many interest-ing discussions. However the gap of six or seven years between the deliveryof the earliest papers in the collection and their publication means that sev-eral of the papers now need to be read in conjunction with subsequent workin the eld. Thus Kevin Corrigans Positive and Negative Matter in LaterPlatonism: The Uncovering of Plotinuss Dialogue with the Gnostics was, ashe himself indicates in a footnote, part of the preparation for his book,Plotinus Theory of Matter-Evil and the Question of Substance: Plato,Aristotle and Alexander of Aphrodisias (Louvain, 1996), while his Platonismand Gnosticism: The Anonymous Commentary on the Parmenides: Middle orNeoplatonic? was written before the appearance of Gerard Bechtles TheAnonymous Commentary on Platos Parmenides (Bern, 1999). Similarly GregoryShaws After Aporia: Theurgy in Later Platonism was delivered in 1994,before the publication of his Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism ofIamblichus (University Park PA, 1995). Several of the papers in the collec-tion bring together Platonist and Gnostic texts in a very useful way: KevinCorrigans paper on the anonymous Parmenides commentary, John D.Turners The Setting of the Platonizing Sethian Treatises in Middle Plato-nism and John F. Finamores Iamblichus, the Sethians and Marsanes. EinarThomassens The Derivation of Matter in Monistic Gnosticism, John D. TurnersRitual in Gnosticism and Michael A. Williams Negative Theologies andDemiurgical Myths in Antiquity concentrate on Gnostic material, althoughthey do mention some comparisons with Platonism. John Peter Kenneys AncientApophatic Theology and Frederic M. Schroeders Aseity and Connectednessin the Plotinian Philosophy of Providence start from Neoplatonism but donot ignore Gnosticism.

A third collection of papers is different again. H.D. Saffreys Le N oplatonismeapr s Plotin5 brings together twenty papers, the great majority of which havebeen published since the appearance of S.s previous collection, Recherchessur le N oplatonisme apr s Plotin in 1990 and since his retirement from theCNRS in that year. The new volume also includes S.s obituary of his col-laborator and friend, L.G. Westerink, rst published in Gnomon 63 (1991) 76-8. The fact that many of S.s articles have been published in Festschriften,in volumes of conference proceedings, or in journals such as Revue des sciences

Themes, Figures, and Texts. Society of Biblical Literature: Atlanta, 2000. Pp. xiii +338. $44.95. ISBN 0 88414 035 0.

5 H.D. Saffrey, Le N oplatonisme apr s Plotin. Paris, Vrin: 2000. Euro 35.06. ISBN2 7116 1476 X.

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philosophiques et th ologiques which are not perused as often as they shouldbe by non-Francophone readers, makes this collection particularly valuable.The range of papers, and the emphasis of the volume, re ect S.s interests:there are two on Porphyry, four on Iamblichus, two on the mysterious gureof Theodorus of Asine, nine which focus in one way or another on Proclus(although several of these range more widely over later Neoplatonism andone, Le lien le plus objectif entre le Pseudo-Denys et Proclus, is a sequelto S.s two previous articles establishing rm connections between the workof Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite and that of Proclus), and four on the survivalof Greek Neoplatonism in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This is arich collection, which anyone working on later Neoplatonism will wish to consult.

Finally, three volumes which are somewhat on the margins of my concernsin these Booknotes but which are nevertheless of interest. Paola FrancescaMorettis book on Ambroses Explanatio Psalmorum XII6 is primarily a lit-erary study but does include some discussion of Ambroses exegetical methodand of the philosophical background to his imagery. John Walbridges twobooks on the twelfth-century Persian philosopher Suhraward7 go togetherwith a rst volume, The Science of Mystic Lights: Qutb al-Din Shirazi andthe Illuminationist Tradition in Islamic Philosophy (Cambridge, Mass., 1992)which I have not seen. That rst volume apparently offers an exposition andinterpretation of Suhrawards philosophy, while the second and third volumesattempt to place S. in relation to Greek philosophical tradition. W. argues thatS. is to be understood as a Pythagoreanizing Neoplatonist in the tradition ofPorphyry, Iamblichus and Proclus, describing this as the non-Peripateticphilosophical tradition and thus opposing S. to the Aristotelian philosophicaltradition represented by Avicenna and Averroes. In doing so, he inevitablyoversimpli es the history of Greek Neoplatonism and the complexity of lateantique philosophers attitudes to Aristotle but the opposition he sets up maynevertheless be valid within Islamic philosophy; I am not quali ed to judge.In The Wisdom of the Mystic East, he examines not Oriental in uence onS. as that term might normally be understood but S.s own attitude towardsvarious forms of ancient wisdom, including ancient Iranian tradition andBuddhism. He sees S.s Orientalism as typically Platonist and has some

6 Paola Francesca Moretti, Non harundo sed calamus: Aspetti letterari dellaExplanatio Psalmorum XII di Ambrogio. Milan: Edizioni Universitarie di LettereEconomia Diritto, 2000. Pp. 266. L.47,000. ISBN 88 7916 130 X.

7 John Walbridge, The Leaven of the Ancients. Suhraward and the Heritage of theGreeks. Albany: SUNY Press, 2000. Pp. xviii + 305. $26.95. ISBN 0 7914 4360 4;John Walbridge, The Wisdom of the Mystic East. Suhraward and PlatonicOrientalism. Albany: SUNY Press, 2001. Pp. xiii + 170. No price given. ISBN 0 79145052 X.

interesting things to say about similar attitudes among ancient Platonists,which suggest to me that his approach might fruitfully be applied to the con-tentious question of Oriental in uence on Neoplatonism.

Royal Holloway, University of London

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