Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T11:53:19.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Divination and Dialogue in Porphyry and Iamblichus

from Part I - Philosophical Perspectives on Divination, Revelation, and Prophecy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

By
Crystal Addey
Edited by
Elsa Giovanna Simonetti  and
Claire Hall
Elsa Giovanna Simonetti
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Claire Hall
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Get access

Summary

Divination was an important focus of philosophical dialogue and ‘pagan’-Christian religious debates in late antiquity.One of the most extensive late antique exchanges on the nature of divination and other religious practices is that evident in Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo and Iamblichus’ Reply of the Master Abamon to the Letter of Porphyry to Anebo and the Solutions to the Questions It Contains. This chapter re-assesses the key features of this exchange, arguing for its status as an important philosophical dialogue which bears some resemblance to oracular modes of discourse. In order to support this argument, the broader status of questioning, interrogation, and inquiry in traditional Greek oracular practices and within Platonism is examined. The chapter analyses the ways in which Porphyry’s and Iamblichus’ exchange is framed within these philosophical and oracular contexts, demonstrating that this dialogue draws implicitly on Socrates’ interrogation of the Delphic oracle as presented in Plato’s Apology and on Plutarch’s Delphic Dialogues. The citation and discussion of Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo by the Christian Church Fathers Eusebius and Augustine will also be considered in relation to exploring pagan-Christian religious approaches and debates.

Keywords

Divinationdialoguequestioningphilosophical inquiryPorphyryIamblichusPlutarchSocratesPlato
Type
Chapter
Information
Divination and Revelation in Later Antiquity , pp. 73 - 96
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addey, Crystal. 2011. ‘Book Review: Iamblichus’ Letters, Edited with a Translation and Commentary by John M. Dillon and Wolfgang Polleichtner.’ International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 5.2: 321–3.Google Scholar
Addey, Crystal. 2014. Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism: Oracles of the Gods. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Addey, Crystal. (ed.). 2022. Divination and Knowledge in Greco-Roman Antiquity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Athanassiadi, Polymnia. 1993. ‘Dreams, Theurgy and Freelance Divination: The Testimony of Iamblichus.’ Journal of Roman Studies 83: 115–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Babbit, Frank Cole. 1936 [2003]. Plutarch. De defectu oraculorum. De E apud Delphos. De Pythiae Oraculis. Moralia, vol. 5. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bettenson, Henry. 1972 [2003]. Augustine: Concerning the City of God against the Pagans. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Bidez, Josef. 1913 [1964]. Vie de Porphyre, le philosophe neo-platonicien. Ghent: E. van Goethem.Google Scholar
Blondell, R. 2002. The Play of Character in Plato’s Dialogues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bowden, Hugh. 2005. Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle. Divination and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
John, Burnet. (ed.) 1900 [1967]. Platonis opera, vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Burns, Dylan M. 2020. ‘Alexander of Lycopolis and Titus of Bostra on Manichaeism and Providence.’ In Oerter, Wolf B. and Vitkova, Zuzana (eds.), Coptica, Gnostica und Mandaica: Sprache, Literatur und Kunst als Medien interreligiöser Begegnung(en). Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 141–53.Google Scholar
Bussanich, John. 2005. ‘Review article: Iamblichus: De Mysteriis. Translated by Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon and Jackson P. Hershbell. Iamblichus. De Anima. Text, Translation and Commentary by John M. Dillon and John F. Finamore.’ Ancient Philosophy 25(2): 478–94.Google Scholar
Cherniss, Harold. 1976. Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. XIII. Part 2: Stoic Essays. Against the Stoics on Common Conceptions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Gillian. 1999. ‘Translate into Greek: Porphyry of Tyre on the New Barbarians’. In Miles, R. (ed.), Constructing Identities in Late Antiquity. London: Routledge, pp. 112–32.Google Scholar
Clark, Gillian. 2007. ‘Augustine’s Porphyry and the Universal Way of Salvation.’ In Karamanolis, George and Sheppard, Anne (eds.), Studies on Porphyry. London: Institute of Classical Studies, pp. 127–40.Google Scholar
Clark, Gillian. 2009. ‘Can We Talk? Augustine and the Possibility of Dialogue.’ In Goldhill, Simon (ed.), The End of Dialogue in Antiquity. Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–54.Google Scholar
Clarke, Emma C. 2001. Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis: A Manifesto of the Miraculous. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Clarke, Emma C., Dillon, John, and Hershbell, Jackson P. (eds.). 2003. Iamblichus: On the Mysteries. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature.Google Scholar
Des Places, Édouard (ed.). 1974–80. Eusèbe de Césarée: La Préparation Évangélique. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf.Google Scholar
Dillon, John, and Hershbell, Jackson (eds.). 1991. Iamblichus. On the Pythagorean Way of Life (De Vita Pythagorica). Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature.Google Scholar
Dillon, John, and Polleichtner, Wolfgang (eds.). 2012. Iamblichus: Letters. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature.Google Scholar
Dodds, Eric R. 1951. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dombart, B., and Kalb, A (eds.). 1955. Augustine. De Civitate Dei. CCSL 47–8. Brepols: Turnhout.Google Scholar
Edwards, Mark. 2003. ‘Two Images of Pythagoras: Iamblichus and Porphyry’. In Blumenthal, Henry J. and Clark, Gillian (eds.), The Divine Iamblichus: Philosopher and Man of Gods. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, pp. 159–72.Google Scholar
Edwards, Mark. 2007. ‘Porphyry and the Christians’. In Karamanolis, George and Sheppard, Anne (eds.), Studies on Porphyry. London: Institute of Classical Studies, pp. 111–26.Google Scholar
Gallop, David. 1991. Aristotle: On Sleep and Dreams. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.Google Scholar
Gifford, E. H. 1903 [1981]. Eusebius: Preparation for the Gospel. 2 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.Google Scholar
Girgenti, Giuseppe, and Muscolino, Giuseppe (eds). 2011. Porfirio: Filosofia Rivelata Dagli Oracoli. Milan: Bompiani.Google Scholar
Goldhill, Simon (ed.). 2009. The End of Dialogue in Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goulet, R. (ed.) (2005). Dictionnaire des Philosophes Antiques 4: de Labeo à Ovidius. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Hammond, Carolyn J.-B. (ed.). 2016. Augustine. Confessions, Vol. II: Books 9–13. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Aaron. 2013. Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre: The Limits of Hellenism in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Karamanolis, George, and Sheppard, Anne (eds.). 2007. Studies on Porphyry. London: Institute of Classical Studies.Google Scholar
Kindt, Julia. 2022. ‘The Enigmatic Divine Voice and the Problem of Human Misinterpretation’. In Addey, Crystal (ed.), Divination and Knowledge in Greco-Roman Antiquity. London: Routledge, pp. 30–49.Google Scholar
Long, Alex. 2009. ‘Plato’s Dialogues and a Common Rationale for Dialogue Form’. In Goldhill, Simon (ed.), The End of Dialogue in Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 45–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louis, P. 1945. Albinus: Épitomé. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Marchant, E. C. 1970. Xenophontis opera omnia, Vol. 4. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Marx-Wolf, Heidi. 2016. Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority: Platonists, Priests and Gnostics in the Third Century CE. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Mastandrea, Paolo. 1979. Un neoplatonico latino Cornelio Labeone (Testimonianze e frammenti). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
McCabe, Matt Jackson. 2004. ‘The Stoic Theory of Implanted Preconceptions’. Phronesis 147: 323–47.Google Scholar
Miles, Richard. 2009. ‘Let’s (Not) Talk about It’: Augustine and the Control of Epistolary Dialogue’. In Goldhill, Simon (ed.), The End of Dialogue in Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 135–48.Google Scholar
Miller Jones, Roger. 1980. The Platonism of Plutarch and Selected Papers. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Nightingale, Andrea Wilson. 1995. Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parker, Robert. 1985. ‘Greek States and Greek Oracles’. History of Political Thought 6(1/2): 298–326.Google Scholar
Saffrey, Henri Dominique. 1971. ‘Abammon, Pseudonyme de Jamblique’. In Palmer, R. B. and Hamerton-Kelly, R. G. (eds.), Philomathes: Studies and Essays in the Humanities in Memory of Philip Merlan. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, pp. 227–39.Google Scholar
Saffrey, Henri Dominique, and Segonds, Alain-Philippe (eds.). 2012. Porphyre: Lettre à Anébon L’Égyptien. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Saffrey, Henri Dominique, and Segonds, Alain-Philippe (eds.). 2013. Jamblique: Réponse à Porphyre (De mysteriis). Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Shaw, Gregory. 1995. Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, Gregory. 2012. ‘The Role of Aesthesis in Theurgy’. In Afonasin, Eugene, Dillon, John, and Finamore, John F. (eds.), Iamblichus and the Foundations of Late Platonism. Leiden: Brill, pp. 91–112.Google Scholar
Simonetti, Elsa. 2017. A Perfect Medium? Oracular Divination in the Thought of Plutarch. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Andrew. 1997. ‘Porphyry and Pagan Religious Practice’. In Cleary, John (ed.), The Perennial Tradition of Platonism. Leuven: Leuven University Press, pp. 29–35.Google Scholar
Smith, Andrew. 2007. ‘Porphyry: Scope for a Reassessment’. In Karamanolis, George and Sheppard, Anne (eds.), Studies on Porphyry. London: Institute of Classical Studies, pp. 7–16.Google Scholar
Struck, Peter. 2016. Divination and Human Nature: A Cognitive History of Intuition in Classical Antiquity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Szlezák, T. A. 2007. ‘Platonic Dialectic: The Path and the Goal’. In Corrigan, Kevin and Turner, John D. (eds.), Platonisms: Ancient, Modern and Postmodern. Leiden: Brill, pp. 17–40.Google Scholar
Tanaseanu-Döbler, Ilinca. 2013. Theurgy in Late Antiquity: The Invention of a Ritual Tradition. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×