Ganymede as the Logos: Traces of a Forgotten Allegorization in Philo?

Extract

Philo's attitude to the mythologizing activities of the Greeks is well known. In many passages he contrasts the practices of Greek writers unfavourably with that of Moses. In one passage (Conf. 2 ff.), for example, he condemns those who see the Tower of Babel story asa reflection of that of Otus and Ephialtes' assault on Olympus; the truth, he asserts, is quite the contrary — the Greeks have borrowed the story from Moses.

On the other hand, Philo is himself prepared on occasion to allegorize figures of Greek mythology, though never explicitly on a subject of central doctrinal importance. For instance, he appears to be acquainted with the allegorization of various parts of the Odyssey. In his treatise On Mating with the Preliminary Studies (Congr.), he makes use of the allegorization of the Suitors' mating with the handmaidens because they cannot gain Penelope, first employed, it seems, by the Cynic Bion of Borysthenes, but no doubt of wide currency by Philo's time, as a figure of those who cannot attain to Philosophy consoling themselves with ta enkyklia (e.g. Congr. 14–19). Again, the use here and there in his writings of compounds of the verb νήχω, ‘swim’, particularly ⋯νανήχομαι in connection with descriptions of our struggle through the storms and shipwreck of material existence, suggests his acquaintance with the allegorizing of Odysseus' shipwreck off Phaeacia in Odyssey V, where Homer employs this verb repeatedly. Other, more specificallegories include Scylla as ⋯ɸροσύνη a ‘deathless evil’ (Od. 12. 118), at Det. 178; Odysseus' escape from Charybdis (ibid. 219) at Somn. 2. 70, to symbolize our escape from the cares of mortal existence; and Castor and Pollux (Od. 11. 303) at Somn. 1.150, as an image of the life of the askêtês or prokoptôn.