Chapter 8 Curing Body and Soul with Plato’s Timaeus in the Eastern Roman Empire (284–1453)

In: The Legacy of Plato's Timaeus
Author:
Frederick Lauritzen
Search for other papers by Frederick Lauritzen in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
Type:
Chapter
Pages:
229–254
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004705838_009

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

$40.00
Add to Cart
Redeem Access Token

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that, just as in the Latin-speaking, western Roman Empire, the Byzantines in the eastern part also read passages from the Timaeus on the structure and health of the body and soul in order to debate contemporary questions of theology, philosophy, and medicine until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Indeed, the debate on the relation between body and soul in Byzantine philosophy was crystallized and discussed as a debate on Plato’s Timaeus. Plotinus (204/5–270) had argued, against Plato, that the soul remains somehow connected to the divine (Enn. 4.8.8). However, Proclus (412–485) explicitly indicated that he thought Plotinus was wrong (In Ti. 3.334). He argued that Timaeus 43c indicates that sense life affects both body and soul, which implies that the ruling part of the soul is not detached from the sensible world. The Byzantine interest in the combined action of body and soul manifests itself not only in medieval Christian conceptions of curing the soul, but also in medical theories according to which curing the human body could also help to heal the human soul. This explains the interest in Plato’s Timaeus shown by philosophers with keen medical interests, such as Michael Psellus (1018–1081).

Citation Info

  • Collapse
  • Expand

The Legacy of Plato's Timaeus

Cosmology, Music, Medicine, and Architecture from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century

Series:  Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 353
Cover The Legacy of Plato's <i>Timaeus</i>
E-Book ISBN:
9789004705838
Publisher:
Brill
Print Publication Date:
16 Dec 2024
Front Matter
Chapter 1 Introduction: from Plato’s Text to the Beginnings of Modern Science – towards a New Understanding of the Disciplinary Inheritance of Plato’s Timaeus
Part 1 The Timaeus and its Reception in Late Antiquity
Part 2 The Medieval Timaeus
Part 3 The Timaeus in the Renaissance
Back Matter

  • Timaeus a Calcidio translatus commentarioque instructus, Plato Latinus, vol. 4, ed. J. H. Waszink. London: Warburg Institute, 1962. Second edition, London: Warburg Institute, 1975.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Calcidius, Commentaire au Timée de Platon, ed. and trans. Béatrice Bakhouche, with Luc Brisson. Paris: J. Vrin, 2011.

  • On Plato’s Timaeus, Calcidius, ed. and trans. John Magee. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016.

  • M. Tulli Ciceronis Scripta quae manserunt omnia, vol. 4.3, ed. C. W. F. Müller. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1890.

  • Clement of Alexandria. The Exhortation to the Greeks. The Rich Man’s Salvation. To the Newly Baptized, trans. G. W. Butterworth, Loeb Classical Library 92. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Coleridge, S[amuel] T[aylor]. Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems. London: Rest Fenner, 1817.

  • Corpus Dionysiacum, vol. 1, Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita. De divinis nominibus, ed. Beate Regina Suchla. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1990.

  • Damascii successoris dubitationes et solutiones de primis principiis in Platonis Parmenidem, ed. Charles-Émile Ruelle. Vol. 2. Paris: Klincksieck, 1899.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Damascius, Commentaire sur le Philèbe de Platon, eds. Gerd van Riel, Caroline Macé, and Jacques Follon. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2008.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • The Greek Commentaries on Plato’s Phaedo. Vol. 2. Damascius Commentary on Plato’s Phaedo, ed. Leendert G. Westerink. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing, 1977. Second edition, Dilton Marsh: Prometheus Trust, 2009.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Galeni in Platonis Timaeum Commentarii Fragmenta, ed. Heinrich Otto Schröder, with Arabic appendix by Paul Kahle. Leipzig: Teubner, 1934.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Galens Kommentar zu Platons Timaios, ed. Carlos J. Larrain. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1992.

  • Galen: Writings on Health: Thrasybulus and Health (De sanitate tuenda), ed. and trans. Peter N. Singer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Giorgio di Pisidia, Carmi, ed. Luigi Tartaglia. Turin: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1998.

  • Défense des saints hésychastes, Grégoire Palamas, ed. Jean Meyendorff with introduction, critical text, translation, and notes. Louvain: “Spicilegium sacrum lovaniense” administration, 1959.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Iamblichi Chalcidensis in Platonis dialogos commentariorum fragmenta, ed. John M. Dillon. Leiden: Brill, 1973.

  • John Climacus. Scala paradisi, ed. J.-P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus (series Graeca) (PG) 88, 631–1161. Paris: Migne, 1857–1866.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell. New York: Paulist Press, 1982.

  • Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos, vol. 2, Expositio Fidei, ed. Boniface Kotter. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1973.

  • Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos, vol. 3, Contra imaginum calumniatores orationes tres, ed. Boniface Kotter. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1975.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Patrologiae cursus completus … Series graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne, vol. 88. Paris: Garnier, 1857–1866.

  • Plato Arabus, ed. Richard Walzer, Paul Kraus, Franz Rosenthal, and Francesco Gabrieli, vol. 1. London: Warburg Institute, 1943.

  • Plotini Opera, ed. Paul Henry and Hans Rudolf Schwyzer. Brussels: L’Édition Universelle and Desclée de Brouwer, 1951–1973.

  • Plotinus, The Enneads, ed. trans. Lloyd P. Gerson et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

  • Porphyrii in Platonis Timaeum commentariorum fragmenta, ed. A. R. Sodano. Naples: s.n., 1964.

  • Procli Diadochi in Platonis Timaeum commentaria, ed. Ernst Diehl, 3 vols. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903–1906.

  • Proclus: Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, vol. 2, Book 2: Proclus on the Causes of the Cosmos and its Creation, eds. David T. Runia and Michael Share. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Proclus Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, vol. 6, Book 5: Proclus on the Gods of Generation and the Creation of Humans, trans. with an introduction and notes Harold Tarrant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Proclus The Elements of Theology, ed. with revised text, translation, introduction and commentary, E. R. Dodds, second edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Fourteen Byzantine rulers: the ‘Chronographia’ of Michael Psellus, trans. E. R. A. Sewter, revised edition. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Michaelis Pselli Chronographia, ed. Diether Roderich Reinsch. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.

  • Michaelis Pselli Philosophica minora, vol. 2, Opuscula psychologica, theologica, daemonologica, ed. D. J. O’Meara. Leipzig: Teubner, 1989.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Michaelis Pselli Poemata, ed. Leendert G. Westerink. Leipzig: Teubner, 1992.

  • A New Concordance of the Pyramid Texts. Vol. I: Introduction, Occurrences, Transcription, ed. James P. Allen. Providence, RI: Ancient World Online, 2013.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Scholia Platonica contulerunt atque investigaverunt Fredericus de Forest Allen, Ioannes Burnet, Carolus Pomeroy Parker, ed. William Caswell Greene. Haverford, PA: American Philological Society, 1938.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ioannis Stobaei anthologium, eds. Otto Hense and Curt Wachsmuth, 5 vols. in 4. Berlin: Weidmann, 1884–1912.

  • Suidae Lexicon, ed. Ada Adler. 5 vols. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1928–1938.

  • Arnzen, Rüdiger. “Plato’s Timaeus in the Arabic Tradition. Legend – Testimonies – Fragments.” Il Timeo. Esegesi greche, arabe, latine, eds. Francesco Celia and Angela Ulacco, 181–267. Pisa: PLUS-Pisa University Press, 2012.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • BeDuhn, Jason. “The Metabolism of Salvation: Manichaean Concepts of Human Physiology.” The Light in the Darkness: Studies in Manichaeism and its World, eds. Paul Mirecki and Jason BeDuhn, 5–37. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. “Galen in Byzantine Medical Literature.” Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Galen, eds. Petros Bouras-Vallianatos and Barbara Zipser, 87–110. Leiden: Brill, 2019.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Innovation in Byzantine Medicine. The Writings of John Zacharias Aktouarios (c.1275–c.1330). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cameron, Alan. “The Last Days of the Academy at Athens.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, n.s. 15 (195) (1969): 7–29.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cresci, Lia Raffaella. “The Hexaemeron of George of Pisidia and the Armenian Version: Textual Investigations.” Greek Texts and Armenian Traditions: an interdisciplinary approach, eds. Francesca Gazzano, Lara Pagani, and Giusto Traina, 241–254. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Das, Aileen R. “Re-evaluating the Authenticity of the Fragments from Galen’s ‘On the Medical Statements in Plato’s Timaeus’ (Scorialensis graec. Φ-III-11, ff. 123r–126v).” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 192 (2014): 93–103.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hoenig, Christina. Plato’s Timaeus and the Latin Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

  • Hörandner, Wolfram. “The Byzantine Didactic Poem – A Neglected Literary Genre? A Survey with Special Reference to the Eleventh Century.” Poetry and its Contexts in Eleventh-century Byzantium, eds. Floris Bernard and Kristoffel Demoen, 55–67. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012. Reissued, London: Routledge, 2017.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hohlweg, Armin. “Medizinischer ‘Enzyklopädismus’ und das ΠΟΝΗΜΑ ΙΑΤΡΙΚΟΝ des Michael Psellos. Zur Frage seiner Quelle.” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 81 (1988): 39–49.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ieraci Bio, Anna Maria. “Due citazioni di Ippocrate e Galeno nell’epistola 101 K.-D. di Michele Psello.” Filologia antica e moderna 11 (1996): 101–106.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jonkers, Gijsbert. The Textual Tradition of Plato’s Timaeus and Critias. Leiden: Brill, 2017.

  • Lauritzen, Frederick. “Late Antique Philosophy and the Poetry of George of Pisidia.” Myth, Religion, Tradition, and Narrative in Late Antique Greek Poetry, Wiener Studien Beihefte 41, ed. Nicole Kröll, 59–68. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2020.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lauritzen, Fredrick. “Psellos’ commentary on the Jesus Prayer.” Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa 66 (2021): 117–134.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lefort, Jacques. “Rhétorique et politique. Trois discours de Jean Mauropous en 1047.” Travaux et mémoires 6 (1976): 265–303.

  • Lorusso, Vito. “Nuovi frammenti di Galeno (In Hp. Epid. VI Comm. VII; In Plat. Tim. Comm.).” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 152 (2005): 43–56.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lorusso, Vito. “Cinque nuovi frammenti di Galeno. Edizione critica, traduzione, commento.” Galenos 3 (October 2009): 45–66.

  • Melling, David J. “Suffering and Sanctification in Christianity.” Religion, Health and Suffering, eds. John R. Hinnells and Roy Porter, 46–64. London: Routledge, 1999.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Meyendorff, John. Byzantine Hesychasm: Historical, Theological and Social Problems: Collected Studies. London: Variorum Reprints, 1974.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Moseley, Geoffrey J. Plato Arabus: On the Arabic Transmission of Plato’s Dialogues. Texts and Studies. Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017.

  • Russell, Norman. Gregory Palamas and the making of palamism in the modern age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

  • Steel, Carlos. The Changing Self: A Study on the Soul in Later Neoplatonism: Iamblichus, Damascius, and Priscianus. Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1978.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • van Balthasar, Hans Urs. Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor, translated by Brian E. Daley. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2003. Originally published as Kosmische Liturgie das Weltbild Maximus’ des Bekenners. Munich, 1941. Second edition Einsiedeln: Johannes-Verlag, 1961.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Visser, Arnoud. “From the Republic of Letters to the Olympus: The Rise and Fall of Medical Humanism in 67 Portraits.” Living in Posterity. Essays in Honour of Bart Westerweel, eds. Jan Frans Van Dijkhuizen, Paul Hoftijzer, Juliette Roding, and Paul Smith, 299–314. Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2004.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Volk, Robert. Medizinische Inhalt der Schriften des Michael Psellos. Munich: Institut für Byzantinistik und Neugriechische Philologie der Universität, 1990.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wear, Sarah Klitenic. The Teachings of Syrianus on Plato’s Timaeus and Parmenides. Leiden: Brill, 2011.

Metrics

All Time Past 365 days Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 962 962 154
Full Text Views 12 12 5
PDF Views & Downloads 2 2 0