Anagogic Love between Neoplatonic Philosophers and Their Disciples in Late Antiquity

Abstract

Through a novel set of texts drawn from Plato, Porphyry, Plotinus, Ps. Julian, Proclus, Hermeias, Synesius and Damascius, I explore how anagogicerōsin master-disciple relationships in Neoplatonism contributed to the attainment of self-knowledge and to the transmission of knowledge, authority and inspired insights within and outside thediadochia. I view anagogicerōsas one of the most important channels of non-discursive pedagogy and argue for the mediating power of anagogicerōsin the attainment of the main goal of the Platonist: reorienting desire (erōs) from sensible to intelligible beauty and changing one’s ontological status to become like god and attain union with the divine. After considering the problematic nature of Socraticerōs, its skeptics and detractors, I discuss the dynamics of philosopher-disciple relationships and the experience of anagogicerōsin the following: the attack on Porphyry and defense by Plotinus following Porphyry’s recital of an ecstatic poem onHieros Gamos(Vita Plotini15), the concealment of anagogicerōsbehind the authoritative façade of an oracle (vp22-23), the intensely devotional private letters of Ps. Julian to the aged Iamblichus and of Synesius to his female master Hypatia; the identification of anagogicerōswith theurgic ascent in Syrianus’s school according to Proclus and Hermeias and the experiences of anagogicerōsoutside thediadochiain Damascius’Philosophical History. I conclude that the true and correct practice of philosophy had much, if not everything to do with the anagogicerōsbetween the true philosopher, the bacchant and the philosopher in training, aspiring to become transformed from thyrsus-bearer into bacchant. The privileged and exalted status given to the divine lover ensured the transmission of the philosophical tradition in all its richness, preserving both its discursive and non-discursive aspects as a system of thought, as a way of life and as a way of being and loving.