Dans les pas de Damascius et des néoplatoniciens au Proche-Orient : cultes et légendes de la Damascène

Abstract

Damascius’s Life of Isidoros or Philosophical History tells the journey to the Near East of the famous neoplatonist and his teacher Isidoros at the end of the fifth century of the Christian era. In his Paysages reliques, Michel Tardieu has dealt with both men’s tour of Southern Syria. The study is extended here to Damascene, according to the fragments which concern the worship of Theandrios and the foundation of Damascus , where Damascius originally came from. Underestimated or imperfectly commented testimonies ensure that these extracts keep the memory of pagan cults practised in the region under the Roman Empire. Some of them enlighten the exegesis of the philosopher. Damascius was also inspired by the tradition which, ever since the Hellenistic period, placed his city either in the middle of an unspecified Arabia or a little Arcadia of the Near East.