Theios Sophistes: Essays on Flavius Philostratus' Vita Apollonii (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Theios Sophistes: Essays on Flavius Philostratus' Vita Apollonii James A. Francis Kristoffel Demoen and Danny Praet (eds.). Theios Sophistes: Essays on Flavius Philostratus' Vita Apollonii. Mnemosyne Supplements, 305. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Pp. xvi, 405. $200.00. ISBN 978-90-04-17109-1. The Vita Apollonii (VA), Philostratus' lengthy work—whether it is correct to call it a "life" is disputed—on the first-century philosopher cum miracle worker cum mountebank Apollonius of Tyana, has finally come into its own, and with it, Philostratus himself. Once only valued for what light it shed on the historical Jesus and the New Testament, then for "aretology" and the late antique holy man, new literary approaches and broader historical perspectives have begun to demonstrate the value of the VA in its own right. This volume, produced from a four-year research project at the University of Ghent, synopsizes and advances this development. Its fifteen essays, mostly in English and mostly from European scholars both notable and new, derive from a conference sponsored by the project at the Royal Academy in Brussels in 2006. The book is formally divided into two parts, on the literary and philological aspects of the VA and on the historical, religious, and philosophical aspects; this review, however, will discuss the essays along themes that cut across their formal organization. To begin with the fundamentals, Gerard Boter makes the case for a new critical edition of the VA —on which he has embarked—and presents a new stemma codicum. Christopher Jones discusses the evidence for the historical Apollonius and evidence from the letters attributed to him. Specific scenes from the VA are the focus of two essays. Peter Grosshardt studies the visit of Apollonius to the mound of Achilles from a literary perspective, while Jaap-Jan Flinterman focuses on Apollonius' ascension in the context of religious and archaeological evidence. A number of analytical themes echo throughout the essays in this volume. Alain Billaut takes up the fundamental question of whether the VA can be considered a biography. He argues not only that the work sits firmly within the genre but that Philostratus constructs a metabiographical discourse in explicitly commenting on his choices and motivations for what to include in his account. This issue is also pursued by Luc Van der Stockt in comparing Philostratus' work with Plutarch, and by Marc Van Uytfanghe who examines the VA as a hagiographic discourse. As with Billaut, metanarrative is also the focus of Wannes Gyselinck and Kristoffel Demoen, who discuss the complex narration of the VA in their essay. Distinguishing between the author and the narrator's voice in the work, they see a metafictional discourse in which Philostratus plays with the very concept of fiction for his most sophisticated readers. Similarly, Thomas Schirren explores metanarrative irony in the VA, and brings to the fore Philostratus' mastery in creating a polysemic text. This polysemy can be seen in a series of essays that treat the VA from specific, and refreshingly new, perspectives. Moving from narrative to reception studies, Graeme Miles examines Apollonius' portrayal as an interpreter [End Page 382] in the VA, and presents reflections on visuality and the connection between word and image that are both cutting-edge and profound. Ewen Bowie asks what can be learned from studying the quotations and allusions Philostratus uses and offers valuable tables of citations as a prolegomenon to such a study. Equally thought-provoking is Graham Anderson's examination of the VA from the prospective of folklore. John R. Morgan approaches the work from the perspective of the Emesan sun cult, drawing intriguing comparisons to Heliodorus' Aethiopica, while Erkki Koskenniemi examines Apollonius as teacher. Revisiting an old theme with fresh eyes, Danny Praet assays the VA from a philosophical perspective and reaches a conclusion that characterizes much of the work in this volume: "Philostratus did something quite unique in the Vita Apollonii. He wrote a highly sophisticated literary work that functions on different levels simultaneously: it is a remarkable piece of literary entertainment but it is also a work that should be taken very seriously both in the history of philosophy and in the history of literary technique" (320). This volume demonstrates the truth of...