Synesius Research Articles

Whatever You Bestow on Him, You Will Bestow on Me: Key Motifs of Early Byzantine Letters of Recommendation

The letter of recommendation was known in Antiquity as a separate genre of letter writing for which a certain set of compositional techniques and formulae were developed. In Byzantium, too, the letter of recommendation was in great demand: letters in which the author presents his protégé to the addressee and, as a rule, asks him to perform something for him are not difficult to find in the epistolary collections of many authors from the 4th to the 15th century. Meanwhile, while the ancient letter of recommendation is well studied, the etiquette of this genre in the Byzantine tradition has hardly been investigated yet. The purpose of this piece is to characterize the etiquette norms of Greek letter of recommendation in the early Byzantine period (4th — early 7th centuries). The subject of the study are, first of all, literarische Privatbriefe, belonging to Libanius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Synesius of Cyrene, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Procopius of Gaza and others, but also private papyrus letters. Their analysis leads to the conclusion that there is a wide variability of the canons of the letter of recommendation, the absence of any rigid scheme that presupposes a clear sequence of structural elements. At the same time, it reveals six recurrent etiquette motifs, all of which are subordinated to a single goal — to persuade the addressee to patronize the recommended person. These motifs are analyzed in detail, and stable formulas are indicated for some of them. An attempt is made to determine to what extent the canons of Greek letters of recommendation of the 4th–7th centuries go back to the ancient tradition. The letters of recommendation of Cicero and Pliny the Younger, as well as letters preserved on late antique papyri, are used as material for comparative analysis.

Plutarch’s Parallel Lives and the Greek Christian Fathers of the 2nd Century, with special attention to Clement of Alexandria

It is well known the Plutarch’s influence on the Christian thought of the imperial era, especially in authors such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, the three Capadocian Fathers, John Chrysosthomos, Theodoretus, Cyrillus of Alexandria, or Synesius of Cyrene, who not only cite (with the exception of Clement) him, but even, without explicit citing, are directly inspired by some Plutarch’s theological and ethical treatises. In this sense, the use of the Moralia by Greek Christian Apologists and other Fathers of the Church has received sufficient attention from modern bibliography, especially in the last decades of the 20th Century and so far in the 21st Century. Less researched has been, however, the imprint left by the Parallel Lives on the Greek Christian authors of the first five centuries of our Age. My article will focus on this aspect of Plutarch’s reception, although restricted to the 2nd century AD. The first Section will provide an overview (based on modern literature about this topic and on the reading of Christian texts) of the importance of references in Ancient Christian Literature to the characters of Plutarch’s Lives or to specific passages in them. In the first and second Sections I will focus on the possible references to this Plutarch’s work in the 2nd Century apologists, Tatian, Athenagoras and Theophilus (first Section), and in Clement of Alexandria (second Section).

The Body among Neoplatonists and Christians at the End of the Fourth Century: Synesius of Cyrene’s and Eunapius of Sardis’ Perspective

This brief study addresses the controversial issue of the relationship with the body, with the flesh, on the part of pagan and Christian thinkers at a particularly important point in their evolution, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, a time in which Neoplatonic thinkers had to defend their doctrinal positions against the increasingly hegemonic position of the triumphant Christianity. In this sense, it is particularly interesting to approach the perspective of two authors who are not strictly speaking philosophers: in particular, Synesius of Cyrene, a thinker in the Neoplatonic tradition who became a Christian bishop, complemented also by some interesting reflections by Eunapius of Sardis, historian and biographer of Neoplatonic philosophers. In the light of this analysis, it becomes clear that the discussion on the value of the body and carnality is an essential point of doctrinal discrepancy in this period and, contrary to what sometimes appears, the discrepancy also pertains to the formation of the intellectual, and Christianity clearly appears as a doctrine obsessed with the flesh to the detriment of the soul.

Corpus Areopagiticum: питання про залежність від Прокла, гіпотеза про авторство Синезія і філософська термінологія слов'янських перекладів

The study of the peculiarities that the reception of such an essential concept of the philosophical Corpus Dionysiacum Areopagiticum as ὑπερούσιος in ancient Slavic translations has is promising. It allows not only to understand better the internal perspective of the development of philosophical terminology in Rus’-Ukraine, where in the 15th–17th centuries, there existed a significant number of manuscripts of the corpus, but also to strengthen the argument in favor of its dating precisely in the 5th century.
 According to the conceptual features that are present in the Greek text of De divinis nominibus and are confirmed in the studies of Slavic translations of the Corpus Areopagiticum, this work, preserved also in other languages, could belong to an author, who uniquely combined his Christian views and a philosophical vision of the world that was inspired by his Neoplatonic education at the Alexandrian School of Philosophy under the guidance of the eminent Neoplatonic thinker and mathematician Hypatia, who was well acquainted with the ideas of Plotinus and the whole Alexandrian intellectual tradition. It is possible that this author, who used the ideas of Plotinus and Porphyry and for the first time unfolded the idea of the Christian God as the Hyperousios in the aspect of the Christian Triad in his philosophical hymns and treatises, could be Synesius of Cyrene, Bishop of Ptolemais.

Понятия справедливости и благочестия в византийской политико-философской мысли IV века

Introduction. The article analyzes the transformations of the concept of justice in early Byzantine thought. The purpose of the article is to test the hypothesis that the semantic shifts in the meaning of the concept of justice in the philosophical and theological literature were due to political processes and events. Methods. The article analyzes the political philosophical and political theological texts of the fourth century: “Oration in Honor of Constantine on the Thirtieth Anniversary of His Reign” by Eusebius of Caesarea; “Panegyric in Honour of Constantius” and “The Heroic Deeds of Constantius” by emperor Julian (“The Apostate”); “On Kingship” by Synesius of Cyrene. In the course of the analysis, the methodological tools of the history of concepts were used. Analysis. The analysis revealed a conflict between the concepts of “justice” and “piety”. It was found that the analyzed texts violate the ancient political and philosophical correlation of these concepts in which piety is considered as a form of justice. In the texts of Eusebius of Caesarea, piety is presented as a particular virtue without any connection with justice. Moreover, the frequency of using the concept of “piety” in the sense of the ruler’s virtue significantly exceeds the frequency of using the concept of “justice” in the sense of political virtue. In the texts of the Emperor Justinian, the discursive status of “justice” is restored. However, in the political philosophy of Synesius of Cyrene, the correlation of the concepts of “justice” and “piety” prescribed by Eusebius of Caesarea is fixed. Results. These processes is due to the influence of religious discourse on political one which is quite understandable in the works of theologians, on the one hand, and the crisis of polis and republican political technologies and discourses in the situation of increasing complexity of administrative tasks faced by the Roman emperors of the 4th century, on the other hand which subsequently led to the formation of a specific Byzantine “taxis” – a socio-cultural order. In this regard, the texts of Emperor Julian can be considered as an unsuccessful attempt to restore the previous discourse, an attempt to restore justice to a dominant place among the virtues of the ruler. The failure of this attempt is attested from the texts of Synesius of Cyrene. All the above allows us to conclude that a new Christian-imperial political discourse is being generated in the corpus of philosophical and theological texts in which the concept of justice is given a relatively modest place.

Synesius of Cyrene, Sophist-Bishop: Rhetoric and Religion in the Greek East at the Turn of the Fifth Century CE

Les études récentes sur Synesius de Cyrène rejettent de plus en plus la thèse traditionnelle qui le considérait comme un nouveau venu dans le christianisme, pour le considérer plutôt comme un chrétien flexible et antidogmatique. Cependant, tout en reflétant notre meilleure compréhension de l’expérience de la religion vécue à la fin de l’Antiquité, cette position néglige un aspect crucial de l’identité religieuse de Synesius: son auto-récit. À travers une étude des stratégies rhétoriques utilisées par Synesius pour communiquer son allégeance religieuse, cet article soutient que Synesius a plutôt cherché des moyens de se présenter comme un concurrent du christianisme et de ses représentants les plus éminents. Le « sophiste » Synesius (défini comme tel en dépit, ou mieux, en vertu de ses prétentions à ne pas en être un), caractérisé par la recherche d’une identité oppositionnelle construite à l’aide de la rhétorique traditionnelle, apparaît ainsi comme incarnant la tension entre innovation et continuité qui marque la Troisième sophistique au IVe siècle.

Synesius of Cyrene, Sophist-Bishop: Rhetoric and Religion in the Greek East at the Turn of the Fifth Century CE

Synesius of Cyrene, Sophist-Bishop: Rhetoric and Religion in the Greek East at the Turn of the Fifth Century CE

Bald is Handsome? Late Imperial Society in the Satire’s Deforming Mirror in the Calvitii encomium by Synesius of Cyrene

Synesius’ Encomium calvitii can be interpreted as an excellent example of late-antique satyr, which aims to denounce the decline of contemporary society by criticising its most prominent members; philosophers, rhetoricians, religious people, soldiers, romanized barbarians, characters of dubious morality. The conceptual complexity and the ideological proximity to the De Regno and the Dio confirm the opinion of modern scholars that the work is a product of the writer’s intellectual ripeness that can be dated to the years 403-404 CE.

P1837THE HISTORY OF THE URINES SPECIFIC GRAVITY TEST FROM THE 15TH CENTURY UNITL TODAY

Abstract Background and Aims To present the history of the specific gravity test in the study of urines from the 15th cent. AD until today. Method The first description of a hydrometer, the progenitor of the urinometer, appears in the fifteenth letter from Synesius of Cyrene to the Greek scholar Hypatia of Alexandria, from the 5th century AD. However, its evolution to the urinometer took 15 centuries until 1849, when Johann Florian Heller (1813-1871) introduced it. During the next two centuries, we note a rapid improvement of the appropriate laboratory instruments and a wide acceptance of the importance of specific gravity for the evaluation of urine. We present passages from relevant texts from the discussed period. Results The first call for attention to measuring urine weight comes from Nicolas of Cusa’s work The Layman: Experiments with Weights, where we read “Accordingly, since the weight of blood or the weight of urine is different for a healthy man and for a sick man or for a youthful man and an elderly man or for a German and an African, wouldn’t it be especially useful to a physician to have all these differences recorded? Orator: Most certainly”. The theoretical proposal was solidified in Francis Bacon’s Novurn Organum (1620): “Neither the naked hand nor the understanding left to itself can effect much. It is by instruments and helps that the work is done”. Herman Boerhaave, in 1753, weighed the distilled urine residue in order to calculate its density, a complicated and time-consuming procedure. Later, Groenevelt J. in The Rudiments of Physick writes “The particles in it sink or float according to their own gravity [specific!], but their position is also dependent on the thickness of the urine [albumin in it plus formed particles].” Osborne, in 1820, made a genius comparison “When a mucous cloud is present [in the urine] it ascends and descends in the fluid according to specific gravity, thus serving the purpose of a hydrometer”. Becquerel, in 1842, laid out tables calculating the solid articles in urines of given specific gravity. Graves, in 1866, reported intermittent albuminuria with a parallel variation of the specific gravity of urine in infectious disease. The same year, an article in the London Medical Gazette: Or, Journal of Practical Medicine, and another one in The New York Lancet stress the variation of specific gravity in the course of a renal disease. Clover R.M. in the Case of sialorrhoea (1846) states that specific gravity may vary greatly even with the same amount of solids and fluid due to fluid heterogeneity. In 1848, Garrod describes a bottle for measuring urine specific gravity. Johann Florian Heller introduced the mercury-based floating urinometer in 1849 thus greatly facilitating the test of urine specific gravity. The increasing demand for the test’s application resulted in the discovery of refined laboratory instruments, such as the refractometer. Very recently, urine specific gravity is considered an accurate renal function marker, equal to creatinine clearance or proteinuria levels (Constantiner M. et al, Am J Kidney Dis., 2005 May;45(5):833-41. and Anestis SF et al, Am J Primatol., 2009 Feb;71(2):130-5). Conclusion It seems that the understanding of urine specific gravity underwent “mechanisation”, from its inception as the use of the sediment’s location in the vial to access it, during the Middle Ages to complex apparatuses like refractometers. Originating in the Classical and Middle Ages mainly from the East, it obtained its sound scientific background in the West from the Renaissance onwards. After debate on its usefulness, it is again a vital tool for assessing renal damage.

Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD

This paper explores the literary tradition of the curious chreia that Alexander ordered his men to shave off their beards before battle. The story is represented by various sources from the imperial period but most prominently in the Encomium of Baldness by Synesius of Cyrene. The latter source posits that the story comes from the History of Alexander by Ptolemy, son of Lagus, but this claim cannot be true when Synesius’ version is compared to other extant uses of the chreia. This paper exemplifies some of Synesius’ methods of working, arguing that we need to invest more energy in appreciating the wider tradition of Alexander in late antiquity to understand our earlier texts.

… et l’âme créa le rêve. Le traité Sur les songes de Synésios de Cyrène

AbstractFrom Homer onwards, in both ancient Greek and Byzantine cultures, dreams were generally conceived as a phenomenon that enters the human being from outside, inasmuch as inspired by the divinity, and not as a product of human interiority. Nevertheless, there exists a distinctly dedicated work about this subject that provides a completely different point of view: it is the treatise On dreams by Synesius of Cyrene. Assuming that dreams are cognizable, Synesius argues that they must be perceived in the same way as sense perceptions. Therefore, they must pass through the center of human self-consciousness, which Synesius calls «Imaginative Spirit». This is only the beginning of a philosophical demonstration aiming to prove that all the images belonging to the Becoming, including oneiric ones, reside inside the soul and do not have their own source outside the human being.

Literary Territories: Cartographical Thinking in Late Antiquity by Scott Fitzgerald Johnson

Reviewed by: Literary Territories: Cartographical Thinking in Late Antiquity by Scott Fitzgerald Johnson Frank Georgia Literary Territories: Cartographical Thinking in Late Antiquity Scott Fitzgerald Johnson Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xiv + 195. 978-0-19-022123-2 In Literary Territories, Scott Johnson explores the intertwined metaphors of map and library as they shaped the production of literature in late antiquity. Much of the book focuses on the fourth [End Page 289] through the sixth century, a time when increased travel expanded notions of the oikoumenē, or the "inhabited world." Efforts to accumulate and organize all knowledge, Johnson argues, fueled an "aesthetic of encyclopedism" or "archivalism" in many late antique genres. Cartographical thinking—the impulse to compile, archive, and epitomize—is a by-product of this interest, appearing in travel descriptions, letters, pilgrims' guides, and miracle collections, as well as in non-narrative works such as Roman lists of overland staging posts (itineraria) and topographical catalogs (notitiae). Casting his net widely, Johnson cleverly pairs and compares secular and religious works: Pliny's (d. 79 ce) Natural History with the sixth-century Cosmas Indicopleustes's Christian Topography; Pausanias's (c. 115–c. 180) Description of Greece with the travel diary by the Christian pilgrim Egeria (ca. 484); Synesius of Cyrene's (ca. 370–ca. 414) description of a harrowing sea voyage (Ep. 5) and Jerome's account of his journey to the Holy Land with Paula (Ep. 108, 404 ce); or astronomical works such as Macrobius's Commentary on the Dream of Scipio (ca. 430) and Gregory of Tours' late-sixth-century handbook, The Course of the Stars, written for monks regulating prayer times. For each work, Johnson exposes the underlying "archival aesthetic" and makes a persuasive case for how accumulation is put to the service of argument. Collecting would be instrumental for asserting imperial control, marking out a holy land, or revealing cosmic order. In addition to attuning the reader to these cartographical habits of thought, Johnson tracks how geographical thinking and frameworks underlie Christian travelers' descriptions, miracle collections, and legends related to the apostles and saints. All these genres share a focus on "locatedness," whereby the saint is rooted in a particular place. For instance, the Miracles of Thekla celebrate her local, even chthonic, powers. Yet, the Miracles also cast Thekla's influence beyond the region by inserting her into the legendary account of the apostles casting lots to missionize all the cities and lands of the world. The sortes apostolorum, as this legend is called, recurs in several collective hagiographies and miracle collections. The sortes, Johnson argues, also found expression in imperial monuments, such as Constantine's final resting place. According to Constantine's biographer, Eusebius, the mausoleum at the Church of the Holy Apostles complex featured the imperial coffin flanked by "coffins" for each of the twelve apostles, effecting an "archive of the apostles" and fixing the emperor in a universalizing apostolic geography. The persistence of this legend is evident in a seventh-century collection of tales about monastic wonderworking, the Spiritual Meadow by John Moschus. Although the collection lacks an explicit geographical itinerary, Johnson detects resonances between monastic and apostolic spaces. In the final chapter Johnson explores the geographical frameworks of two ninth-century East Syriac works. He analyzes Thomas of Marga's Historia Monastica and Isho'dnah of Basra's Liber Castitatis to show how a cartographic reading of these texts reveals their orientation toward Jerusalem and Egypt, suggesting the "westwardness" that informs their self-understanding. Johnson is also to be commended for providing an appended chronological bibliography of critical editions and English translations of Greek, Latin, and Syriac works from the first seven centuries ce. [End Page 290] Through his individual examples Johnson exposes the frameworks by which Christians and non-Christians mapped their own field of dreams, so to speak. Rather than view all this "commentary, compilation, and repackaging" as unoriginal or parasitic, Johnson claims it is profoundly creative and innovative. He suggests that, as with the codex, a technology that increasingly displaced the scroll in the later third and fourth centuries, readers could enter these narratives at random and easily compare, quote, and recombine portions. Like musical sampling today...

Synesius of Cyrene and the American “Synesii”

This article explores the Hellenic/Christian synthesis of bishop Synesius and its later influence, especially on nineteenth-century America. Synesius accepted a bishopric despite Neoplatonic reservations concerning Christian doctrine: the uncreated soul pre-exists; the uncreated cosmos is eternal; and the “resurrection” an ineffable mystery, beyond the vulgar. Whether or not born a Christian, his study under Hypatia brought about a conversion to “pagan” Neoplatonism. His attempted synthesis of Hellenism and Christianity was unique, unlike that of any other late antique Christian Platonist. Later, Renaissance thinkers scanned a new religious horizon reviving Hellenic Neoplatonism, Hermetic thought, Pythagoreanism, etc., included in a “primordial revelation,” contemporaneous with the Mosaic revelation and thereby in harmony with Christianity. In Romantic-era England, Thomas Taylor revived Hellenic Neoplatonism as the “true” religion, in the spirit of the anti-Christian theurgic Neoplatonist Roman emperor, Julian. Taylor had a significant influence on the American “Synesii,” Transcendentalists and Neoplatonists, e.g., on Bronson Alcott’s Platonic/Pythagorean lifestyle. Reading Taylor’s translations, Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke of the “Trismegisti” whose Neoplatonic religion predated and superseded “parvenu” Christianity. Later Transcendentalists continued the work of Taylor, sympathizing with late antique “pagan” Neoplatonism, but, in the spirit of Synesius, synthesizing it with Christianity and with other religions. They sought a non-sectarian, universal “cosmic theism,” notably through Thomas M. Johnson’s journal, The Platonist, which included translations of Synesius and other Neoplatonists. One of its contributors, Alexander Wilder, also influenced Theosophy on its Neoplatonic side. More recent Anglophone “Synesii” include Hilary Armstrong, who was a major presence in Neoplatonic scholarship, both in the uk and North America. He argued for a return to Hellenic inclusive monotheism, in which a Christian Platonist, like himself, could also venerate Hindu or Isis’ holy images as being true reflections of the divine.

Synesius of Cyrene (Philosopher and Bishop)

Synesius (c.365-370-412-413 A.D.),wrote more than 150 letters in total, some of which record the addresses he gave across urban and rural Cyrenaica. From these lettershis role as Bishop of Ptolemais in the treatment of events in Cyrenaica during Roman imperial rule was evident. He also describes the attacks made by Berber tribes and his part in combatting them.[1] In addition, Synesius authored a number of poems and philosophical works, including De Providentia (On Providence), De Regno (On Kingship), Dion (on Dio Cocceianus, a Roman philosopher) and De insomniis (On Dreams). This paper analysesSynesius’Letters, more generally, offer a broader understanding of theLibyan community in Cyrenaica during the fourth century,includingmoral corruption,political and militarydeterioration, the administrative chaos, and its impact on the personal life of Synesius. [1]Synesius of Cyrene (1926) The Letters of Synesius of Cyrene, trans. Fitzgerald, A, Oxford University Press, London, pp. 5-7.

Becoming Bishop in the Letters of Basil and Synesius: Tracing Patterns of Social Signaling across Two Full Epistolary Collections

To explore the social significance of clerical office, this article compares the correspondence of Basil of Caesarea with that of Synesius of Cyrene, treating each as an archive of socio-rhetorical “data.” It examines all dateable letters in each collection for the author’s social signals to various recipients—such as Biblical or classical literary references, patronage requests or indications of intimacy. It then graphically depicts each man’s attested communication for two periods, before and after his becoming bishop. Such socio-rhetorical mapping affords a new perspective on the two authors. For Basil it reveals a segmented social life, in which he discussed classical culture, Nicene doctrine, and asceticism with different groups of contacts. While usually cast as a clerical/ascetic convert, Basil continued all his segmented conversations after he was consecrated. For Synesius, rhetorical mapping showcases a mixed social life, in which he widely discussed his patronage, literary interests, and philosophy. In contrast with the prevailing portrayal of Synesius as an unbending Neo-platonist, the article shows how he interwove Christian discourse with familiar social signals after his selection as bishop. Basil and Synesius lived differing lives, but their patterns of social signaling look like related approaches to pressures faced by most fourth- and early fifth-century local notable men who became bishops.

Listening for “The Silence of the Night”: Reading Kevin Hart’s “The Voice of Brisbane”

AbstractThis essay undertakes a close reading of Kevin Hart’s poem “The Voice of Brisbane” alongside three pertinent voices. The first voice belongs to Yves Bonnefoy and concerns his translation of the French termévidence. Taking into account Hart’s own admiration of Bonnefoy, this essay contrasts the kinds of experiential and poetic claims that the two poets make. The second voice belongs to St. John of the Cross. Hart’s poem owes much to the kinds of mystical meditation that St. John advocates. The third voice belongs to Synesius of Cyrene, a fifth-century Platonist and bishop, whose poem “Awake My Soul” bears an uncanny resemblance to the pattern of Hart’s work.

UN FRAMMENTO DEL DE AEGYPTIIS SIVE DE PROVIDENTIA DI SINESIO

The Cod. Par. Gr. 3025 does not contain fragments from Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (as Omont’s Inventaire states), but only a fragment of Plutarch’s De lib. educ ., followed by a part of Synesius’ Aigyptioi vel de Providentia . The paper examines the textual variants for this Synesius’ treatise.

A Nobel Prize is Out of Order: “American Idol” vs. Hypatia of Alexandria

A Nobel Prize is Out of Order: “American Idol” <i>vs.</i> Hypatia of Alexandria

Konversion zur Philosophie in der Spätantike: Kaiser Julian und Synesios von Kyrene (review)

Reviewed by: Konversion zur Philosophie in der Spätantike: Kaiser Julian und Synesios von Kyrene Adrian Guiu Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler Konversion zur Philosophie in der Spätantike: Kaiser Julian und Synesios von Kyrene Potsdamer Altertumwissenschaftliche Beiträge 23 Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2008 This study enters the conversation about the character of conversion with figures like Nock, Stark, Travisano, and Mead. After a discussion of the various possibilities, Tanaseanu-Döbler settles for the following definition of conversion: "Conversion is a modification of the identity structure of a person through which marginal or new identities move to prominent position in the hierarchy of identity and become central for their self-understanding" (23). In order to escape false dichotomies in the explanation of conversion and hoping to provide a broader account of conversion she introduces the notion of a universe of discourse, which is, according to G. Mead whom she cites, "simply a system of common or social meanings" (23). The first part of the work "Philosophy and Ritual in Neoplatonism," provides a methodological background for understanding the connection between cultic practice and theory. By discussing Plotinus, the Chaldean Oracles, Iamblichus's De mysteriis, and Porphyry's Letter to Anebo, Tanaseanu-Döbler offers an insight into a lively debate about the role of ritual in philosophy and constructs a horizon for the subsequent discussion of Emperor Julian and Synesius of Cyrene. The chapter dedicated to Julian establishes that the driving force behind his conversion is the quest for philosophical knowledge and not his attraction for pagan cult (93). Even Julian's practice of theurgy and his interest in the Chaldean Oracles only prove his quest for divine purgation and illumination along philosophical lines. According to Tanaseanu-Döbler, theurgy for Julian is not in contradiction with the spiritual ascent because both are essential to the philosopher. The myths and rituals of paganism are filtered through neoplatonic metaphysics. As does Julian, Synesius partakes of the neoplatonic universe of discourse, in which the allegiance to philosophy and all it entails (detachment, purification, and constant ascent) determines his understanding of social and political presence. Even as bishop of the Christian church in Pentapolis and ambassador in Constantinople, he remains truthful to the philosophical life. In his writings (especially in the hymns), "Synesius employs the 'Christian myth' as an image along with others in order to convey fundamental ideas of neoplatonism as the predicament of the soul imprisoned in matter or the demiurgic and soteriologic [End Page 152] function of divine nous" (251). The passage from pagan to Christian imagery is almost seamless as both are harnessed to the task of giving expression to the neoplatonic vision of the soul's fall and ascent to divine contemplation. Tanaseanu-Döbler concludes that independent of their affiliation to different religious traditions (Julian converts from Christianity to paganism, while Synesius remains affiliated with a Christian community) there are several elements their conversions and individual religion share, and the ancient paideia and neoplatonic philosophy provide the fundamental framework for understanding their experience of conversion. From this perspective the Christian-pagan distinction is not as important. Tanaseanu-Döbler insists, however, on the "religious" character of the process. Philosophy, for both Synesius and Julian, was not a merely theoretical enterprise but was fundamentally a religious exercise that ultimately leads one to divine contemplation; both find their way to philosophy through paideia seen as the continuous purgation and refinement of the soul. For both Julian and Synesius, it is the encounter with a towering figure of a great teacher that triggers their conversion and subsequent intellectual development: for Julian it is Maximus of Ephesus and for Synesius it is Hypatia of Alexandria. Julian and Synesius manage to integrate their different social personae through their allegiance to philosophy as a lived experience. In order analytically to capture this complex situation, Tanaseanu-Döbler distinguishes between religious traditions on the one hand and the individual religiosity constructed though the encounter of these traditions on the other hand. While Julian and Synesius opt for different religious traditions, their individual construction of religion and identity is fundamentally similar and informed by Neoplatonism. Thus, philosophy proves a multivalent universe of discourse, a fulcrum...

La Théorie de la &amp;#171verge de Dieu&amp;#187 dans les tragédies religieuses d’André de Rivaudeau et de Robert Garnier

In the sixteenth century, writers of both confessions often had recourse to the Old Testament notion of the "rod of God" in order to account for the hand which the wicked had in the evil perpetrated upon their co-religionists. This study proposes to show that the religious tragedies of Rivaudeau and Garnier both drew inspiration from Synesius of Cyrene's doctrine concerning the persecution of the faithful. According to this Greek Father, the divine scourge will not escape punishment by mere virtue of the fact that he has served as the agent of chastisement. This appointed state appears tantamount to reprobation. To be sure, Synesius goes beyond biblical teaching in sullying and demonizing the foe.