Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs in its Intellectual Context

Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs in its Intellectual Context PDF Author: K. Nilüfer Akçay
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004408274
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book

Book Description
This monograph, exclusively dedicated to the analysis of Porphyry’s On the Cave of Nymphs, provides his philosophical thoughts on the material world, relationship between soul and body and the salvation of the soul through the doctrines of Plato and Plotinus.

Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs in its Intellectual Context

Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs in its Intellectual Context PDF Author: K. Nilüfer Akçay
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004408274
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book

Book Description
This monograph, exclusively dedicated to the analysis of Porphyry’s On the Cave of Nymphs, provides his philosophical thoughts on the material world, relationship between soul and body and the salvation of the soul through the doctrines of Plato and Plotinus.

Porphyry on the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs

Porphyry on the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs PDF Author: Porphyry
Publisher: Philaletheians UK
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 24

Get Book

Book Description


Theurgy: Theory and Practice

Theurgy: Theory and Practice PDF Author: P. D. Newman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1644118378
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Get Book

Book Description
Connects the magical practice of theurgy to the time of Homer • Explores the many theurgic themes and events in the Odyssey and the Iliad • Analyzes the writings of Neoplatonists Porphyry and Proclus, showing how both describe the technical ritual praxis of theurgy in Homeric terms • Examines the methods of telestikē, a form of theurgic statue animation and technique to divinize the soul, and how theurgy is akin to shamanic soul flight First defined by the second century Chaldean Oracles, theurgy is an ancient magic practice whereby practitioners divinized the soul and achieved mystical union with a deity, the Demiurge, or the One. In this detailed study, P. D. Newman pushes the roots of theurgy all the way back before the time of Homer. He shows how the Chaldean Oracles were not only written in Homeric Greek but also in dactylic hexameter, the same meter as the epics of Homer. Linking the Greek shamanic practices of the late Archaic period with the theurgic rites of late antiquity, the author explains how both anabasis, soul ascent, and katabasis, soul descent, can be considered varieties of shamanic soul flight and how these practices existed in ancient Greek culture prior to the influx of shamanic influence from Thrace and the Hyperborean North. The author explores the many theurgic themes and symbolic events in the Odyssey and the Iliad, including the famous journey of Odysseus to Hades and the incident of the funeral pyre of Patroclus. He presents a close analysis of On the Cave of the Nymphs, Porphyry’s commentary on Homer’s Odyssey, as well as a detailed look at Proclus’s symbolic reading of Homer’s Iliad, showing how both of these Neoplatonists describe the philosophical theory and the technical ritual praxis of theurgy. Using the Chaldean Oracles as a case study, Newman examines in detail the methods of telestikē, a form of theurgic statue animation, linking this practice to ancient Egyptian and Greek traditions as well as theurgic techniques to divinize the soul. Revealing how the theurgic arts are far older than the second century, Newman’s study not only examines the philosophical theory of theurgy but also the actual ritual practices of the theurgists, as described in their own words.

Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind

Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind PDF Author: Yulia Ustinova
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191563420
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book

Book Description
Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind analyses techniques of searching for ultimate wisdom in ancient Greece. The Greeks perceived mental experiences of exceptional intensity as resulting from divine intervention. They believed that to share in the immortals' knowledge, one had to liberate the soul from the burden of the mortal body by attaining an altered state of consciousness, that is, by merging with a superhuman being or through possession by a deity. These states were often attained by inspired mediums, `impresarios of the gods' - prophets, poets, and sages - who descended into caves or underground chambers. Yulia Ustinova juxtaposes ancient testimonies with the results of modern neuropsychological research. This novel approach enables an examination of religious phenomena not only from the outside, but also from the inside: it penetrates the consciousness of people who were engaged in the vision quest, and demonstrates that the darkness of the caves provided conditions vital for their activities.

Cities, and Thrones, and Powers

Cities, and Thrones, and Powers PDF Author: Stephen R. L. Clark
Publisher: Angelico Press
ISBN: 1621388557
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 309

Get Book

Book Description
What would a "reappeared" Plotinus answer today if asked how we might build a divinely-ordered city? That is the question at the core of this unique book, and Stephen Clark takes us on a wide-ranging deep dive to uncover possible answers. To do so, he first gives an account of the Plotinian philosophy of mind and metaphysics, showing how Plotinus nicely balances the entanglement of soul-body composites (our immediate identities) with the workings of the World Soul and the eternal soul that animates "from within." Drawing on later Christian and Islamic interpretations of the Neoplatonic tradition, and parallel developments in Hindu thought, he then describes the various social forms that seem to be the inevitable context of our lives here and now. Furthermore, we discover that the form a Plotinian religion adopts depends on taking seriously the thought of reincarnating souls and wandering hermits, but now with the difference in our time that, although some sages may be content to consider themselves simple wanderers in a world without borders or settled communities, some will follow the same path as Buddhists, Epicureans, and Christians: forming communities of friends loyal to their founder and to the fellowship of the Sangha. We learn as well that in due course even those among the hermits who prefer to go, almost literally, "alone to the Alone" will become part of dispersed, unhierarchical communities. Finally, Clark offers cautious thoughts about our likely futures, dependent both on current technological advances and on the realistic suspicion (shared by our predecessors) that catastrophes and wholly unexpected turns are always to be expected.

Senses, Cognition, and Ritual Experience in the Roman World

Senses, Cognition, and Ritual Experience in the Roman World PDF Author: Blanka Misic
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009355554
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book

Book Description
How do the senses shape the way we perceive, understand, and remember ritual experiences? This book applies cognitive and sensory approaches to Roman rituals, reconnecting readers with religious experiences as members of an embodied audience. These approaches allow us to move beyond the literate elites to examine broader audiences of diverse individuals, who experienced rituals as participants and/or performers. Case studies of ritual experiences from a variety of places, spaces, and contexts across the Roman world, including polytheistic and Christian rituals, state rituals, private rituals, performances, and processions, demonstrate the dynamic and broad-scale application that cognitive approaches offer for ancient religion, paving the way for future interdisciplinary engagement. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Augustine and Porphyry

Augustine and Porphyry PDF Author: David C. DeMarco
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783506760555
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 379

Get Book

Book Description


Soul Matters

Soul Matters PDF Author: Sara Ahbel-Rappe
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 1628375493
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 575

Get Book

Book Description
Platonic discourses concerning the soul are incredibly rich and multitiered. Plato's own diverse and disparate arguments and images offer competing accounts of how we are to understand the nature of the soul. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the accounts of Platonists who engage Plato’s dialogues are often riddled with questions. This volume takes up the theories of well-known philosophers and theologians, including Plato, Plotinus, Proclus, the emperor Julian, and Origen, as well as lesser-known but equally important figures in a collection of essays on topics such as transmigration of the soul, the nature of the Platonist enlightenment experience, soul and gender, pagan ritual practices, Christian and pagan differences about the soul, mental health and illness, and many other topics. Contributors include Crystal Addey, Sara Ahbel-Rappe, Dirk Baltzly, Robert Berchman, Jay Bregman, Luc Brisson, Kevin Corrigan, John Dillon, John F. Finamore, Lloyd P. Gerson, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, Elizabeth Hill, Sarah Klitenic Wear, Danielle A. Layne, Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, Gregory Shaw, Svetla Slaveva-Griffine, Suzanne Stern-Gillet, Harold Tarrant, Van Tu, and John D. Turner.

Scale, Space, and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture

Scale, Space, and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture PDF Author: Reviel Netz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108481477
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 905

Get Book

Book Description
A history of ancient literary culture told through the quantitative facts of canon, geography, and scale.

The Philosophy of the Few against the Christians

The Philosophy of the Few against the Christians PDF Author: Pier Franco Beatrice
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004680071
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 601

Get Book

Book Description
This book gives us a new perspective on the Philosophy according to the Chaldean Oracles by Porphyry of Tyre (ca. 232/305 CE), demonstrating that much of what we thought we knew about this work and its fragments is mistaken. Here, for the first time, the attempt is made at reconstructing the original text by following the vicissitudes of its reception and transmission from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance up to modern scholarship. The extensive and painstaking study of the surviving fragments leads to the radically innovative conclusion that this encyclopedic treatise, written by Porphyry in the last decades of the 3rd century CE, consisted of fifteen books organized in various sections. After an initial discussion of the nature of theurgy and of its subordinate role with respect to philosophy, Porphyry describes the entire history of Greek philosophy from Homer up to his own teacher Plotinus, to then go on to present “introductions” to the seven encyclical disciplines whose study is required for the comprehension of theosophy, that is, the esoteric speculation on the three parts of philosophy: anthropology-ethics, physics, and metaphysics-theology. By harmonizing the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and the Chaldean Oracles, Porphyry intends to present the complete and definitive philosophic system, with the aim of showing the universal way for the liberation of the souls of initiates and of contextually fighting the final battle of the Greco-Roman civilization against Christianity.