The Figure of Socrates in Numenius of Apamea: Theology, Platonism, and Pythagoreanism (fr. 24 des Places)

• Authors: Enrico Volpe

Abstracts

EN

Numenius is one of the most important authors who, in the Imperial Age, deal with the figure of Socrates. Socrates is important in the Platonic tradition, in particular in the sceptical tradition, when the Socratic dubitative “spirit” of the first Platonic dialogues became important to justify the “suspension of judgement.” Numenius criticises the whole Academic tradition by saying that the Academics (particularly the sceptics) betrayed the original doctrine of Plato and formulated a new image of Socrates. For Numenius, Socrates plays a central role because Plato would have inherited his doctrine. What does Socrates’s doctrine consist in? According to Numenius, Socrates theorised a “doctrine of three Gods” (which can be likely found in the second Platonic epistle) which is strictly bound up with the main aspect of Plato’s thought. In fact, in Numenius’s view, Plato belongs to a genealogy which can be linked to Pythagoras himself. From this perspective, Numenius says that Socrates’s original thought is a theology which also belongs to the Pythagorean tradition and which Plato further developed. For Numenius, Socrates is not the philosopher of doubt, but a theologian who first theorised the existence of three levels of reality (Gods), which is also the kernel of Numenius’s metaphysical system. For this reason, Numenius puts Socrates within a theological genealogy that begins with Pythagoras and continues with Socrates and Plato, and that the Academics and the Socratics failed to understand.

Keywords

EN

Numenius; Socrates; Pythagoras; Plato; Platonic Academy

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Peitho. Examina Antiqua
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 169-184

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Enrico Volpe

• University of Salerno, Italy

References

• Athanassiadi, P., 2006, La lutte pur l'orthodoxie dans le Platonism tardif. De Numénius à Damascius, Paris. https://doi.org/10.14375/NP.9782251420288
• Bonazzi, M., 2006, "Continuité et rupture entre l'Académie et le platonisme", Études Platoniciennes 3, pp. 231-244. https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesplatoniciennes.996
• Bonazzi, M., 2015, Il Platonismo, Torino.
• Bonazzi, M., 2015b, "Numenio, il Platonismo e le tradizioni orientali", Χῶρα 13, pp. 225-240. https://doi.org/10.5840/chora20151311
• Boys-Stones, G., 2018, "Numenius on Intellect, Soul and the Authority of Plato", in: J. Bryan, R. Wardy, J. Warren (eds.), Authors and authorities in ancient philosophy, Cambridge, pp. 184-201.
• Burnyeat, M., 2005, "Platonism in the Bible. Numenius of Apamea on Exodus and Eternity", in: R. Salles (ed.), Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought. Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji, Oxford, pp. 139-168.
• Curd, P., 2020, s.v. "Presocratic Philosophy", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/presocratics/, URL consulted on August 21st 2022.
• des Places, E., 1973, Numénius. Fragments. Texte établi et traduit par Eduard Des Places, Paris.
• Dillon, J., 19962, The Middle Platonists. 80 B. C. to 220 A.D., Ithaca-New York (orig. 1977).
• Dodds, E. R., 1960, "Numenius and Ammonius", Entretiens sur l'antiquité Classique 5: Les sources de Plotin, Vandoeuvres-Genève, pp. 1-33.
• Domaradzki, M., 2020, "Of Nymphs and Sea: Numenius on Souls and Matter in Homer's Odyssey", Greece & Rome 67, pp. 139-150. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383520000030
• Donini, P., 1994: "Testi e commenti, manuali e insegnamento: la forma sistematica e il metodo della filosofia in età postellenistica", W. Haase (hrsg.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, Bd. II 36.7, Berlin-New York, pp. 5028-5100. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110883732-015
• Donini, P., 2003, "Socrate 'pitagorico' e medioplatonico", Elenchos 24, pp. 333-359.
• Donini, P., 2013, "Genealogie platoniche", Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 3, pp. 439-457. https://doi.org/10.3280/SF2013-003001
• Edwards, M., 1990, "Atticizing Moses? Numenius, the Fathers and the Jews", Vigiliae Christianae 44, pp. 64-75. https://doi.org/10.1163/157007290X00216
• Ferrari, F., 2007, Socrate tra personaggio e mito, Milano.
• Ferrari, F., 2013, "Filone, Antioco e l'unità della tradizione platonica secondo Plutarco", in: A. Casanova (cur.), Figure d' Atene nelle opere di Plutarco, Firenze, pp. 219-232.
• Festugière, A.-J., 1953, La révélation d'Hermès trismégiste. IV Le dieu Inconnu et la gnose, Paris.
• Finamore, J., 2014, "Plutarch and Apuleius on Socrates' Daimonion", in: D. A. Layne, H. Tarrant (eds.), The Neoplatonic Socrates, Philadelphia, pp. 36-50.
• Frede, M., 1987, "Numenius", W. Haase (hrsg.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, Bd. II 36.2, pp. 1034-1075.
• Karamanolis, G. E., 2006, Plato and Aristotle in Agreement? Platonists on Aristotle from Antiochus to Porphyry, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/0199264562.001.0001
• Karamanolis, G. E., 2014, "The Platonism of Eusebius of Caesarea", in: R. C. Fowler, Plato in the Third Sophis¬tic, Berlin-Boston, pp. 171-191. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614510390.171
• Krämer, H. J., 1964, Der Ursprung der Geistmetaphysik. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Platonismus zwischen Platon und Plotin, Amsterdam.
• Ioppolo, A. M., 1995, "Socrate nelle tradizioni accademico-scettica e pirroniana", in: G. Giannantoni et al., La tradizione socratica, Napoli, pp. 89-123.
• Jourdan, F., 2021, "Pourquoi n'y a-til pas d'Âme du monde dans le dialogue de Numénius sur le bien? La non-identification du 'troisième' dieu àl'âme du monde dans le Περὶτἀγαθοῦ", Philosophie Antique 21, pp. 233-264. https://doi.org/10.4000/philosant.5354
• Long, A. A., 19974, La filosofia ellenistica. Stoici, epicurei, scettici, Bologna (orig. London 1974).
• Margagliotta, G. M., 2012, Il Demone di Socrate nelle interpretazioni di Plutarco e Apuleio, Nordhausen.
• Michalewski, A., 2021, "Constructing Authority: A Re-examination of some Controversial Issues in the Theol¬ogy of Numenius", in: M. Erler, J. E. Heßler, F. M. Petrucci (eds.), Authority and Authoritative Texts in the Platonist Tradition, Cambridge, pp. 130-148. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108921596.007
• Norden, E., 20022, Dio ignoto. Ricerche sulla storia della forma del discorso religioso, C. O. Tommasi-Moreschini (ed.), Brescia (orig. Leipzig 1912).
• O'Meara, D. J., Pythagoras Revived. Mathematics and Philosophy in Late Antiquity, Oxford.
• Opsomer, J., 1998, In Search of the Truth. Academic Tendencies in Middle Platonism, Bruxelles.
• Opsomer, J., 2005, "Demiurges in Early Imperial Platonism", in: R. Hirsch-Luipold (ed.), Gott und die Götter bei Plutarch. Götterbilder Gottesbilder - Weltbilder, Berlin, pp. 51-99.
• Palumbo, L., 2012, "Sull'immagine di Platone nell'antichità", in: M. Borriello, A. M. Vitale (cur.), Princeps Philosophorum. Platone nell'Occidente tardo-antico, medievale e umanistico, Roma, pp. 31-52.
• Petty, R., 2012, Fragments of Numenius of Apamea, Bodmin-King's Lynn.
• Puech, H.-C., 19852, "Numenio di Apamea e le teologie orientali nel secondo secolo", in: H.-C. Puech, Sulle tracce della gnosi, M. Zambon (ed.), Milano, pp. 55-84 (ed. orig. Paris 1934).
• Rist, J., 1965, "Neopythagoreanism and Plato's Second Letter", Phronesis 10, pp. 78-81. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852865X00077
• Rossetti, L., 2022, "Né filosofo, né sofista", in: C. Marsico (ed.), Socrates and the Socratic Philosophies. Selected Papers from Socratica IV, Baden-Baden, pp. 17-33.
• Sedley, D., 1997, "Plato's auctoritas and the Rebirth of the Commentary Tradition", in: J. Barnes, M. Griffin (eds.), Philosophia Togata II. Plato and Aristotle at Rome, Oxford, pp. 110-129.
• Tarrant, H., 2017, "Numenius, Neopythagoreanism and the troublesome three King(s)", in: J. Finamore, S. Klitenic (eds.), Defining Platonism: essays in honor of the 75th birthday of John M. Dillon, Steubenville, pp. 85-95.
• Vlastos, G., 1998, Socrate. Il filosofo dell'ironia complessa, Firenze (orig. Cambridge 1991).
• Whittaker, J., 1967, "Moses Atticizing", Phoenix 21, 3, pp. 196-201. https://doi.org/10.2307/1086745
• Ulacco, A., 2017, Pseudopythagorica Dorica. I trattati di argomento metafisico, logico ed epistemologico attribuiti ad Archita e Brotino, Berlin-Boston. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501505485

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/PEA.2022.1.8

Biblioteka Nauki

28408720