Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

philosophy in alexandria 849
Chaldaean Oracles; they incorporated the theory of cosmic sympathy on
which theurgy is based into their philosophical system and regarded the
theurgy as a possible route to union with the divine. Hierocles and Hermias
are no different from the Athenians in this respect. True, there are no anecdotes
about their theurgic activities comparable to the stories Marinus
reports about Proclus, but both are familiar with the theoretical basis of
theurgy. In Hierocles we find, as in Proclus, a theory of language based on
theurgic ideas: both Proclus and Hierocles describe words as agalmata,
theurgic images, and see the relationship of language to the world as parallel
to the relationship between such images and the divine realities they
symbolize. 31 Hermias’ commentary on the Phaedrus includes material on
theurgy. Ammonius, however, is silent about both theurgy and the
Chaldaean Oracles. This may of course reflect his own personal attitudes, but
I think it likely that his agreement with the patriarch was an agreement to
keep quiet about what Christians would see as pernicious magic.
Damascius would have regarded this quite as scornfully as an agreement
not to teach Plato. If this is right, Ammonius did make concessions to
Christianity in one important area.
The tendency to accommodation with Christianity can also be seen in
subsequent Alexandrian philosophers. Philoponus was a Monophysite
Christian, and recent scholarship has tended to the view that he was born
a Christian. On the other hand, Philoponus stands a little to one side of
the Alexandrian school since he never officially taught philosophy.
Olympiodorus was a pagan. He maintains the eternity of the world and
believes in reincarnation. He also mentions the cult of images, theurgy and
the Chaldaean Oracles. Like Proclus and Damascius, he sometimes alludes to
the prevailing religion of Christianity in terms which are both veiled and
contemptuous. Yet in other ways his attitude to Christianity is more conciliatory
and more discreet than the attitudes of Proclus and Damascius.
Passages in his commentary on the Gorgias imply that he was addressing a
largely Christian audience, while in the commentary on the First Alcibiades
he suggests that the eilēchōs daimōn, the guardian spirit, is to be understood
as conscience. Where Proclus had illustrated the point that agreement is
not necessarily evidence of truth by citing the Christians’ denial of the existence
of the gods, Olympiodorus instead cites the Democriteans and their
doctrine of the vacuum. 32 Elias, David and Stephanus were Christians.
Elias is perhaps to be identified with the prefect of Illyricum to whom
Justinian addressed his Novel 153 in December 541. If so, he will have been
an orthodox Christian. He still maintains a belief in the eternity of the
world but also admits the possibility of miracles understood as direct acts
31 Hirschle (1979).
32 Olympiodorus, In Gorgiam 32–3, 243.16–244.17; In Alcibiadem 22.14–23.4, 92.6–7.
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