Olympiodorus: Life of Plato and On Plato First Alcibiades 1-9

Olympiodorus (AD c . 500-570), possibly the last non-Christian teacher of philosophy in Alexandria, delivered these lectures as an introduction to Plato with a biography. For us, they can serve as an accessible introduction to late Neoplatonism. Olympiodorus locates the First Alcibiades at the start of the curriculum on Plato, because it is about self-knowledge. His pupils are beginners, able to approach the hierarchy of philosophical virtues, like the aristocratic playboy Alcibiades. Alcibiades needs to know himself, at least as an individual with particular actions, before he can reach the virtues of mere civic interaction. As Olympiodorus addresses mainly Christian students, he tells them that the different words they use are often symbols of truths shared between their faiths.>

List of contents

Conventions
Textual Emendations
Introduction
Translator's Note
Translation
Notes
Select Bibliography
English-Greek Glossary
Greek-English Index
Index of Names
Subject Index

About the author

Michael Griffin is Professor of Classics and Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is co-editor of the series Ancient Commentators on Aristotle and translator of two of its volumes: Olympiodorus: Life of Plato and On Plato First Alcibiades 1–9 (Bloomsbury 2014) and Olympiodorus: On Plato First Alcibiades 10–28 (Bloomsbury 2015).

Product details

• Authors: Michael Griffin, Olympiodorus, the Younger Olympiodorus
• Assisted by: Michael Griffin (Editor), Richard Sorabji (Editor), Michael Griffin (Translation)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 18.12.2014
• EAN: 9781472588302
• ISBN: 978-1-4725-8830-2
• No. of pages: 256
• Series: Ancient Commentators on Aristo; Ancient Commentators on Aristotle; Ancient Commentators on Aristo
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: antiquity to present day; PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical, Ethics & moral philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500