ARTICLES
John Dillon
Trinity College, Dublin
DILLONJ@tcd.ie
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 8-18
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-8-18
Keywords: Platonic concept of beauty, beauties of Nature, ‘Arcadian’ view of natural beauty
Abstract. Does the philosopher Plato, despite his elevation to a supreme position in the intelligible world of the Beautiful itself, or the Idea of Beauty, really exhibit any appreciation of the beauties of nature, or Natural Beauty? The omission of any mention of the beauties of Nature in Diotima’s ladder of ascent to the Beautiful Itself in the Symposium leads me to propose that Plato, in line with the sensibility of Greeks of the Classical period in general, does not possess what would later be termed an ‘Arcadian’ view of the beauties of the natural world; and even in the later Platonist tradition there is little evidence of such sensibility.
Kazimierz Pawłowski
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University (Warsaw, Poland)
kazimierzpawlowski@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 19-40
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-19-40
Keywords: Apuleius of Madauros, Middle Platonism, theology, theory of illumination
Abstract: The paper presents the philosophy of God in the philosophical writings of Apuleius of Madauros, one of the most outstanding philosophers of the Middle Platonism of the 2nd century after Chr. A special feature of the theology of the Middle Platonism and what clearly distinguished this philosophy from Stoicism, which was still dominant at that time, with its vision of divinity immanent in the world, was the return to the Platonic concept of the “incorporeal” and “transcendent” God – the Creator and Saviour of this world. This concept of God fit very closely into the mystical spirituality of Middle Platonism. The attribute of God as the Saviour (Sospitator) of the world is particularly important. This is especially visible in the writings of Apuleius. Apuleius uses the term “the Saviour” in the religious sense. This term expresses the religious aspect of God’s activity in relation to His creatures and supplements His metaphysical function as an efficient cause. Apuleius’ theology quite clearly shows its rootedness in the philosophy and mystical spirituality of Plato himself, and at the same time close to the mystical spirituality of the religious Mysteries popular then. It is a very important element of his philosophical spirituality. The awareness of the existence of God, the Creator, Father, and Saviour of the world, clearly influenced Apuleius’ ethics and his perception of man.
Alexander A. Sinitsyn
The Dostoevsky Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities (St Petersburg)
aa.sinizin@mail.ru
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 41-76
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-41-76
Keywords: Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, Federico Fellini, Fellini Satyricon, Achilles, Odysseus, Patroclus, Encolpius, Ascyltos, ethos, the hero’s wrath, lovers/frater, Trojan cycle of myths, Ancient Rome, Italian cinematograph, leitmotifs, topoi
Abstract. This essay is an outgrowth of the topic considered in the previous articles devoted to the image of ancient and modern Rome in Federico Fellini’s films, in which an attempt to analyse several Homeric motifs in Fellini Satyricon (1969) was made. The Italian film director acknowledged that he had dreamed to make a film based on the European ‘Book of the Books’, Homer’s duology – the Iliad and the Odyssey – about the heroes of the Trojan cycle of myths. Other coincidences in Fellini and Homer constitute the object of this study. Deliberate? Fortuitous? Archetypic? Fanciful? The very wording of the topic – Fellini Satyricon as Fellini’s Iliad – is provocative. The article identifies and discusses the parallels and intersections in the works of the two great masters – the Ancient Greek poet and the classic of Italian cinematograph, who lived almost three millennia apart.
Miguel López-Astorga
Institute of Humanistic Studies, Research Center on Cognitive Sciences,
University of Talca, Talca Campus (Chile)
milopez@utalca.cl
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 77-94
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-77-94
Keywords: Inheritance Logic; Modus Tollendo Tollens; Non-Axiomatic Logic; obligation conditionals; Stoic criterion of the conditional
Abstract. We know that Modus Tollendo Tollens is a difficult rule to apply. We also know that there are circumstances in which people easily use it. One of those circumstances is whenever the conditional premise is an obligation conditional. On the other hand, the Stoic criterion of the conditional, that is, the proposal Chrysippus of Soli gave for the latter logical connective, has been related to Non-Axiomatic Logic and Inheritance Logic. My aim here is to try to show that obligation conditionals can be deemed as deontic inheritance statements in Non-Axiomatic Logic or Inheritance Logic. I will attempt to argue that it is possible to build a deontic inheritance logic with two essential characteristics. First, it respects the Stoic criterion of the conditional. Second, in consistence with the literature, it leads to the conclusion expected by classical logic when the conditional is an obligation.
Anna Luneva
Independent researcher, St. Petersburg
anluneva@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 95-114
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-95-114
Key words: early Christianity, religious rituals, baptism, eucharist, Christian group bonding, early Christian identity
Abstract. The paper considers the role of religious rituals for the early Christian communities during the second and third centuries CE. The majority of Christians were illiterate, thus at that time rituals might have been as important as the written texts for Christian communities in terms of group bonding and group identity. They were easier to perceive and remember, and more likely to instill a sense of unity within a group. The question is whether these religious rituals united various Christian groups as well or distinguished and separated them from each other. Two Christian rituals are examined: baptism and eucharist, since they are different regarding their frequency and emotional arousal. We can see that the Christian authors paid more attention to the theological grounds of baptism, but practical issues of eucharist, and naturally demonstrated greater diversity in these parts. Moreover, eucharist being a repetitive ritual, seems to have been more important for discriminating “heretics”, i.e., representatives of other Christian groups, who were allegedly performing this ritual “incorrectly”.
Paulo Alexandre Lima
IFILNOVA/NOVA University Lisbon
plima@fcsh.unl.pt
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 115-169
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-115-169
Keywords: The tragic, the monstrous, the birth of philosophy, philosophical concepts
Abstract. This essay aims to understand the tragic character of the first philosophers in Nietzsche’s Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. It claims that their tragicity should be understood based on the categories of personality and grandiosity in so far as they are related to these philosophers’ experience of the monstrous and their heroic response to this experience through the artistic production of concepts. The first philosophers carry out a symbolic mediation of the presence of the monstrous in culture, which is so important to preserve the connection between culture and life, in such a way that they make it possible for their culture to live a life in abundance. Nietzsche is aware that the categories used by human beings in general have a fictional and intrinsically artistic nature. When considering the first philosophers, he consciously makes use of fictional and artistic categories (where the monstrous is included too). Like these philosophers, he asserts himself as a tragic hero who artistically produces this kind of categories in response to his own experience of the monstrous in modern culture. The tragicity of the first philosophers is, therefore, fundamentally related to them being an inspiring ideal created by Nietzsche the tragic philosopher.
Vyacheslav G. Telminov
National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)
telminoff@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 170-184
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-170-184
Keywords: Spurius Cassius, Gaius Gracchus, Lex Agraria Sempronia, agrarian reforms, Roman-Italian relations, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, Roman Republic, Italian allies
Abstract. This article examines the parallels between the reforms of Gaius Gracchus and the actions of Spurius Cassius as described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, shedding new light on the interpretation of grain dole, land allotments and the role of Italian allies in the Lex Agraria Sempronia. The narrative of Spurius Cassius appears heavily anachronistic, reflecting the conflicts of Gaius Gracchus’s era rather than those of the early Republic. Through a detailed analysis of the biographical structure of Plutarch’s parallel lives of Gaius Gracchus and Cleomenes, the article explores the moral and political frameworks imposed by these authors. These comparisons reveal indirect evidence suggesting that Gaius Gracchus may have included Italian allies in his land reforms, a hypothesis that contrasts with traditional interpretations of his legislation. By comparing literary and rhetorical strategies, the study highlights how Dionysius and Plutarch utilized historical figures to reflect broader political and moral debates. Upon examining these texts, the study contributes to a re-evaluation of Gracchus’s agrarian reforms and their implications for Roman-Italian relations during the late Republic.
Dmitry Kurdybaylo
Saint Petersburg State University
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
theoreo@ya.ru
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 185-204
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-185-204
Keywords: Plutarch of Chaeronea, symbol, sign, history, metaphysics, philosophy of language, Middle Platonism
Abstract. Plutarch of Chaeronea was a prominent Middle Platonist, influential both in early Christian Platonism and in pagan Neoplatonic schools. One of the significant markers of this succession is an increasing interest in symbolism and terminological usage of the term symbol. As Plutarch provided almost no explicit theory of symbolism, this research focuses on the contextual word usage in his writings, its analysis and reconstruction of Plutarchian symbolism in the philosophical milieu of his time. Plutarch understands symbol as a two-level entity, which combines an ordinary object or object-related action with a signification of some other entity that is absent, invisible or otherwise imperceptible, so a symbol points to it or acts instead of it. Unlike signs, symbols are ambiguous and may have multiple meanings. Moreover, the polysemanticism of a symbol is considered its strong advantage that reveals the ontological profundity of the symbolized entity. Symbols may appear odd and amazing, thus provoking philosophical inspiration in a person trying to decipher them. Along with single symbols, Plutarch provides examples of integral symbolic systems, among which he mentions human languages. Finally, symbols may be not only passive pointers or reminders but also actors, which influence human decisions and deeds. Plutarch provides a detailed description of the way daemons use symbols as a means to induce mortals to make correct choices. The general pattern of Plutarchian symbolism can be compared with similar conceptions of Clement of Alexandria, Porphyry of Tyre, and Iamblichus of Chalcis.
Ilya Kolesnikov
Saratov State Law Academy
Saratov State Conservatory named after L.V. Sobinov
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 205-220
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-205-220
Keywords: Literary Immortality, Memory, Pliny the Younger, Plato
Abstract. The idea of literary immortality first appears in the Homeric epics: the heroes live on in glory. Further tradition develops this motif – we must imitate our heroes or ancestors, because only in this way will they be given due honor. But another (historical) understanding of literary immortality is also developing; it aims to save the past from oblivion, not to influence the present (written culture, as opposed to oral tradition, thinks in this way). Plato takes the position of “poetic” immortality in this matter, but he considered poetry in an ethical context and seeks to select poets who have the right to educate the youth. In the Hellenistic-Roman era, the semantic accents shift, and now the author himself claims literary immortality. The idea of the author’s immortality is mixed with the usual immortality in glory and with the religious immortality of the soul (the writer becomes a minister of the muses). Pliny the Younger’s position is limited neither to two “pure” types of literary immortality (“poetical” or “historical”), nor two “mixed” types (immortality in glory and immortality of a muses’ minister). Pliny outlined a new understanding of literary immortality – immortality as an exemplary author, as Cicero was for him.
Timiur Shchukin
The Sociological Institute of the RAS – Branch of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint Petersburg)
tim_ibif@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 221-234
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-221-234
Keywords: John Italos, Corpus Hermeticum, Neoplatonism, Michael Psellus, pseudo-Simplicius
Abstract. The deals with a quote from the Corpus Hermeticum (Hermet. XXIX) in one of the treatises (Qu. 68) by the Byzantine philosopher of the 11th century John Italos. On the one hand, this quotation is a scholia to the treatise – its author could be either John Italos himself, or his disciple or follower already in the 12th century – in the manuscript tradition “fused” with the main text. On the other hand, this scholia plays an important role, illustrating and developing the main idea of the treatise – at each level of being, the cause of this category of being is reproduced in a variety of what it is the cause of. Qu. 68 carries out this idea in relation to all levels of being, with the exception of the individual psychological level: it is this lacuna that is filled by a quote from the Corpus Hermeticum, where pagan gods act as metaphorical images for parts of a single human soul. A probable source of such teaching for John Italos and, possibly, for a later tradition is Michael Psellus, who in the treatise De omnifaria doctrina (O.D. 39-40), based on the commentary of pseudo-Simplicius “On the Soul” by Aristotle, speaks about the fundamental unity of all parts and properties of the soul.
Rustam Galanin
The Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities
The Saint Petersburg State University
mousse2006@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 235-261
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-235-261
Keywords: Jewish identity, ancient philosophy, biblical studies, Hellenistic Judaism
Abstract. The dialogue On Sleep by Clearchus of Soli is the first extant work depicting a personal meeting between a representative of the Jewish people and an ancient Greek. The character Aristotle is surprised by the deeds and words of a wise Jew. In fr. 6 Wehrli, Aristotle says that the wise Jew was a Hellenic not only in his language, but also in his soul. In fr. 7 Wehrli, we are told about a certain magician whom Aristotle met and who extracts the soul from a sleeping young man with a magic wand, and then returns it back into the body. In a number of fragments of the On Sleep, which were not included in the collection of Clearchus in Werhli, but included in the latest German edition by Tsitsiridis and in the English edition by Dorandi, it is said about certain mysterious people who feed on the sunny air and are not subject to sleep, with whom Aristotle allegedly talked. In our article, we propose the hypothesis that the miracle worker from fr. 7 Wehrli is identical to the wise Jew from fr. 6, and in two fragments from new editions, under sleepless and sunny-air-eating people, one must understand the Jewish ethnic group. In general, the representation of Jewish identity in this work of Clearchus is a vivid example of what can be called an Interpretatio Graeca.
Igor Tantlevskij
Saint Petersburg State University
i.tantlevsky@spbu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 262-273
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-262-273
Keywords: “Proto-Israelites” and Ancient Israelites identity, the designations hā-ʻiḇrî, ʼărammî, ʼaḇrām/ʼaḇrāhām, yaʻăqōḇ, yәšūrûn, yiśrāʼēl
Abstract. The article deals with the evolution and semantic field of the term hā-ʻiḇrî, first used in the Bible in Gen. 14:13 in relation to Abram (Abraham), in the context of the Sutīʼū hypothesis of the origin of the Israelites’ ancestors. The term sutīʼū is probably a rendering of the Amorean šәtīʼu, i.e., “descendants of Shutu (resp. Sutu),” to whom the biblical Sheth is identical. According to the genealogies of the Book of Genesis, it is to Sheth and his son Enosh (lit. “Man”) — a “new” Adam (actually “Man”) — that all mankind is traced back. Abraham’s ancestor in the direct line is called ʻĒḇer (from the verb ʻāḇar, “to cross (often, over a river)”), i.e., “Crossing”, or perhaps “Beyond the River.” Hence the adjective ʻiḇrî implies “(a man) from ʻĒḇer / resp. Beyond the River” (one who came from across the Euphrates; cf. e.g., Josh. 24:2–3). Thus, hā-ʻiḇrî in Gen. 14:13 is not an ethnonym but rather an indication of origin: ʼaḇrām hā-ʻiḇrî, Abram From-Beyond-the-River. (Cf. the term ʼărammî in Deut. 26:5 in the sense of “from Aram”, not ethnically: an ”Aramean”.) In Deut. 32:15, 33:5, 26, and Is. 44:2, the designation yәšūrûn is used as a synonym for the name-ethnonym yaʻăqōḇ, lit. “straightened”, hence “straight,” “righteous,” etc. One could say that yәšūrûn is yiśrāʼēl ideally, i.e., Israel, who adequately kept the Law of the Lord. This name may have arisen among the Israelites as a kind of reaction to the interpretation by some of their neighbours (Edomites?) of the ethnonym yaʻăqōḇ as “deceitful” (cf., e.g., Gen. 27:36). Variants of the etymology of the term yiśrāʼēl are also considered. In particular, the author concludes that the “struggle” of Jacob-Israel “with gods and men (ʼĕlōhîm wa-ʼănāšîm)” stated in Gen. 32:29 may be interpreted in terms of his struggle with foreign cults, primarily the cult of deified ancestral spirits, as well as with the military and political enemies of the Israelites. It is also possible that the story has been interpreted as an allegory of Israel’s conquest of nations, whose lands are “patronized” by their “gods.”
Eugene Afonasin
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Russia)
Saint Petersburg State University
afonasin@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 274-304
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-274-304
Keywords: mystery vocabulary, Judaism, Christianity, mysteries of Isis, Mithras, Cybele, Gnosticism
Abstract. Eschatological ideas began to play a significant role in the ancient religious tradition relatively late. This can be shown by the example of the mystery cults of Isis, Mithras and Cybele, as well as their adaptation and evaluation in early Christian authors, Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. This analysis brings us closer to clarifying the relationship of Judeo-Christian mysticism to pagan mystery practices. We can see how each cult easily finds ideas suitable for it in the rich Greco-Roman religious culture and adapts them to its own needs, often changing them beyond recognition. Operating in a similar cultural and historical context, the creators of the cults of Isis, the Great Mother, Mithras, Yahweh or Christ competed with each other, but at the same time borrowed from each other's basic ideas, the most important of which at the beginning of the era was the idea of personal salvation. If, on the contrary, one assumes that a certain ‘basic’ cult was the donor, forgetting that there was no dominant cult in the Greco-Roman world before the 3rd century AD, neither politically nor demographically, then the researcher, by initially taking an asymmetrical position and thereby assuming the role of apologist, runs the risk of missing in the course of the polemic all the advantages that a comparative-historical approach can offer. We may never get answers to some questions as a result, but an unbiased perspective, untainted by imperial ideology, will make it possible to look at the problem in a more comprehensive and multifaceted way, which, by the way, is facilitated by the excellent and constantly updated collections of inscriptions, archaeological evidence and narrative sources on Greco-Roman cults, such as (in the case of Isis) the RICIS collection.
Oleg Donskikh
I. Kant Baltic Federal University
Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management
Novosibirsk State Technical University (Russia)
olegdonskikh@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 305-363
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-305-363
Keywords: “Axial time”, transcendent, archaic period, polis, alphabetic writing, equality, competition, rationalism, religion of the ancient Greeks, mystery, mystical experience, solitude, individual consciousness.
Abstract. The article examines the process of the emergence of individual consciousness within the Greek tradition. First, the concept of “axial time” is clarified, when the need to relate everything to the Absolute, self-esteem and critical thinking came into culture. The reasons for this turn are discussed. The analysis of the Greek miracle begins with the formation of the polis, which replaced traditional institutions and redefined the place of man in society, where the conditions of personal freedom and the right to be a citizen gradually developed. An important factor was also that through the polis man realized his unity with the whole Greek world. The invention of alphabetic writing significantly added to the possibility of individual reflection on political life, but this is fully manifested only from the fourth century BC. The active role of colonization is analyzed, which required further reflection on the social structure. Such aspects of Greek life as equality, rationality and competition are considered. It is shown that the inseparable connection between the sacred and the secular in the life of the polis made religious life as public as possible and focused on the obligatory participation in a variety of rituals. It was in these activities that man manifested his piety, and so religion was not a private affair, but a public duty. Contestation, agon was also imbued with publicity rather than oriented towards individual dignity. A number of aspects of the manifestation of individual consciousness are considered: reflection over traditional ideas (philosophy), the emergence of personal authorship, the birth of lyric poetry, the emergence of the need to justify what was being said (proofs), and the emergence of humor as a reflection over tradition. The place of mystery cults in the spiritual life of the Greeks is investigated. Here, the key point that distinguishes participation in mysteries from other types of collective activity is the focus on a purely personal quest, irrelevant to the social position of the individual. Evidence is taken of such mysteries as the Eleusinian, Samothracian, Dionysian-Orphic, and Cybele. It is in the mysteries that the individual has a unique mystical experience and directly links his destiny with the divine. The history of all these cults goes far beyond the Archaic period, they intersect with each other in one way or another (which allows us to talk about bricolage) and, starting from about the 5th century BC, they all acquire a mystical character. It is the mystery experience that comes to the fore when we speak of the aspiration of consciousness toward the One, which, along with the liberation of the individual from direct association with social status, determined the strengthening of individual consciousness.
Mikhail Kozhevnikov
Baltic Federal University (Russia)
mihailkosh@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 364-381
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-364-381
Keywords: patristics, apologetics, mystery cults, comparative studies, history of religion
Abstract. The article analyzes similarities between the core terms of Christian apologetic and patristic literature as well as those found in texts related to ancient mystery cults. First, we examine the examples of common vocabulary (common to the Mysteries, Hellenistic Judaism and Christianity) which cannot be convincingly designated as borrowings – words with the meaning of “secrecy” or “concealment” (μυστήριον). However, we then find examples of the use of mystery vocabulary by Christians accompanied by their metaphorical meaning found in the mysteries context – for example, the likening of the Easter Vigil to the Eleusinian torchlight procession, δᾳδουχία (both rites are held at night and precede the culmination – the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ and the epopteia in Eleusis). In other cases, the use of some “common” words by Christian authors in a rarely encountered meaning proves difficult to explain without admitting borrowing from mystery usage (this primarily concerns the word σύμβολον in the Creed). Finally, examples of similar imagery associated with light and fear are examined, the similarity of which lies not only in the lexicological plane, but also in the assumed universal features of religious experience.
Maria Durova
I. Kant Baltic State University
Novosibirsk State University (Russia)
m.durova@g.nsu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 382-394
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-382-394
Keywords: Eastern mystic, unification, Shinto, kagura ritual dances, kamigakari
Abstract. The Far Eastern tradition included a variety of religious rites and mystical practices, thanks to which people experienced unity with nature and the universe. Unlike the mystery cults of ancient Greece, the goal of these practices was not individual contact with the sacred, but the maintenance of the universal world order and the common good. Apparently, for the entire vast region of East Asia, the idea of harmonious unification with the universe prevailed over the human need to outline the boundaries of one's own individuality. In various forms, this idea was present in most religious and philosophical teachings in the Far East, and the spread of Buddhism contributed significantly to its rooting. The main forms of mystical practices were (pseudo)shamanic rites, ritual dances, as well as practices of individual psychoregulation, which were widespread among Taoists, for example. Shinto rituals of Japan included the experience of direct communication with the deities kami, expressed, among other things, by possession by the divine essence (kamigakari). It can be argued that kamigakari practices occupied a central place in the psychotechnical complex of Shinto, and the main form of religious worship were the mysteries-kagura, reproducing the plots of solar myths. Subsequently, the dances, originally tied to an agricultural ritual, grew into a temple performance and also served as the source of the classical Japanese Noh theater.
Irina Protopopova
Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow)
I. Kant Baltic State University
plotinus70@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 395-416
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-395-416
Keywords: Heidegger, Plato, truth, being, Aristotle, interpretation
Abstract. The article examines M. Heidegger's interpretation of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" from the Republic. At the beginning of the article, Heidegger's lectures related to Plato are introduced; then the author briefly indicates how Heidegger participated in the "struggle" for the interpretation of Plato and Aristotle between Neo-Kantians and phenomenologists. It is emphasized that Heidegger based his own Plato's interpretation on his reading of Aristotle; his interpretation of Metaph. 9.10, "the cornerstone of fundamental ontology", according to Heidegger, is dealt with. Next, the understanding of "Truth" in Heidegger’s lectures on Plato's dialogue Sophist is briefly analyzed, and, in addition, an alteration of this understanding in his "turning" work On the essence of Truth. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of Heidegger’s work Plato's Doctrine of Truth in four main aspects: "the idea as the visible"; "the idea of the Good as the visible"; "correctness of view"; "Plato as a sophist and Aristotle". The conclusion is made about a certain rearrangement of Plato and Aristotle’s positions in Heidegger's interpretation, and an imposition on Plato of rationalism and subjectivism not peculiar to him.
Denis Shalaginov
Independent researcher (Moscow)
deterritorisation@yandex.ru
Ilya Guryanov
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow)
ilgur@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 417-453
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-417-453
Keywords: Platonism of multiplicity, soul, natural philosophy, Marsilio Ficino
Abstract. The article is devoted to the consideration of the so-called Platonism of multiplicity in connection with the tendency in philosophy of recent decades to revaluate “non-modern” modes of existence, thinking and knowledge. The most important aspect of this revaluation is the rejection of Cartesian dualism (as a philosophical “symbol” of the modern era) in favor of anti-substantialist thought based on the conceptualization of the multiplicity of relations. Following this theoretical line, the authors identify key features of modern thinking and attempt to find an alternative to the modern (Cartesian/Kantian) concept of the subject in Platonic philosophy (in its Renaissance interpretation). For this purpose, the authors first of all clarify their approach to Platonism, construed not as a heritage of the metaphysical past, but as the very potentiality of philosophy itself. In support of this interpretation, various versions of the reactualization of Plato’s ideas in contemporary philosophy are given, associated with the names of J. Patočka, A. Badiou, and I. H. Grant. Following a brief consideration of their “Platonisms,” and clarifying the key concept for this article, “Platonism of multiplicity,” this concept is applied to the Renaissance Platonism of Marsilio Ficino in order to examine in detail the natural philosophical concept of the soul that he developed. Drawing on extensive research material, the authors describe the constitution of the soul as Ficino understood it, and demonstrate in what sense this concept, repressed by modernity, is an alternative to Cartesian and/or Kantian subjectivity, and explain why the task of current philosophical thought is to provide the conditions for its return.
Mikhail V. Egorochkin
Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow)
egorochkin@iphras.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 454-467
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-454-467
Keywords: A Delian diver, Heraclitus’ book, ancient anecdotes, Greek paroemiography, Herodas, a Delian fisherman
with a fish trap
Abstract. The paper consists of two notes on a Δήλιος κολυμβητής (“Delian Diver”), the expression known from the famous anecdote about the book by Heraclius of Ephesus (D.L. II, 22 et XI, 11–12). The first note explores the Byzantine paremiographic tradition in which Δήλιος κολυμβητής entered as a saying. Analyzing the materials from the Suda (Δ 400), Michael Apostolius (Paroem. V, 100 CPG II), and an anonymous collection from the Iviron manuscript 4199/79 (No. 13 Sotiroudis), the author concludes that this expression was never a real proverb, as some scholars believe, but was originally an author’s turn of speech, which entered the paremiographic tradition thanks to an ancient philologist. The second note examines Herodas’ 3rd mimiamb The Teacher, where there is an expression Δήλιος κυρτεύς, “Delian fisherman with a fish trap”, which presents a curious parallel to Δήλιος κολυμβητής. Many scholars and commentators regard Δήλιος κυρτεύς as a proverb and see in it an indirect confirmation of the proverbial character of the Δήλιος κολυμβητής. Meanwhile, the careful reading of Herodas’ mimiamb indicates the opposite: since the “Delian fisherman with a fish trap” is certainly an invention of Herodas himself, this parallel proves that the “Delian Diver” was also not a proverb and entered the paremiographic tradition by chance, probably from some literary source.
TRANSLATIONS
Alexei Garadja
Russian State University for the Humanities
agaradja@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 468-488
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-468-488
Keywords: Homerus, Plato, Porphyrius of Tyre, allegorical interpretation, soul, subjectivity.
Abstract. The publication presents a commented Russian translation of Porphyry of Tyre’s (ca. 234 – ca. 305) treatise On the Styx (Περὶ Στυγός), which belongs to the group of his works dealing with Homeric poems. The best known of these is his fully preserved treatise On the Cave of the Nymphs (Περὶ τοῦ ἐν Ὀδυσσείᾳ τῶν νυμφῶν ἄντρου), while the most extensive are his partially preserved commentaries on the Ilias and Odyssey known under the common title of the Homeric Questions (Ὁμηρικὰ ζητήματα). Finally, his treatise On the Styx is extant only in fragments, which have been preserved by a single author only, Joannes Stobaeus (fl. vth century). In the Homeric Questions, a purely philological attitude is predominant, based on Aristarchus of Samothrace’s principle of “self-interpreting” text, “explaining Homerus from Homerus (Ὅμηρον ἐξ Ὁμήρου)”, while in both treatises the allegorical interpretation of the Homeric text moves to the foreground, which entails supplying it with a philosophical, specifically Platonic, content, having to do, above all, with the understanding of human soul and its vicissitudes after death. Attention to the letter of the Homeric text, as well as to other literary phenomena is not diminished by that, though undergoes a transformation. This attitude is characteristic of other Platonists as well, from Numenius of Apamea before Porphyry to Proclus Diadochus after him. The Russian translation is based on Cristiano Castelletti’s edition of On the Styx (2006), taking into account both the standard edition of Porphyry’s fragments by Andrew Smith (1993) and the still relevant critical edition of the four books of Stobaeus’ Anthology (whence the fragments of On the Styx have been extracted) by Kurt Wachsmuth and Otto Hense (1884–1912).
REVIEWS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Danil S. Popov
St. Petersburg State University
Evseviy-Dan@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 489-502
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-489-502
Keywords: Stoa, Stoic philosophy, Stoicism, upbringing, traditional values, modern stoicism
Abstract. The article examines examples of the use (or consideration of the possibility of such using) of the Stoic legacy in upbringing and education of children, drawing on materials of Russian periodicals of the late 18th – 19th centuries. Although children’s journals Detskoe chtenie dlja serdca i razuma (the end of the 18th century) and Semejnye vechera (the middle of the 19th century) paid attention to the Stoics, they received a systematic representation on the pages of the periodicals of the Noble Boarding School at the Moscow University such as Poleznoe uprazhnenie junoshestva (1789), Utrennjaja zarja (1800–1808), I otdyh v pol'zu (1804), Kalliopa (1815–1820), where translations of various Stoic and stoicizing texts were published. One can suppose that this fact may have influenced the formation of certain behavioral ideals of pupils. The surge of interest of the Russian public in the Stoics in the last quarter of the 19th century led to consideration of the possibility of including literature about the Stoics in the educational process, as well as rose questions about Stoic philosophy as an alternative to Christian pedagogical ideals and original system of self-education. Reflections on justification of such steps are presented in Narodnaja i detskaja biblioteka and Obrazovanie. It is possible that an analysis of this phenomenon of the demand for Stoic philosophical strategies in the Russian Empire could contribute to solving the problem of contemporary Russian society’s search for value basis for education and upbringing.
PUBLICATIONS
Tycho Davydov
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad)
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Dolgoprudny, Russia)
davydovtg@my.msu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 503-512
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-503-512
Keywords: Alexei Losev, Aza Takho-Godi, Homeric formulae, Neoplatonism, New Ancient Greek, New Latin
Abstract: In this article we are publishing for the first time four epigrams in Ancient Greek and Latin by Russian classicists Alexei Losev (1893–1988) and Aza Takho-Godi (born 1922), dedicated to Sergei Radzig (1882–1968) and Tatiana Vasilieva (1942–2002), who herself was a notable Neo-Latin poet. The epigrams are provided with a critical apparatus, a Russian translation and a commentary. The analysis of vocabulary and linguistic features of the epigrams revealed the use of epic formulae as well as Homeric and Horatian quotations in a light pseudo-Hellenistic spirit. Traits of Losev’s individual literary style manifest via incorporation of Neoplatonic terminology into the Homeric language of the poems.
Svetlana Tarkhanova
National Treasures Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority
svetlanat@israntique.org.il
Benyamin Arubas
Tel Hai College, Israel
benjamin.arubas@mail.huji.ac.il
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 513-532
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-513-532
Keywords: intaglios, Persian-Hellenistic gems, Galilee, Cult of Silenus, Greek Islands, Paganism, bes/pazazu
Abstract. A small glass intaglio with the impressed portrait of Silenus was found in Galilee some years ago. By its technical and stylistic characteristics, it dates back to the Persian–Early Hellenistic period. Based on the general historical, cultural, and economic conditions of the period, it is supposed to have originated from one of the Greek islands, where the cult of Silenus emerged at that time and was imported to the Land of Israel. Amazingly, in the collection of E. Borowski, the exact glass duplicate of the gem with Silenus was encountered in the course of research (currently located in the Bible Land Museum). Such coincidences very rarely occur in research on small ancient objects. The discovery of this Pagan gem in Galilee sheds light on the spread of the Dionysiac cults and the development of the religious and economic links between the Land of Israel and the Classical Greek world.
Svetlana Tarkhanova
National Treasures Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority
svetlanat@israntique.org.il
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 533-550
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-533-550
Keywords: intaglios, gems, Cyclop Polythemus, satyrs, Polythemus, “bes/pazazu”, “janiform”, “grylloi/baskania”, “inverted/summary faces”, Roman ceramics, Roman glass
Abstract. A Persian-Early Hellenistic glass intaglio with the portrait of Silenus was found in Galilee some years ago. Except for the testimony of the spread of Dionysiac cults in the Syro-Palaestinian region during such an early period, the occasional finding would not bear so much meaning if not for the unique iconographical features of the Silenus’s portrait. When turned upside down, the face of the apathetic, passionless Silenus transforms into the portrait of the evil face, supposedly of a Cyclop Polythemus or satyr's mask (two interchangeable faces). The composition of the “inverted faces” might be considered one of the types of more developed synthetic compositions comprised of several faces or creatures and usually applied on the gems (known as janiform or grylloi/baskania). Many remote parallels were mentioned in these rows of examples. The “inverted faces” (bes or pazuzu) are rarer, but they were still applied to some Persian and Hellenistic coins and gems, which were often interconnected iconographically. Most notable is the Roman red glass gem in the British Museum collection, which is decorated with two “inverted faces”: it is incredibly close by its iconography to the gem under consideration. In addition, a unique Roman ceramic beaker from the Budapest History Museum and the Roman glass flask from the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv adorned with interchangeable faces were mentioned and interpreted. In my opinion, the composition with “inverted/summary faces” is highly underestimated in the history of Classical art and might be detected in a broader range of samples if only it was taken into consideration (usually, the reversibility of the faces remains unnoticed).
Andrei Shchetnikov
LLC “New School”
a.schetnikov@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 19.1 (2025) 551-595
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2025-19-1-551-595
Keywords: Islamic geometric patterns, wallpaper groups
Abstract. Very few monuments have survived from the first two (11th–12th) centuries of the art of Islamic geometric ornamentation. The reason for this is the relative fragility of the used materials, and invasions and wars with their destruction. Compared to the previous era, the numerous surviving stone buildings of the 13th century in the Konya Sultanate provide a wealth of material for the study and classification of geometric ornamental patterns, dating back to previous centuries and invented by geometers and architects of that time.
