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Mythic Paradigms and the Platonic Life: Becoming a Bacchus in Damascius’ Philosophical History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2018

Graeme Miles
Graeme Miles*
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania*
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Abstract

The fragmentary biographical work by Damascius, known as either the Life of Isidore or Philosophical History, appears to have begun with the myths of the dismemberment of Osiris and Dionysus. These programmatic allusions establish an important theme in the text that followed: ‘becoming a Bacchus’. This, as is clear from Damascius’ Phaedo Commentary, refers to the process of unifying and liberating oneself from the body at the ‘cathartic’ stage in the Neoplatonic scale of virtues. The acquisition of likeness to this specific deity is, therefore, a vital though far from final stage in the progression towards the ultimate goal of late antique Platonic philosophy: ‘becoming like god as far as possible’.

Keywords

DamasciusbiographyPhilosophical HistoryLife of IsidoreDionysus/Bacchus
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 138 , 2018 , pp. 55 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 2018 

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Footnotes

*

graeme.miles@utas.edu.au. My thanks go to audiences at the 37th conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies (2016) at the University of Melbourne and at the University of Western Australia's Classics Seminar Series for their questions and warm reception of this paper. I am grateful to the journal's anonymous readers for several helpful suggestions.