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Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs in its Intellectual Context

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Neoplatonic allegorical interpretation expounds how literary texts present philosophical ideas in an enigmatic and coded form, offering an alternative path to the divine truths. The Neoplatonist Po...
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  • 11 July 2019
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Neoplatonic allegorical interpretation expounds how literary texts present philosophical ideas in an enigmatic and coded form, offering an alternative path to the divine truths. The Neoplatonist Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs is one of the most significant allegorical interpretation handed down to us from Antiquity. This monograph, exclusively dedicated to the analysis of On the Cave of Nymphs, demonstrates that Porphyry interprets Homer’s verse from Odyssey 13.102-112 to convey his philosophical thoughts, particularly on the material world, relationship between soul and body and the salvation of the soul through the doctrines of Plato and Plotinus. The Homeric cave of the nymphs with two gates is a station where the souls descend into genesis and ascend to the intelligible realm. Porphyry associates Odysseus’ long wanderings with the journey of the soul and its salvation from the irrational to rational through escape from all toils of the material world.
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Price: $145.00
Pages: 218
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition
Publication Date: 11 July 2019
ISBN: 9789004407596
Format: Hardcover
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Akçay's study paves the way for the reevaluation of Porphyry's philosophical work and justifies the significance of Porphyry’s thought not only as an eminent scholar of late antiquity and a charismatic student of Plotinus but as an original thinker who aims to declare the importance of the philosophical way of life and the purification of the soul., Giannis Stamatellos (The American College of Greece), Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2020.04.05.
K. Nilüfer Akçay holds a Ph.D. in Classics from Trinity College Dublin. Her publications include articles on Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs in other book publications.