Radical Platonism in Byzantium

Siniossoglou, Niketas

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139003476

Cited by 61 publications

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“…It is noteworthy that the crucial role of 'inner vision', 'existential receptivity', the heart as receptacle and psychophysical prayer in the Suhrawardiyya order of Sufism and Palamism point to a possible common source. 49 I do not mean to argue that Plethon did not address the same problems as Suhrawardi did, or that he was necessarily unaware of his philosophy of illumination. In a rare, neglected autobiographical reference in Against Scholarios, Plethon affirms that 'I do know of both inspirations and human doctrines that one should accept, as well as of inspirations and human doctrines that one should not accept'.…”

Section: The Shadowy Elissaiosmentioning

confidence: 92%

Sect and Utopia in shifting empires: Plethon, Elissaios, Bedreddin

Siniossoglou

2012

Byz. mod. Greek stud.

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This discussion reopens the file on Plethon's purported stay in Ottoman territory in order to trace the origins of the Plethonean belief in sectarianism as a vehicle for attaining Utopian sociopolitical ends. In the first part, possible approaches to Plethon's alleged study with the mysterious mentor Elissaios are considered. In the second part, an argument is presented that in both the changing Ottoman Empire and the disintegrating Byzantine Empire esoteric societies contemporaneously developed a potentially antinomian role. Just like Plethon's 'brothers', the 'Brethren of Purity' of al-Bistami, Sheikh Bedreddin and Borkluce Mustafa opted for sectarianism in order to recover a supraconfessional religious law and construe a novel political identity. This indicates the probability of a common nexus between Rumelia, the Peloponnese and the Aegean spanning confessional lines and utilizing sect as the vehicle of utopianism. Around 1451/2 in a letter to the civil officer Oises, Gennadios Scholarios described a pagan circle operating in the Peloponnese that assumed the form of a religious 'brotherhood': phratria. 1 Interestingly, the intellectual star of Mistra, Gemistos Plethon, author of a notorious underground book entitled Treatise on the Laws (henceforth Nomoi) on the revival of polytheism and the ideally just constitution, is not explicitly associated with this group-though to all appearances Plethon's arch-enemy Scholarios kept an eye on his * I am grateful to Cornell H. Fleischer (Chicago) for his advice on Ottoman sects and Islamic mysticism. Peter Garnsey (Cambridge), Anthony Kaldellis (Ohio) and George Koutzakiotis (Athens) discussed my ideas with me and commented on earlier drafts of this paper. 1 Schol. Ad Raulem Oesem IV.477.2. Works by Scholarios are quoted according to the edition of L. Petit, X. Siderides and M. Jugie (eds.), Oeuvres completes de George Scholarios, 8 vols. (Paris 1928-36). The most comprehensive study of Gennadios Scholarios is by M.-H. Blanchet, Georges-Gennadios Scholarios (vers 1400vers 1472): un intellectuel orthodoxe face a la disparition de I'empire Byzantin (Paris 2008), offering a discussion of the clash between Scholarios and Plethon on 177-92. For the dating of Scholarios' works I am following the suggestions by Blanchet, 482-7. See also C. Livanos, Greek tradition and Latin influence in the work of George Scholarios (Piscaway, NJ 2006).

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Section: The Shadowy Elissaiosmentioning

confidence: 92%

Sect and Utopia in shifting empires: Plethon, Elissaios, Bedreddin

Siniossoglou

2012

Byz. mod. Greek stud.

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“…An extreme example, in the second half of the fifteenth century, was Michael Marullus (d. 1500), whose Natural Hymns, dedicated to several ancient gods, 60 reproduce ancient poetic forms not only in terms of metre and style, but also by way of a real revival of attributes, cultic features and competences of the single deities. 61 No one thinks today that Marullus seriously wished to restore paganism (although there are still many doubts about his Greek counterpart, Gemistus Pletho), 62 but his contact with the background of Hellenic mythology, and with the tenets of Neoplatonic philosophy, turn his verse into a sort of mystical and poetic vehicle travelling towards an autonomous and idiosyncratic interpretation of nature. 63 Even without resorting to the exceptional case of Marullus, the possibility of writing classical Latin verse on Christian subjects was hotly debated by Italian humanists.…”

Section: Hellenic Prototypes and Christian Poetry: From Byzantium To Early Italian Humanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hellenic Verse and Christian Humanism: From Nonnus to Musurus

Pontani¹

2018

Int class trad

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By Apollo, no true Greek would suffer a line of yours to pass his lips!' Henrik Ibsen, Emperor Julian, act III, sc. 2 (Julian to Apollinaris) Hellenic and Christian Poetry in Late AntiquityThe last decades have witnessed a radical reappraisal of the role of Hellenism in the culture of late antiquity, especially in regard to art, literature and poetry: I am referring to the path-breaking work by scholars such as Glen Bowersock, Alan Cameron and Gianfranco Agosti. 1 The traditional view of a stern ideological opposition between paganism and Christianism has shifted towards a framework of fluidity and interconnection, in which fragments of the old, Hellenic heritage could be freely re-used either in order to ensure a form of continuity with ethnic cults and practices (the cases of Egypt and Syria are particularly remarkable in this respect) or by way of contrasting imitation and allusive game. The Greek language and the pagan tradition represented a flexible instrument of cultural expression, easily adopted by different Mediterranean peoples despite differences of religious belief.

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Cydones, Prochorus

Searby¹

2015

Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

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Radical Platonism in Byzantium

Cited by 61 publications

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Sect and Utopia in shifting empires: Plethon, Elissaios, Bedreddin

Sect and Utopia in shifting empires: Plethon, Elissaios, Bedreddin

Hellenic Verse and Christian Humanism: From Nonnus to Musurus

Cydones, Prochorus

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