Syrianus
Encyclopedia
Syrianus; died c. 437) was a Greek
Neoplatonist philosopher, and head of Plato
's Academy
in Athens
, succeeding his teacher Plutarch of Athens
in 431/432. He is important as the teacher of Proclus
, and, like Plutarch and Proclus, as a commentator on Plato
and Aristotle
. His best-known extant work is a commentary on the Metaphysics
of Aristotle. He is said to have written also on the De Caelo
and the De Interpretatione of Aristotle and on Plato's Timaeus
.
, and the son of Philoxenus. We know little of his personal history, but that he came to Athens
, and studied with great zeal under Plutarch of Athens
, the head of the Neoplatonist school, who regarded him with great admiration and affection, and appointed him as his successor. He is important as the teacher of Proclus
and Hermias
. Proclus regarded him with the greatest veneration, and gave directions that at his death he should be buried in the same tomb with Themistius
.
Among the lost works, Syrianus wrote commentaries on Aristotle
's De Caelo
and De Interpretatione. We learn from the commentary of Proclus on the Timaeus
of Plato
that Syrianus also wrote a commentary on the same book. Syrianus also wrote works on The Theology of Orpheus
, and On the Harmony of Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato with the Oracles
. Theodorus Meliteniota, in his Prooemium in Astronomiam, mentions commentaries on the Magna Syntaxis
of Ptolemy
by the philosopher Syrianus. The Suda
attributes several works to Syrianus, but which are in fact the works of Proclus.
of Plato. He is important in expanding the details of the Neoplatonist metaphysical system begun by Iamblichus and
most completely delineated by Proclus.
The most valuable remains that we possess are the commentaries on the Metaphysics of Aristotle
. In explaining the propositions of Aristotle, he appends the views held by the Neoplatonist school on the subject in hand, and endeavours to establish the latter against the former. In his Metaphysics commentary Syrianus explains his view of the Monad
and the Dyad in a number of places. The One is immediately followed by a supreme monad and dyad. Syrianus describes the monad as masculine and the dyad as feminine. He employs the doctrine of the two cosmic principles to explain the origin of evil. He denies that there are Platonic forms of things which are evil or base. The dyad is indirectly responsible for evil. Syrianus attributes the existence of evil to otherness and plurality, which he believes the dyad is directly responsible for creating.
One of his fundamental principles is that it is a proposition of general applicability that the same cannot be both affirmed and denied at the same time of the same thing; but that in any sense involving the truth of either the affirmation or the denial of a proposition, it applies only to existing things, but not to that which transcends speech and knowledge, for this admits neither of affirmation nor of denial, since every assertion respecting it must be false. On the whole, the doctrines laid down in this work are those of the Neoplatonist school.
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
Neoplatonist philosopher, and head of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's Academy
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, succeeding his teacher Plutarch of Athens
Plutarch of Athens
Plutarch of Athens was a Greek philosopher and Neoplatonist who taught at Athens at the beginning of the 5th century. He reestablished the Platonic Academy there and became its leader...
in 431/432. He is important as the teacher of Proclus
Proclus
Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers . He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism...
, and, like Plutarch and Proclus, as a commentator on Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
. His best-known extant work is a commentary on the Metaphysics
Metaphysics (Aristotle)
Metaphysics is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name. The principal subject is "being qua being", or being understood as being. It examines what can be asserted about anything that exists just because of its existence and...
of Aristotle. He is said to have written also on the De Caelo
On the Heavens
On the Heavens is Aristotle's chief cosmological treatise: it contains his astronomical theory and his ideas on the concrete workings of the terrestrial world...
and the De Interpretatione of Aristotle and on Plato's Timaeus
Timaeus (dialogue)
Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...
.
Life
He was a native of AlexandriaAlexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, and the son of Philoxenus. We know little of his personal history, but that he came to Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, and studied with great zeal under Plutarch of Athens
Plutarch of Athens
Plutarch of Athens was a Greek philosopher and Neoplatonist who taught at Athens at the beginning of the 5th century. He reestablished the Platonic Academy there and became its leader...
, the head of the Neoplatonist school, who regarded him with great admiration and affection, and appointed him as his successor. He is important as the teacher of Proclus
Proclus
Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers . He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism...
and Hermias
Hermias (philosopher)
Hermias was a Neoplatonist philosopher who was born in Alexandria c. 410 AD. He went to Athens and studied philosophy under Syrianus. He married Aedesia, who was a relative of Syrianus, and who had originally been betrothed to Proclus, but Proclus broke the engagement off after receiving a divine...
. Proclus regarded him with the greatest veneration, and gave directions that at his death he should be buried in the same tomb with Themistius
Themistius
Themistius , named , was a statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius I; and he enjoyed the favour of all those emperors, notwithstanding their many differences, and the fact that he himself was not a...
.
Writings
Only a little remains of the writings of Syrianus, the surviving works are:- A Commentary on Aristotle's MetaphysicsMetaphysics (Aristotle)Metaphysics is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name. The principal subject is "being qua being", or being understood as being. It examines what can be asserted about anything that exists just because of its existence and...
. - Commentaries on two rhetorical works by HermogenesHermogenes of TarsusHermogenes of Tarsus was a Greek rhetorician, surnamed the polisher . He flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius ....
. - Lectures on Plato's Phaedrus, preserved by HermiasHermias (philosopher)Hermias was a Neoplatonist philosopher who was born in Alexandria c. 410 AD. He went to Athens and studied philosophy under Syrianus. He married Aedesia, who was a relative of Syrianus, and who had originally been betrothed to Proclus, but Proclus broke the engagement off after receiving a divine...
.
Among the lost works, Syrianus wrote commentaries on Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's De Caelo
On the Heavens
On the Heavens is Aristotle's chief cosmological treatise: it contains his astronomical theory and his ideas on the concrete workings of the terrestrial world...
and De Interpretatione. We learn from the commentary of Proclus on the Timaeus
Timaeus (dialogue)
Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...
of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
that Syrianus also wrote a commentary on the same book. Syrianus also wrote works on The Theology of Orpheus
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
, and On the Harmony of Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato with the Oracles
Chaldean Oracles
The Chaldean Oracles have survived as fragmentary texts from the 2nd century AD, and consist mainly of Hellenistic commentary on a single mystery-poem that was believed to have originated in Chaldea...
. Theodorus Meliteniota, in his Prooemium in Astronomiam, mentions commentaries on the Magna Syntaxis
Almagest
The Almagest is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths. Written in Greek by Claudius Ptolemy, a Roman era scholar of Egypt,...
of Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
by the philosopher Syrianus. The Suda
Suda
The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...
attributes several works to Syrianus, but which are in fact the works of Proclus.
Philosophy
Syrianus' philosophical significance lies in the field of metaphysics and the exegesisExegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
of Plato. He is important in expanding the details of the Neoplatonist metaphysical system begun by Iamblichus and
most completely delineated by Proclus.
The most valuable remains that we possess are the commentaries on the Metaphysics of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
. In explaining the propositions of Aristotle, he appends the views held by the Neoplatonist school on the subject in hand, and endeavours to establish the latter against the former. In his Metaphysics commentary Syrianus explains his view of the Monad
Monad (Greek philosophy)
Monad , according to the Pythagoreans, was a term for Divinity or the first being, or the totality of all beings, Monad being the source or the One meaning without division....
and the Dyad in a number of places. The One is immediately followed by a supreme monad and dyad. Syrianus describes the monad as masculine and the dyad as feminine. He employs the doctrine of the two cosmic principles to explain the origin of evil. He denies that there are Platonic forms of things which are evil or base. The dyad is indirectly responsible for evil. Syrianus attributes the existence of evil to otherness and plurality, which he believes the dyad is directly responsible for creating.
One of his fundamental principles is that it is a proposition of general applicability that the same cannot be both affirmed and denied at the same time of the same thing; but that in any sense involving the truth of either the affirmation or the denial of a proposition, it applies only to existing things, but not to that which transcends speech and knowledge, for this admits neither of affirmation nor of denial, since every assertion respecting it must be false. On the whole, the doctrines laid down in this work are those of the Neoplatonist school.
Editions
- J. Dillon, D. O'Meara, (2006), Syrianus: On Aristotle Metaphysics 13-14. Duckworth.
- D. O'Meara, J. Dillon, (2008), Syrianus: On Aristotle Metaphysics 3-4. Duckworth.
Studies
- Angela Longo (ed.), Syrianus et la métaphysique de l'antiquité tardive (Napoli, Bibliopolis, 2009).
- Sarah Klitenic Wear, The Teachings of Syrianus on Plato's Timaeus and Parmenides. Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval Texts and Contexts (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2011) (Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism and the Platonic tradition, 10).