CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Dulus, Mircea Gratian |
|---|---|
| Title | ALLEGORIZING LOVE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY: PHILAGATHOS OF CERAMI AND THE ALLEGORICAL EXEGESIS OF HELIODORUS??? AETHIOPICA |
| Summary | With the title Τῆς Χα& #x3c1;ι&# x3ba;λ&#x 3b5;ί&#x 3b1;ς ἑρ μή νε& #x3c5;μ&# x3b1; τῆς σώ φρ& #x3bf;ν&# x3bf;ς ἐκ φω& #x3bd;ῆ& #x3c2; Φι& #x3bb;ί& #x3c0;π&# x3bf;υ τοῦ φι& #x3bb;ο&# x3c3;ό&# x3c6;ο&#x 3c5; (“An Interpretation of the Chaste Charikleia from the Lips of Philippos the Philosopher”) is extant in the Codex Marcianus Graecus 410 an allegorical interpretation of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica, which could have been written, according to some scholars, as early as the late fifth century. In close connection with dating the text emerges the question of authorship that is addressed in the present study. Who is the real author of the Interpretation? The special interest of this question lies in the fact that the Interpretation is the only extant allegorical exegesis of a Greek erotic novel, and perhaps the only one ever written. The main issue in the scholarly to identify which philosopher was hidden beyond the appellative Philippos the Philosopher, the name given to the author in the very manuscript where the text was preserved. A tenacious ideological assumption—never justified properly—is pervasive in the scholarship of the problem, which says that a work with a manifest philosophical tendency must be the fruit of a philosopher necessarily rooted in the ‘pagan’ classical tradition thus the allegorical exegesis of Heliodorus’novel was believed to be the work of an unknown late antique Neoplatonist working in Constantinople or of a unknown Christian Neoplatonist addressing a pagan audience at the end of fifth century. The present study will explore the hypothesis that this allegorical interpretation is, in fact, the work of Philagathos of Cerami, a man whose name before turning monk was Philippos “the Philosopher,” and who lived in South Italy in the time of Roger II (1130-1154) and William I (1154-1166). The evidence collected throughout the present study, proves beyond a shadow of doubt that the author of the Interpretation was Philagathos-Philippos the Philosopher. |
| Supervisor | Cristian-Nicolae Gaspar |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/dulus_mircea.pdf |
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