Chapter 1. Decay, Disintegration, and Objectified Time: The Rhetoric of Time and Memory The terms that frame the discussion of κλέος ἄφθιτον and the durability of the poetic tradition as conceived by the tradition itself are time and memory. Time has disintegrating effects—physical objects and social obligations both decay over time; what […]
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Acknowledgments The groundwork for this manuscript began in 2005 while I was working on my doctoral thesis at UCLA and became intrigued with questions of architecture, particularly the permanence of monumental constructions and their status as material analogues to Homeric kleos aphthiton. Since then, the material that comprised but one part of […]
Bibliography Editions and Translations Aelius Herodianus: see pseudo-Herodian. Aetius Placita: Diels 1879. Alexander of Aphrodisias Commentary on Aristotle’s “Metaphysics”: Hayduck 1891. Alexander Polyhistor, fragments and testimonies (including Successions of the Philosophers): Müller 1849:210–244. Anatolius of Laodicea On the […]
Appendix. Greek Texts Irenaeus Revelation to Marcus Chapter 4 above (pp. 62–80). (1.14.1) Οὗτος <οὐν ὁ> Μάρκος μήτραν καὶ ἐκδοχεῖον τῆς Κολαρ-βάσου Σιγῆς αὐτὸν μονώτατον γεγονέναι λέγων, ἅτε Μονογενὴς ὑπάρχων, [αὐτὸ] τὸ σπέρμα τὸ κατατεθὲν εἰς αὐτὸν ὧδέ πως ἀπεκύησεν. Αὐτὴν τὴν πανυπερτάτην ἀπὸ τῶν ἀοράτων καὶ ἀκατονομάστων τόπων Τετράδα […]
Excursus C. The Dyadic Character of A Valentinian Exposition The Nag Hammadi text A Valentinian Exposition has been said to champion monadic rather than dyadic Valentinianism. Four reasons are generally given: First, the Father is described as being alone, and is called ‘Monad’ (NH 11.2:22.19–23.21). Second, Silence, the usual consort of the […]
Excursus B. The Pythagorean Symbol of the Τετρακτύς The Pythagoreans symbolized the number ten with a special term for the first four numbers, the τετρακτύς. [1] The term is probably of Doric origin, but it is unclear exactly how this unusual word, which comes from the root meaning “four,” was coined. [2] […]
Excursus A. One versus One: The Differentiation between Hen and Monad in Hellenistic and Late Antique Philosophy Theon of Smyrna’s Mathematics Useful for Reading Plato, written in the second century CE, collects arithmetical, geometrical, musical, and astronomical lore relevant to Plato’s writings. In one passage, Theon summarizes various ideas about the distinction […]
8. How the Early Christian Theology of Arithmetic Shaped Neo-Platonism and Late Antique Christianity After the early third century, the controversy over the theology of arithmetic disappeared from the Church. The dispute need not have died down. Gnosticizing writings well into the fourth century show a continued interest in speculative number symbolism. […]
7. The Orthodox Possibilities of theTheology of Arithmetic: Clement of Alexandria Clement, a Christian intellectual who flourished in late second-century Alexandria, offers a perspective on the orthodox theology of arithmetic that departs from, yet complements, that of Irenaeus. Unlike Irenaeus and his head-on refutation, Clement criticizes the Valentinians subtly, preferring to co-opt […]