Plato’s Phaedrus and Symposium in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies
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Benjamin M. J. De Vos
Abstract
The presence of Plato and Platonic philosophy in the late antique Christian novel, the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, has been underexamined. The present article takes a twofold approach: first, it discusses Platonic references and allusions in the disputes between Appion the grammarian and Clement, a follower of the apostle Peter (Homiliae Clementinae 4–6), and links them to the rest of the Homilistic narrative. Plato’s dialogues of the Symposium and, in particular, the Phaedrus turn out to be insightful philosophical and literary frameworks by means of which the Homilist reflects on the value of eros, paideia, rhetoric and philosophy, the value of written discourse, and truth. Secondly, this article also compares the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies with (other) novels and narratives from the Second Sophistic that intertextually engage with similar Platonic motifs and passages. My analysis reveals how the Homilist, as a Christian novelist with strong philosophical (and one might say Sophistic) interests, is a remarkable member of the late antique, cultural dialogue, in which the reception of Plato’s dialogues took place.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Danny Praet (Ghent University), Koen De Temmerman (Ghent University), Ian D. Repath (Swansea University) and Dominique Côté (Université d’Ottawa), Julie Van Pelt (Ghent University), Steffie Van Neste (Ghent University), Annelies Lannoy (Université de Lausanne/Ghent University) and the anonymous referees and the editor Uta Heil (Universität Wien) of Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum, for their insightful comments on a previous draft. Remaining mistakes are mine.
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- Introduction
- Intertextuality as a Phenomenon in the History of Religion and Culture
- Impulses
- Talmudic-Christian Intertextuality: Primary Considerations
- Intertextuality Now and Then: From Kristeva Back to Irenaeus and the Valentinians
- Intertextualität und spätantike Hagiographie: Methodische Überlegungen und exemplarische Vertiefungen
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- Beyond the Rhetoric of the Octavius: Minucius Felix’s Exhortatio ad Christianitatem
- Plato’s Phaedrus and Symposium in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies
- Basil’s Use of Oppian in Homilia in hexaemeron 7: His Source of Zoological Knowledge Reconsidered
- Between Nature and Spirit: Lucretian Resonances in Paulinus’ Carmen 23
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Introduction
- Intertextuality as a Phenomenon in the History of Religion and Culture
- Impulses
- Talmudic-Christian Intertextuality: Primary Considerations
- Intertextuality Now and Then: From Kristeva Back to Irenaeus and the Valentinians
- Intertextualität und spätantike Hagiographie: Methodische Überlegungen und exemplarische Vertiefungen
- Articles
- Auf den Spuren des hellenistischen Judentums in Caesarea: Ein Jüdischer Psalmenforscher in Origenes’ Glosse im Kontext Rabbinischer Literatur
- Beyond the Rhetoric of the Octavius: Minucius Felix’s Exhortatio ad Christianitatem
- Plato’s Phaedrus and Symposium in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies
- Basil’s Use of Oppian in Homilia in hexaemeron 7: His Source of Zoological Knowledge Reconsidered
- Between Nature and Spirit: Lucretian Resonances in Paulinus’ Carmen 23
