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Hermias*
Gentilium Philosophorum Irrisio
Christian Apology or Skit on School Homework?
Thomas P. Halton
The Catholic University of America
* For Hermias see J. Quasten, Patrology, I, Westminster, Md., (1950, rp. 1986), 253, which should be updated from the following recent surveys: DHGE XXIV fasc 138, EECh 1, P. Siniscalco, LThK 5 (1993) 12, R. Kany, P. T. Camelot, LThK 5 (1960) 261, J. A. Fischer, and especially RAC XIV (1988) 808–15. The text (with the chapter divisions) used is H. Diels, Dox Graec. 649–56, with regular reference to J. C. T. Otto, Corpus apologetarum christianorum saeculi secundi, Jena, 1872, vol. 9, XI/LI, 2–31 and, more recently, checked against Hanson. J. H. Waszink, ANRW II, 27,4, announced a study of the rapports between Irrisio and other patristic authors. On this cf. Hanson, 28–32.
Hermias,Gentilium Philosophorum Irrisio
Christian Apology or Skit on School Home-work?
Copyright © 2008 Thomas P. Halton. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Wipf and Stock for accepting this manuscript for publication, and to Christian Amondson and Diane Farley for plying me with queries about further clarifications; also to copy-editor Genevieve Beenen for prompt and careful collaboration, and to her mentor, Karen J. Torjesen, Dean, Claremont Graduate University, for her recommendation.
Introduction
This is a brand-new translation and commentary of Hermias Diasurmos. I examine Diasurmos as a celebration of Ridicule, which presents to the reader a literary antecedent of Washington Press Club’s annual journalists’ political Roast.
The present work had its beginnings in a graduate seminar given by this author in the Department of Greek and Latin, The Catholic University of America, shortly after the appearance of Reverend Professor Hanson’s critical edition in the Sources Chretiennes series. It benefited from a conversation with Rev. Hanson during a meeting of the quadrennial Patristic Conference in Oxford. As the subtitle—Greek Apology or Skit on School Homework?—suggests, it may be more than a mere satire. In fact, the present study, by a careful sifting of the Greek text and commentary, does furnish new clues to unresolved problems, such as place of origin : School of Origen, not of Clement of Alexandria; date, somewhat later than 200; and literary antecedents, Lucian of Samosata’s Icaromenippus.
I believe these points are successfully presented and persuasively argued. I also think that the work will enjoy a wide circulation, especially in university libraries.
Witty repartee abounds. Note, for instance, the display of esprit d’escalier in his “when I threw myself head-first into the crater, the smoke snatched me out of Aetna.”
The text is a fast-paced summary of pre-Socratic philosophy and its leaders: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, etc.—a glittering lineup of seventeen, all told.
Think of it in modern terms as an end-of-term slide-show presentation, a kind of Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, in which the examinee flashes photos of the main philosophers accompanied by sound-bites of their teachings on what constitutes the first principle, or starting-point, of the universe (was it water, or fire, or air, etc.) while at the same time allowing a fast-talking, used-car salesman (anything you can say, I can say better) interrupt him with brisk one-liners. In the present work, Lucian, the prolific second-century satiric philosopher, is the exact prototype of the used-car salesman.
I translated it since a reliable, up-to-date version, in an attractive paperback format, is not available, and I have already done the same for similar works, such as Melito’s On the Pasch, John Chrysostom’s In Praise of St. Paul, and Jerome’s On Illustrious Men.
It will be of special interest to professors of early Christianity and their students, to those involved in apologetics, viz., a reasoned presentation of the main tenets of Christianity (the divinity of Christ, his parables, teachings, miracles, death on the cross, resurrection, and ascension), and also to experts on the Greek word παιδεία, paideia, on which the German scholar, Werner Jaeger, wrote the classic three-volume: Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, translated by G. Highet, and a less satisfactory slim volume titled Early Christianity and Paideia.
Abbreviations
ACW Ancient Christian Writers
Bauckham (1985) R. Bauckham, “The Fall of the Angels as the Source of Philosophy in Hermias and Clement of Alexandria,” VigChr 39, 1985, 313–30.
VigChr Vigiliae Christianae.
De Vogel, GP C. J. De Vogel, Greek Philosophy: A Collection of Texts, Leiden, Brill, 1959.
Di Pauli, Die Irrisio A. Di Pauli, Die Irrisio des Hermias, 1907.
DK H. Diels and W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Berlin, 1951–1952.
Diels, Dox. Graec. H. Diels, DoxographiGraeci, Berlin 1897, 2nd ed., 1929.
FOTC Fathers of the Church
Freeman, Ancilla K. Freeman, Ancilla to the Pre Socratic Philosophers, Harvard University Press, 1952.
Freeman, Pre-Soc Phil K. Freeman, The Pre Socratic Philosophers, Oxford, Blackwell, 1966.
Geerard Geerard, Clavis Patrum Graecorum, vol. 1, #111 TLG 0531.
Guthrie, HGP W. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1962–1981.
Hanson Hermias Satire des Philosophes Paiens Intro, Texte critique, Notes, Appendices et Index par R. P. C. Hanson et ses collégues Traduction francaise par Denise Joussot, SC 388, Paris, 1993.
Kindstrand (1980) J. F. Kindstrand, “The Date and Character of Hermias’ ‘Irrisio,’” VigChr 34, 1980, 341–57.
KRS G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, M. Schofield, eds., The Presocratic Philosophers, Cambridge University Press, 1983.
