Symeon Seth (c. 1035 – c. 1110)Antonie Pietrobelli (2016)
Qui est Syméon Seth ?
Le Projet Syméon Seth. was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

scientist, translator, and official under Emperor

Michael VII Doukas Michael VII Doukas or Ducas (), nicknamed Parapinakes (, , a reference to the devaluation of the Byzantine currency under his rule), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 1071 to 1078. He was known as incompetent as an emperor and reliant on ...

. He is often said to have been

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, but there is no evidence for this. Either of

background, or Jacobite, or

Nestorian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

, or a Rūm, Symeon was definitely a non-Muslim

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

. He wrote four original works in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and translated one from

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

,Petros Bouras-Vallianatos and

Sophia Xenophontos Sophia Xenophontos is a Greek-Cypriot classicist and Senior Researcher at the Academy of Athens (Research Centre for Greek and Latin Literature), and formerly an associate professor of Greek at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is als ...

"Galen's Reception in Byzantium: Symeon Seth and his Refutation of Galenic Theories on Human Physiology"
''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'' 55 (2015): 431–469, at 436–442. and offered early proofs that the Earth was round.

Life

Symeon was originally from

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

. His second name, gives as Seth () or Sethi (), may be a

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

(indicating his father was named Seth) but is more probably a

family name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

. The manuscripts of his works describe him as a

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and give him the titles ''

magistros The (Latin; ; ) was one of the most senior administrative officials in the Later Roman Empire and the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantium, the office was eventually transformed into a senior honorary rank, simply called ''magist ...

'' and ''

vestes ( was a Byzantine court title used in the 10th and 11th centuries. The term is etymologically connected to the , the imperial wardrobe, but despite earlier attempts to connect the and the related title of , the head of the class of the , with t ...

''. These titles were losing their significance in Byzantium at the time; they tend to indicate an official of middling rank. During the reign of

Isaac I Komnenos Isaac I Komnenos or Comnenus (; – 1 June 1060) was Byzantine emperor from 1057 to 1059, the first reigning member of the Komnenian dynasty. The son of the general Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, he was orphaned at an early age, and w ...

, Symeon witnessed a total solar eclipse in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

on either 23 February 1058 or 15 February 1059. Probably he moved to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

around 1071. There he sought the patronage of Michael VII and entered into literary competition with fellow polymath

Michael Psellos Michael Psellos or Psellus (, ) was a Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek monk, savant, writer, philosopher, imperial courtier, historian and music theorist. He was born in 1017 or 1018, and is believed to have died in 1078, although it has also b ...

. According to the ''

Alexiad The ''Alexiad'' () is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial Attic Greek. Anna described th ...

'' (c.1148), the Emperor

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos (, – 15 August 1118), Latinization of names, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine Emperor, Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurper, usurping the throne, he was faced with a collapsing empire and ...

asked Symeon to translate the Arabic fable collection '' Kalīlah wa Dimnah'' into Greek. The ''Alexiad'' describes him as a mathematician and astrologer capable of predicting the future through calculations. He supposedly predicted the death of

Robert Guiscard Robert Guiscard ( , ; – 17 July 1085), also referred to as Robert de Hauteville, was a Normans, Norman adventurer remembered for his Norman conquest of southern Italy, conquest of southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century. Robert was born ...

(17 July 1085). For a time he fell out of imperial favour and was imprisoned in Raidestos. Around 1112, Symeon appears to have sold a

gospel book A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels ( Greek: , ) is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament – normally all four – centering on the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the roo ...

bound between wood covers to the monastery founded by Michael Attaleiates in Constantinople. He probably died not long after. No letters written by or to Symeon survive. Nor is there evidence that he ever practiced medicine, as commonly stated.

Works

He revised Psellos's (Latin or , "On the Properties of Foods"), which criticizes

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

and emphasizes eastern medical traditions. Paul Moore says "the text is really an explanation of

Aetius Amidenus Aetius, Aëtius, or Aetios (Ἀέτιος) may refer to: People * Aetius (philosopher), 1st- or 2nd-century doxographer and Eclectic philosopher * Aëtius of Antioch, 4th-century Anomean theologian * Flavius Aetius, Western Roman commander in chi ...

, with material drawn from

Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides (, ; 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of (in the original , , both meaning "On Materia medica, Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic phar ...

. Apparently, Psellos wrote the work for the emperor

Constantine IX Constantine IX Monomachos (; 980/ 1000 – 11 January 1055) reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 1042 to January 1055. Empress Zoë Porphyrogenita chose him as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring again ...

Monomachos. It was then revised for Michael VII Doukas by Symeon Seth, who wrote a brief introduction (the proem.), made some corrections in the text, omitting some chapters. The work deals with some two hundred and twenty-eight plants and animals." The ''Syntagma'' is an important source for

Byzantine cuisine Byzantine cuisine was the continuation of local ancient Greek cuisine, ancient Roman cuisine, and Mediterranean cuisine. Byzantine trading with foreigners brought in grains, sugar, livestock, fruits, vegetables, and spices that would otherwi ...

and

dietetics A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ...

. Simeon's work (, "On the things of nature") is a treatise on the natural sciences divided into five books. The first concerns the earth; the second, the elements; the third, the sky and the stars; the fourth, matter, form, nature and the soul (sense perception); the fifth, the

final cause The four causes or four explanations are, in Aristotelian thought, categories of questions that explain "the why's" of something that exists or changes in nature. The four causes are the: material cause, the formal cause, the efficient cause, ...

and divine providence. The work is heavily influenced by the philosophy of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

. He learned astronomy from Arabic sources and translated the book of fables '' Kalīlah wa Dimnah'' from Arabic to Greek in about 1080. The protagonists in the Greek version are named "Stephanites" and "Ichnelates".L.-O. Sjöberg, ''Stephanites und Ichnelates: Überlieferungsgeschichte und Text'' (Uppsala, 1962). Seth advanced several proofs that the earth was spherical. He noted that since the sun rises in the east before it sets in the west, it can be afternoon in Persia when it is still morning in Byzantine lands. He points out that the same eclipse that was recorded as having taken place in the afternoon by the Persians was recorded in the morning by the Greeks. Nautical and astronomical proofs are also given.

Life

Works

Notes

References

Further reading