Stephanus of Alexandria (; fl. c. 580 – c. 640) 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 ...
philosopher and teacher who, besides philosophy in the
Neo-Platonic
Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common id ...
tradition, also wrote on
alchemy
Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
,
astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
and
astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
. He was one of the last exponents of the
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
n academic tradition before the
Islamic conquest of Egypt
The Arab conquest of Egypt, led by the army of Amr ibn al-As, took place between 639 and 642 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. It ended the seven-century-long Roman period in Egypt that had begun in 30 BC and, more broadly, the Grec ...
.
[.]
Life
Stephanus studied at Alexandria, probably under
Elias
Elias ( ; ) is the hellenized version for the name of Elijah (; ; , or ), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several holy books. Due to Elias' role in the scriptures and to many later associated tradit ...
. He is often named alongside Elias and
David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
as among the Christians of the school of
Olympiodorus. According to
John Moschus, he was teaching and writing commentaries in Alexandria in the 580s, where he was involved in the controversy over
Monophysitism
Monophysitism ( ) or monophysism ( ; from Greek , "solitary" and , "nature") is a Christological doctrine that states that there was only one nature—the divine—in the person of Jesus Christ, who was the incarnated Word. It is rejected as he ...
, apparently taking positions on both sides. John calls him a "sophist and philosopher".
[
Shortly after the accession of the Emperor ]Heraclius
Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas.
Heraclius's reign was ...
in 610, Stephanus 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 ...
, the capital of the empire, "thereby bridging late Alexandria and the medieval Byzantine world."[ Whether he was invited by the emperor is not known. He took up a position as "ecumenical professor" (''oikoumenikos didaskalos'') at the Imperial Academy teaching ]Plato
Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
, 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 ...
, the ''quadrivium
From the time of Plato through the Middle Ages, the ''quadrivium'' (plural: quadrivia) was a grouping of four subjects or arts—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—that formed a second curricular stage following preparatory work in th ...
'', alchemy and astrology. Among his students were the philosopher known as Pseudo-Elias
Pseudo-Elias (?), also called Pseudo-David, was the author of a set of lectures on logic written in Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek that form a Commentary of a philosophical text, commentary on Porphyry (philosopher), Porphyry's ''Isagoge''. ...
and Tychicus of Trebizond, the teacher of the Armenian polymath Anania Shirakatsi
Anania Shirakatsi (, , anglicized: Ananias of Shirak) was a 7th-century Armenian polymath and natural philosopher, author of extant works covering mathematics, astronomy, geography, chronology, and other fields. Little is known for certain of his ...
.[
Many works are attributed to Stephanus, some falsely, most written at Constantinople.][ ]Agapius of Hierapolis
Agapius of Hierapolis, also called Maḥbūb ibn Qusṭanṭīn (died after 942), was a Melkite Christian historian and the bishop of Manbij in Syria. He wrote a universal history in Arabic, the lengthy ''Kitāb al-ʿunwān'' ('book of the title') ...
, writing of the treaty between Heraclius and the Persian king Kavad II
Kavad II () was the Sasanian King of Kings () of Iran briefly in 628.
Born Sheroe, he was the son of Khosrow II () and Maria. With help from different factions of the nobility, Sheroe overthrew his father in a coup d'état in 628. At this junct ...
in 628, states that Stephanus was "famous among the philosophers at that time".[, pp. 302–305.] Stephanus died sometime before the death of Heraclius in 641.[ His identification with ]Stephanus of Athens
Stephanus of Athens ( Greek: Στέφανος ό Άθηναίος; lived ), also called Stephanus the Philosopher, was a Byzantine Greek physician and writer. A Christian native of Athens, he studied at Alexandria under a certain Asclepius, possib ...
has been proposed, but is unlikely.[.]
Works
1. A commentary on Aristotle. Editions:
* ''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca ed. consilio et auctoritate Academiae litt. reg. Boruss.'', Berlin, Bd. XV
* ''Ioannes Philoponus de anima'', ed. Michael Hayduck, 1897 p. 446-607 (see praef. p. V); Vol. XVIII/3
* ''Stephanus de interpretatione'', ed. M. Hayduck, 1885 (Vol. XXI/2: ''Stephanus in artem rhetoricam'' is by a Byzantine Rhetor Stephanos of the 12th century).
2. A commentary on the Isagogue of Porphyry. Editions:
* Anton Baumstark, ''Aristot. b. den Syrern v. 5.-8. Jh.'', Vol. 1: ''Syr.-arab. Biographien des Aristot., syr. Kommentare z. Eisag.des Porph.'', Leipzig 1900, 181-210 (with a translation of the fragments of the commentary of Stephanos).
3. Astronomical and chronological works. Editions:
* ''Explanatio per propria exempla commentarii Theonis in tabulas manuales'', Ed. Usener, ''De Stephano Al.'' p. 38-54 (= Kl. Schriften. III, 295–319).
4. Alchemical works. Scholars are divided as to whether or not these are authentic works of the same Stephen of Alexandria due to the style of writing. The translator, F. Sherwood Taylor accepts them as his.
online here
and posted o
the author's Academia.edu page
5. Astrological works.
* ''Opusculum apotelesmaticum'', Ed. Usener in ''De Stephano Al.'' p. 17-32 (= Kl. Schrr. III, 266–289).
6. A horoscope of Muhammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
and a prophecy of the rise of Islam attributed to Stephanus is apocryphal. It must date from after 775, since it mentions the Caliph al-Mahdi
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Manṣūr (; 744 or 745 – 785), better known by his regnal name al-Mahdī (, "He who is guided by God"), was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 775 to his death in 785. He succeeded his ...
.[
]
Notes
References
Further reading
Texts:
* Julius Ludwig Ideler
Julius Ludwig Ideler (3 September 1809, in Berlin – 17 July 1842, in Berlin) was a German philologist and naturalist. He was the son of astronomer Christian Ludwig Ideler.
From 1828 he studied medicine, mathematics and natural sciences at th ...
, ''Physici et medici Graeci minores'' II, Berlin 1842 (Reprinted by Hakkert, Amsterdam 1963) p. 199-253. Greek text (only) in ful
online at Google books here
* F. Sherwood Taylor, "The Alchemical Works of Stephanos of Alexandria", in "Ambix" (1937). Vol. 1, pp. 116–39 ; Vol 2, pp. 39–49. Greek text and facing English translation of 3 of the 9 lectures of the work.
Dictionaries:
* Albert Ehrhard
Albert Joseph Maria Ehrhard (14 March 1862 – 23 September 1940) was a German Catholic theologian, church historian and Byzantinist. He was the author of numerous works on Early Christianity.
Biography
Born in Herbitzheim (Alsace), Ehrhard stu ...
, Karl Krumbacher
Karl Krumbacher (23 September 1856 – 12 December 1909) was a German scholar who was an expert on Byzantine Greek language, literature, history and culture. He was one of the principal founders of Byzantine Studies as an independent academi ...
: Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur von Justinian bis zum Ende des Oströmischen Reiches, 2nd Ed. (1897)
Vol. 2 at google books in full
pp. 480f, 614, 621 *, 625, 633. (Vol.
here
.
*
Articles and studies:
* Hermann Usener
Hermann Karl Usener (23 October 1834 – 21 October 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion.
Life
Hermann Usener was born at Weilburg and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at Heidelberg ...
, ''De Stephano Alexandrino'' Bonn (1880)
* Alb. Jahn, "Chemica graeca ex codicibus Monacensi 112 et Bernensi 579", Revue de Philologie 15 (1891) 101–115. Short intro to his alchemical works.
* F. Sherwood Taylor, "The Origins of Greek Alchemy", Ambix, I, May 1937, pp. 30–47.
* Maria Papathanassiou, (1992), "Stephanos von Alexandreia und sein alchemistisches Werk", Ph.D. Thesis, Humboldt Universität zur Berlin, Berlín.
* Maria Papathanassiou, (1990–1991) "Stephanus of Alexandria: Pharmaceutical notions and cosmology in his alchemical work", "Ambix", nº 37, pp. 121–133; nº 38, p. 112 ddenda
* R. Werner Soukup, (1992), "Natur, du himmlische! Die alchemistischen Traktate des Stephanos von Alexandria. Eine Studie zur Alchemie des 7. Jahrhunderts", "Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften 12, 1992, 1-93
* Maria Papathanassiou, (1996), "Stephanus of Alexandria: On the structure and date of his alchemical work", in "Medicina nei Secoli 8", 2, pp. 247–266.
* Wanda Wolska-Conus, "Stéphanos d'Athènes et Stéphanos d'Alexandrie. Essai d'identitification et de biographie," ''Revue des Études Byzantines'' 47 (1989), p. 5-89.
{{Authority control
7th-century Greek philosophers
Greek-language commentators on Aristotle
Greek alchemists
7th-century Byzantine writers
7th-century astronomers
7th-century mathematicians
7th-century Byzantine scientists
Byzantine astronomers
7th-century alchemists
Philosophers in ancient Alexandria