Syrianus (, ''Syrianos''; died c. 437 A.D.) was a Greek Neoplatonist

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 head of

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 ...

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, succeeding his teacher Plutarch of Athens in 431/432 A.D. He is important as the teacher of

Proclus Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor (, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity. He set forth one of th ...

, and, like Plutarch and Proclus, as a commentator on

and

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 ...

. His best-known extant work is a commentary on the ''

Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

'' of Aristotle. He is said to have written also on the '' De Caelo'' and the '' De Interpretatione'' of Aristotle and on Plato's '' Timaeus''.

Life

He was a native of

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 ...

, Egypt and the son of Philoxenus. We know little of his personal history, but that he came to

, and studied with great zeal under Plutarch of Athens, the head of the Neoplatonist school, who regarded him with great admiration and affection, and appointed him as his successor. He is important as the teacher of

and Hermias. Proclus regarded him with the greatest veneration, and gave directions that at his death he should be buried in the same tomb with Themistius.

Writings

Only a little remains of the writings of Syrianus, the surviving works are: *A Commentary on Aristotle's ''

''. *Commentaries on two rhetorical works by Hermogenes. *Lectures on Plato's '' Phaedrus'', preserved by Hermias. Among the lost works, Syrianus wrote commentaries on

's '' De Caelo'' and '' De Interpretatione''. We learn from the commentary of Proclus on the '' Timaeus'' of

that Syrianus also wrote a commentary on the same book. Syrianus also wrote works on ''The Theology of Orpheus'', and ''On the Harmony of Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato with the Oracles''. Theodorus Meliteniota, in his ''Prooemium in Astronomiam'', mentions commentaries on the '' Magna Syntaxis'' of

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

by the philosopher Syrianus. The

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

attributes several works to Syrianus, but which are in fact the works of Proclus.

Philosophy

Syrianus' philosophical significance lies in the field of metaphysics and the

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...

of Plato. He is important in expanding the details of the Neoplatonist metaphysical system begun by Iamblichus and most completely delineated by Proclus.''Monad And Dyad As Cosmic Principles In Syrianus'', ''Soul And The Structure Of Being In Late Neoplatonism'', H.J. Blumenthal and A.C. Lloyd, Liverpool University Press, 1982, pp. 1–10. The most valuable remains that we possess are the commentaries on the ''Metaphysics'' of

. In explaining the propositions of Aristotle, he appends the views held by the Neoplatonist school on the subject in hand, and endeavours to establish the latter against the former. In his ''Metaphysics'' commentary Syrianus explains his view of the Monad and the Dyad in a number of places. The One is immediately followed by a supreme monad and dyad. Syrianus describes the monad as masculine and the dyad as feminine. He employs the doctrine of the two cosmic principles to explain the origin of evil. He denies that there are Platonic forms of things which are evil or base. The dyad is indirectly responsible for evil. Syrianus attributes the existence of evil to otherness and plurality, which he believes the dyad is directly responsible for creating. One of his fundamental principles is that it is a proposition of general applicability that the same cannot be both affirmed and denied at the same time of the same thing; but that in any sense involving the truth of either the affirmation or the denial of a proposition, it applies only to existing things, but not to that which transcends speech and knowledge, for this admits neither of affirmation nor of denial, since every assertion respecting it must be false.Syrianus, ''In Met.'' ii. fol. 13, b. On the whole, the doctrines laid down in this work are those of the Neoplatonist school.

Editions

*J. Dillon, D. O'Meara, (2006), ''Syrianus: On Aristotle Metaphysics 13-14''. Duckworth. *D. O'Meara, J. Dillon, (2008), ''Syrianus: On Aristotle Metaphysics 3-4''. Duckworth.

Notes

Sources

* Angela Longo (ed.), ''Syrianus et la métaphysique de l'antiquité tardive: actes du colloque international, Université de Gèneve, 29 septembre-1er octobre 2006.'' (Napoli, Bibliopolis, 2009) (Elenchos, 51). * Sarah Klitenic Wear, ''The Teachings of Syrianus on Plato's Timaeus and Parmenides. Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval Texts and Contexts'' (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2011) (Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism and the Platonic tradition, 10). *

External links

* *Raw Greek OCR of Rabe's Teubner edition of Syrianus' ''Commentaria in Hermogenem'' at the Lace project of

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University (also Mount A or MtA) is a Canadian primarily undergraduate liberal arts university located in Sackville, New Brunswick, founded in 1839. Mount Allison was the first university in the British Empire to award a baccal ...

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{{Authority control 5th-century Greek philosophers Greek-language commentators on Aristotle Greek-language commentators on Plato Greek educators Neoplatonists in Athens Year of birth unknown 437 deaths 5th-century Byzantine writers Late-Roman-era pagans