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Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Books I-IV
This biography of a first-century CE holy man has become one of the most widely discussed literary works of later antiquity. With an engaging style, Philostratus portrays a charismatic teacher and religious reformer from Tyana in Cappadocia (modern central Turkey) who travels across the known world, from the Atlantic to the Ganges. His miracles, which include extraordinary cures and mysterious disappearances, together with his apparent triumph over death, caused pagans to make Apollonius a rival to Jesus of Nazareth.
In a new two-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of Philostratus's third-century work, Christopher Jones provides a freshly edited Greek text and a stylish translation with full explanatory notes. Apollonius of Tyana is by far the longest biography that survives from antiquity. Jones in his Introduction asks how far it is history and how far fiction, and discusses its survival from Late Antiquity to modern times.
In a new two-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of Philostratus's third-century work, Christopher Jones provides a freshly edited Greek text and a stylish translation with full explanatory notes. Apollonius of Tyana is by far the longest biography that survives from antiquity. Jones in his Introduction asks how far it is history and how far fiction, and discusses its survival from Late Antiquity to modern times.
423 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 250
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 15, 2013
This is the first volume of a three volume set in the Loeb Classical Library series published by Harvard University and this review should go for all three volumes.
Not everyone will like Philostratus' account of the life of Apollonius, who may or may not have existed, and who may or may not have been a very wise man, but who, if he did exist, had a pretty full life. He was a born traveller and, believing himself to be a philosopher of the Pythagorean strain, went to India to meet the holy men there to get the real deal that he thought they had: Pythagoras was meant to have derived his beliefs from India. Later he went to Spain, and still later to Egypt and Ethiopia. Eventually he was tried by the Roman emperor Domitian, and acquitted of bizarre charges cooked up against him by his rival Euphrates, who must have been the least Stoic philosopher calling himself a Stoic in history, if Philostratus' account of his doings may be believed.
All this is kind of interesting, but not compelling. I enjoyed reading the life, which is in the first two volumes, and am kind of enjoying reading the letters and "testimonia" in the third. At the moment am deciding whether to be bothered reading Eusebius' trashing of claims of Apollonius' holiness - Eusebius was a Christian reacting to arguments that Apollonius was a miracle worker so what was the big deal about Jesus? - but probably will.
Readers who are pretty familiar with the classical world may get more out of this than others; there are copious references in Philostratus' account to Euripides, Homer, Plato and others in what is a very scrupulously edited edition.
What was missing for me was more philosophy. As a "neo-Pythagorean" Apollonius waxed on and on about philosophy but there is not really much in the way of philosophy as we might expect - as we get from the Epictetus' discourses or Plato's writings. Supposedly Apollonius wrote a now-lost biography of Pythagoras. He went to India to get to the course of Pythogoras' beliefs, and later to Ethiopia to compare notes with a philosophical school known as The Naked Ones. But there really isn't much philosophy in Philostratus' account, and much of what Apollonius is reported as saying is sketchy and often silly.
The letters in the third volume are a tiny bit more "philosophical", but not much. They do show that Apollonius was pretty intelligent, and well-read in philosophy, knowing the difference for example between Stoicism and Epicureanism, as well as the basic ideas of other schools of the time. But it is all pretty sketchy really.
Not everyone will like Philostratus' account of the life of Apollonius, who may or may not have existed, and who may or may not have been a very wise man, but who, if he did exist, had a pretty full life. He was a born traveller and, believing himself to be a philosopher of the Pythagorean strain, went to India to meet the holy men there to get the real deal that he thought they had: Pythagoras was meant to have derived his beliefs from India. Later he went to Spain, and still later to Egypt and Ethiopia. Eventually he was tried by the Roman emperor Domitian, and acquitted of bizarre charges cooked up against him by his rival Euphrates, who must have been the least Stoic philosopher calling himself a Stoic in history, if Philostratus' account of his doings may be believed.
All this is kind of interesting, but not compelling. I enjoyed reading the life, which is in the first two volumes, and am kind of enjoying reading the letters and "testimonia" in the third. At the moment am deciding whether to be bothered reading Eusebius' trashing of claims of Apollonius' holiness - Eusebius was a Christian reacting to arguments that Apollonius was a miracle worker so what was the big deal about Jesus? - but probably will.
Readers who are pretty familiar with the classical world may get more out of this than others; there are copious references in Philostratus' account to Euripides, Homer, Plato and others in what is a very scrupulously edited edition.
What was missing for me was more philosophy. As a "neo-Pythagorean" Apollonius waxed on and on about philosophy but there is not really much in the way of philosophy as we might expect - as we get from the Epictetus' discourses or Plato's writings. Supposedly Apollonius wrote a now-lost biography of Pythagoras. He went to India to get to the course of Pythogoras' beliefs, and later to Ethiopia to compare notes with a philosophical school known as The Naked Ones. But there really isn't much philosophy in Philostratus' account, and much of what Apollonius is reported as saying is sketchy and often silly.
The letters in the third volume are a tiny bit more "philosophical", but not much. They do show that Apollonius was pretty intelligent, and well-read in philosophy, knowing the difference for example between Stoicism and Epicureanism, as well as the basic ideas of other schools of the time. But it is all pretty sketchy really.
August 13, 2019
Not too fond of the title character.
October 28, 2022
If you love to read writings from ancient people then it's ehhh...okay to read this book.
If you don't like being lied to then don't bother with it.
As the story goes, Empress Julia Domina, wife of Emperor Septimius Severus and mother to Caracalla and Greta who was killed by his brother, then co-emperor, in front of his mother commissioned Philostratus to write the story about Apollonius approximately a hundred plus years after his death apparently to appease her son? She died in 217AD and the book was completed some time in 220's.
The book is supposedly the story of a widely traveled Pythagorean philosopher that lived in the time of Jesus Christ and is said to have rivaled Jesus Christ in fame, followers, wisdom, miracles and the like. Whatever the evidence for this is it was poorly demonstrated in books I-IV.
The draw to this book for me was his supposed travel to India to study under tutelage of their religious leaders who at the time and location of his travels would of been either Hindu Brahmins or Buddhist Monks, or off shoots there of. To tell this story Philostratus relied on a discovered manuscript from a purported acolyte named Damis, of Apollonius who supposedly is giving a first hand account of Apollonius and his travels. What comes in the story can be summed up in one word, trite. The wisdom and miracles described seem ineffectual and if you know anything at all about Hinduism or Buddhism there you will find that there is no indication that Apollonius met with any such religious leaders. Void are the descriptions of their religion, rites, philosophies, cosmology, gods, meta physics or what have you. Nothing, zilch.
I dutifully finished the first volume but will not bother with the second volume.
The "you decide" aspect of the story is decided. The book is a crock. Fortunately it was an easy read and I do love the little Loeb books, just not this one. If there is anything to the Apollonius story, Philostratus did not find it, given what was writ in volume I.
If you don't like being lied to then don't bother with it.
As the story goes, Empress Julia Domina, wife of Emperor Septimius Severus and mother to Caracalla and Greta who was killed by his brother, then co-emperor, in front of his mother commissioned Philostratus to write the story about Apollonius approximately a hundred plus years after his death apparently to appease her son? She died in 217AD and the book was completed some time in 220's.
The book is supposedly the story of a widely traveled Pythagorean philosopher that lived in the time of Jesus Christ and is said to have rivaled Jesus Christ in fame, followers, wisdom, miracles and the like. Whatever the evidence for this is it was poorly demonstrated in books I-IV.
The draw to this book for me was his supposed travel to India to study under tutelage of their religious leaders who at the time and location of his travels would of been either Hindu Brahmins or Buddhist Monks, or off shoots there of. To tell this story Philostratus relied on a discovered manuscript from a purported acolyte named Damis, of Apollonius who supposedly is giving a first hand account of Apollonius and his travels. What comes in the story can be summed up in one word, trite. The wisdom and miracles described seem ineffectual and if you know anything at all about Hinduism or Buddhism there you will find that there is no indication that Apollonius met with any such religious leaders. Void are the descriptions of their religion, rites, philosophies, cosmology, gods, meta physics or what have you. Nothing, zilch.
I dutifully finished the first volume but will not bother with the second volume.
The "you decide" aspect of the story is decided. The book is a crock. Fortunately it was an easy read and I do love the little Loeb books, just not this one. If there is anything to the Apollonius story, Philostratus did not find it, given what was writ in volume I.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews