Neoplatonic Virtue: Four Derivations of the Theia Mania

Neoplatonic Virtue: Four Derivations of the Theia Mania

In this session we continue reading Hermias of Alexandria's preliminary theōria on the four divine madnesses in his commentary on Plato's Phaedrus. We work through three further derivations of why there are exactly these four madnesses: from the three kinds of wholeness (the whole in the part, out of the parts, and before the parts), from Pythagorean number theory (Muses/9, Dionysus/3, Apollo/1, Love/the One prior to the monad), and from the logical procedures of definition, division, analysis, and the highest genera. Along the way we discuss what actually makes the madnesses mad rather than just rational ascent in disguise — the answer being that each is a divine shortcut that achieves instantaneously what philosophical training can only reach slowly, if at all. We also compare the Platonic picture with Al-Farabi's very different account of prophecy as philosophical rhetoric for popular consumption, and argue that for Hermias and Proclus the hierarchy runs the other way: the madnesses are superior to philosophy, not translations of it. The session closes with Hermias' account of the external effects of each madness — metrical speech and rhythmic movement (Muses), purification and exorcism (telestic), the unification of past, present, and future in a single prophetic "now" (mantic), and the drawing of students from sensible to intelligible beauty through the teacher relationship (erotic) — and previews Proclus' puzzle about why theurgy ranks first in practical religious life but second-lowest in the internal hierarchy of the soul.

Transcript