Post-Hellenistic Perspectives on Divination, the Individual, and the Cosmos

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19005667
AutoresElsa Giovanna Simonetti (0000-0002-5634-780X, KU Leuven, Belgium [email protected], autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume65
Fascículo2
Páginas82-102
Data de publicação2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Analysis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0155-977X • E-ISSN: 1558-5727
EditoraBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/sa.2021.650205
OpenAlexW3201164055
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas22

This article investigates the relation between ancient divinatory theories and ontological assumptions about individuals, the gods, and the cosmos through the writings of Dio Chrysostom, Epictetus, and Maximus of Tyre—three philosophers who belong to the first Roman imperial age. By exploring their works in light of recent anthropological studies, this article will discuss how different divinatory systems generate, and are embedded in, specific ontologies. All three writers analyze divination as a means to bridge contingency and transcendence and to situate individuals within the cosmos. As such, their analysis of divination relates to specific ontological systems: a mono-ontology reducible to one divinematerial principle for Epictetus, and the poly-ontology of a graduated cosmos for Dio Chrysostom and Maximus of Tyre

Art · Art history · Contingency · Divination · Epistemology · John Chrysostom · Literature · Ontology · Theology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Computer Science · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices