Olympiodorus: Commentary on Plato's Gorgias

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willingness to hunt for a deeper meaning in both poetic and philosophic texts could be extended to deeper meanings in Christianity or in traditional Egyptian religion. Olympiodorus did not do this, naturally enough, for, in addition to placing him in further danger, it would have impeded his mission as a Hellenist.

Olympiodorus maintains opposition to Christian doctrine on a variety of issues, refusing, for example, to accept eternal punishment or arguing that suicide can sometimes be justified,Cf. Westerink (1962), xvii-xviii. but ultimately he must be reckoned as accommodating in general terms to the Christian outlook. His position has been characterized as one of "extreme pliability."Westerink (1976), p. 23. The same pliability may be detected in Ammonius. As Verrycken (1990a, 222) says: "This means that one can consider Aristotle’s God, according to one’s point of view, either as the Neoplatonic Good or as the Neoplatonic divine Intellect." Ammonius appears to have been able to take a more unitary view of the world above Soul or to apply precise distinctions depending on the demands of a context, and that is where Olympiodorus’ pliability is most in evidence. But extreme pliability of doctrine, coupled with a firm belief in certain principles, was a characteristic of Socrates too. Olympiodorus lacked Socrates’ profundity, but shared his predecessor’s ability to rise above technical details of doctrine. He may ultimately have smoothed the transition to a fundamentally Christian Platonism at Alexandria.

5. The Curriculum

The Neoplatonist curriculum had been developing since the days when Iamblichus instituted a canon of Platonic dialogues. By Olympiodorus’ time, at least, it did not open with Platonic studies, but began by familiarizing students with the elements of philosophy and the Organon of Aristotle. His master Ammonius established a program for the Alexandrian school: beginning with Porphyry’s Introduction to Aristotle’s Categories, students embarked on Aristotelian logic, studied primarily through his Categories. They would read a life of Aristotle, discuss the various philosophical sects, the works of Aristotle, the basic requirements for the Aristotelian interpreter, and so on.See I. Hadot (1978, p. 149), (1990 intro.). Because Aristotle was already familiar, Olympiodorus’ Plato commentaries treat such