sdi: Oil painting of the Heliconian Muse whispering inspiration to Hesiod. (Default)
[personal profile] sdi

Thomas Taylor is the kind of person whose footnotes have footnotes.

Date: 2021-11-02 06:50 pm (UTC)
boccaderlupo: Fra' Lupo (Default)
From: [personal profile] boccaderlupo
To be sure, I know what these terms mean to me, but temporaryreality and you bring up a salient point: many times these philosophers are using technical terms that may have niche connotations lost on you or I.

At the same time, I suspect Sallustius was not necessarily writing for the technical philosopher but rather for the pagan layperson with some education (not that this necessarily helps much, given the gulf of time and culture...)

It's enough for me that I feel like I get what he is saying. My fatal flaw, I suppose...:)

Axé

Date: 2021-11-02 06:59 pm (UTC)
boccaderlupo: Fra' Lupo (Default)
From: [personal profile] boccaderlupo
Indeed! That might be edifying for all of us--raising questions, perhaps, that I was not even aware of that were lurking in the background.

For what it's worth, I have the translation by Arthur Darby Nock, which contains a lot of useful references (perhaps not as dense as Taylor's.)

I also have to give plugs for Iamblichus (On the Mysteries, especially for you diviners out there) and Proclus here (especially Elements of Theology), and of course Plato's Timaeus, which I think are useful background material, as well. Plotinus of course has the Enneads, but...well, our time in these incarnations is limited.

Axé

Date: 2021-11-03 09:16 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] barefootwisdom
For Taylor in particular, this little glossary may be helpful: https://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/html/glossary.html

Or it may just push the problem back a level... :)

Date: 2021-11-03 09:17 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] barefootwisdom
(I meant to post this under the matroyshkas. Whoops.)

Date: 2021-11-03 10:45 pm (UTC)
boccaderlupo: Fra' Lupo (Default)
From: [personal profile] boccaderlupo
This is very useful, and underscores how we are delving into technical terminology ("participation" gets quite a workout, but I remain impressed at how [personal profile] ecosophia managed to deftly incorporate that one in his recent definition of magic (I believe on the other blog). These terms are encountered throughout the Neoplatonist literature, to boot.

Axé

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