Hermias: On Plato Phaedrus 257C-279C, with ‘Syrianus’

A translation of Hermias' lecture notes on Syrianus' seminar on Plato's Phaedrus, accompanied by extensive commentary notes, introduction and indexes.

This third and final volume concludes Hermias' commentary on Plato's Phaedrus. Here, Plato delivers a celebrated critique of writing, and its relationship to orality. Hermias follows him, and adds a general account of good writing. In addition, this volume offers the first English translation of the brief Introduction to Hermogenes'On Styles, which manuscripts attribute—probably mistakenly—to Hermias' teacher Syrianus.

Baltzly and Share discuss the Introduction’s authorship and its relation to the genuine commentaries of Syrianus on the rhetorical treatises of Hermogenes. They illuminate the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric in the Neoplatonic schools, and provide a novel explanation of Neoplatonic commentaries as performances of Platonic literacy in ancient elite education.

This translation offers novel evidence of interest for students of ancient philosophy, rhetorical education, and literature more broadly. It is accompanied by explanatory notes, an introduction, and scholarly apparatus, including indices, glossaries, and bibliography.