Online Lecture on «Catharsis and Therapy of the Emotions in Iamblichus» by Anne Sheppard
Within the framework of the Research Project “Between Athens & Alexandria. Platonism, 3rd-7th c. CE” (2022-2024) supported by the A. S. Onassis Foundation, the IMS-FORTH, in collaboration with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Center for Hellenistic Studies (ACHS), organizes a monthly online lecture series on late antique Neoplatonism (3rd-7th c. CE).
The series hosts invited talks in English or French by leading scholars in the field. Lectures take place via Zoom at 7pm Athens & Alexandria. Prior registration is required.
The topic of the 2023 talks is "Porphyry, Iamblichus, and 4th Century Neoplatonism".
All welcome!
Οn Wednesday Apr. 26, at 19:00 (Athens time) Professor Emerita Anne Sheppard (Royal Holloway, University of London) will give a lecture on «Catharsis and Therapy of the Emotions in Iamblichus».
Abstract
In his Reply to Porphyry (De mysteriis) I.11 Iamblichus compares the benefits of watching and listening to ecstatic ritual with the effects of tragedy and comedy which stabilize and purify the emotions, making them more moderate (metriōtera). Iamblichus here appears not only to accept the notion of catharsis found in Aristotle’s Poetics and Politics but also to associate this with metriopatheia and so with civic virtue (politikē aretē). Elsewhere, in Reply to Porphyry III.9 and On the Pythagorean Life chs.15 (64) and 25, Iamblichus discusses the role of music in therapy of the emotions. I shall examine the relationship between these passages and Reply to Porphyry I.11 and will argue that for Iamblichus emotional therapy through music is associated with the condition of the soul which later Neoplatonists labelled as ‘natural’ or ‘habituated’ virtue (physikē or ēthikē aretē) rather than with civic virtue.
You can register in advance to our seminar meetings using the following LINK.