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Βίος και Φιλοσοφία: Ο Διογένης Λαέρτιος στο Βυζάντιο. Κριτική εισαγωγή
Αραμπατζής , Γεώργιος
This is the second part of a paper published in Philosophia, 38, 2008, about Bios and Philosophy in Diogenes Laertius. The present article in prolonging relevant elements from the first part focuses on the influence of Laertius' Lives of the Philosophers in Byzantine culture. The mss. of the work come from this era and they belong to two great Byzantine sources: an Italian-Greek and an Eastern tradition of codices. There was also a tradition of Excerpta - one being the Souda - that according to most scholars contributes to our understanding of the original text and also various Byzantine anthologies of philosophical Apophthegmata and Sentences of Laertian origine; there is also the edition of Laertian epigrams - much appreciated by Nietzsche, and more recently by Marcello Gigante -, in the Palatine and the Planudean Anthologies. The paper examines the important studies of Tiziano Doranti on the presence of Laertius' Lives in Byzantium, mostly in the 10th Centu¬ry, but also in the post-Byzantine period with Michael Apostolios' Ionia (15th Century). The main point of interest in Dorandi's studies is philological and partly eidetic but the scholar does not adventure into the hermeneutic or greater eidetic areas of research; on the occasion, it is described what these two latter approaches would consist of. The present paper is a critical introduction attempting to perceive the hermeneutical possibilities that are offered by the use of the Laertian Lives' model in Byzantine thought. An example of hermeneutical desideratum for the re¬search is the relations between Laertius and Christian literature on the problem of the origin of philosophy that for Laertius is solely Greek. Luciano Canfora formulated the hypothesis of a polemic between Laertius and Clement of Alexandria on this particular subject. The paper follows II. Ramelli's studies concerning this topic and her exposition of the points of divergence but also of convergence between Laertius and Clement and Laertius and Tatian. Subsequently, the question of the origin of philosophy is examined in the limits of the Byzantine tradition (Gregory of Nyssa, Photius, the Excerpta) and it is concluded that for this tradition the choice of the Greek origin is accompanied by an interest for the classificatory schema of philosophical schools that was produced by Laertius.
Academy of Athens
