Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP) - Contested Esotericisms at the End of Antiquity: Simplicius, Philoponus, and Olympiodorus

Contested Esotericisms at the End of Antiquity: Simplicius, Philoponus, and Olympiodorus

10/16/24 • 60 min

Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)

We discuss three of the most important thinkers from the final generations of philosophical teaching at Alexandria. One is an upstart Christian. Two are esoteric Platonists of the Golden Chain. One may or may not have been an alchemist.

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The Last Platonists? Philosophic Teaching, Christianity, and Polytheism in Late-Antique Alexandria

We discuss how Platonist philosophical teaching played out at Alexandria before Justinian's edict of 529 and in its aftermath. Featuring cameo appearances from the fall of the western Roman empire and Horapollo's Hieroglyphika.

Next Episode

One Empire, Many Names: Reading “Byzantium” with Anthony Kaldellis

We are delighted to speak with Anthony Kaldellis about ‘Byzantium’, fabled empire full of Greek-speaking Romans which never fell until the fifteenth century, and which plays an outsize role in the history of western esotericism. Come for the historiographical debates about the term ‘Byzantine’, stay for the ‘Byzantine’ court astrology.