Abstract
When Plotinus in the Enneads (I.6.9, 7ff) describes the process of working on one’s own inner statue, this ‘demiurgic’ work is simply an interiorization of the ancient hieratic art (based on the symbolic identity of the microcosmic human body and the animated divine statue) that reveals its true esoteric meaning.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Alliot, M., 1949, Le Culte d’ions a Edfou au temps des Ptolemees, Bibliotheque d’Etude 20/1, vol. 1, Cairo.
Assmann, J., 2001, The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, Ithaca and London.
Assmann, J., 2002, The Mind of Egypt. History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs, New York.
Baly, T. J. C., 1930, ‘Notes on the Ritual of Opening the Mouth’, The Journal of Egyptian Archeology XVI, London, pp. 173–86.
Cornford, F. M., 1997, Plato’s Cosmology. The Timaeus of Plato, Indianapolis.
Damascius, 1959, Lectures on the Philebus Wrongly Attributed to Olympiodorus, L. G. Westerink (ed.), Amsterdam.
Dick, M. B., and Walker, C., 2001, The Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamian Mis Pi Ritual, Winona Lake.
Diodorus, 1933–67, Library of History, C. H. Oldfather et al (trans.), 12 vols, Cambridge MA.
Dodds, E. R., 1984, The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley.
Eunapius, 1921, The Lives of the Sophists, W. C. Wright (ed. and trans.), Cambridge MA.
Faulkner, R. O. (trans.), 1969, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Warminster.
Faulkner, R. O. (trans.), 2001, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, Austin.
Fowden, G., 1982, ‘The Pagan Hoiy Man in Late Antique Society’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 102, pp. 33–59.
Hurowitz, V. A., 2003, ‘The Mesopotamian God Image, From Womb to Tomb’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 123, 1. p. 147–57.
Iamblichus, 1989, Les Mystères d’Égypte, É. des Places (ed. and trans.), Paris.
Julian, 1913–23, The Works of the Emperor Julian, W. C. Wright (trans.), vols I–III, London and Cambridge MA.
Lorton, D., 1999, ‘The Theology of Cult Statues in Ancient Egypt’, in M. B. Dick (ed.), Born in Heaven, Made on Earth. The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East, Winona Lake, pp. 123–210.
Majercik, R. (trans.), 1989, The Chaldaean Oracles, Leiden.
Naydler, J., 1996, Temple of the Cosmos. The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred, Rochester.
Nock, A. D. (ed.) and Festugiere, A. J. (ed. and trans.), 1945–54, Corpus Hermeticum I–IV, Paris.
Plato, 1914, Plato Vol. I, H. N. Fowler (trans.), Cambridge MA.
Plato, 1926, Laws, R. G. Bury (trans.), London.
Plotinus, 1966–88, Plotinus, A. H. Armstrong (trans.), 7 vols, Cambridge MA.
Proclus, 1903–06, In Platonis Timaeum Commentaria, E. Diehl (ed.), Leipzig.
Proclus, 1968–97, Théologie platonicienne, H. D. Saffrey and L. G. Westerink (eds. and trans.), vols 1–6, Paris.
Roberts, A., 2000, My Heart My Mother. Death and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt, Trowbridge.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2009 Algis Uzdavinys
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Uzdavinys, A. (2009). Animation of Statues in Ancient Civilizations and Neoplatonism. In: Vassilopoulou, P., Clark, S.R.L. (eds) Late Antique Epistemology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230240773_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230240773_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-35816-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-24077-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)