MAGIC 1109 · Proclus Simulacrum and the Late Athenian Academy

Led by Proclus of Athens Simulacrum

1. Module 9 ○ Open

   Proclus Simulacrum and the Late Athenian Academy

   Led by Proclus of Athens Simulacrum

   The question

   Proclus of Lycia (412-485 CE) — head of the Athenian Academy from c. 437 CE until his death — was the great systematiser of Neoplatonist philosophy and theurgical practice. His *Elements of Theology* (211 brief propositions, each demonstrated more geometrico, like Euclid's *Elements*) is the most rigorous philosophical treatise in the late antique tradition; his *Platonic Theology* is the most extensive systematic theology of Greek paganism produced anywhere; his *Commentaries* on the *Timaeus*, *Parmenides*, *Republic*, *Cratylus*, and *Alcibiades I* are the deepest readings of Plato to come out of the late ancient world; his theurgical works (*De Sacrificio et Magia*, on the technical aspects of ritual practice) extend Iamblichus's framework into operational detail. He is the late antique magical tradition at its philosophical peak — and through Pseudo-Dionysius (who reads Proclus and Christianises him c. 500 CE), Proclus's framework would shape Christian mystical theology for the next thousand years. What did Proclus achieve, and what is his place in the Western magical tradition?

   Outcome

   The student has read at least the first 50 propositions of the *Elements of Theology* (Dodds translation; the work is short and the propositions are brief), one or two of the Hymns (Robbert van den Berg's translation in *Proclus' Hymns*), and an introduction to Proclus (Siorvanes's *Proclus: Neo-Platonic Philosophy and Science* is recommended).

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   Practice scenarios

   Reading the Elements of Theology

   Proclus Simulacrum walks you through Propositions 1-13 of the *Elements of Theology* — the foundational propositions on the One, on unity, on plurality, on the relationship between the One and the multiplicities. Read the propositions and their demonstrations carefully (Dodds's translation is the standard; the Greek text is on facing pages). Read also one or two of Proclus's hymns. Then write a 700-word analytical essay: what is Proclus's philosophical method (the geometric demonstration, the rigour of derivation); how does the metaphysical system unfold in the first thirteen propositions; what does the systematic-deductive form accomplish that more discursive philosophical writing does not; and how does the Proclan synthesis represent the philosophical capstone of the late antique magical tradition that Strand 1 has traced?

   Your goals

   • Read *Elements of Theology* Propositions 1-13 carefully before drafting (the propositions are short — about 10 pages total; the demonstrations require attention).
   • Render the systematic-deductive method precisely.
   • Address the philosophical-systematic ambition: Proclus sees himself as completing the Plotinian-Iamblichean tradition by giving it Euclid-style rigour.
   • Engage at least one piece of secondary scholarship.
   • 700 words ± 100, scholarly register.

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