Olympiodorus of Alexandria

Olympiodorus the Younger lived in Alexandria during the 6th century CE, where he taught Neoplatonic philosophy from a publicly funded chair. He played an instrumental role in communicating Greek Platonism, learned from elder contemporaries like Ammonius Hermiou, to later generations, including Byzantine philosophers and later European renaissance authors.

Olympiodorus was perhaps the last philosophical teacher active in Mediterranean antiquity not to carry a nominal commitment to Christianity. His immersion in the thought-world of Hellenism, and his extensive references—to myth, literature, art, religion, philosophy—have earned him the title of ‘the first classicist’ from modern scholars.

Read more about Olympiodorus on our Resources and Bibliography page.

This project

Our project focuses on making Olympiodorus’ lectures on the Platonic Alcibiades I more widely available. This dialogue was regarded in late antiquity as the best primary text for introducing Plato for a beginner; thus encountering Olympiodorus’ lectures on this text is a good proxy for engaging with the experience of instruction in a sixth-century Neoplatonist classroom.

On this initial version of our website, you’ll find open-access versions of the Greek text and English translations of Olympiodorus’ lectures (open for suggestions, corrections, and comment), alongside D.S. Hutchinson’s classic English translation of the Alcibiades I itself.

Over the next year, we hope to make available a commentary on the Alcibiades I lectures through a series of video interviews with scholars working on different topics. Updates will be posted on our blog, here.