The Neoplatonist philosopher who mocked a judge by quoting Homer to his face
In short: Hierocles of Alexandria was a brilliant Neoplatonist teacher who lived in the fifth century. Known for his sharp wit and deep commitment to divine providence, he famously defied authority in Constantinople by using a line from the Odyssey to insult a judge, an act that cemented his reputation for fearlessness.
Active around AD 430, Hierocles studied under the Neoplatonist Plutarch in Athens before returning to his native Alexandria to teach. His life was marked by intellectual rigor and occasional conflict. After being banished from Alexandria, he relocated to Constantinople, where he eventually faced a legal trial. According to the biographer Damascius, Hierocles was physically assaulted by his captors. In a defiant gesture, he wiped his own blood onto his hand and splattered the judge, mocking the Christian eucharist by comparing the official to the man-eating Cyclops from Homer’s epic.
While Hierocles never explicitly mentions Christianity in his surviving texts, scholars have long debated whether his work represents a subtle attempt to reconcile traditional Greek religious thought with the rising Christian influence he encountered in the capital. His philosophy was distinct from the Athenian school of Neoplatonism, as he rejected their complex hierarchies of entities in favor of a more streamlined approach. His teachings were a synthesis of Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic elements, often focusing on the nature of providence and the human soul.
His most enduring legacy is his commentary on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, a work that remained highly influential throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In his treatise on providence, Hierocles argued against the fatalism of astrology, insisting that the universe is governed by a rational, divine order rather than irrational necessity. He also cautioned against theurgic rituals and magic, viewing them as misguided attempts to bypass the natural providential structure of the cosmos. Today, he is distinguished from the earlier Stoic philosopher of the same name, a confusion that was finally resolved by the discovery of ancient papyri in 1906.
It is important to note that many works once attributed to him were later misidentified. For instance, the Philogelos, a famous collection of ancient jokes, is now known to be a later compilation unrelated to the philosopher. Similarly, fragments of ethical writings once thought to be his have been correctly reassigned to a first or second-century Stoic thinker. By separating these layers, historians have gained a clearer view of Hierocles as a singular, courageous voice in the late antique world.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Hierocles of Alexandria
- Also: Hierocles Of Alexandria | Neoplatonism, Stoicism, Ethics | Britannica
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