Harmonizing Binaries: Hypatia’s Synesius

What is it about?

Hypatia and Synesius lived in a highly divisive time with religious extremism on the rise and the meaning and role of Classical education, philosophy, dream divination as part of theurgy being questioned, redefined, or banned. This is a fresh exploration of Synesius’ Letters, Dion and On Dreams demonstrating that Hypatia as symbol of the unifying and paradigmatic force of philosophy inspired the 5th century bishop to look at the cultural and political tensions of his time through the lens of harmonization and reconciliation. _x000D_ I look at Synesius’ synthesis of Iamblichean and Plotinian tendencies, a binary found in modern scholarship, to show that theurgy was likely part of Hypatia’s teaching within a well-rounded curriculum that included classical paideia and philosophical theoria. Synesius advocates for the importance of paideia, including rhetoric and philosophia as aids in the step-by-step approach to the spiritual ascent, while also acknowledging the value and universal accessibility of theoria reached by desert monks and the dream-divination that everyone can experience in sleep. Paideia makes the fall from the heights of theoria more pleasant, while philosophia (which in Synesius’ mind included theurgy) is essential for purifying the pneuma and making it receptive to divinely inspired dreams. I propose that it was in Hypatia’s school that Synesius internalized a quote (from a lost work of Aristotle) that reconciles the two approaches (curated and amateur) to the ascent.

Featured Image