2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/15/2019 | 4:30 PM - 5:00 PM | Plutarch's silence about the epsilon | Hampton Inn Conference Room
Plutarch's silence about the epsilon
On many other occasions when the subject had been brought up in the school I had quietly turned aside from it and passed it over. (Plutarch, De E apud Delphos 385A; transl. F. C. Babbitt 1962)
In his dialogue De E apud Delphos Plutarch breaks the silence that he had maintained during his time as a teacher in Delphi accepting to finally present his interpretation of the mysterious “E” which hung at the entrance of the temple at Delphi. At first sight, it is not obvious why he left this important symbol unexplained for so long, firstly because of its potential to link the religious tradition of the temple and philosophy, secondly because his teacher Ammonios obviously had no problem doing the same in the year 66 or 67 AD.
Did Plutarch see the meaning of the epsilon as a secret that should not be divulged to the pupils by the priest of Apollo? Was it the complexity of the answer that made Plutarch think twice about explaining it to his students? Was it the result, in the presentation of Ammonios, that Plutarch wanted to keep from the students because it would make them worry about the status of humankind (just God has existence) or because it raised doubts about the traditional polytheistic system because God was presented as the One?
Besides these questions the presentation will discuss the problem of whether we can speak of Plutarch’s opinion when we interpret the statement of Ammonios in the dialogue and link the results with the controversy about a supposed “pagan monotheism” in Plutarch.
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Presenters/Authors
Dr. Peter Loetscher
(), peter.loetscher@theol.unibe.ch;
Since February 2018 Post-Doc at the Institute of New Testament, Bern Switzerland
http://www.neuestestament.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/personen/dr_loetscher_peter/index_ger.html
2012-2016 Ph.D. in Patristics, Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany („Monotheismus in den lateinischen Apologien zwischen Rhetorik und Systematik“; magna cum laude)
Since 2008 Teacher at different Secondary Schools (Gymnasium): Kantonsschule Zürich Nord and Kantonsschule Wohlen: Religious Education and History
2003-2010 B.A. and M.A. in Theology and History, University of Lucerne, Switzerland
*1984 Lucerne, Switzerland
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