Androcidus is a Pythagorean who wrote a treatise On the Pythagorean symbols [1] preserved in disparate fragments. The exact dating of his life has not been established; it is known for certain that he lived before the 1st century BC. e. [2] , probably in the IV century BC. e. . The frequency with which Androkides is mentioned in other works shows that he was an important source for the subsequent Pythagorean tradition, and it is of interest from the point of view of studying the historical development of philosophical and literary Symbolism . [3]
| Androcidus | |
|---|---|
| Greek Ἀνδροκύδης | |
| Scientific field | Symbol |
| Known as | author of the treatise On Pythagorean symbols , interpreter of Ephesus |
Symbols and Magic
Androcidus considered the Ephesian letters , “magic words” (“barbarian names”) used in spells and inscriptions on talismans , as an allegorical language with religious meaning, “a hidden form of natural theology .” [4] Androkid interprets words through their phonetic and lexical similarities with greek language. His most famous commentary of this kind is the interpretation of the famous inscription askion kataskion lix tetrax damnameneus aision [5] stored in the work of Clement of Alexandria :
| The Pythagorean Androkides ... said that the so-called Ephesian writings have a symbolic order: Askion, "devoid of shadow" means darkness, since there are no shadows in darkness. Kataskion, "shadow", means light, because it illuminates the shadow, reveals it with its rays. Lix means the earth, its ancient name, and Tetrax is the year, its four times, Damnameneus is the Sun, ruling everything ('o damnazon), and Aisia is the true voice. The whole symbol means: "Everything divine forms the cosmos, darkness for light, the sun for the year, the earth in order to give rise to all growth." [6] |
Notes
- ↑ Also referred to as Pythagorean Symbols ; Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Red Wheel / Weiser, 1987), p. 93 online.
- ↑ The first reference to the work of Androkid in the grammar of the 1st century BC. e. Tryphon .
- ↑ Peter Struck, Birth of the Symbol (Princeton University Press, 2004), p. 99 online ; Struck regards the magico-religious performative power of the Pythagorean symbol as exceeding the methodological confines of conventional semiotics .
- ↑ Richard Gordon, "Imagining Greek and Roman Magic," in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), p. 236 online.
- ↑ ἀσκιον κατασκιον λιξ τετραξ δαμναμενευς αἰσιον.
- ↑ Clement of Alexandria , Stromates V, VIII.45.2-3, Russian. per. E.V. Afonasina.