Showing a limited preview of this publication:
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to examine the use of the verb ἁπλόω and the noun ἅπλωσις in the texts of the early centuries AD, and to show that in the famous description of ‘mystical’ experience by Plotinus (En. VI, 9 [9], 11, 22–26) ἅπλωσις means not a “simplifying” (of oneself), but rather a “self-opening” of someone who is ready to experience an ineffable union with the Beginning of all things. The article also shows that by the words ἅπλωσον σεαυτόν the stoic philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius (Ad se ipsum IV, 26) encouraged himself not to “seek to be simple”, but to “open” himself and “relax” with confidence in the sense and reason of the divine order of the universe.
Published Online: 2010-06-30
Published in Print: 2010-06
© by Akademie Verlag, Berlin, Germany
