“Invisible Things on Visible Forms”: Pedagogy and Anagogy in Porphyry’s Περί ἀγαλμάτων

This study examines Porphyry of Tyre’s fragmentary work Περί ἀγαλμάτων (On Statues) and suggests that it was a pedagogical document designed to instruct budding philosophers in the adoption of a proper attitude towards the ritual image. This component of philosophical training was one way that the educated philosopher could distinguish himself or herself from the ignorant masses that viewed statues merely as carved stone. Philosophy was about more than the cementing of one’s social status, however; rather, psychic union with the divine was the ultimate goal of the late Platonist program and On Statues contributes to the attainment of this end. The treatise and the images described therein served to remind the philosopher of the true qualities of the gods. More important, however, is what the very existence of the document says about Porphyry’s view of the ritual image. A divine statue was no Tylorian construct, existing without any connection to the thing it represented, but had philosophical value and, further, had a very real connection to the gods. These claims will be fleshed out more fully through an examination of Platonic/Socratic and Plotinian theories about writing and statues, respectively.