Grammatophagy, mythophagy and historico-epochalconsciousness in the Philosophical History

a perspective fromliterary theory

Abstract

The theorizing about the ancient novel in the works of Jacyntho Lins Brandão, especially in “The invention of the novel”, mobilizes some theoretical concepts that transcend the mere formal analysis of fictional prose and provide general reflections within the scope of theories of the human sciences. This article aims to discuss the application of one of these categories – grammatophagy – to certain theoretical formulations about the relationship between historical change, literary genres and the theory of mythology in the Philosophical History, by the Neoplatonist Damascius. Written around 515-525, the Philosophical History, also known as “Life of Isidore”, is a compendium of prose narratives about the lives and misadventures of philosophers from the schools of Athens and Alexandria between the 4th and 5th centuries of the Common Era, and combines elements of the genres of biography, history, patriography and paradoxography. Damascius mobilizes a series of topoi and symbols from Greco-Roman pagan culture in his narrative, creating a kind of poetic and alchemical laboratory of pagan paideia in contrast to the Christian paideia that was then established as an epistemic model. Damascius’ reflection can be defined as grammatophagic or “mythophagic” and constitutes a good theoretical example of how the prose narrative of late antiquity – or post-antiquity – combines elements of different literary and poetic genres linked to the expression of the Greco-Roman mythological heritage. By way of conclusion, I will defend the embryonic idea that the concept of “grammatophagy” can also be qualified as “mythophagy” in Damascius, considering the close relationship between the literary genres mobilized by Damascius and pagan mythology, being an important interpretative tool for the historian of the post-Plotinian Neoplatonism.