1Hermias opens his satire by setting the philosophers' conflicting definitions of the soul against Paul's word that the world's wisdom is foolishness with God.
2Hermias mocks the philosophers who turn his soul into every creature and toss him from Anaxagoras to Parmenides, Anaximenes, Empedocles, Protagoras, Thales, Anaximander, Archelaus, Plato and Aristotle.
6Hermias continues his mockery with Pherecydes, Leucippus, Democritus, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Cleanthes and the Academic sceptics, who declare that nothing can be known.
8Hermias mocks the Pythagorean geometry of the elements.
9Hermias imagines himself measuring the ether, the sea and the earth with Pythagoras's cubit.
10Epicurus's infinite worlds drive Hermias into endless measuring; he concludes that the philosophers' inquiry is endless and useless.
authentic · Transmitted under the name of Hermias, of whom nothing else is known.
Standing
Not honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions. Writer in the church of his time, not venerated by any of the three traditions.
Older English translation
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (public domain, at CCEL; for comparison: our translation is made from the original first and checked against it afterwards) · ANF 2 prints "The Satire of Hermias" in 10 chapters; it was not available in the copy used for checking, so this translation was re-read against the Greek.
Date
3rd–6th century (disputed) (disputed) · Dates proposed range from the late 2nd to the 6th century; there is no external evidence.
Written at
Unknown (disputed)
Language
Greek
Genre
apology
Reference system
chapter (1–10, as in Migne's PG 6); where the scan lost a chapter's start, that chapter is inside the preceding passage, marked [n].
SBL abbreviation
Irris.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPG 1113
Text from
J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Graeca 6 (Paris: Migne, 1857) (Printed edition in the public domain; archive.org OCR of public-domain page images)
Critical editions
H. Diels, Doxographi Graeci (Berlin: Reimer, 1879), 649–656 (cited, not reproduced)