Abstract
Aesthetic themes and their theological use are prominent in the Corpus Dionysiacum. Scholars agree that the language employed to deal with them has its origins in Proclus. However, two main points are worth being underlined in Proclus: his distinctions between images and symbols, and similarity and dissimilarity. These distinctions become of crucial importance in his Commentary on Plato’s Republic, where Proclus strives to distinguish poetic genres by the opposition between a symbolic and an iconic method of exegesis. Pseudo-Dionysius uses this opposition in his treatises, namely the Celestial Hierarchy and the Ecclesiatical Hierarchy. In the former dissimilar images are linked to biblical exegesis, in the latter sacraments are described and used as mimetic and imitative of the actions and life of Jesus. Far from being a mere embellishing element, images, and symbols are the instruments through which Pseudo-Dionysius builds his hierarchical cosmos.
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Tavolaro, A. (2020). Eikon and Symbolon in the Corpus Dionysiacum: Scriptures and Sacraments as Aesthetic Categories. In: Dell’Acqua, F., Mainoldi, E. (eds) Pseudo-Dionysius and Christian Visual Culture, c.500–900. New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24769-0_2
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