Aedesia ( grc-gre, Αἰδεσία) was a
philosopher of the
Neoplatonic school who lived in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
in the fifth century AD. She was a relation of
Syrianus
Syrianus ( grc, Συριανός, ''Syrianos''; died c. 437 A.D.) was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, and head of Plato's Academy in Athens, succeeding his teacher Plutarch of Athens in 431/432 A.D. He is important as the teacher of Proclus, and, ...
and the wife of
Hermias, and was equally celebrated for her beauty and her virtues. After the death of her husband, she devoted herself to relieving the wants of the distressed and the education of her children,
Ammonius and
Heliodorus
Heliodorus is a Greek name meaning "Gift of the Sun". Several persons named Heliodorus are known to us from ancient times, the best known of which are:
*Heliodorus (minister) a minister of Seleucus IV Philopator c. 175 BC
* Heliodorus of Athen ...
. She accompanied the latter to
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, where they went to study philosophy, and was received with great distinction by all the philosophers there, and especially by
Proclus, to whom she had been betrothed by Syrianus, when she was quite young. She lived to a considerable age, and her funeral oration was pronounced by
Damascius
Damascius (; grc-gre, Δαμάσκιος, 458 – after 538), known as "the last of the Athenian Neoplatonists," was the last scholarch of the neoplatonic Athenian school. He was one of the neoplatonic philosophers who left Athens after laws ...
, who was then a young man, in
hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...
verses.
[Damascius apud Photium Cod. 242, p. 341b. ed. Bekker]
Notes
References
*
5th-century Byzantine women
5th-century philosophers
Ancient Greek women philosophers
Neoplatonists
Ancient Alexandrians
Ancient Roman philosophers
Roman-era students in Athens
Late-Roman-era pagans
5th-century Roman women
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