Hisdosus (fl. c. 1100), also known as Hisdosus Scholasticus, was a writer and scholar who lived in the early 12th century. Nothing is known about his life. His first name is unknown, but he states that "I call myself Hisdosus, taken from the name of my father."

History

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

commentary by him on

Calcidius Calcidius (or Chalcidius) was a 4th-century philosopher (and possibly a Christian) who translated the first part (to 53c) of Plato's ''Timaeus'' from Greek into Latin around the year 321 and provided with it an extensive commentary. This was like ...

' translation of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

's ''

Timaeus Timaeus (or Timaios) is a Greek name. It may refer to: * ''Timaeus'' (dialogue), a Socratic dialogue by Plato *Timaeus of Locri, 5th-century BC Pythagorean philosopher, appearing in Plato's dialogue *Timaeus (historian) (c. 345 BC-c. 250 BC), Greek ...

'' survives in manuscript. He comments on the passage in the ''Timaeus'' (34b–36d) that deals with the World Soul. The commentary depends on the glosses by the French scholastic philosopher

William of Conches William of Conches (c. 1090/1091 – c. 1155/1170s) was a French scholastic philosopher who sought to expand the bounds of Christian humanism by studying secular works of the classics and fostering empirical science. He was a prominent membe ...

on the ''Timaeus'', and it has been supposed that he may have been a pupil of William of Conches. Hisdosus' commentary is the only source (albeit in Latin paraphrase) for

Heraclitus Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote ...

' comparison of the soul to a spider and the body to the spider's web ( DK 22B 67a).

Charles H. Kahn Charles H. Kahn (born May 29, 1928) is a classicist and professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. His work is focused on early Greek philosophy, up to the times of Plato. His 1960 monograph on Anaximander was still as ...

, (1981), ''The art and thought of Heraclitus'', p. 289. Cambridge University Press.

References

{{authority control Commentators on Plato Scholastic philosophers 12th-century Latin writers 12th-century philosophers