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Damascius°

DAMASCIUS° (sixth century C.E.), the last head of the neoplatonist school. In his Vita Isidori he states that Theosebius, disciple of Hierocles, exorcised a demon from his master's wife by invoking the rays of the sun and the God of the Hebrews. He also tells in the same book that in the fifth century Marinus, successor of Proclus as chief of the neoplatonic school, was originally from Neapolis, modern Nablus (in the immediate vicinity of Shechem) a city built at the foot of Mount Gerizim, where there was a temple of Zeus Hypsistos which had been consecrated by Abraham, ancestor of the Hebrews. Marinus, he continues, was originally a Samaritan who later repudiated the doctrines of this sect (which he accused of having deviated from the faith of Abraham) and embraced Hellenism.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.