Anagogic Rays of the Good: the Sun in the Platonism of Late Antiquity and the Corpus Areopagiticum

Abstract

The essay traces the tradition that compares the visible Sun to the intelligible Good and extends from Plato to the Corpus Areopagiticum. The peculiarities of representation of the Sun and its rays in Corpus Hermeticum is treated. The anagogic and psychagogic function of the Sun rays in the works of such Neoplatonists as Julian and Proclus is pointed out and analyzed. It is shown that in some passages they allude to the Chaldaean Oracles. In what concerns the Corpus Areopagiticum the passages that discuss the similarities in the role and function of the Sun and the Good are under consideration; polysemantic image of “chain of great light” is analyzed, as also the symbolism of rays of light and metaphysics of light.