Abstract
One of the most interesting fi gures in the history of the Late learning and education is Horapollo Egyptian, who is commonly referred to in connection with the authorship of the treatise on hieroglyphs. The authors clarify the information after the Suda, that there were two Horapollo – a grandfather and a grandson. Of a particular interest is the activity of Horapollo The Younger as a teacher of the school and the scholarch in Menouthis near Alexandria. The author tries to specify the differences between this school and the Alexandrian Neoplatonic School at 5–7 centuries AD The main one is that the school was originally Horapollo rhetorical, and the chair of philosophy appeared later. At the same time the same teachers could teach at both schools. It is impossible to prove identity of these schools, they were different and autonomous. Unlike Christianized school of Ammonius (preserved philosophical teaching of the foundations of the new situation), Horapollo refused to adopt of Christianity and make a compromise with the church, continued to maintain pagan theurgical practices, as a result his school did not survive his scholarch (493–500 AD). Horapollo had a personal drama too: being under investigation during the persecution of the school, his mansion was robbed by his wife. The persecution of the school and its scholarch, which led eventually to its closure, associated with an episode of the student Paralius. The question of the authorship of “Hieroglyphics” at the moment cannot be resolved, as the text does not give any additional meaningful and chronological reference points.
Keywords
Horapollo, Alexandria, school, scholarch, philosophy, rhetoric, Neo-Platonism, Philoponi
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