Hellenizing School (Arm., Yunaban Dproc; ca 570 – ca 730)
This term has been given to a group of translators, many unknown, who were responsible
for the translation of numerous Greek, predominantly philosophical, texts into Armenian,
betraying an overwhelming interest in things Greek on the part of the Armenians during
this period. These Armenian translators seem all to have been associated with the school in
Constantinople, and the translations are characterized by an ever-increasing tendency to
provide literal translations, even to the point of rendering Greek verbal prefixes by a single
corresponding Armenian prefix. Beginning, most likely, with the translation of the grammar
of Dionusios Thrax, and other such works, the “corpus” includes works of certain con-
temporary ecclesiastics, works of and commentaries on P, A, P,
and especially on P A. In addition, there were also a number of
scientific works translated into Armenian during this period, including: the H;
the De Animalibus of P ; pseudo-Aristotle, De Mundo (O K);
A, Phainomena; N E, De natura hominis; G N, De
hominis opificio; and two anonymous treatises, On Nature. Some original works in Armenia,
largely based on classical sources, were also composed during this period, most notably the
works of A S and the commentaries on the works of Philo ̄n. The transla-
tions from this period are very important for the later development of Armenian thought,
but in not a few cases are also of importance as the Greek original has been lost.
H. Manandyan, Yunaban Dproceˇ ew nra zargacman Sˇrjˇannereˇ [The Hellenizing School and the (chrono-
logical) Limits of its Activity] (1928); A. Terian, “The Hellenizing School: Its Time, Place, and
Scope of Activities Reconsidered,” in N.G. Garsoïan et al., edd., East of Byzantium (1982) 175–186.
Edward G. Mathews, Jr.
H ⇒ V
H ⇒ E
Hephaistio ̄n of Egyptian The ̄bai (420 – 450 CE)
Egyptian author of an astrological treatise in Greek, Apotelesmatika, in three books addressed
to one Athanasios. He used his own birth-date, November 26, 380 CE, to demonstrate a
technique of retrocalculating a date of conception. Large parts of Hephaistio ̄n’s work are
paraphrased from P’s Tetrabiblos, but he acknowledges other sources, including fre-
quent citations of D S and A N. Of particular
value for the history of earlier Greek astrology and its relations to first-millennium BCE
Egyptian and Mesopotamian astral divination are two chapters (1.21 and 1.23) wherein he
summarizes methods of the “old Egyptians” of making prognostications for entire geo-
graphical regions on the basis of eclipses, comets, and the rising of Sirius.
Ed.: D.E. Pingree, Hephaestionis Thebani Apotelesmaticorum Libri Tres (1973).
Alexander Jones
He ̄raiskos of Egypt (ca 480 – 495 CE)
Studied Neo-Platonic philosophy under P to whom he dedicated a work on the
general doctrine of the Egyptians (D, De princ. 3.167.20–21 W.-C.). He may have
HE ̄RAISKOS OF EGYPT