Olumpikos (300 BCE – 77 CE)
Wrote On stones (P 1.ind.37). Wellmann has unconvincingly identified him with
O M. Our Olumpikos is more likely a technical writer, who lived at
the beginning of Vespasian’s reign.
M. Wellmann, “Der Verfasser der Anonymus Londinensis,” Hermes 57 (1922) 396–429, esp. 406, n.4; RE
18.1 (1939) 199 (#2), K. Deichgräber.
Eugenio Amato
Olumpiodo ̄ros (ca 525 – 565 CE)
Platonist philosopher, active in Alexandria. Of his commentaries on P there survive
those on Alcibiades I and Gorgias; that on the Phaidros is lost. Several fragments of commentar-
ies on the Phaedo, as well as a commentary on the Philebos, attributed to Olumpiodo ̄ros, are of
dubious authorship, arguably authored by D. Olumpiodo ̄ros’ work on A
includes the Prolegomena to the Organon, and commentaries on the Categories and Meteorologica.
Olumpiodo ̄ros also authored a biography of Plato and a (lost) commentary on P’
Isagoge upon which depended the Isagoge exegeses of his students Elias and David. Olumpio-
do ̄ros’ commentaries derive from school lectures, as suggested by the recurrence of the term
praxis, probably indicating school hours. The fairly detailed, sometimes repetitive commen-
taries are structured according to lemmata, divided into theoria (interpretation of an issue) and
lexis (interpretation of a specific lemma). Olumpiodo ̄ros relied considerably on A
A regarding the Meteorologica, and on Porphurios for Aristotle’s logic.
Ed.: L.G. Westerink, Olympiodori In Platonis Gorgiam Commentaria (1970); W. Norvin, Olympiodori In
Platonis Phaedonem Commentaria (1913); L.G. Westerink, The Greek Commentaries on Plato’s Phaedo (1976);
A. Busse, Olympiodori Prolegomena et in Categorias Commentarium = CAG 12.1 (1902); G. Stüve, Olympiodori
in Aristotelis Meteora Commentaria = CAG 12.2 (1900).
RE 18.1 (1939) 207–227, R. Beutler; SEP “Olympiodorus,” Chr. Wildberg.
George Karamanolis
Olumpiodo ̄ros of Alexandria (Alch.) (530? – after 565 CE)
Wrote a commentary (CAAG 2.69–106) on a lost treatise of Z entitled The Alexandrian
Philosopher Olumpiodo ̄ros on the Book “Kat’ Energeian” by Zo ̄simos and on the Sayings of Herme ̄s and the
Philosophers (kat’ energeian is “On the Action” or “According to the Action”). Olumpiodo ̄ros
distinguishes himself among the Alexandrian alchemists by his exegesis treating both the
principles of transmutation and the philosophical models of those principles. In the alchem-
ical corpus, Olumpiodo ̄ros is mentioned with S among “the ecumenical masters
celebrated everywhere, the new interpreters of P and A” (CAAG 2.425). The
title of his treatise indicates his Alexandrian origin, and, according to some MSS, he dedi-
cated his work to P.
Olumpiodo ̄ros explicitly presents his commentary as both exegetical and doxographical.
His originality consists in explicitly vindicating Greek philosophy, notably pre-Socratic, as
the epistemological foundation of transmutation. In fact, near the middle of the commen-
tary, Olumpiodo ̄ros sets forth the opinions of nine pre-Socratics (M, P,
T, D, H, H, X, A, and A-
) on the monistic principle of the Universe and then sketches a comparison
between their theses and those of the principle masters of the art of transmutation (Zo ̄simos,
OLUMPIODO ̄ROS OF ALEXANDRIA (ALCH.)