ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some central features of Philostratus’ representation of interpretation against the background of earlier scholarly debates about the Corpus Philostrateum and the Second Sophistic. Beginning with Apollonius of Tyana at the Mound of the Brahmans, it outlines debates concerning Damis (the ostensible source for the Life of Apollonius of Tyana), the controversies concerning the status of the gallery in Philostratus’ Imagines as real or fictional and more broadly Philostratus’ attitudes towards the traditions of Hellenism.
