ABSTRACT
This chapter explores personification and anthropomorphism in several areas of Neo-Platonic interest. The philosophical ambivalence towards personification has many tributaries, most of which may be traced to later reactions to Platonic values. The beauty prize is given to the vain Cassiopeia, who in the myth had incurred the wrath of Amphitrite and Poseidon. The prize is judged by the personified rhetorical virtues of Persuasion and Judgement. The Neo-Platonists took aesthetics much more seriously than Plato and were responsible for its growth through the middle Ages. For Plotinus, the experience of beauty brings humans closest to the experience of the ineffable. The human-faced representation of gods and abstract qualities is an obvious case of personification. The philosophers of the Alexandrian School, notably Olympiodorus, offer a favourable view of myths and anthropomorphism among the NeoPlatonists and suggest how to translate them to fit different audiences. Lamberton, however, has distanced allegory in the interpretive tradition from personification.
