Literature and religion are equally expansive fields; few thinkers can summon the authority and wisdom to write compellingly and with equal conviction across both. Among the ancient Greeks, only Plato, Plutarch and Plotinus (along with his successor and editor Porphyry) could really lay that claim. The three “Pls,” indeed, mark the three stages of Platonism: the originator, the greatest “middle-Platonist,” and the most influential “neo-Platonist.” Plutarch, however, stands apart. He was the least doctrinal and the most experimental of all three: his huge oeuvre ranges across biography, political advice, witty forays into vegetarianism and animal rights, dialogues on sexuality, religious essays, a grief-laden letter to his mourning wife, sympotic questions—even (in the Greek and Roman Questions) an ancient form of cultural theory. There is no overarching Plutarchan theory of everything: most of his texts are relatively short (at least compared to Plato’s Republic and Laws, or Plotinus’ Enneads). In its kaleidoscopic variety, however, the Plutarchan corpus touches on almost every aspect of human (and even non-human) life.
Frederick Brenk, who sadly passed away in December 2022, devoted a scholarly lifetime to explicating the complexities of Plutarch’s thought in all its variety. Plutarch was his intellectual interlocutor for over fifty years: during that time Brenk produced a stream of brilliantly lucid, provocative and wise studies. What characterises his own scholarly oeuvre is a unique combination of qualities: a laser-like attention to detail, a humane grasp of the underlying moral issues, and a joy in the richness of language and ideas. What is more, he always saw Plutarch as part of an interconnected ecosystem of early Roman thought. Tempting though it is for those who enter the Plutarchan rabbit-warren to stay down there, Brenk drew our attention to those points of intersection with other major texts and writers of the time, whether Jewish and Christian or from the so-called “Second Sophistic.” The collection of essays you have in your hands exemplifies these approaches perfectly. There is no better periegetic guide to escort us through the labyrinthine landscape of Plutarch’s thought.
Tim Whitmarsh
Timothy John Guy Whitmarsh, FBA, is a British Classicist and the second A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge. He is best known for his work on the Greek literary culture of the Roman Empire, especially the Second Sophistic and the ancient Greek novel.