The reader is not, in other words, railroaded into a particular reconstruction of the text any more than is necessary for any grouping of fragments. The choice of themes which Spanu has followed has the advantage that they are each broad and correspond uncontroversially with major foci of the surviving oracles. The fragments are arranged instead by major themes such as ‘The Chaldean Triad’ and ‘The World’s Intelligible Archetype’. The ordering of the fragments by Spanu is not that of the previous editions, though the numbering of des Places’ edition is retained for convenience of reference. Though this book is likely to be difficult going for readers unacquainted with the Chaldean Oracles and with the main features of Proclus’ philosophical system, it has much to offer for readers already interested in, and informed about, these topics. Spanu presents close and detailed analysis of the fragments and frequently offers insightful observations on both the contents of the lost text itself and on Proclus’ use of it in his own philosophical contexts. Information drawn from other late-antique Platonists (especially Damascius) can, of course, offer at least a differing perspective, even if it is not necessarily one that is any closer to the lost, original meaning of the text. By paying closer attention to Proclus’ methods in excerpting and integrating these verses, it is possible to a degree to separate Proclus’ interpretation, and especially his tendency to systematise and refine the contents of the oracles, from the oracles themselves. Given that our access to these fragments is often solely through Proclus, this raises obvious difficulties: how can we determine the extent to which Proclus may have changed the cosmogonic, philosophical and theurgic contents of the oracles when our access to them is in any case possible only through his interpretation? This is a problem of which Spanu is well aware (p.3). The goal of Spanu in the current work is not to produce a new edition of the fragments, though he does consider this a desiderandum, but rather to determine the extent to which Proclus alters the Chaldean Oracles in integrating them into his own philosophical system. For scholars wishing to approach the oracles, much fundamental work has been done in the editions and translations of des Places (into French) and Majercik (into English). The most fertile source of fragments, and the subject of this monograph, is Proclus, who makes frequent use of these verses to connect his own arguments with the words, as he sees them, of the gods themselves. The approximately two hundred fragments of the Oracles which survive come to us through their citations by Platonists for whom they were an authoritative text. For readers of late-antique Platonism the Chaldean Oracles are both inescapable and, in their details at least, often mysterious.
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