Hisdosus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hisdosus (fl. c. 1100), also known as Hisdosus Scholasticus, was a writer and scholar who lived in the early 12th century.[1] Nothing is known about his life. His first name is unknown, but he states that "I call myself Hisdosus, taken from the name of my father."[2]
A Latin commentary by him on Calcidius' translation of Plato's Timaeus survives in manuscript.[3] He comments on the passage in the Timaeus (34b–36d) that deals with the World Soul.[4] The commentary depends on the glosses by the French scholastic philosopher William of Conches on the Timaeus, and it has been supposed that he may have been a pupil of William of Conches.[4]
Hisdosus' commentary is the only source (albeit in Latin paraphrase) for Heraclitus' comparison of the soul to a spider and the body to the spider's web (DK 22B 67a).[5]