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endymions_bowerHere is the famous passage from Hermias' Phaedrus commentary with the esoteric interpretation of the Iliad. This was obviously fully worked out somewhere, but we don't possess it:
"It will be convenient to set out the interpretation of Helen and Ilium and the war between the Greeks and Trojans as well [at this point] ... Let us, then, understand Ilium as the generated and enmattered region, having got the name 'Ilium' from 'mud' (ilus) and 'matter' (hylē), in which there is also war and faction. The Trojans [will then be] the enmattered forms and all the life-styles associated with bodies, which is why the Trojans are said to be aboriginals (ithagenēs), for the life-styles associated with bodies and the irrational souls all treat matter as belonging to them (oikeios). And the Greeks [will be] the rational souls travelling from Greece, that is to say, from the intelligible [realm], into matter, which is why the Greeks are called 'latecomers' (epēlus) and overcome the Trojans as belonging to a superior order. Battle breaks out between them over an apparition (eidōlon) of Helen, as the poet says: 'Thus it was over an apparition that the Trojans and the noble Greeks hacked the bulls-hide shields covering on another's breasts' (Il. 5.451-2), where Helen signifies intelligible beauty, which is a kind of 'attractor of intellect' (helenoē) that draws the intellect to it. An emanation of this intelligible beauty then has been granted to matter through the agency of Aphrodite, over which emanation of beauty the Greeks fight as though over a human being. And some, prevailing over matter and successfully rising free of it, depart to the intelligible [realm], their true homeland, while others are held fast in it, which is the life of the many. Accordingly, just as the prophet in the Republic foretells to the souls how they may be led upwards and the thousand and ten thousand year cycles of souls, so too among the Greeks does Chalchas foretell [their] return after ten years, the number ten bearing the mark of a perfect period. And, just as during lives some souls are elevated through philosophy, some through the art of love, others through their kingly or martial [character], so too with the Greeks do some succeed through practical wisdom (phronēsis) and others through their martial or erotic [character], and the journey home is [correspondingly] different [for each of] them," (82,16-83,12, trans. Baltzly & Share).
"It will be convenient to set out the interpretation of Helen and Ilium and the war between the Greeks and Trojans as well [at this point] ... Let us, then, understand Ilium as the generated and enmattered region, having got the name 'Ilium' from 'mud' (ilus) and 'matter' (hylē), in which there is also war and faction. The Trojans [will then be] the enmattered forms and all the life-styles associated with bodies, which is why the Trojans are said to be aboriginals (ithagenēs), for the life-styles associated with bodies and the irrational souls all treat matter as belonging to them (oikeios). And the Greeks [will be] the rational souls travelling from Greece, that is to say, from the intelligible [realm], into matter, which is why the Greeks are called 'latecomers' (epēlus) and overcome the Trojans as belonging to a superior order. Battle breaks out between them over an apparition (eidōlon) of Helen, as the poet says: 'Thus it was over an apparition that the Trojans and the noble Greeks hacked the bulls-hide shields covering on another's breasts' (Il. 5.451-2), where Helen signifies intelligible beauty, which is a kind of 'attractor of intellect' (helenoē) that draws the intellect to it. An emanation of this intelligible beauty then has been granted to matter through the agency of Aphrodite, over which emanation of beauty the Greeks fight as though over a human being. And some, prevailing over matter and successfully rising free of it, depart to the intelligible [realm], their true homeland, while others are held fast in it, which is the life of the many. Accordingly, just as the prophet in the Republic foretells to the souls how they may be led upwards and the thousand and ten thousand year cycles of souls, so too among the Greeks does Chalchas foretell [their] return after ten years, the number ten bearing the mark of a perfect period. And, just as during lives some souls are elevated through philosophy, some through the art of love, others through their kingly or martial [character], so too with the Greeks do some succeed through practical wisdom (phronēsis) and others through their martial or erotic [character], and the journey home is [correspondingly] different [for each of] them," (82,16-83,12, trans. Baltzly & Share).
