Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Reformer of the First Century A.D.

by Mead G. R. S. (George Robert Stow) (Creator)

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Biography

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1901

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

After having so wholeheartedly extolled Mead's Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, I now slide over the spectrum to what might be one of his worst books.

If one really wants to know about Apollonius of Tyana, the place to go is Philostratus' biography available from the Loeb Library. But the ancients are often painful for us moderns to read, so, failing that, Mead's book is a constructive and readable appropriation of that material and the little obtainable elsewhere about the ancient philosopher and thaumaturge.

Here, unlike the Fragments, Mead's own prejudices obtrude. His aim is to set Apollonius up as an alternative to Jesus, a superior alternative, by showing how Apollonius, and others, did what Jesus supposedly did, but better. While is is certainly good to know that miracles, like raising the dead, weren't unique to Jesus but were almost necessary indicators of a religious teacher's authority, Mead's way of making such points displays a distressing animus towards Christianity, an animus which fails to see such virtues as were maintained by the early Church such as its appeal to the poor and downtrodden.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little book about Apollonius of Tyana - the pagan Christ, as he was once called.

Interesting, but really only shows up how very little information we have on the man.

[Tom Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book seems to be written for scholars of Classical Greek and Roman history and literature. It assumes that the reader is familiar with names and references of the era. I struggled a bit. I did, however, appreciate learning about a historical figure of whom I knew very little about

[J's Bookshelves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating; so much historical textual information on Apollonius, and almost none on the Jesus of the Christian Bible, yet who has heard of him?

[Susan Janke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the easiest or most engaging book to read. It is, however, an insightful look into the life of a man who rivaled the qualities of Jesus and who was significantly more well known during his life.