SOURCE: Flinterman, Jaap-Jan. “The Main Character.” In Power, Paideia & Pythagoreanism: Greek Identity, Conceptions of the Relationship between Philosophers and Monarchs and Political Ideas in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius, pp. 60-66. Amsterdam, Netherlands: J. C. Gieben, 1995.

In the following excerpt, Flinterman discusses Apollonius of Tyana, examining the ontological status of the main character, and expounding on Philostratus's attitude toward magic and his hero.

At numerous points in his work Philostratus explicitly states his intention of offering his readers a view of Apollonius which deviates from current opinion; in fact, it is at odds with it. Philostratus' view can be summarised as follows: Apollonius was a Pythagorean philosopher whose exceptional wisdom earned him the reputation of being a supernatural, divine being.¹ Philostratus provides an explicit statement of this objective in the programmatic chapters which introduce the book. VA (Life of Apollonius of Tyana) 1.1 deals with Pythagoreanism, and is directly followed...