Hermeias
3. A Christian writer, who seems to have lived in the latter half of the second century after Christ, and about the time of Tatianus.
Works
Διασυρμὸς τῶν ἔξω φιλοσόφων
Respecting his life nothing is known, but we possess under his name a Greek work, entitled Διασυρμὸς τῶν ἔξω φιλοσόφων, in which the author holds the Greek philosophers up to ridicule. It is addressed to the friends and relations of the author, and is intended to guard them against the errors of the pagan philosophers. The author puts together the various opinions of philosophers on nature, the world, God, his nature, and relation to the world, the human soul, &c.; shows their discrepancies and inconsistencies, and thus proves their uselessness and insufficiency on those important questions. The author is not without considerable wit and talent, and his work is of some importance for the history of ancient philosophy.
Structure
It is divided into nineteen chapters.
Editions
It was first published with a Latin translation by Seiler at Zurich, 1553, 8vo., and again in 1560, fol. It was subsequently printed in several collections of ecclesiastical writers, e. g. in Morell's Tabul. Compendios. (Basel, 1580, 8vo. p. 189, &c.), in several editions of Justin Martyr, in the edition of Tatianus by W. Worth (Oxford, 1700, 8vo.), in the Auctarium Bibl. Patr. (Paris, 1624, fol.), and in Gallandi's Bibl. Patr. vol. ii. p. 68, &c.
A separate edition, with notes by H. Wolf, Gale, and Worth, was published by J. C. Dommerich, Halle, 1764, 8vo.
Further Information
Comp. Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 114, &c.; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol. i. p. 50.
Confusion with other figures named Hermeias
This Hermeias must not be confounded with Hermeias Sozomenus, the ecclesiastical historian [SOZOMENUS], nor with the Hermeias who is mentioned by St. Augustin (De Haeres. 59) as the founder of the heretical sect of the Henneians or Seleucians, who belongs to the fourth century after Christ. A few more persons of this name are mentioned by Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 114, &c)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.