Plutarch and the Mysteries of Philosophy

At the beginning of the Imperial age philosophy is becoming more and more theology. A true philosophy is now viewed as an initiation to divine truths. In this context, the growing importance of mysteries is not surprising, as I will try to show by focusing on Plutarch (most notably the De Iside et Orsiride). Not less important, however, is the relationship with Plato, who already used the language of the mysteries to describe his philosophy (in particular, in the Symposium and in the Phaedrus). The reference to Plato is therefore also very important, and the question arises of evaluating whether Plutarch’s strategy does not also aim at a platonization of a Greek religious experience in an attempt to present Platonism as the heir to the tradition Greek