The Consolation of Philosophy

Introduction

Boethius wrote the five books in prison while awaiting execution. The work is a prosimetrum, alternating prose passages with poems in various metres. At the beginning Philosophy drives away the Muses of poetry who feed the prisoner’s grief. In conversation she leads him from the wheel of Fortune via false goods such as wealth and fame to the highest good. Book V asks how divine foreknowledge is compatible with free will, and answers with a definition of eternity as the complete possession of endless life all at once. There are medieval translations into Old English, attributed to King Alfred, and into English by Chaucer.

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Connections

Builds on

• Timaeusc. 360 BCE · Plato