 To some extent, Elias’ introduction to philosophy brings out the individual character and temperament of the author. He comes across as a very lively lecturer who dazzled his students with quotations and allusions of many kinds. For example, in his 12 introductory lectures, Plato is mentioned 22 times; there are 15 quotations from Homer as well as numerous scattered references to Aristotle, Plotinus, Proclus, Marinus, Hierocles, Pythagoras, Archilochus, Theognis, Herodotus, Callimachus, Demosthenes, Sophocles, Euripides, Menander, Galen and an unnamed Stoic. Moreover, Elias repeatedly emphasizes the Platonic-Neoplatonic conviction that the purpose of philosophy is the transformation or assimilation of a human being to the godhead, a genuinely Platonic ideal explicitly stated in the Theaetetus, 176A-B. Given that by the late 6th century a professor in Alexandria, or anywhere else in the Eastern empire, would address a predominantly, if not exclusively, Christian audience, these remarks give one pause, especially if one believes that they stem from an author who, if the attribution to “Elias” can be trusted, himself subscribed to Christianity. For a Christian, of course, drawing near the godhead would not be the result of reading and embracing Platonic philosophy but of divine grace that depended on faith.