Methodius of Olympus

d. c.311. Ecclesiastical writer. Few biographical details about him are certainly known, but he was probably bishop of Olympus, Lycia, and was martyred in Chalcis. He has variously been attributed the sees of Tyre, Patara, and Philippi. He wrote extensively, mostly in dialogue form. His only complete work extant in Greek is Symposium; or Banquet of the Ten Virgins, modeled on Plato's Symposium, in which Methodius extols the excellence of virginity (as Plato commended “Eros”), ending with a hymn to Christ as the church's Bridegroom. Portions of two other works survive in Greek. Aglaophon; or On the Resurrection attacks Origen's* doctrine of the soul's preexistence and maintains the identity of the resurrection body with the earthly body. On Free Will attacks the dualism and determinism of Valentinian Gnosticism.* Other works survive only in Slavonic.