Brysso

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Brysso is mentioned in the thirteenth canto of Paradiso, where Saint Thomas Aquinas, to illustrate the risk of falling into error when one does not possess the necessary capacities of discernment, offers as examples the names of pagan philosophers and Christian theologians. Among the philosophers he cites, in verse 125, "Parmenides, Melissus and Brysso," presenting them as representatives of human science who erred in the use of natural reason, contrasted with the theologians who instead fell into heresy by interpreting Scripture. According to the authorized note, Parmenides and Melissus, both of the fifth century B.C., are the initiator and the follower of the Eleatic school, whose theses on being Aristotle refuted; Dante takes from Aristotle the condemnation of those philosophers, as also appears in Monarchia III, IV 4, where they are cited as an example of the error possible in logical argumentation. The note includes Brysso in the same list, associating his fate with that of Parmenides and Melissus in pointing out the insufficiency of a reason that claims the truth without possessing its art.