Il mito manicheo tra universalismo e particolarismi regionali. La testimonianza di Alessandro di Licopoli

The Treatise Contra Manichaei Opiniones Disputatio by the Neoplatonic philosopher Alexander of Lycopolis is an important source for understanding the oldest facies of Egyptian Manichaeism. This paper analyses the data on the Manichaean myth, with which Alexander commences his extensive and articulate confutation, and in particular the way in which Alexander describes the two archai, God and matter, and their relationship, in order to demonstrate how that description also offers, above all, aspects of specificity, together with aspects of continuity with other sources of the Manichaean myth. In the paper reasons of the specificities are investigated in relation to the particular perspective point in which Alexander is placed that is Neoplatonic philosophy. Further explanations are to search for in the possible reciprocal influence between Manichaean myth, as found in the region, and gnostic myths, particularly of Sethian type.