Alexei Losev (monastic name Andronik) was a Russian Soviet philosopher, classical scholar, classical philologist, translator, writer, and music educator. He was born in Novocherkassk on September 10 or 11 (23), 1893, and died in Moscow on May 24, 1988.
Losev graduated with a gold medal from the Novocherkassk Classical Gymnasium and entered Moscow University in 1911. He graduated in 1915 after studying philosophy and classical philology, and continued his preparation for an academic career. He taught in schools and, from 1919, was a professor of classical philology at Nizhny Novgorod University.
From 1922 to 1929, Losev taught aesthetics at the Moscow Conservatory. He also worked at the Institute of Musical Science, where he contributed to the development of the philosophy of music, and taught at the Second Moscow State University and the State Academy of Arts. He was a professor at Moscow State University from 1942 to 1944, then joined the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, where he taught for more than 40 years.
Losev wrote extensively on ancient philosophy, aesthetics, myth, language, and symbolism. His works include The Dialectics of Myth and the multivolume History of Ancient Aesthetics, which presented new interpretations of ancient thought and culture. He also wrote monographs on Hellenistic and Roman aesthetics and Renaissance aesthetics. His translations included works by Aristotle, Plotinus, Sextus Empiricus, Proclus, and Nicholas of Cusa; he also edited the first three volumes of Plato’s works, published between 1968 and 1972.
Losev’s bibliography comprises more than 800 works, including over 40 monographs. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1986. In his final years, he spoke openly to students and followers about his religious beliefs. He was nearly blind by the end of his life.