Damianus of Larissa (Δαμιανὸς ὁ Λαρισαῖος) was a late antique author of the 5th or 6th century CE. His origin is suggested by his toponym to be Larissa in Thessaly. He is occasionally called "Damianus the Sophist," though the specific meaning of this epithet remains unclear [1]. Beyond this, no details of his life are known.

His sole surviving work is the short treatise On Hypotheses in Optics (Περὶ τῶν ἐν Ὀπτικοῖς Ὑποθέσεων) [1].

Damianus’s significance rests entirely on this text, which represents a late stage in the transmission of Greek optical theory. The treatise is a concise exposition arguing that vision occurs by rectilinear rays proceeding from the eye to the object, a model stemming from the mathematical traditions of Euclid and Ptolemy [1]. It is a minor but clear example of elementary geometrical optics from late antiquity, demonstrating the persistence of classical visual theory into the early medieval period [1].

Sources 1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Stanford University): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vision-ancient/ (Section 3.2, "Theories of Vision in Late Antiquity")