Take away, therefore, from divine dreams, among which also divination is contained, “ the being asleep” and also the assertion, “ that we do not apprehend what we see in sleep, in the same clear manner as when we are awake” For the Gods are no less clearly present with us in these dreams than when we are awake. And, if it be requisite to speak the truth, the pre- sence of the Gods, in the former case, is neces- sarily clearer and more accurate, and produces a more perfect perception than in the latter. Some, therefore, not knowing these indications of prophetic dreams, and conceiving that they have something in common with human dreams, rarely and casually obtain a foreknowledge of futurity, and in consequence of this, reasonably doubt how dreams contain any truth. And this, also, appears to me to disturb you, in con- The necessity of this emendation is also evident from what lamblichus shortly after adds, viz. that we must take away from divine dreams the being asleep; i. e. the being in a profound sleep.
sequence of your not knowing the true indica- tions of dreams. It is necessary, however, that, admitting these to be the elements of the true knowledge of dreams, you should attend to the whole of the discussion concerning divination in sleep.
CHAP. III.
The wise,'^^ therefore, speak as follows: The soul having a twofold life, one being in con- junction with body, hut the other being sepa- rate from all body; when we are awake we employ, for the most part, the life which is common with the body, except when we sepa- rate ourselves entirely from it by pure intellec- tual and dianoetic energies. But when we are asleep, we are perfectly liberated, as it were, from certain surrounding bonds, and use a life separated from generation. Hence, this form of life, whether it be intellectual or divine, and whether these two are the same thing, or whether each is peculiarly of itself one thing, is then excited in us, and energizes in a way * In the original there is nothing more than Aeyovcrt 8e raSe in this place; but the sense requires that we should read Xeyova-t Se oi cro(f)oi raSe. And this emendation is con- firmed by the versions of Scutellius and Gale.
conformable to its nature. Since, therefore, intellect surveys real beings, but the soul con- tains in itself the reasons of all generated na- tures, it very properly follows that, according to a cause which comprehends future events, it should have a foreknowledge of them, as aiTanged in their precedaneous reasons. And it possesses a divination still more perfect than this, when it conjoins the portions of life and intellectual energy to the wholes from which it was separated. For then it is filled from wholes with all scientific knowledge, so as for the most part to attain by its conceptions to the apprehension of every thing which is effected in the world. Indeed, when it is united to the Gods, by a liberated energy of this kind, it then receives the most true plenitudes of in- tellections, from which it emits the true divina- tion of divine dreams, and derives the most genuine principles of knowledge. But if the soul connects its intellectual and divine part with more excellent natures, then its phan- tasms will be more pure, whether they are phantasms of the Gods, or of beings essentially incorporeal, or, in short, of things contributing to the truth of intelligibles. If, also, it elevates the reasons of generated natures, contained in it to the Gods, the causes of them, it receives power from them, and a knowledge which apprehends what has been, and what will be; it likewise surveys the whole of time, and the deeds which are accomplished in time, and is allotted the order of providentially attending to and correcting them in an appropriate man- ner. And bodies, indeed, that are diseased it heals; but properly disposes such things as subsist among men erroneously and disorderly.
It likewise frequently delivers the discoveries of arts, the distributions of justice, and the establishment of legal institutions. Thus in the temple of Esculapius, diseases are healed through divine dreams; and, through the order of nocturnal appearances, the medical art is obtained from sacred dreams. Thus, too, the whole army of Alexander was preserved, which would otherwise have been entirely destroyed. in the night, in consequence of Bacchus appear- ing in sleep, and pointing out a solution of the most grievous calamities. The city Aphutis, likewise, when besieged by King Lysander, was saved through a dream sent to him by Jupiter Ammon. For afterwards, he most rapidly withdrew his army from thence, and immediately raised the siege.
What occasion, however, is there to be pro- lix in mentioning every particular of things which happen daily, and which exhibit an energy superior to all language? What, therefore, has been said concerning divine divination in sleep is sufficient to show what it is, how it is effected, and what advantage it affords to mankind.
CHAP. lY.
Afterwards, also, you say, “ that many^ through enthusiasm and divine inspiration, pre- dict future events, and that they are then in so ivaheful a state, as even to energize according to sense, and yet they are not conscious of the state they are in, or at least, not so much as they were before” I wish, therefore, here to point out to yon the signs by which those who are rightly possessed by the Gods may be known. For they either subject the whole of their life, as a vehicle or instrument to the inspiring Gods; or they exchange the human for the divine life; or they energize with their own proper life about divinity. But they neither energize according to sense, nor are in such a vigilant state as those who have their senses excited from sleep (for neither do they apprehend future events); nor are they moved as those are who energize according to impulse. Nor, again, are they conscious of the state they are in, neither as they were before, nor in any other way; nor, in short, do they convert to themselves their own intelligence, or exert any knowledge which is peculiarly their own.
The greatest indication, however, of the truth of this is the following. Many, through divine in- spiration, are not burned when fire is introduced to them, the inspiring influence preventing the fire from touching them. Many, also, though burned, do not apprehend that they are so, be- cause they do not then live an animal life. And some, indeed, though transfixed with spits, do not perceive it; but others that are struck on the shoulders with axes, and others that have their arms cut with knives, are by no means conscious of what is done to them. Their energies, likewise, are not at all human. For inaccessible places become accessible to those that are divinely inspired; they are thrown into fire, and pass through fire, and over rivers, like the priest in Castabalis, without being in- jured. But from these things it is demonstrated, that those who energize enthusiastically are not conscious of the state they are in, and that they neither live a human nor an animal life, according to sense or impulse, but that they exchange this for a certain more divine life, by which they are inspired and perfectly possessed.
CHAP. Y.
CHAP. Y.
There are, therefore, many species of divine possession, and divine inspiration is multifa- riously excited; whence, also, the signs of it are many and different. For either the Gods are different, by whom we are inspired, and thus produce a different inspiration; or the mode of enthusiasms being various, produces a different afflatus. For either divinity pos- sesses us, or we give up ourselves wholly to divinity, or we have a common energy with him. And sometimes, indeed, we participate of the last power of divinity, sometimes of his middle, and sometimes of his first power. Sometimes, also, there is a participation only, at other times communion likewise, and some- times a union of these divine inspirations. Again, either the soul alone enjoys the inspira- tion, or the soul receives it in conjunction with the body, or it is also participated by the com- mon animal.
From these things, therefore, the signs of those that are inspired are multiform. For the inspiration is indicated by the motions of the [whole] body, and of certain parts of it, by the perfect rest of the body, by harmonious orders and dances, and by elegant sounds, or the contraries of these. Either the body, like- wise, is seen to be elevated, or increased in bulk, or to be borne along sublimely in the air, or the contraries of these, are seen to take place about it. An equability, also, of voice, according to magnitude, or a great variety of voice after* intervals of silence, may be ob- served. And again, sometimes the sounds have a musical intension and remission, and sometimes they are strained and relaxed after a different manner.
CHAP. YL That, however, which is the greatest thing is this, that he who [appears to] draw down a certain divinity, sees a spirit descending and entering into some one, recognizes its magni- tude and quality, and is also mystically per- suaded and governed by it. But a species of fire is seen by the recipient, prior to the spirit being received, which sometimes becomes mani- fest to all the spectators, either when the divinity is descending, or when he is departing. And from this spectacle the greatest truth and power of the God, and especially the order he possesses, as likewise about what particulars he is adapted to speak the truth, what the power is which he imparts, and what he is able to effect, become known to the scientific.
Those, however, who, without these blessed spectacles, draw down spirits invisibly, are without vision, as if they were in the dark, and know nothing of what they do, except some small signs which become visible through the body of him who is divinely inspired, and cer- tain other things which are manifestly seen, but they are ignorant of all the most important particulars of divine inspiration, which are concealed from them in the invisible. But to return from this digression: if the presence of the fire of the Gods, and a certain ineffable species of light, externally accede to him who is possessed, and if they wholly fill him, have dominion over and circularly comprehend him on all sides, so that he is not able to exert any one proper energy, what sense, or animad- version, or appropriate projection of intellect, can there be in him who receives a divine fire? What human motion, likewise, can then 1 intervene, or what human reception of passion or ecstasy, or of aberration of the phantasy, or of any thing else of the like kind, such as is apprehended by the multitude, can take place? Let such, therefore, be the divine indications of true inspiration from the Gods, which he who attends to will not wander from a right knowledge concerning it.
CHAP. Yll.
It is not, however, sufficient to learn these things alone, nor will he who only knows these become perfect in divine science. But it is requisite also to know what enthusiasm is, and how it is produced. It is falsely, therefore, supposed to be a motion of dianoia, in con- junction with deemoniacal inspiration. Por human dianoia is not moved, if it is thus enthu- siastically affected; nor is the inspiration pro- duced by daemons, but by the Gods. Neither is enthusiasm simply an ecstasy; for it is a re- elevation and transition to a more excellent condition of being. But delirium and ecstasy evince a perversion to that which is worse. Hence, he who is an advocate for the latter, speaks, indeed, of things which happen to those that energize enthusiastically, yet does not teach that which is precedaneous. But this consists in being wholly possessed by di- vinity, which is afterwards followed by mental alienation. No one, therefore, can justly ap- prehend that enthusiasm is something pertaining to the soul, or to some one of its powers, or to intellect or energies, or to corporeal imbecility, or that it cannot subsist without the debility of the body. For neither is the work of divine inspiration human, nor does the whole of it depend on human powers and energies; but these, indeed, have the relation of a sub- ject, and divinity uses them as instruments. He accomplishes, however, the whole work of divination through himself, and being separated in an unmingled manner from other things, neither the soul nor the body being at all moved, he energizes by himself. Hence, when divinations are rightly effected in the way which I have mentioned, then they subsist without falsehood. But when the soul has been previously disturbed, or is moved in the interim, or the body intervenes, and confounds the divine harmony, then divinations become turbulent and false, and the enthusiasm is no longer true nor genuine.
CHAP. YIIL If, therefore, true divination was a solution of the divine part of the soul from the other parts of it, or if it was a separation of intellect, or a certain extension of it; or if it was a vehemence and extension of energy or passion, or an acuteness and motion of dianoia, or a fervour of intellect; then, since all such like particu- lars are excited by our soul, enthusiasm might be reasonably supposed to be the offspring of the soul. If, however, the body, on account of certain temperaments, whether they are such as are melancholic, or any other, or, to speak more particularly, on account of heat, or cold, or moisture, or a certain specific quality of these, or the mixture or temperature of these in a certain proportion, or the pneumatic part of the soul, or the more and the less of these; if any one of these is established as the cause of enthusiastic alienation, in this case, the alien- ation will be a corporeal passion, and will be excited by physical motions. But if its exci- tation originates from both the soul and the body, so far as these coalesce with each other, a motion of this kind will be common to the animal [produced by the union of the two]. The enthusiastic energy, however, is not the work either of the body or the soul, or of both conjoined. For these do not contain in them- selves a certain cause of divine alienation, nor are things of a more excellent nature adapted to be generated by such as are less excellent.
But it is necessary to investigate the causes of divine mania. And these are the illuminations proceeding from the Gods, the spirits imparted by them, and the all perfect domina- tion of divinity, which comprehends indeed every thing in us, but exterminates entirely our own proper consciousness and motion. This divine possession, also, emits words which are not understood by those that utter them; for they pronounce them, as it is said, with an insane mouth, and are wholly subservient, and entirely yield themselves to the energy of the predominating God. The whole of enthusiasm is a thing of this kind, and is effected by these causes, though this must not be considered as asserted with consummate accuracy.
CHAP. IX.
What you afterwards say is as follows: “ That some of those who suffer a mental alienation, energize enthusiastically on hearing cymhals or drums, or a certain modulated sound, such as those ivho are Coryhantically inspired, those who are possessed hy Sahazius, and those who are inspired hy the mother of the GodsT It is necessary, therefore, to discuss the causes of these things^ and to show how they are de- finitely produced.
That music, therefore, is of a motive nature, K and is adapted to excite the affections, and that the melody of pipes produces or heals the disordered passions of the soul, changes the temperaments or dispositions of the body, and by some melodies causes a Bacchic fury, hut by others occasions this fury to cease; * and, * “ Among the deeds of Pythagoras,” says lamblichus, in his Life of that father of philosophy, (chap, xxv.) it is said, tliat once through the spondaic [z. e. Doric] song of a piper he extinguished the rage of a Tauromenian lad, who had been feasting by night, and intended to bum the vestibule of his mistress, in consequence of seeing her coming from the house of his rival. For the lad was in- flamed and excited [to this rash attempt] by a Phrygian song; which, however, Pythagoras most rapidly suppressed. But Pythagoras, as he was astronomizing, happened to meet with the Phrygian piper at an unseasonable time of night, and persuaded him to change his Phrygian for a spondaic song; through which the fury of the lad being immediately repressed, he returned home in an orderly manner, though a little before this he could not be in the least restrained, nor would, in short, bear any admonition; and even stupidly insulted Pythagoras when he met him. When a certain youth, also, rushed with a drawn sword on Anchilus, the host of Empedocles, because, being a judge, he had publicly condemned his father to death, and would have slain him as a homicide, Empedocles changed the in- tention of the youth, by singing to his lyre that verse of Homer, Nepenthe, without gall, o’er every ill Oblivion spreads. Odyss. lib. 4.
And thus snatched his host Anchilus from death, and the youth from the crime of homicide. It is also related, that the youth from that time became the most celebrated of the likewise, how the differences of these accord with the several dispositions of the soul, and disciples of Pythagoras. Farther still, the whole Pythagoric school produced, by certain appropriate songs, what they called exartysis, or adaptation; synarmoga, or elegance of manners; and epaphe, or contact, usefully conducting the dispositions of the soul to passions contrary to those which it before possessed. For when they went to bed, they puri- fied the reasoning power from the perturbations and noises to which it had been exposed during the day, by certain odes and peculiar songs, and by this means procured for themselves tranquil sleep, and few and good dreams. But when they rose from bed, they again liberated themselves from the torpor and heaviness of sleep, by songs of another kind. Sometimes, also, by musical sounds alone, imaccom- panied with words, they healed the passions of the soul and certain diseases, enchanting, as they say, in reality. And it is probable that from hence this name epode, i. e. enchant- ment, came to be generally used. After this manner, there- fore, Pythagoras, through music, produced the most bene- ficial correction of human manners and lives.”
Proclus also, in his MS. Commentary on the First Alci- biades of Plato, observes, ^^that of musical instruments some are repressive, and others motive; some are adapted to rest, and others to motion. The repressive, therefore, are most useful for education, leading our manners into order, repressing the turbulency of youth, and bringing its agitated nature to quietness and temperance. But the motive instruments are adapted to enthusiastic energy; and hence, in the mysteries and mystic sacrifices, the pipe is useful; for the motive power of it is employed for the pur- pose of exciting the reasoning power to a divine nature. For here it is requisite that the irrational part should be laid asleep, and the rational excited. Hence those that instruct youth use repressive instruments, but initiators such as are motive. For that which is disciplined is the iiTational that an unstable and variable melody is adapted to ecstasies, such as are the melodies of Olym- pus,and others of the like kind; all these appear to me to be adduced in a way foreign to enthusiasm. For they are physical and human, and the work of our art; but nothing whatever of a divine nature in them presents itself to the view.
We must rather, therefore, say, that sounds and melodies are appropriately consecrated to the Gods. There is, also, an alliance in these sounds and melodies to the proper orders and powers of the several Gods, to the motions in the universe itself, and to the harmonious sounds which proceed from the motions. Conpart; but it is reason which is initiated, and which energizes enthusiastically.
See, likewise, on this subject, Ptolem. Harmonic, lib. iii. cap. 7 and 8, who observes among other things, “ that our souls directly sympathize with the energies of melody, recognizing, as it were, their alliance to them — and that at one time the soul is changed to a quiet and repressed con- dition, but at another to fury and enthusiasm. Tacs evep- yctais rr]<5 [xeXoiSias o-vpiracrx^f-v r)fi(av avriKpvs ras crvyyeveiav mcnrep €7riyivcocrKOt)cras et, Trore pev cis rjorvxlav Kat Kara’^oXrjv rpeirea-dai, ttotc Se ets oi<^pov Kai evdvcrtacr- pov. And, in the last place, see Plato in his lo, and Aris- totle in his Politics.
* Proclus in Polit. p. 365, says, “ that the melodies of Olympus were the causes of ecstasy.” Ta tqv OXv^ttov peXrj €K<^ariKa.
formably, therefore, to such like adaptations of melodies to the Gods, the Gods themselves become present. For there is not any thing which intercepts; so that whatever has hut a casual similitude to, directly participates of, them. A perfect possession, likewise, immediately takes place, and a plenitude of a more ex- cellent essence and power. Not that the body and the soul are in each other, and sympathize, and are copassive with the melodies; but be- cause the inspiration of the Gods is not sepa- rated from divine harmony, but is originally adapted and allied to it, on this account it is participated by it in appropriate measures. Hence also, it is excited and restrained accord- ing to the several orders of the Gods. But this inspiration must by no means be called an ablation, purgation, or medicine. For it is not primarily implanted in us from a certain dis- ease, or excess, or redundance; but the whole principle and participation of it are supernally derived from the Gods.
Neither is it proper to say that the soul primarily consists of harmony and rythm. For thus enthusiasm would be adapted to the soul alone. It is better, therefore, to deny this, and to assert that the soul, before she gave herself to body, was an auditor of divine harmony; and that hence, when she proceeded into body.
and heard melodies of such a kind as especially preserve the divine vestigie of harmony, she embraced these, from them recollected divine harmony, and tends and is allied to it, and as much as possible participates of it. Hence the cause of divine divination may, after this man- ner, be assigned in common.
CHAP. X.
CHAP. X.
Let us, however, discuss what pertains to divination more particularly; not asserting this, that nature leads each thing to its like; for the enthusiastic energy is not the work of nature; nor again asserting that the temperature of the air, and of that which surrounds us, produces also a diiBferent temperature in the body of those that energize enthusiastically; since in- spiration, which is the work of the Gods, is not changed by corporeal powers or tempera- ments. Nor must we say, that the much cele- brated inspiration of divinity is adapted to passions and generated natures. For the gift of the proper energy of the Gods to men is impassive and superior to all generation. But since the power of the Corybantes is, in a certain respect, of a guardian and efficacious ; nature,* and that of Sabazius appropriately pertains to Bacchic inspiration, the purifica- * The nature of the Corybantes, and the order to which they belong, is unfolded as follows by Proclus, in Plat. Theol. lib. vi. cap. 1 3. “ To what has been said we shall add the theory pertaining to the unpolluted * Gods among the ruling divinities [z. e. among the divinities that subsist immediately after the intellectual Gods]. For Plato also gives us an opportunity of mentioning these, since it is necessary that the rulers and leaders of wholes should sub- sist analogous to the intellectual kings, though they make their progression in conjunction with division, and a separa- tion into parts. For as they imitate the paternal genera- tive and convertive powers of the intellectual kings, thus also it is necessary that they should receive the immutable mo- nads in themselves, according to the ruling peculiarity, and establish over their own progressions secondary causes of a guardian characteristic. And the mystic tradition, indeed, of Orpheus makes mention of these more clearly. But Plato being persuaded by the mysteries, and by what is per- formed in them, indicates concerning these unpolluted Gods. And in the Laws, indeed, he reminds us of the inflation of the pipe by the Corybantes, which represses every inordinate and tumultuous motion. But in the Euthydemus, he makes mention of the collocation on a throne, which is performed in the Corybantic mysteries; just as in other dialogues he mentions the Curetic order, speaking of the armed sports of the Curetes. For the Curetes are said to surround and to dance round the Demiurgus of wholes, when he was un- folded into light from Rhea. In the intellectual Gods, « therefore, the first Curetic order is allotted its hypostasis. But the order of the Corybantes, which precedes Core [i. e. Proserpine], and guards her on all sides, as the theology * These Gods are called unpolluted, because they are the causes of purity. For every God begins his own energy from himself, and is that primarily which his effects are secondarily.
tions of souls, and the solutions of ancient divine anger, t on this account the inspirations of them entirely differ from each other.
says, is analogous to the Curetes in the intellectual order. If, however, you are willing to speak conformably to Pla- tonic custom, because these divinities preside over purity, and preserve the Curetic order undefiled, and also presence immutability in their generations, and stability in their pro- gressions * into the worlds, on this account they were called Corybantes. For to Kopov, to horon, is every where signifi- cant of purity, as Socrates says in the Cratylus; since, also, you may say that our mistress Core was no otherwise de- nominated than from purity and an unpolluted life. But, in consequence of her alliance to this order, she produces two- fold guardian triads, one in conjunction with her father, but the other herself by and from herself, imitating in this respect the whole vivific Goddess [Rhea] who constitutes the fii*st Curetes.”
* Servius, in commenting on the '^Mystica vannus lacchi” of Virgil, observes, that the sacred rites of Bacchus per- tained to the purification of souls, “ Liberi patris sacra ad purgationem animarum pertinebant.” And elsewhere he says, “Animse aere ventilantur, quod erat in sacris Liberi purgationis genus.” Euripides also, in Bacchis, exclaims, Ev opecrt jiaKyevoiv OcTLOLCTL Kadappuoi'i.
i. e. “ O blessed and happy he, who knowing the mysteries of the Gods, sanctifies his life, and purifies his soul, cele- brating orgies in the mountains, with holy purifications.”
t “ In the greatest diseases and labours (says Plato in the PhEcdrus) to which certain persons are sometimes subject *■ For irepLoSois here, it is necessary to read TrpooSois.
With respect, however, to the mother of the Gods, you, indeed, seem to think that those