through the ancient indignation of the Gods, in consequence of former guilt, mania when it takes place, predicting what they stimd in need of, discovers a liberation from such evils by flying to prayer and the worship of the Gods. Hence, obtaining by this means purifications and the advantages of initiation, it renders him who possesses it free from disasters both for the present and future time, by discovering to him who is properly insane, and possessed by divinity, a solution of the present evils,” And the Platonic Hermias beautifully unfolds the meaning of this ancient indignation of the Gods, through former guilt, as follows: “ Oifences which have been committed for a great length of a time, are more difficult to be washed away, and a liberation from them can alone be effected by the telestic art; but those that have been com- mitted for a shorter time are more easily cured. Thus, also, we see in the medical art, that maladies which have existed but for a little time, if they are paid attention to at their com- mencement, are easily remedied, but that when they are of long standing, they are more difficultly healed. For the evil in this case becomes as it were natural and confirmed by habit, and resembles an indurated ulcer. A similar thing to this, therefore, takes place in guilty conduct. Hence, if he who has committed an injury, immediately repents, and acknowledges his guilt to him whom he has injured, he dis- solves the injury, and renders himself no longer obnoxious to justice. But when some one dissolves an injury com- mitted by his father, by restoring, for instance, land which he had unjustly taken, he then makes himself to be unob- noxious to justice, and lightens and benefits the soul of his father. These things, however, the telestic art more swiftly remedies. Moreover, if it should happen that the whole race of some one successively use land which had originally been plundered, in this case, the injury in the first place bef who are possessed by the Goddess are males; for, conformably to this, you denominate them Metrizantes. But the thing is not truly so. For those who are precedaneously inspired by the mother of the Gods are women; but the males that are thus inspired are very few in number, and such as are more effeminate.
comes immanifest, and on this account is more difficult to be cured; and, in the next place, time causes the evil to be- come as it were natural. Hence the Gods frequently pre- dict to men that they should go to such or such places, and that an apology should be made to this man, who was never known to them, and that he should be appeased, in order that thus they may obtain a remedy and be liberated from their difficulties, and that the punishments inflicted on them by the Furies may cease. The Gods, however, predict, not for the purpose of taking away punishment, but in order that justice may be done, and that we may be amended. The telestic art, therefore, renders him better who possesses the mania which it imparts, and through him saves also many others. Thus, for instance, it is related of one who was cutting down an oak, and though he was called on by a Nymph not to cut it doMui, yet persisted in felling it, that he was punished for so doing by the avenging Furies, that he was in want of necessary food, and that if at any time he met with it, it was immediately taken from him, till one who possessed the telestic art told him to raise an altar ^ and sacrifice to this Nymph, for thus he would be liberated from his calamities. Another person, likewise, who had slain his mother, was freed from the punishment inflicted on him by the Furies by migrating to another country, con- formably to the mandate of divinity, and there fixing his abode,” This enthusiasm, however, has a vivific and replenishing power, on which account, also, it in a remarkable degree differs from all other mania.
Proceeding, therefore, in this way, in what remains of the present discussion, and fitly distinguishing the inspirations of the Nymphs, or of Pan, and the other differences of them, according to the powers of the Gods, we shall separate them conformably to their appropriate peculiarities; and we shall also be able to explain through what cause they leap and dwell in mountains, why some of them appear to be bound, and why they are worshiped through sacrifices. All these, likewise, we shall ascribe to divine causes, as containing in themselves all the authority of these particu- lars; hut we shall not say that either a certain collected redundancy of body or soul requires to he purified, or that the periods of the sea- sons are the causes of such like passions, or that the reception of the similar, and the abla- tion of the dissimilar, bring with them a certain * This is because Rhea, the mother of the Gods, is a vivific Goddess, being filled indeed (says Proclus, in Plat. Theol. lib. v. c. xi.) from the father prior to her [z. e. from Saturn] with intelligible and prolific power, but filling the Demiurgus [Jupiter], who derives his existence from her, with vivific abundance.
remedy for an excess of this kind. For all such like particulars are corporeal-formed, and are entirely separated from a divine and in- tellectual life. But each thing energizes con- formably to its nature; so that the spirits which are excited by the Gods, and which produce in men Bacchic inspiration, expel every other human and physical motion; and it is not proper to assimilate their energies to those which are usually exerted after our man- ner; but it is fit to refer them to perfectly different and primordial divine causes. One species, therefore, of divine inspiration is of this kind, and is after this manner produced.
CHAP. XI.
CHAP. XI.
Another species of divine divination which is much celebrated, most manifest and manifold, is that of oracles, about which you say as follows: “ There are some who drink water, as the priest of Clarius, in Colophon; * hut others are seated at the mouth [of a caver7i\, as those who prophesy at Delphi; and others imhihe the vapour from water, as the prophetesses in * See, concerning this oracle, Scholiastes Apollonii ad i. librum, et Tacitus ii. Anna!.
BrandchidcB” You have, therefore, made mention of these three oracles by name, not that there are only these, for there are many more which you have omitted, hut as these are more celebrated than the rest, and, at the same time, because through these you may he suffi- ciently instructed in the mode of divination sent to men from the Gods, hence, as it appears to me, you were satisfied with these. We, therefore, likewise shall discuss these three, omitting to speak about the many other oracles that exist.
It is acknowledged then by all men, that the oracle in Colophon gives its answers through the medium of water. For there is a fountain in a subterranean dwelling from which the prophetess drinks; and on certain established nights, after many sacred rites have been pre- viously performed, and she has drank of the fountain, she delivers oracles, but is not visible to those that are present. That this water, therefore, is prophetic, is from hence manifest. But how it becomes so, this, according to the proverb, is not for every man to know. For it appears as if a certain prophetic spirit pervaded through the water. This is not, however, in reality the case. For a divine nature does not * This oracle is mentioned by Herodotus, 1. i., by Strabo, 1. xiv. and by Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxix.
pervade through its participants in this manner, according to interval and division, but com- prehends as it were externally, and illuminates the fountain, and fills it from itself with a prophetic power. For the inspiration which the water affords is not the whole of that which proceeds from a divine power, but the water itself only prepares us, and purifies our luciform spirit, t so that we may be able to receive the divinity; while, in the mean time, there is a presence of divinity prior to this, and illumi- nating from on high. And this, indeed, is not absent from any one, who through aptitude is capable of being united to it. But this divine illumination is immediately present, and uses the prophetess as an instrument; she neither being any longer mistress of herself, nor capa- ble of attending to what she says, nor perceiv- ing where she is. Hence, after prediction, she is scarcely able to recover herself. And be- fore she drinks the water, she abstains from food for a whole day and night; and retiring to certain sacred places, inaccessible to the * See Plutarch in his treatise De Defectu Oraculorum.
t See Plutarch in the above mentioned treatise. Con- cerning this luciform spirit, or vehicle, which is immortal, and which is called by Olympiodorus avyoetSes ^ luciform vestment, see my Translation of the fifth book of Proclus on the Timaeus.
multitude, begins to receive in them the en- thusiastic energy. Through her departure, therefore, and separation from human concerns, she renders herself pure, and by this means adapted to the reception of divinity: and from hence she possesses the inspiration of the God, shining into the pure seat of her soul, becomes full of an unrestrained afflatus, and receives the divine presence in a perfect manner, and without any impediment.
But the prophetess in Delphi, whether she gives oracles to mankind through an attenuated and fiery spirit, bursting from the mouth of the cavern, or whether being seated in the adytum on a hrazen tripod, or on a stool with four feet, she becomes sacred to the God; whichsoever of these is the case, she entirely gives herself up to a divine spirit, and is illuminated with a ray of divine fire. And when, indeed, fire ascending from the mouth of the cavern cir- cularly invests her in collected abundance, she becomes filled from it with a divine splendour. But when she places herself on the seat of the God, she becomes coadapted to his stable pro- phetic power: and from both these preparatory operations she becomes wholly possessed by the God. And then, indeed, he is present with and illuminates her in a separate manner, and is different from the fire, the spirit, the proper seat, and, in short, from all the visible apparatus of the place, whether physical or sacred.
The prophetic woman too in Brandchidse, whether she holds in her hand a wand,''*" which was at first received from some God, and be- comes filled with a divine splendour, or whether seated on an axis, she predicts future events, or dips her feet or the border of her garment in the water, or receives the God by imbibing the vapour of the water; by all these she becomes adapted to partake externally f of the God.
But the multitude of sacrifices, the sacred law of the whole sanctimony, and such other things as are performed in a divine manner, prior to the prophetic inspiration, viz. the baths of the prophetess, her fasting for three whole days, her retiring into the adyta, and there receiving a divine light, and rejoicing for a considerable time — all these evince that the God is entreated by prayer to approach, that * It was usual for those who prophesied to carry a wand. Tiresias had a sceptre, and Abaris an arrow. The Scho- liast on Nicander says, that the Eg)^ptian and Scythian magi, and also many of those in Europe, prophesied with wands. And Eustathius on the Odyssey, p. l657, observes, that there is a certain magic in divine wands,” esse in paf3Soi<s deioi's Tbva payeiav.
t That is, to partake of an illumination, which has no o-xeo-ts, or habitude, to aoay thing, material.
he becomes externally present, and that the prophetess, before she comes to her accustomed place, is inspired in a wonderful manner; and that, in the spirit which rises from the foun- tain, another more ancient God, who is sepa- rate from the place, shines forth to the view, and who is also the cause of the place, of the countryj and of the whole divination.
CHAP. XII.
It appears, therefore, that the divination of oracles accords with all the hypotheses which we have before adduced concerning prediction. For if a power of this kind was inseparable from the nature of places, and of the bodies which are the subjects of it, or proceeded * according to a motion defined by number, it would not be able to foreknow, with invariable sameness, things which exist every where and always. But being separate and liberated from places and things which are measured by the numbers of tim’e, and also from those which are detained in place, it is equally present with all things wherever they may be, and subsists simul- taneously with all the natures that are pro- * For 17 Trpoiova-a here, it seems neeessaiy to read tt/do loixra, L duced according to time. It likewise com- prehends in one the truth of all things, througli its separate and transcendent essence.
Hence, if this is rightly asserted by us, the prophetic power of the Gods is not partibly comprehended by any place, or partible human body, nor by the soul, which is detained in one certain species of divisible natures; but being separate and indivisible, it is wholly every where present with the natures which are capa- ble of receiving it. It likewise externally illu- minates and fills all things, pervades through all the elements, comprehends earth and air, fire and water, and leaves nothing destitute of itself, neither animals nor any of the produc- tions of nature, but imparts from itself a cer- tain portion of foreknowledge, to some things in a greater, and to others in a less, degree. Moreover, existing itself prior to all things, by its own separate nature, it becomes sufficient to fill all things, so far as each is able to par- take of it.
CHAP. XIII.
Let us, therefore, now direct our attention to another species of divination, which is not public, but of a private nature, concerning which you say, “ that some become enthusiastic by standing on characters, as those that are filled from the intromission ofi spirits” This species, therefore, through those who badly use it, can- not easily be comprehended in one definition. But it is obvious and superficial, and known to many, and employs a falsehood and deception which are not to be endured; nor is it at all attended with the presence of a certain divinity, but it produces a certain motion of the soul, which is adverse to the Gods, and attracts from them an obscure and adumbrative repre- sentation, which, through the evanescent nature of its power, is usually disturbed by dsemonia- cal depraved spirits. That, however, which is truly a representation of the Gods, is in other respects genuine and pure, immutable and true, and is inaccessible to, and unimpeded by, spirits of a contrary nature. For, as darkness is not adapted to sustain the splendour of the glitter- ing light of the sun, but suddenly becomes totally invisible, entirely recedes, and imme- diately vanishes; thus, also, when the power of the Gods, which fills all things with good, abundantly shines forth, no place is left for the tumult of evil spirits, nor can it present itself to the view; but, as if it was nothing, it departs into nonentity, not being able to be at all moved, when more excellent natures are present, or to disturb such natures in their illu- minations.
* Proclus, in his MS. Commentary on the First Aleibi- ades of Plato, observes, “ that in the" mysteries some one of the more imperfect daemons assumes the appearance of one that is more perfect, and draws down to himself souls that are not yet purified, and separates them from the Gods. Hence, in the most holy of the mysteries [i. e. in the Eleu- sinian mysteries], prior to the manifest presence of the God [who is invoked], certain terrene daemons present them- selves to the view, disturbing those that are initiated, divuls- ing them from undefiled good, and exciting them to matter. On this account the Gods [in the Chaldean oracles] order us not to behold them, till we are guarded by the powers im- parted by the mysteries. For they say, Ou yap yjpri kclvovs ere ^AeTreiv irpiv (Tiapa reAecr^ets.
i. e. It is not proper you should behold them till your body is purified by initiation. And they add the reason, Otl Ttts OeXyovTcs aei reAercov airayovcri, i. e. For these daemons alluring souls, always draw them away from the mysteries.
Conformably to this, also, Proclus in Plat. Theol. p. 7, says, (Dcnrep ev rais rwv TeAertov aytoyraraL^ <f>acrL tovs /ivs'as, TYjv pev Trp(j)Trjv 7roAi>ciSco"6, Kac TroXvpop<f>OLS to)v Oewv irpo- l^ejSk'qpevoL's yeveariv aTravTciv, eicriovra? Se, a/cAtvcis, Kai rats reAerats Treefypaypevovs, avTrjv ryv decav eXXapipLV aKpaicjn'ori eyKoXTTL^eerdaty Kat yvpviTa<s (tos ctv CKCivot cjyaiev') tov deiov peraXapfSavciv^ tov avrov oipat rpoirov kol ev ry Oeaypi^ twv oXo)v. i. e. “ As in the most holy of the mysteries, they say, that the mystics at first meet with the multiform and many shaped genera [z. e. with evil daemons], which are hurled forth before the Gods, but on entering the interior parts of the temple, unmoved, and guarded by the mystic rites, they genuinely receive in their bosom divine illumination, and divested of their garments, as they would say, participate of Since, therefore, these differ so greatly, I shall not use any other indications, in order to distinguish them, than those which are adduced by you. For when you say, some standing on characters,'' you seem to signify nothing else than the cause of all the evils pertaining to these things. For there are some who, neglecting the whole business of the telesiurgic theory, both concerning the invoking [priest] and the inspector (eTroTTr;??), and also despising the order of religion, and the most holy endu- rance of labours for a long time, and rejecting the sacred laws and ordinances, and other re- ligious ceremonies, think that the standing on characters is alone sufficient, and^that by doing a divine nature; the same mode, as it appears to me, takes place in the speculation of wholes.”
That mitred sophist, Warburton, as I have elsewhere called him, from not understanding the former part of this latter extract from Proclus, ridiculously translates the words TToAveiSecTi Kai TroXv[iop<{iOL's to)v Oeiov Trpo/SelSX'rjfLevoL'i yevccrir, “multiform shapes and species, that prefigure the first gene- ration of the Gods.” See his Divine Legation of Moses, book ii. p. 152, 8vo. a work replete with distorted concep- tions and inaccurate translations. And yet, as great a sophist as Warburton was, and notwithstanding the work I have just mentioned abounds with false opinions, and such as are of the most pernicious kind, yet he is compelled by truth to acknowledge, in book ii. p. 172, “that the wisest and best men in the Pagan world are unanimous in this, that the mysteries were instituted pure, and proposed the noblest end by the worthiest means.” But this by the way.
this for one liour, they can cause a certain spirit to enter; though how is it possible that any thing beautiful or perfect can be effected by these? Or how, by ephemeral works, can a contact be produced with the eternal and true essence of the Gods in sacred deeds? Through these things, therefore, it appears that such like rash men entirely err, and that they do not deserve to be ranked among diviners.
CHAP. XIY.
Concerning another kind of divination, also, you say as follows: “ Others who are conscious what they are doing in other respects^ are divinely inspired according to the phantastic part, some indeed receiving darkness for a co- operator, others certain potions, hut others in cantations and compositions. And some ener- gize according to the imagination through water,"'" others in a wall, others in the open air, * This divination according to the imagination through water, may be illustrated by the following extract from Damascius (apud Photium): te/Da OeojxoLpov e)^ov<Ta <f>vcTLV Trapq.XoyoTarr]v. vSmp yap ey^^eacra aKpaL<f>ve? TroTqpua Tivi Tiov vaXivcov, €0)pa Kara rov vSaros etcrco rov Tro'rqpiov ra cf)acrp,aTa tcuv ecrojuevcov -n-payp-aTiav, Kai TrpovXeyev airo rqs oi/'cws avra arrep ep^eXXev ecrec^at Travrm. r) 8e Treipa Tor and others in the light of the sun, or some other celestial hodij” The whole, however, of this kind of divination of which you now speak, since it is multiform, may be comprehended in one power, which may be called the eduction of light.* But this illuminates with divine light the etherial and luciform vehicle t with which the soul is surrounded, from which divine visions occupy our phantastic power, these visions being excited by the will of the Gods. For the whole life of the soul and all the powers that are in it, being in subjection to the Gods, are moved in such a way as the Gods, the leaders of the soul, please.
TrpayfxaTos ovk eXaOev r^/xas. i.e. "There was a sacred woman who possessed in a wonderful manner a divinely gifted nature. For pouring pure water into a certain glass cup, she saw in the water that was within the cup the lumi- nous appearances of future events, and from the view of these she entirely predicted what would happen. But of this experiment we also are not ignorant.”
* " The Platonists,” says Psellus (ad Nazianzenum) " assert that light is spread under divine substances, and is rapidly seized, without any difficulty, by some who possess such an excellent nature as that which fell to the lot of Socrates and Plotinus. But others, at certain periods, ex- perience a mental alienation about the light of the moon.”
t Concerning this vehicle, in which the phantastic power resides, see vol. ii. of my translation of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato, p. 407; the Introduction to my translation of Aristotle on the Soul; and the long extract from Syne- sius on Dreams, in vol. ii. of my Proclus on Euclid.
And this takes place in a twofold manner, either from the Gods being present with the soul, or imparting to the soul from themselves a certain forerunning light; but, according to each of these modes, the divine presence and the illumination have a separate subsistence. The attentive power, therefore, and dianoia * of the soul, are conscious of what is effected, since the divine light does not come into con- tact with these; but the phantastic part is divinely inspired, because it is not excited to the modes of imaginations by itself, but by the Gods, the phantasy being then entirely changed from human custom.
Since, however, a contrary is receptive of a contrary, according to a mutation and departure from itself, and that which is allied to another thing, and familiar t with it through similitude, is capable of receiving it, hence the illuminators * i. e. The discursive energy of reason.
t Proclus in Plat. Polit. having observed that Socrates in the Phaedrus, when he speaks in a divinely inspired man- ner, and poetically adopts such names as are employed by the poets, and says that it is not possible for one who speaks with an insane*[i. e. with an inspired] mouth to abstain from them, adds “ that an alliance to the daemoniacal genus, pre- paring the soul for the reception of divine light, excites the phantasy to symbolic narration.” H Trpos SaLfxoviov -yevos otKeioTTjs, rj TrpoevTpeTTt^ovcra T7]v rov deiov ^wtos Trapova-iav, avaKLvei rrjv (f>avTacriav eis rqv crvp/3oXucrjv airayyeXiav.
receive darkness as a cooperator, and employ in illuminating the light of the sun, or of the moon, or, in short, of the air.
Sometimes, likewise, they use collocations of such things as are adapted to the Gods that are about to descend, or they employ incanta- tions or compositions, and these appropriately prepared for the reception, presence, and mani- festation of the Gods. And again, sometimes they introduce light through water, because this being diaphanous, is aptly disposed to the reception of light. But at other times, they cause light to shine forth on a wall, having previously prepared the wall for the reception of light in the best manner by the sacred de- scriptions of characters; and, at the same time, they fix the light in a certain solid place, so that it may not be widely diffused.
Many other modes, also, of introducing light might be mentioned; but all of them may be referred to one mode, that of irradiation, where- ever it may be effected, and through whatever instruments the Gods may illuminate. Since, therefore, this illumination accedes externally, and has every thing which it possesses subser- vient to the will and intelligence alone of the Gods, and as the greatest thing pertaining to it, possesses a sacred irradiating light, either supernally derived from ether, or from the air.
t)r the moon, or the sun, or from some other celestial sphere, — this being the case, it is evident from all these particulars, that such a mode of divination as this is unrestrained, pri- mordial, and worthy of the Gods.
CHAP. XV.
Let us, therefore, pass on to the mode of divi- nation which is effected through human art, and which possesses much of conjecture and opinion. But concerning this you say as follows: “ Some also establish the art of the investigation of futurity through the viscera, through birds, and through the stars.’’ And there are, indeed, many other arts of this kind, but the above are suffi- cient to exhibit the whole artificial species of divination. Universally, therefore, this art em- ploys certain divine signs, which derive their completion from the Gods, according to various modes. But from divine portents, according to an alliance of things to the signs which are exhibited, art in a certain respect decides, and from certain probabilities conjecturally predicts. The Gods, therefore, produce the signs, either through nature, which is subser- vient both generally and particularly to the generation of effects; or through genesiui'gic djemons, who presiding over the elements of the universe, partial bodies, and every thing contained in the world, conduct with facility the phaenomena, conformably to the will of the Gods. But these signs symbolically premani- fest the decrees of divinity and of futurity, as Heraclitus says, “ neither speaking nor con- cealing, but signifying; ” * because they express the mode of fabrication through premanifesta- tion. As, therefore, the Gods generate all things through forms t, in a similar manner they signify all things through signs, impressed as it were by a seal (Sia o-wOvAtarwj/). Perhaps, likewise, they render by this mean our intelli- gence more acute. And thus much has been said by us in common concerning the whole of this kind of human art.
CHAP. XYI.
Descending, however, to particulars, the soul of animals, the daemon who presides over them, the air, the motion of the air, and the circula- tion of the heavens, variously change the vis- * These words of Heraclitus are also quoted by Plutarch in his treatise De Defectu Oraculorum.
t For €LKovu)v here, I read etSojv.
cera,* conformably to the will of the Gods. But an indication that they are so changed is this, that they are frequently found without a heart, t or deprived of the most principal parts, without which it is not at all possible for animals to he supplied with life. With respect to birds, likewise, the impulse of their proper soul moves them, and also the daemon who presides over animals; and, together with these, the revolution of the air, and the power of the heavens which descends into the air, accord with the will of the Gods, and consentaneously lead the birds to what the Gods ordained from the first. Of this the greatest indication is, that birds frequently precipitate themselves to the earth, and destroy themselves, which it is * Herodian, lib. viii. observes, that the Italians very much believed in the indications of future events through the viscera: and Strabo, lib. xvii, asserts the same thing.