The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire Part 15

[69] Plutarch, _de. def. orac._ 29, 425 F-426 A. Celsus has the same view; (Origen, _c. Cels._ v, 25; vii, 68): the world's regions are severally allotted to _epoptai_ under Providence; so that local usages may well be maintained in such form as pleases them; to alter these would be impious, while to wors.h.i.+p the daemons is to honour G.o.d, who is not jealous of them. Cf. Plutarch, _de fortuna Romanorum_, 11, 324 B, _ho Romaion megas daimon ... te polei synebesas ka synauxetheis, kthe_--the tract is a poor and rhetorical one, and the phrase may be merely a synonym for "luck." See also Celsus (Orig. _c. Cels._ viii, 58) on the Egyptian attribution of the human body to thirty-six "daemons or G.o.ds of aether," so that by prayer to the right one disease in any part of the body may be cured; Celsus gives some of their names. The Christians a.s.sumed a somewhat similar scheme with a rather different development. Athenagoras, an apologist of the second century, gives the following account in his _Presbeia_, 24-27. A system of angels under Providence existed, some good and some bad, enjoying free-will as men also do; "the ruler of matter and of the forms in it" l.u.s.ted after virgins and succ.u.mbed to flesh, and neglected the administration entrusted to him; others fell with him; they cannot regain heaven but meantime occupy the air; their children by mortal women were giants and the souls of these are the daemons; the ruler of matter directs all things against G.o.d; with matter are connected the soul's worse impulses. See also Clem. Alex. _Strom._ vi, 157, on angelic governance of individual nations and cities; and Lactantius, _Inst.i.t._ ii, 8, 14, whose account fairly resembles that of Athenagoras. Tertullian, however, suggests (_Apol._ 11) that the Creator had no need of ancillary G.o.ds to complete his work.

[70] For a summary of Stoic teaching here, see Cicero, _N.D._ ii, 60-70.

[71] _de def. orac._ 29, 426 B. Cf. _de Iside_, 66, 377 D, E. "You might as well give the name of steersman to sails, ropes or anchor."

[72] _de def. orac._ 30, 246 D, E.

[73] This triple government of the Universe is worked out in _de fato_ (a tract whose authors.h.i.+p is questioned), but from one pa.s.sage and another of Plutarch's undoubted works it can be established, though every statement has a little fringe of uncertainties.

[74] _de Iside_, 25, 360 E.

[75] _de def. orac._ 12, 416 C.

[76] Cf. Athenagoras, _Presb._ 24 (quoted in note 1 on p. 95); and Apuleius, _de deo Socr._ 6, 132, cited on p. 232.

[77] _de def. orac._ 13, 416 F.

[78] _de def. orac._ 9, 414 F.

[79] See _de comm. not. adv. Stoicos_, 33, and _de Stoicorum repugn._ 33, 34--three very interesting chapters. Clement of Alexandria has the same tone in criticizing this idea--_ouk oid hopos anexethi tis epaion toutou then egnoks apidon eis tn bon tn hymeteron en hosois phyrometha kakois. ein gar an outos, h med eipein themis, merikos hamartanon ho those, kthe_. _Strom._ ii, 74.

[80] _de Iside_, 26, 361 C. Cf. Plato, _Sympos._ 202 E, 203 A (referred to above), for the functions of _t daimonion_, which is _metaxu theou te ka thnetou ... hermeneuon ka diamorthmeuon theois ta par anthropon ka anthropois ta para theon kthe ... thes de anthropo ou mignutai ... ou toi de daimones pollo ka pantodapoi eisin, eis de touton est ka ho eros_.

[81] _de def. orac._ 10, 414 F-415 A.

[82] _de Iside_, 27, 361 E; _de def. orac._ 10, 415 C; cf. Tert. _ad Natt._ ii, 2.

[83] _Romulus_, 28; _de def. orac._ 10, 415 B.

[84] Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 121. "But," asks Tatian (c. 16), "why should they get _drastikoteras dynameos_ after death?" See the reply given by Plutarch, _de def. orac._ 39, 431 E. Compare also views of Apuleius (_de deo Socr._ 15) cited on p. 233.

[85] _de genio Socratis_, 24, 593 D-F. He is thinking of the series of rebirths.

[86] On such places and on necromancy in general see Tertullian, _de anima_, 57, who puts it down to illusion of the evil one--_nec magnum illi exteriores oculos circ.u.mscribere cui interiorem mentis aciem excaecare perfacile est_.

[87] Cf. p. 15 on the _genius_ and the _fravas.h.i.+_.

[88] _de tranqu. animi_, 15, 474 B.

[89] Cf. the story of the appearance to Brutus of his evil genius--_ho sos_, _o broute_, _daimon kakos_, Brutus, 36. Basilides the Gnostic (the father of Isidore) is credited with describing Man as a sort of Wooden Horse with a whole army of different spirits in him (Clem. Alex.

_Strom_, ii, 113). Plutarch makes a similar jibe at the Stoic account of arts, virtues, vices, etc., as corporeal or even animate and rational beings--making a man "a Paradise, or a cattle-pen, or a Wooden Horse," _de commun. not.i.t. adv. Stoicos_, 45, 1084 B. There was a tendency in contemporary psychology to attribute all feelings, etc., to daemonic influence; cf. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ ii, 110, who suggests that all _pathe_ are imprints (as of a seal) made on the soul by the spiritual powers against which we have to wrestle. Cf. Tert. _de Anima_, 41, the evil of soul in part due to evil spirit.

[90] Clement says (_Strom._ vi, 53) that Isidore the Gnostic "in the first book of the expositions of Parchor the Prophet" dealt with the daemon of Socrates and quoted Aristotle's authority for such tutelary spirits. For the book of Apuleius, see ch. vii.

[91] Porphyry, _v. Plotini_, 10. Cf. Origen, _c. Cels._ vii, 35, for Celsus' views on the visibility of daemons, _e.g._ in the cave of Trophonius.

[92] _Life of Numa_, 4--a most interesting chapter, when it is remembered what other works were being written contemporaneously.

[93] _de genio Socr._ 20, 588 D, 589 D.

[94] _de gen. Socr._ 24, 593 D.

[95] _de def. orac._ 38, 431 C, _phantasias tou mellontos_.

[96] Cf. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ vi, 46, on preaching of Christ in Hades, where souls, rid of the flesh, see more clearly.

[97] _de dif. orac._ 40, 432 C-E, _thermoteti gar ka diachysei porous tinas anoigein phantastikous tou mellontos eikos estin_.

For these _poroi_ cf. Clem. Alex. _Strom_, vii, 36, with J. B. Mayor's note.

[98] _de def. orac._ 46-48, 435 A-437 A (referring to Phaedo, 97 D).

The curious mixture of metaphors, the double suggestion of _krasis_, the parallel from music, and the ambiguity of _t enthousiastikn_ (characteristic of the confusion of spiritual and material then prevalent) make a curious sentence in English. On the relation of daemons to oracles, see also _de facie in orbe lunae_, 30, 944 D; also Tertullian, _de Anima_, 46, who gives a lucid account of daemons as the explanation of oracles, and _Apol._ 22--daemons inhabiting the atmosphere have early knowledge of the weather, and by their incredible speed can pa.s.s miraculously quickly from one end of the earth to the other, and so bring information--strange, he adds (c. 25), that Cybele took a week to inform her priest of the death of Marcus Aurelius--_o somniculosa diplomata_! ("sleepy post").

[99] _de Iside_, 80, 383 E. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ i, 135, says Greek prophets of old were "stirred up by daemons, or disordered by waters, fragrances or some quality of the air," but the Hebrews spoke "by the power and mind of G.o.d."

[100] _Praec. Conj._ 19. Cf. Plato, _Laws_, 906 A, _symmachoi de hemin theoi te ama ka daimones, hemeis d' au ktema theon ka daimonon_.

[101] _de repugn. Stoic._ 38, 1051 E.

[102] _non suaviter_, 20, 1101 B.

[103] _non suaviter_ 21, 1101 C. Clem. Alex. _Paed._ ii, 1, says it is "peculiar to man to cleanse the eye of the soul."

[104] _non suaviter_, 22, 1102 F.

[105] _de Iside_, 1, 351 D.

[106] _de Iside_, 2, 352 A.

[107] _de Iside_, 9, 354 C, _emphaseis ka diaphaseis_.

[108] _de Iside_, 9, 354 C.

[109] _de Iside_, 53, 372 E, _Myrionumos_.

[110] _de ser. num. vind._ 18, 560 F.

[111] _de ser. num. vind._ 17, 560 B-D. Justin, _Apology_, 1, 18, appeals to the belief in the continuance of the soul, which pagans derive from necromancy, dreams, oracles and persons "daemoniolept."

[112] In _de sera numinum vindicta_ and _de genio Socratis_. Cf. also the account of the souls of the dead given in _de facie in orbe lunae_, c. 28 ff.

[113] _de def. orac._ 18, 419 E. Another curious tale of these remote islands is in Clem. Alex. _Strom._ vi, 33.

[114] c.u.mont, _Mysteries of Mithra_ (tr.), p. 35. Mithraism began to spread under the Flavians, but (p. 33) "remained for ever excluded from the h.e.l.lenic world."

[115] _de Iside_, 20, 358 F.

[116] _de Iside_, 11, 355 C.