The sixth and also the seventh Miscellany of gnostic notes, in accordance with the true philosophy, having delineated as well as possible the ethical argument conveyed in them, and having exhibited what the Gnostic is in his life, proceed to show the philosophers that he is by no means impious, as they suppose, but that he alone is truly pious, by a compendious exhibition of the Gnostic’s form of religion, as far as it is possible, without danger, to commit it to writing in a book of reference. For the Lord enjoined “to labour for the meat which endureth to eternity.” (Joh_6:27) And the prophet says,” Blessed is he that soweth into all waters, whose ox and ass tread,” (Isa_32:20) [that is,] the people, from the Law and from the Gentiles, gathered into one faith.
“Now the weak eateth herbs,” according to the noble apostle. (Rom_14:2) The Instructor, divided by us into three books, has already exhibited the training and nurture up from the state of childhood, that is, the course of life which from elementary instruction grows by faith; and in the case of those enrolled in the number of men, prepares beforehand the soul, endued with virtue, for the reception of gnostic knowledge. The Greeks, then, clearly learning, from what shall be said by us in these pages, that in profanely persecuting the God-loving man, they themselves act impiously; then, as the notes advance, in accordance with the style of the Miscellanies, we must solve the difficulties raised both by Greeks and Barbarians with respect to the coming of the Lord.
In a meadow the flowers blooming variously, and in a park the plantations of fruit-trees, are not separated according to their species from those of other kinds. If some, culling varieties, have composed learned collections, Meadows, and Helicons, and Honeycombs, and Robes; then, with the things which come to recollection by haphazard, and are expurgated neither in order nor expression, but purposely scattered, the form of the Miscellanies is promiscuously variegated like a meadow. And such being the case, my notes shall serve as kindling sparks; and in the case of him, who is fit for knowledge, if he chance to fall in with them, research made with exertion will turn out to his benefit and advantage. For it is right that labour should precede not only food but also, much more knowledge, in the case of those that are advancing to the eternal and blessed salvation by the “strait and narrow way,” which is truly the Lord’s.
Our knowledge, and our spiritual garden, is the Saviour Himself; into whom we are planted, being transferred and transplanted, from our old life, into the good land. And transplanting contributes to fruitfulness. The Lord, then, into whom we have been transplanted, is the Light and the true Knowledge.
Now knowledge is otherwise spoken of in a twofold sense: that, commonly so called, which appears in all men (similarly also comprehension and apprehension), universally, in the knowledge of individual objects; in which not only the rational powers, but equally the irrational, share, which I would never term knowledge, inasmuch as the apprehension of things through the senses comes naturally. But that which par excellence is termed knowledge, bears the impress of judgment and reason, in the exercise of which there will be rational cognitions alone, applying purely to objects of thought, and resulting from the bare energy of the soul. “He is a good man,” says David, (Psa_112:5, Psa_112:9) “who pities” (those ruined through error), “and lends” (from the communication of the word of truth) not at haphazard, for “he will dispense his words in judgment:” with profound calculation, “he hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor.”
481
Chap. II. The Subject of Plagiarisms Resumed. The Greeks Plagiarized from One Another.
Before handling the point proposed, we must, by way of preface, add to the close of the fifth book what is wanting. For since we have shown that the symbolical style was ancient, and was employed not only by our prophets, but also by the majority of the ancient Greeks, and by not a few of the rest of the Gentile Barbarians, it was requisite to proceed to the mysteries of the initiated. I postpone the elucidation of these till we advance to the confutation of what is said by the Greeks on first principles; for we shall show that the mysteries belong to the same branch of speculation. And having proved that the declaration of Hellenic thought is illuminated all round by the truth, bestowed on us in the Scriptures, taking it according to the sense, we have proved, not to say what is invidious, that the theft of the truth passed to them.
Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to the theft. For, inasmuch as they pilfer from one another, they establish the fact that they are thieves; and although against their will, they are detected, clandestinely appropriating to those of their own race the truth which belongs to us. For if they do not keep their hands from each other, they will hardly do it from our authors. I shall say nothing of philosophic dogmas, since the very persons who are the authors of the divisions into sects, confess in writing, so as not to be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received from Socrates the most important of their dogmas. But after availing myself of a few testimonies of men most talked of, and of repute among the Greeks, and exposing their plagiarizing style, and selecting them from various periods, I shall turn to what follows.
Orpheus, then, having composed the line: -
“Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched than woman,”
Homer plainly says: -
“Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless than a woman.”2
And Musaeus having written: -
“Since art is greatly superior to strength,” -
Homer says: -
“By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior.”3
Again, Musaeus having composed the lines: -
“And as the fruitful field produceth leaves,
And on the ash trees some fade, others grow,
So whirls the race of man its leaf,”4 -
Homer transcribes: -
“Some of the leaves the wind strews on the ground.
The budding wood bears some; in time of spring,
They come. So springs one race of men, and one departs.”5
Again, Homer having said: -
“It is unholy to exult over dead men,”6
Archilochus and Cratinus write, the former: -
“It is not noble at dead men to sneer;”
and Cratinus in the Lacones: -
“For men ’tis dreadful to exult
Much o’er the stalwart dead.”
Again, Archilochus, transferring that Homeric line: -
“I erred, nor say I nay: - instead of many”7
writes thus: -
“I erred, and this mischief hath somehow seized another.”
As certainly also that line: -
“Even-handed8 war the slayer slays.”9
He also, altering, has given forth thus: -
“I will do it.
For Mars to men in truth is even-handed.”10
Also, translating the following: -
“The issues of victory among men depend on the gods,”11
he openly encourages youth, in the following iambic: -
“Victory’s issues on the gods depend.”
Again, Homer having said: -
“With feet unwashed sleeping on the ground,”12
Euripides writes in Erechtheus: -
“Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep
Nor in the streams of water lave their feet.”
Archilochus having likewise said: -
“But one with this and one with that
His heart delights,” -
in correspondence with the Homeric line: -
“For one in these deeds, one in those delights,”13
Euripides says in Oeneus: -
482 “But one in these ways, one in those, has more delight.”
And I have heard Aeschylus saying: -
“He who is happy ought to stay at home;
There should he also stay, who speeds not well.”
And Euripides, too, shouting the like on the stage: -
Happy the man who, prosperous, stays at home.”
Menander, too, on comedy, saying: -
“He ought at home to stay, and free remain,
Or be no longer rightly happy.”
Again, Theognis having said: -
“The exile has no comrade dear and true,” -
Euripides has written: -
“Far from the poor flies every friend.”
And Epicharmus, saying: -
“Daughter, woe worth the day!
Thee who art old I marry to a youth;”14
and adding: -
“For the young husband takes some other girl,
And for another husband longs the wife,”
Euripides15 writes: -
“’Tis bad to yoke an old wife to a youth;
For he desires to share another’s bed,
And she, by him deserted, mischief plots.”
Euripides having, besides, said in the Medea: -
“For no good do a bad man’s gifts,” -
Sophocles in AjaxFlagellifer utters this iambic: -
“For foes’ gifts are no gifts, nor any boon.”16
Solon having written: -
“For surfeit insolence begets,
When store of wealth attends.”
Theognis writes in the same way: -
“For surfeit insolence begets,
When store of wealth attends the bad.”
Whence also Thucydides, in the Histories, says: - “Many men, to whom in a great degree, and in a short time, unlooked-for prosperity comes, are wont to turn to insolence.” And Philistus17 likewise imitates the same sentiment, expressing himself thus: - “And the many things which turn out prosperously to men, in accordance with reason, have an incredibly dangerous18 tendency to misfortune. For those who meet with unlooked success beyond their expectations, are for the most part wont to turn to insolence.” Again, Euripides having written: -
“For children sprung of parents who have led
A hard and toilsome life, superior are;”
Critias writes: “For I begin with a man’s origin: how far the best and strongest in body will he be, if his father exercises himself, and eats in a hardy way, and subjects his body to toilsome labour; and if the mother of the future child be strong in body, and give herself exercise.”
Again, Homer having said of the Hephaestus-made shield: -
“Upon it earth and heaven and sea he made,
And Ocean’s rivers’ mighty strength portrayed,” -
Pherecydes of Syros says: - “Zas makes a cloak large and beautiful, and works on it earth and Ogenus, and the palace of Ogenus.”
And Homer having said: -
“Shame, which greatly hurts a man or helps,”19
Euripides writes in Erechtheus: -
“Of shame I find it hard to judge;
’Tis needed. ’Tis at times a great mischief.”
Take, by way of parallel, such plagiarisms as the following, from those who flourished together, and were rivals of each other. From the Orestes of Euripides: -
“Dear charm of sleep, aid in disease.”
From the Eriphyle of Sophocles: -
“Hie thee to sleep, healer of that disease.”
And from the Antigone of Sophocles: -
“Bastardy is opprobrious in name; but the nature is equal;”20
And from the Aleuades of Sophocles: -
“Each good thing has its nature equal.”
Again, in the Ctimenus21 of Euripides: -
“For him who toils, God helps;”
And in the Minos of Sophocles;
“To those who act not, fortune is no ally;”
And from the Alexander of Euripides: -
“But time will show; and learning, by that test,
I shall know whether thou art good or bad;”
And from the Hipponos of Sophocles: -
“Besides, conceal thou nought; since Time,
That sees all, hears all, all things will unfold.”
But let us similarly run over the following; for Eumelus having composed the line,
“Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the daughters nine,”
Solon thus begins the elegy: -
“Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the children bright.”
483 Again, Euripides, paraphrasing the Homeric line: -
“What, whence art thou? Thy city and thy parents, where?”22
employs the following iambics in Aegeus: -
“What country shall we say that thou hast left
To roam in exile, what thy land - the bound
Of thine own native soil? Who thee begat?
And of what father dost thou call thyself the son?”
And what? Theognis23 having said: -
“Wine largely drunk is bad; but if one use
It with discretion, ’tis not bad, but good,” -
does not Panyasis write?
“Above the gods’ best gift to men ranks wine,
In measure drunk; but in excess the worst.”
Hesiod, too, saying: -
“But for the fire to thee I’ll give a plague,24
For all men to delight themselves withal,” -
Euripides writes: -
“And for the fire
Another fire greater and unconquerable,
Sprung up in the shape of women.”25
And in addition, Homer, saying: -
“There is no satiating the greedy paunch,
Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men.”26
Euripides says : -
“Dire need and baneful paunch me overcome; From which all evils come.”
Besides, Callias the comic poet having written: -
“With madmen, all men must be mad, they say,” -
Menander, in the Poloumenoi, expresses himself similarly, saying: -
“The presence of wisdom is not always suitable:
One sometimes must with others play27 the fool.”
And Antimachus of Teos having said: -
“From gifts, to mortals many ills arise,” -
Augias composed the line: -
“For gifts men’s mind and acts deceive.”
And Hesiod having said: -
“Than a good wife, no man a better thing
Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,” -
Simonides said: -
“A better prize than a good wife no man
Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse.”
Again, Epicharmas having said : -
“As destined long to live, and yet not long,
Think of thyself.” -
Euripides writes: -
“Why? seeing the wealth we have uncertain is,
Why don’t we live as free from care, as pleasant
As we may?”
Similarly also, the comic poet Diphilus having said: -
“The life of men is prone to change,” -
Posidippus says: -
“No man of mortal mould his life has passed
From suffering free. Nor to the end again
Has continued prosperous.”
Similarly28 speaks to thee Plato, writing of man as a creature subject to change. Again, Euripides having said: -
“Oh life to mortal men of trouble full,
How slippery in everything art thou!
Now grow’st thou, and thou now decay’st away.
And there is set no limit, no, not one,
For mortals of their course to make an end,
Except when Death’s remorseless final end
Comes, sent from Zeus,” -
Diphilus writes: -
“There is no life which has not its own ills,
Pains, cares, thefts, and anxieties, disease;
And Death, as a physician, coming, gives
Rest to their victims in his quiet sleep.”29
Furthermore, Euripides having said: -
“Many are fortune’s shapes,
And many things contrary to expectation the gods perform,” -
The tragic poet Theodectes similarly writes: -
“The instability of mortals’ fates.”
And Bacchylides having said : -
“To few30 alone of mortals is it given
To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while,
And not meet with calamities,” -
Moschion, the comic poet, writes: -
“But he of all men is most blest,
Who leads throughout an equal life.”
And you will find that, Theognis having said: -
“For no advantage to a mall grown old
A young wife is, who will not, as a ship
The helm, obey,” -
Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes: -
“An old man to a young wife suits but ill.”
For Anacreon, having written: -
484 “Luxurious love I sing,
With flowery garlands graced,
He is of gods the king,
He mortal men subdues,” -
Euripides writes : -
“For love not only men attacks,
And women; but disturbs
The souls of gods above, and to the sea
Descends.”
But not to protract the discourse further, in our anxiety to show the propensity of the Greeks to plagiarism in expressions and dogmas, allow us to adduce the express testimony of Hippias, the sophist of Elea, who discourses on the point in hand, and speaks thus: “Of these things some perchance are said by Orpheus, some briefly by Musaeus; some in one place, others in other places; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by the rest of the poets; and some in prose compositions, some by Greeks, some by Barbarians. And I from all these, placing together the things of most importance and of kindred character, will make the present discourse new and varied.”
And in order that we may see that philosophy and history, and even rhetoric, are not free of a like reproach, it is right to adduce a few instances from them. For Alcmaeon of Crotona having said, “It is easier to guard against a man who is an enemy than a friend,” Sophocles wrote in the Antigone: -
“For what sore more grievous than a bad friend?”
And Xenophon said: “No man can injure enemies in any way other than by appearing to be a friend.”
And Euripides having said in Telephus: -
“Shall we Greeks be slaves to Barbarians?“ -
Thrasymachus, in the oration for the Larissaeans, says: “Shall we be slaves to Archelaus - Greeks to a Barbarian?”
And Orpheus having said: -
“Water is the change for soul, and death for water;
From water is earth, and what comes from earth is again water,
And from that, soul, which changes the whole ether;”
and Heraclitus, putting together the expressions from these lines, writes thus: -
“It is death for souls to become water, and death for water to become earth; and from earth comes water, and from water soul.”
And Athamas the Pythagorean having said, “Thus was produced the beginning of the universe; and there are four roots - fire, water, air, earth: for from these is the origination of what is produced,” - Empedocles of Agrigentum wrote : -
“The four roots of all things first do thou hear -
Fire, water, earth, and ether’s boundless height:
For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes.”
And Plato having said, “Wherefore also the gods, knowing men, release sooner from life those they value most,” Menander wrote: -
“Whom the gods love, dies young.”
And Euripides having written in the Oenomaus: -
“We judge of things obscure from what we see;”
and in the Phoenix: -
“By signs the obscure is fairly grasped?” -
Hyperides says, “But we must investigate things unseen by learning from signs and probabilities.” And Isocrates having said, “We must conjecture the future by the past,” Andocides does not shrink from saying, “For we must make use of what has happened previously as signs in reference to what is to be.” Besides, Theognis having said : -
“The evil of counterfeit silver and gold is not intolerable,
O Cyrnus, and to a wise man is not difficult of detection;
But if the mind of a friend is hidden in his breast,
If he is false,31 and has a treacherous heart within,
This is the basest thing for mortals, caused by God,
And of all things the hardest to detect,” -
Euripides writes : -
“Oh Zeus, why hast thou given to men clear tests
Of spurious gold, while on the body grows
No mark sufficing to discover clear
The wicked man?”
Hyperides himself also says, “There is no feature of the mind impressed on the countenance of men.”
Again, Stasinus having composed the line: -
“Fool, who, having slain the father, leaves the children,” -
Xenophon32 says, “For I seem to myself to have acted in like manner, as if one who killed the father should spare his children.” And Sophocles having written in the Antigone: -
“Mother and father being in Hades now,
No brother ever can to me spring forth,” -
Herodotus says, “Mother and father being no more, I shall not have another brother.” In addition to these, Theopompus having written: -
“Twice children are old men in very truth;”
And before him Sophocles in Peleus: -
“Peleus, the son of Aeacus, I, sole housekeeper,
Guide, old as he is now, and train again,
For the aged man is once again a child,” -
Antipho the orator says, “For the nursing of the old is like the nursing of children.” Also the 485 philosopher Plato says, “The old man then, as seems, will be twice a child.” Further, Thucydides having said, “We alone bore the brunt at Marathon,”33 - Demosthenes said, “By those who bore the brunt at Marathon.” Nor will I omit the following. Cratinus having said in the Pytine:34 -
“The preparation perchance you know,”
Andocides the orator says, “The preparation, gentlemen of the jury, and the eagerness of our enemies, almost all of you know.” Similarly also Nicias, in the speech on the deposit, against Lysias, says, “The preparation and the eagerness of the adversaries, ye see, O gentlemen of the jury.” After him Aeschines says, “You see the preparation, O men of Athens, and the line of battle.” Again, Demosthenes having said, “What zeal and what canvassing, O men of Athens, have been employed in this contest, I think almost all of you are aware;” and Philinus similarly, “What zeal, what forming of the line of battle, gentlemen of the jury, have taken place in this contest, I think not one of you is ignorant.” Isocrates, again, having said, “As if she were related to his wealth, not him,” Lysias says in the Orphics, “And he was plainly related not to the persons, but to the money.” Since Homer also having written: -
“O friend, if in this war, by taking flight,
We should from age and death exemption win,
I would not fight among the first myself,
Nor would I send thee to the glorious fray;
But now - for myriad fates of death attend
In any case, which man may not escape
Or shun - come on. To some one we shall bring
Renown, or some one shall to us,”35 -
Theopompus writes, “For if, by avoiding the present danger, we were to pass the rest of our time in security, to show love of life would not be wonderful. But now, so many fatalities are incident to life, that death in battle seems preferable.” And what? Child the sophist having uttered the apophthegm, “Become surety, and mischief is at hand,” did not Epicharmus utter the same sentiment in other terms, when he said, “Suretyship is the daughter of mischief, and loss that of suretyship?”36 Further, Hippocrates the physician having written, “You must look to time, and locality, and age, and disease,” Euripides says in Hexameters:37 -
“Those who the healing art would practise well,
Must study people’s modes of life, and note
The soil, and the diseases so consider.”
Homer again, having written: -
“I say no mortal man can doom escape,” -
Archinus says, “All men are bound to die either sooner or later;” and Demosthenes, “To all men death is the end of life, though one should keep himself shut up in a coop.”
And Herodotus, again, having said, in his discourse about Glaucus the Spartan, that the Pythian said, “In the case of the Deity, to say and to do are equivalent,” Aristophanes said : -
“For to think and to do are equivalent.”
And before him, Parmenides of Elea said: -
“For thinking and being are the same.”
And Plato having said, “And we shall show, not absurdly perhaps, that the beginning of love is sight; and hope diminishes the passion, memory nourishes it, and intercourse preserves it;” does not Philemon the comic poet write : -
“First all see, then admire;
Then gaze, then come to hope;
And thus arises love?”
Further, Demosthenes having said, “For to all of us death is a debt,” and so forth, Phanocles writes in Loves, or The Beautiful: -
“But from the Fates’ unbroken thread escape
Is none for those that feed on earth.”
You will also find that Plato having said, “For the first sprout of each plant, having got a fair start, according to the virtue of its own nature, is most powerful in inducing the appropriate end;” the historian writes, “Further, it is not natural for one of the wild plants to become cultivated, after they have passed the earlier period of growth;” and the following of Empedocles: -
“For I already have been boy and girl,
And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,” -
Euripides transcribes in Chrysippus: -
“But nothing dies
Of things that are; but being dissolved,
One from the other,
Shows another form.”
And Plato having said, in the Republic, that women were common, Euripides writes in the Protesilaus: -
“For common, then, is woman’s bed.”
Further, Euripides having written : -
“For to the temperate enough sufficient is “ -
Epicurus expressly says, “Sufficiency is the greatest riches of all.”
Again, Aristophanes having written : -
“Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being just
And free from turmoil, and from fear live well,” -
Epicurus says, “The greatest fruit of righteousness is tranquillity.”
486 Let these species, then, of Greek plagiarism of sentiments, being such, stand as sufficient for a clear specimen to him who is capable of perceiving.
And not only have they been detected pirating and paraphrasing thoughts and expressions, as will be shown; but they will also be convicted of the possession of what is entirely stolen. For stealing entirely what is the production of others they have published it as their own; as Eugamon of Cyrene did the entire book on the Thesprotians from Musaeus, and Pisander of Camirus the Heraclea of Pisinus of Lindus, and Panyasis of Halicarnassus, the capture of Oechalia from Cleophilus of Samos.
You will also find that Homer, the great poet, took from Orpheus, from the Disappearance of Dionysus, those words and what follows verbatim: -
“As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive.”38
And in the Theogony, it is said by Orpheus of Kronos: -
“He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and him
All-conquering Sleep had seized.”
These Homer transferred to the Cyclops.39 And Hesiod writes of Melampous: -
“Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assigned
To men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;”
and so forth, taking it word for word from the poet Musaeus.
And Aristophanes the comic poet has, in the first of the Thesmophoriazusae, transferred the words from the Empiprameni of Cratinus. And Plato the comic poet, and Aristophanes in Daedalus, steal from one another. Cocalus, composed by Araros,40 the son of Aristophanes, was by the comic poet Philemon altered, and made into the comedy called Hypobolimoens.
Eumelus and Acusilaus the historiographers changed the contents of Hesiod into prose, and published them as their own. Gorgias of Leontium and Eudemus of Naxus, the historians, stole from Melesagoras. And, besides, there is Bion of Proconnesus, who epitomized and transcribed the writings of the ancient Cadmus, and Archilochus, and Aristotle, and Leandrus, and Hellanicus, and Hecataeus, and Androtion, and Philochorus. Dieuchidas of Megara transferred the beginning of his treatise from the Deucalion of Hellanicus. I pass over in silence Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took a very great deal from Orpheus.
From Pythagoras Plato derived the immortality of the soul; and he from the Egyptians. And many of the Platonists composed books, in which they show that the Stoics, as we said in the beginning, and Aristotle, took the most and principal of their dogmas from Plato. Epicurus also pilfered his leading dogmas from Democritus. Let these things then be so. For life would fail me, were I to undertake to go over the subject in detail, to expose the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they claim the discovery of the best of their doctrines, which they have received from us.
Chap. III. - Plagiarism by the Greeks of the Miracles Related in the Sacred Books of the Hebrews.
And now they are convicted not only of borrowing doctrines from the Barbarians, but also of relating as prodigies of Hellenic mythology the marvels found in our records, wrought through divine power from above, by those who led holy lives, while devoting attention to us. And we shall ask at them whether those things which they relate are true or false. But they will not say that they are false; for they will not with their will condemn themselves of the very great silliness of composing falsehoods, but of necessity admit them to be true. And how will the prodigies enacted by Moses and the other prophets any longer appear to them incredible? For the Almighty God, in His care for all men, turns some to salvation by commands, some by threats, some by miraculous signs, some by gentle promises.
Well, the Greeks, when once a drought had wasted Greece for a protracted period, and a dearth of the fruits of the earth ensued, it is said, those that survived of them, having, because of the famine, come as suppliants to Delphi, asked the Pythian priestess how they should be released from the calamity. She announced that the only help in their distress was, that they should avail themselves of the prayers of Aeacus. Prevailed on by them, Aeacus, ascending the Hellenic hill, and stretching out pure41 hands to heaven, and invoking the common42 God, besought him to pity wasted Greece. And as he prayed, thunder sounded, out of the usual course of things, and the whole surrounding atmosphere was covered with clouds. And impetuous and continued rains, bursting down, filled the whole region. The result was a copious and rich fertility wrought by the husbandry of the prayers of Aeacus.
“And Samuel called on the Lord,” it is said, “and the Lord gave forth His voice, and rain in the day of harvest.” (1Sa_12:18) Do you see that “He who sendeth His rain on the just and on the 487 unjust” (Mat_5:45) by the subject powers is the one God? And the whole of our Scripture is full of instances of God, in reference to the prayers of the just, hearing and performing each one of their petitions.
Again, the Greeks relate, that in the case of a failure once of the Etesian winds, Aristaeus once sacrificed in Ceus to Isthmian Zeus. For there was great devastation, everything being burnt up with the heat in consequence of the winds, which had been wont to refresh the productions of the earth, not blowing, and he easily called them back.
And at Delphi, on the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, the Pythian priestess having made answer: -
“O Delphians, pray the winds, and it will be better,” -
they having erected an altar and performed sacrifice to the winds, had them as their helpers. For, blowing violently around Cape Sepias, they shivered the whole preparations of the Persian expedition. Empedocles of Agrigentum was called “Checker of Winds.” Accordingly it is said, that when, on a time, a wind blew from the mountain of Agrigentum, heavy and pestiferous for the inhabitants, and the cause also of barrenness to their wives, he made the wind to cease. Wherefore he himself writes in the lines: -
“Thou shalt the might of the unwearied winds make still,
Which rushing to the earth spoil mortals’ crops,
And at thy will bring back the avenging blasts.”
And they say that he was followed by some that used divinations, and some that had been long vexed by sore diseases.43 They plainly, then, believed in the performance of cures, and signs and wonders, from our Scriptures. For if certain powers move the winds and dispense showers, let them hear the psalmist: “How amiable are; thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” (Psa_84:1) This is the Lord of powers, and principalities, and authorities, of whom Moses speaks; so that we may be with Him. “And ye shall circumcise your hard heart, and shall not harden your neck any more. For He is Lord of lords and God of gods, the great God and strong,” (Deu_10:16, Deu_10:17) unit so forth. And Isaiah says, “Lift your eyes to the height, and see who hath produced all these things.” (Isa_40:26)
And some say that plagues, and hail-storms, and tempests, and the like, are wont to take place, not alone in consequence of material disturbance, but also through anger of demons and bad angels. For instance, they say that the Magi at Cleone, watching the phenomena of the skies, when the clouds are about to discharge hail, avert the threatening of wrath by incantations and sacrifices. And if at any time there is the want of an animal, they are satisfied with bleeding their own finger for a sacrifice. The prophetess Diotima, by the Athenians offering sacrifice previous to the pestilence, effected a delay of the plague for ten years. The sacrifices, too, of Epimenides of Crete, put off the Persian war for an equal period. And it is considered to be all the same whether we call these spirits gods or angels. And those skilled in the matter of consecrating statues, in many of the temples have erected tombs of the dead, calling the souls of these Daemons, and teaching them to be worshipped by men; as having, in consequence of the purity of their life, by the divine foreknowledge, received the power of wandering about the space around the earth in order to minister to men. For they knew that some souls were by nature kept in the body. But of these, as the work proceeds, in the treatise on the angels, we shall discourse.
Democritus, who predicted many things from observation of celestial phenomena, was called “Wisdom” (Σοφία). On his meeting a cordial reception from his brother Damasus, he predicted that there would be much rain, judging from certain stars. Some, accordingly, convinced by him, gathered their crops; for being in summer-time, they were still on the threshing-floor. But others lost all, unexpected and heavy showers having burst down.
How then shall the Greeks any longer disbelieve the divine appearance on Mount Sinai, when the fire burned, consuming none of the things that grew on the mount; and the sound of trumpets issued forth, breathed without instruments? For that which is called the descent on the mount of God is the advent of divine power, pervading the whole world, and proclaiming “the light that is inaccessible.” (1Ti_6:16)
For such is the allegory, according to the Scripture. But the fire was seen, as Aristobulus44 says, while the whole multitude, amounting to not less than a million, besides those under age, were congregated around the mountain, the circuit of the mount not being less than five days’ journey. Over the whole place of the vision the burning fire was seen by them all encamped as it were around; so that the descent was not local. For God is everywhere.
Now the compilers of narratives say that in the island of Britain45 there is a cave situated under a mountain, and a chasm on its summit; 488 and that, accordingly, when the wind falls into the cave, and rushes into the bosom of the cleft, a sound is heard like cymbals clashing musically. And often in the woods, when the leaves are moved by a sudden gust of wind, a sound is emitted like the song of birds.
Those also who composed the Persics relate that in the uplands, in the country of the Magi, three mountains are situated on an extended plain, and that those who travel through the locality, on coming to the first mountain, hear a confused sound as of several myriads shouting, as if in battle array; and on reaching the middle one, they hear a clamour louder and more distinct; and at the end hear people singing a paean, as if victorious. And the cause, in my opinion, of the whole sound, is the smoothness and cavernous character of the localities; and the air, entering in, being sent back and going to the same point, sounds with considerable force. Let these things be so. But it is possible for God Almighty,46 even without a medium, to produce a voice and vision through the ear, showing that His greatness has a natural order beyond what is customary, in order to the conversion of the hitherto unbelieving soul, and the reception of the commandment given. But there being a cloud and a lofty mountain, how is it not possible to hear a different sound, the wind moving by the active cause? Wherefore also the prophet says, “Ye heard the voice of words, and saw no similitude.” (Deu_4:12) You see how the Lord’s voice, the Word, without shape, the power of the Word, the luminous word of the Lord, the truth from heaven, from above, coming to the assembly of the Church, wrought by the luminous immediate ministry.
FOOTNOTES
1 [On Clement’s plan, see Elucidation I. p. 342, supra.]
2 Odyss., xi. 427.
3 Homer, Iliad, xxiii. 315: μέγ ̓ ἀμείνων is found in the Iliad as in Musaeus. In the text occurs instead περιγίνεται, which is taken from line 318.
“By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior;
By art the helmsman on the dark sea
Guides the swift ship when driven by winds;
By art one charioteer (περιγινεται) another.”
Iliad, xxiii. 315-318.
4 φύλλον, for which Sylburg. suggests φῦλον.
5 Iliad, vi. 147-149
6 Odyss., xxii. 412.
7 Iliad, ix. 116.
8 Ξυνός. So Livy, “communis Mars;” and Cicero, “cum omnis belli Mars communis.”
9 Iliad, xviii. 309.
10 Ξυνός. So Livy, “communis Mars;” and Cicero, “cum omnis belli Mars communis.”
11 The text has: Νίκης ἀνθρώποισι θεῶν ἐκ πείρατα κεῖται. In Iliad, vii. 101, 102, we read: -
14 The text is corrupt and unintelligible. It has been restored as above.
15 In some lost tragedy.
16 Said by Ajax of the sword received from Hector, with which he killed himself.
17 The imitator of Thucydides, said to be weaker but clearer than his model. He is not specially clear here.
18 The text has, ἀσφαλέστερα παρὰ δόξαν καὶ κακοπραγίαν: for which Lowth reads, ἐπισφαλέστερα πρὸς κακοπραγίαν, as translated above.
19 Iliad, xxiv. 44, 45. Clement’s quotation differs somewhat from the passage as it stands in Homer.
20 The text has δοίη, which Stobaeus has changed into δ ̓ ἴση, as above. Stobaeus gives this quotation as follows: -
“The bastard has equal strength with the legitimate;
Each good thing has its nature legitimate.”
21 As no play bearing this name is mentioned by any one else, various conjectures have been made as to the true reading: among which are Clymene Temenos or Temenides.
22 Odyss., xiv. 187.
23 [See, supra, book ii. cap. ii. p. 242.] In Theognis the quotation stands thus -
Οἶνον τοι πίνειν πουλὸν κακόν ἢν δέ τις αὐτὸν
Πίνη ἐπισταμένως, οὐ κακος ἀλλ ̓ ἀγαθός.
“To drink much wine is bad: but if one drink
It with discretion, ’tis not bad, but good.”
24 From Jupiter’s address (referring to Pandora) to Prometheus, after stealing fire from heaven. The passage in Hesiod runs thus: -
“You rejoice at stealing fire and outwitting my mind:
But I will give you, and to future men, a great plague.
And for the fire will give to them a bane in which
All will delight their heart, embracing their own bane.”
25 Translated as arranged by Grotius.
26 Odyss., xvii. 286.
27 συμμανῆναι is doubtless here the true reading, for which the text has συμβῆναι.
28 The text has κατα ἄλλα. And although Sylburgius very properly remarks, that the conjecture κατάλληλα instead in uncertain, it is so suitable to the sense here, that we have no hesitation in adopting it.
29 The above is translated as amended by Grotius.
30 παύροισι, “few,” instead of παῤοἶσι, and πράσσοντας instead of πράσσοντα, and δύαις, “calamities,” instead of δύᾳ, are adopted from Lyric Fragments.
31 ψυδνός = ψυδρός - which, however, occurs nowhere but here - is adopted as preferable to ψεδνός (bald), which yields no sense, or ψυχρος. Sylburgius ms. Paris: Ruhnk reads ψυδρός.
32 A mistake for Herodotus.
33 Instead of Μαραθωνιται, as in the text, we read from Thucydides Μαραθῶνί τε.
34 Πυτίνη (not, as in the text, Ποιτίνη), a flask covered with plaited osiers. The name of a comedy by Cratinus (Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon). [Elucidation I.]
35 Iliad, xii. 322. Sarpedon to Glaucus.
36 Grotius’s correction has been adopted, ἐγγύας δὲ ζαμία, instead of εγγυα δὲ ζαμίας.
37 In the text before In Hexameters we have τηρήσει, which occasioned much trouble to the critics. Although not entirely satisfactory, yet the most probable is the correction θέλουσι as above.
38 Iliad, xvii. 53.
39 i.e., Polyphemus, Odyss., ix. 372.
40 According to the correction of Casaubon, who, instead of ἀραρότως or the text, reads Ἀραρώς. Others ascribed the comedy to Aristophanes himself.
41 i.e., washed.
42 Eusebius reads, “invoking the common Father, God,” vix., Πανελλήνιος Ζεύς, as Pausanias relates.
43 Instead of νοῦσον σιδηρόν, the sense requires that we should, with Sylburgius, read νούσοισι δηρόν.
44 [Of this Aristobulus, see 2 Maccab. 1:10, and Euseb., Hist., book vii. cap. 32. Elucidation II.]
45 [See the unsatisfactory note in ed. Migne, ad locum.]
46 [See interesting remarks of Professor Cook, Religion and Chemistry (first edition), p. 44. This whole passage of our author, on the sounds of Sinai and the angelic trumpets, touches a curious matter, which must be referred, as here, to the unlimited power of God.]
