Part 8

Imagination, says Apollonius, is one of the most potent faculties, for it enables us to reach nearer to realities. It is generally supposed that Greek sculpture was merely a glorification of physical beauty, in itself quite unspiritual. It was an idealisation of form and features, limbs and muscles, an empty glorification of the physical with nothing of course really corresponding to it in the nature of things. But Apollonius declared it brings us nearer to the real, as Pythagoras and Plato declared before him, and as all the wiser teach. He meant this literally, not vaguely and fantastically. He asserted that the types and ideas of things are the only realities. He meant that between the imperfection of the earth and the highest divine type of all things, were grades of increasing perfection. He meant that within each man was a form of perfection, though of course not yet absolutely perfect. That the angel in man, his dæmon, was of God-like beauty, the summation of all the finest features he had ever worn in his many lives on earth. The Gods, too, belonged to the world of types, of models, of perfections, the heaven-world. The Greek sculptors had succeeded in getting in contact with this world, and the faculty they used was imagination.

This idealisation of form was a worthy way to represent the Gods; but, says Apollonius, if you set up a hawk or owl or dog in your temples, to represent Hermes or Athena or Apollo, you may dignify the animals, but you make the Gods lose dignity.

To this Thespesion replies that the Egyptians dare not give any precise form to the Gods; they give them merely symbols to which an occult meaning is attached.

Yes, answers Apollonius, but the danger is that the common people worship these symbols and get unbeautiful ideas of the Gods. The best thing would be to have no representations at all. For the mind of the worshipper can form and fashion for himself an image of the object of his worship better than any art.

Quite so, retorted Thespesion, and then added mischievously: There was an old Athenian, by-the-by--no fool--called Socrates, who swore by the dog and goose as though they were Gods.

Yes, replied Apollonius, he was no fool. He swore by them not as being Gods, but in order that he might not swear by the Gods (iv. 19).

This is a pleasant passage of wit, of Egyptian against Greek, but all such set arguments must be set down to the rhetorical exercises of Philostratus rather than to Apollonius, who taught as "one having authority," as "from a tripod." Apollonius, a priest of universal religion, might have pointed out the good side and the bad side of both Greek and Egyptian religious art, and certainly taught the higher way of symbolless worship, but he would not champion one popular cult against another. In the above speech there is a distinct prejudice against Egypt and a glorification of Greece, and this occurs in a very marked fashion in several other speeches. Philostratus was a champion of Greece against all comers; but Apollonius, we believe, was wiser than his biographer.

In spite of the artificial literary dress that is given to the longer discourses of Apollonius, they contain many noble thoughts, as we may see from the following quotations from the conversations of our philosopher with his friend Demetrius, who was endeavouring to dissuade him from braving Domitian at Rome.

The law, said Apollonius, obliges us to die for liberty, and nature ordains that we should die for our parents, our friends, or our children. All men are bound by these duties. But a higher duty is laid upon the sage; he must die for his principles and the truth he holds dearer than life. It is not the law that lays this choice upon him, it is not nature; it is the strength and courage of his own soul. Though fire or sword threaten him, it will not overcome his resolution or force from him the slightest falsehood; but he will guard the secrets of others' lives and all that has been entrusted to his honour as religiously as the secrets of initiation. And I know more than other men, for I know that of all that I know, I know some things for the good, some for the wise, some for myself, some for the Gods, but naught for tyrants.

Again, I think that a wise man does nothing alone or by himself; no thought of his so secret but that he has himself as witness to it. And whether the famous saying "know thyself" be from Apollo or from some sage who learnt to know himself and proclaimed it as a good for all, I think the wise man who knows himself and has his own spirit in constant comradeship, to fight at his right hand, will neither cringe at what the vulgar fear, nor dare to do what most men do without the slightest shame (vii. 15).

In the above we have the true philosopher's contempt for death, and also the calm knowledge of the initiate, of the comforter and adviser of others to whom the secrets of their lives have been confessed, that no tortures can ever unseal his lips. Here, too, we have the full knowledge of what consciousness is, of the impossibility of hiding the smallest trace of evil in the inner world; and also the dazzling brilliancy of a higher ethic which makes the habitual conduct of the crowd appear surprising--the "that which they do--not with shame."

SECTION XVI.

FROM HIS LETTERS.

Apollonius seems to have written many letters to emperors, kings, philosophers, communities and states, although he was by no means a "voluminous correspondent"; in fact, the style of his short notes is exceedingly concise, and they were composed, as Philostratus says, "after the manner of the Lacedæmonian scytale"[118] (iv. 27 and vii. 35).

It is evident that Philostratus had access to letters attributed to Apollonius, for he quotes a number of them,[119] and there seems no reason to doubt their authenticity. Whence he obtained them he does not inform us, unless it be that they were the collection made by Hadrian at Antium (viii. 20).

That the reader may be able to judge of the style of Apollonius we append one or two specimens of these letters, or rather notes, for they are too short to deserve the title of epistles. Here is one to the magistrates of Sparta:

"Apollonius to the Ephors, greeting!

"It is possible for men not to make mistakes, but it requires noble men to acknowledge they have made them."

All of which Apollonius gets into just half as many words in Greek. Here, again, is an interchange of notes between the two greatest philosophers of the time, both of whom suffered imprisonment and were in constant danger of death.

"Apollonius to Musonius, the philosopher, greeting!

"I want to go to you, to share speech and roof with you, to be of some service to you. If you still believe that Hercules once rescued Theseus from Hades, write what you would have. Farewell!"

"Musonius to Apollonius, the philosopher, greeting!

"Good merit shall be stored for you for your good thoughts; what is in store for me is one who waits his trial and proves his innocence. Farewell."

"Apollonius to Musonius, greeting!

"Socrates refused to be got out of prison by his friends and went before the judges. He was put to death. Farewell."

"Musonius to Apollonius, the philosopher, greeting!

"Socrates was put to death because he made no preparation for his defence. I shall do so. Farewell!"

However, Musonius, the Stoic, was sent to penal servitude by Nero.

Here is a note to the Cynic Demetrius, another of our philosopher's most devoted friends.

"Apollonius, the philosopher, to Demetrius, the Dog,[120] greeting!

"I give thee to Titus, the emperor, to teach him the way of kingship, and do you in turn give me to speak him true; and be to him all things but anger. Farewell!"

In addition to the notes quoted in the text of Philostratus, there is a collection of ninety-five letters, mostly brief notes, the text of which is printed in most editions.[121] Nearly all the critics are of opinion that they are not genuine, but Jowett[122] and others think that some of them may very well be genuine.

Here is a specimen or two of these letters. Writing to Euphrates, his great enemy, that is to say the champion of pure rationalistic ethic against the science of sacred things, he says:

17. "The Persians call those who have the divine faculty (or are god-like) Magi. A Magus, then, is one who is a minister of the Gods, or one who has by nature the god-like faculty. You are no Magus but reject the Gods (i.e., are an atheist)."

Again, in a letter addressed to Criton, we read:

23. "Pythagoras said that the most divine art was that of healing. And if the healing art is most divine, it must occupy itself with the soul as well as with the body; for no creature can be sound so long as the higher part in it is sickly."

Writing to the priests of Delphi against the practice of blood-sacrifice, he says:

27. "Heraclitus was a sage, but even he[123] never advised the people of Ephesus to wash out mud with mud."[124]

Again, to some who claimed to be his followers, those "who think themselves wise," he writes the reproof:

43. "If any say he is my disciple, then let him add he keeps himself apart out of the Baths, he slays no living thing, eats of no flesh, is free from envy, malice, hatred, calumny, and hostile feelings, but has his name inscribed among the race of those who've won their freedom."

Among these letters is found one of some length addressed to Valerius, probably P. Valerius Asiaticus, consul in A.D. 70. It is a wise letter of philosophic consolation to enable Valerius to bear the loss of his son, and runs as follows:[125]

"There is no death of anyone, but only in appearance, even as there is no birth of any, save only in seeming. The change from being to becoming seems to be birth, and the change from becoming to being seems to be death, but in reality no one is ever born, nor does one ever die. It is simply a being visible and then invisible; the former through the density of matter, and the latter because of the subtlety of being--being which is ever the same, its only change being motion and rest. For being has this necessary peculiarity, that its change is brought about by nothing external to itself; but whole becomes parts and parts become whole in the oneness of the all. And if it be asked: What is this which sometimes is seen and sometimes not seen, now in the same, now in the different?--it might be answered: It is the way of everything here in the world below that when it is filled out with matter it is visible, owing to the resistance of its density, but is invisible, owing to its subtlety, when it is rid of matter, though matter still surround it and flow through it in that immensity of space which hems it in but knows no birth or death.

"But why has this false notion [of birth and death] remained so long without a refutation? Some think that what has happened through them, they have themselves brought about. They are ignorant that the individual is brought to birth _through_ parents, not by parents, just as a thing produced _through_ the earth is not produced _from_ it. The change which comes to the individual is nothing that is caused by his visible surroundings, but rather a change in the one thing which is in every individual.

"And what other name can we give to it but primal being? 'Tis it alone that acts and suffers becoming all for all through all, eternal deity, deprived and wronged of its own self by names and forms. But this is a less serious thing than that a man should be bewailed, when he has passed from man to God by change of state and not by the destruction of his nature. The fact is that so far from mourning death you ought to honour it and reverence it. The best and fittest way for you to honour death is now to leave the one who's gone to God, and set to work to play the ruler over those left in your charge as you were wont to do. It would be a disgrace for such a man as you to owe your cure to time and not to reason, for time makes even common people cease from grief. The greatest thing is a strong rule, and of the greatest rulers he is best who first can rule himself. And how is it permissible to wish to change what has been brought to pass by will of God? If there's a law in things, and there _is_ one, and it is God who has appointed it, the righteous man will have no wish to try to change good things, for such a wish is selfishness, and counter to the law, but he will think that all that comes to pass is a good thing. On! heal yourself, give justice to the wretched and console them; so shall you dry your tears. You should not set your private woes above your public cares, but rather set your public cares before your private woes. And see as well what consolation you already have! The nation sorrows with you for your son. Make some return to those who weep with you; and this you will more quickly do if you will cease from tears than if you still persist. Have you not friends? Why! you have yet another son. Have you not even still the one that's gone? You have!--will answer anyone who really thinks. For 'that which is' doth cease not--nay _is_ just for the very fact that it will be for aye; or else the 'is not' is, and how could that be when the 'is' doth never cease to be?

"Again it will be said you fail in piety to God and are unjust. 'Tis true. You fail in piety to God, you fail in justice to your boy; nay more, you fail in piety to him as well. Would'st know what death is? Then make me dead and send me off to company with death, and if you will not change the dress you've put on it,[126] you will have straightway made me better than yourself."[127]

SECTION XVII.

THE WRITINGS OF APOLLONIUS.

But besides these letters Apollonius also wrote a number of treatises, of which, however, only one or two fragments have been preserved. These treatises are as follows:

_a._ The Mystic Rites or Concerning Sacrifices.[128] This treatise is mentioned by Philostratus (iii. 41; iv. 19), who tells us that it set down the proper method of sacrifice to every God, the proper hours of prayer and offering. It was in wide circulation, and Philostratus had come across copies of it in many temples and cities, and in the libraries of philosophers. Several fragments of it have been preserved,[129] the most important of which is to be found in Eusebius,[130] and is to this effect: "'Tis best to make no sacrifice to God at all, no lighting of a fire, no calling Him by any name that men employ for things of sense. For God is over all, the first; and only after Him do come the other Gods. For He doth stand in need of naught e'en from the Gods, much less from us small men--naught that the earth brings forth, nor any life she nurseth, or even any thing the stainless air contains. The only fitting sacrifice to God is man's best reason, and not the word[131] that comes from out his mouth.

"We men should ask the best of beings through the best thing in us, for what is good--I mean by means of mind, for mind needs no material things to make its prayer. So then, to God, the mighty One, who's over all, no sacrifice should ever be lit up."

Noack[132] tells us that scholarship is convinced of the genuineness of this fragment. This book, as we have seen, was widely circulated and held in the highest respect, and it said that its rules were engraved on brazen pillars at Byzantium.[133]

_b._ The Oracles or Concerning Divination, 4 books. Philostratus (iii. 41) seems to think that the full title was Divination of the Stars, and says that it was based on what Apollonius had learned in India; but the _kind_ of divination Apollonius wrote about was not the ordinary astrology, but something which Philostratus considers superior to ordinary human art in such matters. He had, however, never heard of anyone possessing a copy of this rare work.

_c._ The Life of Pythagoras. Porphyry refers to this work,[134] and Iamblichus quotes a long passage from it.[135]

_d._ The Will of Apollonius, to which reference has already been made, in treating of the sources of Philostratus (i. 3). This was written in the Ionic dialect, and contained a summary of his doctrines.

A Hymn to Memory is also ascribed to him, and Eudocia speaks of many other ([Greek: kai alla polla]) works.

We have now indicated for the reader all the information which exists concerning our philosopher. Was Apollonius, then, a rogue, a trickster, a charlatan, a fanatic, a misguided enthusiast, or a philosopher, a reformer, a conscious worker, a true initiate, one of the earth's great ones? This each must decide for himself, according to his knowledge or his ignorance.

I for my part bless his memory, and would gladly learn from him, as now he is.

SECTION XVIII.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE ON APOLLONIUS.

Jacobs (F.), Observationes in ... Philostrati Vitam Apollonii (Jena; 1804), purely philological, for the correction of the text.

Legrand d'Aussy (P. J. B.), Vie d'Apollonius de Tyane (Paris; 1807, 2 vols.).

Bekker (G. J.), Specimen Variarum Lectionum ... in Philost. Vitæ App. Librum primum (1808); purely philological.

Berwick (E.), The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, translated from the Greek of Philostratus, with Notes and Illustrations (London; 1809).

Lancetti (V.), Le Opere dei due Filostrati, Italian trs. (Milano; 1828-31); in "Coll. degli Ant. Storici Greci volgarizzati."

Jacobs (F.), Philostratus: Leben des Apollonius von Tyana, in the series "Griechische Prosaiker," German trs. (Stuttgart; 1829-32), vols. xlviii., lxvi., cvi., cxi., each containing two books; a very clumsy arrangement.

Baur (F. C.), Apollonius von Tyana und Christus oder das Verhältniss des Pythagoreismus zum Christenthum (Tübingen; 1832); reprinted from Tübinger Zeitschrift für Theologie.

Second edition by E. Zeller (Leipzig; 1876), in Drei Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der alten Philosophie und ihres Verhältnisses zum Christenthum.

Kayser and Westermann's editions as above referred to in section v.

Newman (J. H.), "Apollonius Tyanæus--Miracles," in Smedley's Encyclopædia Metropolitana (London; 1845), x. pp. 619-644.

Noack (L.), "Apollonius von Tyana ein Christusbild des Heidenthums," in his magazine Psyche: Populärwissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für die Kentniss des menschlichen Seelen- und Geistes-lebens (Leipzig; 1858), Bd. i., Heft ii., pp. 1-24.

Müller (I. P. E.), Commentatio qua de Philostrati in componenda Memoria Apoll. Tyan. fide quæritur, I.-III. (Onoldi et Landavii; 1858-1860).

Müller (E.), War Apollonius von Tyana ein Weiser oder ein Betrüger oder ein Schwärmer und Fanatiker? Ein Culturhistorische Untersuchung (Breslau; 1861, 4to), 56 pp.

Chassang (A.), Apollonius de Tyane, sa Vie, ses Voyages, ses Prodiges, par Philostrate, et ses Lettres, trad. du grec. avec Introd., Notes et Eclaircissements (Paris; 1862), with the additional title, Le Merveilleux dans l'Antiquité.

Réville (A.), Apollonius the Pagan Christ of the Third Century (London; 1866), tr. from the French. The original is not in the British Museum.

Priaulx (O. de B.), The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana, etc. (London; 1873), pp. 1-62.

Mönckeberg (C.), Apollonius von Tyana, ein Weihnachtsgabe (Hamburg; 1877), 57 pp.

Pettersch (C. H.), Apollonius von Tyana der Heiden Heiland, ein philosophische Studie (Reichenberg; 1879), 23 pp.

Nielsen (C. L.), Apollonios fra Tyana og Filostrats Beskrivelse af hans Levnet (Copenhagen; 1879); the Appendix (pp. 167 sqq.) contains a Danish tr. of Eusebius Contra Hieroclem.

Baltzer (E.), Apollonius von Tyana, aus den Griech. übersetzt u. erläutert (Rudolstadt i/ Th.; 1883).

Jessen (J.), Apollonius von Tyana und sein Biograph Philostratus (Hamburg; 1885, 4to), 36 pp.

Tredwell (D. M.), A Sketch of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, or the first Ten Decades of our Era (New York; 1886).

Sinnett (A. P.), "Apollonius of Tyana," in the Transactions (No. 32) of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society (London; 1898), 32 pp.

The student may also consult the articles in the usual Dictionaries and Encyclopædias, none of which, however, demand special mention. P. Cassel's learned paper in the Vossische Zeitung of Nov. 24th, 1878, I have not been able to see.

SOME INDICATIONS OF THE LITERATURE ON THE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

Böckh (A.), Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener (1st ed. 1817). For older literature, see i. 416, _n._

Van Holst, De Eranis Veterum Græcorum (Leyden; 1832).

Mommsen (T.), De Collegiis et Sodaliciis Romanorum (Kiel; 1843).

Mommsen (T.), "Römische Urkunden, iv.--Die Lex Julia de Collegiis und die lanuvinische Lex Collegii Salutaris," art. in Zeitschr. für geschichtl. Rechtswissenschaft (1850), vol. xv. 353 sqq.

Wescher (C.), "Recherches épigraphiques en Grèce, dans l'Archipel et en Asie Mineure," arts. in Le Moniteur of Oct. 20, 23, and 24, 1863.

Wescher (C.), "Inscriptions de l'Île de Rhodes relatives à des Sociétés religieuses"; "Notice sur deux Inscriptions de l'Île de Théra relatives à une Société religieuse"; "Note sur une Inscription de l'Île de Théra publiée par M. Ross et relative à une Société religieuse"; arts. in La Revue archéologique (Paris; new series, 1864), x. 460 sqq.; 1865, xii. 214 sqq.; 1866, xiii. 245 sqq.

Foucart (P.), Des Associations religieuses chez les Grecs, Thiases, Éranes, Orgéons, avec le Texte des Inscriptions relatives à ces Associations (Paris; 1873).

Lüders (H. O.), Die dionyschischen Künstler (Berlin; 1873).

Cohn (M.), Zum römischen Vereinsrecht: Abhandlung aus der Rechtsgeschichte (Berlin; 1873). Also the notice of it in Bursian's Philol. Jaresbericht (1873), ii. 238-304.

Henzen (G.), Acta Fratrum Arvalium quæ supersunt;... accedunt Fragmenta Fastorum in Luco Arvalium effossa (Berlin; 1874).

Heinrici (G.), "Die Christengemeinde Korinths und die religiösen genossenschaften der Griechen"; "Zur Geschichte der Anfange paulinischer Gemeinden"; arts. in Zeitschr. für wissensch. Theol. (Jena, etc.; 1876), pp. 465-526, particularly pp. 479 sqq.; 1877, pp. 89-130.

Duruy (V.), "Du Régime municipal dans l'Empire romain," art. in La Revue historique (Paris; 1876), pp. 355 sqq.; also his Histoire des Romanis (Paris; 1843, 1844), i. 149 sqq.

De Rossi, Roma Sotteranea (Rome; 1877), iii. 37 sqq., and especially pp. 507 sqq.

Marquardt (J.), Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii. 131-142, in vol. vi. of Marquardt and Mommsen's Handbuch der römischen Altherthümer (Leipzig; 1878); an excellent summary with valuable notes, especially the section "Ersatz der Gentes durch die Sodalitates für fremde Culte."

Boissier (G.), La Religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins (Paris; 2nd ed. 1878), ii. 238-304 (1st ed. 1874).

Hatch (E.), The Organization of the Early Christian Churches: The Bampton Lectures for 1880 (London; 2nd ed. 1882); see especially Lecture ii., "Bishops and Deacons," pp. 26-32: German ed. Die Gesellschaftsverfassung der christlichen Kirchen in Althertum (1883), p. 20; see this for additional literature.

Newmann (K. J.), "[Greek: thiasôtai Iêsou]," art. in Jahrbb. für prot. Theol. (Leipzig, etc.; 1885), pp. 123-125.

Schürer (E.), A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Eng. tr. (Edinburgh; 1893), Div. ii, vol. ii. pp. 255 and 300.

Owen (J.), "On the Organization of the Early Church," an Introductory Essay to the English translation of Harnack's Sources of the Apostolic Canons (London; 1895).