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| Chapter VIII.—The Use of the Symbolic Style by Poets and Philosophers.
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Chapter VIII.—The Use of the Symbolic Style by Poets and Philosophers.
But it was not only the most highly intellectual of
the Egyptians, but also such of other barbarians as prosecuted philosophy,
that affected the symbolical style. They say, then, that Idanthuris king
of the Scythians, as Pherecydes of Syros relates, sent to Darius, on
his passing the Ister in threat of war, a symbol, instead of a letter,
consisting of a mouse, a frog, a bird, a javelin, a plough. And there
being a doubt in reference to them, as was to be expected, Orontopagas
the Chiliarch said that they were to resign the kingdom; taking dwellings
to be meant by the mouse, waters by the frog, air by the bird, land by
the plough, arms by the javelin. But Xiphodres interpreted the contrary;
for he said, “If we do not take our flight like birds, or like
mice get below the earth, or like frogs beneath the water, we shall not
escape their arrows; for we are not lords of the territory.”
It is said that Anacharsis the Scythian, while
asleep, covered the pudenda with his left hand, and his mouth with his
right, to intimate that both ought to be mastered, but that it was a
greater thing to master the tongue than voluptuousness.
And why should I linger over the barbarians,
when I can adduce the Greeks as exceedingly addicted to the use of the
method of concealment? Androcydes the Pythagorean says the far-famed
so-called Ephesian letters were of the class of symbols. For he
said that ἄσκιον
(shadowless) meant darkness, for it
has no shadow; and κατάσκιον
(shadowy) light, since it casts with its rays the shadow; and λίξ
if is the earth, according to an ancient’
appellation; and τετράς is
the year, in reference to the seasons; and δαμναμενεύς
is the sun, which overpowers (δαμάζων);
and τὰ
αἴσια is the true voice. And then the
symbol intimates that divine things have been arranged in harmonious
order—darkness to light, the sun to the year, and the earth to
nature’s processes of production of every sort. Also Dionysius
Thrax, the grammarian, in his book, Respecting the Exposition of the
Symbolical Signification in Circles, says expressly, “Some
signified actions not by words only, but also by symbols: by words,
as is the case of what are called the Delphic maxims, ‘Nothing in
excess,’ ‘Know thyself,’ and the like; and by symbols,
as the wheel that is turned in the temples of the gods, derived from
the Egyptians, and the branches that are given to the worshippers. For
the Thracian Orpheus says:—
“Whatever works of branches are a care to men on earth,
Not one has one fate in the mind, but all things
Revolve around; and it is not lawful to stand at one point,
But each one keeps an equal part of the race as they began.”
The branches either stand as
the symbol of the first food, or they are that the multitude may know
that fruits spring and grow universally, remaining a very long time;
but that the duration of life allotted to themselves is brief. And it
is on this account that they will have it that the branches are given;
and perhaps also that they may know, that as these, on the other hand,
are burned, so also they themselves speedily leave this life, and will
become fuel for fire.
Very useful, then, is the mode of symbolic
interpretation for many purposes; and it is helpful to the right theology,
and to piety, and to the display of intelligence, and the practice of
brevity, and the exhibition of wisdom. “For the use of symbolical
speech is characteristic of the wise man,” appositely remarks the
grammarian Didymus, “and the explanation of what is signified by
it.” And indeed the most elementary instruction of children embraces
the interpretation of the four elements; for it is said that the Phrygians
call water Bedu, as also Orpheus says:3036
—
“And bright water is poured down, the Bedu of the nymphs.”
Dion Thytes also seems to write
similarly:—
And taking Bedu, pour it on your hands, and turn to
divination.”
On the other hand, the comic poet,
Philydeus, understands by Bedu the air, as being (Biodoros) life-giver,
in the following lines:—
“I pray that I may inhale the salutary Bedu,
Which is the most essential part of health;
Inhale the pure, the unsullied air.”
In the same opinion also concurs
Neanthes of Cyzicum, who writes that the Macedonian priests
invoke Bedu, which they interpret to mean the air, to be
propitious to them and to their children. And Zaps some have
ignorantly taken for fire (from ζέσιν,
boiling); for so the sea is called, as Euphorion, in his reply
to Theoridas:—
“And Zaps, destroyer of ships, wrecked it on the rocks.”
And Dionysius Iambus
similarly:—
“Briny Zaps moans about the maddened deep.”
Similarly Cratinus the younger,
the comic poet:—
“Zaps casts forth shrimps and little fishes.”
And Simmias of Rhodes:—
“Parent of the Ignetes and
the Telchines briny Zaps was born.”3037
| 3037 This line has given commentators considerable
trouble. Diodorus says that the Telchimes—fabled sons of
Ocean—were the first inhabitants of Rhodes. |
And χθών
is the earth (κεχυμένη)
spread forth to bigness. And Plectron, according
to some, is the sky (πόλος), according
to others, it is the air, which strikes (πλήσσοντα)
and moves to nature and increase, and which fills all things. But these
have not read Cleanthes the philosopher, who expressly calls Plectron
the sun; for darting his beams in the east, as if striking the world, he
leads the light to its harmonious course. And from the sun it signifies
also the rest of the stars.
And the Sphinx is not the comprehension3038
| 3038 σύνεσις.
Sylburgius, with much probability,
conjectures σύνδεσις,
binding together. | of the universe, and the revolution of the
world, according to the poet Aratus; but perhaps it is the spiritual
tone which pervades and holds together the universe. But it is better
to regard it as the ether, which holds together and presses all things;
as also Empedocles says:—
“But come now, first will I
speak of the Sun, the first principle of all things,
From which all, that we look upon,
has sprung,
Both earth, and billowy deep, and
humid air;
Titan and Ether too, which binds
all things around.”
And Apollodorus of Corcyra says
that these lines were recited by Branchus the seer, when purifying the
Milesians from plague; for he, sprinkling
the multitude with branches of laurel,
led off the hymn somehow as follows:—
“Sing Boys Hecaergus and
Hecaerga.”
And the people accompanied him,
saying, “Bedu,3039
| 3039 Βέδυ,
Ζάψ, Χθών,
Πλῆκτρον,
Σφίγξ,
Κναξζβί,
Χθύπτης,
Φλεγμός,
Δρώψ. On the interpretation of
which, much learning and ingenuity have been expended. |
Zaps, Chthon, Plectron, Sphinx, Cnaxzbi, Chthyptes, Phlegmos,
Drops.” Callimachus relates the story in iambics. Cnaxzbi is, by
derivation, the plague, from its gnawing (κναίειν)
and destroying (διαφθείρειν),
and θῦψαι is to consume
with a thunderbolt. Thespis the tragic poet says that something else was
signified by these, writing thus: “Lo, I offer to thee a libation
of white Cnaxzbi, having pressed it from the yellow nurses. Lo, to thee,
O two-horned Pan, mixing Chthyptes cheese with red honey, I place it on
thy sacred altars. Lo, to thee I pour as a libation the sparkling gleam of
Bromius.” He signifies, as I think, the soul’s first milk-like
nutriment of the four-and-twenty elements, after which solidified milk
comes as food. And last, he teaches of the blood of the vine of the
Word, the sparkling wine, the perfecting gladness of instruction. And
Drops is the operating Word, which, beginning with elementary training,
and advancing to the growth of the man, inflames and illumines man up
to the measure of maturity.
The third is said to be a writing
copy for children—μάρπτες,
σφίγξ, κλώψ,
ζυνχθηδόν.
And it signifies, in my opinion, that by the arrangement
of the elements and of the world, we must advance to the
knowledge of what is more perfect, since eternal salvation is
attained by force and toil; for μάρψαι
is to grasp. And the harmony of the world is
meant by the Sphinx; and ζυνχθηδόν
means difficulty; and κλώψς means at once
the secret knowledge of the Lord and day. Well! does not Epigenes, in his
book on the Poetry of Orpheus, in exhibiting the peculiarities
found in Orpheus,3040
| 3040
[See valuable references and note on the Sibylline and Orphic
sayings. Leighton, Works, vol. vi. pp. 131, 178.] |
say that by “the curved rods” (κεραίσι)
is meant “ploughs;” and
by the warp (στήμοσι),
the furrows; and the woof (μίτος) is a
figurative expression for the seed; and that the tears of Zeus signify a
shower; and that the “parts” (μοῖραι)
are, again, the phases of the moon, the thirtieth day, and the
fifteenth, and the new moon, and that Orpheus accordingly calls
them “white-robed,” as being parts of the light? Again,
that the Spring is called “flowery,” from its nature;
and Night “still,” on account of rest; and the Moon
“Gorgonian,” on account of the face in it; and that
the time in which it is necessary to sow is called Aphrodite by the
“Theologian.”3041
In the same way, too, the Pythagoreans figuratively
called the planets the “dogs of Persephone;” and to the
sea they applied the metaphorical appellation of “the tears of
Kronus.” Myriads on myriads of enigmatical utterances by both
poets and philosophers are to be found; and there are also whole books
which present the mind of the writer veiled, as that of Heraclitus On
Nature, who on this very account is called “Obscure.”
Similar to this book is the Theology of Pherecydes of Syrus;
for Euphorion the poet, and the Causes of Callimachus, and the
Alexandra of Lycophron, and the like, are proposed as an exercise
in exposition to all the grammarians.
It is, then, proper that the Barbarian philosophy,
on which it is our business to speak, should prophecy also obscurely
and by symbols, as was evinced. Such are the injunctions of Moses:
“These common things, the sow, the hawk, the eagle, and the raven,
are not to be eaten.”3042
For the sow is the emblem of voluptuous and
unclean lust of food, and lecherous and filthy licentiousness in venery,
always prurient, and material, and lying in the mire, and fattening for
slaughter and destruction.
Again, he commands to eat that which parts the hoof
and ruminates; “intimating,” says Barnabas, “that we
ought to cleave to those who fear the Lord, and meditate in their heart
on that portion of the word which they have received, to those who speak
and keep the Lord’s statutes, to those to whom meditation is a
work of gladness, and who ruminate on the word of the Lord. And what is
the parted hoof? That the righteous walks in this world, and expects the
holy eternity to come.” Then he adds, “See how well Moses
enacted. But whence could they understand or comprehend these things? We
who have rightly understood speak the commandments as the Lord wished;
wherefore He circumcised our ears and hearts, that we may comprehend
these things. And when he says, ‘Thou shalt not eat the eagle,
the hawk, the kite, and the crow;’ he says, ‘Thou shalt
not adhere to or become like those men who know not how to procure
for themselves subsistence by toil and sweat, but live by plunder, and
lawlessly.’ For the eagle indicates robbery, the hawk injustice,
and the raven greed. It is also written, ‘With the innocent man
thou wilt be innocent, and with the chosen choice, and with the perverse
thou shall pervert.’3043
It is incumbent on us to cleave to the
saints, because they that cleave to them shall be sanctified.”3044
Thence Theognis writes:—
“For from the good you will
learn good things;
But if you mix with the bad, you
will destroy any mind you may have.”
And when, again, it is said in the ode,
“For He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He
cast into the sea;”3045
the many-limbed and brutal affection, lust, with the
rider mounted, who gives the reins to pleasures, “He has cast into
the sea,” throwing them away into the disorders of the world. Thus
also Plato, in his book On the Soul, says that the charioteer and
the horse that ran off—the irrational part, which is divided in two,
into anger and concupiscence—fall down; and so the myth intimates
that it was through the licentiousness of the steeds that Phaëthon
was thrown out. Also in the case of Joseph: the brothers having envied
this young man, who by his knowledge was possessed of uncommon foresight,
stripped off the coat of many colours, and took and threw him into a pit
(the pit was empty, it had no water), rejecting the good man’s
varied knowledge, springing from his love of instruction; or, in the
exercise of the bare faith, which is according to the law, they threw
him into the pit empty of water, selling him into Egypt, which was
destitute of the divine word. And the pit was destitute of knowledge;
into which being thrown and stript of his knowledge, he that had become
unconsciously wise, stript of knowledge, seemed like his brethren.
Otherwise interpreted, the coat of many colours is lust, which takes its
way into a yawning pit. “And if one open up or hew out a pit,”
it is said, “and do not cover it, and there fall in there a calf or
ass, the owner of the pit shall pay the price in money, and give it to his
neighbour; and the dead body shall be his.3046
Here add that prophecy:
“The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib:
but Israel hath not understood Me.”3047
In order, then, that none of
those, who have fallen in with the knowledge taught by thee, may become
incapable of holding the truth, and disobey and fall away, it is said,
Be thou sure in the treatment of the word, and shut up the living spring
in the depth from those who approach irrationally, but reach drink to
those that thirst for truth. Conceal it, then, from those who are unfit
to receive the depth of knowledge, and so cover the pit. The owner of the
pit, then, the Gnostic, shall himself be punished, incurring the blame
of the others stumbling, and of being overwhelmed by the greatness of
the word, he himself being of small capacity; or transferring the worker
into the region of speculation, and on that account dislodging him from
off-hand faith. “And will pay money,” rendering a reckoning,
and submitting his accounts to the “omnipotent Will.”
This, then, is the type of “the law and
the prophets which were until John;”3048
while he, though
speaking more perspicuously as no longer prophesying, but pointing out
as now present, Him, who was proclaimed symbolically from the beginning,
nevertheless said, “I am not worthy to loose the latchet of the
Lord’s shoe.”3049
For he confesses that
he is not worthy to baptize so great a Power; for it behooves those, who
purify others, to free the soul from the body and its sins, as the foot
from the thong. Perhaps also this signified the final exertion of the
Saviour’s power toward us—the immediate, I mean—that
by His presence, concealed in the enigma of prophecy, inasmuch as he,
by pointing out to sight Him that had been prophesied of, and indicating
the Presence which had come, walking forth into the light, loosed the
latchet of the oracles of the [old] economy, by unveiling the meaning
of the symbols.
And the observances practiced by the Romans in
the case of wills have a place here; those balances and small coins
to denote justice, and freeing of slaves, and rubbing of the ears. For
these observances are, that things may be transacted with justice; and
those for the dispensing of honour; and the last, that he who happens
to be near, as if a burden were imposed on him, should stand and hear
and take the post of mediator. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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