Iamblichus (Part I) 

Extracts from The Epistle of Porphyry to the Egyptian Anebo

In the first place, it is given that there are Gods.

But how are the pre-eminent differentiated from each other?

Is the cause of their difference in their energy or their passiveness, or from what ensues?

Or from their position in relation to bodies? For instance, Gods reside in the ether, Dæmons [good spirits] dwell in the air, and Souls are bound to terrestrial bodies.

And since all the Gods reside in the ether, why does the theurgist only call upon the terrestrial and subterranean Gods? It is also said that there are Gods who live in the water and others in the air.

How are the individual Gods allotted their places and associated with parts of the body according to geometry, although they have infinite, impartible, and incomprehensible power?

How will they be brought together in union when they are divided and restricted by their separable parts, distinct places and individual bodies?

How do theologists and the wise in divine matters speak of the Gods as passive, and to whom for this reason it is reported that erect phalli are publicly displayed and obscene language used?

But if the Gods show no feeling or emotions, then to call on the Gods will be in vain, which makes it known that they can pacify the anger of the divinities and procure a reunion with them. Furthermore, what is called the necessities of the Gods will also be in vain.

For that which has no feeling or emotion cannot be allured, nor compelled, nor necessitated.

How, therefore, are so many sacred acts performed to the Gods in a passive way?

Likewise, incantations are made to the Gods passively, meaning that not only are Dæmons passive, but also the Gods conform to what Homers says.

But, if we argue alongside certain people that the Gods are pure intellects and that Dæmons, being psychical, participate in intellect. And to a greater degree, if pure intellects are incapable of being allured, they will be unmingled with sensible natures.

However, humbly asking or begging is alien to the purity of intellect and is incompatible with it.

But sacred rites are acts made to sensitive and psychical essences.

Therefore, are the Gods separated from Dæmons because the former is incorporeal, but the latter is corporeal?

However, if the Gods are solely incorporeal, how can the sun, the moon, and the visible celestials be Gods?

Likewise, how are some of the Gods beneficent and others maleficent?

What is it that connects the Gods that have bodies in the ether with the incorporeal Gods?

What is it that distinguishes Dæmons from the visible and invisible Gods, since the visible Gods are connected with the invisible Gods?

In what do a dæmon, hero, and soul differ from each other? Is it, in essence, power or energy?

What is the sign that a God, angel, archangel, dæmon, a certain type of ruler, or soul is present?

To speak with excessive pride and to demonstrate an illusory likeness of a particular kind is common to Gods and Dæmons and to all the most excellent genera. Therefore, the genus of Gods will in no respect be better than that of Dæmons.

The ignorance of and being deceived about divine natures is impiety and impurity; however, scientific knowledge of the Gods is holy and beneficial. The ignorance of things noble and beautiful will be darkness, but the knowledge of these things will be light. The former will indeed fill individuals with every evil through the want of learning, knowledge and audacity, but the latter will be the cause of every good.

I wish for you to unfold the truth to my self about these matters.

But first, I wish for you to explain to me separately what is achieved through divination.

We frequently acquire knowledge of future events through dreams when we are asleep and not being in a tumultuous ecstasy at that time because the body is at rest. But we do not understand what is happening in the same manner as when we are awake.

However, some can predict future events through their eagerness and divine inspiration and are then in such a wakeful state that they can energise their senses. Yet, they are not conscious of the state they are in, or at least not as much as they were before.

Some of those who experience a state of mental alienation eagerly energise on hearing cymbals and drums, or certain types of modulated sound, such as Corybantic music, and those who possess the inspiration of Sabazius, as well as those who the mother of the Gods inspires.

But some energise with eagerness by drinking water, like the priest of Clarius in Colophon, others by being seated at the mouth of a cavern, like those who prophesy at Delphi, and others by imbibing water vapour like the prophetess in Branchidæ. 

Some also become eager by standing on impressions, like those who are filled from the intromission of spirits. Others who are conscious of self in other ways are divinely inspired, according to that which the imagination creates; some receive darkness as a friend, others particular kinds of potion, and others incantations and others artistic work.

Some energise their imagination through water, others behind a wall, others in the open air, and others under the sun or one of the other celestial bodies.

Some also establish the art of investigation into regeneration and ongoing existence through the heart and lungs, as well as through birds and the stars.

I also ask about the measure of divination, what it is, and what its distinguishing quality is. All diviners insist that they obtain their foreknowledge of the future through Gods and Daemons because it is impossible for any other to know about the future. I, therefore, doubt that the divine is so subservient to humankind as to permit some to become diviners by means of a mere measure.

Iamblichus, On The Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians

Here, Iamblichus presents the epistle of Porphyry, who seeks a deeper knowledge of the Egyptian mysteries. 

To be continued...

Note from the editor of Classical Philosophy