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Hymns

Hymni

Written about 395 to 413; the place is not known. The date is the usual view of scholars; some doubt it.

Nine or ten hymns in Doric Greek that join Neoplatonist thought with Christian faith.

Poem · first written in Greek

Translated by Augustine FitzGerald (1930). The Essays and Hymns of Synesius of Cyrene, vol. 2 (London: Oxford University Press, 1930) Public domain. Source and rights

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About this text (1 note)

Published 1930: public domain in the US from 1 January 2026.

How we know the date and place
Date written probable
A. Fitzgerald, The Essays and Hymns of Synesius of Cyrene (1930), introduction
Place written not known
Written in more than one place
More than one place: Constantinople (Hymn 3 in the old order) and Cyrenaica.

20,694 words. 1 section.

Hymns

§ 1

HYMN I

1588 Sounp forth, clear-tongued lyre, after the Teian cadence, after the Lesbian movement ; sing to me in more time-honoured strains a Dorian ode, not one for dainty love-laughing girls or for the adolescence of flowering youths that compelleth desire; for it 1s a sacred travail of divine wisdom and one unsullied that prompts 5 me to strike the strings of my lyre to a divine refrain, and bids me flee from the honied infatuation of earthly loves. What is force and what beauty, what is gold or renown, and what are royal honours as compared with meditations upon God? Let one man be apt in driving horses, another in bending the bow; let another 10 guard his treasure heaps, his golden joy. Another’s glory is the hair that sweeps his neck. Let him be lauded on high for the brightness of his countenance by youths and maidens in their songs ; but may it be my lot to lead a life not noised abroad, a life without display in what concerns other men, but that knows in 15 itself of what pertains to God. May wisdom be ever with me, 1589 wisdom the good guide of youth and of age, wisdom the just mistress of wealth, she who smiling shall easily bear poverty, impregnable to the bitter cares of life. May only so much be mine as shall suffice to make me independent of my neighbour's hut, sufficient that want may not bend me down to dark forebodings. Listen now to the song of the cicada as she drinks the morning dew. See how my lyre-strings cry out unbidden notes, how some prophetic voice flutters about and around me. What melody shall this divine parturition bear unto me? God, the Beginning created 25 of Himself, Guardian and Father of existing things, born without birth, firmly enthroned above the pinnacles of heaven, proud in glory unwaning, God sits steadfast, of unities the pure unity, and the first monad of monads. He hath joined the elements of exalted beings, bringing them to existence in supernatural acts of birth. 3°

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Oo

HYMN I 373

From out these the monad itself, rushing on through a first-

engendered form, diffused in unspeakable ways, holds the power

of three summits. But the fountain head which dominates, is

crowned with the beauty of children leaping from out the centre, 5 and again rushing towards the centre therein.

Pause, audacious lyre, I entreat ; pause, reveal not the mysteries to the people at large, mysteries which are celebrated without initiations; go thou and tell of the things here below; silence covereth those above. And now mind is busy with mind’s created

ro universe, for out of this has the good beginning of man’s spirit been divided beyond division. Mind that waneth not, though descending to matter, is the seed of progenitors that reign in right divine, a seed however feeble. But of these, this one whole universal mind, this whole diffused into the whole, turns the vast 15 hollow of the heavens, and keeping guard upon this very whole is ever present, parted into forms diverse. The one is in the convoying of the stars, another turns to the dances of angels, yet another has found an earthly form by a bond descending, and is severed from its parentage. Dark oblivion hath it drunk, and 20 wondereth, in its blind tormenting cares, at the joyless earth. Albeit a God looking on mortal things is within it, there is still a light in the veiled pupils of its eyes, there is some courage even in those who have fallen here below, that summoneth them above, what time that, fleeing from out the waves of mortal life, they enter 25 free from care on the sacred paths that lead to the palace of their Parent. Happy he who fleeing the voracious cry of matter, and rising from earth, urgeth with light bound his footsteps to God. Happy he who after his allotted destiny, after troubles, after 1592 bitter earthly cares, enters on the pathways of mind and beholdeth 30 the deep profound that shineth with divine light. It isa labour to take flight with the whole wings of those desires that lift upwards to the universal Heart. Do thou only confirm thy flight by such flights as transport to the ideal world, and the Father will appear

374 HYMN I

nigh unto thee and will hold out His Hands to thee. For some shaft of light shall leap forth to illumine thy paths, and will unfold to thee the field of mind, the beginning of beauty. Arise, my soul, drink from the fountain that runs with gold. In worship of the Creator ascend thou, and delay not; leave to the earth the things 5 of the earth, and in unison with the Father thou mayest perchance move in harmony with God, thyself divine.

HYMN II

AGAIN light shines forth, again dawn, again day, after the darkness that roams by night. Again make supplication to God, O my heart, in songs of the morning, He who has given light to the ro dawn, who has given stars to the night, the dancing company that encircles the universe. Ether has enveloped the expanse of billowy matter, mounting on the glory of flame, that the queenly moon may divide her last phase. Above the eighth rotation of star-borne whorls a stream bereft of stars drives onwards, hidden rs within its bosom, layers (of matter) in contrary currents, and circles about the great Mind, which bends with grey wings down to the confines of the lordly universe. A blessed silence covers all beyond, an indivisible division alike of the perceptive and the perceived. One is the fountain-head, one the root. Lo, a thrice 20 resplendent shape has blazed forth, for where the profundity of the Father is, there also is the august Son, offspring as it were of the Heart. Wisdom, the Creator of the universe and the unified flame of the Holy Spirit, has shone forth. One fountain-head, one root, did raise up a rich plenty of good things, a progeny that 25 passeth all being, glowing with desire of generation, and the wondrous flames of the blessed in existence burn brightly. Whence there has now entered into the universe a choir of immortal rulers, who sing in songs of the mind the renown of the Creator, and the first conceived form. Near to their benign progenitors an 30

HYMN II 375

ageless army of angels, now looking upon Mind, plucks therefrom the principle of beauty, and again, looking towards the spheres, directeth the deep places of the universe, drawing the world that is above even unto the extreme confines of matter, where nature 5 subsiding, giveth birth to a horde of demons turbulent and full of guile. Thence a hero; thence now a spirit sown as seed through the lands, has filled earthly destinies with life, with cunningly devised forms. All things hang upon Thy Will, and Thou art the root of things ro present, past, future and within. Thou art Father, art Mother, Thou Male, Thou Female, Thou Voice, Thou Silence, of nature the fruitful Nature. All hail to Thee,O King, wherever it be lawful to cry this aloud, Age of ages, Root of the universe. All hail to Thee, Centre of existing things, Monad of numbers immortal, of 15 kings that existed not before thee. Mayest Thou rejoice greatly, mayest Thou rejoice greatly, for it is with God that joy is found. Lend a propitious ear to the hymns of my choirs. Open the light of wisdom, pour down the glorious plenty of a calm life, pour down its shining grace. Drive poverty from our midst, and the zo earthly calamity of wealth. Drive illness from my limbs, the disorderly urge of the passions from my life, and soul-gnawing cares, to the end that the destiny of earth may not weigh down the wings of my soul, but lifting a free pinion, may I dance in the ineffable rites of Thy offspring.

HYMN III

2s AWAKE my soul; give thyself unto sacred songs, lay to rest the stings that are born of matter. Arm thou the mighty impulses of mind. For the King of gods we are weaving a crown, a bloodless offering, libations of poesy. Thee I invoke in song, Thee in the ocean, Thee over islands, on mainlands, in cities and on craggy 3o mountains, Thee when’er I rest the twain feet of my limbs on the

376 HYMN III

far-famed plains, Thee blessed Creator of a universe. Night brings me, Thy minstrel, to Thee, O King, and I lift up to Thee hymns of the day-time, of the morning, of the evening. Thy witnesses are the beams of glittering stars, the courses of the moon, and that mighty witness, the sun, who presideth over the pure stars,

1594 the holy guardian of pious spirits. Lifting up my wing that turns away from far-reaching matter, I have advanced and come to Thy dwelling-place, Thy bosom, rejoicing. And now even unto the sacred enclosure of the Holy Sacrifice am I come, a suppliant. Now a suppliant I come to the crests of famous mountains, and 10 the great ravine of desert Libya, the southern border, which no godless blast of wind sullieth, nor is the foot-print graven thereon of men whose cares are of the town. There, purified of passions, released from desires, ceasing to labour, ceasing to grieve, to rage or to covet, may my soul casting off all these things that cause 15 death, render the hymn that is due unto Thee with a pure tongue and a sanctified mind.

1595 Let earth and upper air be at peace. Let the sea be still, let air be still. Be still, ye gusts of swift winds; be stilled, onslaughts of curling waves, mouths of rivers, outwellings of springs. Let silence 20 hold the caverns of the universe, while these sacred hymns are offered up.

Let the sinuous trend of serpents sink beneath the earth, and that winged serpent also, the demon of matter, he who clouds the soul, rejoicing in images and urging on his brood of whelps against my supplications. Do Thou, O Father, O Blessed One, keep away from my soul these soul-devouring hounds, from my prayer, from my life, from my works. May our heart’s libation be a care to Thy august messengers, wise bearers to Thee of holy hymns. Now am I borne back to the starting-point of sacred poesy. Already 30 does the oracle echo in my mind. Be full of goodness unto me, Blessed One, be full of goodness unto me, Father, if beyond what is ordered, if beyond what is destined, I touch upon that which

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we

HYNN III 377

is Thine. Whose eye is so wise, whose so availing, that it blinketh not when checked by Thy shafts of light? Not even for gods is it lawful to gaze steadfastly on Thy flaming torches, but Mind, falling from Thy pinnacle, is fain to caress whatsoe’er is near to 5 Thee, seeking thus to attain the unattainable, to look upon the light that glitters in Thy untiring profundity ; and so relinquishing unapproachable ways, it fixes the strength of its eye upon the image that first showed itself. Thence plucking flowers of light to be hymns unto Thee, may it stay the blast of fitful winds and ro give thee back Thine own. For what is there, O King, that is not Thine, Father of all fathers, Father of Thyself, Fatherless Ancestor, Son of Thyself, One prior to the One, Seed of existing things, Centre of all things, Mind that wert without substance at the beginning ? Root of the world, Thou the Light, everywhere visible, of primal 15 things, wise Certainty and wisdom’s Fountain, Mind hidden by Thine own bright rays, Eye of Thyself, Master of the thunderbolt, Father of the ages, Immortal, higher than the gods, higher than intellects which thou turnest to one side and the other. Thou the mind’s source of intelligence, the Creator of divine beings, Shaper of 20 the spirit, Nourisher of the soul, Fountain of fountains, Origin of origins, Root of roots. Thou art the Unity of unities, Number of numbers, at once Monad and Number, Mind and the Intelligent, both the knowable and what precedes it, Oneand All, and the One of All, and One before All, that is the seed of all things, the root and 25 the branch, and nature in whatsoe’er is endowed with intelligence, the female element and the male.

The mind initiated in the mysteries says such and such things, moving in harmony the while around Thy awful abysm. Thou art the Generator, Thou the Generated; Thou the Light that shineth,

30 Thou the Illumined; Thou what is revealed, Thou that which is hidden in Thine own beams; the Oneand All, the One Self-contained and dispersed through all things. For Thou wert poured out, ineffable Parent, that Thou mightst beget a child, to wit, far-famed

378 HYMN III

Wisdom, Creator of the world, but so outwelling, Thou dost remain once delivered in the divisions undivided. I sing to Thee, Unity, I sing to Thee, Trinity ; Thou art One being Three, art Three being One; and the intelligible segment holds what has been divided 1597 still indivisible. Thou wert poured out on the Son in Thy wisdom’s 5 Will, and that Will Itself was then born, a nature unutterable, the being pre-existent to matter. It is against divine law to say that a second one has come from Thee, it is against it to say that a third has come from the first. O holy Birth, O unspeakable generation; Thou art the boundary of natural forces, of the ro generating and the generated. I venerate the hidden ordering of intellectual things, but there is some medial element that may not be distributed. Ineffable Offspring of a Father Ineffable, the birth-pang was through Thee, and through the birth-pang Thou didst Thyself appear, showing Thyself together with the Father by 15 the Father’s Will. By the Will of the Father Thou, His Will, art ever of Thyself beside the Father. Even deep-eddying Time knoweth not the inevitable procreations, nor did long ages comprehend the tedious birth. With the Father He was revealed, He that had been for all eternity One that wastocomeinto being. Whohas controlled 20 rashness in regard to unspeakable things? Godless are the audacities of blind mortals with cunningly devised language, but Thou art Giver of light, the light of intellect, and dost bear aloft the minds of holy men away from crooked deceit, that they sink not in the dark shades of matter. 25 Thee, Father of the Universe, Father of the ages, Creator of the gods, it is an act of purity to praise. They who have knowledge praise Thee, O King, and they who govern the world, they of the glittering eyes, the starry intelligences sing Thy praises, Blessed One, as the glorious mass moves rhythmically around them. The 30 whole race of the blessed sings to Thee, they who about the world, 1598 who in the world, within and without the zones guide in their wisdom the fates of the cosmos, protectors they, side by side with the famous

HYMN III 379

pilots whom the chain angelic keeps pouring forth. And the illustrious race of heroes that goeth through the works of men, works of mortal mould, by hidden pathways, (sing praises). And the soul at once steadfast and bent down to the dark-gleaming corners s of the earth (sings praises). Thee blessed Nature hymns aloud, and the offspring of Nature which Thou, Blessed One, urgest on with favouring breezes, drawn from Thy channels and rolling onwards ; for Thou, Leader of immaculate universes, art the Nature of natures: Thou cherishest Nature, birth of mortals, the image of the eternal ro monad, that even the lowest portion of the universe may be allotted an alternative lot. For it was not the divine law that the lees of the universe should contend with the summits. That which has been wholly ordained to the assemblage of real existences shall never perish, but all find their happiness, one from another 15 and each through each. Of perishable things an eternal circle, cherished by Thy breath, places choirs to Thee throughout all things: so doth maternal Nature in her proper colours, in her proper works, embellish them. And out of living things of varied voices she creates one harmony in likeness of sound. All things ao bring to Thee ageless praise, even the dawn and the night, the lightnings, the snows, the firmament, the ether, and the roots of the soil, water, air, all bodies, all spirits, seeds, fruits, the plants and the grasses, roots, herbs, beasts and birds, and shoals of the swimming finny creatures. 2s Behold now also in Thy Libya, in Thy august priesthood, a soul feeble and exhausted, one given up to holy prayers to Thee, but whom a cloud of matter besets. But Thine Eye, O Father, pierces matter, and now my heart, made fruitful with hymns to Thee, has excited my mind with fiery impulses. Do Thou, 300 King, kindle the uplifting beams, and grant, Father, that, fleeing the body, (the soul) may ne’er again descend to an earthly doom. But as long as I remain in the chains of a life that has commerce with matter, may a gentle destiny, O Blessed One, 2878.3 T

380 HYMN III

nourish me. May it not blow adversely, consuming my life with grim cares of the mind, so that I may have no time for the things of God, nor be involved in such cares; but rather fleeing from these, by Thy gifts, may I weave for thee this garland from the sacred meadows. I bring to Thee this praise, Leader of un- 5 sullied worlds, and to Thy wise Son, whom Thou has sent forth from Thy sacred bosom together with wisdom itself. Springing forth from Thee, He remains within Thee, that He may explore all things with subtle breathings, that He may rule the profundities of hoary ages, and direct the feet of a rugged world, even unto the last depth ro of what belongeth to earthly destiny; his light shining in pious hearts, that He may release living mortals from their labours, from their cares, He the Accomplisher of good deeds, the Chaser away of distresses. And why should it be a thing to wonder at, that the Maker of the universe keeps evil destinies from His own works? 15 I come, O Ruler of the great universe, to acquit myself of 1600 a vow made to Thee, even from Thrace, where for three years I dwelt in a way near to the king’s palace in that land. And labours I endured, griefs I endured meet for many tears, bearing on my shoulders my mother-city. The earth was watered with 20 the sweat of my limbs that toiled in the contest day by day, and my couch was moistened with the dropping of tears from my eyelids weeping from night to night. And as many temples as were builded for Thy holy ceremonies, O King, to all these I repaired. There prostrate, a suppliant, I prayed, watering 2. the ground with the dew of my eyelids, that I might not find my journey vain. I supplicated gods that labour, even as many as hold the fruitful plain of Thrace, and those who on the other side rule the Chalcedonian pastures, whom Thou, O King, hast crowned with Thy annunciating beams, to be Thy 30 sacred ministers. The blessed ones have indeed taken to them my supplications, they have engaged in many labours with me. My life was not at that time dear to me because that my father-

HYMN III 38x

land was so tormented ; but Thou, O King, hast lifted it from out itssorrows. O Ruler of the universe, Thou, the Ageless, sustaindest the force of my limbs, when my soul was already failing and my members already breaking up. Thou didst breathe strength into s my wretched soul; a sweet ending to my labours didst Thou find me, O King, and one according to my desire, granting to my works

a repose from long labours. Do Thou, O Blessed One, preserve all these gains for the Libyans for a long roll of time, for the sake of the memory of 10 Thy great goodness, and for the soul that has suffered grievous things. Give moreover to Thy suppliant a life free from harm, deliver me from sufferings, deliver me from diseases, deliver me from cares that bring death; grant Thy servant a life of the intellect. Adjudge me not earthly showers of gold, O King, 1g that may render me without leisure for the things divine, nor let grim poverty attack my house and draw down to earth the meditations of my heart, for both these weigh down the soul to the earth, and both bring forgetfulness of mind, whensoe’er, O Blessed One, Thou offerest not Thy help. O Father, Fountain of pure 20 wisdom, kindle in my mind a flame of intellect out of Thy bosom, ilumine our heart out of Thy strength with a gleam of wisdom. Give this as a symbol of the sacred way to Thee, even Thine own seal. Chase from my life and from my prayer the deadly demons of matter, preserve my body safe and sound from the 25 approach of spiteful violence, and guard in safety my spirit unpolluted, O King. In sooth I carry on me already the darkling stain of Matter, and I am held fast by desires, by earthly chains. But Thou art my liberator, Thou my purifier. Release me from evils, from illness, from fetters. I carry in me Thy seed, the spark of 30 high-born Mind, but a spark falling down to the depths of matter. But Thou hast deposited soul in the cosmos, and through soul hast sown mind in the body, O King. Take pity on thine handmaiden, O Blessed One. I descended from Thee to be a servant

382 HYMN III

of earth, and instead of living as a hireling, I became a bondslave. Matter fettered me with magic arts. For all that, there is still some small strength in the ball of the eye hidden within me, it has not yet extinguished all its might. But a great wave has 1602 broken over me from above, blinding the soul that seeth God. 5

Pity, O Father, Thy suppliant handmaiden, whom longing for devouring matter strangles, when oftimes she strives to ascend by the paths of mind to thee. But do Thou, O King, kindle the lights that lead upwards, do Thou light the gleam and the beacon by augmenting the scanty seed in the noblest part of my mind. ro Enthrone me, O Father, in the strength of the life-bringing life, where nature advanceth not her hand, whence nor-earth, nor the fated spinning of Necessity yet makes me recoil.

May false generation leave Thy servant in flight! Let fire be between me, O Father, and the tumult of the earth. Grant, O 1s Creator, grant unto Thy minister now to spread his wings, the wings of Mind. Now at last let the suppliant soul bear the seal of the Father, a terror to hostile demons, who dart aloft from deep lurking places of the earth to breathe godless impulses upon mortals ; and let this be a sign to Thy pure ministers, who throughout 20 the depths of the august universe are keybearers to the fiery ascents, that they should open wide to me the gates of light, and that while still creeping upon the vain earth, I may not be of its soil. And of the works written in fire give me, even here, fruit as a witness, sure utterances, and as many tokens as cherish the hope immortal 25 in souls.

I repent me of this life of clay. Hence, eyesores of godless mortals, dominations of cities! Hence all-sweetened destinies of perdition,

1603 and grace that is no grace, wherewith the beguiled soul is held fast in bondage to earth, the soul which drank, in its great cowar- 30 dice, oblivion of its own good, until it fell upon envy as its portion For debauched matter has twain parts, and whoso stretches out his hand to the table, to touch the sweet viands, will in sooth

HYMN III 383

greatly lament his bitter lot, when the hostile elements drag him down with them. Verily this law of earthly necessity pours out a life to mortals from two sources, and the one is unmixed and is pure good, a god or things divine. I have been inebriated with 5 the sweet cup, I have touched the lands of evil things, I have fallen into the snare, I have known the fate of Epimetheus.’

So hate I inconstant laws; and I hasten to my Father's carefree meadow. Thither I spread my wings in flight from the twin gifts of matter.

10 Behold me, Thou who dost order the mind’s life. Behold Thy suppliant, a soul upon the earth, striving towards the ascents by mind, and do Thou kindle, O King, the lights that lead aloft, giving unto me light wings. Cut Thou the knot, loose Thou the grip of the twin desires by which artful Nature bends down souls to the

15 earth. Grant to me to escape the destiny of the body and to spring swiftly even to Thy courts, to Thy bosom, whence floweth forth the fountain of the soul. A heavenly drop I am shed upon the earth. Do thou restore me to that fountain whence I was poured forth, a wanderer who comes and goes. Grant me to mingle with

20 ancestral light. And grant that, cared for by Thee, the Father, I may with the kingly choir bear aloft in sanctity the songs of mind. Grant, O Father, that mingled with the light I sink not again into an earthly destiny, but as long as I remain in the chains of a material life, may a kindly fortune, O Blessed One, nurture me!

HYMN IV

25 To Thee I sing, when the sacred day beginneth, to Thee while it waxeth, to Thee when it toucheth the meridian, to Thee when it declineth, and when cometh wondrous night; to Thee, Creator, Healer of souls, Healer of limbs, Giver of wisdom, Banisher of diseases, Giver to souls of a life free from trouble, a life which

1 Brother of Prometheus and husband of Pandora.

384 HYMN IV

earthly care, mother of griefs, mother of sufferings, trampleth not under foot. May my life remain to me purified of these, that in song I may tell of the hidden root of all things, nor be turned away from God by delusions that lead astray!

Thee, Blessed One, I sing to, Lord of the universe, and let earth 5 be silent. Let all that the universe possesses keep sacred silence, while hymns and prayers are addressed to Thee, for they are Thy works, O Father. Let the whistling of the winds be still, the rustling of trees, the song of birds; let the ether be at peace, let the air be at peace, listening to the strain, and let the gushing of waters be noiseless now throughout the earth. Let the demons now flee from my pure prayer, they that delighting in the realms of darkness and haunting the tombs, impede holy songs, but the good, the happy servants of the all-understanding Creator, as many as occupy the depths and heights of the universe, let those hear 15 benignly the hymns that are of the Father, and benignly let them bear my prayers on high. Unit of units, Father of fathers, Beginning of beginnings, Fountain of fountains, Root of roots, the Good

1605 of good things, Star of stars, Universe of universes, Idea of ideas, profound Beauty, hidden Seed, Father of ages, Father of unspeak- 20 able worlds of Mind, whence a divine breath ever distilling, floating over masses of body, it now kindleth a second universe. Thee, Blessed One, I sing to with my voice, and I sing unto Thee alike with silence, for as many things as Thou hearest of the voice, Thou hearest also out of the silence of the mind. And I sing to 25 the Offspring, the First-born, the First-appearing.

Most glorious Offspring of the ineffable Father, Thee, Blessed One, I hymn, together with the great Father, and the travail of the Father over Thee, that Counsel of generation, the medial Beginning, the Holy Spirit, Centre of the Creator, Centre again 30 of the Son, Mother, Sister and Daughter to Thyself, delivered of the secret Root. For in order that the Father might be poured out upon the Son, that very outpouring found a shoot, and stood

on]

Oo

HYMN IV 385

in the midst, God, descended from God, in a Son who was God, and in the renowned outpouring of an immortal Father, the Son found a shoot. Thou art Unity, Trinity withal, a Unity that dost endure, and a Trinity in very truth Thou art. And the intellectual

§ division retains still undivided that which is partitioned, but the Son, though he hath leaped forth, remains with the Father and yet conducts, without, the Father’s business, bringing down to the worlds the beatitude of life, whence the Word Himself has it. This Word I hymn, in unison with the great Father. The Mind ro of the ineffable Father brings Thee to birth, and Thou, so conceived, art the Word of the Creator, first to leap forward from out the primal Root, and the Root of all things that came after Thy illustrious birth. An ineffable Unity, the Seed of all things, hath begotten Thee, the Seed of all things; for Thou art in all things, 15 and through Thee the highest, the medial, and the lowest nature, enjoy the good gifts of the generative life from God the Father. For Thee an ageless sphere rolls its untroubled course. Under Thy direction the seven planets dance in harmony in the powerful revolutions of the great vault, and the many lights of the universe 20 adorn the one dome of sky by thy Will, most renowned Offspring ; for Thou, running round about the heavenly deep, holdest together unbroken the course of ages, and under thy sacred ordinances, Blessed One, in the cavities of the unsoundable ether, dwells the company of gleaming stars. Thou dost apportion their 25 tasks in the heavens and the air, on the earth and in the world below, and Thou allottest unto them their life. Thou art the Master of Mind, and to the gods their Ordainer, as to mortals also, as many as have quaffed the showers of Mind’s destiny. Thou art the Giver of Soul to those whose life is dependent on the soul, 30 and art tireless in nature. A blind offspring of soul hangs from Thy chain, and as many things as are deprived of all breath pluck from Thy bosom a bond of union, carried by Thy power from the ineffable Fatherly Bosom, the hidden unity, whence the stream

386 HYMN IV

of life flowing onward is carried by Thy power even unto earth, through trackless worlds of mind. Thence the visible cosmos, the form of the world of mind, receives it, a descending stream of 1607 blessings. This (visible cosmos) had a second sun, the progenitor with shining eyes of a later shining light, the guardian of that 5 matter which comes into being and perishes, a Son who is the perceptible impression of Mind, the purveyor of what good things are born in the universe, born through thy will, most august Offspring, Father unknowable, Father ineffable, Unknowable to Mind, Unutterable inspeech. Thou art the Mind of mind, the Soul of souls, the ro Natureof natures. Lo, I bend the knee before Thee, a servant, I cast myself upon the ground, a blind suppliant ; but do Thou, the Giver of light, of the light of Mind, take pity, O Blessed One, on a suppliant soul; chase away diseases, chase away cares that gnaw the soul, and chase away the shameless hound of the nether world, the demon of earth, from my soul, from my prayer, from my life, from my works. Let that demon remain outside of my body, of my spirit, and of all that is mine. Let him flee, let him leave me, 1608 the demon of matter, the power of sufferings, who builds his fortress wall against the path that leadeth above, who violateth 20 the aspirations that seek God; and give me a companion, O King, a partner, a sacred messenger of sacred power, a messenger of prayer illumined by the divine light, a friend, a dispenser of noble gifts, a guard of my soul, a guard of my life, a guard over prayers, a guard over deeds, and one to save the body purified of disease, 2.5 to save the spirit purified of shame. And bring to my soul oblivion of its passions, that the soul’s winged flight may also enrich the earth-nourished life with hymns of Thee, to the end too that I may complete the life that comes with destiny after the chains that weigh us down to earth, a life purified of matter, even unto thy 30 courts and unto thy Bosom whence outwelleth the fountain of the soul. And do Thou extend to me thy Hand; do Thou call, Blessed One, do Thou lift up from matter a suppliant soul.

=

HYMN V

LET us sing to the Son of the Bride, the Bride not wedded for destined wedlock with man. The ineffable designs of the Father produced the birth of Christ. The sacred travail of a Bride revealed the form of Man, who came bringing a fountain of

s light to mortals; and this ineffable Offspring knows the Root of the ages. Thou Thyself art the Light from the Fountain-head, the ray that hast shone along with the Father, that, having broken through murky matter, dost shine in pious souls. ‘Tis Thou Who art the Founder of the universe, the Fashioner of the

ro spheres of famous stars, the Founder of the centres of the earth, and Thou art of Thyself the Saviour of men. For Thee the Titan drives his horses, the unquenchable source of morning, for Thee the horned moon dissipates the shades of night. For Thee also are fruits begotten, and herds do graze. Sending out from Thy inef-

1§ fable source a life-giving splendour, Thou fillest with nourishment the interlaced roots of the universe. Out of Thy profundities have blossomed forth light and mind and soul. Take pity upon Thy daughter imprisoned in mortal limbs and the material limits of destiny. Preserve Thou the force of my limbs unscathed

20 from the ravage of disease. Grant persuasiveness to my words and glory to my deeds, even such as may become the traditions of Cyrene and Sparta; and may my soul, untrodden by grief, draw to itself a gentle nourishing life, straining a pair of eyes upon Thy Light, so that escaping from matter I may hasten on the unchang-

25 ing paths, a fugitive from the sufferings of earth, to mingle with the Fountain-head of the soul. Mayst Thou achieve such an unstained life to Thy minstrel, whensoe’er I send to Thee a song, and glorify Thy Root, the greatest glory of the Father, and the Spirit that shareth the throne midway between the Root and the Branch,

30 and in singing the might of the Father, I lull to rest, with hymns to Thee, the glorious travail of my soul. Hail, Source of the Son,

2878.3 U

388 HYMN V

hail, Form of the Father, hail, Throne of the Son, hail, Seal of the Father, hail, Strength of the Son, hail, Beauty of the Father, hail, Breath undefiled, Centre of the Son and of the Father, mayst Thou send to me with the Father the mistress of divine gifts, to water the wings of my soul. 5

HYMN VI

IN unison with the Holy Self-engendered Fountain that surpasseth the unspeakable unities, I will crown with wise garlands of hymns, God, the glorious Son of the eternal God, One Offspring that leapt forth from One Father, Whom the indescribable birthpang of the Fatherly Will has made manifest, a Son out of His ro unknowable Bosom, the birth-pang which has displayed the fruits of the Father’s begetting, and, in bringing them to light, has been revealed Mind, fixed in the medial. And so there remain in the Fountain, poured round about, the wisdom of the Father’s Mind, the splendour of His beauty. To Thee, the Engendered, the ts Father has granted to engender. Thou art the hidden Seed of the Father; for the Father gave Thee to universes as their beginning, that forms might be brought down to material bodies from the entities of Mind. Thou guidest the wise vault of heaven, and ever leadest to their pasturage the flock of stars. 20 Thou rulest, O King, the choir angelic and the company of the spirits, and Thou dost dance around perishable nature. Thou dividest the indivisible Spirit (pnewma) throughout the earth, and returnest to its fountain-head what has already been bestowed, releasing mortals from the necessity of death. Be propitious to 25 these garlands of songs to Thee, and grant the calm of life to a poet of hymns. Stay Thou the changing mouth of the channels, and dry up the destructive billows of matter. Keep disease far from my mind and limbs. Calm the fatal onslaught of passion, keep off from me the dooms of poverty and of riches alike, give 30

HYMN VII

I was the first to find the measure established in new harmonies wherewith to smite the strings of the lyre in praise of Thee, Blessed One Immortal, illustrious Offspring of the Virgin, Jesus of

10 SOlyma. Be propitious, O King, and accept my strain of sacred melody. We shall sing of the imperishable God, the great Son of God, the world-creating Son of the Father, Who hath given birth to the ages, the nature mingled of all things, the boundless wisdom, a God to heavenly beings, a curse to those of the under-

15 world. What time Thou wert poured forth on the earth, even out of a mortal womb, the inventive art of the Magus was helpless, and he wondered from the rising of the star, what manner of infant had been born, who might be this God concealed, God, or nether shade or king. Come, bring Thy gifts, offerings of myrrh, presents

20 of gold, fine perfume of frankincense. God Thou art, receive Thou the incense; I bring gold to my King, His grave will befit the myrrh. Thou hast purified the land, the waves of the sea, and the paths of the demons, the swift outflow of air, and the recesses of the infernal regions. Thou wert sent, being

25 God, to Hades, to the assistance of the dead. But be propitious, O King, and accept my strains of sacred songs.

HYMN VIII

In a somewhat Dorian cadence, I will lift up a clear song on my ivory-inlaid lyre, in Thy honour, Blessed Immortal, Offspring Illustrious of the Virgin ; and do Thou, O Ruler, save my harmless life, granting me night and day alike inaccessible to griefs. Make Thy light to shine in my heart from out Thy source of Mind. 5 Apportion to my youth the strength of sound limbs and to my actions renown ; bring Thou a brilliant year even to the joy of my old age, augmenting precious wisdom with health. And mayst Thou preserve my brother to me, whom e’en now in his youth,

O Immortal One, Thou didst bring back, when already passing on ro foot beyond the portals of this earth. Thou didst extinguish then my cares, my griefs, my tears, and the burning fire of my heart. Thou didst make even a dead body to live, O Father, for Thy 1613 Suppliant’s sake. Preserve Thou my sister, and pair of children. All the house of the sons of Hesychius' do Thou hide under Thy hand, 5 and the partner of my marriage bed, O King, keep Thou from illness and harm, united to me, of one mind with me; preserve my wife in ignorance of clandestine associates. May she maintain a holy couch, unsullied, pious, inaccessible to unlawful desires. Take Thou my soul away from evils and from piteous anguish, freed 20 from the fetters of earthly life; and grant me to raise hymns with the choirs of the holy, in honour of Thy Father, and to Thy supreme power, O Blessed One, I will chant my hymns again, I will sing a song to Thee again, and again, perchance, I shall attune this unstained lyre to Thee. 25

1 This reading was discovered by Terzaghi, and refers to the family of Hesychius, the friend to whom Letter 93 is addressed. See longer note.

HYMN IX

Most beloved august Offspring of the Virgin of Solyma, to Thee, Blessed One, I sing. Thou hast expelled the serpent of the earth, that fountain-head of treachery, from the great gardens of the Father, even the serpent who offered the abjured fruit,

s nourisher of troublous destiny, to the primal youth. To Thee I sing, Illustrious Father, that wearest the crown, Son of the Virgin of Solyma. Thou didst descend even to the earth, sojourner of a day, bearing a mortal body, and didst go down beneath to Tartarus, where death reigned over nations of souls in thousands.

1o And then shuddered at Thee the aged ancient Hades, and his hound, the devourer of man, drew back from the threshold ; and Thou, delivering choirs of nghteous souls from their woes, dost raise, with unpolluted bands, hymns to the Father. To Thee I sing, Illustrious Father that wearest the crown, Son of the Virgin of 15 Solyma. The boundless races of demons throughout the air trembled at Thy ascent, O King. The ambrosial choir of the stars immaculate was seized with awe; and ether laughing, wise father of harmony, blended upon the seven-stringed lyre a hymn of victory to Thy might. The harbinger of dawn smiled, the messenger 20 of day, and golden Hesperus, the star of Cytherea. The moon filling with a stream of fire its horned light, led the way, the shepherd of the gods of night. Titan spread out his far-flaming hair under the ineffable track, and recognized the Offspring of God, Mind, the Artificer of all that is best, and the origin of his 25 own flame. But Thou, in winged flight, didst leap over the back of the azure sky, and didst take Thy place amongst the inviolate spheres of the Mind, wherein is the fountain of good things, the heaven that is kept secret, where there is neither deep-flowing 1616 time that draggeth with untiring foot the offspring of earth, nor 30 the shameless destinies of matter’s billowy depths, but an age

392 HYMN IX

born of the far distant past, though ageless itself, old and yet

withal ever young, is to the gods the guardian of their eternal mansion.

HYMN X

O CurisT, Son of God Who reigneth above, remember Thy servant, by destiny a sinner, who writeth these words, and grant 5 me release from passions that bring death, which are implanted in me, in a sullied soul. Grant me, O Saviour Jesus, to behold Thy divine light, that appearing there I may sing a song to the Healer of souls, the Healer of bodies, together with the mighty Father and the Holy Spirit. 10

NOTES

Page 243, 1.13. .. . one of those benighted Euboeans. Dio Chrysostom alludes to the same incident in The Euboean (vii. 4, vol. i. p. 190, ed. von Arnim), ra yéveca Sy] kopawra ...otous eri “Iuov “Ounpds dnow €NOciv EvBodas, oxcirrrwy, soi Soxety, cai xatayeAdv, ort rev GAAwy ’ Axara Karis éxdvrev of 52 ef Hyicous éxdpwv.

Page 243,1.16. Which of the gods .. . did I pass overwithout accusation? Petavius quotes some verses of Petronius (c. 109) to the same purpose.

O fallax natura deum: quae prima dedisti Aetati nostrae gaudia, prima rapis.

Page 243, 1. 18. eslogistsc of Epicurus. In allusion to the doctrine of Epicurus that the gods did not trouble themselves with the affairs of mankind. Krabinger quotes from Lucretius (ii. 646 ff.) the lines:

Omnis enim per se divom natura necesse est Immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur Semota ab nostris rebus seiunctaque longe.

Page 244,1. 23. as sf tn good fortune. Petavius observes that it was the custom at banquets and drinking bouts to pass jests at the expense of the bald heads present—and refers to Petronius (c. ro9),

Iam Tryphaena Gitona extrema parte potionis spargebat, cum Eumolpus, et ipse vino solutus, dicta voluit in caluos stigmososque iaculari.

Page 245, 1.4. after risingin the morning &c. In regard to this chapter, extending over about two pages, which Synesius quotes from the works of Dio Chrysostom, I have to make the following observations. No work of Dio concerning hair was known to Photius, nor has any such work been noted by any other writer of antiquity. The chapter in question, therefore, was, until the year 1839, always regarded as the introductory part of a work by Dio, of which the rest has disappeared. In that year, however, a distinguished Dutch scholar, J. Geel, the librarian of the Uni-

394 NOTES

versity of Leyden,and correspondent of the French Académie des Inscriptions, who had been making a close study of the document in question, published a letter on the subject, addressed to M. Hase, Conservateur au Département des Manuscrits, at the Bibliothéque du Roi, Paris. In this letter, which is full of very close and acute argument, he attempts to establish, and it would seem with great success, the thesis that he sets out to demonstrate, namely, that the two pages quoted here from Dio are not a fragment of the lost essay, but the whole essay. ‘For my part’, he says, ‘I have come to the conclusion that Synesius in saying at the beginning of his discourse that a work had been produced, called a Eulogy on Hair, by Dio of the tongue of gold, has fabricated a title that Dio himself had never thought of. This Eulogy of Hair, which he pretends to offer us, is only an exercise in style, a study, one such as I could point out in other of this author’s writings, as for example, the nineteenth discourse, introduced in the same way by an account of some event, and as little polished as the so-called “Eulogy”’. The same thing may be said of the fifty-second discourse, one of the most interesting bits in the collection of his works. They are nothing, all of them, but thoughts jotted down on paper at the moment. At the same time, I call your attention to the extraordinary resemblance between the commencement of this fifty-second discourse, and that of the “Eulogy of Hair”... . If the Eulogy did not bear the marks of Dio’s style even in its smallest details, one would be tempted to suspect Synesius of bad faith, and to imagine that he had forged an imitation in order to fight with a shadow’ (Leyde, Hazenberg, 1839). There is not room here to go through all the points of this very interesting work of Geel’s, which I recommend to any one desirous to form a definite opinion on the question. The text is printed, with the readings of a Florence manuscript of Synesius, in von Arnim’s edition of Dio (vol. ii [Berol. 1896], pp. 313-19).

Another interesting discovery in regard to this essay of Synesius was made a little later. A French savant, E. Miller, published in Paris in the year 1840 a Greek text entitled, ‘Eloge de la Chevelure, discours inédit d’un auteur grec anonyme en réfutation du discours de Synésius intitulé, Eloge de la Calvitie, publié d’aprés un manuscrit grec, &c.’ It seems that M. Miller came across this work of an anonymous Greek

author in the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, where for some extraordinary reason it had escaped the notice of other scholars. ‘The writer whose work I publish to-day,’ says Miller in his Introduction, “has struck a blow at Synesius’ reputation. . . . It is still more extraordinary that this work has remained unnoticed until now, when we observe that it is mentioned in the Greek catalogue (Art. 21, no. 2953) with this notice, Anonymus de Encomtio Caluitss quod a Synesio scriptum est. This title arrested my attention. .. . I commenced reading it at once .. . and finally decided to publish it with a commentary. I had hoped that the work itself would furnish me with indications that might be sufficient to decide its authorship. It is certainly remarkable in many ways, but in this particular I was disappointed. Not only does the author say nothing to throw any light on the question of authorship, but he cites no poet of antiquity except Homer and Hesiod.’ Miller means no doubt by this that we cannot assign a date to him through the authors that he quotes; I have pointed out elsewhere that there would be a similar difficulty in the case of Synesius, if we were otherwise unaware of the exact time in which he lived. ‘Nevertheless,’ Miller continues, ‘there was abundance of opportunity for quotations, and he could easily have brought upon the scene many poets of antiquity. He contents himself, however, as a philosopher with combating Synesius single-handed. In spite of this excessive dearth of sources of information, I do not wish to leave the discussion of this point of literary criticism without seeming to have arrived at some sort of solution. I have therefore endeavoured to fix approximately the period in which this champion of Dio must have written his essay, and after a conscientious examination of his style, I have sought to indicate to what class of writers he belonged.’ While admitting that a decision upon this point must be more or less conjectural, Miller goes on to point out that certain Greek writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries did succeed to a certain extent in rehabilitating their style in Greek by a close study of the authors of the golden age. The anonymous work that he is criticizing he describes as showing considerable purity of Attic style, an achievement which would have been quite within the compass of such men as Demetrius Cydonius, Bessarion, or Gemistus Plethon. And this alone is sufficient to make one hesitate. 2878.2 X

396 NOTES

From a palaeographical point of view the manuscript in question cannot, he says, be more modern than the end of the thirteenth century, or the beginning of the fourteenth. This seems to make it impossible, therefore, to attribute it to such fourteenth- or fifteenth-century writers as those just named. After weighing all possibilities, therefore, the happy discoverer of the manuscript has come to the conclusion that its author, if he were not a contemporary of Synesius, which is quite possible, must have lived in some part of the two centuries following. I shall have occasion to refer to this anonymous work in the course of my notes on this essay of Synesius. It is interesting to observe that the writer of the pamphlet directed against Synesius does not seem at all to have appreciated the irony and wit of the author he is criticizing. He shows a tendency to take everything that Synesius says quite seriously and literally, and answers him in like manner, training all the heavy artillery of a philosopher upon him. He never seems to suspect that the essay of Synesius is really a skit upon precisely such pompous people as himself, in other words, the sophists of his time. Muller describes his author as a philosopher, but I should be more inclined to class him as a sophist, who was trying to show his ingenuity at the expense of Synesius, just as Synesius was trying to show his, although in a much lighter and more jocose spirit, at the expense of Dio, whom, notwithstanding, he admired so much. ‘Are you not ashamed, Synesius,’ says the anonymous author, ‘unless it is purely on account of your own baldness that you are speaking, are you not ashamed, I say, to write an encomium upon the work of a disease, and to leave out of consideration the praise of what is becoming and healthy?’

He begins his essay, however, with an allusion to his own hair, as follows (p. 27), xai pry Oep eri T@ Tob Aiwvos énendvOer Acyw Lvvéovos, tor’ abros eri T@ tod Luveciou avrixpus’ Kat olov oSros Sucyepatvwv, ore pr) éxdpa, Adyov éefjveyxe, towtrov 5) Kai avros Ore py yeyévnpas gfadaxpos ...

Page 245,1.12. those who make a cultof their hair. Athenaeus (Detpnosoph, Lib. XII, cap. 30), in speaking of the people of Samos, says that according to the poet Asius they used to comb their hair over the back of their heads and down their shoulders,

a > » a @ o rd ot S’avrws dotrecxov Orws mAoKdpous Krevicawro ets “Hpas rénevos, rreruxacpévos etace Kadois,

xatras 5° jwpeivr’ dvéuw xpvodos evi Seopois. Again (sbsd., cap. 31), he quotes some lines from Phylarchus showing a tendency to regard the care of the hair as an effeminate and degenerate phase of morals, which the Colophonians learned of the Lydians,

aBpoovvas S¢ pabdovres avwdeAdas rapa Avid

Tecav eis ayopiy ... xairjow ayadopev” evrrperdéecow.

Speaking of the Athenians (Lib. x11. 5) he alludes to their cult of hair, KopupBous 8° avadovpevor rHv tptxdv ypuoods rérruyas epi To pérwrov Kai Tas Koppas éepdpouv.

It may be inferred from a passage in the Knights of Aristophanes that the attention to hair was a mark of aristocratic tradition amongst the Athenians (Eq. 578) :

Xop. .. . ovK atrotper ovdev srAxv rocovrovi povov' qv ToT eipnvn yevnras Kal Trovwy travowpeia, pt) POovetO” Hpiv nopdor pnd’ ameorrAeyyropevars.

Page 246,1.4. he pratses them all for thesy hasy. Dio in another of his works (Orat. XXXVI, 17, vol. ii, p. 5, ed. von Arnim) praises the wearing of long hair as a distinctly Greek trait and opposed to the Roman fashion. Speaking of a Greek city on the borders of Thrace, and the manners of the citizens, he observes: wdvv ody dv ris Hobn rH oer Pirdoodos avip, ort drravres Hoay Tov apxatov Tporrov, ws drow “Opnpos rovs “EAAnvas, xopmv- Tes Kal Ta yévera adexdres, els 5¢ ev avdrois povos e€upnpeévos, Kai TotTov édoSdpouv re Kai €uicovy amavres. €Adyero 5é ovK dAAws roto emirndevery, GMa Kodaxedwy ‘Pwpatous cal rHv mpos adrovs diAlav emiderevvpevos.

Page 248, 1. 6. I shall never disgrace my ancestral rusticity. It isa favourite idea with Synesius that he is exempt from all the refinements and overculture of town life, that his is a blunt and rustic type of mind, &c. Cf. The Egyptsan Tale (I,cap. 18). ‘Now it happened that there was

398 NOTES

one man, who, though of serious bent, had through philosophy been brought up in a more rustic mould, &c.’ See also his letter to Olympius (Ep. 148), in which he takes to himself great credit for his devotion to the simple life of the country, and his contempt for the ways of men of the city. Cf. also Hymn IIT, 54: ‘...land of the Notus which no godless blast of wind sullieth, nor is the foot-print graven thereon of men whose cares are of the town.’

Page 252, 1.30. no fruit ona plant &c. The anonymouswriter uses the simile of plants also, in his encomium on hair (p. 53): Etot yap ai rpixes, ws Epnuev, nedparjs hurd, aicbjoewy dvbn, répyis Eurspuxos, xdpts Euduros, xaAAos favopevov Kai tas des evOds Onpwpevov, fv mdvres emjvecayv Kai Aoyoypado. Kai trownrai, Kai 6 ToUTwy mpoiordpevos “Opnpos. dadaxpov dé ris TOLnTay 7} pytépwy péypt cov Koopjoa Adyo.s mpoetiiero ;

Page 253, 1. 14. ... those who serve the dsuinity in Egypt do not endure haw etc. Cf. Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, p. 352.C,D: ‘... few there be who know the cause of this ceremony . . . why the priests of Isis shave their heads, and wear no hair upon them... . There is one cause alone, that as Plato (= Phaedo 678) says, it is not lawful for the pure to touch what is impure. Nowit is well known that all superfluities of our food are impure, and of such is hair engendered.’ Philo (De Csrcumctstone 1, § 5) compares the shaving of the Egyptian priests to the Jewish practice as follows: ‘It [circumcision] secures the healthiness of the whole body in a way that is suited to the people consecrated to God; with which object the Egyptian priests, being extravagant in their case, shaved the whole of their bodies. ’

Page 253, 1. 29. What could be balder than a sphere? Cf. Proclus on the Parmenides of Plato (Lib. vi, pp. 106-15, ed. Cousin): ‘And on this account Parmenides speculating in his poem on Being in very truth, brings in the sphere also as well as the Whole, the Same, and the Other; for he describes it [Being] as like a spherical mass everywhere equidistant from a centre with all its parts, and immovable; in such sort that all things are first in mind, and secondly are as images in the monad and in every perceptible thing, physically in this, but mathematically in that. For the sphere is an intellectual concept as is Mind, and the monad; this cosmos is the perceptible sphere carrying

in itself the images of eternal gods.’ Cf.alsoOlympiodorus(In. Plat. Phaed. D. c. pif’, p. 235, ed. Norvin.): “Ore opatpixov ro mav Seiferev dv Tis amd ris reducis aitias. pupetras yap 7) opaipa 70 éy, ort pddora, Kpdriwrov otcoa Tay oynpdtwv Kai adudAvroy, ws yovusy aanMaypévn, nai padora mdvrwv xwpnruch dia rH avriy airiay. ért dro Tis rapaderyparuchs, ors ravTeAes Td {Gov eis 6 BAdrwy 6 Beds eSnptovpye: Wore reXesraTov oxnpdrwy 7) odaipa. én, amo Tis Towmntuchs airlas’ aidiov yap adro Kai adidAvrov 6 Snusoupyos Trovet TOGOTo S¢ oxHpUA 6 TE KUKAOS Kai 7) ofaitpa.

Page 254, 1. 8. Wherefore the entsre-soul animates the whole cosmos, which ss a sphere. This is the view that dominates Plato’s Timaeus ; but the sphere became a sad stumbling-block in later Greek philosophy, owing to the perpetual confusion of astronomical and psychological images. It will be remembered how in the Republic Socrates reproves the young and enthusiastic Glaucon for suggesting that astronomy is an elevating pursuit because in studying the stars one gazes upwards. But Plato in the Timaeus, as Taylor points out (Plato, The Man and hts Work, p. 447), ‘never speaks of spheres, but in the language originated by Anaximander of circles.’ The later theory of Eudoxus of the revolving spheres of the universe was unknown to him. For Anstotle’s view of Eudoxus’ system, see Metaphysics, 1073>. Evdofos pev odv HXlov Kai ceArjvns Exarépov TH fopay €v tpiow érifer’ elvar ofaipas, wv THY péev mMpwrnv THY Tav arAavav dorpwy elvas, rnv 5€ Seurdpay xara tov dia. péeowy trav Cwdiwy, ryv 5 rpirny Kata Tov Aedofwdvoyv ev TO trAdTE Tov Cwdiwy .... Tav Sé TrAavwWpEevwY dorpwy ev rérrapow éxaorov ofaipas. .. . Kaddmrmos 5¢ rhy perv Odow trav ofpaipay tiv avriy éeribero Evdcfw, robr’ €ort trav aroornpdrwv Thy rdw, 7d 5¢ 2ARGos TH ev rob Aws Kai r@ rob Kpodvov ro aro éxeivw amedidov, t@ 8’ nrlov Kai t@ ceAjvns Sv0 wero Ere mpooberdas elvar odaipas . . .. dvayxaiov Sé, et wéAAovor cuvrePeioat Maca 7a pavdpeva anodwoew, xa” Exacrov Tay tAavwydvwy érépas ofaipas pid éAdrrovas elvas tas aveActrovoas...

In the scholia to this passage (Bekker, vol. iv, p. 807) is the following: tobro einwy evOvs ioropet ad te Evdofos repi trav ofaipdiv éXeye Kai Tob mrAnGous adray nai KaAXrnos. nai Se€dpevos THv tpocOixny trav opaipav, nv 6 Kddurrros rrpocdbynxev (6 yap Evdofos etxoot nai €€ ras wdoas ériBero,

400 NOTES KaNursos 5¢ rpudxovra Kai tpeis) otrws avros rais rpidxovta Kai rpiolv das eixoor kai Svo0 mpooriPnar ... «.7.A.

A long discussion follows as to the number of the ‘spheres’ necessary to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies. Synesius was an astronomer, as we see from the famous Leter to Paconsus, and the science, as he tells us in the letter in question, had made great strides. He reminds us that Hipparchus in his day was prophetic, and that his vague anticipations were fulfilled by the work of Ptolemy and ‘the divine band of his successors.’ ‘Every allowance must be made’, he adds, ‘for these men, inasmuch as the more important problems were still unsolved, and geometry was still at the nursing stage.’ It would be very interesting to know what these ‘important problems’ were. But the exact history of astronomy in the time that elapsed between Ptolemy and Synesius is lost in obscurity. We naturally scan the allusions in Synesius here and elsewhere, but find nothing to tell us whether the conceptions of Eudoxus as to the plurality of spheres in the universe was still accepted in the fourth century. In the meantime, at all events, astrology had come in to occupy a large place in the popular imagination, though of this we hear little in Synesius. But throughout all his wit and playfulness about the sphere we can easily detect the same underlying conception that we find in the passage from Proclus quoted above, namely that the sphere, being the most perfect form, is the expression of Mind, in other words the second hypostasis of the Neoplatonists, but it is worthy of observation that Synesius never endorses in so many words the doctrine of the Neoplatonic hypostases. For him the sphere is the most perfect form, and therefore the idea of the sphere must dominate the cosmos. Beyond that he does not go. He remains with the Platonic doctrine of the idea. In this respect he is pre-Aristotelian, notwithstanding the fact that he has, as I have tried to show, so frequently drawn on the works of Aristotle.

Page 256, 1. 8. chests, whsch conceal .. . those spheres. The priests of Egypt were reputed to be astronomers. It would seem probable, therefore, that the spheres to which Synesius alludes were models of the celestial bodies, or at all events had some connexion with astronomy. As to his statement about the priests mocking the populace, it was

affirmed by Pseudo-Lucian that the Egyptians divided the heavens into twelve areas, and symbolized each of these by a different animal, and that it was from these symbols that the figures of gods were derived: éx yap 51) rod raves jépos, Kai dordépwy Trav GAwy arAavéwy te Kai edorabdwy Kai ovdaud Kiweopdvewy Suddexa poipas érdpovro ev Tots Kweopévowt, Kal otxeta [ia ddvra Exacrov avriv és GAAnY popdiy peupéaras Ta pev evdda, ta 8¢ avOpumwyv, ta 5¢ Onpav, ra Se rrnvdv, ra 5€ wrnvédwy. (De Astrologta, vi.)

It was maintained by certain materialist philosophers in the days of Porphyry that the Egyptian priests worshipped the stars and heavenly bodies generally, if we can draw such an inference from the letter which he writes to the Egyptian priest Anebo. This letter is quoted by Cudworth, vol. i, p. 537, in the following passage: Xa:pijuwy pev ydp, Kai ot Got, ovd’ do 71 1p0 THy cpwpdvwy Kdopwy yyobvrat, ev apyf Adywy rHepevo Tovs Aiyurriwy, ovS’ GAAous Beovs wAnv trav mAaynrav Aeyopévwv, Kai Ta&v cupmAnpovyrwy Tov Cwdiaxov, etc. (Euseb., Praep. Evang., ii. 4). The full text is printed in Thomas Gale’s edition of Iamblichus, De Mystertts. Porphyry, it would seem, rebukes the Egyptian priests for worshipping material powers instead of spiritual. This is also the view that Sallustius, the friend of the Emperor Julian, takes of them, writing in the middle of the fourth century, although he accuses them of identifying their gods, not with the stars, but with other elements of nature. ‘The worst explanation, the material,’ he says, in regard to the stories of the gods, ‘is that which the Egyptians because of their ignorance used most; they regarded and described material things as gods, earth as Isis, moisture as Osiris, heat as Typhon,’ &c. (Nock’s translation of Sallustius, p. 7, cap. 4 of the text). bAm«ds S¢ ears Kai €oyaros, d pddvora Aiydrrvo 8.” arradevoiay €xypjcavto, adra Ta owpara Beovs vopicavres Kai xaddoavres [Kat] "Low pev rv viv, “Oorpw S€ ro bypov, Tédwva S¢ rhv Oeppornra KrA.

The worship of animals by the masses in Egypt is mentioned with reprobation by Plutarch in his Jsts and Ostrts (p.379E: Alyurriwv 8é ot troAAot Geparrevovres avira 7a (Ga, Kai 7repiezrovres ws Deovs, ov yéAwros pdvov ovde yAevacpot KatarenAyjKact Tas tepoupyias (aAAa Totro ris aBeATEpias eAdyvorov €ort xaxdv): Sd€a 5° eudverar Sew, rods pev dobevets Kai dxdxous eis dxparov wirepeirrovea, Thy SevarSaipoviav, rots Se Spivrépors Kai Opacure-

402 NOTES pots ets aBéous exrimrovoa Kai Onpudders Aoyvopovs: # Kal sept rovTww 7a eixdra SueAPety ovx dvdppoordy ott.)

The above description of the Egyptians in general as ignorant and grossly superstitious is rather in accord with what Synesius says here, speaking of them as a people who were hoodwinked by their priests. It is always of the priests that he speaks when he is extolling the wisdom of the Egyptians. We must not forget that he expresses himself frequently in favour of not enlightening the masses as to the mysteries of religion. In letter 105, notably when on the brink of accepting the bishopric, he writes: ‘Thephilosophic mind . . . admits the employment of falsehood. ...I consider that the false may be beneficial to the populace, and the truth injurious. . . . I can take over the holy office on condition that I may prosecute philosophy at home, and spread legends abroad... . Divine truth should remain hidden: the vulgar need a different system.’ Is it possible that Synesius’ views on these matters were influenced by his admiration for the Egyptian priests? The tradition amongst Greek philosophers is as old as the time of Plato, who ts always endorsing their wisdom, without, however, throwing much light on their theology. Plutarch, on the other hand, gives us so many explanations of the origin and interpretation of the myths of their religion, that we are forced to conclude that in his time either the priests themselves had become very ignorant about their own doctrines, or saw fit to throw dust in the eyes of inquiring Greeks. We find elsewhere in Synesius allusion to the fact that they were not able to interpret their own hieroglyphics (De Prov., p. 1256 c). Plutarch, in Jsts and Ostris, c. 72 ff., tells us that some men account for the heads of animals in the images of gods as coming from military standards or ensigns, carried into battle in the past, and each sacred to some single tribe, which afterwards endowed its protecting deity with the emblem, and that others say that they were used in war as portentous signs to terrify the enemy with; or again, that they were the areas marked out by the priests, in the celestial vault, and referred to the astral nature of their gods, as does Porphyry in the letter quoted above.

Diogenes Laertius speaks of the philosophy of the Egyptians in the following terms (i. 10): “They say that matter was the first principle, next the four elements were derived from matter, and thus living things

of every species were produced. The sun and the moon are gods bearing the names of Osiris and Isis respectively: they make use of the beetle, the dragon, the hawk, and other creatures as symbols of divinity, according to Manetho.. . and Hecataeus. . . . They also set up statues and temples to these sacred animals because they do not know the true form of the deity. They hold that the universe is created and perishable and that it is spherical in shape. They say that the stars consist of fire, and that, according as the fire in them is mixed, so events happen upon earth ; that the moon is eclipsed when it falls into the earth’s shadow ; that the soul survives death and passes into other bodies; that rain is caused by change in the atmosphere ; of all other phenomena they give physical explanations. . . . They also laid down laws on the subject of justice, which they ascribed to Hermes; and they deified those animals which are serviceable to men.’ (Diog. Laer., translation R. D. Hicks, Loeb Library.) It must be remembered that Diogenes Laertius was writing probably in the early part of the third century, and was nearer to the time of Synesius than was Plutarch.

Page 256, 1. 10 . the Egyptians ...do not allow the vulgar .. . to make images. The following two passages from St. Clement of Alexandria and from Plutarch in regard to the Egyptian priests, are quoted by Cudworth (vol. i, p. 532). I append the Greek text:

ot Aiydirriot od Tots émuruxobor Ta rapa odpiow daveriPevro puvorypia, ovde piv BeBiirors Thy rav Oeiwv etdnow efépepov, add’ 7} udvots ye Tots pédAAovow énl riv Baorelay mporévar, Kal rébv iepéwy Tots xpBetow elvar Soxypwrdtous, amd Te Tis Tpophs Kal ris 1asdelas Kai rob yévous (Strom. v, p. 503).

‘O ek paxipwr arodederypévos ebds eydvero rdaiv iepdwv, nai pereixe Tis dirooodgias, émxexpuppérns ta toa pos Kai Adyos, dpvdpas euddoes Tis dAnfelas nat Siaddoes exovow, worep ayéder Kai rrapady- Aobow adroit mpd Tay lepGv ras odiyyas emends lordvres, ds ainyparddy ooglay ris Jeodoyias abrav é€xovons (Plutarch, Isis e Ostrts, c. 9).

Page 256, 1. 16. amongst the Greeks zeal for truth is languid. Synesius does not seem to see that the aspersions made by Thucydides on the lack of any critical examination into legendary history in his

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time refer rather to the majority of mankind in general than to the Greek race in particular. In the passage to which Synesius alludes he says that most men are averse to taking pains in the quest of accurate information, adducing erroneous accounts generally accepted by his countrymen, and the rest of the Greeks (of dAAo. “EAAnves) concerning contemporary as well as historic facts. The last words of this criticism of human credulity (Thuc. i. 20) are the following: ovrws adraXainwpos rois moAdois 4 Cntnas THs aAnOeias Kai émi ra €rotwa paAAov rpérovrat.

Page 260, 1. 18. forces of Cambyses. The passages that Synesius is thinking of may be found in Herodotus, Bk. III, chap. 12: ‘I saw there a strange thing, of which the people of the country had told me. The bones of those slain on either side in this fight lying scattered separately (for the Persian bones lay in one place and the Egyptian in another, where the armies had first separately stood), the skulls of the Persians are so brittle that if you throw no more than a pebble it will pierce them, but the Egyptian skulls are so strong that the blow of a stone will hardly break them. And this, people said (which for my own part I readily believed), is the reason of it: the Egyptians shave their heads from childhood and the bone thickens by exposure to the sun. This also is the reason why they do not grow bald; for nowhere can one see so few bald heads as tn Egypt. Their skulls then are strong for this reason ; and the cause of the Persian skulls being weak is that they shelter their heads through their lives with the felt hats (called tiaras) which they wear. Such is the truth of this matter. I saw too the skulls of those Persians at Papremis who were slain with Darius’s son Achaemenes by Inaros the Libyan, and they were like the others’ (trans. Godley, ed. Loeb). Wilkinson, in a note to Rawlinson’s Herodotus (ad loc.), observes, ‘The thickness of the Egyptian skull is observable in the mummies ;’ Druon remarks that in quoting this passage of Herodotus, Synesius has taken pains to exclude the clause in which Herodotus says that one sees fewer bald men in Egypt than anywhere else, and that it is obvious from this that all his argument is to be taken as a pure “jeu d'esprit,’ and a sophist’s piece of practice.

Page 261, 1.12. strike one of these men with ts fist: see Mayor on Juvenal, 5. 171 (also on p. 436), for many parallels.

Page 262, 1. 4. should the demon be adverse. He probably alludes to that individual demon mentioned in Horace’s Epistle to Julius Florus (Ep. II, 2, 187)

Scit Genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum, naturae deus humanae, mortalis...

Page 262, 1. 5. one of the divine race. No doubt his Lacedaemonian ancestors are alluded to here.

Page 262, 1.16. The Lacedaemonsans adopted long hair after Thyrea. Here again Synesius has been taking a leaf out of Herodotus; the allusion will be found in Bk. I, cap. 82, where he is describing how when Croesus was besieged by Cyrus, he sent to the Lacedaemonians for help, as well as to the rest of the allies. ‘Now at this very time the Spartans themselves had a feud on hand with the Argives in respect of the country called Thyrea; ... the Argives came out to save their territory from being cut off; then after debate the two armies agreed that three hundred of each side should fight, and whichever party won should possess the land. The rest of each army was to go away to its own country.... Having thus agreed, the armies drew off, and picked men of each side were left and fought. Neither could gain advantage in the battle; at last of six hundred there were left only three, Alcenor and Chromios of the Argives, Othryades of the Lacedaemonians: these three were left alive at nightfall. Then the two Argives, deeming themselves victors, ran to Argos; but Othryades, the Lacedaemonian, spoiled the Argive dead, bore the armour to his own armies’ camp, and remained in his place. On the next day both armies came to learn the issue; for awhile both claimed the victory. .. . At last the dispute so ended that they joined battle and fought ; many of both sides fell but the Lacedaemonians had the victory. Ever after this the Argives, who before had worn their hair long by fixed custom, shaved their heads, and made a law, with a curse added thereto, that no Argive should grow his hair, and no Argive woman should wear gold, till they should recover Thyrea; and the Lacedaemonians made a contrary law, that ever after they should wear their hair long ; for till now they had not so worn it ’ (trans. Godley, ed. Loeb).

Page 263, 1.12. dressed their hatr before the battle of Thermopylae. We must go back to Herodotus again, Bk. VII, chap. 208 seq.: ‘ While this

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debate was going on, Xerxes sent a mounted spy to observe the Greeks, and note how many they were, and see what they were doing. . . .The horseman rode up to the camp and looked about him .. .. It chanced that at this time the Lacedaemonians held the outer guard, and were seen by the spy, some of them engaged in gymnastic exercises, others combing their long hair. At this the spy greatly marvelled, but he counted their number, and ... he returned and told Xerxes all that he had seen. Xerxes apparently thought it a laughable matter that they should be engaged in such employments as looking after their hair, but Demaratus, whom he consulted on the subject, assured him that it was the custom of the Spartans when they were about to hazard their lives, to adorn their heads with care.’ Rawlinson, whose translation I have just been quoting, observes that ‘the particular attention bestowed on the adornment of the hair in times of imminent danger, is witnessed to by Plutarch (Lycurgus, chap. 22), and by Xenophon (Lacedaemonsan Republic, xiii. 8) if we adopt in that place the reading xexrenopévy.’ The passage from Plutarch is as follows: ‘In time of war, too, they relaxed the severity of the young men’s discipline, and permitted them to beautify their hair and omament their arms and clothing, rejoicing to see them, like horses, prance and neigh for the contest. Therefore they wore their hair long as soon as they ceased to be youths, and particularly in times of danger they took pains to have it glossy and wellcombed, remembering a certain saying of Lycurgus, that a fine head of hair made the handsome more comely still, and the ugly more terrible.’ (Trans. Perrin, Loeb Library, vol. i, p. 275.)

Page 264, 1.2. Ptolemy, son of Lagus. Arrian explains in his preface to his Ltfe of Alexander, that since Ptolemy, son of Lagos, and Aristoboulos had both written concerning his campaigns, he himself has adopted the course of accepting for his work all statements in which these two writers agreed, and in case they disagreed of adopting the more plausible version of the two. He further states that they both seem to him the more trustworthy inasmuch as they both accompanied Alexander on his campaigns, and as to Ptolemy, he of all men was the least likely to falsify the truth, for deception is more disgraceful in a king than in any other man. From this phrase it may be inferred

that Synesius had Arrian’s work in his mind when he wrote this passage. Certainly he would have agreed with Arrian. Compare his remark in the address to the Emperor Arcadius, ‘Truth is the aristocracy of language.’ The passage which he refers to here, or possibly quotes in places, is not in the few fragments we possess of Ptolemy, whom, however, Arrian frequently refers to. Ptolemy seems to have enjoyed the reputation of telling amusing anecdotes. If the one that he recounts of the dragons with human voices who conducted Alexander’s army to Ammon be taken as an example of his critical powers as an historian, the amusing war episode that Synesius tells us here will find little credence. There is, perhaps, a vein of irony in the manner in which he observes that Ptolemy must be truthful because he is a king. It reminds us of the passage in Letter 44, where he says: ‘This is the story which Rumour has recounted, and it is not ordained that a divinity should lie.’

Page 266, 1.7. Aristoxenus says. This must refer to Aristoxenus of Tarentum, a pupil of Aristotle, and a contemporary of Theophrastus. He wrote four hundred and fifty-three works, according to Suidas, and was greatly admired in the succeeding centuries. In the days of Plutarch he was considered already as a classic. The work cited here must be his celebrated Lives of Men in which he wrote of Pythagoras, Archytas, Socrates, and Plato. His description of the irascible side of Socrates is certainly not confirmed by the works of Xenophon and Plato.

Page 267, 1. 30. he... defames Hector. Druon refers us to Philostratus, the Herotcus, where Hector is represented as a bald man (iii. 21, xiv. I) per’ oddSepids Kopns.

Page 268, 1. 14. let anyone show me where this occurs in . . . Homer. Synesius is quite wrong here. As Druon points out, the verse in question occurs in the twenty-second book of the Ji:ad, lines 401-2, but the reading that Synesius quotes is a bad one, he having substituted the word mwedopnvro for the word zirvavro.

Page 268, 1.18. as tf Phileas had accused Andoctdes. The same phrase appears in Suidas, who must have taken it from this passage in Synesius. Druon thinks that the Andocides in question here is the orator.

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Page 270,1].28. The adulterers... come frommenwho care for thetr hatr. Seneca in one of his diatribes (De Brevitate Vitae, xii. 3) asks ironically, “Who is not more sedulous about the adornment of his head than about its safety,’ and desires to know which one of the idlers in Rome would not rather the whole state be thrown into confusion than his own hair. The passage is interesting as showing what a cult of hair existed among men in the first century.

‘Quid? Illos otiosos vocas quibus apud tonsorem multae horae transmittuntur, dum decerpitur, si quid proxima nocte succrevit, dum de singulis capillis in consilium itur, dum aut disiecta coma restituitur aut deficiens hinc atque illinc in frontem compellitur? Quomodo irascuntur, si tonsor paulo neglegentior fuit, tanquam virum tonderet! Quomodo excandescunt si quid ex iuba sua decisum est, si quid extra ordinem iacuit, nisi omnia in anulos suos reciderunt! Quis est istorum qui non malit rem publicam turbari quam comam suam? qui non sollicitior sit de capitis sui decore quam de salute? ...’

Page 271, 1. 24. like Cletsthenes, the Timarchs, . . . dispose of thetr beauty. These men were selected, no doubt, as examples of evil and perverse morals from the fact that they played a conspicuous part, at least the latter, in political life. Timarchus was a rich man, and a supporter of Demosthenes. When Aeschines and Demosthenes returned from the celebrated embassy to Philip of Macedon in which they were colleagues, Demosthenes brought a formal charge of treason against Aeschines. The latter, in order to disconcert his adversary, brought an indictment against his friend and supporter, on the ground that he had committed criminal offences by his debased conduct, according to the laws of Athens which made certain offences penal. Aeschines won his case against Timarchus, in the celebrated speech which bears his name, and succeeded thereby in getting his enemy out of the way, and in making the task of Demosthenes more difficult. Demosthenes, however, won his case against Aeschines in the end, and the latter retired from public life. Both these men became the butt of the comic poets. Aristophanes in the Clouds (346 ff.) has the following witty dialogue:

Socrates. Have you ever seen a Cloud like a centaur or a pard, or wolf, or bull?

Strepstades. Marry, I have, but what of that?

Socr. Learn that the Clouds assume whatever guise likes them best. Therefore if they chance to see a long-haired fop—one of those hirsute ‘slips of wildness’ such as the son of Xenophantus, in mockery of his lunes, they translate themselves into centaurs. .. . And just now catching sight of Cleisthenes (pointing to a member of the audience), —do you observe ?—they took the guise of women.

Streps. (ecstatically prostrating himself before the Chorus) All hail to ye, then, Liege Ladies! : . . (Mitchell’s translation).

Page 272, 1. 4. Pherecydes. Diogenes Laertius tells us about this philosopher (Bk. I, 116-20), who was a pupil of Pittacus. The allusion here is to the story ‘that he died of a verminous disease, and that Pythagoras, who was present, came to see him and inquire how he was. Pherecydes would not let him come in, however, but thrust his finger through the doorway, and exclaimed, “ My skin tells its own tale,” a phrase, says Diogenes, subsequently applied by the grammarians as equivalent to “getting worse’’, although some wrongly understand it to mean “all is going well’’.. . . Duris, in the second book of his Horae, gives the inscription on his tomb as follows:

All knowledge that a man may have had I; Yet tell Pythagoras, were more thereby, That first of Greeks is he; I speak no lie.’

(Diog. Laert., trans. Hicks, Loeb Library, vol. i, p. 125).

Page 275,1.1. sons of Taurus. The phrase ‘written at the time’, or,as Druon translates it, ‘under the reign of, the sons of Taurus,’ is obscure. Petavius reminds us of a Taurus who was consul with Florentius under the EmperorsConstantine, Constantius, andConstans. It is obvious that Aurelian, ‘the better man’ mentioned in this passage, is the Osiris of the story, and ‘the inferior man’ Typho. That Aurelian had a son Taurus we know from Letter 31; he was consul in 428 (Socrates, vii. 29). He comes into this story under the name of Horus. It seems not improbable, as Crawford points out (Synessus the Hellene, p. 454), that the father of

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Aurelian, whose name is unknown, may also have been named ‘ Taurus’. ‘The Riddle of the Wolf’ marks the end of the first part of the story, where it is alluded to as belonging to the mysteries that must not be revealed, even in the disguise of a fable. Plutarch, in Ists and Ossrss, gives all the information known to Greek antiquity as to the symbolism of these names, which were identified by him in certain passages, as analogous to Greek conceptions, as in cap. 78, where he speaks of the Egyptian priests, hinting cautiously, and with the greatest reserve, at the functions of Osiris in the under-world, as similar to those of Dis and Pluto ("A:dov xai []Aovrwvos). In the same way Plutarch identifies Horus with Apollo, and Bacchus with Osiris. Osiris was the son of Helios, and Typho of Cronos, &c., &c. (cap. 12). Osiris, he tells us, was announced by an oracular voice, as born to be a beneficent monarch (péyas Baowreds evepyérns “Ootpis yéyove), and when he came to rule over the Egyptians, he civilized them not by the use of arms, but by persuasion, and by reason conjoined with song (er’ wos), and subdued them with the charms of every form of musical art (dons povoucjs, ibid. 13). Thus he seems to be to the Greeks identical with Dionysius. This account of the rule of Osiris in Plutarch has an unmistakable likeness to the opening passage in chapter twelve of this story, in which Synesius describes Osiris as, ‘a marvel ill-suited to this earth, one who at once began striving to banish the forces hostile to it, without employing any violence at all,’ but who ‘sacrificed to Persuasion, to the Muses and to the Graces, and made all willingly fall in with the law .. . he made it a point of honour to conquer the most shameless man by the gentleness of his mind, &c.’

It is difficult, in the face of this and other concordant passages, to resist the conclusion that Synesius had Plutarch’s essay in mind when he framed his story. Typho, in Plutarch’s version, is represented as laying snares for Osiris, and compassing his destruction. The name Typho, Plutarch tells us (cap. 62), signifies all that is perverse, preventive, and contrary, in the light of the Egyptian words that are used to designate him. But although Osiris and Typho are well and consistently chosen by Synesius for the purpose of his allegory, in that they represented, in Egyptian mythology, the powers of light and darkness, we cannot follow the historical side of the story at this distance of time with

absolute certainty, for whom he meant to designate by Typho is still a moot question. Otto Seeck made out a strong case for identifying him with Caesarius, and this view, which has the endorsement of Bury, I am inclined to accept, if it is necessary to fix upon a historical personage ; but it is of course possible that Typho in this story is merely symbolic of the evil political forces in general, which stood in the way of Aurelian, the friend of Synesius, whom he so much admired, and whom he has made the hero of his drama.

An analysis of the arguments advanced by Otto Seeck will be found in the appendix 27 to Bury’s edition of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, vol. ili, p. 506. ‘It had long been recognized’, says Bury, ‘that Egypt stood for the Empire, and Thebes for Constantinople; and the Praetorian Praefect Aurelian had been detected under the veil of Osiris. But no likely conjecture had been made as to the identity of Typhos, the wicked brother of Osiris. It was partly in consequence of this lacuna that the able attempt of Giildenpenning to reconstruct the history of the years A.D. 399 and 400, on the basis of the work of Synesius (compare my Later Roman Empire, i, p. 79 sqq.) did not carry complete conviction. But O. Seeck has recently made out a good case for the identity of Typhos, and interpreted the allegory more fully (Phtlologus, 52, Pp. 442 sqq., 1894).’ Bury explains next that according to Seeck there can be no doubt that Taurus, father of Osiris and Typho, is the man who appears in the Consular Fasti of A.D. 361, who was quaestor in 353, and Praetorian Praefect in 355. He held this office (the peyaAn apx7 of Synes. De Prov.c. 2, p. 1213) till 361, and presided at the Council of Ariminum (359). He then passes to Aurelian, whom Seeck describes as having built a church in 383, having in 393 become Praefect of Constantinople before Rufinus, and after the fall of Eutropius Praetorian Praefect of the East (399-400); and so on through his career, which witnessed the revolt of Gainas in 400, and his recall to the office of Praefect for the third time (402-404). Seeck has shown this by comparing Letters 31 and 38 of Synesius with the Cod. Th. 4, 2,1, and 5, 1, 5. Now such being the history of Aurelian, Seeck explains the description of Osiris given on p. 1217 as émordrns Sopuddpwv yevopevos Kai dxoas muorevfeis to stand for magister officiorum, and the word zoA- apyyjoas to mean that he was subsequently Praefect of the city, &c.,

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showing that the account given by Synesius tallies with what we know of the history of Aurelian. He observes also that what happened to Osiris in the story after his fall corresponds even more strikingly to that which happened to Aurelian, as we shall see in dealing with page 1252. But the identification of Osiris with Aurelian was never in any doubt, although Seeck and Giildenpenning have given corroborative evidence. We now come to the Emperor Arcadius, who, it is natural to suppose, would appear in the story. Seeck identifies him with the High Priest (Crawford, however, rejects this identification, cf. Synestus the Hellene, p.456. ‘The High Priest’, he says, ‘can be no other than S. Chrysostom’, cp. Volkmann, p. 177, note). Is it not possible, on the other hand, that in this bold political squib, as Bury describes it, Synesius wishes from motives of policy to keep the Emperor entirely out of the narrative? We next come to the identification of Typho. As this is the most important part of Seeck’s reconstruction, I will quote Bury’s account of it: ‘In the allegory, Typhos is in close alliance with the barbarian mercenaries, and instigates their attack on Thebes in order to overthrow his brother Osiris. When Osiris surrenders himself to the barbarian leader, Typhos urges that he should be put to death. Typhos then receives the kingdom and administers it tyrannically ; nor is his position shaken by the fall of the barbarian leader. Before the first rise of Osiris to power he had filled a post which gave him patronage in distributing offices, the power of oppressing towns (p.1217),and the duty of regulating measures in connexion with the payment of taxes in kind (p. 1219). These hints, taken along with the mention of torch-bearing attendants, suggest that the office was no less than that of Praetorian Prefect. It would follow that Typhos was Praetorian Prefect before 399, and again in 400.

‘Eutropius had endeavoured to reduce the power of Praetorian Prefect of the East by making it a collegial office; and Eutychianus appears as holding that office (1) along with Caesarius while Eutropius was in power; (2) along with Aurelian 399-400; (3) along with Aurelian when he was restored 402. It may be assumed that he also held it between 400 and 402.

‘It would follow that Caesarius, whom we find Praetorian Prefect from 396-8, and again in 400 and 4o1, was the prototype of Typhos, the son of Taurus and the brother of Aurelian. Some other points may

confirm the conjecture. The tendency to Arianism, of which Typhos is accused, is illustrated by C. Th. 16, 5, 25, and the passion of Typhos for his wife by a notice in Sozomen, 9, 2. If Typhos is not meant for Caesarius it would seem that he must be purely fictitious.’

It would be interesting to know what part the Empress Eudoxia played in all this. Bury considers that there was a close political union between Eudoxia and Aurelian, in which case an empress of German origin must have allied herself with a statesman whose policy was anti- German.

Volkmann held the opinion that Aurelian, as the result of some court intrigue or in some other irregular way, had a brother who was the original of the Typho in this story. This view is rejected by Crawford (p. 459), as also by Miss Gardner, as resting purely on surmise. Quite apart from the improbability of such a person escaping the notice of the historians of the period, it seems an explanation too obviously derived from the evidence of the story itself. This theory, however, was held by so great an authority as Krabinger. (v. Volkmann, p. 72, note). If this were the case it would make Synesius history perfectly consistent, but on the evidence before us the view of Seeck seems to be the most plausible one.

The point is an important one; for if Synesius did not adhere to history in this case of the relationship of the two men in question, there is no reason to suppose that he may not have recorded other imaginary details in his story.

Page 277, 1. 2. the fable ss the child’s treatise on philosophy. Cf. Olympiodorus (In. Plat. Phaed., D. pr’, 237, ed. Norvin): 4ia ri pvOors xphras 6 ITAdrwv emi rais aodeifeow; 4 ort, dyoi, Prcopubos 7 Yvy7t ws mpurn exw Kat Ew Tol ws dAnOas dvros yevonevy.

Plato, in the Republic, has a good deal to say concerning the influence of legends upon the minds of children, as, for instance, the remarks of Socrates (p. 3774). ‘You know, I said, that we begin by telling children stories which, though not wholly destitute of truth, are in the main fictitious. . . . You know also that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed ...

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Let them (i.e. mothers and nurses) fashion the mind with such tales, even more fondly than they mould the body with their hands.’ Plato is frequently recurring to the value of first impressions on the mind of the child, and insists that knowledge in the first stages should not come to them through compulsion. In Republic, p.536D, he says that ‘Solon was under a delusion when he said that a man, when he grows old, may learn many things—for he can no more learn much than he can run much... and, therefore, calculation and geometry. and all the other elements of instruction which are a preparation for dialectic, should be presented to the mind in childhood; not, however, under any notion of forcing our system of education ... Then . . . do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement.’ All this is equally relevant to the passage at the end of page 1236, where Synesius speaks of the value of early education. It might be argued in this connexion that Plato regarded all men as ‘children of an older growth’, for when he has exhausted all the arguments that his dialectic method suggests, he generally turns to the myth, and tells us some legend before abandoning the subject.

Page 277, 1.21. The elder brother Typho. Plutarch, in his Ists and Osiris, explains the symbolism of Typho in the following words: ‘In the soul, reason and that understanding which is the guide and mistress of all the best things is Osiris. . . in an opposing sense the passionate, violent, unreasonable, brutish, rash and foolish part of the soul is Typho ’ (Is. et Os. p.371 A-B). Again, he alludes to Osiris as representing the beginning and principle, and Isis that which receives. Horus is the compound of both. It would seem also, he says, that the poet Hesiod, when he avers that all things in the first instance were Chaos, Earth, Tartarus, and Love, has no other foundation than the significations of these names, meaning by the Earth Isis, by Love Osiris, and by Tartarus Typho (thtd. p. 374).

Page 282,1.9. There ts a sacred mountain, &c. The geography of the valley of the Nile near Karnak, and the remains of the ancient city of Thebes, does not help us much to reconstitute the picture that Synesius draws here. The valley of the Nile is over six miles wide at Luxor, the little town that has grown up on what was once the southern suburb of

the ancient city of Thebes, about 1,400 years B.c.; and the range of mountains on one’s left hand when looking down stream is at least five miles from the river. There cannot be said to be ‘a mountain’ near Thebes, as Synesius puts it, for it is a high range of cliffs, a sort of palisade that rises abruptly from the flat plain, and in which are the celebrated ‘Tombs of the Kings’. On our right hand, still looking down the river, and at a distance of some miles from it, there are ranges of lower hills. What the ‘two opposite mountains’ are, it would be difficult to say; but the distance between any two elevations chosen on different sides of the Nile in the neighbourhood of Thebes would be some seven miles, and such a distance does not tally with the description here. The ancient town of Thebes, with its hundred gates, was said to be about fourteen miles in circumference, and lay on both sides of the river. The legend of its great magnitude has been rather confirmed by archaeologists. Even in the days of Strabo, long after its decline, it seems to have shown remains of outer walls of some eight miles in extent. ‘Vestiges of its magnitude still exist’, says Strabo (xvii. 1. 46), ‘which extend to a length of eighty stadia. The site is at present given over to villages. That part of it in which the city lies is in Arabia, another, in which is the Memnoniun,, is on the other side of the river (i.e. the left side, always looking down). Here are the two colossal figures near one another, each consisting of a single stone.’ The Colossi which Strabo mentions are still standing, although he speaks of one of them in his time as having suffered from an earthquake, which threw down the upper part.

Diodorus Siculus speaks of the city of Thebes as having been embellished by the King Busiris and his eight sons. According to him it was called by the Egyptians themselves the great city of Zeus (Aus wéAw THv peydAnv), and only by the Greeks, Thebes. It is not clear what Egyptian divinity he means to imply by Zeus. He goes on to speak of the vast extent of the walls enclosing the city that extended to 140 stadia, and of the great palaces, and magnificent temples, and stately shrines which adorned it in marvellous fashion. As to the hundred gates of which Homer speaks, he tells us that some are of opinion that these were not gates but vestibules of temples. All this, of course, was legendary in his time. The great Thebes seems to have disappeared

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about the time of Cambyses. There seems to be little doubt that Synesius had never visited the site, and the picture that he draws is a purely imaginary one. It is interesting as showing how little known this part of the valley of the Nile must have been, even at Alexandria, in the fourth century. (See Diod. Sic., Lib. I, cap. xv.)

Page 286, 1. 9. filled with intelligible beauty which ts mind. This Platonic conception, developed in the Phaedrus, is reflected by Plotinus, (Enn. i. 6.9): ‘Newly awakened it is all too feeble to bear the ultimate splendour. Therefore the Soul must be trained. . . . So, mounting, the soul will come first to the Intellectual-Principle and survey all the beautiful Ideas in the Supreme and will avow that this is Beauty... . What is beyond the Intellectual-Principle we affirm to be the nature of Good radiating Beauty before it.’ (Stephen Mackenna, i, pp. 88 f.)

Page 286, 1.11. another and super-cosmic race of gods. This same idea of the super-cosmic gods Synesius touches on in Dreams (cap. i). Ps.-[amblichus in his tractate on the Myséertes, a work written in answer to Porphyry’s letter to the Egyptian priest Anebo, and which is in some sort a defence of the spirituality of the Egyptian religion against Porphyry’s accusations of materialism, tries to show that the gods are indeed classified according to higher and lower ranks, but at the same time are spiritually one. In sect. 1, chap. 19 he says that ‘The intellectual conversion of secondary to primary natures, and the gift of the same essence and power imparted by the primary to the secondary Gods, connects the synod of them in indissoluble union.’ (I quote Thomas Taylor’s translation, p. 73.) ‘Since, however, the order of all the Gods is profoundly united, and the first and second genera of them, . . . are consubsistent in unity, and also every thing which is in them is one, —hence the beginning, middles, and ends in them are consubsistent according to the one itself... . From this cause, therefore, the perfectly incorporeal Gods are united to the sensible Gods that have bodies (s5:d., Pp. 74, 75). From the sensible gods, Iamblichus passes to the demons. He tells us that demons are far distant from both the visible and intelligible gods from their very essence. The demons, it is true, are invisible, and cannot be objects of sense perception, but they do not, like the gods, transcend rational knowledge and concrete intelligence.

In Dreams also Synesius speaks of gods who are within the confines of the universe, and who may therefore be propitiated by offerings of herbs, stones, and so forth, as distinguished from gods who are without the confines of the universe. Synesius, says Petavius, indicates here three grades of gods: the lowest those to whom the management of the lower world is attributed and who fulfil a double function, one an active and busy one, when they have time to administer the affairs of this world; the other a happy and quiet one, when they lift themselves up to the contemplation of the sublime divinity. The second grade contains the medial gods, to whom I understand the phrase ‘the hypercosmic race of gods’ (yévos Bedv drepxcopiov) to refer to, who do not participate in the management of affairs below; and these have a third divinity above them whom he calls the Source (zyyjv), in other words, the fountain of the divine essence.

Page 286,1.14. those who are gods bynature. To actually become a god of some sort after death, seems to have been the Neoplatonic conception, alluded to by Synesius in Dio (11408), although it is doubtful to what extent the language may be figurative. In this passage he seems to use the phrase in the more strictly Platonic sense of a nature beloved by the gods, i.e. OeofeArjs as in Plato, Euthyphro, passim.

Page 286, 1. 15. fountain-head. This word (myy) is used first in Aeschylus in the sense of the origin of good and beautiful things, &c. v. Perstans, 743.

Page 286, 1. 16. self-concentratson. Plotinus is continually asserting the power of the soul to turn itself within, as a spectator of its own conceptions and emotions, as for instance in En. v. 8. 10: ‘... no longer is there a spectator outside gazing on an outside spectacle; the clear-eyed hold the vision within themselves, though, for the most part, they have no idea that it is within but look towards it as to something beyond them. ... All that one sees as a spectacle is still external; one must bring the vision within and see no longer in that mode of separation but as we know ourselves . . . it is but finding the strength to see divinity within.” (Mackenna, vol. iv, pp. 85 f.)

Page 286, 1. 21. action generated in their contemplation. Contemplation,

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in the case of the gods, was identified with action. It was by their contemplative power, according to Synesius’ conception, that they generated the world, and kept successively regenerating it in their visits from time to time, as he tells us a little farther on. The force that descended in this way from one rank of deities to another, was a sort of emanation from the fountain head which seems to have become feebler and feebler, as it approached the realm of matter, and this necessitated the actual descent from time to time of the beings who were nearer the source.

Page 287, 1. 6. that does the demon. There is a good deal of confusion in the conception of demons. The demon in the time of Plato is represented as an intermediate being between gods and men. Socrates, in the Symposium, represents Eros as being, not a god but a demon, and as therefore partaking of the nature of both god and man. The demon was not understood asmaleficent. Even Ps.-[amblichusrepresents the demons as ministers of the gods, as in the following passage from the Mystertes. ‘In short, that which is divine is of a ruling nature and presides over the different orders of beings; but that which is daemoniacal is of a ministrant nature, and receives whatever the Gods may announce, promptly employing manual operation, as it were, in things which the Gods intellectually perceive, wish,and command. The Gods, therefore, are liberated from the powers which verge to generation ; but daemons are not entirely purified from these’ (I. 20, Taylor, p.78). He appears to give them functions somewhat resembling those of the demiurges in Plato’s Timaeus, but in this story Synesius brings them in as purely maleficent, and this conception grew in the fourth and fifth centuries, and was no doubt strongly affected by Christianity, which in the Middle Ages had come to recognize the existence of vast tribes of evil spirits.

Page 287,1.18. marionettes moved by strings. Puppet shows are alluded to by Philo in his indictment against Flaccus (Yonge trans., iv. 68): ‘And at times they employed poets who composed farces, and managers of puppet shows, displaying their natural aptitude for every kind of disgraceful employment, though they were very slow at learning anything that was creditable, but very acute, and quick, and ready at learning anything of an opposite nature.’ The passages describing the traits of

Typho’s character in this story are somewhat reminiscent of the passage above.

Page 288, 1.14. The idea of divine beings coming down at intervals, and when necessity urges them, is similar to that expressed in Synesius’ indictment of Andronicus (ep. 57): ‘I reserve to myself the right of judging when times and seasons are opportune, so that when it is possible I may come down, that I may do some great good when the chance arises. Thus does God Himself govern His own kingdom.’

Cf. Aristotle in the following: wozep yap Gray xwyon m1 70 Udwp 7 Tov aépa, Tob0’ érepoy éxivnce, Kai mavoapévov éxeivov, ovpBaiver TH Totavrny Kivnow mpoiévas péxpt Twos, Tob Kurjoavros od mrapdvTos, oUTWS oddey KwAver xivnoly twa Kai alcfnow adixvetca: mpds tas yuxds Tas evurvuafovoas. (De Divinatione per Somnum, 464".)

The simile of the marionettes occurs also in the pseudo-Aristotelian De Mundo, 398° : ‘Opoiws 5¢ nai of vevpoomdoras piav unpwhov émonacdpevot rovovar Kai adyéva xivetobat Kai xetpa Tob Lou .... ovTws odv Kal Gela pvats amd twos atrAns Kwicews Tob mpwrov Thy SUvapwy eis ta Luvexh SiSwor ... péyps av dua rob mravros SueEEAGy.

Page 289, 1.7. a sacred race of heroes. Ps.-lamblichus (Myst. I. 3, p. 24, T. Taylor): ‘I shall likewise say the same thing to you, concerning the more excellent genera that follow the Gods, I mean daemons, heroes, and undefiled souls. For it is necessary to understand respecting these, that there is always in them one definite reason of essence,and to remove from them the indefiniteness and instability of the human condition.’ It will be seen that Iamblichus speaks of demons as beneficent, placing them before heroes, who in their turn are put before purified souls of ordinary men. In this work of Synesius, notably in the passage before us, the heroes are represented as a well-intentioned but feeble race, very different from the conceptions of Theseus and Heracles that prevailed in the golden days of Greek religion. On the other hand the demons are here represented purely as maleficent. There seems to have been then a time when the conception of ‘demon’ was used for good and evil spirits side by side.

Page 290, 1. 4. Thts ts the greatest of struggles. All this account of the besieging of the soul is taken from Plato’s Republic (Bk. VIII, p. 559); 2878-a Aa

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the idea of the demons is, however, that of Synesius. ‘And as in the city like was helping like, and the change was affected by an alliance from without assisting one division of the citizens, so too the young man is changed by a class of desires coming from without to assist the desires within him, that which is akin and alike again helping that which is akin and alike.’ Again, on pages 572, 573, still speaking of the soul of the young man, which he represents as in the state of siege, he continues: ‘As soon as these dire magicians and tyrant makers find that they are losing hold on him, they contrive to implant in him a master passion... and when his other lusts amid clouds of incense and perfumes and garlands and wines, and all the pleasures of a dissolute life, now let loose, come buzzing around him ... then at last this lord of the soul, having Madness for the captain of his guard, breaks out into a frenzy ; and if he finds in himself any good opinions. . . to these better principles he puts an end.’

Page 290, l. 10. the gods are spectators of these noble contests. Here, again, he is still following the Republsc, p. 580. ‘Come then, I say, and as the general umpire in theatrical contests proclaims the result do you also decide who in your opinion is first in the scale of happiness and who second.’

Page 290, 1. 18. admat the tnfluxes from the demons. The following passages from Olympiodorus (Comment. in Plat. Phaed.) are interesting as showing how the functions of the demons had been classified in the fifth century. The pages referred to are those of Norvin’s edition:

"Or. yévn Saipcvwy Suddopa. tmdorpwras yap Trois éyxoopiows Oeois ro pev Satpovov yévos xara 70 év ray Oediv 6 Si) Kai KaXdetras éviaiov wai Oetov Saiovwy yévos: 70 S¢ xara Tov votv tov é&nprnpévoy rob Deo’, 6 xadetras voepov’ To 5é Kata THy yuynv, 6 KaAetras Aoyixdy’ To 5€ Kara Tiv dvouw, Gmep ovopaterat puoixoy’ ro dé Kata 7O owya, 6 8) Kadeirar owpatoedds: 1o 5€ xara THY VAny, ToUTO Se UAatov emepypileras’ (p. 230).

"Ort wat dAAws of peév elow ovpanot, of S¢ aifépror, of 5é€ aéptor, of 5° Udpator, of 5¢ xPovor, of Se dzr0xOdvi01, avry Se 2 Scaipects SnAovers ex THdv Tou Travros eiAnmras pepidwy' amo 5é rév aepiwy dpyovra ourvvdicracbas of ddoyo. Saipoves: 516 Kai To Adyrov dnow"

? e 9% 7 ~ o \ e “a nepiwy eAdreipa Kuviv, xOoviwy re ai typav.

Au rotro xai of évvAo. Saipoves aap’ eavrois Karéxew ras yuyas émyetpotow ... (p. 94).

... 08 Saipoves of amd roi Oeot mpowvres of wey xara ri Oedrynra Getor yiyvovrat, of 5é xara Ti VAny Ans Efopor, Kal of pécor voepol, duatKoi, cwpatixol ... émorioas Sé xp, OTs Kai Oedv yévn trocatra Siujpyras xara tds avras tdSitdrnras (p. 139).

"Or. wai aAXov tpdrov ovvdijpnvras trois ayeAdpyas Beois of Saipoves, ovpdviot, aifdpior, dépror, vdpaior, xGoviot, rox Odvior.

"On ovrwy &v Tm Kéopw tadv dAdore GAws exdvrwy Kal Tav Tals Uiepovaias évdo. ovvnupdvwy, Set Kat pécov ri yévos elvas, rd ovre Geod efnupeévoy ev ouvapripare ovre GAAore GAws Exov Kata 70 xetpov Kal 70 Kpetrrov, dAAa TéAeov det Kai Tis oixelas dperijs od adiordpevov, auerda- BAnrov pev, od ovrvnppévoy 5€ 7@ trepovoiw: tobro Sé€ GAov ro yedvos Satpormor (p. 230).

Page 291,1.5. They attack by outside means when means within fasl them. Plato in the Republsc, p. 560, in describing the struggles in the young man’s soul when besieged by the evil forces of old desires and associates, puts a similar case, ‘At length they seize upon the citadel of the young man’s soul which they perceive to be void of . . . fair pursuits and true words, which make their abode in the minds of men who are dear to the gods, and are their best guardians and sentinels. . . . False and boastful conceits and phrases mount upwards and take their place. . . and if any help be sent by his friends . . . shut the gate of the king’s fastness; and they will neither allow the embassy itself to enter, nor if private advisers offer the fatherly counsel of the aged will they listen to them or receive them. There is a battle, and they gain the day... .’ It will be observed that Plato speaks of evil forces only, although more or less personifying them by representing a siege of the soul. Synesius, taking up the same simile, has made the protagonists of evil the demons of matter, compare Hymn III, where he prays to be saved from the ‘souldevouring hound of matter ’.

Page 291, 1.27. able to save yourself by your own resources. Cudworth (Intellectual System, vol. i, p. 10) quotes Josephus (Anisg. Iudatcae, Lib. XIII, cap. 5, sec. 9) as giving the doctrine of the pharasaic sect amongst the Jews in this respect in the following words: ‘That some

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things, and not all, were the effects of fate, but some things were left in men’s own power and liberty.’ He further quotes Plutarch (De Placitis Philosoph., Lib. I. 27, p. 884): []Adruw éyxpives pev riv eipappevny éi Trav avOpwrivwy yuyay Kal Biwy, ovveodye: 5¢ Kai THY Tap’ judas airiay. ‘Plato inserts something of fate into human lives and actions, and he joins with it liberty of will also.’ ‘He doth indeed’, continues Cudworth, ‘suppose human souls to have within themselves the causes of their own changes to a better or worse state, and everywhere declares God to be blameless for their evils; and yet he somewhere makes the three fatal sisters notwithstanding, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, to be busy about them also.’

Page 294, 1.5. Early education. The whole subject of early education is gone into by Plato in detail in Laws, pp. 809-10. He says, for instance, ‘A fair time for a boy of ten years old to spend in letters is three years ; the age of thirteen is the proper time for him to begin to handle the lyre. ... Hear, however, first of all what the young aught to learn in the early years of life: . . . they ought to be occupied with their letters until they are able to read and write; but the acquisition of perfect beauty and quickness in writing, if nature has not stimulated them to acquire these accomplishments in the given number of years, they should let alone.’ The ‘ Athenian Stranger’ in the Dialogue goes on to discuss the practice of learning poets by heart, or making compendiums of their works, &c. In page 819 of the same Dialogue he recurs to his favourite idea of teaching children through their games: ‘All free men, I can see, should learn as much of these branches of knowledge as every child in Egypt is taught when he learns the alphabet. In that country arithmetical games have been invented for the use of mere children, which they learn as a pleasure and amusement. They have to distribute apples and garlands for a larger and sometimes for a lesser number of persons. . . . Another method of amusing them is to distribute vessels of gold, brass, silver, and the like . . . and in this way make more intelligible to their pupils the arrangement and movements of armies and expeditions .. . and again in measurements of things . . . they free us from that natural ignorance which is so ludicrous and disgraceful. . . . I, like yourself, my dear Cleinias, have late in life heard of our ignorance in these matters ;

to me we appear to be more like pigs than men, and I am quite ashamed, not only of myself, but of all Hellenes.’ It is possible that Synesius was thinking of this passage in speaking of the attention that Osiris, his Egyptian hero in the Tale, paid to early education. Another example of Plato’s views on the subject may be found in the first book of the Laws, p. 643: ‘The most important part of education is nght training in the nursery. The soul of the child in his play should be guided to the love of that sort of excellence in which, when he grows up to manhood, he will have to be perfected. .. . We are not speaking of education in the narrower sense, but of that other education in virtue from youth upwards, which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal perfection of citizenship,and teaches him howrightly to rule and how to obey. This is the only education which, upon our view, deserves the name.’ Again in Book IT, p.653. “Now I mean by education that training which is given by suitable habits to the first instincts of virtue in children; when pleasure, and friendship, and pain, and hatred, are rightly implanted in souls not yet capable of understanding the nature of them, and who find them, after they have attained reason, to be in harmony with her. This harmony of the soul, taken as a whole, is virtue; but the particular training in respect of pleasure and pain which leads you always to hate what you ought to hate, and love what you ought to love, from the beginning of life to the end, may be separated off; and in my view will be rightly called education.’

Turning now again to Book I, p. 641, we find the same note quite as definitely expressed, ‘But if you ask what is the good of education in general, the answer is easy—that education makes good men, and that good men act nobly, and conquer their enemies in battle, because they are good. Education certainly gives victory, although victory sometimes produces forgetfulness of education ; for many have grown insolent from victory in war . . . and many a victory has been, and will be, suicidal to the victors; but education is never suicidal.’ How much the conception of education as a political end is in Plato’s mind may be gathered from a passage in the Republsc, in Bk. VI, p. 498, where Socrates, declaring that States should pursue philosophy, continues: ‘At present the students of philosophy are quite young, beginning when they are hardly past childhood.’ (Cf. Synesius, supra, ‘the child’s philo-

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sophy’.] In childhood and youth their study, and what philosophy they learn, should be suited to their tender years: during this period, while they are growing up towards manhood, the chief and special care should be given to their bodies, that they may have them to use in the service of philosophy; as life advances and the intellect begins to mature, let them increase the gymnastics of the soul; but when the strength of our citizens fails and is past civil and military duties, then let them range at will, and engage in no serious labour, as we intend them to live happily here, and to crown this life with a similar happiness in another.’ All this is interesting as showing the conception of Plato, that the real object in education was a political one, and that the developed mind of the philosopher was inseparable from the duties towards the State. Synesius, however, although he was forced by his destiny to become a shining example of the Platonic ideal, continually complains of political necessity. But here again he is thoroughly in the Platonic tradition, for elsewhere Plato admits that the true philosopher will only take up the burden of government regretfully.

Page 294, 1.6. all education as a fountain-head of virtue. The ideas of Synesius on education, as I have already pointed out, seem tohave come from his reading of Plato, the intellectual side being inseparable from the moral. Compare the passage in Timaeus, p. 87, when after representing madness and ignorance as diseases of the mind, due to a bad condition of the body, he adds: ‘Further, when to this evil constitution of body evil forms of government are added and evil discourses are uttered in private as well as in public, and no sort of instruction is given in youth to cure these evils, then all of us who are bad become bad from two causes which are entirely beyond our control. In such cases the planters are to blame rather than the plants, the educators rather than the educated.’

Page 296, 1.29. the one virtue of a woman, &c. The conception of the proper sphere and conduct of women would not seem to have changed from the time of Homer to the time of Synesius, if we are to take his statements as anything but a reflection of his favourite Greek authors. Certainly here he is reminiscent of the famous passage in the funeral oration of Pericles (Thuc. ii. 45): ‘And if I am to speak of

womanly virtue to those of you who will henceforth be widows, let me sum them up in one short admonition: To a woman not to show more weakness than is natural to her sex is a great glory, and not to be talked about for good or for evil among men.’ Substantially the same point of view may be found in Xenophon, as in Oeconomicus (cap. 7), where Ischomachus describes how in the course of the conversations he had with his young newly married wife, he took care to impress upon her that her sphere was within the precincts of the house rather than outside, to be the steward of the possessions within doors, and to direct the servants from there.

Plato is a decided cross-current to the conceptions of the sphere of women that existed in Athens at his time, and this is perhaps the only point in which Synesius does not seem to have followed his master. Plato, as we see in the Republic and elsewhere, was what we should call to-day an advanced feminist, and made an eloquent plea for the equality of the sexes, both in education and in their occupying public functions, and so forth (Rep. v. 451, 456; La