52

they exalted. But listen now to their physical explanation, with what sort of boastfulness it has been brought forth by Porphyry: 3.7.1 7. WHAT KIND OF EXPLANATIONS THE MORE RECENT PHILOSOPHERS INTERWOVE WITH THE MYTHS ABOUT THE GODS

"I shall speak to those for whom it is lawful; but you profane, shut the doors, showing the thoughts of theological wisdom, by which men made known to the senses the god and the powers of the god through kindred images, having represented the unseen by visible creations, for those who have learned to read, as from books, from the letters of the statues the things concerning the gods. And it is no wonder that the most ignorant consider the carved images to be wood and stones, just as indeed the foolish among readers see the stelae as stones, the tablets as wood, and the books as woven papyrus." 3.7.2 Having boasted thus as in a prelude, hear what he writes next as he proceeds, word for word: "Since the divine is of the nature of light, and dwells in an effusion of ethereal fire, and happens to be invisible to sense occupied with mortal life, they led to the conception of its light through transparent matter, such as crystal or Parian marble or even ivory, and through gold to the idea of fire and 3.7.3 its purity, because gold is not stained. And many, again, by black stone also indicated the invisibility of its substance. And they represented the gods in human form because the divine is rational, and as beautiful, because in them beauty is undefiled. And with different forms and ages, seats and stances and vestments, some male, others female, and virgins and youths 3.7.4 or those who have had experience of marriage, to represent their diversity. Hence they assigned everything white to the celestial gods; and a sphere and all spherical things. And especially to the cosmos and the sun and the moon, and sometimes also to fortune and hope; and a circle and circular things to eternity and the motion in the heaven and to the zones and circles in it; and segments of circles to the phases of the moon; and pyramids and obelisks to the substance of fire, and for this reason to the Olympian gods; just as again a cone to the sun, and a cylinder to the earth, a phallus to sowing and generation, and the triangular shape on account of the female part." 3.7.5 Thus the wonderful philosopher; what could be more unseemly than these things for those who speak solemnly of shameful things? And what more forced, than to say that lifeless matter, gold and stone and such things, bear images of the light of the gods and are manifestations of the celestial and ethereal nature? But that these are the sophistries of the moderns, not even in a dream having entered the thought of the ancients, you might know by learning that the carved images made of gold and of what is considered more costly material were also rejected by the earlier ones. And so Plutarch speaks in some such way, word for word: 3.8.1

8. CONCERNING THE ANCIENT CONSTRUCTION OF CARVED IMAGES "The making of carved images seems to be something ancient and old, if indeed the first statue for Apollo at Delos, for the sacred embassies, by Erysichthon was wooden, and wooden the one of Polias set up by the autochthons, which the Athenians preserve to this day. And the Samians had a wooden seat of Hera, as Callimachus says: Not yet the well-carved work of Scelmis, but on the ancient ordinance you were an uncarved plank of wood. Thus they set up gods at that time; for also in Lindos Danaus placed a simple seat of Athena. And it is said that Peiras, the first to establish a temple of Argive Hera, having appointed his own daughter Callithyia as priestess, cut a wild pear-tree from the trees around Tiryns and fashioned a well-wrought statue of Hera. For that a rock should be cut into the image of a god

52

ἐξῆραν. ἄκουε δ' οὖν καὶ τῆς τούτων φυσιολογίας, μεθ' οἵας ἐξενήνεκται τῷ Πορφυρίῳ ἀλαζονείας· 3.7.1 ζʹ. ΟΠΟΙΑΣ ΟΙ ΝΕΩΤΕΡΟΙ ΤΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΩΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΘΕΩΝ ΜΥΘΟΙΣ

ΣΥΝΕΠΛΕΞΑΝ ΑΙΤΙΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ «Φθέγξομαι οἷς θέμις ἐστί, θύρας δ' ἐπίθεσθε βέβηλοι, σοφίας θεολόγου νοήματα δεικνύς, οἷς τὸν θεὸν καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ τὰς δυνάμεις διὰ εἰκόνων συμφύλων αἰσθήσει ἐμήνυσαν ἄνδρες, τὰ ἀφανῆ φανεροῖς ἀποτυπώσαντες πλάσμασιν, τοῖς καθάπερ ἐκ βίβλων τῶν ἀγαλμάτων ἀναλέγειν τὰ περὶ θεῶν μεμαθηκόσι γράμματα. θαυμαστὸν δὲ οὐδὲν ξύλα καὶ λίθους ἡγεῖσθαι τὰ ξόανα τοὺς ἀμαθεστάτους, καθὰ δὴ καὶ τῶν γραμμάτων οἱ ἀνόητοι λίθους μὲν ὁρῶσι τὰς στήλας, ξύλα δὲ τὰς δέλτους, ἐξυφασμένην δὲ πάπυρον τὰς βίβλους.» 3.7.2 Τοιαῦτα δὲ ὡς ἐν προοιμίῳ κατακομπήσας ἄκουε οἷα ἑξῆς προϊὼν γράφει πρὸς λέξιν· «Φωτοειδοῦς δὲ ὄντος τοῦ θείου καὶ ἐν πυρὸς αἰθερίου περιχύσει διάγοντος ἀφανοῦς τε τυγχάνοντος αἰσθήσει περὶ θνητὸν βίον ἀσχόλῳ, διὰ μὲν τῆς διαυγοῦς ὕλης, οἷον κρυστάλλου ἢ Παρίου λίθου ἢ καὶ ἐλέφαντος, εἰς τὴν τοῦ φωτὸς αὐτοῦ ἔννοιαν ἐνῆγον, διὰ δὲ τῆς τοῦ χρυσοῦ εἰς τὴν τοῦ πυρὸς δια3.7.3 νόησιν καὶ τὸ ἀμίαντον αὐτοῦ, ὅτι χρυσὸς οὐ μιαίνεται. πολλοὶ δὲ αὖ καὶ μέλανι λίθῳ τὸ ἀφανὲς αὐτοῦ τῆς οὐσίας ἐδήλωσαν. καὶ ἀνθρωποειδεῖς μὲν ἀπετύπουν τοὺς θεοὺς ὅτι λογικὸν τὸ θεῖον, καλοὺς δέ, ὅτι κάλλος ἐν ἐκείνοις ἀκήρατον. διαφόροις δὲ σχήμασιν καὶ ἡλικίαις καθέδραις τε καὶ στάσεσιν καὶ ἀμφιάσεσιν καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἄρρενας, τὰς δὲ θηλείας καὶ παρθένους καὶ ἐφήβους 3.7.4 ἢ γάμου πεῖραν εἰληφότας, εἰς παράστασιν αὐτῶν τῆς διαφορᾶς. ὅθεν πᾶν τὸ λευκὸν τοῖς οὐρανίοις θεοῖς ἀπένειμαν· σφαῖράν τε καὶ τὰ σφαιρικὰ πάντα. ἰδίως τε κόσμῳ καὶ ἡλίῳ καὶ σελήνῃ, ἔσθ' ὅπου δὲ καὶ τύχῃ καὶ ἐλπίδι· κύκλον δὲ καὶ τὰ κυκλικὰ αἰῶνι καὶ τῇ κατὰ τὸν οὐρανὸν κινήσει ταῖς τε ἐν αὐτῷ ζώναις καὶ τοῖς κύκλοις· κύκλων δὲ τμήματα τοῖς σχηματισμοῖς τῆς σελήνης· πυραμίδας δὲ καὶ ὀβελίσκους τῇ πυρὸς οὐσίᾳ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τοῖς Ὀλυμπίοις θεοῖς· ὥσπερ αὖ κῶνον μὲν ἡλίῳ, γῇ δὲ κύλινδρον, σπορᾷ δὲ καὶ γενέσει φάλητα, καὶ τὸ τρίγωνον σχῆμα διὰ τὸ μόριον τῆς θηλείας.» 3.7.5 Ταῦτα ὁ θαυμαστὸς φιλόσοφος· ὧν τί ἂν γένοιτο ἀσχημονέστερον τὰ αἰσχρὰ σεμνολογοῦσιν; τί δὲ βιαιότερον, τὰς ἀψύχους ὕλας, χρυσὸν καὶ λίθον καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, εἰκόνας φέρειν τοῦ φωτὸς τῶν θεῶν καὶ τῆς οὐρανίου καὶ αἰθερίου φύσεως δηλώματα φάσκειν; ὅτι δὲ τῶν νέων ἐστὶ ταῦτα σοφίσματα μηδ' ὄναρ τῶν παλαιῶν εἰς ἐνθύμησιν ἐλθόντα, γνοίης ἂν μαθὼν ὅτι καὶ ἀπόβλητα ἦν παρὰ τοῖς προτέροις τὰ διὰ χρυσοῦ καὶ τῆς νομιζομένης πολυτελεστέρας ὕλης ξόανα. λέγει δ' οὖν Πλούταρχος ὧδέ πη κατὰ λέξιν· 3.8.1

ηʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΛΑΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΞΟΑΝΩΝ ΚΑΤΑΣΚΕΥΗΣ «Ἡ δὲ τῶν ξοάνων ποίησις ἀρχαῖον ἔοικεν εἶναί τι καὶ παλαιόν, εἴ γε ξύλινον μὲν ἦν τὸ πρῶτον εἰς ∆ῆλον ὑπὸ Ἐρυσίχθονος Ἀπόλλωνι ἐπὶ τῶν θεωριῶν ἄγαλμα, ξύλινον δὲ τὸ τῆς Πολιάδος ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτοχθόνων ἱδρυθέν, ὃ μέχρι νῦν Ἀθηναῖοι διαφυλάττουσιν. Ἥρας δὲ καὶ Σάμιοι ξύλινον εἶχον ἕδος, ὥς φησιν Καλλίμαχος· Οὔπω Σκέλμιον ἔργον ἐΰξοον, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τεθμὸν δηναιὸν γλυφάνων ἄξοος ἦσθα σανίς. ὧδε καθιδρύοντο θεοὺς τότε· καὶ γὰρ Ἀθήνης ἐν Λίνδῳ ∆αναὸς λιτὸν ἔθηκεν ἕδος. λέγεται δὲ Πείρας ὁ πρῶτος Ἀργολίδος Ἥρας ἱερὸν εἱσάμενος, τὴν ἑαυτοῦ θυγατέρα Καλλίθυιαν ἱέρειαν καταστήσας, ἐκ τῶν περὶ Τίρυνθα δένδρων ὄγχνην τεμὼν εὐκτέανον Ἥρας ἄγαλμα μορφῶσαι. πέτραν μὲν γὰρ εἰς θεοῦ κοπῆναι εἰκόνα