Nor did the attendant daimonion of Socrates, which he obeyed throughout his life, reveal to you, the philosopher of our time, what their illumination was? Nor by the serpent that appeared, of the Platonic Plotinus as he was dying, were you able to perceive what their illumination was, and what was the attendant daimonion with them, which, calling the divine within him, as he himself says, he hastened to lead up to that divine both throughout his life and at his death? But listen to Pythian Apollo and you will learn whence came their illumination. For when Amelius, the companion of Plotinus, asked where his soul had gone after his death, Apollo himself "concerning the gentle friend wove honey-toned utterances," and turning to the very soul of Plotinus, among other things sang also these: "Often when the impulses of your mind were straining to be carried on their own rushings along crooked paths, the immortals, guiding you straight along the circles, offered a frequent beam of light to the ambrosial and endless path; but now (p. 500) that you have been loosed from your tabernacle, and have left the tomb of your daemonic soul, you come now to the daemonic assembly."

Do you see whence their light came and with whom he arrays their souls? And what wonder is it if, with the father of lies, darkness is shown as light for deception, and the names, along with the things themselves, falsely change into one another, the crooked and the straight? But you, who along with Apollo recall those men as enlightened, perhaps you might persuade us to observe Platonic and Socratic rites, since when Proclus of the Lyceum was annually performing these rites, a light was once seen by his fellow initiates running around his head. But that light showed us again its origin through the serpent that appeared crawling around his same head, when he was already dying, and he himself, while still alive, did not refuse to declare whence that light had shined upon him. For by using Chaldaic purifications, as he himself says, he "conversed with light-formed, self-revealing apparitions of Hecate"; "but the apparitions of Hecate," says the true theologian, "are dark." Do you see clearly how that light is darkness itself?

This, then, is a greater and clearer scandal than the former. For if we were to accept that Socrates and Plato were seers of God and taught by God and enlightened by God, as you yourself deem right, and also that those who heard the divine declarations from them and believed are admirable and enviable on account of their purpose and persuasion and reverence for them, it is necessary for us also to emulate them and believe them, so that if we may not be among the knowledgeable, we might at least be among the admirable and blessed. So then, we will approve of divination among the best of human pursuits, and we would be shown pleasing to the most mantic (p.502) Phoebus, holding as certain the proclamation of our wisdom and of our excelling many or all others in it, as derived from there.

And what account could still have the strength to enumerate the other forms of deception and the string of wicked dogmas and the rabble of shameful and evil passions and the unholy stains impressed from these upon those who think fit to call those men enlightened? Do you not hear the one who says, "away with Plato's ideas for me," certain impressions, that is, and pre-meditations in the mind before the works, which are not without passion and are more fitting for men who build, fearing the failure that sometimes comes to them from thoughtlessness, than for God, for whom the thought is also the work? But if the thought is also the work, then before it there will be need of other paradigms and impressions, and thus there will be ideas of ideas, and this to infinity, unless he assigns something more to the aforesaid ideas, and more of what is evil.

Οὐδέ τό συμπαρομαρτοῦν τῷ Σωκράτει δαιμόνιον, ᾧ καί διετέλει διά βίου πειθόμενος, ὑπέφηνέ σοι τῷ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς φιλοσόφῳ τίς ἐκείνων ὁ φωτισμός; Οὐδ᾿ ὑπό τοῦ φανέντος δράκοντος, τοῦ πλατωνικοῦ θνήσκοντος Πλωτίνου, συνιδεῖν ἐδυνήθης τίς ἐκείνων ὁ φωτισμός καί τί τό συνόν ἐκείνοις δαιμόνιον, ὅ θεῖον ἐκεῖνος καλῶν τό ἐν αὐτῷ καθάπερ αὐτός λέγει, θεῖον ἀνάγειν ἔσπευδε πρός ἐκεῖνο καί διά βίου καί τελευτῶν; Ἀλλ᾿ ἄκουσον Ἀπόλλωνος τοῦ Πυθοῖ καί μαθήσῃ πόθεν ἐκείνοις ὁ φωτισμός˙ ἐρομένου γάρ Ἀμελίου τοῦ Πλωτίνου ἑταίρου, ποῦ κεχώρηκεν ἀποβεβιωκότος ἡ τούτου ψυχή, Ἀπόλλων αὐτός «ἀμφ᾿ ἀγανοῖο φίλοιο μελίχρους ὕφηνε φωνάς», καί πρός αὐτήν ἐπεστραμμένος τήν Πλωτίνου ψυχήν πρός τοῖς ἄλλοις ᾖσε καί ταῦτα˙ «πολλάκις σοῖο νόοιο βολάς λοξοῖσιν ἀταρποῖς ἱεμένας φορέεσθαι ἐρωῇσι σφετέρῃσιν, ὀρθοπόρου ἀνά κύκλους, ἄμβροτον τ᾿ οἶμον ἄπειραν ἀθάνατοι θαμινήν φαέων ἀκτῖνα πορόντες˙ νῦν (σελ. 500) δ᾿ ὅτε σκῆνος μέν λύσαο, σῆμα˙ δ᾿ ἔλειψας ψυχῆς δαιμονίης, μαθ᾿ ὁμήγυριν ἔρχεαι ἤδη δαιμονίην».

Εἶδες πόθεν ἐκείνων τό φῶς καί τίσι συντάττει τάς ἐκείνων ψυχάς; Τί δέ θαυμαστόν εἰ παρά τῷ τοῦ ψεύδους πατρί τό μέν σκότος πρός ἀπάτην δείκνυται φῶς, μεταβάλλει δ᾿ ἐψευσμένως εἰς ἄλληλα μετά τῶν πραγμάτων καί τά ὀνόματα, τό λοξόν τε καί τό ὀρθόν; Σύ δ᾿ ὁ μετά τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος πεφωτισμένους ἐκείνους ἀνακαλῶν, τάχα κάι πλατώνεια καί σωκράτεια πείσαις ἄγειν ἡμᾶς, ἐπεί Πρόκλου τοῦ Λυκείου ταῦτ᾿ ἐπετείως ἄγοντος φῶς ὡράθη ποτέ τοῖς συμμύσταις τήν κεφαλήν αὐτοῦ περιθέον˙ ἀλλά τοῦτ᾿ ἔδειξεν ἡμῖν τό φῶς αὖθις ὅθεν ὁ περί τήν αὐτήν αὐτοῦ κεφαλήν φανείς ἕρπων δράκων, ἤδη τελευτῶντος αὐτοῦ, καί αὐτός δέ οὐκ ἀπηξίωσεν ἔτι περιών ἐξειπεῖν ὅθεν τό φῶς ἀνέλαμψεν ἐπ᾿αὐτόν ἐκεῖνο. Καθαρμοῖς γάρ χαλδαϊκοῖς, ὡς αὐτός φησι, χρώμενος «ἑκατικοῖς φάσμασι φωτοειδέσιν αὐτοπτουμένοις ὡμίλησε»˙ «τῆς δέ Ἑκάτης σκοτεινά» φησιν ὁ ἀληθής θεολόγος «τά φάσματα». Ὁρᾷς τρανῶς, ὅπως τό φῶς ἐκεῖνο σκότος ἐστίν αὐτόχρημα;

Τοῦτ᾿ ἄρα τοῦ προτέρου σκανδάλου μεῖζον καί ἐναργέστερον. Εἰ γάρ θεόπτας καί θεοδιδάκτους καί ὑπό Θεοῦ πεφωτισμένους εἶναι Σωκράτεις καί Πλάτωνος καταδεξαίμεθα, καθάπερ δικαιοῖς αὐτός, καί τούς παρά τούτων ἀκηκοότας τάς θείας ἀποφάνσεις καί πιστεύσαντας θαυμαστούς καί ζηλωτούς τῆς προαιρέσεως ἕνεκα καί πειθοῦς καί αἰδοῦς τῆς πρός ἐκείνους, ζηλοῦν καί ἡμᾶς ἀνάγκη τούτους καί πιστεύειν ἐκείνοις ὡς εἰ μή τῶν ἐπιστημόνων, τῶν γοῦν θαυμασίων καί μακαριστῶν γενοίμεθα. Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα μαντείαν μέν τοῖς ἀρίστοις ἐγκρινοῦμεν τῶν ἐπιτηδευομένων ἐν ἀνθρώποις, ἀρεστοί δ᾿ ἀποφανθείημεν τῷ μαντικωτάτῳ (σελ.502) Φοίβῳ, τήν ἀνάρρησιν τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς σοφίας καί τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτήν πολλῶν ἤ πάντων διαφέρειν ἐκεῖθεν ἀναδεδομένην ἔχοντες βεβαίαν.

Καί τίς ἄν ἔτ᾿ ἰσχύσαι καταλέξαι λόγος τά ἄλλα τῆς ἀπάτης εἴδη καί τόν ὁρμαθόν τῶν κακοδόξων δογμάτων καί τόν συρφετόν τῶν αἰσχρῶν καί πονηρῶν παθημάτων καί τάς ἀποματτομένας ἐκ τούτων ἀνιέρους κηλῖδας τοῖς πεφωτισμένους ἐκείνους ἀξιοῦσι λαλεῖν; Οὐκ ἀκούεις τοῦ λέγοντος, «βάλλε μοι Πλάτωνος τάς ἰδέας», ἀνατυπώσεις δή τινας καί μελέτας πρό τῶν ἔργων ἐν διανοίᾳ, οὔτε ἄνευ πάθους οὔσας καί πρεπούσας ἀνθρώποις μᾶλλον οἰκοδομοῦσι, δεδιόσι τήν ἐξ ἀπερισκέπτου τούτοις ἔσθ᾿ ὅτε προσγινομένην ἀποτυχίαν, ἤ τῷ Θεῷ, οὗπερ ἔργον καί τό ἐννόημα; Εἰ δ᾿ ἔργον καί τό ἐννόημα, καί πρό τούτου δεήσει παραδειγμάτων τε καί ἀνατυπώσεων ἄλλων, οὐκοῦν καί τῶν ἰδεῶν ἔσονται ἰδέαι, καί τοῦτο ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον, εἰ μή τι καί πλέον ἐκεῖνος νέμει ταῖς εἰρημέναις ἰδέαις, καί πλέον κακῶς.