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OF HERMIAS THE PHILOSOPHER

Mockery of the Pagan Philosophers.

Paul the blessed apostle, writing to the Corinthians who dwelt in Laconian Greece, declared, saying: 'O beloved, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,' not speaking idly; for it seems to me to have taken its beginning from the apostasy of the angels. For which reason the philosophers, speaking neither in concord nor in agreement with one another, set forth their doctrines. For some of them say that the soul is fire, others, the Stoics, air, others mind, others motion, Heraclitus exhalation, others a power flowing from the stars, others a self-moving number (Pythagoras), others life-producing water (Hippon), others an element from elements, others harmony (Dinarchus), others blood (Critias), others spirit, others the monad (Pythagoras), and the ancients the opposites. How many arguments concerning these things, how many attempts, how many lawsuits of sophists who contend rather than find the truth? But let it be so; they are at variance indeed concerning the soul *** but concerning the remaining things about it they have declared in agreement; and others pleasure, one calls it a good, another an evil, and yet another intermediate between good and evil, and as to its nature, some say it is immortal, others mortal, others that it persists for a short time, others that it becomes a beast, others that it dissolves into atoms, others that it is embodied three times, others that they set for it periods of three thousand years. For indeed, those who do not even live a hundred years make pronouncements about a future three thousand years. What then must one call these things? As it seems to me, monstrosity or folly or madness or dissension or all of them together. If they have found the truth, let them agree or consent, and then I will gladly be persuaded by them, but if they pull the soul in opposite directions and drag it, one to one nature, another to another substance, and change matter from matter, I confess to be exceedingly burdened by the ebb and flow of things. Now I am immortal and I rejoice, and now again I become mortal and I weep; just now I am dissolved into atoms, I become water, and I become air, I become fire; then after a little while neither air nor fire, it makes me a beast, it makes me a fish, so again I have dolphins as brothers. And when I see myself, I fear my body and I do not know what to call it, a man or a dog or a wolf or a bull or a bird or a serpent or a dragon or a chimera; for I am changed by the philosophers into all beasts, land-dwelling, water-dwelling, winged, multiform, wild, tame, voiceless, sweet-voiced, irrational, rational; I swim, I fly, I flutter, I creep, I run, I sit. Moreover, Empedocles also makes me a shrub.

Where, therefore, it is not possible for the philosophers to find the human soul with one mind, scarcely would they be able to declare the truth concerning the gods or concerning the cosmos. For they have this courage, that I may not say madness. For those who are unable to find their own soul, do not seek that of the gods themselves, and those who do not know their own body meddle with the nature of the cosmos. At any rate, concerning the first principles of nature they oppose one another. When Anaxagoras takes me in hand, he teaches these things: Mind is the beginning of all things, and this is the cause and lord of the wholes, and it provides order to the disordered and motion to the motionless and separation to the mixed and cosmos to the uncosmic. Saying these things, Anaxagoras is a friend to me and I am persuaded by his doctrine. But Melissus and Parmenides oppose this one. Indeed, Parmenides even in poetic verses proclaims substance to be one and eternal and infinite and motionless and in every way alike. Again, therefore, to this doctrine I know not how

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EΡΜEIOΥ ΦIΛOΣOΦOΥ

διασυρμὸς τῶν ἔξω φιλοσόφων.

Παῦλος ὁ μακάριος ἀπόστολος τοῖς τὴν Ἑλλάδα τὴν Λακωνικὴν παροικοῦσι Κορινθίοις γράφων, 'ὦ ἀγαπητοί,' ἀπεφήνατο λέγων· 'ἡ σοφία τοῦ κόσμου τούτου μωρία παρὰ τῷ θεῷ,' οὐκ ἀσκόπως εἰπών· δοκεῖ γάρ μοι τὴν ἀρχὴν εἰληφέναι ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν ἀγγέλων ἀποστασίας. δι' ἣν αἰτίαν οὔτε σύμφωνα οὔτε ὁμόλογα οἱ φιλόσοφοι πρὸς ἀλλήλους λέγοντες ἐκτίθενται τὰ δόγματα. Oἱ μὲν γάρ φασιν αὐτῶν ψυχὴν εἶναι τὸ πῦρ, οἱ δὲ τὸν ἀέρα οἱ Στωικοί, οἱ δὲ τὸν νοῦν, οἱ δὲ τὴν κίνησιν, Ἡράκλειτος οἱ δὲ τὴν ἀναθυμίασιν, οἱ δὲ δύναμιν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄστρων ·έουσαν, οἱ δὲ ἀριθμὸν κινητικόν Πυθαγόρας, οἱ δὲ ὕδωρ γονοποιόν Ἵππων, οἱ δὲ στοιχεῖον ἀπὸ στοιχείων οἱ δὲ ἁρμονίαν ∆είναρχος, οἱ δὲ τὸ αἷμα Κριτίας, οἱ δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα, οἱ δὲ τὴν μονάδα Πυθαγόρας, καὶ οἱ παλαιοὶ τὰ ἐναντία. πόσοι λόγοι περὶ τούτων, ἐπιχειρήσεις πόσαι, πόσαι δίκαι σοφιστῶν ἐριζόντων μᾶλλον ἢ τἀληθὲς εὑρισκόντων; Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἔστω· στασιάζουσι μὲν περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς *** τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ περὶ αὐτῆς ὁμονοοῦντες ἀπεφήναντο· καὶ ἄλλοι τὴν ἡδονὴν αὐτῆς ὁ μέν τις ἀγαθὸν καλεῖ, ὁ δέ τις κακόν, ὁ δ' αὖ μέσον ἀγαθοῦ καὶ κακοῦ, τὴν δὲ φύσιν αὐτῆς, οἱ μὲν ἀθάνατόν φασιν, οἱ δὲ θνητήν, οἱ δὲ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐπιδιαμένουσαν, οἱ δὲ ἀποθηριοῦσιν αὐτήν, οἱ δὲ εἰς ἀτόμους διαλύουσιν, οἱ δὲ τρὶς ἐνσωματοῦσιν, οἱ δὲ τρισχιλίων ἐτῶν περιόδους αὐτῇ ὁρίζουσιν. καὶ γὰρ οἱ μηδὲ ἑκατὸν ἔτη ζῶντες περὶ τρισχιλίων ἐτῶν μελλόντων ἐπαγγέλλονται. Ταῦτα οὖν τί χρὴ καλεῖν; ὡς μὲν ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, τερατείαν ἢ ἄνοιαν ἢ μανίαν ἢ στάσιν ἢ ὁμοῦ πάντα. εἰ μὲν τἀληθὲς εὑρήκασιν, ὁμονοησάτωσαν ἢ συγκατατιθέσθωσαν, κἀγὼ τότε ἄσμενος αὐτοῖς πεισθήσομαι, εἰ δὲ ἀντισπῶσι τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ ἀνθέλκουσιν ἄλλος εἰς ἄλλην φύσιν, ἕτερος δὲ εἰς ἑτέραν οὐσίαν, ὕλην δὲ ἐξ ὕλης μεταβάλλουσιν, ὁμολογῶ ὑπεράχθεσθαι τῇ παλιρροίᾳ τῶν πραγμάτων. νῦν μὲν ἀθάνατός εἰμι καὶ γέγηθα, νῦν δ' αὖ θνητὸς γίνομαι καὶ δακρύω· ἄρτι δὲ εἰς ἀτόμους διαλύομαι, ὕδωρ γίνομαι, καὶ ἀὴρ γίνομαι, πῦρ γίνομαι· εἶτα μετ' ὀλίγον οὔτε ἀὴρ οὔτε πῦρ, θηρίον με ποιεῖ, ἰχθύν με ποιεῖ, πάλιν οὖν ἀδελφοὺς ἔχω δελφῖνας. ὅταν δὲ ἐμαυτὸν ἴδω, φοβοῦμαι τὸ σῶμα καὶ οὐκ οἶδα ὅπως αὐτὸ καλέσω, ἄνθρωπον ἢ κύνα ἢ λύκον ἢ ταῦρον ἢ ὄρνιν ἢ ὄφιν ἢ δράκοντα ἢ χίμαιραν· εἰς πάντα γὰρ τὰ θηρία ὑπὸ τῶν φιλοσοφούντων μεταβάλλομαι, χερσαῖα ἔνυδρα πτηνὰ πολύμορφα ἄγρια τιθασσὰ ἄφωνα εὔφωνα ἄλογα λογικά· νήχομαι ἵπταμαι πέτομαι ἕρπω θέω καθίζω. ἔτι δὲ ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς καὶ θάμνον με ποιεῖ.

Ὅπου τοίνυν τὴν ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴν ὁμογνωμόνως εὑρεῖν οὐχ οἷόν τε τοῖς φιλοσοφοῦσι, σχολῇ γ' ἂν περὶ τῶν θεῶν ἢ περὶ κόσμου δύναιντο τἀληθὲς ἀποφήνασθαι. καὶ γὰρ ταύτην τὴν ἀνδρείαν ἔχουσιν, ἵνα μὴ τὴν ἐμπληξίαν εἴπω. οἱ γὰρ τὴν ἰδίαν ψυχὴν εὑρεῖν οὐ δυνάμενοι, οὐ ζητοῦσι τὴν τῶν θεῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ οἱ τὸ ἴδιον σῶμα οὐκ εἰδότες τὴν τοῦ κόσμου φύσιν περιεργάζονται. Πάνυ γοῦν περὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς τῆς φύσεως ἀνθίστανται ἀλλήλοις. ὅταν μὲν Ἀναξαγόρας παραλάβῃ με, ταῦτα παιδεύει· ἀρχὴ πάντων ὁ νοῦς καὶ οὗτος αἴτιος καὶ κύριος τῶν ὅλων καὶ παρέχει τάξιν τοῖς ἀτάκτοις καὶ κίνησιν τοῖς ἀκινήτοις καὶ διάκρισιν τοῖς μεμιγμένοις καὶ κόσμον τοῖς ἀκόσμοις. ταῦτα λέγων Ἀναξαγόρας ἐστί μοι φίλος καὶ τῷ δόγματι πείθομαι. ἀλλ' ἀνθίσταται τούτῳ Μέλισσος καὶ Παρμενίδης. ὅ γε μὴν Παρμενίδης καὶ ποιητικοῖς ἔπεσιν ἀνακηρύσσει τὴν οὐσίαν ἓν εἶναι καὶ ἀίδιον καὶ ἄπειρον καὶ ἀκίνητον καὶ πάντῃ ὅμοιον. πάλιν οὖν εἰς τοῦτο τὸ δόγμα οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως