ῥηθέντων δὲ τούτων ὁ Ἀμμώνιος ὀρθῶς ἔφη μοι δοκεῖ Θεόφραστος ἀποφήνασθαι τί γὰρ κωλύει φωνὴν δέξασθαι σεμνὴν καὶ φιλοσοφωτάτην; καὶ γὰρ ἀθετουμένη πολλὰ τῶν ἐνδεχομένων ἀποδειχθῆναι δὲ μὴ δυναμένων ἀναιρεῖ, καὶ τιθεμένη πολλὰ συνεφέλκεται τῶν ἀδυνάτων καὶ ἀνυπάρκτων. ὃ μέντοι μόνον ἀκήκοα τῶν Ἐπικουρείων λεγόντων πρὸς τοὺς εἰσαγομένους ὑπʼ Ἐμπεδοκλέους δαίμονας, ὡς οὐ δυνατὸν εἶναι φαύλους καὶ ἁμαρτητικοὺς ὄντας μακαρίους καὶ μακραίωνας εἶναι, πολλὴν τυφλότητα τῆς κακίας ἐχούσης καὶ τὸ περιπτωτικὸν τοῖς ἀναιρετικοῖς, εὔηθές ἐστιν. οὕτω γὰρ Ἐπίκουρός τε χείρων Γοργίου φανεῖται τοῦ σοφιστοῦ καὶ Μητρόδωρος Ἀλέξιδος τοῦ κωμῳδοποιοῦ. διπλάσιον γὰρ οὗτος ἔζησε τοῦ Μητροδώρου, Ἐπικούρου δʼ ἐκεῖνος πλέον ἢ ἐπίτριτον. ἄλλως γὰρ ἰσχυρὸν ἀρετὴν καὶ κακίαν ἀσθενὲς λέγομεν, οὐ πρὸς διαμονὴν καὶ διάλυσιν σώματος· ἐπεὶ καὶ τῶν θηρίων πολλὰ μὲν δυσκίνητα καὶ νωθρὰ, ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὄντα πολλὰ δʼ ἀκόλαστα καὶ ἄτακτα τῶν συνετῶν καὶ πανούργων χρόνους ζῇ μακροτέρους. ὅθεν οὐκ εὖ τῷ θεῷ τὴν ἀιδιότητα ποιοῦσιν ἐκ φυλακῆς καὶ διακρούσεως τῶν ἀναιρετικῶν. ἔδει γὰρ ἐν τῇ φύσει τοῦ μακαρίου τὸ ἀπαθὲς καὶ ἄφθαρτον εἶναι, μηδεμιᾶς πραγματείας δεόμενον. ἀλλʼ ἴσως τὸ λέγειν πρὸς μὴ παρόντας οὐκ εὔγνωμον φαίνεται. πάλιν οὖν ὁ Κλεόμβροτος ἡμῖν ὃν ἄρτι περὶ τῆς· μεταστάσεως καὶ φυγῆς τῶν δαιμονίων ἀφῆκε λόγον ἀναλαβεῖν δίκαιός ἐστι.
Here Ammonius began to speak, saying: In my opinion, Theophrastus was in the right, and spoke like a philosopher and a divine; for whoever shall deny what he alleges must also reject many things which may happen, though we understand not the reasons why they do so. And granting what he offers to be true, it carries with it many things called impossible and unreal. But as to what I have heard the Epicureans allege against the Daemons which Empedocles brings in,—as, that it is impossible they can be happy and long-lived if they be bad and viciously affected, because vice in its own nature is blind and naturally precipitates itself into such mischiefs as destroy life, —that, I must tell you, is vain and idle. For if this reasoning be good, it will then follow that Epicurus was a worse man than Gorgias the sophister, and Metrodorus than Alexis the comic actor; for Alexis lived twice as long as Metrodorus, and Gorgias a third longer than Epicurus. For it is in another regard we say virtue is strong and vice weak. not in reference to the continuance or dissolution of the body; for we know there are many animals which are dull, slow, and heavy, and many disorderly and lustful, which live longer than those that are more sagacious and quicker of sense. And therefore they are much in the wrong in saying the divine nature is immortal because it avoideth the things which are ill and mischievous; for they should have supposed the divine nature free from all possibility of falling into corruption and alteration. But perhaps it will be thought not fair to dispute against those that are absent; I would have therefore Cleombrotus to resume his discourse touching the vanishing and transmigration of Daemons from one place to another.
καὶ ὁ Κλεόμβροτος ἀλλὰ θαυμάσαιμʼ ἄν εἶπεν εἰ μὴ πολὺ φαίνεται τῶν εἰρημένων ἡμῖν ἀτοπώτερος. καίτοι δοκεῖ φυσιολογίας ἔχεσθαι, καὶ Πλάτων αὐτῷ παρέσχε τὸ ἐνδόσιμον οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἀποφηνάμενος ἐκ δόξης δʼ ἀμαυρᾶς καὶ ὑπόνοιαν ἐμβαλὼν αἰνιγματώδη μετʼ εὐλαβείας· ἀλλʼ ὅμως πολλὴ γέγονε κἀκείνου καταβόησις ὑπὸ τῶν ἄλλων φιλοσόφων. ἐπεὶ δὲ μύθων καὶ λόγων ἀναμεμιγμένων κρατὴρ ἐν μέσῳ πρόκειται ʽ καὶ ποῦ τις ἂν εὐμενεστέροις ἀκροαταῖς ἐπιτυχὼν ὥσπερ νομίσματα ξενικὰ τούτους δοκιμάσειε τοὺς λόγους;ʼ, οὐκ ὀκνῶ χαρίζεσθαι βαρβάρου διήγησιν ἀνδρός, ὃν πλάναις πολλαῖς καὶ μήνυτρα τελέσας μεγάλα, περὶ τὴν Ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν ἀνθρώποις ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος ἅπαξ ἐντυγχάνοντα τἄλλα δὲ συνόντα νύμφαις νομάσι καὶ δαίμοσιν, ὡς ἔφασκε, μόλις ἐξανευρὼν ἔτυχον λόγου καὶ φιλοφροσύνης. κάλλιστος μὲν ἦν ὧν εἶδον ἀνθρώπων ὀφθῆναι νόσου τε πάσης ἀπαθὴς διετέλει, Β καρπόν τινα πόας φαρμακώδη καὶ πικρὸν ἑκάστου μηνὸς ἅπαξ προσφερόμενος· γλώσσαις δὲ πολλαῖς ἤσκητο χρῆσθαι, πρὸς δʼ ἐμὲ τὸ πλεῖστον ἐδώριζεν οὐ πόρρω μελῶν. φθεγγομένου δέ, τὸν τόπον εὐωδία κατεῖχε, τοῦ στόματος ἥδιστον ἀποπνέοντος. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἄλλη μάθησις καὶ ἱστορία συνῆν αὐτῷ τὸν πάντα χρόνον· εἰς δὲ μαντικὴν ἐνεπνεῖτο μίαν ἡμέραν ἔτους ἑκάστου καὶ προεθέσπιζε κατιὼν ἐπὶ θάλατταν, ἐπεφοίτων δὲ καὶ δυνάσται καὶ γραμματεῖς βασιλέων εἶτʼ ἀπῄεσαν. ἐκεῖνος οὖν τὴν μαντικὴν ἀνῆγεν εἰς δαίμονας· πλεῖστον δὲ Δελφῶν λόγον εἶχε, καὶ τῶν λεγομένων περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον ἐνταῦθα καὶ δρωμένων ἱερῶν οὐδενὸς ἀνήκοος ἦν, ἀλλὰ κἀκεῖνα δαιμόνων ἔφασκεν εἶναι πάθη μεγάλα καὶ ταῦτα δὴ τὰ περὶ Πύθωνα. τῷ δʼ ἀποκτείναντι μήτʼ ἐννέα ἐτῶν μήτʼ εἰς τὰ Τέμπη γενέσθαι τὴν φυγήν, ἀλλʼ ἐκπεσόντʼ ἐλθεῖν εἰς ἕτερον κόσμον· ὕστερον δʼ ἐκεῖθεν ἐνιαυτῶν μεγάλων ἐννέα περιόδοις ἁγνὸν γενόμενον καὶ Φοῖβον ἀληθῶς κατελθόντα τὸ χρηστήριον παραλαβεῖν, τέως ὑπὸ Θέμιδος φυλαττόμενον. οὕτω δʼ ἔχειν καὶ τὰ Τυφωνικὰ καὶ τὰ Τιτανικά· δαιμόνων μάχας γεγονέναι πρὸς δαίμονας, εἶτα φυγὰς τῶν κρατηθέντων ἢ δίκας ὑπὸ θεοῦ τῶν ἐξαμαρτόντων, οἷα Τυφὼν λέγεται περὶ Ὄσιριν ἐξαμαρτεῖν καὶ Κρόνος περὶ Οὐρανόν, ὧν ἀμαυρότεραι γεγόνασιν αἱ τιμαὶ ἢ καὶ παντάπασιν ἐκλελοίπασι, μεταστάντων εἰς ἕτερον κόσμον. ἐπεὶ καὶ Σολύμους πυνθάνομαι τοὺς Λυκίων προσοίκους ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα τιμᾶν τὸν Κρόνον· ἐπεὶ δʼ ἀποκτείνας τοὺς ἄρχοντας αὐτῶν, Ἄρσαλον καὶ Δρύον καὶ Τρωσοβιόν, ἔφυγε καὶ μετεχώρησεν ὁποιδήποτε ʽ τοῦτο γὰρ οὐκ ἔχουσιν εἰπεῖν̓, ἐκεῖνον μὲν ἀμεληθῆναι, τοὺς δὲ περὶ τὸν Ἄρσαλον σκληροὺς θεοὺς προσαγορεύεσθαι, καὶ τὰς κατάρας ἐπὶ τούτων ποιεῖσθαι δημοσίᾳ καὶ ἰδίᾳ Λυκίους. τούτοις μὲν οὖν ὅμοια πολλὰ λαβεῖν ἔστιν ἐκ τῶν θεολογουμένων. εἰ δὲ τοῖς νενομισμένοις τῶν θεῶν ὀνόμασι δαίμονάς τινας καλοῦμεν, οὐ θαυμαστέον εἶπεν ὁ ξένος ᾧ γὰρ ἕκαστος θεῷ συντέτακται καὶ παρʼ οὗ δυνάμεως καὶ τιμῆς εἴληχεν, ἀπὸ τούτου φιλεῖ καλεῖσθαι. καὶ γὰρ ἡμῶν ὁ μὲν τίς ἐστι Δίιος ὁ δʼ Ἀθηναῖος ὁ δʼ Ἀπολλώνιος ἢ Διονύσιος ἢ Ἑρμαῖος· ἀλλʼ ἔνιοι μὲν ὀρθῶς; κατὰ τύχην ἐκλήθησαν, οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ μηδὲν προσηκούσας ἀλλʼ ἐνηλλαγμένας ἐκτήσαντο θεῶν παρωνυμίας.
With all my heart, answered Cleombrotus; but I shall now say something which will seem more absurd than any telling I have heretofore offered, although it seems to be grounded on natural reason; and Plato himself has touched upon it, not positively affirming it, but offering it as a probable opinion, although among other philosophers it has been much cried out against. And seeing that we are fallen into a free discourse, and that a man cannot light into better company and a more favorable auditory to test the story, as if it were foreign coin, I shall therefore tell you a story which I heard from a stranger, whose acquaintance has cost me no small sum of money in searching after him in divers countries, whom at length, after much travel, I found near the Red Sea. He would converse with men but once a year, all the rest of his time (as he told me) he spent among the Nymphs, Nomades, and Daemons. He was very free with me, and extremely obliging. I never saw a more graceful person in all my life; and that which was very strange in him was, that he was never subject to any disease; once every month he ate the bitter fruit of a certain medicinal herb. He spake several languages perfectly well; his discourse to me was in the Doric dialect; his speech was as charming as the sweetest music, and as soon as ever he opened his mouth to speak, there issued out of it so sweet and fragrant a breath, that all the place was filled with it. Now, as to human learning, such as history, he retained the knowledge thereof all the year; but as to the gift of divination, he was inspired therewith only one day in the year, in which he went down to the sea-side, and there foretold things to come. And thither resorted to him the princes and great men of all the country, or else their secretaries, who there attended his coming at a prefixed day, and then returned. This person attributed divination to the Daemons, and was well pleased to hear what we related concerning Delphi. Whatsoever we told concerning Bacchus and the sacrifices which are offered to him, he knew it all, saying that, as these were great accidents which happened to Daemons, so also was that which was related of the serpent Python. And he affirmed, that he who slew him was not banished for nine years, neither did he fly into the Valley of Tempe, but was driven out of this world into another, from whence, after nine revolutions of the great years, being returned, cleansed, and purified, and become a true Phoebus,—that is to say, clear and bright,—he had at length recovered the superintendence of the Delphic oracle, which in the mean time had been committed to the charge of Themis He said as much concerning what is related of Typhon and the Titans. For he affirmed, they were the battles of Daemons against Daemons, and the flights and banishments of those that had been vanquished, or the punishments inflicted by the Gods on those who had committed such acts as Typhon is said to have done against Osiris, and Saturn against Uranus, whose honors are much obscured, or wholly lost, by being translated into another world. For I know that the Solymeans, who are borderers to the Lycians, did greatly honor Saturn; but since he killed their princes, Arsalus, Dryus, and Trosobius, he fled into some other country, they knew not where, and he now is in a manner forgotten. But they called these three— Arsalus, Dryus, and Trosobius—the severe Gods, and the Lycians do at this day curse people in their names, as well in private as in public. Several other such like examples may a man find in the records of the Gods. And if we call any of the Daemons by the usual and common names of the Gods, on whom they do depend, it is no marvel at all, said the stranger; for they like to be called by the Gods on whom they do depend, and from whom they have received their honor and power; even as amongst us men one is named Diius, another Athenae, another Apollonius, another Dionysius, and still another Hermaeus. And there are some who have names imposed on them, as it were, by chance, which yet do well agree with their tempers; whereas some carry the names of the Gods which do not at all suit with their weaknesses.
σιωπήσαντος δὲ τοῦ Κλεομβρότου, πᾶσι μὲν ὁ λόγος ἐφάνη θαυμαστός. τοῦ δʼ Ἡρακλέωνος πυθομένου πῆ ταῦτα προσήκει Πλάτωνι καὶ πῶς ἐκεῖνος τὸ ἐνδόσιμον τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ παρέσχεν, ὁ Κλεόμβροτος; εὖ μνημονεύεις εἶπεν ὅτι τὴν μὲν ἀπειρίαν αὐτόθεν ἀπέγνω τῶν κόσμων, περὶ δὲ πλήθους ὡρισμένου διηπόρησε, καὶ μέχρι τῶν πέντε τοῖς ὑποτιθεμένοις κατὰ στοιχεῖον ἕνα κόσμον ἐπιχωρήσας τὸ εἰκὸς, αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐφʼ ἑνὸς ἐτήρησεν. καὶ δοκεῖ τοῦτο Πλάτωνος ἴδιον εἶναι, τῶν ἄλλων σφόδρα φοβηθέντων τὸ πλῆθος, ὡς τοὺς ἑνὶ τὴν ὕλην μὴ ὁρίσαντας ἀλλʼ, ἐκβάντας εὐθὺς ἀορίστου καὶ χαλεπῆς ἀπειρίας ὑπολαμβανούσης. ὁ δὲ ξένος ἔφην ἐγώ περὶ πλήθους κόσμων ὥριζεν Πλάτων ἤ, ὅτε συνεγένου τἀνδρὶ τούτῳ, οὐδὲ, διεπειράθης;ʼ ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἔμελλον εἶπεν ὁ Κλεόμβροτος εἰ μηδὲν ἄλλο, τῶν περὶ ταῦτα λιπαρὴς εἶναι καὶ πρόθυμος ἀκροατὴς, ἐνδιδόντος ἑαυτὸν ἵλεων καὶ παρέχοντος; ἔλεγε δὲ μήτʼ ἀπείρους μήθʼ ἕνα μήτε πέντε κόσμους, ἀλλὰ τρεῖς καὶ ὀγδοήκοντα καὶ ἑκατὸν εἶναι συντεταγμένους κατὰ σχῆμα τριγωνοειδές, οὗ πλευρὰν ἑκάστην ἑξήκοντα κόσμους ἔχειν· τριῶν δὲ τῶν λοιπῶν ἕκαστον ἱδρῦσθαι κατὰ γωνίαν, ἅπτεσθαι δὲ τοὺς ἐφεξῆς ἀλλήλων ἀτρέμα περιιόντας ὥσπερ ἐν χορείᾳ· τὸ δʼ ἐντὸς ἐπίπεδον τοῦ τριγώνου κοινὴν ἑστίαν εἶναι πάντων, καλεῖσθαι δὲ πεδίον ἀληθείας, ἐν ᾧ τοὺς λόγους καὶ τὰ εἴδη καὶ τὰ παραδείγματα τῶν γεγονότων καὶ τῶν γενησομένων ἀκίνητα κεῖσθαι, καὶ περὶ αὐτὰ τοῦ αἰῶνος ὄντος οἷον ἀπορροὴν ἐπὶ τοὺς κόσμους φέρεσθαι τὸν χρόνον. ὄψιν δὲ τούτων καὶ θέαν ψυχαῖς ἀνθρωπίναις ἅπαξ ἐν ἔτεσι μυρίοις ὑπάρχειν, ἄν γʼ βιώσωσι· καὶ τῶν ἐνταῦθα τελετῶν τὰς ἀρίστας ἐκείνης ὄνειρον εἶναι τῆς ἐποπτείας καὶ τελετῆς· καὶ τοὺς λόγους ἀναμνήσεως ἕνεκα τῶν ἐκεῖ φιλοσοφεῖσθαι καλῶν ἢ μάτην περαίνεσθαι. ταῦτʼ ἔφη περὶ τούτων μυθολογοῦντος ἤκουον ἀτεχνῶς καθάπερ ἐν τελετῇ καὶ μυήσει, μηδεμίαν ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ λόγου μηδὲ πίστιν ἐπιφέροντος.
Here Cleombrotus having paused, his discourse seemed strange to all the company, and Heracleon demanded of him, how all this concerned Plato, and how he had given occasion to this discourse. Unto which Cleombrotus answered: You do well to put me in mind of it; for first, Plato ever rejected the infinity of worlds, yet would determine nothing positively touching the precise number of them. And granting the probability of their opinion who affirmed there were five, one for each element, as to his own part, he kept to one, which seems to be his genuine opinion; whereas all other philosophers have been afraid to receive and admit the multitude of worlds, as if those who did not limit matter to one must needs fall into troublesome and boundless infinity. But was this stranger, said I, of the same opinion with Plato, touching the number of the worlds? Or did you not all the while ask his opinion in that matter? I was far from failing herein, says Cleombrotus, seeing I found him so communicative and affable to me. He told me, that neither was the number of the worlds infinite, neither was there but only one, nor five; but a hundred and eighty-three, which were ranged in a triangular form, every side containing sixty worlds; and of the three remaining, every corner had one. That they were so ordered, that one always touched another in a circle, like those who dance in a ring. That the plain within the triangle is, as it were, the foundation and common altar to all those worlds, which is called the Plain of Truth, in which lie the designs, moulds, ideas, and invariable examples of all things which were, or ever shall be; and about these is Eternity, whence flowed Time, as from a river, into these worlds. Moreover, that the souls of men, if they have lived well in this world, do see these ideas once in ten thousand years; and that the most holy mystical ceremonies which are performed here are no more than a dream of this sacred vision. And further, that all the pains which are taken in the study of philosophy are to attain to a sight of those beauties; otherwise they were all lost labors. I heard him, said he, relate all these things as perfectly, as if they had been some religious rites wherein he would have instructed me; for he brought me no proof or demonstration to confirm what he said.
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