BL
785
457
The University of Chicago
FOUNDED BY JOHN DE ROCKTHELLER
STUDIES IN GREEK ALLEGORICAL
INTERPRETATION
1. SKETCH OF ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETA
TION BEFORE PLUTARCH.
IT PLUTARCH,
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS
AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE O
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(DEPARTMENT OF GREEK)
BY
ANNE BATES HERSMAN
CHICAGO
THE BLUE SKY PRESS
1906

ARTES
1837
VERITAS
LIBRARY
SCIENTIA
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
EXC PLURIBU
UNUM
TUEBOR
SI-QUÆRIS-PENINSULAM-AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
મુ
The University of Chicago
FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
STUDIES IN GREEK ALLEGORICAL
INTERPRETATION
I. SKETCH OF ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETA-
TION BEFORE PLUTARCH.
II. PLUTARCH.
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS
AND LITERATURE, IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(DEPARTMENT OF GREEK)
BY
ANNE BATES HERSMAN
CHICAGO
THE BLUE SKY PRESS
BL
785
.H57
1906

Gift of
Univ.cf
Chicago
PREFACE.
Part I of this study is not an exhaustive treatment of allegorical
interpretation in Greek literature before the end of the first cen-
tury of our era. It is an attempt to show the motives of such in-
terpretation, its beginnings and various developments, together
with comment on some other results of that spirit of criticism out
of which grew allegoristic. Part II is an account of the religious
beliefs of Plutarch, the foremost Greek writer of his age, and of
what he thought of religious tradition and its relation to philo-
sophical thought and moral conduct.
I wish to express my indebtedness to Professor Shorey of the
University of Chicago, who has from time to time read my manu-
script and given me helpful suggestions and criticisms. The sub-
subject itself grew out of a larger one suggested by him, namely Plu-
tarch's literary criticism. To his aid and criticism the dissertation
owes any value that it may possess. My obligation to Professor
Breasted is expressed on page 62 f. n.
"La Critique des Traditions Religieuses chez les Grecs," by
P. Decharme, came into my hands only after this paper had been
sent to the printer. Much of the book would have been useful for
comparison, particularly the following pages: The preface, on the
attitude of the Greeks towards their religion; cf. below p. 1 foll.
Page X, on allegorists, and XII., some interpreters held that the
myth-makers were in possession of a broad science; cf. below Zeno
and Plutarch. Page 10 foll., some parts of Hesiod's Theogony are
conscious allegory. Page 119, the images of Democritus were real
beings, but, page 457, not demons in the sense in which Xenocrates
and later writers used this term; cf. below p. 14. Page 240
foll., Aristotle's attitude towards myths was that of an allegorist;
cf. below p. 8 f. n. 11 and pp. 9, 10. Page 270 foll., a history of alle-
gorical interpretation before the Stoics. Page 283, Metrodorus alle-
gorized the heroes; Decharme refers to Tatian and Hesychius, but
does not mention the fragment of the Herculanean Rolls; he
neglects the peits in the Tatian passage; cf. below p. 11 foll. Page
289, there is not enough left of the work of Antisthenes to justify
a statement of his method of interpreting the poets; the fragments
in the scholia on the Odyssey are not allegorical; cf. below p. 16.
Page 305 foll., Stoic exegesis. Page 370 foll., Euhemerism.
Page 414 foll., especially page 426 foll., religious views of Plutarch.
Page 465 foll., Plutarch's interpretation of sacred tradition. Page
477, on Plutarch's rejection of Stoic allegoristic; cf. below pp. 37, 52.
ANNE BATES HERSMAN.
June, 1905, Chicago.
1
190803
This dissertation was in the printer's hands in June, 1905. The
publication has been delayed nearly a year on account of accidents
and misfortunes in the printing press.
May, 1906.
A. B. H.
PARTIAL LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED.
The following modern authorities have been particularly help-
ful. They will be quoted merely by the name. References to Zeller
without the name of the work will be to his History of Greek
Philosophy. Other authorities will be referred to in the footnotes:
Grote, History of Greece, I. c. 16.
Zeller, Gesch. Gr. Phil., under special names or schools. IV. 322
f. n. 1, a short account of the rise and causes of allegoristic, and
motives of its exponents.
Sengebusch, Hom. Dis. I.
Wolff, Prolegomena, especially 161.
Gruppe, Gr. Culte u. Mythen I. 14 foll. 24 foll., Stoic allegoris-
tic; especially as it appears in Heraclitus and Cornutus. 28, 29, a
summing up of the unsatisfactory accomplishment of allegorical
interpretation. Cf. Lobeck II. 1050 foll.
Hirzel, Untersuch. z Cic. Phil. Schr.
Krische, Forschungen. Die Theol. Lehr. d. Gr. Denker I.
Schrader, Porph. Quaest. Hom. II. Proleg. c. 3, parts II and III.
Schow, introduction in his edition of Heraclitus Alleg. Hom.
Lobeck, Aglaophamus I. Especially 155 foll.
Schlemm, De font. Plut. com. de aud. po. 32 foll.
Heinze, Xenokrates.
Lehrs. Aristarchus III. c. 4, p. 201 foll.
Jebb, Introduction to Homer 80, 89.
Stallbaum, on Plato, Ion. 530 D.
Amoneit, De Plut. Stud. Hom. 15, foll.
Christ, Gesch. d. Gr. Lit. 63.
Pearson, Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes.
Arnim, Stoic. Vet. Fr II.
Diels, Fr. d. Vorsokratiker.
Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics, translated by Reichel p.
354 foll.
Siegfried, Philo von Alex. P. 9 foll. on the Stoics; 160 foll. on
Philo.
Bernays, Phil. Unzers. d. Weltalls, 30 foll.
Wyttenbach, notes on de aud. po. and on de Is. in his edition of
Plut. Mor.
Volkmann, Plutarch.
Oakesmith. The Religion of Plutarch.
Parthey, Introduction and Notes in his edition of de Is.
Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, translated by Tirard.
Lafaye, Les divinités d'Alex. hors de l'Egypte.
3
''
CONTENTS.
PART I. Historical Sketch.
7-23
Introduction
7-10
Plato
8
Xenophon
Aristotle
Early Homeric Allegorists.
Theagenes
Heracliteans
Followers of Thales
Anaxagoras
9
10-13
10
Metrodorus
Euripides
Stesimbrotus
Glaucon (Glaucus)
Anaximander
Other Writers.
Critias
Democritus
•
AAAFFRF*
10
10
11
11
12
12
13
13-16
13
13
13
Prodicus
14
Euhemerus
Palaephatus
15
15
Polybius
15
Diodorus
Agroetas
Theophrastus
15
15
15
Herodorus
15
Hecataeus
Ephorus
Herodotus
Cynics
Diogenes
Stoics
Zeno
Cleanthes
Chrysippus
Heraclitus
Cornutus
Philo
Grammarians
Aristarchus
Crates
•
399
15
16
16
16, 17
Antisthenes
16
17
.. 17-22
19
20
2222
20
21
21
23
**
23
23
5
PART II. Plutarch..
Introduction
Religious views
Attitude towards tradition
Attitude towards poetry
Attitude towards myths
Euhemerism
Demons
..
Attitude towards rites
Allegorical Interpretation
Principles
Egyptian myth not naive
Plutarch not a rationalist
Sometimes historical
Figurative use of words
Right use of metaphor
The Isis Myth...
Osiris the moist
•
•
•
Two opposed world principles
Metaphysical
Physical
Animal worship
Images of the gods
Osiris lord of Hades
APPENDIX I. Numbers...
APPENDIX II.
Isis myth
Plutarch on hieroglyphics
Plutarch on Egyptian etymologies
Authorities named by Plutarch
25-64
25-32
25
26
26-29
29-31
31
31
31
32-57
32-38
•
33
34
34
36
38
38-56
40-45
45
46-56
51, 52
53
54
56
59,60
61-64
61
62
•
63
63, 64
}
6
PART I. HISTORICAL SKETCH.
In their moral and mental development' the Greeks came to a
point when their traditional religion and history no longer satisfied
them. They must either renounce or modify their beliefs. Xen-
ophanes boldly pronounced Homer and Hesiod immoral and un-
worthy of belief. Pindar³ rejected particular stories that offended
his ideas of the gods. Others still maintained the truth of the
myths, but conceived some hidden meaning intended by the original
makers. They seem sometimes to have thought that the mean-
ing was not intentionally obscured, but had been later misunder-
stood; at other times they described the myth-makers as conceal-
ing the true doctrine under symbols and enigmas. There were
speculations about the origin of all religious beliefs, or about the
origin of particular traditions or observances."
Allegorical interpretation became an intellectual and moral
necessity, either to preserve one's own faith, or to account for the
faith of others. However, all figurative use of the names of the
gods must not be considered as allegorical. When Empedocles
called by the title Aphrodite the force that draws together unlike
elements and so creates a complex world, he did not himself believe
that the god worshipped under that name was only a vivid repre-
sentation of a force; nor did he mean to imply that poets and myth.
makers had known his scheme of the universe, and had described
Aphrodite and established her worship as a riddle of the truth.
There were points in common between the god and the thing over
which he presided; the philosopher recognized the likeness by a
metaphorical transference of the name. This is allegory, not alle-
¹ For a discussion of the attitude of the Greeks themselves to their own
tradition, and of the causes of change in attitude, see Grote, I. ch. 16. For a
short history of allegorical interpretation, Zeller III. 322 f. ú. l.
2 Dicg. L. IX. 18 and II. 46. Sextus Math. IX. 193 and I. 224.
8
Olymp. 1, 52 foll.; ib. 36 foll.; see Croiset, La Poésie de Pindare, 185, 186.
This was the teaching of Euhemerus; and Plutarch considered it
possible in some cases, see below p. 26, 35 foll.; although he rejected Euhem-
erism.
5 See below Democritus, p. 13; Prodicus, p. 14; Critias, p. 13.
6
See below Herodotus, p. 24; Hecataeus, 24.
* On the use of a name for a thing, not αλληγορικῶς but μεταληπτικῶς, see
Heraclitus, Alleg. Hom. ch. 26.
Nor did Lucretius use such interpretation of popular religion when he
invoked Venus as god of creation and life.
7
gorical interpretation. Nor is vague poetic pantheism allegorical
interpretation; such, for example, as the fragment of Aeschylus,"
"Zeus is the ether, Zeus is the earth, is the heavens; Zeus, indeed,
is all, and is whatever is above these."
13
14
Plato" refused to admit into his State the impious stories found
in the poets οὔτ᾽ ἐν ὑπονοίαις πεποιημένας οὔτε ἄνευ ὑπονοιῶν, for the reason
that the young man would be unable to judge what was said figura-
tively and what was not." He particularly objected to the idea that
Homer was all-wise, and argued that neither Homer nor Hesiod.
seemed to have been a teacher, and guide to a better life.' It is
true that when he was not describing the ideal conditions of a per-
fect state, when, that is, he had to acknowledge the presence and
influence of the poets, he did force the meaning to suit his own
ends, and for just the same reason that the Stoics alleged, because
Simonides "is divine and wise";" although in these cases the inter-
pretation is not allegorical, his justification is that of the allegorists,
ἠνίξατο ἄρα...... ὡς ἔοικεν, ὁ Σιμωνίδης ποιητικώς. 10 In the Phaedrus"
Socrates quotes an allegorical interpretation of the story of Boreas
and Orithyia, but adds that for his part he has not time for such
studies. The Cratylus has many allegorical etymologies," but Plato
was here rather belittling allegoristic by ridiculing these ety-
Amologies that were one of its chief aids; for Socrates undertook the
starch into the origin of and not entirely serious,
search into the origin of names on condition that the investigation
should be for amusement and not entirely serious.'
16
19
• Both Ker, The Dark Ages 28 (in the series Periods of European Litera-
ture) and his reviewer in The Nation (New York) for May 11, 1905, p.
382, use allegory indiscriminately for the two ideas; and the confusion
seems to extend beyond the term even to the ideas themselves.
10 Clem. Alex. Strom. V. 718 P (ch. 14, Sec. 114 end).
11 Plato and Xenophon and Aristotle are put here instead of in their
chronological order because they do not belong to the number of allegorical
interpreters, and appear at all only on account of their testimony that this
method was much used at their time. Cf. Ar. Clouds, 264, a physical interpre-
tation of Zeus is ridiculed.
12 Rep. 378 D. Cf. Duemmler, Ant. 24, "Allegoricam interpretandi rationem
Plato neque ignorat neque refellit sed suo iure putat abiciendam. Rep. 378 D."
On Plato's banishment of the poets see Bohne, Wie gelaengt Plato z. Aufstell.
s. Staatsideals. u. wie erklaert sich s. Urtheil u. d. Poesie in demselben?
13 Rep. 598 C, D; 606 E; 607 A. On the relation of the Alexandrine
school to Plato see Sengebusch 118 foll. That school, too, did not use alle-
goristic, and rejected the omniscience of Homer. On Plutarch's rejection of
the same idea, see below p. 26 foll.
14 Rep. 600.
15 Rep. 331 E. Cf. Protagoras 344-347, a forced interpretation of another
poem of Simonides.
1º Rep. 332 B. On Plato's use of alvittopai to extract, edifying meaning
from the poets and others, cf. Lysis 214 D, Charm. 162 A, Theaet. 152 C, and
194 C.
17 229 C, foll.
18 For example, 407A, B, the contemporary interpreters of Homer derive
Athena from & Θεονόη.
¹º 406 C. And he is parodying the extreme Heracliteans by the explana-
tion in Theaet. 153 C of Homer's golden chain (II. 8, 17. Cf. Heraclitus,
alleg. Hom. ch. 36) as the sun; and 194 C that Homer called the heart
κεάρ—αινιττόμενος τὴν τοῦ κηροῦ ὁμοιότητα, is not very serious. Cf. etymologies
8
In two ways Plato supplied an impetus to the well-defined move-
ment in the direction of allegorical interpretation. (By his arraign-
ment of Homer and Hesiod as teachers of impious beliefs and
immoral ideas he roused up others to the defense of the traditional
religion. Heraclitus in the Allegoriae Homericae mentions Plato
four times with great bitterness. Although his own use of alle-
gorical etymologies was jesting, they doubtless became a model for
serious attempts to trace the origin of things by means of their
names." Probably in a third way, also, Plato influenced later criti-
cism in the direction of an allegorical understanding of the poets.
His doctrine of the "enthusiasmus" of poets might well have sug-
gested to his readers the infallibility of inspired writings, an idea
not accepted by Plato, as we have just seen. He did himself believe
that poetic creation was the result of a peculiar state of mind, of
an overheated imagination, a condition inexplicable in logical terms.
But in the Ion at least he was ironical, and that irony was, in all
likelihood, missed by literal-minded readers; as the jesting spirit
of the Cratylus was missed; and they missed, too, Plato's insist-
ence on the necessity of inspiration in the interpreters themselves.
23
Xenophon also testified to the common habit of looking for a hid-
den meaning in the poets; for in the Symposium" he made Socrates
say that rhapsodes were the stupidest set of men because they did
not understand ràs úñovoías. When Socrates" said that Circe feasted
men upon delicacies, Xenophon uses the word лixóлт, and adds
ἔπαιζεν ἅμα σπουδάζων, for of course the moral was serious, however
playful Socrates may have been in the allegorical interpretation.
Aristotle was not hostile to the allegorists. He sometimes
treated the early poets as in a sense natural philosophers; for in-
stance, in Hesiod's Chaos and Eros he found an anticipation of
his own doctrine of material and efficient causes. It is true that
in Gorgias 493 A, where the verb podoloyéw seems to be used in the sense of
writing an allegory. Cf. below p. 30. That Plato did not use allegorical in-
terpretation seriously,see Wolff 164: Gruppe, I. 14 f. n. 18: Hirzel Unt. z.
Cic. Phil. Schrift. I. 221. On Socrates, Krische I. 234. Ker, The Dark
Ages, 29, in the series Periods of European Literature, makes the remarka-
ble mistake of calling Plato an allegorist; he claims that the philosopher in
his treatment of Homer had a familiarity with the "Gothic" commonplaces of
allegorical interpretation.
20 Ch. 4, 12, 17, 21. On Plato as the cause of much allegoristic, see
Schrader II. Proleg. 389; Sengebusch I. 118 foll.; Schow 223, 224.
21 See Krische 399 on the Stoic indebtedness to the Cratylus.
22 Apol. 22 B, C. Phaedrus 245 A, B. Ion 533 D foll. Cf. Bernard Shaw.
The Perfect Wagnerite, 121. The artist not, as Plato ironically said. able to
understand what he has never learned, but to write what he does not under-
stand. This modern conception of the rights of the interpreter surpasses any-
thing developed by the ancients.
28 Ion, 1. c. Cf. Prot. 347 E; Hipp. Min. 365 D.
43, 6. Duemmler, Antisthenica, 29, has given this passage as if Antis.
thenes had uttered these words.
Mem. 1, 3, 7. Cf. Pal. Anthol. 10, 50, Circe allegorized as a prostitute.
The use of the Sirens in 2, 6, 11, foll. is by way of comparison, not allegorical.
9
Uor M
20
this is not allegorical interpretation of a naive myth, for Hesiod
was consciously using Chaos and Eros as representative of large
natural forces. Aristotle did believe that the myth-makers inten-
tionally hid truths under figurative forms, "for the persuasion of
the multitude" and for the aid of the laws." Though he went on
to say that probably art and philosophy were often found and lost."
It is possible to do little more than give a list of the earliest
allegorists. In the absence of their writings or of detailed reports
of their teachings, the nature of their interpretation can only be
conjectured from later developments of the same tendencies.
Theagenes of Rhegium heads the list. He is not only the earliest
mentioned, but is said to have been the first who wrote about
Homer." The Homeric scholium gives two methods of explaining
the battle of the gods, that the names of the gods were applied to
the departments of the physical world and also that they were
applied to mental qualities; then adds, "Such was the ancient
method of defense, a method that came from Theagenes of
Rhegium.
9981
33
There seems to be no proof that Håraclitus" himself used Homer
allegorically, but certainly his followers did so, unless, indeed,
Plato was showing them how they might add authority to their
doctrines when he made Homer the first to teach that nothing
stands, that all is in constant motion. He used as proof of this
theory the verse Il. 14, 201 and 302, "Oceanus, the father of the
gods and their mother Tethys." Again he called the Heracliteans.
Homerids," "on account of the doctrine of constant motion," as
the scholium says," quoting this verse of Homer.
This same verse has, perhaps more naturally, been quoted to
show that Homer believed water the original element.
It is not
26 Met. I. 984b lines 23 foll. See Zeller 3, 795, especially f. n. 3.
27 Cf. below Philo p. 22.
28 Met. XI. 1074 b lines I foll. Cf. below p. 13, Critias.
Aristotle, Fragment 175 (Rose) is a physical explanation of Od. 12.
129 (Dindorf's Schol. and Eustathius, Od. 1717, 33). But Schrader II. 423,
argues that it does not belong to Aristotle. Sengebusch refers to it as genuine.
For another scholium, with the words αλληγορικῶς---"Ομηρον ascribed to Aris-
totle (Eustathius, Od. 1713, 9) see Schrader 419 f. n. 1. Still a third, on Hes.
Theog. 275, is so unlike Aristotle that Flach, Int. to Gloss. u. Schol. Hes. Theog.
161, thinks a sentence may have fallen out between the interpretation and
the name.
80 Schol. Il. 20, 67 (Dindorf IV. 231).
81 Gruppe, I. 21 f. n. 37, suspects that later writers took as allegorizing
the merely metaphorical expressions of Theagenes and Metrodorus, such as are
found in Empedocles and Heraclitus. That the two latter are not called alle-
gorists weakens the force of this suggestion.
Schuster, Heraklit von Ephesos, s. 53 f.. however, calls Heraclitus the
chief of allegorists; quoted by Zeller, IV. 322 f. n. 1., and Gruppe I. 21, neither
of whom agrees with Schuster.
33 Theaet. 152 E.
"Theaet. 179 E.
Cf. 180 D; Crat. 402 A foll.; in Crat. 402 B, they go
back to Orpheus for their doctrine.
" Plato, Firmin-Didot III. 285 on Theaet. 138 F-D line 19.
36 Arist. Met. 983 b 27. The indefiniteness of these statements, there are
some who think, etc., would seem to exclude Thales. Plut. de Is. 364 D (the
Egyptians), think that Homer as well as Thales learnt from them, etc. Cf.
Ps. Flt. Plac. Phil. 875 F, with reference to Il. 14, 246.
10
reported that Thales made this claim; therefore, it seems probable
that he did not do so, or at least that no such tradition was handed
down.
Anaxagoras was the first to explain the Homeric poems as dis-
cussions of virtue and justice." In this expression Favorinus prob-
ably considered the method of Anaxagoras as more distinctly ethical
than that of Theagenes of Rhegium; or, possibly, "first" is used
carelessly." "The Anaxagoreans explained the mythical gods so as
to make Zeus mind, Athena technical skill.”*
Anaxagoras was the first to publish a book on physical allegory,
but he was preceded in this method by Metrodorus of Lampsacus,
who also followed Anaxagoras in the moral interpretation." Met-
rodorus went beyond the usual allegorical interpretation which
confined itself to the gods, and called Agamemnon air, if Hesychius
(s. v.) is to be trusted. There is a fragment of the Herculanean
Rolls that identifies the heroes of the Iliad with physical phe-
nomena, and some of the gods with parts of the human body.
Gomperz" recognizes Philodemus as the author of this fragment,
and, from its likeness to the reference in Hesychius, assumes that
it gives the opinion of Metrodorus. He refers to the fragment as,
p. 12, "den Metrodorus von Lampsakos betreffende Mittheilung.'
On p. 14 he says: "Die klarere Einsicht. die wir nunmehr in das
allegorische System des Metrodorus von Lampsakos, des Schuelers
des Anaxagoras, gewinnen mittelst des f. 90, welches sich-mit
Ausnahme der ersten Zeile-vollstaendig und mit Leichtigkeit
herstellen laesst: καὶ περ (1) νόμ. (ων) και (? έ) θισ (μ) ῶν τῶ (ν) πα (ρ')
ἂν (Ορώ) πο (45) καὶ τὸν Α (γα) μέμνονα μὲν αἰθέρα είναι (cf. Hesych.)
37 Favorinus, in Diog. L. II. 11. Sandys, A Hist of Class. Schol, p. 30.
and Egger, Hist. de la Crit. chez les Grecs, p. 99, say that Anaxagoras saw in
the arrows of Apollo the rays of the sun. Egger refers to Tzetzes on the
Iliad. p 94 ed. God. Hermann. Decharme, La Crit. d. Trad. Rel. chez les
Grecs, thinks that the Tzetzes passage will not bear this interpretation.
Sandys, 1. c., Anaxagoras "is said (whether truly or not) to have found in
the web of Penelope an emblem of the rules of dialectics, the warp being
the premises, the woof the conclusion, and the flame of the torches, by which
she executed her task, being none other than the light of reason," with
reference to Schol. on Od. 2, 104. The writer seems to have been misled by a
remark of Egger's, p. 100 f. n. 1, to the effect that the author of this anony-
mous scholium evidently follows the method of Anaxagoras, "s'il n'est pas
Anaxagore lui-meme.' The syllogism was not known before Aristotle.
a
39 Modern writers use "first" about various allegorists.
about various allegorists. On Duemmler's
claim for Antisthenes see below p. 17, f. n. 72. Gomperz, Gr. Thinkers (Trans.
by Magnus), I. 375, Diogenes of Apollonia "was the first to break ground in
introducing the allegorical method in national poetry.'
But on page 379,
"Already in the sixth century, Theagenes of Rhegium had applied the panacea
of allegory to the authority of Homer, which Xenophanes had assailed So
bitterly."
39
Zeller I. 1019 f. n. 3 quoted from Syncellus, Chron. s. 149 C. Zeller
thinks it probable that it was not Anaxagoras but his pupils that used moral
interpretation; for his interests were physical, and from this passage of Syn-
cellus it seems that his followers did turn to psychological interpretation. On
Anaxagoras see Lobeck, I. 157 foll.
" Diog. L. II, 11. See Tatian C. Graec. c. 21, for the physical side of the
Interpretation.
Sitz. Ber. d. Kais. Akad. Wien. 116, pp. 12-14.
11
.
Αγαμέμνονα τον αιθέρα Μητρόδωρος αλληγορικῶς, τὸν (Αχιλλέα δ' ήλων,
τὴν Ἑλένην δὲ γῆν καὶ τὸν ᾿Αλέξανδρον αέρα, τὸν Εκτορας δὲ σελήνην,
καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀναλόγως ὠνόμασται) τούτοις, τῶν δὲ θεῶν τὴν Δήμητρα
μὲν ἧπαρ τὸν Διόνυσον δὲ σπλῆ (να, τὸν ᾿Απόλλω[ε] δὲ χολή(ν).
So sehen wir denn, dass dieser antike Vorlaeufer unserer
modernen Uschold und Forchhammer es an systematischer Folge-
richtigkeit keineswegs fehlen liess, und dass ihn was immer sich
auch gegen seine Methode einwenden lassen mag, der Vorwurf der
Inconsequenz, den man in einen Bemerkung Tatians zu finden
geglaubt hat, jedenfalls nicht mit Recht treffen wuerde (adv. Graec.,
c. 37 [this must be a misprint for 21] vgl. Grote. History I' 563,
Zeller's Philosophie der Griechen I', 831). The passage of Titian'
is as follows:
καὶ Μητρόδωρος δὲ ὁ Λαμψακηνὸς ἐν τῷ Περὶ ῾Ομήρου λίαν ευήθως διείλεκται,
πάντα εἰς ἀλληγορίαν μετάγων. οὔτε γὰρ "Ηραν οὔτε ᾿Αθηνᾶν οὔτε Δία τοῦτ'
εἶναί φησιν ὅπερ οἱ τοὺς περιβόλους αὐτοῖς καὶ τεμένη καθιδρύσαντες
νομίζουσιν, φύσεως δὲ ὑποστάσεις καὶ στοιχείων διακοσμήσεις. καὶ τὸν Εκτορα
δὲ καὶ τὸν ᾿Αχιλλέα δηλαδὴ καὶ τὸν ᾿Αγαμέμνονα καὶ πάντας απαξαπλῶς Ελληνάς
τε καὶ βαρβάρους σὺν τῇ Ἑλένῃ καὶ τῷ Πάριδι τῆς αὐτῆς φύσεως ὑπάρχοντας
χάριν οἰκονομίας ἐρεῖτε παρεισῆχθαι οὐδενὸς ὄντος τῶν προειρημένων ανθρώπων.
Relying upon this passage, Grote I, 374, and Schlemm (de Font.
Plut. Com. de aud. po. et fort. 32 f. n. 1), say that Metrodorus
gave physical explanations of the heroes. They seem to have over-
looked ἐρεῖτε. Zeller gives the ἐρεῖτε due weight, I. 1019, f. n. 4.
It would almost seem that Lobeck, I. 156, f. n. (b), had before
him a different text, for, while he evidently does not think that
Tatian had borne witness to Metrodorus's allegorizing any hero
but Agamemnon, he says that Metrodorus considered the other
heroes as introduced χάριν οἰκονομίας. Now in our text this is not
the statement of Metrodorus, but of the supposed objector im-
plied in ἐρεῖτε, for the χάριν οικονομίας is dependent upon the ἐρεῖτε
παρεισήχθαι as well as the names of the heroes. To allegorize the
heroes was not the custom of even the Stoics, and had not the
same excuse that operated in the case of the gods, namely, to avoid
impiety. Therefore, it seems probable that Tatian gives the cor-
rect tradition, and that Hesychius and the author of this fragment
neglected the ἐρεῖτε, or rather whatever in Tatian's source the ἐρεῖτε
represents, just as Grote and Schlemm have done.
Plato" joins the names of Stesimbrotus and Glaucon to that of
“a Cf. on this use of οἰκονομίας χάριν Max. Tyr. 32, 9, δι οικονομίας
ἡρωικής. The whole chapter is an allegorical interpretation of Homer as a
teacher of ethics and politics.
"It is true a late writer does allegorize Paris in the Apple of Discord
story. He is perception by means of the senses, Sallustius, Phil. de diis c. 4.
"Ion, 330 D.
12
Metrodorus as interpreters of Homer, but does not give their meth-
ods. Xenophon," however, reports Stesimbrotus and Anaximander
as explaining the novotas of Homer.
As a tragic poet Euripides was obliged to use the myths in their
essential forms. However, he was so frankly rationalistic that the
few allegorical interpretations found in his works may be regarded
as suggestive of his own beliefs, and not merely as indications of
the somewhat common feelings of the time. In two fragments he
distinctly calls Zeus ether." In the mouth of another poet this
might be the deification of this great and impressive and mysterious
part of nature, a deification consonant with popular feeling and
usage. More necessarily allegoristic are some expressions of psy-
chological interpretation of the gods; as "Zeus, whether the laws
of nature or the mind of mortals. When Orestes cries out to the
Eumenides, Electra bids him lie quiet, for he sees none of those
things that he thinks he clearly recognizes." Mortals called their
love-folly Aphrodite." Tiresias saves his piety and the dignity of
Zeus at once by explaining that the story that Dionysus was sewn
up in the thigh, unpós, of Zeus was a popular misunderstanding of
what really did take place: Zeus had saved Dionysus. and had given
Hera a wraith in the image of a baby as a pledge, unpos."
There are some verses quoted by Sextus Math. 9.54, as from
Critias, by Ps. Plut. Plac. 880 E as from Euripides, that make
religion only a clever device of law givers, invented to restrain men
from lawless acts, even when they think that they are safe from
human observation."
50
Democritus, Prodicus, and Euhemerus seem rather to have
sought the sources of belief in the popular religion than to have
51
"Symp. 3. 6. Lobeck I, 157, "Fulgentius XIV. 604 said that Anaxi-
mander Lampsacenus and Xenophanes Heracleopolites explained physically the
myths of the muses.' On Anaximander see Sengebusch 207. On Glaucon,
208; on all these names see Lobeck I. 156, 157. Plato, Crat, 407 A, "Those
of the present day who are learned in Homer" explain that Homer represented
mind and judgment under the name Athena; several etymologies follow.
45 Frag. 869 and 935 Nauck. Cf. Cornutus, de nat. deor. c. 20.
46 Troad. 886. Of. Cic. Tuscul. I. 26, 65.
47 Orestes 255-259. Cf. 314. On the treatment of the Eumenides see
Decharme, Euripides, p. 68, and Girard, Le Sent. Rel. en Grèce, 401-404. Cf.
Cornutus N. D. 10, the dreadful appearance of the Eumenides was due to the
imagination of the wicked.
18 Troad 983-992, Cf. below Antisthenes, p. 16.
49 Bac. 286-297. Dion. Hal. Ars. Rhet. 300-356 (Rieske), the Melanippe
of Euripides had argued against τέρατα. Bac. 284 is probably a poetic
identification of wine and the wine god. See Decharme, Euripides, p. 59
foll. Nestle, Euripides, p. 80 foll. Zeller, II. 13. 14. Duemmler, Akade-
miker, 142-144.
50 Plato in Laws 889 E. foll. objects to the idea that the gods exist merely
by convention. Cf. Cic. N. D. I. 42, 118.
Cf. Cic. N. D. I. 42, 118. See Zeller I. 1132 foll.
❝ On sources of belief in gods, see Sextus Emp. Math. 9, 14, foll. Plut-
arch Amat. 763 C; de Is. 369 B; see below p. 26. Ps. Plut. Plac. Phil.
879 F. Dio. Chrys. XII. 391R. foll. Schol. II. 20, 67 (Dindorf IV. 230 foll.);
Eustathius 3. Syncellus, first part of Chronika. Anon. Alleg. (Westermann)
13
endeavored to preserve and support their own belief, or to defend
the myth-makers against the accusation of immorality. According
to Democritus, one origin of the belief in gods was the effort men
made to assign causes to striking natural phenomena." But he
seemed to believe in some more direct manifestations of super-
natural beings, for he described images that appear to men as beings
more powerful than themselves, larger and longer-lived, some good
and some evil; they were also prophetic of the future; when men
saw these images, they called them gods." Democritus spoke of
Zeus as "what men now call air. And he gave an allegorical ex-
planation of the epithet Tperoyéveta. It means that wisdom has three
parts, to reason well, to speak eloquently one's thought, and to put
properly into practice what has been thought out."
"Prodicus the Cean says that the ancients believed sun and moon
and rivers and springs, and, in general, all things that are bene-
ficial to man to be gods on account of their service to us, as the
Egyptians look on the Nile. And that on this account bread was
believed to be Demeter, wine Dionysus, water Poseidon, fire
Hephaestos, and, indeed, each of the aids to man's life was treated
in this way,
that is, deified. Cicero," too, understood Prodicus to
deny the existence of gods, that is, wholly to allegorize the tradi-
1956
Script. Poet. Hist. Gr. P. 327. 4; 328. 22. Cic. N. D. III. 7. 16; better, II.
5. 13-15, on Cleanthes's views. Only Democritus, Prodicus and Euhemerus
are spoken of here, for their views seem akin to allegoristic.
52 Sextus Math. 9. 24.
53 Sextus Math. 9. 19. Cf. Cic. N. D. I. 12. 29; 43. 120. Cicero says
that besides these images Democritus sometimes called the mind of man god.
Plutarch, de def. or. 419 A, joins the eidola of Democritus to the demons of
Empedocles, Plato, Xenocrates and Chrysippus. In Timoleon c. 1, he calls
Democritus superstitious for his prayer to meet favorable images. Modern
writers have differed as to whether these images of Democritus were demons.
Zeller I. 936 foll. calls them the first suggestion of demons as mediators be-
tween philosophy and religion. (On demons see below p. 31.) Windelband,
History of Ancient Philosophy (trans. by Cushman) 173 (Cf. 169); Liard,
De Democ. Phil. 56, 57; Decharme, Eur. 63, call these images demons. Hirzel,
I. 137, 1, with whom Heinze, Xen. 88, agrees, does not accept this view. The
suggestion of demons in the images can be avoided only by discrediting the
testimony of Sextus and Plutarch, and assuming that they had imposed alien
beliefs upon the atomist. The remark of Hirzel, p. 76, upon "Die Spaerliche
und vielleicht von Missverstaendnissen nicht freie Ueberlieferung" is just, but
would apply with the same cogency to almot every allegorist before Hera-
clitus, the author of the Homeric Allegories. However, as Democritus was the
type of the rationalist, there is a presumption against attributing any super-
stition to him.
54 Clem. Alex. Protrep. c. 6. 68. 59 P. (20 S.) Strom. 709 P. (255 S.).
It is an atheistical passage, for he says that few educated men address what
we now call air as Zeus, and ascribe to it all knowledge and power.
55 Diog. L. 9. 46. Eustath. 696. 36. Cf. Lobeck, I. 157, 158. Cf. remarks
on an explanation given by Diogenes, below p. 17.
Go Sextus Math. 9. 18. Philodemus p. 76 (Gomperz) seems to say much
the same, but the lines are so defective that without Sextus the restitution
would appear doubtful. Menander's expression, "That which nourishes me I
judge to be god," may be mere literary adornment or exaggeration. Meineke,
IV 76 (8. 4) and Gnom. Mon. 490.
ST N. D. I. 42. 118.
14
tional deities into things that conduce to man's life and comfort
And yet it is possible that Prodicus meant that the ancients wor-
shipped the givers of the gifts, not the gifts." Just as according to
one-half of the theory of Democritus they worshipped the causers
of thunder and other great natural appearances. In that case
Prodicus might either have been a polytheist himself, or a mono-
theist, who considered the traditional gods as manifestations of
, the one divine power, as did Plutarch.”
Euhemerus is hardly an allegorist, yet he had the same purpose
as Democritus and Prodicus had and the same spirit as any atheistic
allegorist. He claimed to have found in his travels records of great
and good kings and leaders of men, who came to be regarded as
superhuman. They had the names of Greek divinities. Hence
arose religion."
The chief followers of Euhemerus were Palaephatus," and Polyb-
ius," and especially Diodorus." Occasional Euhemerisms are found
in authors who are not at all Euhemerists. The scholium on
Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica II. 1248, gives several allegoristic
and Euhemeristic explanations of the Prometheus myth which are
assigned to Agroetas, Theophrastus and Herodorus. Hecataeus
also made Cerberus" a poisonous snake, and Geryon a king. Like-
65
58 Plutarch made such an explanation but without mentioning Prodicus,
see below p. 26.
59 See below p. 26. Cf. Welcker, Prodicus, s. 521 (quoted by Nestle,
Euripides, p. 431, 91). Wenn er . . . von den vielen Volksgoettern den einen
natuerlichen oder den wahren Gott unterschied
so hebt dies nicht die
vershrung des einen Gottes in den Goettern als Symbolen oder Organen seiner
Wohlthaten und seiner Herrlichkeit nach des Landes Gesetzen auf. Joel. Der
Echte u. d. Xen. Sokrates II. 262, Der Anfang der Froemmigkeit ist die Dank-
barkeit des Bauern gegen die Natur sagt Prodikos (Cf. Plut. de Is. 378, 379,
especially 378 F to 379 D); and Joel connects the doctrine of Prodicus with
the Cynic doctrine, as he describes it, of the piety of the farmer.
60 Eusebius Praep. Evang. II. 2 § 55 foll. Sextus Math. 9, 17, 34, 51. Plut.
de Is. 359 D to 360 D. See Euhemeri Reliquae, collected by Geyza Nemethy.
Cicero ascribed this doctrine to the Stoics, see below p. 21. Wellman Aegyptisches
Hermes 31, p. 232, says that Euhemerus, who was a friend of Cassander, de-
veloped his historical theory to make the apotheosis of the kings who followed
Alexander more acceptable to Greek understanding. According to Gruppe,
however, Euhemerus was a delicate humorist, misunderstood by both adherents
and opponents, who took as serious myth-making his playful irony upon the
Diadochi. (I 16 foll; a history of Euhemerism.) There does not seem to be
enough ancient testimony on the subject to support either view. Euhemerus
seems to have given the promulgators of religious doctrine the same purpose
that Critias assigned to them, namely, to obtain the obedience of the masses
(cf. above p. 13.) For Sextus Math. 9. 17 says that according to Euhemerus
the powerful men of ancient times, in order that they might increase fear and
obedience, persuaded their subjects to worship them as gods. Of course the
parallel ends with the purpose. Saintsbury seems to misuse Euhemerism when
in Hist. of Crit. I. 187 he calls Tzetzes's physical allegorizing "a cheap
pseudo-scientific Euhemerism."
61 Concerning incredible tales, introduction, Westermann, Script. poet.
hist. Gr. p. 268.
62 For example, in Strabo I. 2, 15 (C. 24).
63 III. 44-60. Cf. Eustath. I. p. 1190.
371; on Euhemerus, 367, 368.
* Fr. 346, Mueller, Fr. Hist. Gr.
63 Ib. Fr. 349.
On all three, see Grote, I. 368-
15
wise, Ephorus converted the serpent Pytho into a tyrannical king."
Even Herodotus accepted the story that some Egyptian priestesses
founded Dodona, and reconciled this version with the popular
Greek tale by calling the doves of the latter a figurative represen-
tation of the priestesses."
68
The meager remains of the early Cynics do not offer material for
the reconstruction of their literary criticism. It is plain, however,
that they did not understand all tradition in its literal sense. For
Antisthenes explained the god Eros as an affection of the soul,
deified by those suffering from an attack of the disease. His
exegesis of Homer is illustrated by his comment upon πολύτροπον.
The epithet held both praise and blame of Ulysses, but it might be
wholly free from evil implication if it were intended to apply not to
his moral character but to his oratory; that is, he could suit his
speech to his audience." This is not allegorical interpretation, but
reveals the same intention, namely, to preserve the moral teaching
、 of Homer at the expense of the natural meaning of his words. For
here Antisthenes was endeavoring to keep Ulysses as an example of
a moral life. Plato's treatment of the same epithet is wholly dif-
ferent; he did not free it from the idea of falsity, and declined to
enter into an idle discussion of what Homer might have meant,
"since it is impossible to ask the poet himself." TO
Antisthenes taught that some of the words of the poet were
spoken δόξη, and some ἀληθείᾳ * dóżŋ cannot, of course, have the
meaning given to zarà cóža by Plutarch in de aud. po. 17 D. where
it expresses the genuine belief of the poet himself, however
wrong or false such belief may be. Whether Antisthenes would
have said, as the Stoics did later, that the poet always knew the
truth and told it allegorically when he spoke on appears uncertain.
Dio's words are: ὁ δὲ Ζήνων οὐδὲν τῶν τοῦ Ὁμήρου ψέγει, ἅμα διηγούμενος καὶ
διδάσκων ὅτι τὰ μὲν κατὰ δόξαν, τὰ δὲ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν γέγραφεν, ὅπως μὴ φαίνηται
αὐτὸς αὑτῷ μαχόμενος ἔν τισι δοκοῦσιν ἐναντίως εἰρῆσθαι. ὁ δὲ λόγος οὗτος
Αντισθένους ἐστὶ πρότερον, ὅτι τὰ μὲν δόξῃ, τὰ δὲ ἀληθείᾳ εἴρηται τῷ ποιητῇ·
ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν οὐκ ἐξειργάσατο αὐτόν, ὁ δὲ καθ' ἕκαστον τῶν ἐπὶ μέρους ἐδήλωσεν.
ἔτι δὲ καὶ Περσαῖος ὁ τοῦ Ζήνωνος κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ὑπόθεσιν γέγραφε και
ällor пleious. It would seem unnecessary to repeat with Antisthenes
the words, τὰ μὲν δόξῃ, τὰ δὲ ἀληθείᾳ if it was not only in this par
8 Strabo IX. 422.
67 II. 54 foll. Cf. VII. 129, on the defile of Tempe, the work of Poseidon,
if Poseidon caused earthquakes. See Grote, I. 352 foll.
68 Clemens Alex. Strom. II. 20, p. 485P.
Schol. Od. I. 1 (Dind. I. p. 9).
" Hipp. Mi. 364 E. 365 B-D; 369 D.
"Dio. Chrys. LIII. 276 R.
16
of the teachings of Zeno but also in exculpation of Homer that
Antisthenes was his forerunner.'
72
Diogenes explained the sorcery of Medea in restoring old men to
youth as the work of gymnastic." But this does not necessarily
mean that Diogenes believed that the myth was invented to teach
the value of gymnastics. He may well have used the story as an
apt illustration of his subject in hand. It is often impossible to
determine just how a thinker has used the myth, especially when
his exact words have not come down to us, and the context is
wanting.
Much surer ground is reached when we come to the Stoics."
The testimony on their methods of interpreting Homer is clearer
and fuller than for any of their predecessors; more than that, for
the first time a definite plan was developed. Their system is the
first that has come down to us; that it was really the first elaborated
employment of allegoristic is a just inference from the words of
72 Therefore Duemmler, Antisthenica 24, seems to overstate the effect of
this passage when he says that [Antisthenes] non potuit non uti Stoicorum
allegoria quam incohas e saltem eum testatur Dio Chrysostomus or. LIII. 276 R.
Moreover, Dio does not bear witness that Antisthenes was the originator of this
method of criticism, whatever its nature, for he uses πρότερον, not πρῶτον
Schrader, 387, seems to agree with Duemmler. That Plato was arguing
against Antisthenes in those passages in which he opposed allegorical in-
terpretation, or the belief in the omniscience of Homer, or in which he jested
about the origin of names (Duemmler, Ant. 24-39), can hardly be proved.
For, in the first place, too little is known of Antisthenes's writings to give
assurance that in so many cases the kind of interpretation attacked by Plato
belonged to the Cynic. (On Plato's hostility to Antisthenes see Zeller II.
294-300, especially footnotes.) And, in the second place, the ideas opposed by
Plato were common, Ion 530 C, and a general tendency was more powerful for
evil than any teachers, Rep. 492, therefore it is unlikely that Plato always had
individuals in mind. Cf. Shorey, The Unity of Plato's Thought, 4 f. n. 4.
Joel. Der Echte u. d. Xen. Sokrates, has carried to the extreme this
attempt to find Antisthenes in Plato; see especially II. 146, 148, 149.
At any rate these discussions do not aid in the search for Antisthenes's
allegoristic. For we know that he is the object of Plato's attack only when
we already know that the doctrine oppored is that of the Cynic. Antisthenes
used allegories in his teaching, Julian VII. 209 A; 215 C; 217 A. Plato and
Xenophon are mentioned in the last two passages. (Cf. Krische 243 foll.;
Lobeck I. 159 h). On the allegorical interpretation employed by Antisthenes
see Schlemm 34 (cf. 35, 36, 39, 40); Heinze, Xen. 94; Zeller 2. 283; Weber,
de Dio Chrys. Cyn. Sec., Leipsiger. Stud. 10. 224. foll. These writers refer
to Duemmler. Cf. also Norden Beit. z. gesch. d. Gr. Philos.. Jahrb. f. Class.
Philol. XIX. Sup. s. 377 foll. Krische I, 234-246. Sengebusch I. 115 foll.
78 Stob. Eclog. III. c. 29, 92. Cf. Lobeck I. 159 f.n.h. Gomperz Gr. Thinkers
(Translated by Magnus) I. 375. The passage in Philodemus p. 70 (Gomp.)
is so defective that it seems hardly safe to build a doctrine for Diogenes upon
it. It appears to mean that "Diogenes praises Homer because he wrote (not)
mythically but truthfully; for he says that he (Homer) considered the air as
Zeus; since he says that Zeus knows everything." But cf. Duermler Akad.
143, 2. Sextus, Math. 7. 128, said that Homer, Od. 18. 163, ascribed intelli-
gence to the air.
"Their allegoristic has been treated so often that these few paragraphs
are inserted here only for the sake of completeness. See especially Zeller III.
321 foll., and Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics, trans. by Reichel, 354
foll. (many etymologies are given 362, f. n. 3), and Krische passim. Also
Sengebusch I. 67 foll.; Flach Int. to Gloss. u. Schol. z. Hes. Theog., and
authors referred to at the beginning of this sketch.
17
Dio Chrysostom." They assumed that Homer wrote with a full
knowledge of and acquiescence in Stoic physical and moral dogmas."
Whether this assumption was a pious conviction antecedent to the
use of the myths to support their own teachings, or whether they
consciously wrested the poet's words from their original intention,
it is perhaps impossible to determine. The language of Dio, that
"Zeno blamed nothing in Homer," would imply the genuineness of
their faith. However, either on account of a naive belief, or avail-
ing themselves of the convictions of others, they did reconcile tra-
dition with their doctrines so as to gain support from the respect
and almost religious awe in which the body of myths about the gods
was held.
The defense of Homer against his detractors was the chief
motive of some of the writers. It is at least probable that Heracli-
tus" was not expressing only his own view when he gave prominence
to this motive for his allegorical explanation of objectionable stories.
in Homer. By explaining myths about the gods as moral or physi-
cal allegories, they found their own beliefs there, and at the same
time relieved the myths of any impious or immoral implication
discovered in them. They were not the first who did either the
one or the other; we have already seen that the followers of Thales
and Heraclitus-unless Plato called the latter Homerids to ridicule
the search for ὑπόνοια discovered in the words of Homer the
principles of those philosophers. This method of understanding
the myths was a natural, to some extent a necessary, result of the
Greek habit of personifying natural phenomena and moral char-
acters; the inevitable corollary to that mythopoeic habit, namely,
confusion" in the minds of the sincerely religious between the god
78
75 See above p. 16.
70 This was somewhat the attitude of early and mediaeval Christians
towards Virgil; they found their own beliefs in the Aeneid, in an allegorical
dress. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, trans. by Benecke, ch. 7, 8. On
the honesty of the allegorists, p. 105 end.
77 Alleg. Hom, passim. Cf. Krische 393, that Zeno's motive was merely to
support his own doctrines. But the remains of Zeno on this point are too
scanty to justify a decision. On the serious purpose of the Stoics and their
allegoristic see Zeller III, 336, Sie (ihre erklärungen) galten ihnen für das
einzige Mittel, um den Glauben ihres Volkes zu retten, um die härtesten Vor-
würfe von den Ueberlieferungen und den Dichterwerken abzuwehren, mit denen
der Grieche sich von Kindesbeinen angenährt hatte. Mit diesen Ueberliefer-
ungen gänzlich zu brechen, konnten sie sich nicht entschliessen, ihre wissen-
schaftlichen und sittlichen Ueberzeugen wollten sie ihnen nicht zum Opfer
bringen; kann uns Wunder nehmen, wenn sie das unmögliche versuchten,
Widersprechendes zu vereinigen, und wenn dieser Versuch sie zu Gewaltsamkeit
und Künsteleien jeder Art hindrängte?
78 Of course not particularly Greek. Cf. Grote I. ch. 16. Grote in this
chapter and Gruppe and Schow point out the false results obtained by both
ancient and modern writers when they have pushed allegorical or symbolical
explanations to an extreme. Cf. Goropius Becamus in Lobeck II. 1051, the ob-
jection to the discovery of truth in inspired writings by means of allegorical
interpretation is that the interpreter must, like the poet, he inspired. Cf.
Plato's similar idea, above p. 9.
7 On identification of the god in a thing the words of Gruppe I. 49 are
suggestive: Wenn Lehrs und die uebrigen Rationalisten die Identification der
18
+
and the thing typified by him, or the department of the physical or
psychological world over which he presided, was one cause of the
development of allegorical interpretation. Etymology, that popu-
lar" field of philological activity, was abundantly used by the Stoics
in aid of their allegorical explanations.
87
That Zeno wrote on the interpretation of the poets is known
from the list of his works given by Diogenees Laertius," from Dio
Chrysostom," from Cicero, and the scholia to Hesiod's Theogony."
That his method was allegorical is proved by the following: (1)
The passage in Dio Chrysostom already quoted under Antisthenes,
which is to the effect that Zeno blamed nothing in Homer, but said
that the poet wrote some things in accordance with truth, others in
accordance with opinion, and that he worked this interpretation
out in detail. (2) Cicero:" Zeno, Cleanthes and Chrysippus wrote
to show that physica ratio non inelegans inclusa est in inpias fab-
ulas. (3) The statement of Minucius Felix" that Zeno interpreted
Juno as air, Jupiter as the heavens, Neptune as the sea, Vulcan as
fire, and the other popular gods as elements. (4) Cicero: Zeno
said that ether was a god. (5) Cicero:" in Zeno's interpretation of
Hesiod's theogony he utterly overthrew the accepted ideas of the
gods; for he did not receive Jupiter nor Juno nor Vesta among the
gods, but among inanimate things, and taught that these names.
had, by some symbolism (significationem), been attributed to mere
dumb things. (6) Cicero's witness to the great number of the
etymologies of Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus, and to their de-
structive effect upon religion. "For by this method those who are
called gods are acknowledged to be natural things, not personal
gods. Examples of these etymologies: 'By the Titans were meant
the elements of the universe; Koios from лotos the x used for as
in the Aeolic dialect; Kpeios the royal and chief; 'Yлeрíш the move-
ment up, from bлspár lévat." "Zeno said that the Cyclopes were
ἐγκυκλίους περιφοράς.και
180
90
Goetter mit den Naturscheinungen fuer eine spaete Faelschung der Griechischen
Mythologie halten so irren sie doppelt; vollstaendig identificiert wurden die
Gottheiten nie und die faculative Identification ist nicht auf die junge Periode
beschraenkt. See Plutarch's views below, p. 38 foll.
So Cf. Plato Cratylus, See above p. 8, 9.
81 VII. 4.
S2 See above p. 16.
83 N. D. I. 15, 36.
84 On vss. 134, 139.
83 N. D. II. 24, 63; Cf. 64.
$5 Octav. 19, 10; Pearson, Zeno 111; see Pearson's notes on that fragment.
ST N. D. I. 15, 36.
88 N. D. I. 15, 36. Pearson, 110; see his notes.
N. D. III. 24, 63.
**Schol. 134, Hes. Theog. The text of the following sentence about Iapetus
seems too doubtful to make it so valuable as the others; see Flach on this
scholion. Cf. Cornutus, Theol. Gr. Comp. ch. 17.
91 Schol. 139.
་དྷྭཥ་,
19
92
93
In the list of the books of Cleanthes given by Diogenes are three
that were probably filled with allegorical explanations, On the gods,
On the poet, On the giants. Cleanthes tried to accommodate to his
own beliefs the doctrines that were ascribed to Orpheus and Musaeus
and the teachings of Homer, Hesiod, Euripides and other poets."
By the word põlv in Od. 10, 305, he said that reason was alle-
gorically set forth, by which impulse and passion wióra:," His
etymologies were sometimes so absurd that Plutarch" said that
Cleanthes was in jest, as when he pretended to explain:
Ζεῦ πάτερ "Ιδηθεν μεδέων
καὶ τό
Ζεν ἂνα Δωδωναίς
05
ελεύων αναγιγνώσκειν ὑφ᾽ ἔν, ὡς τὸν ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἀναθυμιώμενον αέρα διὰ τὴ
ἀνάδοσιν ἀναδωδωναῖον ὄντα.
Other etymologies showing his allegorical interpretation of myths
are of Persephone," of Dionysus" (as the sun), of Apollo" (also as
the sun), and of various epithets of Apollo."
101
As seen above," Chrysippus used allegory to explain the myths,
as Zeno and Cleanthes did.100 According to Cicero he sometimes
made one thing god, sometimes another, as mind, the universe, the
elements, or men who had obtained immortality. "He said that he
was ether whom men called Jupiter," Neptune the air that perme-
ated the sea, Ceres that of the earth, and he treated the names of
the other gods in the same way. He called Zeus fate, also. He
wished to fit the fables of Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod and Homer to
those things which he himself said, ut etiam veterrimi poetae, qui
haec ne suspicati quidem sunt, Stoici fuisse videantur. His ety-
92 See above p. 19.
£3 VII. 175.
102
103
94 Philodemus de piet. 13 (p. 80 Gomp.) Pearson fr. 54. Cf. Plut. de
def. or. 415, F, the Stoics imposed their doctrine of the conflagration of the
world upon Heraclitus, Orpheus and Hesiod.
95 Pearson fr. 66, quoted from Appollon. Soph. Lex. Hom. p. 114 ed.
Bekker.
96 De aud. po. 31 E.
97 Plut. de Is. 377 D.
98 Pearson 57, 58, 59, 60; all from Macrob. Sat.
99 P. 19.
100 His work How to Listen to the Poets was probably filled with alle-
gorical interpretations, Diog. L. VII. 200.
101 N. D. I. 15. 39, 40. Cf. Philodemus de piet. 11-14 (p. 77-81 Gomp.), a
more detailed statement of Chrysippus's views on the gods than that in Cicero.
According to Krische, this treatise de pietate, which he ascribes to the Epi-
curean Phaedrus, was Cicero's source for the passages in the natura deorum
on the Stoics. Diels Dox. 121 foll. takes Phaedrus as the common source of
Cicero and Philodemus.
102 Plut. Stoic. rep. 1050 B on Chrysippus's interpretation of II. 1. 5, Zeus
meant fate and nature. Cf. Galen Plac. Hipp. 348 foll., Chrysippus explained
allegorically the birth of Athena, Hes. Theog. 886 foll.; the goddess was mind.
108 Cic. N. D. I. 15. 41. Cicero went on to say that Diogenes of Babylon
followed Chrysippus in this figurative method, and explained the birth of
Minerva by a physical allegory. On the allegoristic of Diogenes cf. Philodemus
de piet. 15 (82 Gomp.). See Seneca de Benef. I. 3. 8. [Chrysippus] nec his
[his arguments] fabulas, sed haec fabulis inserit. On this use of the poets as
1
20
:
101
mology of Zeus will perhaps serve as an example, though it is not
necessarily allegorical. Zeus is irom, he is called día because
all things are δι' αὐτόν.
105
106
The Stoics accepted all the unliteral explanations of the popular
religion that had found favor with their predecessors; how much
of this eclecticism, however, was in use among the older Stoics, it
is, of course, impossible to determine; but Persaeus said that men
of signal benefit to their race had come to be called gods, thus
showing himself a follower of Euhemerus.
107
The extant allegorical works written before Plutarch are Alle-
goriae Homericae of Heraclitus (in the time of Augustus), and
Compendium Theologiae Graecae of Cornutus (in the time of Nero).
They are both plainly Stoic in method, but exhibit widely different
purposes. While the book of Cornutus is but a tiresome list of
etymologies of the names of the gods and of their epithets that aims
to show that the whole hierarchy of the Greek religion was a figura-
tive expression of physical doctrine, Heraclitus explains in detail
the true meaning of the passages in Homer that have been attacked
as impious. Many chapters from Heraclitus have passed into the
Homeric scholia;10s the Pseudo-Plutarchian de vita et poesi Homeri,
and the Stoic passages in Porphyry's Homeric questions and in
Eustathius's comments upon the Homeric poems are so much like
the Allegoriae Homericae that they must all be supposed to have a
110
common source.
111
107 (1
109
100
The purpose of Heraclitus was to defend Homer against his
detractors. He began by acknowledging that Homer was impious if
he were not allegorizing. But as he had not always been a teacher of
Greek youth, he must still be considered as a sacred writer," and
although the foolish and unlearned may fail to understand the
allegories our duty is to find what he really meant in the appar-
witnesses see Diog. L. 10. 27, on Epicurus, Zeno and Aristotle; Galen de plac.
Hipp. 302 on Chrysippus. Yet Galen expressed his surprise at the generosity of
Chrysippus, in quoting passages that supported the doctrine that he was trying
to refute, III. 300.
10+ Stob. ecl. I. 48 (s. 26). Arnim. II. fr. 1062, 1063. Other etymologies
are in the fragments 1084, 1085, 1089, 1094, 1095, 1098, 1099.
105 Chrysippus gave an allegorical interpretation of a picture, Clem. Hom.
V. 18.667; Origen c. Cels. IV. 48.540.
100 Ps. Plut. Plac. 879 C. foll., Stoic theories of the origin of religious
beliefs.
107 Cic. N. D. I. 15. 38. Cf. on the Stoics in general II. 24. 62. On their
use of a theory akin to that of Prodicus II. 23. 60-62; physical allegory II.
24. 63 foll:; in this passage are many etymologies. On etymologies cf. also
Diog. L. VII. 147. On their physical allegory see Plutarch de Is. 367. C. On
psychological allegory. Plut. Amat. 757 B.
107a His closing paragraph, however, expresses a firm belief in the wisdo
of the ancients, and proclaims his own pious purpose of leading the young
to religion but not to superstition.
108 Schrader II. 394.
109 Ib. 393 foll.
110 Schow 227, 228.
111 Ch. 1. He referred to Plato with bitterness C. 4, 12, 17, 21; cf. above p.
9.
112 C. 1.
Cf. Philo below p. 22.
را
21
V
113
ently reprehensible stories." He is the source of all philoso-
phies." Since he and the other poets have manifestly made use of
allegories, they have pointed out the way to interpret their own
works; even philosophers use allegory." His allegorical explana-
tions of the battle of the gods will be sufficient to show his treat-
ment of the myths as either psychological or physical allegory. After
allowing some plausibility to the suggestion that the hostile meet-
ing of the gods typified the conjunction of the seven planets and
the consequent destruction of all things, he pronounced the follow-
ing conception of the meaning to be clearer and more in accordance
with Homer's philosophy." The poet opposed to vices, virtues; to
physical forces, their opposites; as, Athena to Ares and Aprodite:
wisdom to folly and incontinence. Hermes to Leto: logical speech
to forgetfulness. Apollo to Poseidon: the sun to water.
120
119
124
Philo Judaeus¹ had the same ideas about his sacred literature
that the Stoics had about theirs. Just as Heraclitus believed Homer
the source of all wisdom, so Philo believed the Old Testament the
source not only of religious truth, but of all truth. Truth was
sometimes expressed literally, sometimes figuratively in order that
it might accommodate itself to the weaker sort of men, yet not
all men could grasp the hidden meaning," as Heraclitus, too, recog-
nized. He reminds us again of Heraclitus" when he says that some-
times the sacred writings would lead to impiety or to atheism if
they were not understood allegorically." 14 Sometimes both a his-
torical fact and a spiritual truth were conveyed by the words, just
as Plutarch said of the Isis myth. He gave different allegorical
explanations of the same thing," again like Plutarch.
128
""
125
C. 3. Cf. Pindar O. 2. 91, "There is many an arrow in my quiver, full
of speech to the wise, but for the many, they need interpreters. And frag.
of Soph. in Plut. de Pyth. or. 406 F, god himself teaches the wise by riddles.
And Sallustius, de diis c. 3.
111
¹¹¹ C. 4, 13, 22, 34. "He is not only an allegorical philosopher, but even
an allegorical farmer," c. 35. On Homer as source of wisdom see Sengebusch
I. 132, 133, 135, 137. But Sengebusch's acknowledgment of the debt of later
writers to Homer is not exactly on the point in question, as it does not show that
they derived their dogmas from the poet.
115 C. 5; at the end, an interesting contrast between Tò lɛyópevov and
τὸ νοούμενον.
116 C. 24.
117 C. 53.
11s C. 54-58. Cf. below p.40 f. n. 216.
119 Since Philo's allegoristic is not applied to Greek literature but to the
Hebrew Bible, it will be sufficient for this sketch to bring out some of his
principles and methods as they are set down in Siegfried, 160 foll., and Zeller,
V. 347 foll.
120 Siegfried 161.
121 Ib. 162. Cf. Plato Rep. 376 E. Max. Tyr. X. 5. Of. Plutarch below p. 30.
122 Siegfried 164. Cf. Heraclitus, above p. 21.
123 Above p. 21.
124 Siegfried, 165, 164. Cf. Zeller V. 348.
125 Siegfried, 164.
120 Below p. 30, 31.
127 Zeller V. 351. For Plutarch see below p. 33.
22
129
128
We know little about the allegorical explanations of the gram-
marians. Aristarchus was opposed to the allegorical method of
interpreting Homer. But he admitted etymologies of the names
of the gods, Crates of Mallus was a Stoic philosopher, and wrote
on Homer.¹ He described the throwing of Hephaestos from heaven
as a physical allegory. He made the méλstat of Odyssey 12.62
equal to πλείαδες,
leiades, that nourished Zeus (upper ether) with
moisture.132 Aristorchus followed Eratosthenes" in taking some-
thing of a historical view of the poems, while Crates held the Stoic
doctrine of the omniscience of Homer.
131
133
135
128 Eustathius p. 3, 40, 604. Cf. Wolff, Proleg. 165. Sengebusch, I. 60;
124 foll. on Aristarchus's relation to Plato.
120 Eustath, 571.
130 Suidas s. v.
131 Heraclitus, Hom. Alleg. c. 27.
132 Athenaeus, 490 B-E. Athenaeus says that Crates got this explanation
from Moero of Byzantium. Cf. Porph. and Eustath. Il. 18, 239. Wolff,
Proleg. 278, 9.
133 Strabo, I. 31.
13 Strabo II. 299; I. 23; I. 15, 3. Cf. Sengebusch I. 42.
135 Strabo III. 157. Cf. Wolff 1. c, susemihl, Gesch. Gr. Lit. I. 415,
Sengebusch I. 117. "The Pergamene school formed the third link in a chain of
allegorists, of which the other two were the Cynics and the Stoics." On
Crates see Schrader, 391 foll.; Sengebusch, I. 60.
23
12138
PART II.—PLUTARCH.
137
139
Plutarch's allegorical interpretation of myths was the logical
consequence of his own religious belief and of his regard for reli-
gious traditions. He believed in a supreme being, immortal and
beneficent and wise, but not all powerful. God was not the cause of
all things, but only of the good," for a principle of evil was inher-
ent in nature; this doctrine of the two principles of good and evil
at war with each other was "held by most men, and by the wisest
men. But the principle of good was more powerful. It was
Plutarch's view that Plato taught that this principle of evil was the
intractability of matter under the spirit of disorder.140 The supreme
god assigned various fields of activity to his subordinates. This
divine power was universal, and was worshipped by all men,
although they called it by different names, and observed different
forms and rites in its service; in their worship they made use of
symbols, often dark and misleading, so that some fell into super-
stition and others into atheism.142 Although god could not control
136 Cf. Plato, Rep. 379 B.
137 De Is. 369 A foll.
138 369 D foll.
159 371 A.
141
Plutarch
140 De an. proc. 1015 A, C-E. Cf. de tran. an. 473 F foll.
found no contradiction between Plato's earlier and later discussions on this
subject: 'Plato often veiled his thought, and called the two opposed causes
the same and the other [see Tim. 35 A]; however, when he was older he
wrote in the Laws [896 foll.] without enigma and symbol but in plain words
that the world was not moved by one soul; it was moved at the least by two,
one the cause of good, the other of the opposite to good,' de Is. 370 F. Yet
in the Politicus 269 E Plato says explicitly that you must not think that
there are two gods who rule the world.
141 But sometimes these subordinate deities were conceived of as only
names of the one god: 'Justice and Right are said to be the assessors of Zeus
to show that he cannot rule without them. But he is himself justice and
right,' ad princ. inerud. 781 B.
142 De Is. 377 F,
οὐχ ἑτέρους παρ' ἑτέροις οὐδὲ βαρβάρους καὶ Ελληνας οὐδὲ νοτίους καὶ βο-
ρείους· ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ ἥλιος καὶ σελήνη καὶ οὐρανὸς καὶ γῆ καὶ θάλασσα κοινὰ πᾶσιν,
ὀνομάζεται δ' ἄλλως ὑπ᾽ ἄλλων, οὕτως ἑνὸς λόγου τοῦ ταῦτα κοσμοῦντος καὶ μιᾶς
προνοίας ἐπιτροπευούσης καὶ δυνάμεων ὑπουργῶν ἐπὶ πάντα τεταγμένων, ἕτεραι
παρ' ἑτέροις κατὰ νόμους γεγόνασι τιμαί καὶ προσηγορίαι· καὶ συμβόλοις χρῶν-
ται καθιερωμένοις οἱ μὲν ἀμυδροῖς οἱ δὲ τρανοτέροις, ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα τὴν νόησιν
ὁδηγοῦντες οὐκ ἀκινδύνως. ἔνιοι γὰρ ἀποσφαλέντες παντάπασιν εἰς δεισιδαιμονίαν
ὤλισθον, οἱ δὲ φεύγοντες ὥσπερ ὅλος τὴν δεισιδαιμονίαν ἔλαθον αὖθις ὥσπερ εἰς
κρημνὸν ἐμπεσόντες τὴν ἀθεότητα.
A
25
ހ
all the forces of the universe, yet the order of the world was a
moral order; even fate moved by moral law, and men and cities
reaped the inevitable results of their own acts.
146
148
Apparently he thought that men of a happier age had had direct
inspiration from god, for he said that the source of all knowledge
that did not come through the senses was perhaps myth, custom,
or reason; therefore we have had three classes of teachers of relig-
ion-poets, lawgivers, philosophers;"" and, "Plato, Pythagoras,
Xenocrates, and Chrysippus followed the ancient theologians in the
demon doctrine." The atheistical view that lawgivers invented
religion in order to subject the people to their government is sug-
gested by the remark that superstition is a valuable bridle in the
hands of rulers. However. it is not conceivable that Plutarch
believed that religion in its higher sense was a conscious invention
of the lawgivers. He doubtless meant that rulers of men took
advantage of particular superstitions, or, possibly, suggested some
superstitious ideas that would tend to subject the masses more
thoroughly. The men of ancient times who made myths and insti-
tuted religious rites possessed a clearer religious truth than their
descendants. For to the former the dark funereal rites performed
in the worship of certain gods were symbolic of grief at the pass-
ing of the fruits of the earth, which were the gifts of the gods;"
while to the latter these rites represented the sorrow of men for
the death of the gods themselves."
144
147
However, in spite of this belief in the wisdom of the ancients,
he did not go to the Stoic extreme of using Homer and Hesiod as
sacred scriptures, to be defended against all attacks and to be relied
upon as infallible authorities for his own teachings. Homer was
See the whole passage 377 C-378 D. On superstition and atheism cf.
355 D, and de superst. 171 F; in the latter passage much the same language
as in the Isis. Cf. Hirzel, der Dial. II. 218, Nach dem Vorgange der akad-
emischen Skeptiker hat er [Plut. in de Is.] sich zwischen den Aberglauben
des Volkes und dem Unglauben mancher Philosophen den Mittelweg einer
reineren und tieferen Gottes -erkentniss und verehrung gesucht. On the
unity of God, cf. de Is. 382 D; de E. 393 A, B. On Plutarch's idea of
God, see Volkmann, II. 69 foll., 248 foll.; Zeller III. 166 foll.; Schlemm 51.
148 De aud. po. 23 E.
144 Amat. 763 C. Cf. de Is. 369 B.
145 De Is. 360 E. Cf. de proc. an. 1030 B, theologians were the earliest
philosophers; in this place poets also are quoted to support the author's thesis,
so we again have the three sources of opinion. Cf. Dio Chrys. XII. 391 R.
foll.: sources of belief in the gods are innate ideas, poetry, laws, statues of
gods, philosophy. S. Aug. de civ. IV. 27, the orator Scaevola said that there
were three classes of gods-the gods of the poets, of the philosophers, of the
rulers. Cf. Aristotle above p. 10 on poets and myth-makers as teachers.
See Oakesmith, XIX. On the origin of religion, above p. 13 foll.
146 De gen. Soc. 580A. Cf. above p. 13.
147 De Is. 378 F.
149 379 D. foll. This is the answer of the faithful to unbelievers like
Prodicus, see above p. 14.
26
\
150
140
certainly not sacred to him, for he freely blamed the poet's words,'
and rejected poetic teachings about the gods or about virtue and
vice when they did not accord with his own high religious and
moral ideas. Moreover, he considered philosophers of so much
greater authority than poets that he advised the readers of poetry
whenever they met with useful precepts to show that they were
found in some philosopher also, in order that the precepts might
thereby gain in force. Poetry as a vehicle of truth fell below
religious teachings as well as below philosophy; and poetic myths
were webs woven entirely of false threads, while religious myths
always had an underlying woof of instruction. Moreover, poetry
was less serious than the teachings of the priests; its aim was
chiefly pleasure. It is just in this reasonable view of the popular
religious poetry that he especially differed from the Stoics. His
statement that the poets sometimes deviated from the truth
through their own mistaken beliefs was in direct opposition to
Zeno's words, that Homer sometimes spoke the exact truth, and/
sometimes spoke in the form of popular beliefs. Nor was Homer
of peculiar authority to Plutarch; when he appealed to great writers
for testimony and by way of illustration, he joined others with
157
155
152
156
149 De aud. po. 15 C; 16 E; 20 C foll.; Lycurgus c. 4.
150 De aud. po. 16 D. foll.
153
151 De aud. po. 35 F. Therefore his finding @ reautóv (de aud.
po. 36 A; Septem 164 B, C.), and undèv äɣav (Septem 164 C) in Homer,
and Plato's τὸ ἀδικεῖν κάκιον εἶναι τοῦ
εἶναι τοῦ ἀδικεῖσθαι in Hesiod (de aud. po.
36 A. B.), is not a proof that he held the poets the source of all wisdom.
152 De Is. 358 E.
153 Lycurgus c. 4.
Pericles c. 1, 2.
154 Twice in de aud. po. this aim was made most definite, 16 A, ýšovýv
ἀκοῆς καὶ χάριν, ἣν οἱ πλεῖστοι [poets] διώκουσιν; and 17A, τοῦτο δὲ παντὶ
δῆλον, ὅτι μυθοποίημα καὶ πλάσμα πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἢ ἔκπληξιν ἀκροατοῦ γέγονε.
Mr. F. M. Padelford, in the introduction to his translation of Plutarch
de aud. po., Essays on the Study and Use of Poetry by Plutarch and Basil
the Great, in Yale Studies in English XV, seems to be a little unfair when he
says, p. 30, that Plutarch nowhere tells us what the aim of poetry is. As I have
shown above, he said explicitly in two passages that pleasure is the aim of
the poets.
The translator seems to have overlooked the educational purpose
of the essay. Naturally, as this is not a treatise on poetry, Plutarch did not
enter into a full discussion of the aim of poetry. Butcher, also, in Ar. Theory
of Poetry and Fine Art, overlooks this distinction in his criticism of Plato,
chapter on The End of Fine Art, and Plutarch, p. 215, but gives Aristotle the
benefit of it. p. 218.
F,
165 De aud. po. 164, ψεύδονται ἀοιδοὶ .... τὰ δ᾽ ἄκοντες; Ε, πλείονα δ'
ἃ μὴ πλάττοντες ἀλλ' οἰόμενοι καὶ δοξάζοντες αὐτοὶ.... τὸ ψεῦδος; 17Β,ταῦτα δ'
ἤδη κατὰ δόξαν εἴρηται καὶ πίστιν αὐτῶν, ἣν ἔχουσιν ἀπάτην περὶ θεῶν καὶ ἄγνοιαν.
See 16 foll. for a discussion of the topic.
156 Dio Chrys. LIII. 276 R. Cf. above p. 16.
157 He appealed to poets as authority upon all sorts of questions. For
instance, in support of Plato's belief that liquids were swallowed into the
lungs he referred not only to physicians but also to Euripides, Alcaeus,
Eupolis, Eratosthenes, de Stoic. rep. 1047 C, D.
27
Dor M
161
160
138
159
Homer, as Euripides, Pindar, Sophocles and Menander in de aud.
po. c. 4; and the Symposiacs are full of quotations from many dif-
ferent authors. He deliberately and confessedly extended the appli-
cation of a useful admonition or suggestion, and praised Chrysip-
pus for advising such a free use of literature. But this is a differ-
ent thing from forcing the meaning of an author in order to find
his own doctrine in the writing; that misuse of authorities he
explicitly condemned; likewise the injustice of wresting a passage
from its connection. Thus we see that, like Xenophanes and Plato,
Plutarch found much to blame in Homer. Unlike Xenophanes, he
did not attack the poet; on the contrary, he wrote an essay espe-
cially to show how to use the poets, and in that essay he acknowl-
edged the value of the teaching of Homer. Unlike Plato, he did
not write a Utopia, and therefore had no occasion to banish Homer.
He did not think it possible to banish Homer from an actual cur-
182
158 Ex. com. in Hes. fr. 51.
De aud. po. 34 B.
168
10 The meanings forced upon Homer and Hesiod in de prim.. frig. 948
E, F, and 952 A are in an essay that is merely a rhetorical exercise, and evi-
dently neither serious nor important in the author's eyes.
161 De def. or. 415 F.; de an. proc. 1013 B.
162 Non posse 1086 D; adv. Colot. 1108 D. I do not recollect any passage
in which Plutarch was himself guilty of this injustice. The arguments in the
works against the Stoics are often quibbling, but the loss of the books against
which they were directed prevents our knowing whether he treated their
words unfairly. If Galen, de plac. Hipp. 300, 301, correctly quotes Plutarch
in the Homeric Exercises he there directed the writer to choose from other
authors whatever would support his own doctrines, but to pass by whatever
was opposed to them. That Plutarch found all truth in Homer, and used
him as support for his own doctrines, is maintained by Amoneit, de Plut.
Stud. Hom. 16 foll. What has been given above is, perhaps, a sufficient
refutation of that judgment. Cf. Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas, etc.,
p. 57, "There was an instinct in the Greek mind, as there is in modern times,
which rebelled against ad philosophy into it."
tendencies to draw a moral from all that
Homer wrote, and to read
In illustration he says that
I'lutarch "said that Homer reflected faithfully the chequered lights and
shadows of human life, and sometimes that the existence of immorality in
Homer must clearly be allowed, but that if a balance were struck between
the good and evil, the good would be found largely to predominate." He
refers to Plutarch de aud. po. 24. 25.
163 De aud. po. 15 A. It seems certain that no writer after Plato, espe-
cially a Platonist, could have touched upon the exclusion of poetry from the
training of young men without having in mind Plato's banishment of the
poets from his ideal State. When Schlemm 20, 21 supposes that Plutarch
was not thinking of Plato, because he did not mention Plato, he probably
overlooks the different objects of the de aud. po. and the Republic. There
was no need, in a practical treatise on education, to refer to the dream of an
ideal State. It is true that Plutarch did not causas offensionis eius [Plato's]
refutare; he could not do that, because he agreed with Plato entirely that the
reasons did exist; but he adduced other reasons for keeping poetry as a part
of the education of young men. He defended the poets not merely by calling
attention to their habit of using false stories, chapter 2, especially 17 D,
chapter 7, but also by teaching the readers of poetry (1) to use their own
judgment and not to yield to the authority of great writers. chapter 9, or to
the example of heroes, chapter 8; (2) to admire the skill of the artist in
imitating human nature, not the things imitated, chapters 3, 7; (3) to observe
that the poet himself often condemns what is wrong, or brings the malefactor
to justice, chapter 4; (4) to feel less respect for the poets by noticing their
contradictions, and to oppose to the evil in a poet the virtuous words or deeds
28
104
riculum, nor, indeed, desirable, for the good exceeded the evil
and poetry furnished a valuable propaedeutic to philosophy.10
167
163
Plutarch would preserve the ancient faith of the fathers, and he
deprecated the discrediting of myths about the gods; for if one
story were shaken it would bring all religion under suspicion. Yet
he did not hesitate to reject such parts of the myth as offended his
moral or aesthetic sense; in recounting the adventures of Isis he
said that he omitted the parts that were δυσφημότατα 108 and in
general he expressed himself as neither altogether believing nor
altogether disbelieving myths. They were not to be regarded
in the light of true relations, óyors, but from them should be
extracted τὸ πρόσφορων ο .... τὸ κατὰ τὴν ὁμοιότητα." Here is the key
to Plutarch's treatment of myths and religious rites; his interest,
as in the Lives, was mainly ethical;" and the real meaning
was to be got at by an allegorical explanation, κατὰ τὴν ὁμοιότητα.
170
109
of others, 20C foll.; (5) to understand the exact sense in which the poet has
used words, that is, whether literally or metaphorically, chapter 6. Cf. below
p. 36 foll.
As Schlemm acknowledges, Plutarch mentions many of the pas-
sages censured by Plato:
Plato Rep.
·
Plut. de aud. po.
·
24A.
24 B; 32 B.
.20 E; 16 D, E.
379-Two jars of Zeus, Il. 24, 527.
379-Gods induce violation of oath.
379 Strife of the gods, Il. 20...
380-Zeus causes the destruction of a house, Aesch. Niobe (?) frag………..17B.
386-Terrors of death and Hades, Il. 16, 856, et al.
388-Sorrow of Achilles, Il. 24, 10 and 18, 23.
390-Achilles's abuse of Agamemnon, Il, 1, 225.
390-Adultery of Ares and Aphrodite, Od. 8, 266..
391-Achilles's treatment of Hector's body, Il. 22, 395.
·
•
.17 C foll.
33 A.
19 C.
•
•
19 F.
19 C.
164 15 A, B foll. Cf. Amat. 769 C, the power of poetry both for good
and evil.
185 Lycurgus, c. 4.
100 De aud. po. 15 F, 37B.
167 Amat. 756 B. Cf. Plat. Rep. 365 E, (words that Glaucon puts into
the mouth of the defender of an appearance of justice) since it is from the
same source, namely, myths and poets, that we learn of the existence and
providence of the gods, and of their yielding to prayers and propitiation, we
must accept both dogmas or neither. Also Plut. cons. ad ux. 612 D, since it
is more difficult to disbelieve than to believe the doctrine of our fathers on
the immortality of the soul, let us preserve the outward form and keep pure
the inner faith.
108 De Is. 358 E. CF. 355 D, τῶν ἀχρήστων σφόδρα καὶ περιττῶν ἀφαιρε
θέντων.
160 Amat. 762 A.
170 De aud. po. 20 B, C, as philosophers use examples from history to
admonish and instruct, so poets invent and devise their own stories for the
same purpose, and teach by their very myth-making.
171 De Is. 374 E. Cf. de glor. Ath. 348 A, B for a definition of myths,
ὁ δὲ μῦθος εἶναι βούλεται λόγος ψευδὴς ἐοικὼς ἀληθινῷ; here, however, there is
no necessary implication that a myth is an allegory.
172 Cf. Oakesmith XX, "It is this desire of making the wisdom and tra-
ditions of the past available for ethical usefulness which actuates his attempt
to reconcile the contradictions, and remove the crudities and inconsistencies
in the three sources of religious knowledge."
29
In the essay on the Isis myth he developed at length this belief,
that religious tradition taught moral truth under a figurative form.
"Philosophy is hidden for the most part in myths and stories that
hold dim reflections of the truth; this the Egyptians signified by
placing sphinxes before their temples to show that their religion
contains an enigmatic" wisdom." "The myth is a representation of
some idea that has the power to suggest to the mind other ideas."175
Often a reasonable explanation of objectionable things in literature
and tradition could be found. Sometimes the truth in poetry or
myths was purposely hidden from the vulgar." The figurative and
enigmatic language served the purpose of arousing discussion and
of causing men to think."
178
176
Yet a story that was used to convey moral instruction or
physical fact was not, according to Plutarch, therefore necessarily
fiction. It might be a true account of the experiences of living
beings. In the interest of piety we should have to distinguish to
179
173 Cf. de Is. 366 C, and again D, aivítreovat, and in many other places.
Cf. de Pyth. or. 409 D, τὰ αἰνίγματα καὶ τὰς ἀλληγορίας καὶ τὰς μεταφορὰς τῆς
μαντικῆς ἀνακλάσεις οὔσας πρὸς τὸ θνητὸν καὶ φανταστικὸν. For word αινίττομαι
in Plato see above p. 8 f. n. 16.
174 De Is. 354 C. Cf. Amat. 762 A, "There are scattered throughout the
Egyptian mythology certain slight and obscure emanations from the truth.'
De Is. 354 F, Pythagoras probably borrowed his symbolic method from the
Egyptians. Cf. Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras p. 103, the Egyptians taught
by symbols. Cf. de Is. 355 C, 357 F, for the Egyptian use of symbols not in
religion.
175 De Is. 359 A. Cf. 358 E-359A; 377C; 378A, B (quoted below, p.
33); fr. de daed. Plat. Sec. 1. With the opening words of this fragment,
ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἡ παλαιὰ φυσιολογία καὶ παρ' Ελλησι καὶ βαρβάροις λόγος ἦν φυσι-
κὸς ἐγκεκρυμμένος μύθοις τὰ πολλά [cf. ἐγκεκρυμμένης τὰ πολλὰ μύθοις
in de Is. 354C], compare Dio Chrys. LIII. 275 R. for the established belief
in later times that the earliest writers taught physical science by myths.
For comment and many references see Lobeck I. 155 foll. Cf. de daed. Plat.
Sec. 3, τὸ συμβολικὸν εἶδος ἐν .... τοῖς μύθοις.
tò
But on these passages in this fragment see below p. 52 f. n. 286. With this
definition of the myth compare Ruskin's definition, Queen of the Air, p. 2, “A
myth (......) is a story with a meaning attached to it, other than it seems
to have at first." But surely the word is used both in Greek and in English
without any such implication. Cf. Plutarch's own definition given above p.
29 f. n. 171.
176 De Is. 353 E, 355 B-D. De aud. po. 19 E-20 D. Cf. 24B, words
sometimes employed in their usual sense,zvpíws, sometimes in an unusual sense.
Cf. de Pyth. or. 402 E. See Volkmann 257 foll.; Zeller III, 198 f. n. 4.
177 De E. 388 F. Cf. fr. of Sophocles quoted with approval in de Pyth.
or. 406 F, god teaches the wise by riddles. Heraclitus, Alleg. Hom. c. 3,
Philo de somn. I. 656, 40; quod. deus immut. 11 (I. 280).
De E. 385 C, D; 386 E. Cf. Sallustius de diis c. 3. Cf. Ruskin,
Queen of the Air, 22, you are bettered by all great art "partly by a gift of
unexpected truth, which you shall only find by slow mining for it-which is
withheld on purpose, and close-locked, that you may not get it till you have
forged the key of it in a furnace of your own heating.”
179 De Is. 358 F. Cf. Wyttenbach ed. Plut. Mor. XIII. 185, Fabula non
mere allegorica, ut contendit Jabloniskius, Panth. Aeg. P. I. p. 143, sed est et
historica et allegorica. Cf. Philo above p. 22.
་ཝརི
30
what class of living beings the personages of any story belong. If
their characters, acts or sufferings were unworthy the dignity of the
gods, as in the Isis myth, they must not be recognized as divine.18
On the other hand, to explain religious myths as histories of the
great men of the past led to atheism. Besides, it was improbable
that accounts of the doings of mere men could ever be raised to the
level of sacred histories; if Alexander was not deified, was it likely
that any human being was elevated to the rank of a god ? “There-
fore they give the better account of the myth who judge that the
stories related of Typhon, Osiris and Isis give the experiences of
neither gods nor men but of mighty demons, whom Plato, Pythag-
oras, Xenocrates and Chrysippus, following the teachings of the
ancient theologians, described as more powerful than men, but not
of unmixed divine nature, for they possessed both souls and bodies,
and were subject to pleasure and pain. As among men, so among
demons, some are better, some worse. Osiris and Isis were trans-
lated from good demons into gods; Typhon remained a suffering
and malevolent demon. The compatibility of a matter of fact and
allegorical significance is explicitly argued elsewhere. In the life
of Pericles, chapter 6, Plutarch showed that both the scientist
Anaxagoras and the seer Lampon might be correct in their explana-
tions of the single horn of the ram given to Pericles. The one
showed the physiological cause of the peculiarity, the other its pro-
phetic meaning for the Athenian government, that it was soon to
have one leader, not both Pericles and Thucydides. It was the
province of the scientist to investigate ἐκ τίνων γέγονε καὶ πῶς πέφυκε,
of the seer to pronounce πρὸς τί γέγονε καὶ τί σημαίνει. And those who
say that the discovery of the cause is the doing away with the signifi-
cance do not consider that they are setting aside the instruments,
tà tεyτá, of the symbols together with the divine relations.
183
182
Plutarch believed that in religious rites as in myths lay a hidden
truth. "For there is nothing unreasonable nor mythical nor intro-
184
180 358 E.
181 359 E-360D. Cf. Diod. Sic. I. 13, 4 foll., same beneficent character
of Isis and Osiris, but Euhemeristic explanation. On Euhemerism see above
p. 15.
182 360 D. Cf. de def. or. 417 Ε, καὶ μὴν ὅσας ἔν τε μύθοις καὶ ὕμνοις λέγουσι
καὶ ἄδουσι, τοῦτο μὲν ἁρπαγὰς τοῦτο δὲ πλάνας θεῶν κρύψεις τε καὶ φυγὰς καὶ
λατρείας, οὐ θεῶν εἰσιν ἀλλὰ δαιμόνων παθήματα καὶ τύχαι μνημονευόμεναι δι'
ἀρετὴν καὶ δύναμιν αὐτῶν.
iss on demons, 360 D-363 D. Cf. de def. or. 415 foll.; de E. 394 C.
Heinze, Xenokrates 78 foll. Grote I, 378-381. Above p. 13.
184 Fr. de daed. Plat. Sec. 1, μάλιστα δ' οἱ περὶ τὰς τελετάς ὀργιασμοί και
τὰ δρώμενα συμβολικῶς ἐν ταῖς ἱερουργίαις τὴν τῶν παλαιῶν ἐμφαίνει διάνοιαν.
31
duced by superstition in the essential rites of religion, but of some
rites there are ethical and useful causes and others are not unin-
fluenced by historical or physical considerations."
"Ceremonies
were established by Isis to commemorate her sufferings and
wanderings and her deeds of wisdom and courage; into the most
sacred rites she put images and hidden meanings and imitations of
her experiences to instruct and console men and women under like
afflictions. And she and Osiris, changed on account of their virtue
from good demons into gods, as were later Heracles and Dionysus,
receive honors of both demons and gods. The most extreme ex-
pression of the spiritual value of religious observances occurs in the
fragment of his commentaries upon Hesiod; it is that propitiation
of the gods does not alter them, but helps us. His words on re-
ligious observances carried with them a peculiar authority, for he
was himself a priest of Apollo, and the book on Isis was addressed
to Clea, a priestess of Isis.
186
157
Plutarch's allegorical interpretation exhibited the same intellect-
ual habits and mental bias as his other literary activities, an absence.
of historical perspective and an inclination to moral consideration
upon all occasions. While the uncritical spirit of his times and of
the temper of his own mind kept him from judging poem or myth
in the light of the conditions of its production, he was saved from
the absurdities of some allegorists by his rare common sense. He
explicitly objected to forced interpretations, γλισχρῶς ἀλληγοροῦσι;
and once in the Amatorius" declined to make use of the slight
emanations of truth from the Egyptian mythology on the ground
that it required a clever pathfinder to follow the traces of
truth there. Poetry and myths and religious rites held for
190
189
The mysteries teach the nature of demons, de def. or. 417 C. Both tradition
and the mysteries of Dionysus teach immortality, cons. ad ux. 611 D, "And
since it is more difficult to disbelieve these things than to believe them, let us
comply with the custom in outward and public behaviour, and let our hearts
be more unpolluted, pure and sober," 612 B. Aet. Rom. 275 E, a religious
rite called a σύμβολον of the gods' love of temperance. Cf. Heraclitus,
Alleg. Hom. c. 6, mystic doctrines taught by secret religious ceremonies.
Demetrius Phal., Walz Rhet. Gr. IX. 47, 101, allegorical form of mys-
teries for the purpose of inspiring terror and awe, as in darkness and night;
for allegory is like darkness and night. See Lobeck, I, 133 foll., 166 foll. Hatch
59. Grote I. 388-392. On Plutarch's rational explanation of traditional
religion, Volkmann II., 252 foll.
185 De Is. 353 E.
186 361 D, E. Cf. 351 F. foll., true followers of Isis obtain reason and
knowledge; her temple 'Ioɛiov
Ισεῖον has its name from εἰσομένων τὸ ὄν.
187 Fr. 26, end. Cf. Plato. Euthyphro 13 C foll., for the negative part of
this doctrine, that the gods are not benefited by our service; also Rep. 364 B
foll., and Laws 885 B, 888 C. Positive part, aid to man, in Laws 653 and
716.
188 Wyttenbach, XI. 162, remarks upon Plutarch's probable and reason-
able methods of interpretation. Cf. Julian VII. 227 A, praise of Plutarch's
myths and explanations of myths.
notes.
189 De Is. 362 A, B. For playpãs see de aud. po. 31 E and Wyttenbach's
190 762 A.
32
191
him partial truth that had been perceived by the great men of by-
gone ages, "theologians, lawgivers, poets, philosophers;" this rational
belief that all men had some truth and no man had all truth made
it natural for him to cling to tradition and to interpret it as he
chose. And it was easy for him to accept different kinds of inter-
pretation of the same story, as we shall see in his explanations of
the Isis myth, because nature was one, filled with reflections and
similitudes. And so he recognized many causes of religious belief
and observance and supposed that sometimes several causes con-
tributed to establish a rite." With his sincere religious convictions
his figurative interpretations were necessarily symbolical in their
nature; allegorical interpretations in the exact sense, that is, with
complete substitution of physical or moral forces for the gods,
would be atheism, as he showed in his strictures upon the Stoics.
He has himself summed up his belief that myth and rite are only
aids to pious thought and life, and that their form in any particular
case is unimportant. "Therefore the garments in which the priests
of Isis are clothed after death are a symbol that this divine reason
dwells with these priests, and that, having this and nothing else,
they go to that other life. For neither does a beard or an old cloak
make a philosopher, nor do linen and a shaven face make priests
of Isis; but he is truly a priest of Isis who accepts according to the
religious custom of his country the stories about these gods and
the rites in their honor, and at the same time seeks by reason and
philosophy the truth that lies hidden in them." "If you have
listened to the stories about the gods so as to find the hidden truth
in them, and if, with holy and philosophic minds, you receive the
myth from those who expound it, and if you perform day by day
and zealously guard the sacred rites, but consider that a true belief
about the gods is more acceptable to them than any sacrifice or
ceremonial, you will escape what is no less an evil than atheism,
superstition. 59194
99195
Consequently, "if the Egyptians believe and tell this story (the
myth of Isis) as literally true of the blessed and immortal nature,
that is to say the divine being, you ought, in the words of Aeschy-
lus, to spew it out and purify your mouth.' Plutarch was con-
vinced that the Egyptians did not believe that their myths were
literally true; on the contrary, he claimed that they themselves
showed that we must "refer all things to reason. We know from
196
191 Cf. Review of Farnell's Greek Cults in The Nation, 1897, Sept. 2, p.
189.
192 Cf. de Is. 353 E on four causes of religious customs, and 352 D-F, on
three causes of linen dress for priests. Cf. Philo above, p. 22.
193 De Is. 352 B, C.
194 355 C, D.
195 De Is. 358 E. Cf. Heraclitus Alleg. Hom. c. 1, Homer was most
impious if he were not allegorizing. On allegory as a therapeutic to myths
see Lobeck I. 155 foll., with citations there given. Cf. Philo above, p. 22.
196 378 B. Cf. 378 A, 354 C, 355 B, 379 D foll.; Amat. 762 A (quoted
above, p. 30, f. n. 174), seems to imply the same thing. Cf. Oaksmith, 64 foll.
33
other sources that the Egyptians did not confine themselves to a
literal acceptance of their religious tradition, but discovered in it
suggestions of higher truths. Therefore it is probable that Plu
tarch was generally copying the Greek writers on Egyptian reli-
gion that had preceded him, the loss of whose works makes it
impossible to determine his sources. Moreover, in addition to giv-
ing the Egyptian interpretation of myth and rite, these authorities
almost certainly exhibited Hellenizing tendencies, that is, they
applied to the Egyptian religion the allegorical method already
made familiar by the Stoic treatment of Greek myths."" However,
even if there were little allegorizing in his sources, an author who
ascribed to the ancients his own pure religious beliefs would be
generous enough to suppose that the Egyptians found some means
to "cure" the disagreeable stories of their mythology.
199
198
"To refer everything to reason" did not imply that Plutarch
considered that human reason is infallible; he was too reverent to
believe that men could comprehend all the designs of deity. Nor
was it to give a rationalistic explanation, in the modern sense;
although one remark about dreams is completely rationalistic: they
are, naturally, sometimes true by mere coincidence. And the expla-
nation of the story that the Thessalian witch Aglaonice drew the
moon from the sky is rationalistic: her knowledge of astronomy
enabled her to foreknow eclipses and so to pretend to occult pow-
ers.200
But with Plutarch "to follow God was to obey reason,'
and the real problem of the pious allegorist was to explain the
apparently objectionable elements in religious tale and rite so as
both to preserve religious doctrine and observance and to free
them from all immoral and revolting and terrifying significance,
in order to avoid the equally dangerous extremes of superstition
and atheism.
208
99201
201
Plutarch's method was in one aspect truly historical. He inferred
from the circumstances of a religious rite its origin, and thereby
explained away what at first sight seemed reprehensible. For exam-
107 Cf. Iamb. de myst. VII. c. 1 foll. on symbolic character of Egyptian
religion. On Egyptian use of allegory see Sallustius de diis c. 4. On Plutarch's
sources and on Egyptian figurative interpretation, see below pp. 61-64.
108 De Pyth, or. 409 D. ἀδυνάτων ὄντων εξικνεῖσθαι τῷ λογισμῷ πρὸς τὴν
toð dɛoũ dɩávotav. Cf. de sera num. 549 F.
199 De def. or. 438 A.
200 Conj. praec. 145 C, D.
201 De aud. 37 D. Cf. symp. 613 B, philosophy is the art of life.
202 De Is. 378 D, πῶς οὖν χρηστέον ἐστὶ ταῖς σκυθρωπαῖς καὶ ἀγελάστοις καὶ
πενθίμοις θυσίαις, εἰ μήτε παραλείπειν τὰ νενομισμένα καλῶς ἔχει μήτε φύρειν τὰς
ελ
περὶ θεῶν δόξας καὶ συνταράττειν ὑποψίαις ατόποις; Cf. Oakesmith 85, "Plut-
arch's attitude toward the ancient Faith may thus be defined as one of pa-
triotic acceptance modified by philosophic criticism." See all of pp. 85 and 86.
208 Cf. below p. 35.
↓
34
200
203
204
ple, he asked how we were to perform the sad and mournful rites
prescribed by custom and yet preserve a pious belief in the gods.'
"The season," said he, "leads us to suspect the true solution, that
the grief exhibited as for the death of a god is in reality for the
disappearance of the fruits of the earth. As we say that one who
has bought the books of Plato has bought Plato, and that Menan-
der is acted when the poems of Menander are represented, so they
(the ancients) did not hesitate to call by the names of the gods the
gifts and deeds of the gods, honoring and reverencing those gifts
by this use. But men who came later received these names unin-
telligently, and ignorantly converted the life-history of the fruits
into experiences of the gods, and not only called the appearances
and disappearances of useful plants the births and deaths of gods,
but actually held that view, and thus filled themselves with heretical
and confusing beliefs.
Yet the Egyptians grieve for the
fruits, but pray to the gods, the authors and givers, to cause others
to spring up in place of those that have perished. Therefore it is
excellently said among philosophers that men who do not under-
stand the meaning of words make an ill use of things. too; as some
of the Greeks call statues gods, and have the hardihood to say that
Lachares pulled down Athena
and thus unintentionally
accept immoral opinions, the consequences of the words used.'
The Egyptians suffer this particularly in their worship of animals,
for, while the Greeks properly say and understand that certain ani-
mals are sacred to certain gods, many of the Egyptians worship the
animals themselves as gods. Dangerous beliefs result, and bring
the weaker sort into superstition, the bolder into atheism."20 The
teachers of doctrine used language metaphorically: Poets and
philosophers used the name of the god more particularly to express
the element or force presided over by the god; theologians and law-
givers used the names of the gods for things useful to men, divine.
gifts, or for the symbols of the deity designated. And yet in this
very topic we find Plutarch particularly unhistorical in his criti-
cism of tradition. He assumed that the ancients had a purer reli-
gious belief and knew that the fruits of the field were not gods,
204 Of, above f. n. 202.
207
Plutarch has here, according to Parthey, 260, brought Greek condi-
tions to bear upon Egyptian customs, since in Egypt the winter is not severe
enough to cause so marked a change in the aspect of vegetable life; cf. 366 C
foll., and Parthey's comments upon that passage. These explanations are,
therefore, probably Plutarch's own suggestion, at least not derived from any
one well acquainted with the climatic conditions of Egypt. In the physical
interpretation of the story that Osiris aided Zeus when another divinity rose
in revolt against him, although Plutarch says explicitly that the Egyptians
called the air Zeus, the expression has too Greek a sound to leave much doubt
that it was a Hellene who first suggested this mode of dealing with the myth.
206 Cf. Plato. Crat. 435 E. for the form of expression; but 436 foll. for
the danger of being deceived in things, if we rely upon names that may have
been assigned by men who themselves misunderstood the things.
207
δόξας πονηρὰς ἑπομένας τοῖς ὀνόμασιν.
208 378 D-379 E. Cf. 355 D and the essay de superst.
35
but gifts of the gods; that Homer knew that Zeus was not the
cause of evil.'
210
211
This confusion in the use of words was, he thought, one cause of
the blame bestowed upon Homer; therefore he maintained that if
a student was to be helped and not hurt by Homer, he must under-
stand the exact sense in which a poet has in any special case used
words admitting more than one meaning, especially the names for
the gods and words for good and evil. For example olxos is some-
times a house, sometimes property; Bioros sometimes life, sometimes
possessions. To come to "greater and more important matters,”
young men must be taught that the poets used the names of the
gods, sometimes having in mind the very gods themselves, some-
times δυνάμεις τινὰς ὧν οἱ θεοὶ δοτῆρές εἰσι καὶ καθηγεμόνες ὁμωνύμως προσαγο-
ρεύοντες.
pótes. Thus Hephaestos is fire; Ares war; or a weapon;215 Zeus
fate. In this way, he continued, ought we to correct many things
216
212
213
214
20 De Is. 378 F, καρπῶν...... οὓς οἱ παλαιοὶ θεοὺς μὲν οὐκ ἐνόμιζον, ἀλλὰ
δῶρα θεῶν ἀναγκαῖα καὶ μεγάλα πρὸς τὸ μὴ ζῆν ἀγρίως καὶ θηριωδῶς.
210 De aud. po. 23 D, οὐ γὰρ τὸν θεὸν ὁ ποιητὴς οἴεται κακὰ μηχανάσθαι
τοῖς ἀνθρώποις.
But, he went on, even fate, for which the name of the god here stands,
was not wholly insensible to moral considerations; for cities fall or stand ac
cording to the ill or good conduct of their affairs. Fate was not blind, but
outside man's powers of calculation, 24 Β, τύχης ἢ τῆς εἱμαρμένης λεγομένων,
ἐν αἷς τὸ ἀσυλλόγιστον ἡμῖν τῆς αἰτίας σημαίνεται καὶ ὅλως οὐ καὶ ἡμᾶς.
Against similar modern assumptions of the wisdom of the original myth-
makers see Grote, I. 388, 389; Gruppe I. 34 foll. Cf. above p. 26.
211 De aud. po. 22 D. The topic fills pp. 22C-25D. On the transference
of names of gods to the things typified by them see Aristotle in Porph. Hom.
Quaest. Il. 2, 447 (Schrader, p. 44, line 29, foll.), and Schrader's comments
on the topic, p. 425.
212 De aud. po. 23 A. Cf. below p. 37 foll.
Lobeck I. 156, says, "This physical explanation of myths was greatly
helped by the habit of the natural philosophers of calling the elements by the
names of the gods. No example is found in Homer (for the calling war and
fire Ares and Hephaestos is a different thing)." Probably Lobeck means that
Homer always had a reverent consciousness of the god as giver or director of
the natural force, evidently the idea that Plutarch had of this use of the
names of gods by such of the ancients as were worthy our belief; the natural
philosophers, on the contrary, lost sight of the god in the thing, and were in
many cases using the divine names for rhetorical effect.
21 De aud. po. 23 B.
214 C.
215 Il. 7, 329.
216 23 D foll.; See II. 1, 5, and Hes. 0. D. 86. Upon the use in O. D.
717 of paxápwv for τúxys Plutarch remarks that the "poets had not yet the word
τύχη but used the name of the god for τὴν τῆς ἀτάκτως καὶ ἀορίστως περιφε-
ρομένης αιτίας δύναμιν ἰσχυρὰν καὶ ἀφύλακτον οὖσαν ἀνθρωπίνῳ λογισμῷ,
just as we are in the habit of calling things, characters, men divine." So in
26 E Plutarch interprets Athena in Il. 1, 220 as reason.
36
19217
A
that seem to be improperly said of Zeus, as Il. 24, 227; 7, 69; Od. 8,
81. But whenever anything is said that is fitting and reasonable and
appropriate, there let us suppose that the god himself, zvpiws,
is named. Compare, "This is the explanation most fitting the
gods. Like these figurative uses of the names of the gods was the
employment of aps for the worldly reputation or power that a
man's virtue helped to bring to him; "just as the fruit of the olive
is called an olive, of the fig a fig." So also poets used zazúrys
κακότης
and ευδαιμονία,
218
18
220
These explanations assume that the poet spoke metaphorically,
not, in the strict meaning of the term, allegorically. But they illus-
rate Plutarch's understanding of the non-literal use of words in
the most important subjects. Besides, it is practically impossible
to draw a dividing line between metaphor and allegory, and we can
never determine how just are Plutarch's censures of the Stoics for
atheistic identifications of the gods with moral or physical phe-
nomena. Perhaps they, too, intended to say that the poets made
use of μεταφοραῖς καὶ καταχρήσεσι τῶν ὀνομάτων που He reproached
Chrysippus for his atheistical etymologies: "He derived Ares from
avaipeiv, and made of the god nothing but the contentious part
ἀναιρεῖν,
of man's soul. Others will say that Aphrodite is desire, Hermes
reason, the Muses the arts, and Athena wisdom. You see the
abyss of atheism swallowing us up if we transform each of the
gods into πάθη καὶ δυνάμεις καὶ ἀρετάς . The same warning
was given with reference to physical explanations: "Instead of
leaving the gods free, as drivers or pilots, the Stoics nail and solder
them to the elements as statues to bases, so that they suffer change
and destruction." "We must take care that we do not resolve the
gods into winds and waves and the seed and fruit of the fields and
πάθη γῆς καὶ μεταβολὰς ὡρῶν; as Dionysus into wine and Hephaes
tos into fire; and Cleanthes derives Persephone from tù dià Tây
καρπῶν φερόμενον καὶ φονευόμενον πνεῦμα.” Men who do this are like
223
9221
217 De Is. 383 A. Cf. Philo, we must allegorize when anything unworthy
the divinity is said, Siegfried 162 foll.
218
De aud. po. 24C-E.
219 24 F; 25 A, B.
220 25 B. Cf. de Is. and the fr. de daed. Plat. passim for this metaphor-
ical explanation of myths and rites, sometimes helped out by etymologies.
221 Amat. 757 B. In 765 E the γραμματικοί are said to have ex-
plained the myth that made Iris the mother of Eros as an allegory of the
many colored and youthful passion of love, but that speaker who seems to
express Plutarch's views dissents from this suggestion. Ĉf. de aud. po. 31E,
objections to etymologies of Cleanthes and Chrysippus.
222 De def. or. 426 B, C.
223 When Plutarch in de aud. po. 15 E. refers to the story of Dionysus
and Lycurgus as if Dionysus were wine, he was certainly understanding the
name as used metaphorically and not really allegorically (Cf. above p. 7 f. n.
7), that is, not with strict identification. Heraclitus Alleg. Hom. 35 and
Cornutus 30 consider this story an allegory of wine-making.
224 Cf. Cornutus c. 28, Ex пóvшv
.. φέρεσθαι.
+
37
:
those who fancy the sails and anchor the pilot. But they incul-
cate dangerous atheistical doctrines when they apply the names of
gods to senseless, lifeless, perishable things, which are under the
control of man; for it is not possible that men consider such things.
as these gods.
280
99225
228
229
1.27
Moreover, "even the sun has caused nearly all men to ignore
Apollo because as a sensible image it has turned the mind from
reality to a mere appearance." The true relationship was that
of physical counterpart to a spiritual entity." Or, again, the
divinity presided over certain departments of mental activity or of
the physical world, Ares over the fiery part of our nature, Aph-
rodite over love. The form of expression in his allegorical expla-
nations often suggests the relationship of the god to the thing: if
we allot to Typhon whatever is disorderly in nature, but con-
sider as the work of Isis and the image of Osiris whatever is ordered
and good, we shall not go wrong. θεοὺς ...... περὶ πᾶσαν ἀγαποῦ
μοῖραν ἡγούμεθα τέταχθαι.. πᾶν......καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν διὰ τούτους
ὑπάσχειν· Horus is the force that presides over the appointed
revolution of the sun. The Greeks think that Dionysus is κύριον καὶ
apró of all the nature of the moist." They call not only the Nile
but in general all the moist an àroppory of Osiris. Typhon
was the pupyós of earthquakes, etc." After various stories
about Typhon with physical interpretations Plutarch added,
"Hence it would not be unreasonable to say that each story
in particular is not true, but that all taken together really teach
the truth. For it is not right to say that Typhon is drought, wind,
sea, or darkness, but whatever nature holds of the injurious and
destructive is the portion of Typhon.
The only genuine extant work of Plutarch that bears directly
upon allegoristic is de Iside et Osiride." Even the de audiendis
231
225
225 De Is. 377 D, E. Cf. below f. n. 286.
230
253
228 De Pyth. or. 400 D. Cf. ad princ. iner. 780F and 781F, the sun as
an image of god. But Plutarch interpreted some of the epithets of Apollo as
really belonging to the sun, de lat. viv. 1130A. They showed the popular
belief that Apollo was the sun; the very name of Hades showed the belief
that this god was darkness, de lat. viv. 1130A.
227 De def. or 433 D, E; de E. 393 D foll.
228 Amat. 757C, D; the language is very suggestive, "Apŋy xooμovvтa...
Αρην κοσμοῦντα..
ἐφορῶν καὶ βραβεύων...... μάρτυς...... ἐπίσκοπος...... ἡγεμὼν ἢ συνεργός.
229 De Is. 376 F, 377A.
280 377A.
231 375 F.
282 365 A.
238 365 B, 366 A; in the latter the land is called the body of Isis.
284 373 D.
285 369 A.
236 De vita et poesi Homeri is generally acknowledged to be spurious.
Nor is it a collection of excerpts from Plutarch, but such likeness as exists
comes rather from the use of a common source; see Bernardakis Teubner ed.
Plut. Mor. VI. praef. XXVIII. The Homeric Exercises is lost. The com.
in Hes., so far as it survives, is not allegorical. The comment in de virt.
mor. 446 A, B on several verses is not really allegorical interpretation, for
38
poetis contains only one or two allegorical explanations. The Isis
myth, however, is sufficient in itself to show Plutarch's feeling
towards religious tradition and to call forth various modes of inter-
pretation. It could not be rejected, for that would unsettle reli-
gious faith; for the same reason it could not admit a Euhemeristic
explanation; it could not be received literally, for that would be to
harbor an abominable superstition; the names of the gods could
not be identified with natural phenomena, for that would engender
atheism. It contained good and evil beings, and was thus a vehicle
for Plutarch's doctrine of two principles in the world. It could
be accepted as a true relation of the lives of demons; it could be
taken as a symbol of moral and cosmogonical and physical truth."
It could be at once a symbol of spiritual and of natural truth,
because nature was an image of spiritual being, as the sun of
Apollo; and the three classes of intelligent beings-gods, demons,
men-were represented by three corresponding classes of heavenly
bodies: sun, moon, and comets. Another example of his finding
correspondences between the natural and spiritual realms is that
the Egyptians called the dog Hermes, not κυρίως, but because
the philosophic character of the animal typified the most logical
of the gods.
239
240
235
After rejecting the myth as an account of the lives of gods or
of men, and accepting it as a true history of the lives of demons,"ɑ
Plutarch passed on to the interpretations of the "more philoso
phical" students of the story; that is, those who found a deeper
thought under the demon myth. His own object in the allegorical
interpretation of the Isis myth was 'to fit the Egyptian theology to
Plato's philosophy of the origin of the world as developed in the
Timeaeus. 2¹¹ But he admitted any interpretation that did not con-
flict with his broad spiritual and moral views of religion. His toler
1241
the poet seems to have explicitly made use of similes, and Plutarch only devel-
oped the εἰκών. The same may be said of the interpretation of some
Pythagorean precepts, sym. 727C foll.; they were, of course, real allegories;
ef. word συμβόλοις in C.
237 Cf. Lafaye 6, to the Egyptians this story was "un seul mythe, à la
fois métaphysique, naturaliste et moral." Cf. Ruskin, Queen of the Air S. "In
all the most beautiful and enduring myths we shall find, not only a literal
story of a real person,-not only a parallel imagery of moral principle,-but
an underlying worship of natural phenomena, out of which both have sprung,
and in which both forever remain rooted." Plutarch attributes many of his
explanations to the Egyptians; it is improbable that any of them were origi.
nal with him, except, perhaps, the demon theory and a fitting of the myth to
the philosophy of the Timaeus.
239 De def. or. 416 D.
On nature as a model for men, see de sera num.
550 D; de am. prol. 493 E. On similar_notions among the Stoics, Cic. N. D.
II. 14, 37; Tus. IV. 26, 57; de sen. 21, 77.
239 De Is. 355 B. Plutarch refers to Plato; see Rep. 375 E.
239a Cf. above p. 31.
$40 363 D foll.
241 371 A. Heinze, Xenokrates 31-33, gives a brief summary of Plutarch's
accommodation of the myth to the Timaeus philosophy. Cf. Parthey VIII..
Plutarch probably the first to show the likeness between Plato's metaphysics
and Egyptian theology.
39
:
ance, and his belief in the universality of the divine forces, both
essentially Greek ideas, will appear best from his own words.
363 D.-363 F. Osiris the moist.
"As the Greeks allegorize Cronus into time, and Hera into air,
and the birth of Hephaestus into the change of air to fire, so to the
Egyptians Osiris is the Nile" that fertilizes the land, that is, Isis,
and Typhon is the sea, into which the Nile falls and is scattered far
and wide, except such part of it as the land retains. And there is
a sacred lament for Cronus that celebrates him who is born on the
left and dies on the right; for the Egyptians call the north the right
and the south the left. So the Nile, which rises in the south and
disappears towards the north in the sea, is naturally said to have
its birth on the left and its death on the right. Therefore the
priests hate the sea and call it the foam of Typhon. And they do
not allow salt on their tables, nor greet pilots. And this is not the
least reason that they discard fish," and they use the picture of a
fish as the hieroglyph of hatred.**
This is the most common
account."
From this simplest form of allegory, Plutarch passes to a higher
step:
364 A. "But the wisest of the priests call Osiris and Typhon
not only the Nile and the sea, but in general they call Osiris the
principle of the moist," for they consider moisture to be the cause
of generation and the essence of the seed; but Typhon they called
the drought and whatever is opposite to moisture. Therefore they
think him red in complexion and avoid men of that appearance.
But they say allegorically that Osiris was black, because water
makes everything black with which it is mixed.
246
The bull
that is worshipped in Heliopolis, called Mneuin, is black, for it is
sacred to Osiris.
"And they say that the sun and moon do not travel around in
chariots, but in boats; now this is an enigma of their nourishment™
247
242 Parthey 228 f. n. quotes Lepsius, "In der Goetter procession vor Osiris
in Dendea ist eine der ersten Figuren der libirende Nil-gott."
243 Cf. Sym. 729 B on the dislike of the Pythagoreans for fish, "The Nile,
the deflux of Osiris, perishes in the sea, and when they mourn for Osiris as
born on the left, etc."
241 See below p. 63.
245 Cf. Sallustius de diis c. 4, Isis land, Osiris the moist, Typhon heat; or
Cronos water, Adonis fruits, Dionysus wine.
2 Cf. de prim. frig. 950 E., Homer, more like a natural philosopher than
a poet, opposed Hephaestos to the river and Apollo to Poseidon. Cf. Heracli-
tus above, p. 22.
Not unlike these interpretations of the Isis myth that make the story a re-
cital of the opposition of physical forces are some modern explanations of the
Beowulf myth. Muellenhoff, Beowulf 1 foll., says that Beowulf is the sun
and summer overcoming the wildness and destructiveness of the sea. Cf.
Thos. Arnold, Notes on Beowulf, ch. 9.
247 Cf. 355 B, the picturing of the sun as a young child on a lotus flower
is a symbol of sunrise and of the sun's nourishment by moisture. In de Pyth.
or. 399 F foll. Plutarch ridicules the Stoics for explaining the frogs and water
40
245
and birth from the moist. They think that Homer as well as
Thales had learnt from the Egyptians that water is the source of
all things; the ocean is Osiris and Tethys is. Isis, the nurse,
zidqpovpśvqy, of all things. The Greeks call
Dionysus the
rainer, E, as lord of the moist nature, anl he is none other than
Osiris; for Hellanicus seems to have heard Osiris called by the
priests Hysiris.
"Proof that Osiris is the same as Dionysus
249
. may be drawr
from the burial rites of Apis which strikingly resemble Bacchic
exercises.
Moreover, the stories of Dionysus and the
Titans agree with the discerptions and palingenesis of Osiris; and
the stories of their tombs are similar
That the Greeks be-
lieve Dionysus the lord not only of wine but of the moist in general
Pindar250 is a sufficient witness when he says,
'May joyous Bacchus send increase of fruit,
The chaste autumnal light. to all my trees.'
For this reason the worshipers of Osiris also are forbidden to de-
stroy a cultivated tree and to stop up a spring.
"A proof that they call not only the Nile but in general all the
moist an efflux of Osiris is their custom of carrying a water pitcher
in the processions in honor of this god. A fig leaf is the hieroglyph
for both king and the south," because it is the symbol of fruitful-
ness. This character of fruitfulness of the god is shown by various
rites in his honor and by various details of the myth. And there is
another Egyptian story according to which Apopis the brother of
the Sun made war against Zeus; after Zeus had conquered by the
aid of Osiris he adopted Osiris and called him Dionysus. This tale
touches upon physical truth, for the Egyptians call the air Zeus,
232
snakes around an offering to Apollo as typifying the nourishment of the sur
by moisture. His own interpretation was that they stood for spring, when
the sun renewed his strength. There is no real contradiction, for in de Isis
Plutarch is confessedly giving the interpretations of others, often explicitly
of the Egyptian priests. In de Pyth. or. he is less serious, and the subject is
less serious, merely an artist's conceit instead of religious ideas earnestly held
by a large number of people.
249 Il. 14, 201.
249 Cf. de esu. carn. I. 996, the sufferings of Dionysus and the violent
deeds of the Titans against him seem to have been an enigma of palingenesis ;
for the unreasonable and violent and disorderly part of our soul, which is not
divine but is demonic, the ancients called τιτάνας, that is punished, and
paying a penalty (cf. ivovoar in the same passage a few lines above).
Just above this passage I'lutarch had said that Empedocles wrote an allegory
of the soul's incorporation into a body as a punishment for its misdeeds, but,
as the verse seems to have fallen out, we cannot determine whether Plutarch
has forced this meaning upon the author or whether the poet really wrote an
allegory. Cf. Plato, Crat. 400 C, this idea of incorporation as a punishment.
is an Orphic doctrine. Cf. also, the Circe myth was an αἴνιγμα of metem
psychosis, fr. inc. 146 from Stobaeus eclog. 1046. For Bernardakis's reasons
for assigning this fragment to Plutarch see Vol. VII. Praef. of his edition.
250 Fr. in Bergk. 1 p. 433.
251 See below 63.
252 One of the speakers in de fac. Lun. 940 A says that Zeus in Aleman's
41
hostile to which is the drought; this latter is not the sun, but is
akin to the sun; and moisture, by quenching the excessive dryness,
increases the exhalations that feed the air.
253
"Another proof of the identity of Dionysus and Osiris is the
Egyptian name for ivy, chenosiris, which signifies, as they say,
the plant of Osiris
365 F. "They suppose that the star Sirius belongs to Isis, because.
it brings on the high water. And they honor the lion and adorn the
entrances to the temples with lions' heads because the Nile rises.
when the sun enters the zodiac sign Leo. Just as they consider the
Nile an efflux of Osiris so they hold that the body of Isis is the
land, but not all of it; only so much as the Nile fertilizes. And
from this union of Osiris and Isis is born Horus. Now Horus is
that salutary season and mixture of air that they say is nourished
by Leto in the marshes about Buto; for the rain-soaked earth best
produces those exhalations that quench the dryness of the air. Anā
they call by the name Nephthys those parts of the land that are
farthest from the Nile or that touch upon the sea; therefore they
name Nephthys the End and say that she is the wife of Typhon. But
when the Nile has an excessive overflow and approaches the out-
lying lands, this they call the intercourse of Osiris with Nephthys,
that becomes manifest by the plants that then spring up there; one
of these plants is the melilot, by which the myth says that Typhon
discovered the injury done his bed. On this account also Isis bore
Horus in wedlock, but Nephthys gave birth to the bastard Anubis.
In the annals of the kings they write that Nephthys the wife of
Typhon was at first barren; if they say this not of a woman but of a
goddess it is an enigma of the desert parts of the earth.
"The conspiracy and rule of Typhon was the power of drought
that overcame and scattered the moisture that produces and in-
creases the Nile. His ally, the queen of the Ethiopians, is an enigma
of the south winds that blow from Ethiopia; for when they over-
come the clouds that the Etesian winds carry towards Ethiopia, and
prevent the rainfall that increases the Nile, Typhon flames up irrė-
sistibly, and shutting the Nile up in its channel thrusts the stream
now become weak and small into the sea. The story that Osiris was
enclosed in a box seems to be nothing but an enigma of the sub-
sidence of the water. Therefore they say that Osiris disappeared
in the month Athyr when the Etesian winds fail and the Nile re-
turns to its bed and the land becomes bare; as the night lengthens
and darkness increases and the light grows feeble, the priests per-
form dark and sad rites; one of these is to cover a cow with a pall
in sorrow for the goddess (for they consider the cow as well as the
verse Διός θυγάτηρ Ερσα τρέφει καὶ δίας Σελάνας was the air. Same verse
and same interpretation in sym. 659 B, C. Cf. Aet. Rom. 40, Zeus the air.
But 77, Zeus the sun and Hera the moon.
258 See below p. 63.
42
land an image of Isis.) These ceremonies last four days beginning
at the seventeenth, for they grieve for four things, the subsidence
of the Nile, the cessation of the north winds before the blasts of
the south winds, the shortness of the day, and the bareness of the
earth accompanied by the falling of the leaves. On the nineteenth
they go down to the sea by night, and carry with them in the sacred
chest a little golden box; into this they pour potable water, and
raise a shout that Osiris is found. Then they stir into the water
fruitful earth and precious perfumes, and form a moon-shaped
image, which they dress and adorn. By these rites they show that
they consider these gods to be the essence of earth and water.
•
367A. "But when Isis had again received Osiris and had nur-
tured Horus, now grown strong by exhalations and mists and clouds,
Typhon was subdued but not destroyed; for the mistress of the
earth did not permit the principle opposite to the moist to be
utterly destroyed, but only restrained, since she wished the mixture
to remain; for the world would not be complete without the fiery
substance. If these explanations are not reasonable, neither
would one reasonably reject that story of Typhon's ancient rule over
Osiris's kingdom; for Egypt used to be sea; in proof of this, even
now may be seen many fossil seashells and the many springs and
wells have a brackish flavor, as if the sea had left some remnant of
itself. But in time Horus conquered Typhon, that is, when a rainy
season came the Nile thrust out the sea and showed the dry land
and enlarged it by deposits. What we even now see is a proof of
this; for as the river brings down new mud and carries forward the
land it forces the sea to retreat before the deposits that fill up the
deeps of the water.
These interpretations are like the
theological beliefs of the Stoics; for they say that Dionysus is the
fertilizing and nourishing air, Heracles the violent and disturbing
air, Ammon the receptive, Demeter and Core the air that goes
through the earth and the fruits of the earth, Poseidon the air
that goes through the sea."
367 C-368 F. Osiris the Moon, Typhon the Sun.
"The interpreters who join to these physical explanations some
astronomical principles think that the world of the sun is called
Typhon, that of the moon Osiris. For the light of the moon is pro-
ductive and brings rain, and is propitious to the birth of animals
and the sprouting of plants; but by its fierce light the sun burns
and dries up the growing things, and renders the greater part of
the earth uninhabitable by its hot flame and often subdues the
moon. Therefore the Egyptians always call Typhon Seth [Set],
which is the force that overmasters and compels by violence. And
they recount in their myths that Heracles sits in the sun and is
carried around with it, but that Hermes sits in the moon; for the
motions of the moon are like the deeds of reason and of remarkable
wisdom, but the motions of the sun are like strokes that violently
43
extend beyond proper límits. And the Stoics say that the sun is
lighted and fed by the sea, but that the fresh springs and lakes send
up to the moon a pleasant and mild exhalation.
"The Egyptians have it in their stories that the death of Osiris
fell upon the seventeenth, the day on which the full moon appears.
Some say that Osiris lived twenty-eight years, others that
he ruled twenty-eight years; for this is the number of the days of
the moon. In the ceremonies called the burial of Osiris they fashion
a box in a crescent shape, because when the moon approaches the
sun it assumes this shape at the moment of its disappearance. They
employ the discerption of Osiris into fourteen parts as an enigma of
the number of days in which the moon wanes.
"Moreover, they think that the rising of the Nile has some rela-
tion to the days of the moon; for the greatest height, which hap-
pens at Elephantine, is twenty-eight cubits, the measure of the
moon's course; and that its lowest rise is six cubits at Mendes and
Xois, the measure of the half moon; and its middle height is usually
fourteen cubits at Memphis, which corresponds to the days up to
the full moon. The birth of Apis, an animate image of Osiris,
takes place when a fruitful light falls from the moon upon the cow.
Therefore many things about Apis bear a resemblance to the form
of the moon, for Apis has light and dark colors. Furthermore, on
the new moon of Phamenoth they celebrate a feast, which they call
the entrance of Osiris into the moon, and this is the beginning of
spring. As they place the power of Osiris in the moon so they say
that Isis, that is. generation, dwells with him. Therefore they call
the moon the mother of the world, and think that it has both the
male and the female natures, since it receives fertilization from the
sun and then sends forth life-giving principles. For the Typhonian
destruction does not always prevail, but is often overpowered and
bound by generation, then is released and contends with Horus
again.
368 D. "And some make the myth an enigma of the eclipses.
For when the moon is at the full, that is, is opposite the sun, it is
eclipsed by falling into the shadow of the earth, as they say that
Osiris fell into the box. And in turn the moon itself hides the sun
but not completely, as Isis did not destroy Typhon. After Nephthys
had borne Anubis Isis adopted him, for Nephthys is the hidden
parts of the world that lie below the horizon, but Isis is the part
that is above the earth and in plain view. But the circle that
touches both and is called the horizon is common to both, and has
been named Anubis and is likened in its form to the dog; for the
dog sees equally by night and day. Anubis seems to have the same
character among the Egyptians as Hecate has among the Greeks,
that is, they are at once Olympian and under-world deities. But to
some Anubis seems to be Cronus; therefore, since Cronus produced
all things from himself, the dog took his name zów, from this
fact.
To sum up the whole matter, it may be said that no
44
individual interpreter is right, but that all together are right. For
it is not right to say that drought or wind or sea or darkness is the
portion of Typhon, but whatever in nature is injurious and de-
structive."
369 A-371A. Here intervenes a discussion of the double cause of
the world, a good and an evil, closing with a statement of Plato's
philosophy of the genesis of the world, "to which it is the purpose
of this book to fit Egyptian theology.
371A-372E. In general, both moral and physical.
254
"For the genesis and constitution of this world are developed
from two opposite principles, which are not equal in strength, but
the better is stronger; yet it is impossible to do away utterly with
evil, for it is closely bound up with the body and with the soul of
the universe and always fights against the better principle. There-
fore in the soul, mind and reason and that part that is lord of all
the best instincts is Osiris; and in the earth and air and water and
heavens and stars that which is orderly and wholesome in seasons
and motions is an efflux and image of Osiris. On the other hand
Typhon is that part of the soul that is passionate and titanic and
unreasonable and unstable; and of the material world that which is
perishable and diseased and unstable, as manifest in bad seasons
and eclipses, is as it were the flights and disappearances of Typhon;
and his name Seth is significant, for it sometimes means violent and
sometimes frequent retreat and again victory. Some say that Bebon
was one of Typhon's companions, but Manetho says that Typhon
himself is called Bebon; this name signifies restraint and preven-
tion; and is used to show that Typhon stands in the way of the
right development and course of things. Therefore, they assign to
hun of domestic animals the stupidest, the ass; of wild animals
the most brutal, the crocodile and the hippopotamus. . . In Her-
mopolis they show a statue of Typhon in the form of a hippopota-
mus, upon which has alighted a hawk contending with a snake; by
the hippopotamus they indicate Typhon, and by the hawk power
and rule; Typhon often comes into possession of this power through
violence and then does not cease from troubling both himself and
others.
Thus they make all bad and injurious animals and
plants and passions the works and portion and activity of Typhon.
"Osiris, however, they represented by an eye and a scepter, the
former setting forth his providence, the latter his power.
And they often used the hawk" as a hieroglyph of this god; for it
233
•
256
25* Cf. 351 F., Osiris was true doctrine which Typhon scattered and Isis
gathered again, inviting her followers to join her in the search. Isis was the
god of knowledge, which her very name showed, from ɛidévat; Typhon the
god of ignorance, as his name showed, δι' ἄγνοιαν καὶ ἀπάτην τετυφωμένος,
255 Cf. 363 C.
256 See below p. 63.
257 See below p. 63.
45
is said that the hawk is remarkable for keenness of vision and
swiftness of flight, and needs very little food.
They deck
the images of Osiris with flame-colored garments, as evidence of
their belief that the sun is a sensible body of the essence of good
that is perceptible only to the mind.2 Therefore we must reject
the idea that the sphere of the sun belongs to Typhon, to whom be-
longs nothing shining nor salutary, nor any orderliness nor genera-
tion, nor motion that possesses measure and proportion, but all
things opposite to these; and drought, which destroys many animals
and plants, must not be set down to the account of the sun, but of
those winds and waters in the earth and air which are unseasonable
and which arise when the principle of unruly and undefined power
quenches the exhalations. And they sing of Osiris as hidden in the
arms of the sun, and celebrate the birthdays of the eyes of Horus
when the moon and sun are in a straight line and thereby show
their belief that not only the moon but also the sun is the eye and
light of Horus.
The ceremony of driving a cow around the
temple at the winter solstice is called the search for Osiris, because
in the winter the goddess longs for the water of the sun.
There are some who say plainly that Osiris is the sun and is called
Sirius by the Greeks, although the prefixing of the article on the
part of the Egyptians has caused confusion about the name; and
that Isis is the moon; therefore the horned images of her are imi-
tations of the crescent, and the dark draperies refer to the over-
shadowings of the moon when she pursues and longs for the sun.
In this view there is something plausible, but those who
make Typhon the sun do not deserve to be listened to. However,
we must return to our own thesis."
263
260
Metaphysical.
259
372 E. Plutarch's own interpretation.
"Now Isis is the female in nature, and receives all generation
and is therefore called by Plato201 the nurse and all-receiver, but by
most men the many-named,22 because under the influence of reason
she receives all forms." And she has an inborn affection for the
first principle of all things, which is the same as the good, and she
longs for and pursues it. On the other hand she flees the evil
principle and thrusts it away, although she is space and matter for
both; however, she always inclines to the better and freely offers
herself to it for the reception of its effluxes and for the reproduc-
tion of its likenesses, in which she rejoices. For generation is an
foll.
261
258 Cf. above p. 38. Cf. Plato. Rep. 508D foll.
259 Cf. Eusebius Praep. Ev. 1. 9. 1-4, Osiris the sun and Isis the moon.
260 Plato, Tim. 50 D, 51 A.
201 49A.
Plutarch's metaphysical allegory is based upon the Timaeus 49
262 Cf. Roscher, Lex. d. Gr. u. Roem. Myth. II. I, p. 546, 547.
263 Idea frequent in Timaeus, but see especially 50A, D, E.
204 Cf. amat. 770B, matter longs for the principle of motion.
46
image of true being presented in matter, and that which is born is
an imitation of that which always exists.
206
285
"Therefore they do not improperly recount in the myth that the
soul of Osiris is imperishable, but that Typhon often tears asunder
and hides his body, while Isis wanders about until she has found and
fitted together the parts. For that which is really existent and is
perceptible to reason and is the good is above destruction and
change; but the images that the sensible and bodily portion of the
universe, when it has assumed logical relations and forms and like-
nesses, moulds from this truly existent as a model are no more
abiding than seals made in wax, but they are seized upon by the
spirit of disorder when it has been driven out of the upper region
and is hostile to Horus, whom Isis bore as a sensible image of the
ideal world." Therefore it is pertinently said that he was indicted
by Typhon for bastardy, since he is not pure like his father, who is
reason itself unmixed and unaffected by passion and change, but is
a hybrid thing on account of his admixture of matter. He, how-
ever, triumphs, because Hermes, that is reason, testifies in his be-
half and proves that when nature has been brought into relation to
the ideal she produces the world. For the birth of Apollo from Isis
and Osiris while they were yet in Rhea's womb is an enigma that
before this world was generated and matter was perfected by reason,
nature was proved to be incomplete by herself and brought forth
the first creation imperfect. Therefore they say that that god was
born deformed on account of the darkness, and they call him the
elder Horus, for he was not the world, but a sort of image and
phantasm of the world that was to be.
268
"But this Horus is himself the defined and complete world, who
has not utterly destroyed Typhon, but has taken away his excessive
power and strength.
They fable that Hermes took out
Typhon's muscles and used them as harp-strings, and thus teach
that reason by means of harmony made a symphonious universe out
of dissonant parts, and did not destroy but weakened the destructive
principle. And so it happens that this power is weakened it is true,
but exists bound up with the passionate and mutable parts of the
world, and is the creator of earthquakes, droughts, unseasonable
winds. hurricanes and thunder storms. And it poisons water and
air, and sends its influence even up to the moon, the light of which
it often disturbs and darkens, as the Egyptians believe when they
say that at one time Typhon struck Horus on the eye, at another
swallowed his eye, then again gave it back to the sun; the blow on
the eye is an enigma of the monthly waning of the moon, the blind-
25 Plato, Tim. 48E, 49A. Cf. 27 D foll.; 37C.
200 Ib. 50 E, 51 A.
207 Ib. 50 D.
208 Cf. de an. proc. 1026 C, Horus had his spirit from his father his body
from his mother.
209 Plato, Tim. 53 A.
47
ing of Horus is an enigma of the eclipse, which is healed by the sun
when the moon has escaped from the shadow of the earth and again
receives the light of the sun.”
373 E. Metaphysical again.
9270
"The nobler and diviner nature consists of three parts, the in-
telligible, matter, and that which comes from a union of these two,
what the Greeks call the world. So Plato calls the intelligible
'idea' and 'pattern' and 'father'; matter he calls 'mother' and
'nurse' and the 'place of generation'; their offspring he was ac-
customed to call 'generation. One might conjecture that the
Egyptians compare the nature of the universe to the fairest of tri-
angles, as Plato in the Republic" seems to have used this triangle
for a diagram of marriage. This triangle has its perpendicular
equal to three, its base to four, and its hypothenuse to five. The
perpendicular represents the male, the base the female, the hypoth-
enuse their offspring; that is, Osiris the first principle, Isis the
matrix, Horus the completed world. For three is the first odd
number and is perfect; four is a square that has an even number,
two, for its side; five is in some respects like each parent, for it is
the sum of three and two. And the word for all návra is
πάντα·
a paronym of the word five πέντε, and πεμπάσασθαι is used for to
count. Moreover the square of five gives the number of letters
the Egyptian alphabet, and the length of Apis's life."
Now they are accustomed to call Horus Min, which is 'seen'; for
the world is sensible and visible. And Isis sometimes goes by the
name of Muth,273 that is, 'mother'; sometimes by Athyri," that is.
the 'worldly house of Horus,' in the same way that Plato spoke of
matter as the space that received generation; sometimes by
Methyer, which is a compound of two words signifying 'the full'
and 'the cause;' for matter is filled with the world and consorts
with the good and pure and orderly element."
in
374 C. Hesiod and Plato.
271
"It might perhaps seem that Hesiod understood these same ele-
ments when he made the first principles chaos and earth and tar-
tarus and love, if we understand by earth Isis, by love Osiris, by
tartarus Typhon; for chaos seems to be space in the broadest sense,
that is, assumed as the abiding place of the universe. These ac-
counts call to mind the myth of Plato which Socrates relates in the
Symposium" about the birth of Love, when he said that Poverty
desired children and so lay down beside Plenty, to whom she bore
Love; so Love was of mixed nature since he was the offspring of a
270
Ib. 50 C, D. Cf. 48 E; 49 B; 51 A; 52 A, D; 27 D foll.
271 546.
272 See Appendix I, Plutarch's treatment of number.
278 See below p. 63.
274 Cf. above f. n. 270.
275 203 B foll.
48
good, wise and self-sufficient father, but of an indigent mother,
who, on account of her own lack, always looked to another. For
Plenty is none other than that which was first beloved and longed
for, complete in himself; but he called matter Poverty, because of
herself she was in want of the good but becomes impregnated with
it and is always longing for it and partaking of it. And Horus, or
the world, that is born of these two is not immortal, not impassible
nor incorruptible, but because he is always becoming he contrives
by means of the changes in the accidents that befall him and by
various periods of existence to remain ever young and never to
approach extinction.
278
276
277
374E. "However, we are not to employ myths as direct state-
ments of fact, but to get from them the truth that they teach by
means of metaphors. When therefore we utter the word 'matter,'
or material, you must not have in mind the soulless and unqualified
body designated by this term in some systems of philosophy; for we
call oil the 'material' of a perfume, gold of a statue, but do not
mean that these things are devoid of all quality of their own. And
the soul itself of man as the 'material' of knowledge and virtue
we can adorn and harmonize by reason; and some have designated
the mind as the place of the ideas and a sort of matrix for the in-
telligible forms; and some are of the opinion that the generative
seed of the woman is not a power or principle, but 'material' and
nourishment for generation. Now, holding these uses of the word
in mind we ought to think in like manner of this goddess; and that
she has some share in the first god, and is ever taken up with love
of his excellencies and beauties; that she is not a principle opposite
to him but that her love is a right one like that of a law-abiding and
righteous man. or as we say that a good woman who is married yet
has desire towards her husband, so this goddess is always longing
for that first principle although she is filled with his most essential
and purest parts. But when Typhon touches upon her extreme
parts then she appears sad of countenance and is said to grieve and
to gather up the scattered fragments of Osiris and to care for them;
that is, matter receives back into itself whatever has perished and
hides it, with the intention of again bringing it to birth.279 Some
effluxes of the god, such as appear in the heavens and stars, are
abiding, but others are subject to accident, such as appear in the
land, sea, plants, animals; these latter are dissolved and destroyed
and buried, and again often come to view by means of generation.
Therefore the story says that Nephthys is the wife of Typhon, but
that Osiris went to her secretly, for the extreme parts of matter,
which they call Nephthys and the End, are especially under the
276 Cf. Plato Tim. 33 A.
277 On perfume cf. Plato, Tim. 50 E, on gold 50 A, though the similes are
not used for exactly the same purpose.
27s Ib. 51 A.
279 Ib. 49 E, 52 A.
49
dominion of the destructive principle; but the principle of fruitful-
ness and health gives to these parts but a feeble seed, that is de-
stroyed by Typhon, except what Isis gets possession of and pre-
serves and nourishes.
280
281
"In a word the son is that which is better, as Plato and Aristotle
suspect. And the fruitful and salutary part of nature inclines
towards him and towards being, the destructive and injurious away
from him and towards non-being. Therefore they give Isis her
name from the roots of the words out and śziorýμen because
she is animate and intelligent motion. For the name is not foreign,
but as all the gods have a common name, doi, from two letters of
Deary's and w, that is, one who sees and one who runs, so both
Greeks and Egyptians call this goddess Isis from science and mo-
tion.
Osiris has got his name as a compound of bows and
ispós, for he is the common idea of things in heaven and things in
Hades, the former of which it was the custom of the ancients to
call ispá, the latter sa.. However, we should not be over-conten-
tious on the subject of names, but I am inclined to consider Osiris
of Greek origin.22
376 A. "Šimilar to these Greek derivations are some Egyptian
stories and names. For they often call Isis by the name of Athena
which signifies, 'I am come from myself'; this testifies that Isis is
self-moving impulse. But Typhon, as has been said, is called Seth
and Bebon and Smy, names which mean violence and restraint and
opposition and overturning. And again they called the magnet the
bone of Horus, as Manetho relates, but iron the bone of Typhon;
for just as iron is often drawn towards the magnet and again flies
off from it, so the salutary and good and reasonable motion in the
world draws to itself and by persuasion renders softer the power
that is stubborn and Typhon-like, but again the latter retreats and
is plunged into disorder. Eudoxus says that the Egyptians tell a
myth of Zeus that at first he could not walk because his legs were
grown together, and therefore out of shame he lived in the desert.
But Isis separated his limbs and thus gave him facility in walking.
The myth is an enigma that the mind and reason of the god is in
the unseen until it comes into generation by the power of motion.
"The sistrum shows that whatever exists ought to be shaken,
osisada, and never cease from movement, but should be roused
and agitated as if it were asleep and its life quenched. For they
say that by the sistrum they drive Typhon away; by this they set
forth that destruction binds and halts, but by means of movement
250 Reading instead of bros, & víós, as Bernardakis suggests.
281 Cf. 351 F. Ruskin is guilty of the same lack of logic in accepting two
etymologies of the same word, Queen of the Air, p. 41, Argeiphontes is both
shining white, and Argos-slayer.
252 Plutarch recognized the absurdity of deriving really foreign words
from the Greek language. He defended his own procedure by claiming that
these were truly Greek words, among the vast number that had been carried
abroad by the Greeks who had moved to other countries, de Is. 375 F.
50
283
generation frees nature. The upper disc of the sistrum contains
the four bodies to be shaken. For the part of the world subject to
generation and destruction is enclosed by the sphere of the moon,
and within that sphere everything is moved and transformed
throughout the range of the four elements, fire, earth, water and
air. Just below the apex they carve a cat with a human face and
below the rattles on one side the face of Isis, on the other the face
of Nephthys, using these faces as an enigma of birth and death
(for these are the changes and motions of the elements); by the cat
they signify the moon, on account of the various colors, the night-
prowling, and the fertility of this animal. For it is said to bring
forth one kitten, then two, then three, then four, then five, then
six, then seven, so that its offspring are twenty-eight in all, the
number of the days of the moon. However, this is, perhaps, too
fabulous; but the pupils of its eyes seem to dilate at the full moon,
and to contract when the moon wanes. By the human face of the
cat they show forth the rational method of the changes of the
moon,'
376 F-382 C. Digression. 376 F-378 B. Physical allegoristic.
"In a word, we are not to conceive Osiris or Isis as water or sun
or land or the heavens, nor Typhon as fire or drought or sea; but
if we assign to Typhon simply whatever in these various parts of
nature is indeterminate and disproportionate on account of excess
or lack, and on the other hand if we do honor to whatever is orderly
and good and beneficial as the work of Isis and the image and reason
of Osiris, we should not be wrong.
For we believe that these
gods have been set over all the portion of the good, and that all that
is fair and good in nature comes into being through them, when the
one supplies the original seed and the other receives and nourishes
it.
"This belief that these gods are the creators and directors of what-
ever is helpful to man gives us an explanation to make to those who
fit the stories about these gods to the changes of the seasons or to
the planting and cultivation of the fruits of the earth, saying that
Osiris is buried when the seed is put into the earth, and that he
lives again when the plants start to grow. In the same spirit they
say that when Isis perceived that she was pregnant she hung a charm
around her neck on the sixth day of the month Phaophi; and that
the imperfect child Harpocration was brought forth at the winter
solstice; that is, the first shoots are tender and undeveloped.
Men take delight in these physical interpretations and accept them,
because physical phenomena are so evident and usual that they ren-
der plausible any explanation that introduces them."
877 C.
Warnings.
"And there is no harm in this method, if in the first place its
253 Cf. Plato, Tim. 49 B foll., 53 A.
51
advocates allow us to keep these gods universal and do not restrict
them to the Egyptians, confining these names to the Nile and the
land that is watered by the Nile, and so by calling them marshes or
lotuses take away mighty divinities from the rest of mankind, who
have no Nile nor Buto nor Memphis. . The second danger is
more serious, and they ought to be very careful that they do not
unintentionally resolve divine powers into physical phenomena.
For the rest of this passage see above pp. 37, 38 and 25 f. n. 142.
Thus it is plain that, within certain restrictions, Plutarch had no
objection to physical allegoristic. It is true that he twice explicitly
preferred a moral interpretation. In Septem 156 C he does not
give an allegorical interpretation, but objects to confining the
Muses, Aphrodite and Dionysus to the bare direction of physical
things; they presided over moral phenomena, and used the physical
merely as instruments. In de aud. po. 19 he claims that for the
stories of the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite** and of the coquetry
or Hera the poet himself had given the looets, Aphrodite stood
λύσεις,
for bad manners and bad morals, and Hera's discomfiture should
serve as a warning against the employment of such arts. What he
protested against was forced and unnatural allegories:
255
τὓς [μύθους] ταῖς πάλαι μὲν ὑπονοίαις αλληγορίας δὲ νῦν λεγομέναις, παραβιο-
ζόμενοι καὶ διαστρέφοντες.
234 Cf. Heraclitus, Alleg. Hom. c. 69, this is an allegory of Empedoclean
cosmogony. And Cornutus, 19, 102, Ares equals iron and Aphrodite the soft-
ening force of fire; it was called adultery because the warlike and violent is
not naturally fitted to the beneficial and pleasing.
285 Cf. Heraclitus Alleg. Hom. c. 39.
256 De aud, po. 19 E foll. The words úróvoa and àìžŋyopía are interest-
ing; but the former always had a much wider application than the lat-
ter; for example, in de Is. 363 D Ezóvota is not an allegory. This passage
has been relied upon to prove that Plutarch rejected physical allegorical inter-
pretation, and was opposed to Stoic methods. Wyttenbach, XI p. 161. Wyt-
tenbach makes a reference to Longinus de subl. 9, as saying that only by alle-
gory can Homer be vindicated from the charge of impiety. But in 9, § 8,
Longinus uses Plutarch's method of turning from an evil passage to a good,
cf. above p. 28 f. n. 163. So it is probable that the two writers were not much
at variance upon this point. Cf. on Plutarch's attitude towards physical alle-
gorístic P. Decharme, Un. fragm. d. Daed. de Plut., Mélanges Henri Weil, 114.
Westerwick, de Plut. Stud. Hes. 54. Volkmann I. 120. Schlemm 36, 38; the
latter page on this passage. Oakesmith XVII-XX., Plutarch an eclectic,
rather than a Platonist, and received much from the Stoics and Epicureans.
Westerwick, pp. 54-56, says of Plutarch that he sometimes admits physical
interpretations and sometimes rejects them, giving de Is. 377 D, E as a proof
that he sometimes rejected them. But this is no more rejection of the physi-
cal than the passage from amat. 757 B, quoted above p. 37 is of the psychologi-
cal allegoristic. It is here, as there, a warning. Hirzel, Der Dialog. II. 218,
probably has this passage in mind when he says that Plutarch here (de Is.)
discards the physical interpretation of the Stoics. On the ground that Plu-
tarch did not admit this Stoic interpretation Hirzel does not allow the physi-
cal explanations in the fragment of the Daedala in Plataea to be Plutarch's own;
the work must have been a dialogue, and the parts preserved the words of a
Stoic interlocutor. The same view of the fragment is held by Decharme,
p. 111-116. But Decharme says that Plutarch repudiated physical allegory
and took nothing from the Stoics. We have seen that this is not the case.
Therefore it does not seem impossible that these words in the daed. in Plat.
were a part of the treatment of the subject in which Plutarch wished to show
52
378A. "For our guide in the interpretation of religious tradition
we must use our reason after it has been trained by the study of
philosophy.
We can gather from the Egyptians themselves
that all things should be referred to reason. For when they hold
a feast in honor of Hermes they eat honey and the fig, and say,
'Sweet is truth.' The amulet that Isis wore is interpreted 'true
speech.' Harpocrates is not to be considered an imperfect and in-
fant god, nor the god of pulse, but the guardian and director of
man's childish and imperfect and disjointed conception of the gods;
therefore he has his finger on his mouth as a symbol of restraint
and silence; and when they bring pulse as a sacrifice to this god
they say, "The tongue is fortune, the tongue is a divinity.' Of all
the plants in Egypt they say that the persea is most sacred to the
goddess, because its seed is like a heart, its leaf like a tongue. For
none of man's possessions is more divine than speech, especially
speech about the gods, nor has greater weight in the scale of hap-
piness."
For the next two chapters on mournful rites, and the explanation
that they are for the disappearance of fruits and plants, and on the
danger in failing to grasp the exact sense in which words are used
see above p. 35 foll.
379 E-382 A. Animal worship.
"The explanation of the worship of certain animals because the
gods through fear of Typhon had fled into those animals is utterly
preposterous. Equally incredible is the hypothesis that these ani-
mals alone receive such souls as suffer metempsychosis. There are
three theories of a political origin of the custom. According to one
theory Osiris had divided his great army into many divisions and
had appointed for each division a standard in the form of some ani-
mal, and that animal was held sacred by the members of the tribe
or division. According to another, later kings had exhibited gold
and silver animal heads in front of the army to frighten the enemy.
The third theory is that one of the terrible and wicked kings ob-
served that the Egyptians were prone to revolution, and so long as
they were united were irresistible by reason of their numbers.
Therefore he sowed among them an undying superstition of such a
form as to be a cause of perpetual contention. For he ordered some
cities to honor and worship certain animals, and other cities to
worship other animals, choosing such animals as made war on each
other, and of which some were the natural food of others; now the
people defended their own sacred animals and were angry when
they were hurt, and thus were unconsciously drawn into the hostili-
ties of the animals and fought with each other.
that physical allegory might be present. The safeguards and warnings and
delimitations are lacking, but the language of the seventh paragraph is not
unlike that of the physical explanation of the Isis myth, 363 D, 364 A.
Doubtless Hirzel and Decharme would leave the second paragraph to Plutarch,
for there a moral explanation is given, see below p. 57.
53
380C. "By the explanation commonly given, that the soul of
Typhon himself has fled into these animals, the myth would seem
to be an enigma that every irrational and brutal nature belongs to
the dominion of the evil demon, and that they worship these ani-
mals in the hope of mollifying him; and if he comes upon them
with excessive droughts or deadly sicknesses or other disasters, the
priests take some of the sacred animals away under cover of dark-
ness and silence and threaten and frighten them; then if the mis-
fortune continues they kill the animal as a sort of punishment of
the demon or purification in time of great trouble..
288
380F. "There are still two causes of the worship of animals,
their usefulness27 and their symbolism; one cause operates in some
cases, the other in others, while in many both are present.
The asp and weasel and beetle have in them certain images of divine
power, just as the sun is reflected in drops of water. The method of
reproduction of the weasel is thought to be a likeness of the birth
of the reasoning faculty; the beetle has no female, but the males
deposit the generative seed in round pellets of earth which they
thrust backwards as they move, just as the sun, passing from sun-
set to sunrise, seems to turn the heavens in the opposite direction;
the asp is like a star in never growing old and in swift motion with-
out any organs of motion. Nor has the crocodile honor without
plausible reason, but is called an image of god, for it alone is tongue-
less. For divine thought has no need of a voice, and 'moving along
a silent path guides human affairs with justice.' Besides, they say
that this is the only water animal with a transparent membrane
coming down from its forehead over its eyes, so that it sees without
being seen, something that belongs to the first god.
It lays
sixty eggs, they take sixty days to hatch, and it lives sixty years at
most, now this is the number first used in measurements of the
movements of the heavenly bodies.
The ibis makes an
equilateral triangle with her legs and bill; and the mixture of black
and white feathers pictures the gibbousness of the moon. We must
not be surprised that the Egyptians delighted in slight resem-
blances; for the Greeks, too, in their pictures and statues of the
gods, made use of many such images. For instance, in Crete there
was a statue of Zeus without ears; for it is becoming that the ruler
and lord of all things should listen to no one. And Phidias placed
260
a snake beside the statue of Athena and a tortoise beside the statue
of Aphrodite in Elis to show that maidens need a guard and that
200
257 Cf. Cic. N. D. I. 36, 101.
288 Cf. Apis as the image of the soul of Osiris, 359 B, 362 D, 368 C. On
Egyptian worship of animals see Wellman Aegyp. in Hermes, 31, p. 226 foll.,
especially 234, 235. Parthey 261.
289 Cf. de Is. 355 A, images of judges without hands; that is, justice could
not be bribed. The chief judge with eyes closed; nor could justice be seduced
by address.
290 In conj. praec. 142 D, mention of same statue with same interpreta-
tion. See de an. proc. 1030 B, musical instruments in the hands of the statues
of the gods show that harmony and order belong to divinity.
54
homekeeping and silence are becoming to wives. The trident of
Poseidon is a symbol of the third place which the sea holds after
the heavens and the air; for the same reason Amphitrite and the
Tritons received those names. The Pythagoreans called numbers
and geometrical forms by the names of the gods thus making use
of symbolism.
382 A. "If, therefore, the most noted philosophers did not see
fit to neglect or disregard an enigma of the divine when they ob-
served it even in soulless and bodiless things, still more do I think
we ought to rejoice to see divine traits in natures that have sensa-
tion and life and feeling and moral character, not doing honor to
these animals themselves but through them to the divine; looking
upon them as clearer mirrors and as immediate creations of nature,
instruments as it were or skillful devices of the god that orders all
things.
Therefore it is not worse to find an image of the
divine in living creatures than in works of bronze and stone.
My last explanations of the worship of animals I approve more than
the others."
382 C-E. Metaphysical again.
"The sacred vestments of Isis are many-colored, for she is the
principle of matter that produces and receives all things, light
and darkness, day and night, fire and water, life and death, begin-
ning and end. But the garment of Osiris has no shadow nor variety
of color but is simple, like light; for the original principle and the
intelligible is unmixed. Therefore they put these garments on but
once and then keep them hidden, but they use the vestments of Isis
often, for what is perceptible to the senses is in use and is subject
to sight and touch and to changes sometimes into one form and
sometimes into another; while the knowledge of the intelligible,
which is pure and simple, lights up the soul but once as by a flash
of lightning.
9,201
The contrast between the same and the other is allegorically
taught not only for ultimate philosophical elements of thought, but
also for cosmogonical development. The worship of both Apollo
and Dionysus at Delphi shows the two periods in the existence of
the world. Apollo stands for the ecpyrosis, when the world is re-
duced to the pure element of fire, one (Apollo) and bright (Phoe-
bus). Dionysus stands for the parti-colored world as we know it;
and the stories of his dismemberment symbolize the division of the
291 Cf. 352 B, C, the dress of the dead priests of Isis a symbol of true
reason. 352 D-F, priests smooth shaven to show purity and simplicity; for
the same reason woolen garments avoided, they are made of the hair of beasts
and hair is an excrescence. Linen garments were worn by the priests: the
true cause of all these customs is one, for Plato [Phaedo 67 B] says that it is
not right to touch what is pure with the impure. This dress had physical
symbolism also; flax is the product of the immortal earth, and the producer
of an edible fruit. And it had another reason, it was useful, for it was suita-
ble to all seasons and was especially healthful. Thus many causes may operate
to produce a single custom.
55
one element into many elements and forms of bodies. The rites
in his honor represent a world full of passion and change. Those
in Apollo's honor are quiet and orderly. The statues of Apollo
are of a man always young, those of Dionysus appear in many forms.
The length of time that the paean is sung to Apollo is longer than
that in which the dithyramb is sung to Dionysus, to show that the
two periods are unequal."
292
382 E. Osiris lord of Hades.
"The priests of the present day darkly and cautiously hint that
this god rules over the dead and is identical with the Greek Hades
and Pluto. This idea is misunderstood, and it causes the untrained
multitude much uneasiness to think that the sacred and holy Osiris
really lives under the earth, where the bodies of the dead are laid
away. But he is himself far removed from the earth and is un-
touched by any substance that is subject to decay and death. In
this life the souls of men, hemmed in by bodies and by passions,
have no community with god, except as it were to touch upon an
obscure dream with a consciousness trained by philosophy. But
when souls have been released and pass into a state where they are
invisible and pure and untouched by passion, this god is their
leader and king; there they depend upon him and without satiety
gaze upon and long for that beauty that cannot be described to
men; it is this beauty that the ancient story showed Isis always
loving and pursuing and dwelling with, so that she fills all things
that share in generation with the beautiful and the good. Now
these are the explanations most befitting the gods."
77293
With these characteristic words Plutarch closes his allegorical
interpretation of the Isis myth.
He elsewhere gives a more rationalistic and less mystical interpre-
tation of the stories of the after life. After death there is nothing
left of the body to receive punishment, but those that have led an
evil life have one retribution, ἀδοξία καὶ ἄγνοια καὶ παντελῶς ἀφανισμός, ὃς
αἴρων εἰς τὸν ἀμειδῆ ποταμὸν ἀπὸ τῆς λήθης καταποντίζει εἰς ἄβυσσον καὶ ἀχανές
πέλαγος, αχρηστίαν καὶ ἀπραξίαν καὶ πᾶσαν ἄγνοιαν καὶ ἀδοξίαν συνεφελκόμενον.
There are some other scattered allegorical interpretations, as,
Marsyas was punished because he contended by wordless music
against words and melody, and it is words that appeal to reason.
Forgetfulness and the ferule are consecrated to Dionysus to show
29 $
295
202 De E. 388 F-389 C, where Plutarch claims to be giving the teachings
of the theologians both in verse and in prose.
293 Observe "Platonic color."
* De lat. viv. 1130 D, E. Cf. non posse 1105 B, Cerberus and horrible
punishments in Hades are only old wives' tales. Cf. 1093 A, B,
295 Sym. 713 C, D.
56
299
302
297
208
301
that at friendly feasts errors should be forgotten or lightly re-
proved." The third race was said to be descended from ash trees
on account of its robustness. That the priestesses of Hera and of
Dionysus did not greet each other and that ivy was not allowed in
the precinct of Hera were not admitted by Plutarch to be the result
of mythical and nonsensical jealousies. But these religious re-
strictions showed that the marriage goddess and drunkenness could
have nothing in common, as Plato says. Also the ceremonies of
the worship of Hera taught that husband and wife should be gentle
to each other.' Gall was not used in sacrifice to Hera, goddess of
marriage, to show that no bad temper should occur between man
and wife.” The wineless sacrifices were to teach sobriety. Homer
knew, "as they say," that the shadow of the earth was pointed, for
be called the night or. In Od. 4, 563 he meant that the end
and boundary of the earth was where the shadow ceased. The
poets "mythologized" that night was born of the earth; the natural
philosophers demonstrated that night was the shadow of the earth.***
In the story of Hera and Leto the two names designated one thing.
For Hera was the earth, and Leto the night, and the night is noth-
ing but the shadow of the earth. The quarrel of Zeus and Hera
was a disturbance of the elements; if Zeus, the principle of heat,
caused the dissension a drought came upon the earth; if Hera, the
wet and windy force, a flood. Some philosophers said in jest that
Hephaestos was called lame because fire did not burn without fuel,
nor could a lame man, walk without a stick. Many answers to the
Roman questions give symbolic explanations: 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 13.
22, 25, 26, 29, 72, 75, 76, 97, 101, 102, 109, 110, 111, 112.
Sym. 612 D.
308
305
207 Com. in Hes. § 7, on Hes. O. D. 143.
298 Laws 775 C.
299 Fr. de daed. Plat. §2.
307
303
200 Conj. praec. 141 F; observe the words alvittopivov toð vopovétov.
The same explanation of this custom in fr. de daed. Plat. Sec. 2.
301 De Is. 353 B. Cf. 354 A. the priests refrained from swine as a sign of
luxury; 353 D, E, sea fish for the same reason, and also because of the cor-
rupt nature of the sea; 352 F, they avoid pulse, mutton, pork, because they
produce fat, and the priests abhor excess; salt, because it whets the appetite:
353 A, they do not allow Apis to drink of the Nile on the ground that it is
fattening, and they wish to preserve in themselves and in Apis the divine
spirit not weighed down by the mortal part; 353 F, onions avoided because
they grow in the dark of the moon, also because they produce thirst and make
the eyes water; Cf. Aulus Gel. 20, 8, for the same idea, quoted from Plut.
com. in Hes. Bk. IV.
302 De fac. lun. 923 B.
303 Ib. 942 F.
304 De prim. frig. 953 A.
305 Fr. de daed. Plat. §4.
306 Ib. §7.
307 De fac. lun. 922 B. Cf. Heraclitus Alleg. Hom. c. 26.
57
309
APPENDIX I.-NUMBERS.
Immediately after the examples of Greek symbolism in statues,
Plutarch went on to say that the Pythagoreans called numbers and
geometrical forms by the names of the gods.50s It can be inferred
from this juxtaposition that he considered this nomenclature as
symbolical merely. In this same essay the right-angled triangle of
sides equal to three, four and five is used, with explicit reference
to Plato,⁰⁰ as a symbol of Osiris, father or spirit; Isis, the material
or matrix; Horus, the sensible world. How good a symbol of
the world five is, he proved by the fact that návra is a paro-
nym of πέντε and to count is called πεμπάσασθαι. 310 The symbolical
use of geometrical figures appeared again when he said that
Xenocrates made the equilateral triangle suggestive (száσas)
of the divine nature, the scalene of the mortal, the isosceles of the
demonic. This is stamped with Plutarch's approval by the addi-
tion of the characteristic idea that nature has put forth sensible
images and visible likeneses of the gods; the sun, etc.""
312
311
In these passages Plutarch evidently uses numbers and figures
as symbols and it is at least probable that they never had for him
any mystic power. It is true that he studied mathematics assidu-
ously, as we learn both from his own words and from the long
discussions in de E. c. 7-16, de def. or. c. 22-27, and de an. proc. c.
10-20, 29-32, but at the close of each discussion there is a hint to
guide us in our judgment of his real attitude. After arguing for
the interpretation of the consecrated E as the number five, he
concludes, “As I remember it, this was the conclusion of the arith-
metical and mathematical encomiums of the E." The word encomi-
ums would perhaps suggest that he was none too serious in putting
forward the claims of five. A stronger argument against the five
308 De Is. 381 F.
310
313
309 Rep. 546. On this passage in the Rep. see Zeller II. 857. f. n. 1.
De Is. 373 F-374 A. Cf. de E. 388 C. For TÉVTE as πάντα
def. or. 429 D. For пеµñáσanda de def. or. 429 D. and de E. 387 F.
311
de
De def. or. 416 D. Cf. what has been said above p. 33 foll., 38 of the
correspondence between the spiritual and physical realms.
812 De E. 387 F. In de Is. he often gives explanations of the days upon
which certain rites are performed by a reference to astronomy, especially by a
reference to the phases and movements of the moon. The myth itself might
be a representation of the eclipses, 368 D.
313 Ferd. Schultz, Die Sprueche der Delp. Saeule, Philologus 24, p. 214,
denies that the E can represent five, for the ancients used for five.
TO
?
59
may be drawn from the reply of Ammonius, that he would not dis-
courage young men from mathematical pursuits, but that every
number had much that could be praised for those who wish to
praise it. Then he gave the true meaning of the F; it was
el, thou
art, addressed to the divinity by the approaching worshipper. The
interpretation as five received no more consideration at the close
than any of the other suggestions, namely, that it was dedicated
to the Pythian god because it is the second vowel, and the sun, over
which Apollo presides, is the second planet; or it is the el of ques-
tions and wishes; or the el of the Stoic form of the syllogism.
At the end of chapter 37 of de def. or. after a long discussion of
the number of worlds, in which much was again made of five, the
conclusion is that one could not be positive in such a matter. So,
too, near the close of the mathematical discussions in de an. proc.
he disclaimed any desire to go into such matters with great partic-
ularity, 1028 A, and in the last chapter of this treatise he explicitly
refused to sanction the Pythagorean doctrine that all things are
like number, and explains definitely how he has been using numbers
and figures and musical intervals, and how he understands Plato
to use them in the Timaeus in his account of the creation of the
world. "The demiurgus found the soul in disorder, and reduced
it to harmony; the office of the proportions and numbers that the
demiurgus used was but the harmony of the soul and its concord
with itself; again, the soul used this harmony to rule terrestrial
affairs." Even here, we see that numbers are only symbolical.***
314 Cf. Zeller III. 173, Indessen grieifen auch diese Betrachtungen [of
numbers] in seiner Weltansicht nicht tiefer ein, da er doch immer am liebsten
einfach auf die Wirkung der Gottheit zurückgeht, welche die Materie geordnet
und gestaltet habe.
60
APPENDIX II.-THE ISIS MYTH.
Osiris, Isis, and Typhon were the children of Rhea. To Osiris
and Isis was born Horus, like themselves orderly and beneficent.
Osiris first ruled over the Egyptians and taught them the arts of
civilized life, and gave them laws and the worship of the gods.
Later, he went to all the countries of the earth, and induced many
men to give up their savage life, and softened their harsh natures
by eloquence and song and the finer arts. While he was gone
Typhon was unable to raise a revolt against him, so well did Isis
watch over the kingdom. But on his return he was overcome by
stratagem. Typhon made a beautiful box to fit exactly the body of
Osiris, which he had secretly measured, and invited Osiris and the
conspirators to a feast. There he said jestingly that the box should
belong to him whom it fitted. All tried it, and when Osiris had lain
down in it the others rushed upon him and fastened the lid down
with nails and molten lead. Then the box was thrown into the Nile,
and so was washed out into the sea. Isis wandered long and sought
the body of Osiris. At last she found it, and hid it in a marsh.
Typhon was hunting there, and came upon the body. He tore it
asunder and scattered the parts. Again Isis went out to search for
the body, and to give burial to the scattered parts as she found
them. Later, when Horus had been trained by Osiris, who came
from Hades for that purpose, he conquered Typhon, and handed
him over, bound, to his mother. However, she did not destroy him,
but let him go. Many details have been omitted.
315
Compare M. Wellman, Aegyptisches, Hermes 31, 221 foll., for
translation of the myth and comment. According to Wellman, the
myth as given by Plutarch was probably composed by Manetho, for
the purpose of uniting the Egyptian and Greek religions. Parthey
ed. de Is. p. i (cf. p. 81) refers to Bunsen's suspicion (Aeg. I. p. 95,
96), that Manetho was Plutarch's chief source, but adds that, how-
ever that may be, Plutarch looked at everything Egyptian in the
light of his own time. But, p. 251, Plutarch composed what he has
transmitted to us out of various myths, as shown by his calling
Osiris the sun in one place, while in another he called him the off-
spring of the sun. Cf. p. X., Nebelhafte Verwirrung und schillernder
Wechsel der Gestalten das wahre Element aller Mythologie sei, etc.
315 De Is. 355 D foll.
61
P. 252, on the explanation of three Egyptian names, "Plu-
tarch often used very good sources." Lafaye, Les divinités d'Alex.
hors de l'Égypte, 5-23, syncretism of Greek and Egyptian religions
from Herodotus to Plutarch. Pp. 5 and 19, monotheistic tenden-
cies of Egyptian religion; see particularly 12, Il était impossible
que la croyance au monothéisme et à l'immortalité de l'âme, qui se
cachait au fond de la théologie égyptienne, ne seduisît pas en Grèce
tous les esprits distingués que lassait le fardeau à la fois pesant et
vide du polythéisme. P. 70, C'était la philosophic qui avait présidé
à la fusion des mystères grecs et égyptiens; dès le jour ou les
Ptolémés, et avec eux une légion d'écrivains, s'étaient appliqués à
l'étude des traditions sacrées de la race vaincue, ils avaient taché
d'en saisir le fil et l'esprit; de nombreux systèmes avaient été pro-
posés. Plutarque les passe en revue et les résume; mais il voudrait
aussi arriver à une synthèse, dire le dernier mot. The view of
Lafaye is given in some fullness as a probable conjecture of what
happened; on account of the loss of the writers preceding Plutarch
it is impossible to determine what he owed to others and especially
to whom he owed any particular explanation. Compare Gruppe,
I, 439. But these explanations must not be considered as pure
Hellenisms foisted upon a simple Egyptian myth; the monotheistic
tendency of Egyptian theology has already been noted, and that is,
of course, an unliteral interpretation of the popular stories and
rites. Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt (trans. by Tirard) 344 foll.,
in the New Empire and even in the Middle Empire, hidden mean-
ings were read into religious hymns-though none of those that
Erman gives are allegorical. Sayce, Herod. App. 1. 343, "Set or
Typhon, primarily the night, into whose character and attributes
a moral meaning was gradually read, so that in the time of the New
Empire he became the representative of evil, the enemy of the
bright powers of light and goodness, the prince of the powers of
darkness." It is impossible to give a scientific account of Egyptian
religion at the time of the Ptolemies, for the documents have not
been collected and sifted.1
With respect to Plutarch's attempts to explain hieroglyphics and
Egyptian names it may be said in general, that it is not improbable
that even the most figurative explanations were made to Plutarch,
or to his sources, by the Egyptian priests themselves; also certain
usages may have been temporary and local. When Plutarch, de Is.
354 F, says that hieroglyphics are symbolic, he is partly right; they
are both phonetic and pictographic, but not exactly symbolic in
Plutarch's sense. His statement, 362 D, that Egyptian names are
significant is as true of that language as it would be of Greek; that
316 Professor Breasted of the University of Chicago allows me to give him
as my authority for this statement. (Cf. Erman 259, and 264, f. n. 3.) He
kindly gave me the information in the next paragraphs also, on hieroglyphics
and etymologies.
་
62
is, the etymology of some names can be made out. This was the
view of Egyptian priests.
HIEROGLYPHICS.
354 F, cf. 371 E, eye and scepter the hieroglyphs of Osiris: eye
and throne, not scepter; not with the figurative meanings given by
Plutarch, though doubtless the priests were responsible for these
explanations.
363 F, fish the hieroglyph for hate: it was used as symbol of hate-
ful things.
365 B, a leaf (of the fig?) the hieroglyph of king and of the south:
not a leaf, but a plant was used for the southern land, and later for
the king of southern Egypt.
371 E, hawk hieroglyph of Osiris: hawk a symbol of a god, Edfu;
found as far back as First Dynasty. Symbolism not known.
EGYPTIAN ETYMOLOGIES.
354 D, Amun is what is concealed: a similar root does mean to
conceal.
355 A, Osiris is the many-eyed: right. Cf. Parthey, 186.
359 B, Memphis is the haven of good things: it does mean good
rest.
365 E, ivy was called chenosiris, tree of Osiris: right. Cf. V.
Loret, La Flore Pharaonique p. 69.
365 F, Osiris means strong: a pun, strong equals ws r, Osiris
equals ws yr.
368 B, Omphis means benefactor: probably right.
374 B, Muth (name of Isis), mother: right.
374 B, Athyri (name of Isis), house of Horus: right, for Athyri
is Hathor, the goddess of heaven, and Horus is the sun, which
dwells in the heavens.
The following authors Plutarch quotes on Egyptian religion or
subjects connected with religious rites or beliefs. Of some only
fragments are extant; of others nothing remains. See Wytten-
bach in his notes on the passages, and Christ under the various
names, though neither comments upon all these writers.
Aristagoras, de Is. 352 F.
Hecataeus, 353 B; of Abdera 354 D. Fragments in Mueller F. H.
G II. 384-396.
Eudoxus, in the second book of the
περίοδος 353 C; 359 C;
363 A; 372 E; 376 C; 377 A. See Christ 570, who says that the
fragments are collected by Brandes, Ueber d. Zeitalter d. Astron.
Geminos u. d. Geog. Eudoxos in Jahns Arch. 13 Bd. (1847) S. 199-
230.
1
63
Manetho, the Sebennite 354 D; the Sebennite, 362 A; 371 C;
376 B; 380 D. Mueller F H G II. 511-616.
Archemachus of Euboea, 361 F.
Heraclides Ponticus, 361 F. Mueller F. H. G. II. 197-207.
Timotheus the exegete, 362 A.
Phylarchus, 362 B. Wyttenbach gives the Ms. reading Philarchus
and supposes that Plutarch meant a different person from the
Phylarchus he quotes elsewhere.
Dinon, 363 C.
Castor, 363 C. Fragments are collected by Mueller in the Didot
edition of Herodotus, p. 153 foll.
Hellanicus, 364 D.
Ariston who wrote about Athenian colonies quotes Alexarchus,
365 E. Fragments of one Ariston Mueller F H G III. 324, 5.
Hermaeus, in the first letter on the Egyptians 365 F; 368 B.
Mnaseas, 365 F.
Anticlides, 365 F.
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