thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
fruit resembles a heart, and its leaf a tongue. For of all that man possesses by nature nothing is more divine than speech, especially that which concerns the gods; nor has anything greater weight towards his happiness: wherefore I enjoin [Some words are lost here; the sense requires, I enjoin on you in these matters, as the priests do him, &c.] upon him that goes down here [Delphi, where many of these small treatises were written, as appears from incidental remarks.] to consult the oracle to think religiously, to speak auspiciously: but most people act ridiculously, when in the processions and festivals they bid us speak auspiciously, whilst they both speak and think most blasphemously about the gods themselves.LXIX. In what manner therefore must we conduct those melancholy, laughterless, and mournful sacrifices, if it is neither right to omit what is established by custom, nor yet to adulterate our notions about the gods, and disorder them with absurd fancies? For amongst the Greeks also many things are done (and at the same time of year too) resembling the Egyptian ceremonies: for at Athens the women fast at the Thesmophoria, seated on the ground; and the Boeotians move the house of Achaea, naming the festival Epachthe; as though Ceres were in mourning on account of the descent of her daughter into the shades. Moreover, this month coincides with the rising of the Pleiads, which the Egyptians call Athor, the Athenians Pyanepsion, and the Boeotians Damatrios; the Western nations [The Celts; the regular expression for them in the early Greek writers.] also, as Theopompus relates, consider and call the winter Saturn, the summer Venus, and the spring Proserpine; and believe that all things come out of Saturn [This seems connected with the belief of the Gauls that they sprung from Dis Pater, as Caesar mentions.] and Venus. But the Phrygians believing that God sleeps by winter, but wakes up in spring, at the one time hold with revelry the feasts of his Going to bed, at the other those of his Getting up: whilst the Paphlagonians say He is bound down and imprisoned by winter, but loosened, and set in motion by spring.LXX. The time of year too suggests a suspicion that the mourning takes place upon the burial of the corn; which corn, indeed, those of old time did not regard as gods, but as gifts of the gods, both great and indispensable to the not living savagely and like the beasts: and at what season they saw the fruits of the trees vanishing entirely, and failing them, whilst those they themselves had sown as yet sparingly and clumsily, scraping away the soil with their hands, and covering them over again, so depositing them with the uncertainty of their reappearing and arriving at maturitythey used to do many things like to those that bury and that mourn:and then, just as we say that one that buys the works of Plato, buys Plato; and he acts Menander that represents Menanders plays, so did they not scruple to call by the names of the gods
the gifts and creations of the gods; doing them honor and reverence by use: whilst those who came after, receiving these names without understanding, and ignorantly transferring to the gods the vicissitudes of the seed corn, and not merely calling, but believing the appearances and concealments of the necessaries of life, births and destructions of gods, filled their heads with absurd, wicked and confused ideas.LXXI. And yet people, having in view the absurdity of the contradiction, like Xenophanes of Colophon, and those following him, who said that the Egyptians, if they believe in gods, do not mourn for them, and if they mourn for them do not believe in them; but that it was ridiculous to lament and in the same breath to pray for the seed corn to show itself again, and ripen itself, in order that it may be again consumed and mourned for. But such is not really the case; for they mourn for the seed corn, but pray to the gods, the givers and authors of the same, to make more anew and cause it to spring up in the place of that which has perished. Whence there is a very good maxim amongst philosophers, that they who learn not how rightly to understandnames make a bad use of things; just as those Greeks that have not learnt or accustomed themselves to call the brazen, painted, and marble images, not ornaments and honors of gods, but actual gods, in the next place do not scruple to say that Lachares stripped Minerva bare; that Dionysius cropped an Apollo that wore curls of gold; that the Capitoline Jupiter was burnt and perished in the Civil Wars. Let them learn therefore that they are led astray, and imbibe false notions, modelled upon the names. This is especially the case of the Egyptians with respect to the animals to which honors are paid; whereas the Greeks in this particular, at all events, both speak and believe correctly, saying that the dove is the sacred animal of Venus, the dragon[Crested serpent, much resembling the Hindoo cobra.] of Minerva, the raven of Apollo, the dog of Diana (as Euripides hath itThou wilt be a dog, torch-bearing Dians pet).But the most part of the Egyptians, by worshipping the sacred animals, and treating them as gods, have not only covered their rites with ridicule and mockery; although this is the least evil resulting from their simplicity; for a horrible belief grows up that gives over the weak-minded and innocent to superstition pure and unmitigated, whilst the acuter and bolder sort it leads into atheistical and bestial incredulity: hence it is not out of place to discuss the subject in the way that seems most appropriate to treat it.LXXII. The notion that the gods changed themselves into these animals out of fear of Typhon, as it were hiding themselves in the bodies of ibises, dogs, and hawks, exceeds in absurdity every kind of jugglery and fabulous tale. Also the notion that the new births of the souls of the deceased, so many as continue to exist, is
merely the being born again under these shapes, is equally incredible. And of such as attempt to assign some political cause for these legends, some pretend that Osiris upon his great expedition divided his forces into several parts (companies and ranks the Greeks call them), and gave them badges of the figures of animals, each of which became sacred and venerated by the family of those banded under it. Others, that the succeeding kings, for the sake of striking terror unto their adversaries, used to make their appearance in the battles wearing the heads of wild beasts made of gold and silver: but one of these clever and ingenious monarchs, they tell, observing that the Egyptians were naturally fickle and disposed to change and innovation, because they were easily cajoled, whilst from their numbers they possessed irresistible and ungovernable strength in unanimity and joint actionon that account taught them an everlasting superstition in the sowing of the ground, as a pretext for unceasing dissension among themselves. For, inasmuch as the beasts, different kinds of which he ordered different tribes to honor and worship, behave with ill-will and hostility towards each other, and are respectively inclined by nature to live upon different sorts of food, each party, in defending their own animals and being indignant when they suffered harm, should unwittingly be involved and compromised in quarrels against each other through the enmities between the different beasts. For even at the present day the people of Lycopolis are the only Egyptians that eat the sheep, because the Wolf, whom they worship, does the same; and the Oxyrynchites on one day, when the people of Cynopolis (Dog-Town) were eating the fish called Oxyrynchus, collected dogs and sacrificed and eat them as victims; and from this occasion setting to war, they handled each other roughly, and afterwards being punished for it by the Romans, were equally ill-treated.LXXIII. And as many pretend that the soul of Typhon himself is divided amongst these animals, the fable may be thought to express enigmatically that every irrational and bestial nature belongs to the share of the Evil Spirit: and that people in order to propitiate and soothe Him, treat these animals well, and do them worship: and if a long and severe drought should come on, inducing to an extraordinary degree either pestilential diseases, or other strange and inexplicable calamities, then some of these honored animals do the priests lead out in darkness, quietly and in silence, and at first they threaten and scare away the creature; but if it remains fixed, [The ceremony of the scape-goat.] then they consecrate and sacrifice it, as though this were some kind of punishment for its deity, or else a great mean of purification in the greatest emergencies. For in the city Idisthyas they used to burn men alive, as Manetho relates, calling them Typhonians, and by tossing their ashes in a winnowing-fan made away with and scattered the same. This, however, was done publickly, every year, in the Dogdays, whereas the sacrificings of the worshipped animals are secret, taking place at
irregular times according to the emergency, and are unknown to the commonality, except at what time the animals receive burial, when the priests produce some of the other animals, and in the presence of all throw them along with the rest into the grave; thinking to retaliate upon Typhons conduct and to prevent what he delights in. For the apis, along with a few others, is reputed sacred to Osiris, and if this explanation be true, I am of opinion it indicates what we are in search of in the case of the animals that are acknowledged and have joint honors with him, for instance, the ibis, the hawk, the baboon, and the apis himself; for so do they call the goat, that is, at Mendes.LXXIV. There remains the utilitarian and symbolical part of the question, where some of these figures partake of one quality, some of the other, many of both combined. The ox, the sheep, the ichneumon, it is evident they venerated on account of their usefulness to man, just as the Lemnians do the larks that seek out and break the eggs of the locusts; and the Thessalians the storks, because when their land bred many snakes the birds made their appearance, and destroyed them all; wherefore they made a law that whosoever killed a stork should be banished the country. The asp, weasel, beetle,because they discerned in them certain faint reflections of the power of the gods, like that of the sun in raindrops. And of the weasel many hold and say that as it is impregnated through the ear, and brings forth its young through the mouth, it is a similitude of the generation of Reason; whilst the beetle has no female, all being males, and discharge their semen into the material they have rolled into balls, which they roll along, pushing it with their feet as they walk in the opposite direction, in the same manner as the sun seems to surround the heavens backwards, whilst he himself is travelling from west to east. The asp as being immortal and capable of motion without limbs, with equal facility and suppleness, they likened to a star.LXXV. Not even the crocodile receives honors that are devoid of any plausible reason, for it is said to have been made an emblem of the Deity, as being the sole animal destitute of a tongue. For the Divine Reason stands not in need of voice, but walking along a silent path and rule, guides mortal affairs according to justice; and the crocodile alone, of things living in liquid, veils its eyes with a thin transparent membrane which it draws down from the upper lid, so as to see without being seen, which is the attribute of the Supreme Deity; and wherever in the ground the female may have laid her eggs, that place they know is beyond reach of the rising of the Nile, because she cannot lay eggs in the wet, and yet is afraid to lay them at a distance from the water; so exactly do they foresee the
future that they make use of the advancing river as they are bringing forth and hatching, and yet keep the eggs dry and free from damp, for they lay sixty and hatched them in as many days, and so many years live those that live longest, the which number is the first measure to the phenomena in the heavens. Again, as regards the animals worshippedconcerning the dog we have already spoken, but the ibis, besides destroying the venomous reptiles, first taught men the use of medicinal purging, when they observed the bird using clysters and getting cleared out by herself. Those of the priests that be most observant of rules, when they sanctify themselves use for the water of purification that out of which an ibis has drunk, because it neither drinks unwholesome or poisoned water, and does not even go near it, whilst by the relative position of its legs to each other (and the beak), it forms an equilateral triangle; besides, the variation and mixture of the black feathers with the white resembles the figure of the half moon.LXXVI. We ought not to wonder at the Egyptians being so pleased with these imperfect resemblances; the Greeks too, in their painted and in their sculptured images of the gods, have employed many things of the same kind; for example, in Crete there was a statue of Jupiter, which had no ears, because it behoves the Ruler and Lord of gods to hearken unto no one; at the side of his Minerva, Phidias has placed the serpent; at the side of the Venus at Elis, the tortoise, implying that virgins stand in need of watching after, but home-keeping and silence are suitable to married women; and Neptunes trident is an emblem of the third place which the sea occupies, assigned to it after sky and air, on which account Amphitrite and the Tritons have been so named [as derived from ]. The Pythagoreans have even adorned numbers and geometrical figures with the appellations of the gods; for the equilateral triangle they have named Minerva, born out of the head, and Tritogeneia, because it is described by three lines drawn from the angles: Unity they call Apollo; and by a plausible pretext, when the unit is doubled, the Two they name strife and audacity: but the Three they call justice, for it seems that wronging and being wronged exists by means of deficiency and excess, but what is just stands in the middle by reason of equality: and what is called the Four (the six and thirty), was their mightiest oath, as has been commonly reported; and the world [Allusive to the primary sense of , order, arrangement.] has been so denominated because it was completed by the four first elements, and the four superfluous qualities being joined together into One. If, therefore, the most illustrious philosophers when they discerned an emblem of the Divinity even in lifeless and incorporeal things did not think right to neglect or slight any of them, still less, I fancy, did they do so, [The early Egyptians.]
when they discerned moral qualities in natural objects endowed with sense, possessing life, passions, and tempers.LXXVII. We must therefore put up with, not indeed their paying honors to these creatures, but their discerning through their medium (as in clearer mirrors) the work of Nature; and conceiving rightly that which is Divine as being the instrument and act of the God who ordereth all things. And it is right that nothing without a soul be held superior to that with a soul, or that which is without sense to what possesses sense, not even though one should bring together all the gold and emeralds that are in the world (for Divinity does not reside in uses, forms, and polish), but those things hold a place lower in estimation than the dead, whatever neither have participated, nor by their nature can participate in life; whereas that Nature which lives and sees, and has the final cause of motive from within itself, as also the knowledge both of what is its own and that of others, and besides, hath derived an influence and a portion from the Wisdom by which the universe (according to Heraclitus) is governed. For which reason, the Deity is not worse shadowed forth in these things, than in artistic works in bronze, which, while equally susceptible of decay and defilement, are by their nature devoid of perception and understanding. As regards the worshipped animals, therefore, this explanation I approve of the most of all those offered.LXXVIII. Now to treat of the vestments of Isis, differing in their colors (for her power relates to Matter, as it turns itself into and embraces all thingslight, darkness, day, night, life, death, beginning, end), whereas that of Osiris has no shadow nor variation but one, simple, the image of light; for pure is the Final Cause, and free from mixture the Primal and Intelligible. Wherefore, when they have once for all taken off that (vestment) they put it away, and preserve it out of sight and untouched. Whereas those of Isis they use on many occasions, because the objects of sense, being obvious and in constant use, present many unfoldings and exhibitions of themselves, as they succeed one after the other, whereas the conception of the Intelligible, the Unmixed, and the Holy, shines through at once, like a flash of lightning, touches the soul, and allows itself to be seen. For which reason Plato and Aristotle termed this part of philosophy Speculative, because they passed over in reasoning these apparent, heterogeneous, and multiform ideas, and soar up towards the Primal, the Simple, and the Everlasting, and when they touch in any way the clear truth concerning these matters they think that philosophy is complete, and has gained its end.LXXIX. And what the present priests of these days darkly reveal, making scruples about it, and disguising it with caution, namely, that this deity presides over and is king of the dead (being no other than the Hades and Pluto amongst the Greeks)since it is not known in what sense the doctrine is true, disturbs the minds
of the vulgar, when they have the idea that the sacred and truly holy Osiris dwells in the earth, and under the earth, where are hidden the corpses of such as seem to have come to an end. But He Himself dwells at the greatest distance from the earth, being unmixed, undefiled, and pure from all nature admitting of corruption and of death; but the souls of men here below, enveloped in bodies and passions, have no participation in the Deity, except as far as lies in grasping Him by conception, like an indistinct dream, by means of philosophy; but where they are set free and migrate to the Formless, Invisible, Impassive, and Good, then this God becomes leader and king over them, whilst they hang, as it were, upon him, and contemplate without ever being satiated, and long for that Beauty which can neither be spoken nor describedfor which the old legend makes Isis desire, seek after, and dwell with, and fills things here below, whatever partake of birth, with all things beautiful and good. Such notions as these, then, have a sense best befitting the idea of the deity.LXXX. And if I must speak of the kinds of Incense offered or their respective days (as I promised), let the reader before all things bear in mind that men have always felt the greatest anxiety about practices connected with health, especially as to religious ceremonies, purifications, and ways of living; this being done no less on account of religion than of health, because they did not consider it fitting to worship with festering or sickly bodies or souls, that which is pure, entirely exempt from decay, and free from pollution. And inasmuch as the air of which we make the most use and have most to do with, does not always keep the same constitution, but at night is condensed and weighs down the body, and disposes the soul to gloom and thoughtfulness, becoming, as it were, misty and heavy, therefore as soon as they get up they burn for incense Resin, thereby rectifying and purifying the air by its virtue, and blowing away the corrupted exhalation naturally given forth by the body, because this perfume possesses a strong and penetrating quality; and again at mid-day, perceiving that the sun draws strongly out of the earth a heavy exhalation, and mixes it with the air, they burn Myrrh, because its hot nature dissolves and disperses the turbid and muddy element in the surrounding air; in fact, physicians think they counteract pestilential diseases by making a great blaze, on the supposition that it subtilizes the air. It subtilizes it better, if they burn woods of a dry nature, such as of cypress, juniper, and pine. Acron, therefore, the physician at Athens during the Great Plague, is said to have gained credit by ordering fires to be burnt by the side of the sick, for he benefited them not a little thereby. And Aristotle asserts that the sweet smelling exhalations of perfumes, flowers, and meadows, conduce no less to health than to enjoyment,
because by their warmth and subtileness, they spread themselves through the brain, which is by nature cold and in a state of congelation, and if amongst the Egyptians they call myrrh Bal, and this word interpreted signifies pretty nearly sweeping out of evacuations, the name furnishes some evidence to my explanation of the reason for which it is used.LXXXI. The is composed of sixteen ingredients: honey, wine, raisins, sweet-rush, resin, myrrh, frankincense, seselis, and besides, of calamus, asphalt, thryon, dock, and besides these of both arceuthids (one of which is called the greater, the other the less), and cardamums, and orris-root. These are compounded not at random, but sacred books are read aloud to the perfume-makers, whilst they are mixing the ingredients. And as for their number, if it certainly looks like a square made out of a square, and alone containing the equal number an equal number of times, and to bring its external measurement exactly equal to the area, this accidental circumstance must by no means be said to contribute nothing to this effect: but the majority of the ingredients possessing aromatical properties, send out a sweet breath and salubrious exhalation, whereby, when the air is changed and the body excited in the proper manner, they are [Rather, they of themselves lull people to sleep.] themselves lulled to sleep, and have a seductive tendency; whilst the troublesomeness and tension of our daily anxieties they loosen and untie, like so many knots; and the imaginative and prophetic part of dreams, they brighten up and render more clear, like as it were a mirror, to no less degree than do the tunes on the lyre which the Pythagoreans used to play before going to sleep; thus charming down and doctoring the irrational and passionate portion of the soul. For things smelt at often call back the failing sense, often on the other hand blunt and stupify the same; their evaporations diffusing themselves through the body by reason of their subtilty in the same way as some physicians say that sleep is produced when the exhalations from the food taken, creeping gently, and as it were feeling their way around the inward parts, cause a kind of tickling. The they use both as a drink and as a composition [pastile]; for taken in drink, it is thought to purge the intestines, having the property of loosening the bowels.LXXXII. And apart from these considerations, resin is the work of the Sun; whilst the shrubs drop their tears of myrrh under the influence of the Moon: whereas the is compounded of those things that delight most in night, inasmuch as they are made by Nature to be nourished by cold airs, shade, dews, and moisture: because the light of day is one and unmixed (for Pindar says, the Sun rushes through empty aether), whereas the night air is a compound and medley of many lights and properties; as it were, of seeds showered down from every star into one place. With good cause then do the first named perfumes, as being simple and deriving their