ὁ μὲν δὴ κατῄει ἐς τὴν κώμην, ὁ γὰρ θεσμὸς τῶν σοϕῶν οὐ ξυνεχώρει τῷ βασιλεῖ ξυνεῖναί σϕισιν ὑπὲρ μίαν ἡμέραν, ὁ δὲ Ἰάρχας πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον ‘καὶ Δάμιν’ εἶπε ‘τῶν δεῦρο ἀπορρήτων ἀξιοῦμεν καὶ ἡκέτω, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων ἐπιμελοῦ ἐν τῇ κώμῃ.’ Ὡς δὲ ἀϕίκετο, ξυνιζήσαντες, ὥσπερ εἰώθεσαν, ξυνεχώρουν τῷ Ἀπολλωνίῳ ἐρωτᾶν, ἤρετό τε ἐκ τίνων ξυγκεῖσθαι τὸν κόσμον ἡγοῖντο, οἱ δὲ ἔϕασαν ‘ἐκ στοιχείων.’ ‘μῶν’ ἔϕη ‘τεττάρων;’ ‘οὐ τεττάρων’, ἔϕη ὁ Ἰάρχας ‘ἀλλὰ πέντε.’ ‘καὶ τί ἂν’ ἔϕη ‘πέμπτον γένοιτο παρὰ τὸ ὕδωρ τε καὶ τὸν ἀέρα καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὸ πῦρ;’ ‘ὁ αἰθήρ’, εἶπεν ‘ὃν ἡγεῖσθαι χρὴ γένεσιν θεῶν εἶναι, τὰ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ ἀέρος ἕλκοντα θνητὰ πάντα, τὰ δὲ τοῦ αἰθέρος ἀθάνατά τε καὶ θεῖα.’ πάλιν ἤρετο, τί τῶν στοιχείων πρῶτον γένοιτο, ὁ δὲ Ἰάρχας ‘ὁμοῦ’ ἔϕη ‘πάντα, τὸ γὰρ ζῷον κατὰ μέρος οὐ τίκτεται.’ ‘ζῷον’ ἔϕη ‘ἡγῶμαι τὸν κόσμον;’ ‘ἤν γε’ ἔϕη ‘ὑγιῶς γιγνώσκῃς, αὐτὸς γὰρ ζωογονεῖ πάντα.’ ‘θῆλυν’ εἶπεν ‘αὐτὸν καλῶμεν ἢ τῆς ἄρσενός τε καὶ ἀντικειμένης ϕύσεως;’ ‘ἀμϕοῖν’, ἔϕη ‘αὐτὸς γὰρ αὑτῷ ξυγγιγνόμενος τὰ μητρός τε καὶ πατρὸς ἐς τὴν ζωογονίαν πράττει ἔρωτά τε ἑαυτοῦ ἴσχει θερμότερον ἢ ἕτερόν τι ἑτέρου, ὃς ἁρμόττει αὐτὸν καὶ ξυνίστησιν· ἀπεικὸς δὲ οὐδὲν ἑαυτῷ ξυμϕύεσθαι. καὶ ὥσπερ χειρῶν τε καὶ ποδῶν ἔργον πεποίηται ἡ τοῦ ζῴου κίνησις καὶ ὁ ἐν αὐτῷ νοῦς, ὑϕ’ οὗ ὁρμᾷ, οὕτως ἡγώμεθα καὶ τὰ μέρη τοῦ κόσμου διὰ τὸν ἐκείνου νοῦν ἐπιτήδεια παρέχειν αὑτὰ τοῖς τικτομένοις τε καὶ κυουμένοις πᾶσι. καὶ γὰρ τὰ πάθη τὰ ἐξ αὐχμῶν ϕοιτῶντα κατὰ τὸν ἐκείνου ϕοιτᾷ νοῦν, ἐπειδὰν ἐκπεσοῦσα ἡ δίκη τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀτίμως πράττῃ, ποιμαίνεταί τε χειρὶ οὐ μιᾷ τόδε τὸ ζῷον, ἀλλὰ πολλαῖς τε καὶ ἀρρήτοις, αἷς χρῆται, ἀχαλίνωτον μὲν διὰ μέγεθος, εὐήνιον δὲ κινεῖται καὶ εὐάγωγον.'Footnote 1
The king therefore went down to the village, since the Wise Men's rule did not permit him to spend more than a day with them, but Iarchas said to the messenger, ‘Damis too we consider worthy of the secrets here, so tell him to come, while you look after the others in the village.’ When Damis had come, the Wise Men formed their usual circle and gave Apollonius permission to put questions. So he asked what they thought the universe consisted of, to which they replied, ‘Elements.’ ‘Four, do you think?’ he said. ‘Not four’, said Iarchas, ‘but five.’ ‘What could a fifth one be’, said Apollonius, ‘besides water, air, earth, and fire?’ ‘Ether’, said Iarchas, ‘which we must consider to be the origin (γένεσιν) of the gods. All that breathes air is mortal, but what breathes ether is immortal and divine.’ Next Apollonius asked which of the elements came into existence first. ‘All came together’, said the other, ‘since a living being is not born one piece at a time.’ ‘Am I to consider the universe living?’, asked Apollonius. ‘Yes, if you reason correctly’, said Iarchas, ‘since itself it gives life to everything.’ ‘Should we then call it female’, asked Apollonius, ‘or of the contrary, male sex?’ ‘Of both’, was the answer, ‘since it has intercourse with itself, and performs both the mother's and the father's role with respect to generation. It feels a desire for itself more intense than that of any two other beings, and this joins and unites it, and there is nothing unreasonable about its coalescence. And just as the action of the hands and feet in a living creature comes from mobility and the intelligence (διὰ τὸν ἐκείνου νοῦν) that causes it, so also we must suppose that, because of the intelligence of the universe (κατὰ τὸν ἐκείνου ϕοιτᾷ νοῦν), its parts accommodate themselves to everything that undergoes birth and conception. For instance, the sufferings resulting from drought arise from the mind of the universe, when justice is banished from mankind and treated with dishonor. And this being guides itself not by one hand alone but by many unseen ones that it uses; though too large to be restrained, it moves obediently and tractably.’Footnote 2
The doctrine contained in this extract – the only passage of The Life of Apollonius of Tyana treating matters of ‘cosmogony’ – could be summarized in the six following propositions. First, the universe consists of five, not four elements, the fifth being the ether, the γένεσις θεῶν. Just as mortals breathe air, gods breathe ether. Secondly, there is no ‘primordial element’; all five came into being simultaneously. Thirdly, the universe is a living being. In the fourth place, the universe is both male and female at the same time. In the fifth place, as the universe is androgynous it feels desire (ἔρως) towards itself and it is this desire that makes it whole and united. And finally, the passion of the universe for itself is governed by Intelligence (ἐκείνου νοῦς).
Strange as it may sound, until now this abstract from Philostratus has not been subjected to a thorough scholarly examination. There have, of course, been some attempts to interpret it, especially regarding the issue of the doctrine's sources. These sources have been sought in either Indian or classical Greek tradition. The first interpretation that comes to mind after reading this passage is that Philostratus uses Megasthenes' story of Indian Brahmins who recognize five basic elements (Strabo 15.1.59) and believe in a single all-pervading deity (Strabo 15.1.59) – probably a Greek reflection of the Upanishadic concept of Universal Brahmin.Footnote 3 However, according to Megasthenes, the Brahmins teach that water is the primordial element, and this contradicts Philostratus' Iarchas, who claims that all elements are equal and none of them came into being earlier than others. The ‘living universe’ concept and the idea of universal Brahmin also do not represent a perfect match. As Bongard-Levin states,
even though some of Philostratus' words can be backed by Indian sources,Footnote 4 the whole picture is so general and tendentious that it is incapable of reflecting all the verity and complexity of Indian philosophy and religion of the epoch.Footnote 5
Theodor Hopfner, who researched images of Indian Brahmins and Egyptian Gymnosophists in The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, was inclined to believe that Iarchas' ‘cosmogony’ was based on Aristotle's teachings.Footnote 6 Since Hopfner, all scholars have construed Iarchas' doctrine of five elements and ‘living universe’ as a Peripatetic interpretation of Plato's Timaeus developed by Middle Platonic schools.Footnote 7 The ether of Vita Apollonii is not, however, just the fifth element. In the third book, Iarchas explains to Apollonius that he possesses special prophetic (mantic) wisdom because his soul is ‘filled with ether’.Footnote 8 Apollonius himself renounces wine drinking as it ‘obscures spiritual ether’,Footnote 9 and in his apologetic speech in front of Domitian's trial says that light diet keeps his senses in a state of mysterious clarity (αἰθρία).Footnote 10
Therefore, ‘ether’ in Vita Apollonii is considered as the substance of souls, a sort of divine spark within the human being.Footnote 11 Such a doctrine cannot be regarded as one of Aristotle's; it is much closer to the teachings of the Platonic and Pythagorean philosopher Heraclides Ponticus.Footnote 12 Later, the doctrine teaching that the human soul consists of the same element as the stars themselves was widely spread among Middle Platonic and Neopythagorean schools.Footnote 13 It is the latter that seems to be the most likely source of Philostratus' cosmogony presented in the Vita Apollonii.
It is safe to assume that Philostratus used ideas close to Pythagorean teaching to describe the life of the Pythagorean sage. The Pythagoreanism of imperial times was a doctrine based on principles close to Platonism; therefore Neopythagoreanism is usually studied in connection with Middle Platonism.Footnote 14 That is why the extract in question is sometimes regarded as a ‘very pale reflection of Platonism’Footnote 15 or as a ‘superficial interpretation of Plato's teachings in the spirit of Julia Domna's salon’.Footnote 16 Ether is recognized as the fifth basic element by some of Plato's followers (Plutarch, Alcinous, Apuleius, Albinus, and others).Footnote 17 On the other hand, a ‘fifth element’ is mentioned in some Pythagorean writings as early as the Hellenistic period.Footnote 18 In this case it is impossible to determine whose ideas, Platonist or Pythagorean, were taken by Philostratus as a basis for his ‘ether doctrine’.
It appears, however, that it is possible to approach the subject from another angle. No scholar seems to have attributed enough attention to the fact that the universe is depicted by Philostratus as an androgynous being. We find the closest chronological analogue of this concept in the Corpus Hermeticum. In Poimandres the universal Intelligence, or God, is described as ‘androgyne’ (ἀρρενόθηλυς), and ‘existing as life and light, by speaking gave birth to a second mind, a craftsman, who as god of fire and spirit, crafted seven governors; they encompass the sensible world in circles, and their government is called fate’.Footnote 19 The universe is perceived as a ‘living being’ (ζῷον) by Hermetics as well as by Iarchas.Footnote 20 Finally, according to the teachings of the Corpus Hermeticum, ‘Nature took spirit from the ether and brought forth bodies in the shape of the man’ and ‘from life and light the man became soul and mind’.Footnote 21
In the Asclepius, human mind is said to be the fifth part of a person, consisting of ether.Footnote 22 Philostratus' text becomes clearer in the light of Hermetic writings. Several aspects of the Vita Apollonii, such as the concept of living, androgynous nature of the universe governed by Intelligence, cannot be fully and unambiguously explained by Peripatetic and Platonic theories; the Corpus Hermeticum, on the other hand, offers a solid analogy. Iarchas' ‘universal Intelligence’ seems to correspond to the Hermetic notion of Intelligence that holds together the ‘God–universe–human being’ hierarchy and allows one's soul to release its burden of flesh and become enlightened by ‘the light of Knowledge’ (γνῶσις).Footnote 23 According to Philostratus' Iarchas, the universe expands itself by the force of its Intelligence which represents its very essence – an androgynous demiurge which merges with its own creation in the deed of creation.
It seems reasonable to assume that, while compiling a biography of the Pythagorean philosopher, Philostratus could use Hermetic writings because, according to Garth Fowden's suggestion, Hermeticism was a popular philosophical doctrine at the time.Footnote 24 It had to be done to purify the name of Apollonius of Tyana, stained in the eyes of the general public by an association with black magic (γοητεία). It is interesting that in some of the latest ancient sources Apollonius is said to be Hermes Trismegistus himself, while Arab sources call him Balīnās, the one who reveals himself to those who interpret Hermes' mysteries to the world.Footnote 25 The possibility that Apollonius was somehow connected to Hermeticism is also supported by an episode in the Vita Apollonii where the Indian sage Iarchas gives Apollonius ‘seven rings, named from the planets, and that he [i.e. Apollonius] wore them in succession according to the name of each day’ (3.41), as well as by the report that Apollonius wrote four volumes on astromancy (Περὶ μαντείας ἀστέρων).Footnote 26
Nevertheless, Philostratus could have used Neopythagorean writings influenced by Hermetic tradition. In this case, the teachings of Numenius of Apamea are the most likely source for Philostratus' Vita. It is Numenius who became the first Greek philosopher to introduce foreign, especially Eastern, elements to Pythagoreanism and Platonism. He devoted much attention to the teachings of ‘Brahmins, Jews, Magi and Egyptians’.Footnote 27 According to John Dillon, his book On the Good, written in the form of a dialogue between a narrator (Numenius himself?) and a certain foreigner, is a Corpus Hermeticum-like treatise. Dillon also notes that ‘the narrator in this treatise resembles Hermes instructing Thoth’.Footnote 28
Numenius taught that there were three gods: first the father (πατήρ), second the creator (ποιητής), and third the creation (ποίημα). The universe is therefore the third god.Footnote 29 The creator god, the Demiurge, in his turn has a dual nature: he is the creator and the creation at the same time, while the first god is the Self-existent Good that does not interfere in worldly affairs and stands alone contemplating itself alone.Footnote 30 It is interesting to notice that, according to John Lydus' testimony, Numenius calls the second god Hermes, who is ‘the uttered word’ (τὸν προχωρητικὸν λόγον): ‘For, as he says, an infant does not speak until it touches the earth (εἰς γῆν), so that the majority of men did well when they understood “Maia” to be “Earth” (Μαῖαν)’.Footnote 31 So we see that Numenius regards Maia as the primordial substance and Hermes as the Demiurge. The second and the third gods, however, are one: ὁ θεὸς μέντοι ὁ δεύτερος καὶ τρίτος ἐστὶν εἷς.Footnote 32 The Demiurge (namely the second god) comes in contact with matter and recreates himself and creates the universe at the same time. The father of Hermes-Demiurge is Father Hephaestus, who is ‘generative heat’ (γόνιμον πῦρ) and ‘the life-bearing heat of the Sun’ (ἡ τοῦ ἡλίου ζωογονικὴ θερμότης).Footnote 33 Numenius also calls the first god ‘the first Intelligence’, the second god ‘the second Intelligence’, and the third god ‘the third Intelligence’.Footnote 34 But as the ‘second Intelligence’ (the Demiurge) and the ‘third Intelligence’ (the universe) are one, the ‘second Intelligence’ plays the role of the World Soul.
The role of ‘ether’ in Numenius' doctrine is unclear as we do not even know if he recognized ether as one of the world's elements.Footnote 35 However, it is possible to trace Stoic influence on his teachings: Numenius' Hephaestus (the first god) possesses certain characteristics of the Stoic artisan fire (πῦρ τεχνικόν) and the pneuma, and at the same time he is equal to the ‘inner logos’ that is yet unborn (λόγος ἐνδιάθετος, in terms of Stoic logic) as contrasted to the ‘outer’, uttered logos (προϕορικός).Footnote 36 Therefore it is possible to assume that Numenius might have interpreted the ether in a Stoic way, as a special kind of fire that does not destroy but rather brings everything into being and gives it life. In this case it is possible to describe Numenius' ether in Varro's words: it is
God's mind: and by the virtue which is in it, which penetrates to the stars, it also makes them gods; and because it penetrates through them into the earth, it makes it the goddess Tellus, whence again it enters and permeates the sea and ocean, making them the god Neptune.Footnote 37
So the ether is the warmth of the first self-existent god, the warmth that animates the Demiurge and through him the whole creation, which is possibly perceived as the substance of human soul, as it is has a spark of universal intelligence in it.Footnote 38
It is also important to note that the passage of the Vita Apollonii in question mentions that
just as the action of the hands and feet in a living creature comes from mobility and the intelligence (διὰ τὸν ἐκείνου νοῦν) that causes it, so also we must suppose that, because of the intelligence of the universe (κατὰ τὸν ἐκείνου ϕοιτᾷ νοῦν), its parts accommodate themselves to everything that undergoes birth and conception.
Varro puts the same idea into different words that could serve as a good commentary on the passage mentioned above:
that God is the soul of the world (which the Greeks call κόσμος), and that this world itself is God; but as a wise man, though he consists of body and mind, is nevertheless called wise on account of his mind, so the world is called God on account of mind, although it consists of mind and body'.Footnote 39
To sum up, I would like to stress the following conclusions. First, Philostratus' text bears the distinct impact of Hermetic tradition, whether the author was influenced by it directly or via his immediate source. Secondly, it is Platonic or, more precisely, Neopythagorean ideas that should be considered as sources for the Vita Apollonii. Therefore, if we take into consideration the fact that surviving fragments of the works of the Neopythagorean philosopher Numenius of Apamea seem to be the most affected by Hermeticism, it is possible to surmise that it was this philosopher's teachings that served as the immediate source, at least for the passage in question.
