Chapter VII. That They Minister Also to Amorous Pleasures; and the Kind of Pleasures in Which They Severally Delight

[PORPHYRY]

‘NE’ER mid the immortal gods an idle threat Or unaccomplish’d doom to seers inspir’d Spake Hecate; but from the almighty mind Of Zeus descends in brightest truth array’d. Lo! by my side walks Wisdom with firm step, Leaning on oracles that ne’er can fail. In bonds secure me: for my power divine Can give a soul to worlds beyond the sky.’

Perhaps then on this account the soul is of threefold form and parts: and one part of it is irascible, and another concupiscent, by which latter it is invited to amorous indulgence. These are not my ideas, do not suppose it, but what you have heard from the writer before mentioned; from whom again the following is taken:

‘But what utterly perplexes me is, how, being invoked as superiors, they receive orders as inferiors; and while requiring their worshipper to be just, they submit when bidden themselves to do injustice; and, while they would not listen to one who invokes them, if defiled by sensual pleasure, do not hesitate themselves to lead any whom they meet into lawless indulgence.’

This also you may find in the same author’s Epistle to Anebo the Egyptian. [1] And in the aforesaid treatise Of the Philosophy to be derived from Oracles,in addition to what has been quoted, he speaks as follows:

‘Moreover, some of them have plainly shown what office is assigned to each, as the Didymaean Apollo does in what follows: (the inquiry was, whether a man is bound to take an oath which one has tendered to him):

“Rhea, great mother of the blessed gods, Loves flutes and rattling drums and female rout. The din of war is bright-helm’d Pallas’ joy. Latona’s daughter o’er the rocky steep With spotted hounds pursues the savage beast. Great Juno sends the soft rain’s welcome sound; Rich crops of full-ear’d grain are Deo’s care: And Pharian Isis by Nile’s fruitful stream With wildered steps her fair Osiris seeks.”’

If then ‘flutes, and the rattle of drums, and a throng of women’ are the care of the Mother of the gods, we ought surely to practise these things to the neglect of every virtue, because the aforesaid goddess has no care for modesty or any other devout practice: as also the din of battle, and conflicts, and wars are dear to Athena, and not peace nor the things of peace. Also let Artemis ‘Latona’s daughter’ care for her spotted hounds, because, as a huntress, she wages war afield with the wild bea,sts, and for the other goddesses in like manner the offices enumerated. Well then what would these things contribute towards the divinely favoured and blessed life? But consider whether what he adds next seems to you to be the mark of a divine, or of a vicious and utterly wicked nature. [2]