Chapter IX. Further Consideration of the Allegorical Theology of the Greeks and Egyptians

[PORPHYRY] ‘Now look at the wisdom of the Greeks, and examine it as follows. The authors of the Orphic hymns supposed Zeus to be the mind of the world, and that he created all things therein, containing the world in himself. Therefore in their theological systems they have handed down their opinions concerning him thus: [1]

“Zeus was the first, Zeus last, the lightning’s lord, Zeus head, Zeus centre, all things are from Zeus. Zeus born a male, Zeus virgin undefiled; Zeus the firm base of earth and starry heaven; Zeus sovereign, Zeus alone first cause of all: One power divine, great ruler of the world, One kingly form, encircling all things here, Fire, water, earth, and ether, night and day; Wisdom, first parent, and delightful Love: For in Zeus’ mighty body these all lie. His head and beauteous face the radiant heaven Reveals, and round him float in shining waves The golden tresses of the twinkling stars. On either side bulls’ horns of gold are seen, Sunrise and sunset, footpaths of the gods. His eyes the Sun, the Moon’s responsive light; His mind immortal ether, sovereign truth, Hears and considers all; nor any speech, Nor cry, nor noise, nor ominous voice escapes The ear of Zeus, great Kronos’ mightier son: Such his immortal head, and such his thought. His radiant body, boundless, undisturbed In strength of mighty limbs was formed thus: The god’s broad-spreading shoulders, breast, and back Air’s wide expanse displays; on either side Grow wings, wherewith throughout all space he flies. Earth the all-mother, with her lofty hills, His sacred belly forms; the swelling flood Of hoarse resounding Ocean girds his waist. His feet the deeply rooted ground upholds, And dismal Tartarus, and earth’s utmost bounds. All things he hides, then from his heart again In godlike action brings to gladsome light.”

‘Zeus, therefore, is the whole world, animal of animals, and god of gods; but Zeus, that is, inasmuch as he is the mind from which he brings forth all things, and by his thoughts creates them. When the theologians had explained the nature of god in this manner, to make an image such as their description indicated was neither possible, nor, if any one thought of it, could he show the look of life, and intelligence, and forethought by the figure of a sphere.

‘But they have made the representation of Zeus in human form, because mind was that according to which he wrought, and by generative laws brought all things to completion; and he is seated, as indicating the steadfastness of his power: and his upper parts are bare, because he is manifested in the intellectual and the heavenly parts of the world; but his feet are clothed, because he is invisible in the things that lie hidden below. And he holds his sceptre in his left hand, because most close to that side of the body dwells the heart, the most commanding and intelligent organ: for the creative mind is the sovereign of the world. And in his right hand he holds forth either an eagle, because he is master of the gods who traverse the air, as the eagle is master of the birds that fly aloft----or a victory, because he is himself victorious over all things.’

These things Porphyry tells you: and after they have been delivered in the manner already stated, it will be well to examine quietly and at leisure what after all the verses declare Zeus to be. I for my part think they make him to be none else than the visible world consisting of many various parts, both of those in heaven and in the ether, and of the stars which appear therein,----these being set first as in the head of a great body,----and also of the parts that lie in the air, and earth, and sea, and the like.

Certainly the earth and mountains and hills are parts of the world, and the sea is rolled round in the midst of them like a girdle, and fire also and water, and night and day must be parts of the same nature of the world. These things I suppose to indicate directly the visible world, unless I am somewhat mistaken, and to show us the universe made up of various parts. He says at all events:

‘For in Zeus’ mighty body these all lie.’

And what ‘these all’ are, he clearly states:

‘Fire, water, earth, and ether, night and day. His head and beauteous face the radiant heaven Reveals, and round him float in shining waves The golden tresses of the twinkling stars.’

In the verses that follow these, he adds the statement that the mind of Zeus is the ether and nothing else, in agreement with the Stoics, who assert that the element of fire and heat is the ruling principle of the world, and that god is a body, and the Creator himself nothing else than the force of fire. For in this same sense I think it is said in the verses:

‘His mind immortal ether, sovereign truth, Hears and considers all.’

Wherein without any concealment he supposed the world to be a great animal, and calling it Zeus, he represented the ether as his mind, and the remaining parts of the world as his body.

Such is found to be the Zeus depicted by the verses.

And the interpreter of the poem begins by saying, in accordance with the same, ‘Zeus, therefore, is the whole world, animal of animals, god of gods;’ thus clearly explaining that the Zeus of his theology is shown by the poem to be no other than the visible and sensible world.

Now the doctrine was that of the Egyptians, from whom Orpheus took his theology, and thought that the world was the god composed of many gods who were parts of himself (for they were shown in what goes before to have also deified the parts of the world); and the statements which have been quoted from the verses declared nothing more than this.

But Porphyry after his first interpretation adds another of his own, asserting that the God who is the Maker of the world is this creative mind which has been deified by the poet.

But how could the poet, whether he were the Thracian Orpheus or any one else, deify just this mind, of which he never knew any thing at all, if indeed his theological doctrines came to him from the Egyptians or from the primitive Greeks? For these were proved to have understood nothing ideal or comprised in invisible and incorporeal essence, if Plato’s assurance may suffice us, when in the Cratylushe admits ‘that the first race of men in Greece believed only in these same gods which many of the barbarians believe in now, sun, and moon, and earth, and stars, and heaven.’ [2]

We had also just now Chaeremon as a witness that the Egyptians believed in nothing previous to the visible world, ‘nor in any other gods except the planets’ and other stars, and interpreted all things in reference to the visible parts of the world, ‘and nothing to incorporeal and living beings.’