The golden chain, p.28
The Golden Chain, page 28
But how are statues said to have an enthusiastic energy? May we not say, that a statue being inanimate, does not itself energize about divinity, but the telestic art, purifying the matter of which the statue consists, and placing round it certain characters and symbols, in the first place renders it, through these means, animated, and causes it to receive a certain life from the world; and, in the next place, after this, it prepares the statue to be illuminated by a divine nature, through which it always delivers oracles, as long as it is properly adapted. For the statue, when it has been rendered perfect by the telestic art, remains afterwards [endued with a prophetic power] till it becomes entirely unadapted to divine illumination; but he who receives the inspiring influence of the Gods receives it only at certain times, and not always. But the cause of this is, that the soul, when filled with deity, energizes about it. Hence, in consequence of energizing above its own power, it becomes weary. For it would be a God, and similar to the souls of the stars, if it did not become weary. But the statue, conformably to its participations, remains illuminated. Hence the inaptitude of it entirely proceeds into privation, unless it is again, de novo, perfected and animated by the mystic operator. We have sufficiently shown, therefore, that enthusiasm, properly so called, is effected about the one of the soul, and that it is an illumination of divinity.
In the next place, let us discuss the order and the use of the four manias, and show why the philosopher makes mention of these alone. Is it because there are no other than these, or because these were sufficient for his purpose? That there are, therefore, many other divine inspirations and manias Plato himself indicates as he proceeds, and prior to this, he makes mention of the inspiration from the Nymphs. But there are also inspirations from Pan, from the mother of the Gods, and from the Corybantes, which are elsewhere mentioned by Plato. Here, however, he alone delivers these four manias; in the first place, because these alone are sufficient to the soul, in the attainment of its proper apocatastasis, as we shall afterwards show; and in the next place, because he delivers the proximate steps of ascent to the soul. For the gifts of the Gods to all beings are many and incomprehensible. But now he delivers to us the energies of the Gods which are extended to souls. He delivers, however, these four manias, not as if one of them was not sufficient, and especially the amatory, to lead back the soul to its pristine felicity; but at present the series and regular gradation of them, and the orderly perfection of the soul, are unfolded. As, therefore, it is possible for the tyrannic life, when suddenly changed, to become aristocratic, through employing strenuous promptitude and a divine allotment, but the gradual ascent is from a tyrannic to a democratic, and from this to an oligarchic life, afterwards to a timocratic, and at last to an aristocratic life, but the descent and lapse are vice versa; thus also here, the soul being about to ascend, and be restored to its former felicity, is in the first place possessed with the musical mania, afterwards with the telestic, then with the prophetic, and, in the last place, with the amatory mania. These inspirations, however, conspire with, and are in want of, each other; so abundant is their communion. For the telestic requires the prophetic mania; since the latter interprets many things pertaining to the former. And again, the prophetic requires the telestic mania. For the telestic mania perfects and establishes oracular predictions. Farther still, the prophetic uses the poetic and musical mania. For prophets, as I may say, always speak in verse. And again, the musical uses the prophetic mania spontaneously, as Plato says. But what occasion is there to speak about the amatory and musical manias? For nearly the same persons exercise both these, as, for instance, Sappho, Anacreon, and the like, in consequence of these not being able to subsist without each other. But it is very evident that the amatory mania contributes to all these, since it is subservient to enthusiasm of every kind: for no enthusiasm can be effected without amatory inspiration. And you may see how Orpheus appears to have applied himself to all these, as being in want of, and adhering to, each other. For we learn that he was most telestic, and most prophetic, and was excited by Apollo; and besides this, that he was most poetic, on which account he is said to have been the son of Calliope. He was likewise most amatory, as he himself acknowledges to Musaeus, extending to him divine goods, and rendering him perfect. Hence he appears to have been possessed with all the manias, and this by a necessary consequence. For there is an abundant union, conspiration, and alliance with each other, of the Gods who preside over these manias, viz. of the Muses, Bacchus, Apollo, and Love.
It remains, therefore, that we should unfold the nature of each of the manias, previously observing that those which are internal, and originate from the soul itself, and give perfection to it, are of one kind; but the external energies of them, and which preserve the outward man, and our nature, are of another. The four external, however, are analogous to the four internal manias. Let us consider, therefore, in the first place, the internal, and which alone originate from the soul itself, and let us see what they effect in the soul. In order, likewise, that this may become manifest, and also their arrangement, let us survey from on high, the descent, as Plato says, and defluxion of the wings of the soul. From the beginning, therefore, and at first, the soul was united to the Gods, and its unity to their one. But afterwards the soul departing from this divine union descended into intellect, and no longer possessed real beings unitedly, and in one, but apprehended and surveyed them by simple projections, and, as it were, contacts of its intellect. In the next place, departing from intellect, and descending into reasoning and dianoia, it no longer apprehended real beings by simple intuitions, but syllogistically and transitively, proceeding from one thing to another, from propositions to conclusions. Afterwards, abandoning true reasoning, and the dissolving peculiarity, it descended into generation, and became filled with much irrationality and perturbation. It is necessary, therefore, that it should recur to its proper principles and again return to the place from whence it came. To this ascent and apocatastasis, however, these four manias contribute. And the musical mania, indeed, leads to symphony and harmony, the agitated and disturbed nature of the parts of the soul, which were hurried away to indefiniteness and inaptitude, and were filled with abundant tumult. But the telestic mania causes the soul to be perfect and entire, and prepares it to energize intellectually. For the musical mania alone harmonizes and represses the parts of the soul; but the telestic causes the whole of it to energize, and prepares it to become entire, so that the intellectual part of it may energize. For the soul, by descending into the realms of generation, resembles a thing broken and relaxed. And the circle of the same,or the intellectual part of it, is fettered; but the circle of the different,or the doxastic part, sustains many fractures and turnings. Hence, the soul energizes partially, and not according to the whole of itself. The Dionysiacal inspiration, therefore, after the parts of the soul are coharmonized, renders it perfect, and causes it to energize according to the whole of itself, and to live intellectually. But the Apolloniacal mania converts and coexcites all the multiplied powers, and the whole of the soul, to the one of it. Hence Apollo is denominated as elevating the soul from multitude to the one. And the remaining mania, the amatory, receiving the soul united, conjoins this one of the soul to the Gods, and to intelligible beauty. As the givers, therefore, of these manias are transcendently united, and are in each other, the gifts also on this account participate of, and communicate with, each other, and the recipient, which is the soul, possesses an adaptation to all the gifts. This, therefore, is the order, and these are the energies and powers within the soul itself, of these four manias.
But let us also consider their external energies on man, and what they outwardly effect about us. The musical mania, therefore, causes us to speak in verse, and to act and be moved rhythmically, and to sing in meter, the splendid deeds of divine men, and their virtues and pursuits; and, through these, to discipline our life, in the same manner as the inward manias coharmonize our soul. But the telestic mania, expelling everything foreign, contaminating, and noxious, preserves our life perfect and innoxious, and banishing an insane and diabolical fantasy, causes us to be sane, entire, and perfect, just as the internal telestic mania makes the soul to be perfect and entire. Again, the prophetic mania contracts into one the extension and infinity of time, and sees, as in one present now, all things, the past, the future, and the existing time. Hence it predicts what will be, which it sees as present to itself. It causes us, therefore, to pass through life in an irreprehensible manner; just as the internal prophetic mania contracts and elevates all the multiplied and many powers and lives of the soul to the one, in order that it may in a greater degree be preserved and connected. But the amatory mania converts young persons to us, and causes them to become our friends, being instructive of youth, and leading them from sensible beauty to our psychical beauty, and from this sending them to intelligible beauty; in the same manner as the internal amatory mania conjoins the one of the soul to the Gods.
All the above mentioned manias, therefore, are superior to the prudent and temperate energies of the soul. Nevertheless, there is a mania which is coordinate with temperance, and which we say has in a certain respect a prerogative above it. For certain inspirations are produced, according to the middle and also according to the doxastic reasons of the soul, conformably to which artists effect certain things, and discover theorems beyond expectation, as Asclepius, for instance, in medicine, and Heracles in the practic life.
8. Marinus
Proclus or About Happiness
Marinus of Samaria was a pupil and immediate successor of Proclus at the Neoplatonic School in Athens. He was born in Neapolis (Schechem, modern Nablus), a major Hellenized city in Samaria. His master Proclus died in 485 C.E. and Marinus was by then quite old himself. He maintained mathematical and scientific interests at the School and less than a year after the master’s death wrote his biography, Proclus or About Happiness. The work is an idealized account of the exemplary Neoplatonic sage who possessed all manner of virtue as is possible for a human being and was consequently the happiest of all men. The biography follows a stylistic plan based on the Neoplatonic theory of eudaimonia, or “true happiness.”
The excerpts reproduced here from the Vita Procli were taken from the translation of L.J. Rosan, which was published in his monograph The Philosophy of Proclus: The Final Phase of Ancient Thought (New York: Cosmos, 1949).
Vita Procli 10–12; 18–19; 22; 28
10. But after having studied under these Alexandrian teachers48 and profited from whatever knowledge they had, Proclus one day felt that they no longer were interpreting the text that they were explaining in a spirit worthy of the philosopher (Aristotle), and he began to look down upon these teachers. Remembering then the divine vision which he had in Byzantium and its command, he traveled to Athens, accompanied by the best wishes of all the oracles, the gods who watch over philosophy and the good daemons. The gods led him onward to the guardian of philosophy (Athena) so that the Platonic tradition might be preserved untarnished and pure. This was definitely proved by what happened to him when he first arrived, which was like a sign from the gods that clearly informed him beforehand of the bequest of his father (Apollo) and of the future choice from above regarding the (Platonic) Succession. For when Proclus arrived at the Piraeus, and those in the city were notified of this, Nicolaus (who later became famous as a sophist but who at that time was still studying in Athens) went down to the harbor, received Proclus as a friend, entertained him as a fellow-citizen (since Nicolaus also came from Lycia), and took him to the city. Along the road, Proclus felt tired from walking; and near the Socrateion, although he had not yet known or heard that the place was sacred to Socrates, he asked Nicolaus to remain there with him for a little while to rest, and requested some water if there was any at that place, since he suddenly had become very thirsty. Nicolaus gladly went and brought water, not from anywhere else, but from that sacred place itself, the spring at the monument of Socrates which was close-by; and while Proclus was drinking, Nicolaus recognized this symbolic act and told him that he was actually sitting in the Socrateion and that it was its water which he was drinking for the first time in Athens, whereupon Proclus rose and made obeisance to the monument.
Then they continued to the city, but as they were arriving upon the heights to enter, they met the gate-keeper who was just about ready to place his keys in the locks, so that he said to Proclus, to quote his exact words: “Really, if you had not come, I would have closed them!” What symbolic saying could have been plainer than this, which does not require a Polles, or a Melampus or any other seer to understand its meaning?49
11. Proclus looked down upon even the Athenian rhetoricians, although they solicited him as much as if he had come for this purpose; but the first philosopher he met was Syrianus, son of Philoxenus; also present at the meeting was Lachares, who was absorbed in philosophical learning, a fellow-student of this philosopher, and as much admired for his sophistry as Homer was for his poetry. Now it was about the time of sunset, and the three were conversing together, when, just as the sun was going down, the moon was seen for the first time since the conjunction (of the sun with the moon). Syrianus and Lachares wished to send the youth away, since he was a stranger, so that they could pay homage to the goddess by themselves; but Proclus himself, as he walked away, noticed from the same house the appearance of the moon; and in full sight of both of them, he took off his shoes and worshiped the goddess. Lachares was struck by the independence of the youth and repeated to the philosopher Syrianus that divine statement of Plato’s about remarkable characters: “This person will either be a great blessing or just the opposite.” In short, these were the various signs from the gods that the philosopher Proclus received when he first arrived at Athens.
12. Syrianus took him to the great Plutarch, son of Nestorius. When the latter saw that the youth was not yet twenty years old and nevertheless had chosen and desired the philosophic life, he was overjoyed and gladly taught him philosophy, although he was otherwise prevented from teaching due to his advanced age....
18. But we shall let this discussion of friendship be a fitting conclusion to our report of Proclus’ social virtues, although we have not really done justice to the subject. We now come to his purifying virtues which are quite different from social virtues. For the purpose of these is to purify the soul and to enable it to provide as freely as possible for all human affairs, so that it may become similar to God, which is its goal and highest good, although not every virtue separates the soul from lower things in the same manner, but some more and some less. Even the social virtues are to a certain extent purifying, since on a lower level they make those who possess them better and finer by keeping desires and emotions in general within a fixed limit and by removing all passions and false opinions. But the purifying virtues are superior to these and entirely separate and free the soul from the truly leaden weight of the world of change and hasten its unhindered flight from this world.
The philosopher Proclus practiced these purifying virtues throughout his philosophical career, explaining in his classes just what they were and how they could be obtained, and living his life by them. He always did that which was conducive to separating the soul, and whether in the night-time or day-time, he would pray against evil demons (apotrope), bathe himself and use other methods of purification, both Orphic, and Chaldean, such as immersing himself in the sea resolutely every month, or even twice or three times a month. And he did all this not only in the prime of his life, but even in his later years he religiously performed these customary actions.
19. So that he would not be disturbed by them, he indulged in the necessary pleasures of food and drink only to avoid illness; for he partook sparingly of these. He especially refused to eat anything that had life, although whenever there was an occasion which imperatively demanded it, he would taste a little meat for the sake of the rite. Every month he purified himself by the rites of the Great Mother (Cybele), who was honored by the Romans and previously by the Phrygians; and he observed the Egyptian holy days more than the Egyptians themselves. He fasted especially on certain days because of the appearance (of the moon), on the last day of the month (before the new-moon) he fasted without even eating the night before, and he celebrated the day of the new-moon itself splendidly and solemnly. In general, he observed the important holidays of all peoples and of every nation in the way proper to each; and he did not make them an excuse, as others do, for idleness or feasting, but celebrated them entirely by sleepless (prayer) meetings, singing hymns and things like these. This is proved by the contents of his own Hymns, which include praises not only of the Greek gods, but also of the god Marnas of Gaza, Asclepius Leontuchus of Ascalon, Thyandrites who is also honored greatly by the Arabs, Isis who is still honored at Philae, and many other non-Greek gods. For, as this most pious man always used to say, it befits the philosopher not to observe the rites of any one city or of only a few nations, but to be the minister of the whole world in common (koine hierophantes tou holou kosmou). In this pure and holy manner, therefore, Proclus constantly practiced continence....
22. Advancing serenely and calmly through these purifying virtues as if they were degrees of mystic initiation, he arrived at the higher virtues above them by means of his excellent nature and intelligent training. For after being purified and rising above the world of change, he looked down on “the many who carry the narthex” and became one of the true bacchants.50 But by his own eyes he saw those truly blessed visions of Reality, no longer obtaining this knowledge by reasoning or demonstration, but as if by vision and by simple and immediate perceptions of the intuitive faculty (haplais epibolais tes noeras energeias), viewing the ideal forms in the Divine Mind. By this means he reached that virtue, which could no longer be called prudence in the human sense (phronesis) but rather true wisdom (sophia) or even some more reverent name.
