century B.C. His works are lost.
771 Claudius Ptolemy an astronomer at Alexandria 127‐151 A.D.
772 τοῦ τε Hertlein suggests, τε τοῦ MSS.
773 _i.e._ December.
774 The festival of Saturn, the Saturnalia, was celebrated by the Latins
at the close of December, and corresponds to our Christmas holidays.
Saturn was identified with the Greek god Kronos, and Julian uses the
Greek word for the festival in order to avoid, according to
sophistic etiquette, a Latin name.
775 Rome.
776 αὐτὸν Hertlein suggests, αὐτοῦ MSS.
777 τοῦ Hertlein suggests, τὸ M, τῷ MSS.
778 See Introduction, p. 351.
779 For the threefold creative force cf. Proclus on _Timaeus_ 94 CD.
Here Julian means that there are three modes of creation exercised
by Helios now in one, now in another, of the three worlds; cf. 135
B.C.
780 This work is lost.
781 _i.e._ his treatise _On the Gods_, which is not extant.
782 Hesiod, _Works and Days_ 336.
783 For the Attis cult see Frazer, _Attis, Adonis and Osiris_; for the
introduction of the worship of Cybele into Italy, Cumont, _Les
religions orientales dans le paganisme romain_.
784 See Harrison, _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_.
785 Catullus 63.
786 5. 1. 7; 3. 6. 19; 1. 6. 8; cf. Plato, _Theaetetus_ 152 C; and
Plutarch, _On Isis and Osiris_, ὁ μῦθος ... λόγου τινὸς ἔμφασίς
ἐστιν ἀνακλῶντος ἐπ᾽ ἄλλα τὴν διάνοιαν.
787 Cf. 206 D. Myths are like toys which help children through teething.
788 ἐξοίσομεν Cobet adds, ἀνέξοιστα καὶ MSS, Hertlein.
789 οὑτοσὶ Hertlein suggests, οὑτωσὶ MSS.
790 μικρὰν Hertlein, μικρὸν Naber, who thinks ἱστορίαν a gloss, cf.
_Oration_ vii. 276 C, μικρὸν ἱστορίαν MSS, μικρὸν ἱστορίας Reiske.
791 ὡς Petavius adds.
792 αὐτὴν Hertlein suggests, αὑτὴν MSS.
793 ἐπήγοντο Hertlein suggests, ἐπῆγον τὸν MSS.
794 The Phrygian god of vegetation who corresponds to the Syrian Adonis.
His name is said to mean “father,” and he is at once the lover and
son of the Mother of the Gods. His death and resurrection were
celebrated in spring.
795 The generic name for the eunuch priests of Attis.
796 The Phrygian Cybele, the Asiatic goddess of fertility; the chief
seat of her worship was Pessinus in Phrygia.
797 _i.e._ after the middle of the fifth century B.C.; before that date
the records were kept in the Acropolis.
798 In 204 B.C.; cf. Livy 29. 10 foll.; Silius Italicus 17. 1 foll.;
Ovid, _Fasti_ 4. 255 foll. tells the legend and describes the ritual
of the cult.
799 The Attalids.
800 A black meteoric stone embodied the goddess of Pessinus.
801 Claudia, turritae rara ministra deae. “Claudia thou peerless
priestess of the goddess with the embattled crown.”—Propertius 4.
11. 52.
802 A matron in other versions.
803 In the Third Punic War, which began 149 B.C., Carthage was sacked by
the Romans under Scipio.
804 Plato, _Republic_ 519 A δριμὺ μὲν βλέπει τὸ ψυχάριον.
805 A relief in the Capitoline Museum shows Claudia in the act of
dragging the ship.
806 _i.e._ the world of sense‐perception.
807 Plotinus 1. 8. 4 called matter “the privation of the Good,” στέρησις
ἀγαθοῦ.
808 Helios; cf. _Oration_ 4. 140 A. Attis is here identified with the
light of the sun.
809 Julian here sums up the tendency of the philosophy of his age. The
Peripatetics had been merged in the Platonists and Neo‐Platonists,
and Themistius the Aristotelian commentator often speaks of the
reconciliation, in contemporary philosophy, of Plato and Aristotle;
cf. 235 C, 236, 366 C. Julian, following the example of Iamblichus,
would force them into agreement; but the final appeal was to
revealed religion.
810 προϋφεστῶτες Hertlein suggests, cf. 165 D, προεστῶτες MSS.
811 233 D.
812 αὐτόν Hertlein suggests, αὐτό MSS.
813 _Sophist_ 235 A; cf. _Republic_ 596 D.
814 _i.e._ aether, the fifth substance.
815 _i.e._ the causes of the forms that are embodied in matter have a
prior existence as Ideas.
816 An echo of Plato, _Theaetetus_ 191 C, 196 A; _Timaeus_ 50 C.
817 _De Anima_ 3. 4. 429 A; Aristotle quotes the phrase with approval
and evidently attributes it to Plato; the precise expression is not
to be found in Plato, though in _Parmenides_ 132 B he says that the
Ideas are “in our souls.”
818 περιθεῖναι Hertlein suggests, cf. Sallust, _On the Gods and the
World_ 249, τὸν ἀστερωτὸν αὐτῷ περιθεῖναι πῖλον: ἐπιθεῖναι MSS.
819 αἰνίττεσθαι Hertlein suggests, cf. Sallust 250 τὸν γαλαξόαν
αἰνίττεται κύκλον: μαντεύεσθαι MSS.
820 cf. Porphyry, _On the Cave of the Nymph_ 7; and Plato, _Republic_
514 A.
821 προüφέστηκε Hertlein suggests, προέστηκε MSS.
822 _fr._ 36, Diels.
823 For the superiority of the soul to nature cf. _De Mysteriis_ 8. 7.
270; and for the theory that the soul gives form to matter, Plotinus
4. 3. 20.
824 _i.e._ the fifth substance.
825 Helios; cf. 161 D. The whole passage implies the identification of
Attis with nature, and of the world‐soul with Helios; cf. 162 A
where Attis is called “Nature,” φύσις.
826 cf. 170 D, 168 C; Sallust, _On the Gods and the World_ 4. 16. 1.
827 cf. 171 A; Sallust also identifies Gallus with the Milky Way, 4. 14.
25.
828 ἑαυτὸ Shorey suggests, τοῦτο Hertlein, MSS.
829 λέγομεν Petavius suggests, lacuna Hertlein, MSS.
830 τε Hertlein suggests.
831 τὰς Hertlein suggests.
832 μὲν Hertlein suggests, γε MSS.
833 κρείττων Hertlein suggests, κρεῖττον MSS.
834 ἢ ὅτε Shorey, ὅτε Hertlein, MSS.
835 προüφεστῶσαν Hertlein suggests, προεστῶσαν MSS.
836 τῇ δὲ Hertlein suggests, τῇ MSS.
837 φησιν ὁ μῦθος Hertlein suggests, φησι MSS.
838 A finite verb _e.g._ φαίνεται is needed to complete the
construction.
839 καὶ Friederich, πέπεικε Hertlein, MSS.
840 cf. 170 D, 179 D.
841 _i.e._ Zeus.
842 Hence she is the counterpart of Athene, cf. 179 A. Athene is
Forethought among the intellectual gods; Cybele is Forethought among
the intelligible gods and therefore superior to Athene; cf. 180 A.
843 The Corybantes were the Phrygian priests of Cybele, who at Rome were
called Galli.
844 The Asiatic deities, especially Cybele, are often represented
holding lions, or in cars drawn by them. cf. Catullus 63. 76,
_juncta juga resolvens Cybele leonibus_, “Cybele unharnessed her
team of lions”; she sends a lion in pursuit of Attis, cf. 168 B;
Porphyry, _On the Cave of the Nymph_ 3. 2. 287 calls the sign of the
lion “the dwelling of Helios.”
845 _Iliad_ 10. 23 λέοντος αἴθωνος.
846 cf. _Oration_ 4. 145 C.
847 A finite verb is needed to complete the construction. For the
anacoluthon cf. 167 D.
848 καὶ διὰ Hertlein suggests, καὶ MSS.
849 A pine sacred to Attis was felled on March 22nd; cf. Frazer, _Attis,
Adonis and Osiris_, p. 222.
850 cf. 171 C, 175 A.
851 March 23rd.
852 March 24th was the date of the castration of the Galli, the priests
of Attis.
853 On March 25th the resurrection of Attis and the freeing of our souls
from generation (γένεσις) was celebrated by the feast of the
Hilaria.
854 ἡγεμόνας Shorey, cf. 170 A, B, ἡμῶν Hertlein, MSS.
855 αὐτὰς Hertlein suggests, αὐτὰ MSS.
856 169 D‐170 C is a digression on the value of myths, which the wise
man is not to accept without an allegorising interpretation; cf.
_Oration_ 7. 216 C.
857 τελευταίας αἰτίας Hertlein suggests, τελευταίας MSS.
858 In 167 D Attis was identified with the light of the moon; cf.
_Oration_ 4. 150 A; where the moon is called the lowest of the
spheres, who gives form to the world of matter that lies below her;
cf. Sallust, _On the Gods and the World_ 4. 14. 23; where Attis is
called the creator of our world.
859 προκαλεῖται Hertlein suggests, προσκαλεῖται MSS.
860 δὴ καὶ Hertlein suggests, δὲ καὶ V, καὶ MSS.
861 _Phaedrus_ 250 D, _Timaeus_ 47 A, _Republic_ 507‐508.
862 Porphyry, _On the Cave of the Nymph_ 22, says that Cancer and
Capricorn are the two gates of the sun; and that souls descend
through Cancer and rise aloft through Capricorn.
863 This seems to identify Attis with the sun’s rays.
864 Chaldean astrology and the Chaldean oracles are often cited with
respect by the Neo‐Platonists; for allusions to their worship of the
Seven‐rayed Mithras (Helios) cf. Damascius 294 and Proclus on
_Timaeus_ 1. 11.
865 _e.g._ Iamblichus and especially Maximus of Ephesus who is a typical
theurgist of the fourth century A.D. and was supposed to work
miracles.
866 δὴ Shorey, δὲ Hertlein, MSS.
867 αὐτὴ Wright, αὕτη MSS., Hertlein.
868 ἱερέων Hertlein suggests, ἱερῶν MSS.
869 The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone; the Lesser were
celebrated in February, the greater in September.
870 Plato, _Gorgias_ 497 C; Plutarch, _Demetrius_ 900 B.
871 αὐτὸς εἰρηκώς Hertlein suggests, εἰρηκὼς MSS.
872 προüφεστώσῃ Hertlein suggests, προεστεώσῃ MSS.
873 δὲ Hertlein suggests, γε MSS.
874 cf. _Oration_ 4. 131 A.
875 Attis.
876 ᾗ Hertlein suggests, οὗ MSS.
877 cf. 168 D‐169 A, 171 C.
878 παρακελεύονται Wyttenbach, μολλαχοῦ παρακελεύονται Hertlein, MSS.
879 The construction of καὶ καλάμης is not clear; Petavius suspects
corruption or omission.
880 ποιητικώτερον Naber, τι καὶ ποιητικὸν Hertlein, MSS.
881 ὁρμῶντα Naber.
882 _Theaetetus_ 176 A; cf. _Oration_ 2. 90 A.
883 _i.e._ to the intelligible world and the One; cf. 169 C.
884 Porphyry, _On Abstinence_ 3. 5, gives a list of these sacred birds;
_e.g._ the owl sacred to Athene, the eagle to Zeus, the crane to
Demeter.
885 ἅπαντα Hertlein suggests, ἅπαντας MSS.
886 συγχωρεῖ Hertlein suggests, συγχωροίη MSS.
887 φήσει Hertlein suggests, φήσειεν MSS.
888 cf. Aristotle, _On the Generation of Animals_ 736 b. 37, for the
breath πνεῦμα, that envelops the disembodied soul and resembles
aether. The Stoics sometimes defined the soul as a “warm breath,”
ἔνθερμον πνεῦμα.
889 The phrase probably occurred in an oracular verse.
890 Oration 6. 203 C; Demosthenes, _De Corona_ 308, συνείρει ...
ἀπνευστί.
891 ἕνεκά του Shorey, ἕνεκα τοῦ Hertlein, MSS.
892 The epithet means “favoured by Aphrodite.”
893 In this rendering of λόγος (which may here mean “Reason”) I follow
Mau p. 113, and Asmus, _Julians Galiläerschrift_ p. 31.
894 πράξεις Hertlein suggests, τάξεις MSS.