On the Mysteries

...in the water, and he happened to be on the ledge where I was sitting near the outflow. He summoned a young boy from the spring below with a few words. The boy was white, of moderate stature, and his hair was golden. His back and chest shone, and he looked entirely as if he were being washed and had been washed. His companions were struck with amazement at the ledge where he stood, as he was elsewhere in his thoughts. Then, to do the same, he summoned another Eros a boy-spirit representing Love near his face, soft, except that his hair was darker and shone with the sun. Both boys entwined around him, and he returned them to their proper places as if to a true father. He departed, having finished the washing. None of the gathered crowd asked anything further, but they were drawn by the signs that had appeared as if by an unbreakable tether, and they were persuaded in all things.

More paradoxical and monstrous things were said, but I have recorded none of these, for I consider it a dangerous and ready thing to introduce corrupted and fleeting hearsay into a stable and fixed record. I write these things while fearing for the listener, except that I follow men who, while disbelieving others, were moved by the sensation of what they had seen. No one among his companions who recorded his life wrote down as much as we know, for Aedesius said that he himself had not written it, and that no one else had dared to do so.

During the times of Iamblichus lived Alypius, most skilled in dialectics. He had a very small body, and he stood shorter than a pygmy. His apparent body was in danger, as if the soul and mind, which do not decay, did not yield to growth but were given over to something more divine. Just as the great Plato says, base bodies have a nature opposite to those that are wrapped in soul.

...a defender against injury. Immediately, having touched the water with his hand (for he happened to be sitting on the edge of the fountain, where the basin is filled and overflows), and having murmured a few words, he summoned a boy from the bottom of the fountain—white, of convenient stature, with hair tinted to a tawny gold, and with skin on his back shining; he looked entirely as if he were currently bathing or had just bathed. The companions were astonished by the novelty of the thing. "Let us move on from here to the next small spring," he said, and rising, he preceded them, fixed in thought and with a suspended expression. There, performing the same as before, he evoked another Amor, similar in all ways to the first, except that the hair on this one was darker, reddish, and scattered over his neck. Both boys, clinging in tight embraces, held onto Iamblichus as if to a natural father. He immediately restored them to their own seats and left the washing, to the stupefaction of the gathering of companions and friends, who from that time ceased to investigate anything, and, drawn by the arguments and signs they had seen as if by strong reins, showed themselves credulous in all things.

Other things contrary to faith and similar to monsters were carried about among the common people concerning him, none of which I wished to commit to writing, thinking it prepared, safe, and hateful to God if one were to introduce empty, fictitious, and fleeting fables into a history resting upon truthful and solid faith. Why, even I write these very things not without a certain religious hesitation/scruple, fearing that they are rumors and false hearsay, except that I follow men who, not applying faith to others, were moved by the sensation of the thing seen. Whatever the case, no one of his contemporaries, as far as I know, published that which I have spoken of, with Aedesius modestly reporting that he had neither written it nor had anyone else proceeded to such boldness.

In the age of Iamblichus lived Alypius, most exercised in dialectics, with a very small body, a little larger than a cubit or a pygmy. One who looked at him could see that it was soul or spirit; to such an extent that which was subject to corruption did not grow, but into a certain divine nature he flourished; he says that divine bodies are in a contrary manner...