PORPHYRY

PORPHYRY

I shall begin my friendship towards you, O Anebo, with the consideration of the Gods and the good demons, and those philosophical speculations which especially pertain to them. And indeed, very much is said about these things even by the Greek philosophers; but those things that are said, for the most part, derive the principles of their belief from conjecture alone.

First, therefore, it is conceded that there are Gods. But I ask what are the idioms of each of the higher orders, by which they are distinguished from one another? Or perhaps must we seek the cause of the distinction between them from their actions, sufferings, and accidents; or from the variety of the bodies with which they are associated? For the Gods hold ethereal bodies, the demons have aerial ones, and souls have terrestrial ones subordinated to them.

How, therefore, do the theurgists practitioners of divine ritual institute invocations of terrestrial and subterranean Gods, since all the Gods dwell only in the heavens? Furthermore, how can some now be called aquatic, others aerial? How can they be believed to obtain certain places, and to be allotted portions of bodies, and indeed in a circumscribed manner, when they have infinite, indivisible, and incomprehensible power? How will their union

I shall begin my friendship towards you with the Gods and good demons, and the philosophies that live together with these. Concerning which, very much has been said even among the philosophers of the Greeks, but what has been said has its principles of belief for the most part from conjecture.

First, therefore, it is granted that there are Gods. But I seek to know what are the idioms of each of the superior beings, by which they are separated from one another; I do not say the energies, or the passive movements, or the consequences, or the arrangement concerning the different bodies, by which I say the Gods are related to ethereal things, demons to aerial things, and souls to things around the earth, which are the cause of the distinction among them.

But I ask why, when the Gods dwell only in heaven, there are in the theurgical ritual-based rites invocations of chthonic and subterranean ones; how some are said to be watery and aerial, and they have distributed places to one another, and have been allotted shares of bodies according to circumscription; and this while possessing power that is infinite, indivisible, and incomprehensible? And how will their union be towards one another