Platonists and high priests: Daemonology, ritual and social order in the third century CE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara

Platonists and High Priests: Daemonology, Ritual and Social Order in the Third Century CE

A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History

by Heidi Marx-Wolf

Committee in charge: Harold A. Drake, co-chair Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, co-chair Christine M. Thomas Stephen Humphreys Mary Hancock

September 2009

UMI Number: 3385766

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Platonists and High Priests: Daemonology, Ritual and Social Order in the Third Century CE

Copyright © 2009 by Heidi Marx-Wolf

MI

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." (Cicero) I have much to be grateful for and many debts to acknowledge. This dissertation is the result of numerous collaborations, friendships, and spontaneous acts of human kindness and scholarly generosity. I have had the excellent fortune of having been surrounded by people committed to making this dissertation a solid piece of scholarly work. Hence, any blunders, oversights or glaring mistakes are solely my responsibility and likely the result of my having overlooked or ignored good advice along the way. Harold A. Drake and Elizabeth DePalma Digeser shared the burden of advising this project. Their patience and magnanimity were astounding. They proved that you can teach an old dog new tricks, namely that you can teach a philosophically-trained academic to think and write like an historian. Hal is often heard to say that his method of advising is to let students do what they think is best and to follow their own course. But in actuality, it would be difficult to find someone as involved and engaged with his students' work. His advice is invariably sage, and his sense of commitment to his students and their flourishing is patently obvious at all times. Hal is an ideal advisor, and the culture he creates among his graduate students and colleagues convinced me early on that collaboration rather than competition is the only way to proceed in academia. His methods serve as the model I adopt for my present and future interactions with students and peers. It is not surprising, this being the tone of my graduate studies, that Elizabeth DePalma Digeser was equally kind, generous, helpful and hospitable, given that she was once one of Hal's students. Furthermore, I had the great fortune of working on a topic that was close to a number of themes from her forthcoming book. Beth shared all of her work with me, and saved me from many naive assumptions and scholarly blunders by making me cognizant of the most important debates on key topics pertaining to my project. She has also been a kind and caring friend. My debt to Christine M. Thomas is great and multi-faceted. Her teaching and input made this project truly interdisciplinary. She singlehandedly taught me what it is one does in a religious studies department and how this could enrich my own approach. She did such a good job in this regard that the University of Manitoba was willing to hire me to teach Early Christianity and New Testament in their religion department. Chris was frequently willing to take on overload teaching to ensure that graduate students had access to New Testament Greek and Coptic courses, opportunities which I happily availed myself of. She also made IV

it possible for me to spend time at Ephesus on an archaeological dig, an unforgettable experience which served to attune me to the ways in which historians can and should engage with archaeological studies whenever possible. Chris is also one of the most erudite and diversely talented people I know, and among the most generous. My thanks also go to her husband Jorge Castillo for his friendship and for some of the most sublime and treasured early music in my collection. Their son Martin is also a treasured friend. Both Mary Hancock and Stephen Humphries were willing to conduct independent studies with me on possession cults, demonology and mental illness in anthropology and early Islam respectively. This dissertation is informed by anthropological methodology to a significant degree as a result of Mary Hancock's help. Furthermore, my work with Stephen Humphreys made me aware of the important parallels between late Rome and early Islam, and prepared me to teach courses at UCSB on both late Roman history and on the history of science to the Renaissance. Early on in the process of writing, David Frankfurter very generously read multiple drafts of my project proposal and offered invaluable comments. His mark on the dissertation is clear from the outset, and this study would not have been anywhere near as interesting without his input. I also wish to thank Gillian Clark who, in a workshop at UCSB and a session at the International Conference on Patristic Studies at Oxford, read papers of mine and offered rich and varied feedback. My graduate studies were funded by the generosity of a number of different departments and foundations in the University of California system. Additionally, grants from the Multi-Campus Research Group in Late Antiquity allowed me to travel to Turkey to study ancient healing shrines in 2005, and to take a course in papyrology at Berkeley. This course served as the basis for my work with the "Greek Magical Papyri" in Chapter Two. Claudia Rapp, who was the director of the MRG while I was a graduate student, has always been helpful and encouraging and I owe her my thanks. UCSB History Associates and the History Department also came through on an almost yearly basis with smaller fellowships, which allowed me to travel for research and survive the summer months. Nancy McGloughlin and Thomas Sizgorich have been unfailing friends within the academy and outside of it. Nancy read multiple versions of all my chapters, edited the ugliest prose, and is largely responsible for bringing out the "so what" of my project. And I would not have weathered the final months of writing without her constant confidence that I would finish and her encouragement to keep at it. v

My thanks also go to Monica Orozco for her friendship and her help, especially while I was settling in at UCS. I also wish to thank Olivier Dufault for reading my work and conspiring about spirits, theurgy and alchemy, Dayna Kalleres for sharing her work and insights on possession, exorcism and baptism, Emily Schmidt for great conversations on Roman religion, Hellenistic Judaism, and innumerable other scintillating topics, and Roberta Mazza for all her help on the papyrological aspects of this study. I also wish to thank fellow scholars of late Platonism, Blossom Stefaniw, Ariane Magny, Todd Krulak, Arthur Urbano, and Aaron Johnson, for their good company at conferences, and for sharing their work and insights on all things Plotinian, Porphyrian and Proclean. I am grateful to Alexander Sokolicek for teaching me most of what I know about ancient archaeology, for letting me muck about at the Magnesian Gate in Ephesus with him, and for including my novelistic descriptions of stones in the his site reports. My thanks go to him, his partner Johanna Auinger, and their daughter Marie for their friendship, for Skipbo and for Sachertorte. Janet Crisler has, over the years, been an enthusiastic and affirming friend, and I thank her for her hospitality during my time in Selcuk, and for her frequent invitations to come and spend time at the Crisler Library and Research Center near Ephesus. My thanks go to my friends on the mountain - Angela Moll, Thorsten van Eicken, the Vallino's, Stefan Miescher and Lane Clark - for meals, tea, and excellent conversation. Petra von Morstein and Evgenia Cherkasova are life-long friends whom I thank for their constancy, resolute love and care over the years. They are the sort of friends who, despite distance, are ever-present. I thanked them in the same way ten years ago when I wrote my acknowledgments for my first dissertation in philosophy, and nothing has changed. At the time I also thanked my dear friend Laura Canis who helped me through my first dissertation and whose friendship I treasured deeply. She died in May of 2006, and I miss her dreadfully. But she is still present in the small things, such as how I make roast potatoes and fruit cake, as well as in the big things such as how I endeavor to treat other people. When asked what it was about my childhood that led me to write a dissertation on demons, my mother replied with shocked incredulity, "She wrote a dissertation on demons?" Despite her best efforts to avoid any responsibility for a topic that some might consider controversial or dangerous (my last three months of writing, after all, were riddled with all sorts of minor and major mishaps, annoyances and tragedies!), my parents are very responsible for the kind of person I am and the path I've taken. I am deeply thankful to them for all their love and support. They VI

are the ones who pretended the television was broken and took me to the public library every week. They are also the ones who read to me every night from the time dinner ended to the time I went to sleep. My partner in crime, my sister Christa has been and remains my closest friend. Being an acupuncturist, she is also my doctor, and I feel very privileged to be her patient. She helped to keep me balanced and sane during the more grueling periods of this project. She is also one of the most loving people I know. Ten years ago, a week after I finished my dissertation in philosophy, I married Paul Alexander Wolf. Few people would have both understood my rationale for completing another doctorate or put up with all that entails for seven years. Paul did so with grace, humor, and generosity. He has, in the interim, put certain of his own dreams and plans on hold in a most selfless way. He has also kept me from stultifying in my manner of existence, from becoming pedantic as a human being, and from taking myself too seriously. I am a far better person than I could have ever hoped to be for knowing and loving him.

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VITA OF HEIDI MARX-WOLF August 2009 EDUCATION Bachelor of Philosophy, University of Calgary, Alberta, June 1993 (with honors) Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, State College, June 1999 Doctor of Philosophy in History, University of California, Santa Barbara, September 2009 (expected) PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT 1994-96: Teaching Assistant, Department of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, State College 1996-1999: Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, State College 2000-2002: Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara 2001 and 2004: Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Westmont College, Santa Barbara 2002-2003: Teaching Assistant, Law and Society Program, University of California, Santa Barbara 2003-2006: Teaching Assistant, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara 2006-2009: Lecturer, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

PUBLICATIONS "High Priests of the Highest God: Third Century Platonists as Ritual Experts" (forthcoming in 2010, Journal of Early Christian Studies) "Augustine and Meister Eckhart: Amata Notitia and the Birth of the Word" in Philotheos: International Journal for Philosophy and Theology (July 2008) "A Strange Consensus: Demonological Discourse in Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus," in Religion and Rhetoric in Late Antiquity (Toronto: Edgar Kent Publishers, under contract, forthcoming 2009)

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"Madness," entry in the Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage (Brill, under contract, forthcoming 2009) "Metaphors of Imaging in Meister Eckhart and Marguerite Porete," Medieval Perspectives, 13 (1998), 99-108. AWARDS Fall 2008

Graduate Division Dissertation Completion Fellowship

Summer 2008

UCSB History Associates Fellowship

2007

MRG in Late Antiquity Intercampus Student Exchange Fellowship (Papyrology course at the Tebtunis Collection, UC Berkeley)

2007-2008

UCSB Graduate Opportunity Fellowship

2007

UCSB Graduate Division Research Travel Grant

2006-2007

Dick Cook Memorial Fellowship for Outstanding Service

2006-2007

Esme Frost Fellowship for Ancient History

2006-2007

UCSB Dean's Fellowship

2005-2006

UCSB History Associates Fellowship

2005-2006

J. Bruce Anderson Memorial Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching

2005-2006

Lead Tutorial Assistant, History Department, UCSB

2005

MRG in Late Antiquity Travel Grant

2004

UCSB History Associates Fellowship

2002-2003

Medieval Studies Program, First Year Award

FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Late Antiquity with Harold A. Drake

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Studies in Early Christianity and Greek and Roman Religion with Christine M. Thomas Studies in Early Islam with Stephen Humphreys Studies in Anthropological Approaches to Demon Possession and Mental Insanity with Mary Hancock

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ABSTRACT

Platonists and High Priests: Daemonology, Ritual and Social Order in the

Third Century CE

by

Heidi Marx-Wolf In the third century, Platonist philosophers such as Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus were engaged in creating systematic discourses that ordered the realm of spirits in increasingly more hierarchical ways. All of these philosophers also made claims to ritual expertise and called themselves high priests of the highest god. My argument is that they did so, in part, to garner cultural and social capital in the forms of prestige and authority, and may have even done so in order to caste themselves in the role of advisors to local and imperial leaders. The daemonological discourses they constructed as part of their overall respective theological and philosophical projects were projected onto and ordered a more "local" daemonological perspective which, although totalizing in its own right, was less concerned with hierarchy and precise distinctions between different kinds of spirits. By comparing these two different levels - local xi

versus philosophical daemonologies - I show that the reason why these third-century Platonist philosophers expended so much effort ordering the realm of spirits and claiming to be high priests is that socially, they were much closer to the ritual experts who created and proffered the rituals and ritual objects that engaged and worked with the spiritual realm at the more "local" level. Hence, although Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus created discourses of a universal sort, if one situates them in their cultural and educational context, one sees that they were at times in direct competition for social capital with other priests and ritual experts. I also highlight the fact that in their efforts to establish their authority on theological and ritual matters, Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus frequently shared views on the realm of spirits that cut across religious boundaries, calling into question the conflict model that has informed much of the scholarship on this period and these figures in particular. Finally, I demonstrate that the philosophical daemonologies of the third century failed to eradicate the local sense of the realm of spirits and people continued to interact with this realm in the same ways and to the same ends as they always had in the ancient world.

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Table of Contents: Chapter One - Introduction

1

Chapter Two - Local priests and Local Spirits: The Case of the Greek "Magical" Papryi (PGM)

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Chapter Three - How to Feed a Daemon - The Demonic Conspiracy of Blood Sacrifice and the Moral Valencing of the Realm of Spirits

87

Chapter Four - "Everything in its Right Place": Ordering the Realm of Spirits

138

Chapter Five - Priests of the God Who Rules All: Ritual Expertise and Social Order

184

Conclusion: Antecedents and Heirs - From the Second Sophistic to Christian Bishops

222

Bibliography

234

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Chapter One - Introduction This dissertation concerns the relationship between the everyday disorder of the spirit world of most ancient Mediterranean people and the ordered hierarchies of spirits produced by late antique philosophers. This relationship, however, is perhaps most strikingly illustrated and introduced with a modern and personal example. The following is a text from a piece of paper that accompanied a contemporary amulet I found a couple of years ago. The text does not specify the purpose of the amulet, but it seems it can be used to make any sort of request: Prayer to the Seal of the Crown Serpent and Magic: From the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses On the reverse side of the picture of Moses, according to Oriental reckoning, appears the elevated, winding and crowned serpent, holding a ring in her teeth. Around the serpent may be seen the moon, the stars, planets, water and many other hieroglyphical signs. On the left side of the tail may be seen seven nails, on the right side are magical hieroglyphs making the mane [name] of Schemahamponasch. To see Jesus Christ with cross that is to say: Jesus Christ through his love, and by his seven wounds and through his death on the cross for his lobe's [love's] sake, has overcome the kingdoms of this world, and thus took again from the old serpent, the devil, the seal-ring of human omnipotence, or the happiness of man to all the eternal eternities, in order to fulfill the old covenant in the new covenant, for the eternal glorification of the eternal Father in the eternal Son, through the eternal Spirit. Amen. Make your request. On the reverse side of the paper, the same thing is written in Spanish. The amulet itself is plated with 14k gold (at least according to the

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envelope in which it came), and although some details are clear, such as Moses, the crowned serpent and the quarter moon, many of the symbols mentioned in the piece of paper are far less distinct. I found the amulet in an unlikely place. I am very fond of swap meets and flea markets and look for them whenever and wherever I travel. Sometimes I drive about an hour north of Santa Barbara to visit the swap meet in Nipomo, a small agricultural town inland from the coast. It's a rather large and festive affair where Spanish is the predominant language and tri-tip tacos are high on the menu along with menudo and posole. Some of the stalls are under tents as one would expect. But others are housed in more permanent metal storage units. The last time I was there, I was walking by one of these storage units outside of which stood a rack displaying very pungent incense in large quantities. The door was covered by a beaded curtain. Intrigued, I entered and was immediately confronted by a wall of vials containing oils or waters for a broad spectrum of ailments and conditions, physical, existential, and spiritual. The same array of concerns was represented in powder form, in packets with photocopied pictures and explanations. Next I encountered a wall of amulets, followed by a wall of candles, some of which were very standard representations of saints, others depicting specific desires and requests. Then there were the shelves of herbs and herbal concoctions. Interspersed among these shelves were

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smaller displays of bottles containing scenes with dolls and other objects in liquid. At the very back of the store there was a large nook with curtains and built-in benches covered with pillows, fabric, lace and dolls, innumerable dolls. What was most striking was the rich mix of spiritual traditions represented as well as the range of concerns addressed by the collection. One could find help in the form of an amulet, powder or candle for marital separation (preventative or hoped for, I could not determine); one could find a remedy for financial difficulties, and for physical ailments of all kinds; if one needed protection on a journey or against evil spirits and curses, that was possible as well. But many of the items also had a devotional element. Some addressed the individual's search for spiritual insight, wisdom and intimacy with god or saint.1

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Around the same time that I came across this shop, I also received a piece of spam sent to my campus email with the following message reminding me of the variety of help one could find on the shelves of the store at the swap meet. It read: "The answers to your prayers are here through our divine supplications and prayers, we have come out with some spiritual rings that you are in need of, and you can now contact us to narrate your difficulties and we believe that God will help to solve your problems. We have attached samples of our rings to this mail. And you can easily contact us for more details regarding your problems, and we shall prescribe the best rings to help solve your problems. Many have come back to say thank you and believe that you are the next person to be grateful to our assistance. Below are the rings we have made to solve your problems: 1) ring for making money and uncontrollable wealth, 2) ring for people seeking political appointment, 3) ring for lovers, male attraction and female attraction, 4) ring for gambling, lottery, visa and good luck, 5) ring for disappearing when there is trouble, 6) ring for communicating and commanding the jinns of the underworld, 7) success ring, 8) business success ring, 9) exams success ring, 10) ring to boost your business and investments, it makes more customers for your business, 11) rings specially made for contractor, people seeking for job and for business, men/women, 12) ring for spiritual upliftment, 13) ring for performing miracles on a crusade, 14) ring of commandment, do as I say, 15) ring for defeating your opposition,

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Furthermore, it was possible to purchase bulk herbs to work a strictly physical cure without spiritual intercession or intervention in the case one was more profanely inclined. Having been raised in the Baptist and Brethren traditions, I felt some hesitation about buying anything. I remember that once a dear friend had given me a silver amulet, a piece I wore often, symbolizing the cycles of the moon. I explained this to the mother of a church friend who was curious about it. Her response was to ask me whether I wasn't worried about attracting demons wearing a pagan symbol of that sort. Such memories and the scruples they represent do not fade quickly. So I decided upon my Moses amulet. After all, in Late Antiquity, the period under discussion in this study, Moses was a sort of ecumenical figure.2 I also bought a powder with the picture of Saint Cyprian. As I went to pay, the owner of the store explained that it was helpful for warding off evil

16) ring for winning a case at court, 17) ring for breaking through, 18) ring for getting pregnant, 19) ring for your wife to stick to you and for your husband not to cheat on you but to stick to you forever, 20) ring for destruction. You should kindly feel free and contact us on [email protected] for answer to your questions and for placing your order. Don't let your power or free will pass you bye, act fast and be part of this spiritual revolution. May the blessing of the supreme being protect you all. Sheik Ibrahim Niass Jrn., Spiritual Leader." 2 Claudia Rapp, "Comparison, Paradigm and the Case of Moses in Panegyric and Hagiography," in The Propaganda of Power: The Role of Panegyric in Late Antiquity, ed. Mary Whitby (Leiden, 1988), 286. "In the period of late antiquity, Moses was held in high regard by Jews, pagans and Christians alike. He was admired by the pagans for his contributions to the progress of civilization, while the Christians saw him as an earlier version either of Christ, or of the apostles, especially of Peter."

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spirits sent by people trying to curse me. Given the topic of this dissertation, my choices turned out to be rather apropos.3 As I was paying for my amulet and powder, I commented to the proprietor, Sister Angela Galloway, a diviner and spiritualist, about the mix of spiritual traditions represented in her store, noting that it was very akin to some of the syncretistic forms of ritual and belief I study in the ancient world. She nodded her head, and replied, "They're all spirits." This succinct reply has stayed with me. Sister Galloway's Botanica Manviye, Nipomo Swap Meet A-33, is a physical representation of how many individuals in many times and places conceive of the spiritual realm and construct the sacred landscape around them. It represents an understanding of spirits in terms this study sees as a more local level of religion, the level at which ordinary people seek remedies for life's difficulties, disappointments, pains, and frustrations, as well as they seek to secure or celebrate prosperity, health, children, friendship and familial harmony; or to achieve understanding of and closeness to spiritual beings.4

3

The sixth and seventh books of Moses are a collection of pseudepigraphal texts, for which we have a number of 16th century manuscripts, which claim to explain the magic Moses used in a contest with the Egyptian priest-magicians. It also claims to reveal how he parted the Red Sea, called down plagues of locusts and frogs and so forth. The books also contain various seals for calling upon angels and other spirits. Joseph Peterson, The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses (Berwick, 2008). 4 Other terms that could be used interchangeably with the designation "local" are "concrete," "situated," "pragmatic," or "practical."

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At this level, thinking about spirits is more flexible and less systematic or hierarchical than the thinking academics typically encounter. Spirits are experienced as diverse, unclassified, capricious and ambiguous. Their virtues or detractions tend to be mapped onto whether or not they are helpful or harmful with reference to specific conditions, but they are not valenced according to clearly defined moral taxa: "popular demonological thinking is situation-specific, embedded in the world - part of the larger endeavor of an individual, family, or community to negotiate the immediate environment and its margins."5 Although, as noted, this kind of thinking about spirits is prevalent in many cultures and religions across time, there are certain moments in history when attempts are made to order the spiritual realm in more systematic, hierarchical and totalizing ways. These attempts to create more elaborate daemonological discourses, i.e., discourses about spirits in general, are seldom purely academic exercises undertaken by intellectual elites who hold themselves entirely apart from the rest of society on the basis of education and social class. Rather, as David Frankfurter notes, the creation of systematic discourses about spirits, in particular evil ones (i.e. demonologies)6 often functions as part of an attempt on the part of 5

David Frankfurter, Evil incarnate: rumors of demonic conspiracy and ritual abuse in history (Princeton, N.J., 2006). 30. 6 1 use the term "demonology" to refer to speech about evil spirits, a discourse that locates and defines them. The term "daemonology" is used throughout to indicate a broader discourse about spirits in general

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certain individuals or even religious centers to bolster their authority, power and reputation by establishing themselves as sites of expertise on sacred, ritual and doctrinal matters. In his book, Evil Incarnate: rumors of demonic conspiracy and satanic abuse in history, Frankfurter highlights the way in which, at specific historical moments, certain individuals or religious associations attempt to claim authority for themselves by "appropriating and recasting local religious beliefs so as to make the temple priests and their rituals indispensable to public religious life."7 The first step in this direction often involves providing a clear moral valence for various spiritual beings. At this stage, "self-defined experts and forces, sometimes in cooperation with a central institution," transform "those unsystematic local understandings of capricious spirits and malevolent neighbors," articulating "the uniform coordinated threat posed by demons and the Devil," revealing "the evil system behind inchoate misfortune," and offering their audiences "the tangible hope of purging it."8 Frankfurter describes how these conspiratorial discourses about evil spirits function. He writes:

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Frankfurter, Evil incarnate: rumors of demonic conspiracy and ritual abuse in history. 15. 8 Ibid. 31-32. Although Frankfurter's study mainly addresses this trend in historical contexts defined by a Christian world view, he finds interesting parallels in ancient Zoroastrianism as well as in the accusations against Christians by Greco-Roman polytheists. Thus his insights are not limited, in terms of applicability, to a Christian framework.

7

Demonologies seek to control - through order, through writing, through the ritual power of declaration - a chaotic world of misfortune, temptation, religious conflict, and spiritual ambiguity....Demonology collects from and attends to these various domains of apparent demonic action, yet its intent lies in grasping totality, simplifying and abstracting immediate experience for the sake of cosmic structures.9 Hence, in this recasting and centralization process local spirits are frequently abstracted from their context, inserted into a "speculative system," given an ethical valence that supplants their previous moral ambiguity, and generally subsumed within a totalizing, universal discourse, one that maps moral order onto specific ontological difference in increasingly complex ways.10 A number of years ago when reading the works of late secondand third-century Platonists, the successors of the elusive and mysterious Ammonius Saccas, I noticed that, with the important exception of Plotinus, a number of these thinkers - Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus in particular - seemed to be engaged in such a project, namely in the production of elaborate discourses that sought to morally valence the

9

Ibid. 26-27. Frankfurter's study focuses on the production of demonologies and the role this played at certain key historical moments when "the myth of evil conspiracy mobilized people in large numbers to astounding acts of brutality against accused conspirators" (12). These moments serve to explain late twentieth century witch hunts, particularly in Africa, as well as the Satanic abuse panics in Britain and the United States in the 1980's. His discussion of the way the identification and categorization of spirits grounds "experts'" claims to authority draws on important anthropological works from such scholars as I. M. Lewis, Mary Douglas, and Birgit Meyer. 10 "Demonology of this sort, involving the collection, classification, and integration of demons out of their immediate social contexts, arises as a function of religious centralization..." Ibid. 15.

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realm of spirits and order it in hierarchical and systematic ways.11 These thinkers also seemed to be making strong claims with regard to their expertise on matters of ritual. And all three referred to themselves as high priests of the highest god. These Platonists were not entirely without precedents in their daemonological endeavors, for Middle Platonists, such as Plutarch and Numenius, also had much to say about daemons and other spirits. However, this trend intensified in the third century with the followers of Ammonius. I made it my task to investigate this change, something which scholars had not thus far done, by situating it in its third-century context, socially, politically, culturally and religiously. Hence, this study seeks to explore possible reasons why these thirdcentury Platonists sought to order the realm of spirits as and when they did, and to impose this order on more local understandings of the sacred landscape in currency at the time. This study also seeks to determine whether they sought to establish their hieratic identity or status at the expense of other ritual experts living, working, and participating in cultural, religious and social milieus that overlapped or intersected with the schools and circles of late Platonist philosophers, circles which many scholars have only looked at in isolation from the rest of late antique

11

Although I do not include Plotinus here, it is important to note that the emanational cosmology of the Enneads provides a framework for ordering spirits. Plotinus is less interested, however, in dividing beings along moral lines or in describing the characteristics of various spiritual orders.

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society.12 Scholars have often proceeded in this manner in part because it is frequently assumed in the study of the history of philosophy that elite intellectuals in all times and places tend to separate themselves from many of the currents, ideas, and practices of other social and educational classes. Part of the reason for this assumption is that often these intellectual elites give this impression themselves. But, this impression is misleading, as both the ideas and lives of the third-century Platonists will reveal. Hence this study seeks, in part, to answer the following questions: First, what was the place of the philosopher in the late Roman world? How were philosophers situated with reference to religious authorities as well as participants in other intellectual traditions? How were these figures situated with reference to political authority, and the imperial court in particular? And how did these philosophers fashion their identities in this period in order to position themselves in society in a way that fit with their self-perception? This dissertation intersects with a number of other questions in late Roman scholarship. As will become apparent in the course of this study, the daemonological lens this dissertation adopts yields important new insights about religious identity and social class in late antiquity. For 12

For a discussion of how the Platonists schools and circles were structured and functioned in the period under discussion, see Garth Fowden, "The Platonist Philosopher and His Circle in Late Antiquity," Philosophia 7 (1977).

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instance, the figures under consideration here belong to different religious groups: Origen was a Christian, and both Porphyry and lamblichus were Hellenes.13 In the fourth century, one sees increasing tension between these two groups as religious boundaries become more clearly drawn and violently enforced. Yet, some of the key questions this study seeks to answer is whether in the third century, a century punctuated by sporadic, infrequent violence against Christians, religious identity was the primary category which determined the positions philosophers and intellectuals on either side of the Christian/Hellene divide took on specific ideological issues, whether the interactions across this boundary were universally or even predominantly hostile, or whether we find evidence of dialogic exchange and shared conceptual categories. Indeed, the daemonologies of such thinkers as Origen, Porphyry, and lamblichus force us to rethink how we conceive of religious identity in late antiquity. As will become clear, the evidence points to the fact that, in important respects, religious identity, both Christian and Hellene, was under 13

1 avoid using the term "pagan" wherever possible, because it is a pejorative and anachronistic term which none of the non-Christian philosophers this study considers would have used in reference to themselves or others like them. "Hellene" is a term that is often used within this milieu. It sometimes refers to individuals who saw themselves as participants in the ancient Greek intellectual patrimony. Origen would certainly fit this description, but he did not adopt the title "Hellene" for himself. It is also important to note that at times lamblichus criticized people he calls "Hellenes" for religious innovation. Hence, one sees that it is difficult to find appropriate terminology to replace the problematic "pagan." However, I believe it is important to grapple with the problem. To refer to non-elite non- Christians and non-Jews, I will use phrases such as "participants in traditional Mediterranean religion" or "traditional polytheists." Although at times this may appear awkward, I would prefer not to sacrifice accuracy to a misleading succinctness.

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construction in the third century. Hence it is impossible to fit complex thinkers such as Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus into clearly defined religious groups because there is little evidence that such groups existed in ways that characterize the manner in which we think of religious affiliation today. And efforts to delineate clear, impermeable, and inflexible boundaries between such groups as Christians, Jews, Hellenes (or "pagans"), Gnostics, and so forth, are futile and misguided. By engaging this latter set of questions, this study challenges a model which has informed late antique studies for some time and has only recently been called into question by the work of scholars such as Harold Drake, Miriam Taylor and Daniel Boyarin.14 Miriam Taylor calls this model "conflict theory," a model which sees most exchanges over religion in late antiquity through the lens of conflict and hostility between clearly defined confessional groups. Taylor compellingly calls into question the usefulness of this model for understanding late antique Jewish-Christian relations.

14

Daniel Boyarin, Borderlines: the partition of Judaeo-Christianity, Divinations (Philadelphia, Pa., 2004), H. A. Drake, Constantine and the bishops: the politics of intolerance, Ancient society and history (Baltimore, MD, 2000), Miriam S. Taylor, AntiJudaism and early Christian identity: a critique of the scholarly consensus (Leiden; New York, 1995). I would also include important work on the complexion of early Christianity that questions the division between Christian and Gnostic and prefers to see the first few centuries CE as a time when multiple Christianities flourished. For instance, see Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (Princeton, 1996).

12

Taylor is joined in her views by Boyarin who argues that Christian orthodoxy and Rabbinic Judaism were born at the same moment in history as a result of a protracted period of exchange and contest. His book defends the general thesis that one cannot clearly distinguish the two on the ground before the fourth century CE, and their respective characteristics are the immediate result of this contest. It is not until after this period, and even well into the fifth century that the threatening hybrid identity, Jewish-Christian, was effectively reproduced as a heretical position. Boyarin also explains how Christians, in producing their specific orthodox position, also produced the new ideological construct "religion" and attempted to apply this construct to Greco-Roman and Jewish religio. Rabbinic Judaism is the direct result of resistance to categorization as a "religion." This resistance takes place in the context of a number of specific contests: the rabbinic rejection of Logos theology, and the opposition to theological simplicity (homonoia) or the idea of orthodoxy. Instead, Rabbinic Judaism favored the 'denization' of the dialectician, i.e., the preeminence of disputation or dissensus without a telos. Harold Drake has demonstrated that a similar hardening took place in "pagan"-Christian15 relations in the fourth century, which

15

Drake uses the term "pagan" in his work although he clearly countenances the problems with it.

13

obscured earlier Christian efforts to emphasize points of commonality and agreement between Christians and non-Christians.16 These theoretical insights are borne out at the level of ritual practice in a number of different late Roman examples. For instance, we have evidence at the level of ritual artifacts of people mixing Christian, Jewish and Greco-Roman elements in healing practices (for instance, the Coptic "magical" papyri). Another example in the fourth century is John Chrysostom who was still railing against his parishioners for attending both his church and the local synagogue - a practice many seem to have found consistent with being a "good Christian." Finally, Abba Shenoute in the fifth century berated visitors to various saints' shrines for performing traditional necromantic divination at these relic sites.17 This practice indicates that the people who came to the martyr shrines saw them as places where the souls of the violently and prematurely dead could be called upon to foretell the future - a practice consistent with centuries of ancient Mediterranean divination. There is no reason to believe that these visitors thought of themselves as anything other than "good Christians." All of these examples indicate that even for periods later than the one treated in this study, religious identity 16

It is important to note that from Justin Martyr on, numerous Christian apologists endeavored to present Christianity as a philosophy in order to make it more palatable to non-Christians. For this particular reference, I rely on a presentation by David Frankfurter to the Society for Biblical Literature in San Diego (2007) entitled "Where the Spirits Dwell: Saint Shrines as Sites for Possession in Late Antique Christianity."

14

and group boundaries are difficult to draw. This is even more clearly the case for the third century and for the intellectuals under discussion here, despite the fact that a great deal of scholarship on these topics assumes the opposite. This study will demonstrate that intellectuals of various stripes wrote and thought using a common cultural coin in answer to a common set of questions and concerns about divinity. In fact, part of the reason intellectuals of all sorts in this period were increasingly concerned with hierarchical accounts of the divine order was that many people who saw themselves as heirs and participants in an ancient Greek paideia were increasingly adopting more henotheistic and monotheistic forms of religious belief and practice. This view of divinity posed a set of questions that affected intellectuals from many different backgrounds and affiliations including Christians, Neo-Platonists, Jews, Gnostics, Manicheans, Hermetists, Chaldeans, and so forth. The intellectual questions shared by philosophically or ideologically engaged members of these groups include the following: questions about the nature of divinity and how to "protect" God or the gods from any possible charge of responsibility for evil; the appropriateness of animal sacrifices as a central component of both traditional Greek and Roman, but also Hebrew, cult; concerns about the source, nature, and efficacy of divination and prophecy and the waning of

15

oracular sites; the difficulty of specifying the soul's relationship to matter and the range of acceptable ascetic practices for assuring its release, i.e. its salvation. If we take the first of these intellectual problems as an example, we can see that thinkers of the third and fourth centuries CE inherited their questions from common philosophical predecessors. The concern about divinity's potential responsibility for evil is really part and parcel of the question of its relation to the created order, and in particular, to matter. Not only were writers exercised by the problem of the degree to which the most supreme being had contact with the material cosmos, but also how this contact occurred, through what kind of mediation and what sort of mediating entities. These thinkers were at pains to preserve divine goodness by distinguishing and even distancing the highest god(s) from what most philosophers at the time, with the exception of perhaps Stoics and Epicureans, thought was a realm of becoming and therefore a realm characterized by imperfection, corruptibility, and, in some cases, evil. As we will see, even the question of animal sacrifice is related to the problem of divinity's relationship to this realm of becoming, and in particular to matter. These philosophers asked: Why would gods, supremely spiritual beings, desire the blood and burnt flesh of dead animals as part of their worship? If these offerings are not, in fact, appropriate for the highest God/gods, then to whom are they offered?

16

This question in particular became an important focus of internecine debate among Neo-Platonists after Plotinus, as Chapter Three will demonstrate. Thus we begin to see the way in which a daemonological lens is a productive one for looking at third-century ideological and social change, as well as questions concerning late Roman religious identity. Attention to the way in which the realm of spirits is valenced and ordered has proven fruitful for late antique scholarship in general, in part because a number of studies have drawn on modern anthropological and ethnographic insights concerning, in particular, evil spirits, possession and healing in traditional societies. Peter Brown was, as usual, one of the first to recognize the fruitfulness of this approach, for instance, in his iconic article "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity," and also in his article "Sorcery, Demons and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages," an essay which was first published in a volume edited by the anthropologist, Mary Douglas.18 Recently, David Brakke has highlighted the role demons played in shaping the identity of Egyptian monks in the early Christian period.19 And Cam Grey's essay, "Demoniacs, Dissent, and Disempowerment in the Late Roman West: 18

Peter Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity," Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971). Peter Brown, "Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages," in Witchcraft, Confessions, and Accusations, ed. Mary Douglas (London, 1970). 19 David Brakke, Demons and the making of the monk: spiritual combat in early Christianity (Cambridge, Mass., 2006).

17

Some Case Studies from the Hagiographical Literature," uses anthropological studies of spirit cults and psychosomatic illness to interpret episodes in saints' lives as "examples of individuals consciously or subconsciously expressing anger at or anxiety about the world in which they lived and their place in that world."20 All of these studies draw on important insights about the way reflection on the demonic is reflection on the normative via inversion. They also demonstrate that demons often represent key aspects of social reality. Modern anthropological studies reveal similar patterns. For instance, in his study on Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Bruce Kapferer notes that "[d]emons order disorder."21 According to him, "the culturally constituted modalities of the normal and abnormal" are "constituted by Sinhalese Buddhists through reference to demons and the nature of the demonic."22 In a similar vein, Birgit Meyers highlights the way in which Ewe converts to Christianity in Ghana used the image of the Devil and his demons "to reflect upon, and fantasize about, the problems and opportunities of their integration into a modern global political

Cam Grey, "Demoniacs, Dissent, and Disempowerment in the Late Roman West: Some Case Studies from Hagiographical Literature," Journal of Early Christian Studies 13 (2005): 40. 21 Bruce Kapferer, A celebration of demons: exorcism and the aesthetics of healing in Sri Lanka, 2nd ed. (Providence, R.I., Washington, DC, 1991). 1.

18

economy.

In other words, the demonic is a way to think about

ambivalent social and economic changes. Charles Stewart makes similar observations in his important study on demons and the Devil in modern Greek society. He writes, "demons cluster around refractory areas of experience": Incomprehensible phenomena are rendered intelligible though a recasting that could be said to humanize them; the moral foundations of the society are projected onto the unknown. The construction, representation, and dissemination of evocative images enable an understanding and a mastery of situations that escape comprehension in other terms.24 Finally, David Frankfurter sums up the foregoing anthropological insights about the demonic in his work on modern Satanic abuse panics in the following observation: And as in modern local religion, so in the village worlds of antiquity: the 'demonic' is less a category of supernatural being than a collective reflection on unfortunate occurrences, on the ambivalence of deities, on tensions surrounding social and sexual roles, and on the cultural dangers that arise from liminal or incomprehensible people, places, and activities. This study, however, goes beyond the meaning of demons and demonological reflection and seeks to look more broadly at what the activity of constructing hierarchies of spirits, both good and evil, means, Birgit Meyer, Translating the Devil: religion and modernity among the Ewe in Ghana (Trenton, NJ, 1999). 111. 4 Charles Stewart, Demons and the Devil: moral imagination in modern Greek culture, Princeton modern Greek studies. (Princeton, N.J., 1991) 15.

19

in this case in the third century, and how these dameonologies function socially. But it takes a key insight from the aforementioned studies on the demonic, namely that spiritual order can reflect ideas about social order. Even more importantly, daemonological discourse can also serve to construct new visions of social order and help to bring them into existence.25 In other words, this study builds on the key theoretical points of scholars such as Kapferer, Meyers, Steward, Frankfurter and others. As this study will demonstrate, the philosophers under investigation here were motivated by deep religious or spiritual experiences, and they saw themselves as the heirs of a philosophical An example from the ancient world will suffice to demonstrate this claim that daemonological thinking can reflect or construct social order. In his book Jesus the Magician, Morton Smith describes the intersection between the mythological worldview of the early imperial Palestinian Jews and the socio-political context. He writes: "The picture of the world common to Jesus and his Jewish Palestinian contemporaries is known to us from many surviving Jewish and Christian documents. It was wholly mythological. Above the earth were heavens inhabited by demons, angels, and gods of various sorts (the "many gods" whose existence Paul conceded in 1 Cor. 8.5, and among whom he counted "the god of this age," 2 Cor. 4.4). In the highest heaven was enthroned the supreme god, Yahweh, "God" par excellence, who long ago created the whole structure and was about to remodel, or destroy, or replace it. Beneath the earth was an underworld, to which most of the dead descended. There, too, were demons. Through underworld, earth, and heavens was a constant coming and going of supernatural beings who interfered in many ways with human affairs. Sickness, especially insanity, plagues, famines, earthquakes, wars, and disasters of all sorts were commonly thought to be the work of demons. With these demons, as with evil men, particularly foreign oppressors, the peasants of Palestine lived in perpetual hostility and sporadic conflict, but the relations were complex. As the Roman government had its Jewish agents, some of whom, notably the Herods, were local rulers, so the demons had their human agents who could do miracles so as to deceive many. The lower gods were the rulers of this age, and men who knew how to call on them could get their help for all sorts of purposes. So could women, whose favors they had rewarded by teaching them magic and other arts of civilized life. On the other hand, Yahweh, like the demons, was often the cause of disasters, sickness, etc., sent as punishments. He sometimes used angels, sometimes demons, as agents of his anger, and his human agents, his prophets, could also harm as well as help." Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (New York, 1978). 4.

20

patrimony that gave them a more universal perspective than any one else in late Roman society. Their motivations were also, in part, tied up with considerations of a soteriological sort. Part of their dialogue with each other concerned the role of the philosopher-priest in the salvation of the souls of others. Furthermore, their experience and perspective carried with it a divine charge to participate in and even guide civic affairs. Recent scholarship by Dominic O'Meara and Jeremy Schott has shown that late Platonists were neither apolitical nor did they eschew reflection on governance and the ideal polity.26 Although few philosophers in this period used Plato's model of the philosopher-king to frame their political ideology, a model found in his Republic, they did draw heavily on his Laws which depicted the philosopher as an advisor to the sovereign - a role which was ideally suited to the imperial context of the third century. In concrete political terms, we see Plotinus accompanying the emperor Gordion III on his campaigns to Persia, ostensibly in hope of coming into contact with Persian philosophers and Indian sages.27 Plotinus also attempted to interest the emperor Gallienus in rebuilding a settlement in Campania which would become a "City of Philosophers," 26

Dominic J. O'Meara, Platonopolis: Platonic political philosophy in late antiquity (Oxford, New York, 2003). Jeremy M. Schott, "Founding Platonopolis: The Platonic Politeai in Eusebius, Porphyry, and lamblichus," Journal of Early Christian Studies 11 (Winter 2003). 27 Porph. vPlot, 3.

21

called "Platonopolis."28 Julia Mammea, the mother of the emperor Severus Alexander, called Origen to her court in Antioch to talk about philosophy.29 Finally Porphyry may well have been at the court of Diocletian advising the emperor on how to deal with the growing "Christian problem" at the turn of the fourth century on the eve of the great persecution.30 All of this was happening in a time when proximity to court and the great patronus, the emperor, and not traditional social classes (senatorial, equestrian, etc.) served to distinguish individuals. Hence, we can see how reflection on theological matters, and on daemonological questions in particular, intersected with considerations of social order for these philosophers. Chapter outline:

28

v. Plot, 12. Porphyry claims that the plan was stopped due to jealousy or spite at court. But it may have been that in the end Gallienus recognized the implications of having a "city of philosophers" so close to Rome, a city purporting to be founded on Plato's Laws, and by which the surrounding countryside was to be ruled, i.e., a separate state of sorts. Indeed, its presence might call into question Rome's own "just" rule. "'ETinriaccv 5E TOV TTXCOTTVOV uaXicvra Kai ka£q>Qr\aav TaAifjvos TE 6 oarroKpdxcop Kai f\ TOUTOU yuvr) ZaXcoviva. 'O 5E TTJ
a u T o j jiETCj TCOV ETaipcov dvaxcopnoEiv UTTIOXVETTO. K a i eyEVET' a v T O PouXrina EK T O U p g o T o u TCO cp, EI \IT\ TIVES TCOV OUVOVTCOV TCJJ POOIXET q>9ovouvTE5 f| VEUEOCOVTES r|

5i' dXXriv iiOx8ripdv a i T i a v EVETTOBIOOV." 29

Eusebius, The Church History: a new translation with commentary, Paul L. Maier trans. (Grand Rapids, Ml, 1999) 6.21.3-4. See also G.W. Bowersock, Roman Arabia (Boston, 1994) 126. 0 For the most compelling argument that it was, in fact, Porphyry who was present on this occasion, see Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, "Porphyry, Julian or Hierokles? The Anonymous Hellene in Makarios Magnes' Apokritikos," Journal of Theological Studies 53 (October, 2002).

22

Chapter Two is dedicated to two points. First, it locates and provides evidence for that to which we are referring as more local understandings of spirits in a group of contemporary artifacts misleadingly titled the "Greek Magical Papyri" (PGM), and it attempts to locate the ritualists who would have produced, preserved and used them. Using certain ethnographic works and recent scholarship on ancient "magic" and "superstition," it demonstrates that these artifacts do not represent marginal practices performed by a putative class of magicians. Rather, they reveal local understandings of gods, daemons and other spirits. They also represent licit forms of religion and ritual practice to which most people would have subscribed in the ancient world. Second, investigation into the social location of the individuals who offered their ritual services at the local level shows a surprising degree of proximity between some of these local experts and the philosophers discussed in subsequent chapters. This proximity will help to explain why these philosophers cast themselves in the role of priests and, at times, denigrated the activities of other ritualists. The fact that the ritualists behind the papyri do not represent some marginalized and subversive class of magicians, but rather, as this chapter will argue, cultural innovators whose products had broad appeal meant that the intellectual tradition they represented was likely seen by many as either an alternative or companion path to wisdom, salvation, and communion with

23

divinity. Hence, it is no wonder that Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus sought to discredit them using a daemonological lens, a lens which allowed these philosophers to emphasize the failure of these priests to employ a sufficiently pan-imperial, universal perspective for thinking about matters both theological and ritual. The first step that these intellectuals take in constructing their daemonological discourses is to valence various orders of spiritual beings in moral terms. They do so in the course of their reflections on traditional animal sacrifice. Thus, Chapter Three focuses on the striking similarities between Porphyry's views on blood or animal sacrifice and those of earlier Christian apologists and contemporary theologians such as Origen. Both Porphyry and these Christian writers argue that blood sacrifices feed evil daemons and pollute the soul of the participants in these activities. The chapter further argues that this position is a plausible one for a non-Christian Hellene to adopt given key associations within the Platonic and Galenic frameworks which associate blood with embodiment, an ambivalent state for philosophers of this school. This chapter also highlights the way in which Porphyry's ideas on evil daemons put him at odds with his fellow Hellene, lamblichus, who sought to defend traditional blood sacrifice against the associations made by both Porphyry and Christian writers. The agreement between Porphyry and Origen both calls into question the aforementioned "conflict theory"

24

as a helpful model for understanding this period, and it highlights the existence of a common cultural coin amongst intellectuals of many stripes, a pool of ideas that undercut religious difference. Chapter Four considers the more universal daemonologies of these Platonists, in particular those of Origen and lamblichus. This chapter also demonstrates the close connection between daemonological and soteriological thinking among these philosophers. Both Origen and lamblichus embed their discourses about spirits in more general discussions about the salvation of the soul. This chapter also highlights the way in which, despite their best efforts to assign a clear moral valence to the various spiritual beings that inhabit the cosmos, and despite their attempts to clearly fix and delineate these beings according to various taxa, their daemonologies contain certain ambiguous or excessive, even ambivalent elements: the distinctions between kinds of spirits become blurred, or good spirits take on morally ambiguous characteristics and functions. These elements seem to indicate that although these intellectuals sought to impose order on more local perceptions of spirits, the success of this project was mitigated or resisted through their engagement with ideas or beliefs that some scholars have assumed belong more properly to other social or educational classes. In the course of creating their respective daemonological taxonomies, each philosopher, at one point or another, refers to himself 25

as a high priest, one associated with the supreme divinity at the very top of his systematic hierarchy. Chapter Five explores the significance of the adoption of a hieratic identity on the part of Origen, Porphyry, and lamblichus and their claims to be "priest(s) of the god who rules all."31 It picks up on a discussion introduced in Chapter Four about the interrelatedness of daemonology and soteriology, demonstrating that these philosophers used their expertise on the order of spirits to ground their claims to be appropriate "brokers" of salvation for others. While making these claims for themselves, they also distinguish the path of, if not the chances for, salvation of the philosopher from that of the ordinary person. Furthermore, while establishing themselves as authorities on sacred matters, they also denigrate the efforts of other ritualists. Hence, philosophers, those individuals who have made a study of things mysterious and esoteric, both act as guides for others and attain levels of union with the divine that are inaccessible to those who have not pursued wisdom with the same intensity, focus and resolve. This chapter also seeks to answer the question why these intellectuals both created these systematic daemonologies when they did and why they incorporated a hieratic or ritual focus into the identity of the late Roman philosopher. It does so by looking at key cultural and political trends in the third century,

31

Porphyry, On abstinence from killing animals, Gillian Clark trans. (Ithaca, N.Y., 2000). 2.49.

26

demonstrating that the creation of universal discourses of the sort Origen, Porphyry, and lamblichus produced were in keeping with certain more general trends in the direction of religious centralization made possible in the Mediterranean for the first time by the fact of Empire itself. For instance, this period was one in which emperors themselves were trying to find a more universal religious basis upon which to unify the bewildering and unwieldy panoply of cultic and theological perspectives of the empire's inhabitants. The emphasis on imperial cult, legislation mandating universal participation in sacrifices to the emperor's genius, and the resultant punishment of those who refused can be seen as part of this trend. But so can the efforts of emperors such as Aurelian and even Constantine to focus on unifying religious expressions which deemphasized divisive practices such as blood sacrifice and used solar imagery to stand for the highest god, down-playing worship of lesser deities. This trend is borne out in the religious and political changes of the Constantinian and post-Constantinian era when the rhetoric of empire is aligned with a monotheistic framework.32 Thus, the conclusion to the dissertation emphasizes the way in which these third-century 32

For instance, both Lactantius and Eusebius advance the view that there was something providential about the fact that the rule of a single sovereign over the entire Mediterranean began around the same time as the advent of Christianity. See Jeremy M. Schott, Christianity, empire, and the making of religion in late antiquity (Philadelphia, 2008) for a thorough discussion of the rhetoric of Christian empire.

27

philosophers set a precedent, both in terms of ideology and practice, which bishops could follow both in their expectations and in their endeavors to situate themselves with reference to imperial power and authority. Although their particular daemonological discourse is far more polarized than that of someone like Porphyry or lamblichus, bishops still based their authority, in part, on their ability to protect the community from evil spirits through various rituals such as exorcism and baptism. The conclusion also points out that despite the efforts of third- and fourthcentury intellectuals and bishops to develop and impose hierarchical, universal discourses of spirits onto more local understandings, these local constructions of the realm of spirits persisted across religious boundaries as is evidenced by ritual apparatuses associated with, in particular, various Egyptian Christian communities (the Coptic "magical" papyri). These later papyrus artifacts demonstrate that although some Christian bishops, priests and monks sought to polarize the realm of spirits and to determine the kinds of ritual practices in which their parishioners participated, there is abundant evidence that other priests and monks as well as their "clients" continued to interact with the realm of spirits to secure their aims (health, success, well-being, love, children and family accord) and avoid harm (pain, suffering, death, the curses and ill-will of

28

others, the deleterious effects of jealousy) in much the same way as they always had.33

33

For an example of a healing amulet which the author argues may have been produced by a monk, see Roberta Mazza, "P. Oxy. XI, 1384: medicina, rituali di guargione e cristianesimi nell'Egitto tardoantico," Annali di Storia dell'Esgesi, monographical issue on 'Ancient Christianity and "Magic"/II cristianesimo antico e la "magia"24 (2007) 437-62.

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Chapter Two - Local Priests and Local Spirits: The Case of the Greek "Magical" Papyri (PGM) What would happen ... if we changed our initial assumption and began with the idea that these beliefs and practices must have worked in some sense; if we indicated that we no longer accepted the notion that those who hold to them are irrational, and if we recovered our sense of poetic language and expressive ritual as fundamental constituents of all human experience?1 As this quote from John Gager suggests, in order to understand the broader daemonological context in which third-century Platonists worked, it is necessary to look beyond formal philosophical and theological sources and examine the widely-accepted belief systems with which late Roman intellectuals were in dialogue. A loose collection of artifacts grouped by modern scholars under the title the "Greek Magical Papyri" (Papyri Graecae Magicae) serves this purpose well, because of the consistent presence of daemons and other spirits in the spells, charms, prayers, amulets, and curses within this collection.2 These artifacts,

1

John G. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 22. 2 For a comprehensive discussion about the way these papyri came to be collected and published over time see the detailed article and annotated bibliography, William M. Brashear, "The Greek Magical Papyri: An Introduction and Survey; Annotated Bibliography (1928-1994)," Aufstieg und Niedergang derromischen Welt 11.18.5 (1995): 3398-412. Initially these artifacts had been passed over by both Egyptologists and classicist. Brashear writes: "Far from attaining any popular acclaim, the first magical papyri were largely ignored even by the scholars of the day. Although they were catalogued among Egyptian acquisitions, Egyptologists ignored them since they were written in Greek, while classicists, whose attention was riveted solely on things Attic, denigrated and derided them as barbaric products of a bastard culture unworthy of their study" (3399). In other words, the papyri did not fit into the research genres, programs or conceptual framework of scholars at the time they were discovered.

30

preserved on papyrus and found mainly in Egypt3 - a matter in this case of the vicissitudes of climate - are either portions or complete handbooks of ritual descriptions and formulae, or they are all that remain of rituals already completed. As such, they present the modern reader with a concrete picture of many of the everyday fears, concerns, needs, hopes and desires for which people in late antiquity sought divine and daemonic help. They also represent the way in which a class of ritual experts constructed and experienced the realm of spirits and sought to interact with and direct these spirits. Many scholars continue to characterize the Greek Magical Papyri as a collection of "magical" artifacts.4 In order truly to appreciate what these sources are, what they

3

Although most of the artifacts used to make the main points of this chapter come from Egypt, there are important reasons why its conclusions have broader applicability. First, we have evidence of similar rites and practices from other places using different media. For instance, we have curse tablets and binding spells on lead and many other materials. We also have evidence of healing amulets and votives from all over the Mediterranean on stone, gems, metal and so forth. Indeed, it is likely that many materials that ordinary people in late antiquity would have used to interact with spirits and divinities such as wood, clothe, unbaked clay, and papyri, were too ephemeral to survive until today, the Egyptian papyri being the one remarkable exception. And although we do see regional variation, for instance, in the case of the Aramaic incantation bowls, both in terms of language and format, many of the same kinds of needs, desires and ritual processes are expressed in these instances. Part of this chapter's argument is specific to Egypt and its native priestly class. However, as will become clear, this class is itself representative of the ways in which native religious experts and traditional elites around the Mediterranean were affected by and interacted with both Greek culture and Roman imperial administration. 4 This chapter will challenge the idea that they represent ancient "magical" practices, i.e. practices that would have been considered outside or opposed to normative religion, and in so doing it will engage with a significant portion of the theoretical literature on ancient "magic." For now, it is important to note a number of points about terminology. The two Greek words which are most often translated by the word "magic" are uayeia and yoexEia. The former often just referred to the wisdom, frequently considered esoteric, of the magi, i.e. Persian sages. The figure of the udyos was frequently employed to refer to wise individuals from the east, even Egypt, who had

31

can tell us about late antique daemonological thinking and the ritual landscape of the period, scholars need to look at these sources on their own terms. Using these sources, this chapter will make the following points. First, based on recent scholarship, it will argue against the view that these artifacts are in any way "magical" by arguing for the normative nature of the practice of cursing in antiquity - the most difficult case of ancient ritual action to assimilate to the modern worldview. It will then look for the ritual experts behind these papyri, demonstrating that in many cases, these experts were members of the traditional Egyptian priesthood. By subsequently placing these experts in the context of late Roman Egypt and situating these figures in and amongst other religious and intellectual elites, it will be possible to determine more accurately their relationship to the philosophers who form the basis of the remaining chapters of this study. Having established these points, it will then be possible to consider how these ritual experts constructed the realm of spirits. In other words, this chapter will explore the daemonological framework and set of assumptions revealed in the papyri. It will then

some sort of special knowledge, often astronomical. Hence, I argue, the translation "magic" insofar as it refers to something that is juxtaposed with religion is misleading in this case. The word yoETEia, which is related to yons, is more akin to what many scholars are referring to when they use the word "magic" for ancient practices. The term was, for the most part, used in a pejorative way to label others or to accuse them of participating in harmful, dubious or even treasonous activities. It is telling that the word yoETEia appears but a couple times in the PGM.

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become possible to compare this framework with the hierarchical, universalizing daemonologies of Origen, Porphry, and lamblichus and to consider why these philosophers sought to discredit traditional priests as a class. The following four excerpts are characteristic of the papyri under consideration and will form the starting point for the argument in this chapter. Each represents a different kind of ritual operation in answer to a different sort of existential predicament. "O master Oserapis and the gods who sit with Oserapis, I [pray] to you, I Artemisie, daughter of Masis, against my daughter's father, [who] robbed [her] of the funeral gifts and tomb. So if he has not acted justly toward me and his own children - as indeed he has acted unjustly toward me and his own children - let Oserapis and the gods grant that he not approach the grave of his children, nor that he bury his own parents. As long as my cry for help is deposited here, he and what belongs to him should be utterly destroyed badly, both on earth and on sea, by Oserapis and the gods who sit together with Oserapis, nor should he attain propitiation from Oserapis nor from the gods who sit with Oserapis. Artemisie has deposited this supplication, supplicating Oserapis and the gods who sit with Oserapis to punish justly. As long as my supplication [is deposited] here, the father of this girl should not by any means attain propitiation from the gods. [Who]ever [seizes] this document [and] does an injustice to Artemisie, the god will inflict a penalty on him...to no one...except...Artemisie commands that...as...not suffice...observed me in need of...and to me who lives...observed...in need of...."5 P G M X L . 1-18

T

0J SEOTTOT' 'Ooepa-m Kai 0EO'I o i UETCI TOO 'OaepJaTnols Ka[0nnEvoi,

euxoulai uuTv, ApTEuiairi f ) 8 \ A u d a i o s 6uyd"n-|p, K O T O T O TraTpoj Tfjs OuyaTpog, {65 auTfjv TIGOJVI KT[EP]ECOV cnrEOTEpriOE Kai TTJS 8r]Kr|s. si HEV ouv Sixaia HE ETToir|aE EU.E KCCI T O TEKVO

TauToaauTO, ooarrEp p i v OUV aSixa Eui Kai Ta TEKVO T U T O O O U T O ETroiriOE, 86r| SE o i 'OoEpams Kai o i Ssoi \ii) TUXETV EK iraiBcou 6r)Kr|S U M S E OUTOV yovdas T O U < S > auTOoauTou

33

This first text is called a curse by the translator, and indeed Artemisie does seem to wish the father of her children ill-will as recompense for defrauding her daughter of her tomb and funeral goods.6 This is one of the oldest extant ritual papyri. Its provenance is the temple of Oserapis in the Serapion of Memphis. The mother probably had very little recourse except to ritual action of this sort, although it is possible that she was pursuing this sort of remedy alongside others, such as legal action. Called defixiones in Latin or katadesmoi in Greek, curse tablets of this kind are among the most chronologically and geographically persistent artifacts in the ancient Greek and Roman periods.7 Curse

8dvycci. xfjs 8E KctTafJoifjs EV6UTO( KEIHEVTIS, Kaxcos OCTTOAAUOITO x s y y f j i KEV 6aAdaar|i KCXUTOS Kai r a a u T o u UTTO T O U 'OaEpJalTnos Kai TCOV SECOV TCOV d u i r ' DoEpaTTi Ka6nUEVcov, pr|5E i A d o v o j r u x d v o i 'OoEpdinos ur|8E T U V 6EI<£>]V JTCO]V HETO T O U 'OoEpdmos Ka.[9]r)|iEvcov. KaTE0r|KEV ApTEjjioiri TT)V iKETripiriv T a j y l r r i v , iKETuouaa TOV 'OOJEIPOTTIV xr)v 8uar|v SiKajaai Kai T O ] 0 S 6EOWS T O U J UETO T O U 'OoEpdiTioj KaGrjiiEvous, T f j M S' iKExripias EvBaOIra KEIIMEVFIS,

MTi8auco{5l iAaov{colv Jrcolv OECOV T U X X ° V ° 1 ° TTarfip xfjs iratSioKris. {6I5 8' a l v E'AOI] TCX y p d m i a r a r a O x a [Kaji dSiKoT ApTEUioir|v, 6 6EOS auTcbi x r | < v > 8iKr|v EiriSlEiri n]r]8Evi ••SEpaTruor

I f t o v n . o n \ir\ TOUS ApTr|Mtair| KEAUEI, OTI[...1 T O 5 E { 1 OOOTTEP T o u j A p r r i n i a i r i

KEAUEI, 6 T I [ . . , 1 T O S E I 1 obaiTEp KOUK EiTapKEoai 1 1 HE TTEPIEI8E Em8.[Efj_] Kdyoi r f j i ^coorii { 1 TTEplElSs ETTlSEff)...].

H.D. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 2 ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 280. According to Brashear, this is one of the first ritual papyri to ever be published (3400). It was published by Giovanni Petrettini in 1826. It is also one of the oldest extant ritual papyri dating to the fourth century BCE. For bibliography on this spell see Brashear, 3554. 6 H.S. Versnel calls this a "judicial prayer" or "prayer for justice." H.S. Versnel, "Beyond Cursing: The Appeal to Justice in Judicial Prayers," in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 68. For general discussion on this sort of spell see Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 3-41. and Christopher A. Faraone, "The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding Spells," in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). Gager argues that "defixiones must be treated as a familiar feature of ancient Mediterranean cultures. What is more, they cut across all social categories: on this

34

formulae of this sort also cause the most cognitive dissonance for modern readers, given the fact that it is a general tenet of "Western Civilization" that one ought not harm or even wish harm on another person. "I, Abrasax, shall deliver. Abrasax am I! ABRASAX ABRASICHOOU, help little Sophia-Priskilla. Get hold of and do away with what comes to little Sophia-Priskilla, whether it is a shivering fit - get hold of it! Whether a phantom - get hold of it! Whether a daemon - get hold of it! I, Abrasax, shall deliver. Abrasax am I! ABRASAX ABRASICHOOU. Get hold of and do away with...what comes to little Sophia-Priskilla on this very day whether it is a shivering fit - do away with it! Whether a daemon - do away with it!"8 Healing amulets such as this one are more readily understandable. PGM LXXXIX.1-27 is a papyrus amulet to protect a small child against a condition, the source of which is in question. The amulet maker thus seeks to protect the girl against a range of possible dangers. Healing in antiquity, as Vivian Nutton has shown, was often a matter of pursuing diverse remedies, either simultaneously or in succession, in order to secure a positive outcome.9 Although Greek doctors from the Hippocratic writers on tended to denigrate other classes point there is virtual unanimity." Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 24. According to Versnel, "The person in antiquity who had suffered injustice and had gone to the authorities in vain - if indeed he bothered to go at all had in fact one authority at his disposal: he could lodge his complaint with the god(s)." Versnel, "Beyond Cursing: The Appeal to Justice in Judicial Prayers," 68. 8 PGM LXXXIX.1-27. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 302. 9 For an excellent overview of the relationship between medicine and religion in Greek and Roman antiquity see Vivian Nutton, Ancient Medicine, ed. Series of Antiquity, Liba Taub (London and New York: Routledge, 2004), Chapters 7 & 18.

35

of healers, this strategic diversification is well-attested and persistent. In Egypt, the priestly class itself traditionally preserved medical knowledge and was frequently involved in its dispensation.10 Furthermore, Egyptian healing involved both the application of herbal remedies and surgical techniques as well as incantations and prayers. It is also the case that even Greek writers such as Galen would have never denied the importance of the healing work of the gods in effecting cures.11 Other educational elites also recognized and utilized the long-standing connections between physicians and their patron deities, the secondcentury rhetorician Aelius Aristides being perhaps the most famous patient to combine almost constant consultation with both doctors and Asclepius alike.12 The third example is a love spell:

Jacco Dieleman makes this point using an inscriptional biography of a Ptolemaic priest, Harkhebi. This priest was known for his knowledge of snakes, knowledge which was usually associated with the priestly office of "Leader of Serket." An extant handbook for such a priest contains sections on the classification and treatment of snake bites using both drugs and incantations. Jacco Dieleman, "Stars and the Egyptian Priesthood in the Graeco-Roman Period," in Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, ed. Scott B.; Joel Thomas Walker Noegel, Brannon M. Wheeler, Magic in History (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), 142-43. Carol Reeves writes that the second-century Alexandrian Christian writer, Alexandrinus Clemens, noted that the priests of Early Dynastic Egypt had "written the sum total of their knowledge in 42 sacred books kept in the temples and carried in religious processions." He continues to say that six of these books were devoted to various medical disciplines such as anatomy, surgery, diseases and their remedies, ophthalmology and gynecology. Carole Reeves, Egyptian Medicine, ed. Barbara Adams, Shire Egyptology Series (Buckinghamshire: Shire Publications Ltd, 1992), 21. 11 Nutton, Ancient Medicine, 273. 12 See C.A. Behr, Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1968). For discussion of Aristides, see Nutton, Ancient Medicine, 276-79.

36

Love spell of attraction, excellent inflamer, than which none is greater. It attracts men to women and women to men and makes virgins rush out of their homes. Take a pure papyrus and with the blood of an ass write the following names and figure and put in the magical material from the woman you desire. Smear the strip of papyrus with moistened vinegar gum and glue it to the dry vaulted vapor room of a bath, and you will marvel. But watch yourself so that you are not struck. The writing is this: "Come, Typhon, who sit on top of the gate, 10 ERBETH 10 PAKERBETH 10 BALCHOSETH 10 APOMPS 10 SESENRO 10 BIMATIAKOUMBIAI ABERRAMENTHO OULER-THEXANAX ETHRELUOOTH MEMAREBA TOU SETH, as you are in flames and on fire, so also the soul, the heart of her, NN, whom NN bore, until she comes loving me, NN, and glues her female pudenda to my male one, immediately, immediately; quickly, quickly."13 This third source, a spell to attract a lover, is a ritual description from a longer handbook. Love spells of this sort are as popular in the papyri as healing and curse formulae.14 Like curse tablets, they cause some

P G M X X X V I . 6 9 - 1 0 1 . A y c o y r i , E U I T U p o v {SEXTIOTOV, O U u i £ o v O U S E V . d y i 8 E d v 8 p a $ yuvE^iu Kai yuvEKas dvBpsaiv Kai Trap0Evous EKTrr|8dv OI'KO6EV TTOIET. Xa(3cbv Kai Trap0Evous EiarriSav O'IKOBEV TTOIET. Xa|3cbv xapTTiv Ka9apov ypd
rij

dpoEviKfj uou KoXXriori, fiSri ii8ri, TOX^ Taxu/ The formula is followed by an image of the rooster-headed god, perhaps Abraxas. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 270-71. For bibliography on this spell see Brashear, pp. 3552-53. 14 On love spells of this sort, see John J. Winkler, "The Constraints of Eros," in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). and David Martinez, ""May She Neither Eat nor Drink": Love Magic and Vows of Abstinence," in Ancient Magic and Ritual Power, ed. Marvin W. Meyer and Paul Allan Mirecki (Leiden: Brill, 1995).

37

discomfiture in modern readers given that they work to compel the beloved contrary to his or her will. The final example is a request for a divine vision: Charm for a direct vision of Apollo: In a ground-floor room without light, while you are crowned with a wreath of marjoram and while wearing wolf-skin sandals, recite this formula: Formula: "Helios, ruler of light, MER...EIPIRAGARGERI PHTHA ER...OIE...GERLYCHA MER...[OPHO] R ITHARA PHERXEI AR...EID...PHORITHARZEI ERPHIBILCHIE ZEIRABELBE BICHA ARTHIA MELICHIA ERGA GERPHI 10 CHERPHEI KARGOOARA EARMILICHA ATHERTHAPHTHO ATHTHERTHAPHI ARNACHERBBI." After you have said these things, the god Apollo will come having a cup for a drink offering. Then you will inquire concerning what you want. He gives from memory if you want, and if you ask, he will let you drink from his cup. Dismissal: "ERKIKCHI BELTEAMILICHA ARCHARZEIR PHIZORGEIRPHEI."15 This charm for a direct vision of Apollo, also from a handbook of ritual descriptions, fits into the category of spells for divinatory or oracular purposes. The goal of many of these seems to be the attainment of knowledge about specific matters affecting the future well-being of the person undertaking the ritual. But some of these seem to aim more 15

PGM VII.727-39. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic

Spells,

139. A T T O X X C O V O S

C X U T O T T T O S . E V ofocp ETTITTEBCP X " P l S
OTE<pavcood|iEvos oanvpouxivcp OTEcpdvcp, irrroSriadnEvos XUKEIO irrroSrinaTa SIGOKE T O V X o y o v TOUTOV. X o y o s - X H X I ] . E q>Eyydpxa: HEpUEicpipa: y a p y e p i copi6ap£Ei: Epcpi(3iXxiEl C,zipa$z\$r\: (3ixai apGia: mnXixia: E p y a ; yspqn: icb xEp
iTElpil OU 6EXEI$. nvrinrig 8i8ouoiv, iav E8EXTIS, Kai Eav ai{T]r|or)5, 8COOEI a o i aTro T O O OTTOV8E(OU TTETU. d-rroXuoij- lEpKiKxu PEXTrianiXixa: apxapCeipi tpiCcopi yEipcpeul F o r

bibliography on this spell see Brashear, pp. 3530-34.

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generally at the acquisition of divine insight directly from the gods, goals more frequently associated with late Roman philosophers, Hermetists, so-called Gnostics and some Christian sects. These papyri examples show, first, how varied, complex and messy the artifacts grouped under the heading the "Greek Magical Papyri" actually are. Over the past few decades they have begun to receive a great deal of attention from scholars interested in late Roman religion and its "syncretistic" character, as well as in social history and the way these objects represent the concerns and ambitions of what many scholars have assumed must be the lower classes, but in fact represent a much broader cross-section of late Roman society.16 Unfortunately the early classification of these texts as "magical" has skewed the kinds of questions scholars have put to the materials, a problem that has only recently begun to be redressed. The grouping and name of the PGM arose early on in the development of the discipline of papyrology and its classificatory system. Unable to fit these artifacts into categories which at the time seemed 16

This trend is attested to by the important English translation of the vast majority of known papyri of this sort edited by Hans Dieter Betz in 1986. Brashear's 300 page annotated bibliography for the papyri, published in ANRW in 1995 is another example of growing interest. In 1992 and 1998, Marvin Meyer and Paul Mirecki arranged important conferences devoted to the theme "Magic in the Ancient World." The proceedings from these were published in two Brill volumes, Marvin W. Meyer and Paul Allan Mirecki, Ancient Magic and Ritual Power (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995). and Paul Allan Mirecki, Marvin W. Meyer, and ebrary Inc., Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, V. 141 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2002). Interest in these artifacts and in questions of ancient "magic" and ritual has not abated since.

39

clear and rational, categories such as literary, documentary, religious and liturgical papyri, scholars eventually developed the convention of calling them "magical" and putting them into collections with other similar sorts of papyri.17 The designation "magical" reflects a certain set of scholarly presuppositions prevalent in the late nineteenth century and persisting well into the twentieth (even into the twenty-first), that these sorts of artifacts represented the "shadow" of true religion.18 This perspective was based in part on a developmental model in religious anthropology that posited that societies progressed from "magic" and "superstition" to "religion" and finally to "science."19 For scholars of this

17

See footnote 2 of this chapter for discussion of this history. See Brashear, p. 3391, footnote 4 for bibliography on the relationship between magic and religion. 19 J.Z. Smith has been one of the most vocal critics of this model. In his article, "Trading Places," in Ancient Magic and Ritual Power, ed. Marvin W. Meyer and Paul Allan Mirecki (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), he notes that the idea that "magic" is an incipient form of "science" or "religion" is an "odd sort of definition" (14). He argues, "Not only does it break the conventional definitory rules (especially those against the use of a negative deficiens), but also because it is typically inconsistent in its application to differentia" (14). Smith also takes issue with Stanley Tambiah who critiqued the evolutionary hierarchy of earlier writers such as Taylor, Frazer, Malinowski and EvansPritchard, and proposed the idea that "religion" encompassed "magic," defining the latter as essentially "performative utterance" (15). For Smith, this is a difference that "makes no difference." Smith is also critical of approaches following Victor Turner which shift to a social understanding of the relations between the accuser (the one who charges another with "magic") and the accused as the former seeks somehow to marginalize the latter. For an example of this kind of approach applied to the late Roman world, see David Aune, "Magic in Early Christianity," ANRW23, no. 2 (1980). In light of his criticism, Smith argues against further use of the term "magic" in "secondorder, theoretical, academic discourse" (16). He writes: "For any culture I am familiar with, we can trade places between the corpus of materials conventionally labeled "magical" and corpora designated by other generic terms (e.g. healing, divining, execrative) with no cognitive loss" (16). I follow Smith here and likewise avoid using the term in my discussion of the papyri. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, I do so because in antiquity the term yoriTeia was used almost exclusively in a pejorative sense and was not a term that people generally used to describe their own activities. (Aune has 18

40

ilk, the prevalence of the ritual papyri signaled the decline of religion in late antiquity, a devolution from a "truer" form of religion into superstition and decadence. According to E.R. Dodds, for instance, this decadence infected even the most educated echelons of society including the late Platonists that concern later portions of this study. For Dodds and others, the abundance of this sort of papyri signaled the supposed "loss of nerve" that affected the adherents of traditional polytheism in the face of the "inevitable" encroachment of Christianity and its non-traditional values deeper and deeper into the society of the late antique Mediterranean.20 Its Gibbonesque presuppositions as well as its teleological bent make this model problematic. Hence, over the past few decades scholars have begun to question the utility of this decline and decadence model for investigating the rich and varied landscape of late antique religion. Indeed, this model has, for the most part, been overturned by one that is less informed by enlightenment ideals of rationality and Protestant understandings of confessional religion. The new model scholars are still in the process of constructing sees this period as one in which there is a rich flowering of religious and ritual forms, innovative reinterpretations of religious recently updated his ANRW article. See David E. Aune, "'Magic' in Early Christianity and Its Mediterranean Context: A Survey of Some Recent Scholarship," Annali di Storia dell'Esgesi, monographical issue on 'Ancient Christianity and "Magic"/II cristianesimo antico e la "magia" 24, no. 2 (2007).) 20 E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951), 286-88.

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traditions, and enthusiastic exchange - both cooperative and combative - across religious boundaries that are themselves flexible and permeable. Furthermore, work in ritual theory, whether in history or in other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology, has helped to redirect the focus of the study of ancient religion in new and exciting ways, with important consequences for those who study the so-called "magical" papyri. 21 Increasingly, historians of late antique religion are rejecting the long-standing assumption that these ritual descriptions, amulets, defixiones (curse tablets), oracular and divinatory apparatuses, and healing formulae are representative of illicit, marginal practices performed by a putative class of professional, but equally marginal, "magicians." Instead, scholars are considering the place of these objects and the people who made, used and benefited from them in light of changes in the religious landscape of the later Roman Empire. This chapter proceeds from the conviction, based on scholarship this chapter will review, that these artifacts represent the way a majority of people at the time both viewed and approached their interactions with divinity and the realm of spirits. They also represent the way many people thought about spiritual beings more generally. Hence, they serve as important 21

See, for example, Catherine M. Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997); idem., Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); idem., Teaching Ritual (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

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historical artifacts in the study of late antique, and specifically for the purposes of this study, third-century daemonologies.22 As mentioned earlier, the biggest hurdle that scholars face in reinscribing the papyri under discussion here within the realm of religion and ritual in the late antique world is the modern assumption that the practices represented in them were perceived by the majority of people as illicit, subversive, harmful, and dangerous. This assumption is usually accompanied by the corollary that these actions were performed by a class of specialists who inhabited the margins of society and who were also seen as illicit, subversive, harmful and dangerous. The significance of the task of re-inscribing these practices, however, cannot be overestimated. As Jonathan Z. Smith aptly notes, "the corpus, even as it now stands, represents something quite precious: one of the largest collections of functioning ritual texts, largely in Greek, produced by specialists that has survived from late antiquity."23 As such, it also

Although many of the papyri discussed in this chapter date to later centuries, the fourth and fifth in particular, scholars generally agree that these formulae draw on or contain earlier material. And there are sufficient numbers of extant pieces from the first through third centuries for comparison, which show that this genre of artifact is rather stable over the first five centuries CE. In the case of the handbook, PGM XII, Jacco Dieleman has shown that the early fourth-century date usually given for this collection is likely too late and he suggests a third-century date instead. Jacco Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in Egyptian Ritual (100-300 Ce), Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, V. 153 (Leiten; Boston: Brill, 2005), 42-3. 23 Smith, "Trading Places," 21. Smith encourages scholars to look at the papyri in the PGM alongside "parallel materials from other Greek and Greek-based corpora" as this only serves to "reinforce its importance" (21). Under this designation, he includes Byzantine documents such as Armand Delatte, Anecdota Atheniensia EtAlia (Liege:

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represents important shifts in the space of religion in this period from what he calls the "here" and "there" of religion to the "anywhere" - to religious and ritual space other than the sphere of domestic and temple praxis.24 In late antiquity, this interstitial space gained increasing importance and was exemplified by the miniaturization of ritual, as well as improvisation on ritual themes from both "here" and "there." In other words, these papyri may well represent the complexion of religious practice, daemonological assumptions and spiritual interactions for a good number of people in the late Roman period. In order to understand that this may well be the case, however, certain prejudices need to be addressed and overturned. Some of the papyri formula, such as healing spells and rituals for divination, fit well Faculte de Philosophie et Lettres, 1927)., Coptic materials such as Angelicus Kropp and Fondation egyptologique reine Elisabeth., Ausgewahlte Koptische Zaubertexte (Bruxelles: Edition de la Fondation egyptologique reine Elisabeth, 1930). as well as the edited collection, Marvin Meyer, ed., Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). He also includes alchemical works, herbaria, oracles, Gnostica and Hermetica in his wish list. 24 In Smith's article, "Here, There, and Anywhere," in Prayer, Magic and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, ed. Scott B. Noegel, Joel Thomas Walker, and Brannon M. Wheeler (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), he defines religion as the "manifold techniques, both communal and individual, by which men and women...sought to gain access to, or avoidance of, culturally imagined divine power by culturally patterned means" (21-22). One sees that on this definition, papyri fit well within the scope of religion. Smith then divides up the realm of religion into three spheres. "Here" refers to "domestic religion located primarily in the home and in burial sites" (23). "There" refers to "public, civic and state religion based on temple constructions," and "anywhere" refers to a rich diversity of religious formations that occupy an insterstitial space between these two loci, including a variety of religious entrepreneurs, and ranging from groups we term 'associations' to activities we label 'magic'" (23). Strangely, Smith uses the term "magic" in this article without qualification, but seems to use it synonymously with the phrase "a religion of anywhere." He also signals the problematics of this term by referring to other articles in which he focuses on terminology, for instance, "Trading Places."

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within modern notions of normative ancient religious practices. Cursing, however, is one ritual action that presents difficulties for some scholars and students of the period. Binding spells, such as the 'love spell of attraction' quoted at the beginning of this chapter, also present problems because of their coercive tone. Cursing creates cognitive dissonance for modern readers because it is a clear expression of the desire to harm another human being, a desire which, based on the dominant JudaeoChristian/Platonic basis for most Western reflection on morality, is objectionable and reprehensible. In the Republic, for instance, Socrates challenges Polemarchus' definition of justice as "helping friends and harming enemies."25 In the Apology, he argues that no one intentionally harms another and does so only out of ignorance.26 Dale Martin distills four basic moral principles from Plato's Gorgias, that reflect a similar set of conclusions: 1) No one does evil willingly, 2) It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong, 3) Only the good person is happy and 4) The good man cannot be harmed.27 In the Euthyphro, Plato links this moral schema with another principle, namely, that the gods are good and do

25

PI. R. 331e-336a. Socrates and Polemarchus set out to determine what Simonides meant when he defined justice as rendering every man his due. Polemarchus suggests it means "rendering services or injuries to friends or enemies," which Socrates rephrases as "doing good to friends and hamr to enemies" 332ab. Francis Macdonald Cornford, The Republic of Plato, Special ed. (New York: Legal Classics Library, 1991). 26 PI. Ap. 24b-26a. See also PI. Grg. 466d-468c. 27 Dale B. Martin, Inventing Superstition: From the Hippocratics to the Christians (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), 63. For Martin's longer discussion of the Gorgias, see pages 62-66.

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not will us harm. In this dialogue, Socrates challenges the young rhetorician after whom the work is titled concerning his view of the gods, a view which is based on the myths of the poets in which there is "civil war among the gods and fearful hostility and battles."28 In other words, Socrates questions the mythological basis for understanding the gods, because it portrays them as capricious and subject to passions, and it depicts the gods intending harm to each other and to humans on numerous occasions. Platonic philosophy is not the only place where these twin ideas find expression, namely the idea that the gods are good and the moral injunction that one ought not to harm others. The view of divinity as good was also at the basis of the Hippocratic text "On the Sacred Disease," the author of which ridiculed those who saw the gods as the source of illness and who feared them on this account.29 One also finds these principles expressed in Christian texts. The Jesus Christ of the Gospels taught his followers to turn the other cheek and to love their enemies. His example taught them to be willing to suffer harm even

M

PI. Euthphro. 66c. Martin, Inventing Superstition: From the Hippocratics to the Christians, Chapter Four. In this chapter, "Dealing with Disease: The Hippocratics and the Divine," Martin shows how this work fits in with the larger philosophical consensus he outlines in the book, the consensus that humans ought not seek to harm even their enemies and the gods do not harm humans.

29

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at the hands of the unjust, and many followed this example with alarming enthusiasm.30 However, as the work of Mary Whitlock Blundell, John G. Gager, and most recently, Dale Martin has demonstrated, the logic behind cursing, namely that one ought to harm one's enemies, was an "intuitive truth" in antiquity and the philosophical maxims of Plato and his successors represented an anomalous way of negotiating in the realm of human and divine relationships.31 In fact, defixiones or katadesmoiwhat Gager calls "a dark little secret of ancient Mediterranean culture,"32 seem to represent one of the most popular ritual activities in the ancient Mediterranean world. More than 1500 of these objects, mainly inscribed on metal, but also extant on ostraca, limestone, gemstones, papyrus, wax and ceramic bowls survive.33 How did they "work"? In the case of defixiones, they did so by removing "intolerable tensions" and "transferring emotions": "to inscribe a curse tablet and throw it into the sacred pool relieved the injured party's feelings: something at least had

The irony in the case of Christianity is that from very early on, for instance at the latest starting with Lactantius' On the Deaths of the Persecutors (c. 318-21 C.E.), we find a strong strain of triumphalist delight over the sufferings, whether real or imagined (i.e. the torments of hell that await the unjust) of those who opposed the Christian message or what dogmatic believers defined as ethically or behaviorally normative. 31 Mary Whitlock Blundell, Helping Friends and Harming Enemies: A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics, 1st paperback ed. (Cambridge England; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991)., Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, and Martin, Inventing Superstition: From the Hippocratics to the Christians, 61. For earlier scholarship on this topic see Blundell, page 26, footnote 1. 32 Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 3.

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been done.

In other words, seeking to harm one's enemies was part

of the concept of justice for many people in antiquity. Why then, has ancient cursing been either overlooked by scholars or categorized as "black magic"? As Gager notes, scholars have long neglected study of curse tablets in part because of their "potential harm to the entrenched reputation of classical Greece and Rome, not to mention Judaism and Christianity, as bastions of pure philosophy and true religion."35 Gager implies that the reason why we find the frequency with which this impulse was expressed in antiquity so disturbing is that we have long viewed the ancient Mediterranean as the birthplace of a religious philosophy, applicable to both the ancient Graeco-Roman and Judeo-Christian view of morality and divinity, a religious philosophy governed by two main principles: first that the god(s), being good, never harm or intend to harm humans, and second, that it is wrong for humans to wish harm on one another. The fact of the matter is, though, that it was morally acceptable and even recommended that one pursue means for harming perceived enemies in ancient Greece and that the gods themselves were expected to act in similar ways, helping friends and harming enemies.36

Ibid., 23. Ibid., 3. Martin, Inventing Superstition: From the Hippocratics to the Christians, 61.

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At the same time, rather than representing the views of the majority, certain ancient philosophers and medical writers sought to advance an alternative view of the moral and cosmological principles governing both human and divine relationships. Dale Martin has recently shown that the intuitive truth under discussion, namely that one ought to harm one's enemies, was challenged by such ancient thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus and the authors of the Hippocratic corpus. These theorists sought to replace these intuitive truths with a new one, namely that the gods do not cause harm.37 As a result, these philosophers held that deisidaimonia, fear of the gods, was an irrational and impious attitude. The basis for their position on these matters was a new mapping of the ontological hierarchy of beings inhabiting the cosmos onto an ethical one.38 As Martin writes: The important revolution in ancient thinking...is not the assumption of hierarchy...but the assumption that the different hierarchical scales [intellectual and ethical] match one another: that superior beings are superior with regard to morality as well as intellect, power and beauty. Ontological hierarchy is matched by axiological hierarchy.39 Ibid., 60.: "Before the Greek philosophers, no one in Greek culture (or possibly in the ancient Mediterranean as a whole) had been so bold as to assume that beings of superior status were by definition also morally superior. It was a profound revolution in ancient thought, even if most studies have not recognized it as such. And perhaps most surprising, it was never proven; it was assumed." 38 Ibid., 67. Martin further notes that "the philosophical position was a projection of a new gentlemanly ethic onto the realm of the divine. It was a logical extension of a philosophical ethic for humans to the gods...those higher on the ontological scale must be higher on the ethical scale" (67). 39 Ibid., 60. As we will see in later chapters, all three philosophers - Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus - struggle to keep this ethico-ontologically mapped hierarchy intact in their own daemonological systems. But at times it becomes difficult to always order

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In other words, this philosophical framework was successful enough over time as an elite discourse that scholars today have difficulty getting past it in their attempts to explore the theological and daemonological assumptions of other classes and groups in ancient society. However, it is important to keep in mind that this framework involved ideas that were odd and unnatural for many people in antiquity. In other words, today we may be tempted to see the Platonic moral framework as normative for antiquity, but in fact it was a response to a very different dominant view. Martin provides evidence that even among educated elites, this framework did not take universal hold, citing Diodorus Siculus as an important exception to the aforementioned philosophical hegemony.40 Thus, the ubiquity and persistence of ancient cursing forces modern scholars to consider the kinds of circumstances that would have led individuals to seek out the help of various spirits and daemons in their efforts to better their situation and pursue justice for perceived wrongs. Furthermore, there was wide-spread agreement that cursing and binding

power, virtue, knowledge and being precisely for spiritual taxa without fudging on at least one category. In the case of lamblichus, human souls often seem to have more going on spiritually-speaking than good daemons. And in Origen's case, the distinction between human souls and the souls of angels and other spirits becomes difficult to enforce at all times. 40 Ibid., Chapter 6. "Diodorus Siculus and the Failure of Philosophy." In Chapter Seven, Martin also points to Plutarch as a philosopher whose writings demonstrate the "problems philosophy faced in closing its own ranks." He does this by pointing to the "presence of diverse and even contradictory roles that Plutarch assigns to daemons" (93). Martin claims that Plutarch "comes dangerously close to what other philosophers would have labeled 'superstition'" (93).

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formulas "worked" i.e. "people believed they worked.

That they

worked is reflected in the reality that "almost everyone, from aristocrats and philosophers to slaves and jockeys seems to have known the defixio [curse tablet] as a social fact."42 In other words, it was a recognized strategy for addressing injustice and seeking redress. Additionally, many individuals likely had recourse to this practice because they had few other avenues, given social position and limited access to other sources of political and social capital, to pursue their goals. One gets a sense of this from the PGM curse papyrus of Artemesie, who found herself unable to defend her daughter's tomb against her own husband.43 The circumstances and impulses behind her need to curse are mirrored in other formulae and charms to restrain anger,44 avoid unwanted attention, and find favor with superiors.45 There is also a way in which Artemesie's cursing can be seen as an attempt to mend a specific relationship in her 41

Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 21. Ibid. 43 The psychological usefulness of cursing was brought home to me late last summer when I walked past the orchard of one of my neighbors and discovered that his previously-laden pear trees, the fruit of which I was fully expecting to enjoy for at least a month based on his past generosity, had been picked clean. When I next saw my friend he explained that once again (this had happened the year before last), someone had come while he was away at work and taken all the fruit, most likely to sell it at some farmer's market in the area. We were both greatly distressed, he thinking of his pear cobbler, me of my jam and tarts. At that moment, I understood the feeling of frustrated helplessness that might lead one to cursing. 44 For example, PGM XII.179-81. PGM VII contains a number of spells for "restraining" and "silencing." 45 For example, PGM XII.182-189. Here the Sepher Ha-Razim is also instructive. A contemporary or slightly later Jewish-Christian ritual text written in Hebrew has a number of formulae for avoiding unwanted notice, reprobation, and abuse by ones superiors. Michael A. Morgan, Sepher Ha-Razim = the Book of the Mysteries (Chico, Ca.: Scholars Press, 1983), 32. 42

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life, namely the one between herself and her daughter. As a mother, she had failed her daughter in some way by being unable to prevent the theft of the tomb. In this way, cursing may also have a healing aspect.46 The fact that cursing was a widely recognized "social fact" does not preclude the possibility that rituals of this sort also had a potentially "countercultural" and "subversive" character. According to Gager, the subversive potential of defixiones lay in the fact that they "could not be controlled by the legal, social and political centers of ancient society."47 Gager writes: Indeed, at times they (the ones who performed these spells) stood outside, perhaps in direct opposition to those centers. The idea that magoi could dispense power on matters of central importance to human life; the idea that any private person, for nothing but a small fee, could put that power to use in a wide variety of circumstances; and the idea that all of these transactions were available to individuals who stood outside and sometimes against the "legitimate" corporate structures of society - all of these ideas presented a serious threat to those who saw themselves as the jealous guardians of power emanating from the center of that society, whether Greek, Roman, Antiochene or Rabbinic. Here was a power beyond their control, power in the hands of freely negotiating individuals.48

46

According to Karen McCarthy Brown in her important work on modern Vodou, "all Vodou healing is the healing of relationships" (331). Using the subject of her study, Alourdes, as a model, Brown writes: "Both in public rituals and private sessions, Alourdes heals by exercising, strengthening and mending relationships between the living, the dead, and the spirits." Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, Updated and expanded ed., Comparative Studies in Religion and Society; 4 (Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001), 345-46. 47 Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 24. 48

lbid.

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The de-centered power of these rituals, ritualists and their clients raises the question of the possible identity of the personnel behind the papyri. Although Gager asserts that their clients stood outside the "legitimate corporate structures of society," it is important to keep in mind that this statement applies to a large portion of the inhabitants of the third-century Roman Mediterranean. Many inhabitants lived outside of the major centers of the empire in all periods of Roman history. But it is also the case that these centers were themselves in flux in the third century, both geographically and politically. First, the empire itself was geographically de-centered as new imperial centers became the short-term residences of an increasingly mobile and unstable court. It also became ever rarer for emperors to come from the traditional Roman senatorial families. Furthermore, although in 212 CE Caracalla granted universal citizenship to the inhabitants of the empire, this did not necessarily mean that the vast majority of these new citizens experienced what in previous centuries had been a set of advantageous privileges that set them apart from non-citizens. Rather, it meant that citizenship no longer marked people socially, and proximity to the imperial court became increasingly important. In other words, for the vast majority of people, it is unlikely that their access to the "legitimate corporate structures of society" was enhanced in any real way as a result of this extension of citizenship rights.

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In addition to these readily observable geographical and political changes, a number of important shifts and changes in the religious landscape of late antiquity directly affected the identity and social location of the ritual experts behind the papyri. As indicated earlier, recent scholarship has abandoned the idea that there existed in late antiquity a class of professional "magicians" apart from and in competition with other ritual experts such as priests and healers. Rather, the experts represented by the papyri are increasingly associated with the traditional priests of Egyptian religion who began to innovate and adopt different approaches to cultic and ritual activity in an attempt to retain and expand their clientele.49 According to Frankfurter, they were forced to do so in response to Roman imperial legislation and changes in provincial administrative organization that eroded the traditional privileges and structures for economic well-being accorded these priesthoods in earlier Pharaonic and Ptolemaic epochs.50

David Frankfurter, "Dynamics of Ritual Expertise in Antiquity and Beyond: Towards a New Taxonomy of "Magicians"," in Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, ed. Paul Allan; Marvin W. Meyer Mirecki, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2002), 159. "The Greek Magical Papyri, for example, are now more accurately located among innovative members of the Egyptian priesthood during the third-/fourth century decline of the Egyptian temple infrastructure than among some putative class of magoi, for which we have no documentary evidence." 50 See Chapter Five in David Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998). See also, Roger S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 261-68.

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Already under Augustus, Roman policy had subordinated and marginalized the Egyptian priesthood.51 Augustus installed a Roman civil servant as head of the priesthood and abolished the system of temple-owned estates which had previously provided for the income of the priesthood and the maintenance of temple complexes. Hence, priests were forced to seek out new avenues for generating revenue. Some pursued new occupations such as teaching to make up for the decline in their fortunes.52 Others took up small scale ritualizing, using their cachet as priests to cater to a broad clientele.53 But these changes meant that in the Roman period, the native priestly class had become a more marginalized community lacking in civic duties.54 Their access to wealth from temple estates in the Pharaonic period had afforded the priests a good deal of political clout as they not only mediated between the divine and their local community, but also served in the capacity of local power brokers between the pharaoh, and later the Ptolemies, and the Egyptian people as well. With the steady erosion of their revenues and influence in the political arena, the priests' authority became

51

Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in Egyptian Ritual (100-300 Ce), 208-9. Dieleman uses the Gnomon of the Idios Logos (Regulations of the emperor's private account) to make this point. See BGU 5 1210 and P. Oxy XLII 3014. 52 Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 166-68. 3 Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance, Chapter Five. 54 Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in Egyptian Ritual (100-300 Ce), 205.

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primarily charismatic. By focusing on ritualizing, they both played into the stereotypes of their new rulers, something they had already been doing during the Ptolemaic period, and used them to carve out new spheres of influence. Frankfurter was the first to discuss this "stereotype appropriation" in his book Religion in Roman Egypt. He defines this socio-cultural phenomenon as the "manifold ways indigenous cultures embrace and act out the stereotypes woven by a colonizing or otherwise dominant alien culture."55 He continues: While the latter [the colonizing culture] creates its images of the exotic out of its own needs, aspirations and insufficiencies (and only to some degree the realia of the indigenous culture), the indigenous cultures appropriate those same images as a means of gaining political and economic status in a broader culture now dominated by, in this case, Rome.56 In the case of Egyptian priests, Frankfurter sees them gaining power and prestige through their assimilation of the "broader Mediterranean image of the magos." Furthermore, he sees the ritual papyri as the best evidence we have for these priests' entry into this "Hellenistic cultural role of magos within Egypt."57

Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance, 225. Ibid. 57 Ibid. I here take Frankfurter to be using the term "magos" in the sense indicated in footnote 4 and not in the sense of yons /yoETEia. Dieleman agrees with Frankfurter that one sees stereotype appropriation in the Greek papyri, but he argues that it tends to be absent from the content of the Demotic ones. Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites: 56

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Jacco Dieleman has gone further than most other scholars in terms of carefully analyzing select ritual papyri for evidence of both innovation and stereotype appropriation among the class of ritual experts under discussion. In a number of studies, he focuses on the bilingual Greek and Demotic - London-Leiden papyrus handbook of ritual descriptions58 in order to demonstrate that the ability to use both languages indicates a priestly milieu and that members of this group were not merely carrying forth traditions of Pharaonic "magic" but were involved in actively creating new ritual forms based on ancient sources of an international variety.59 Dieleman writes: I like to argue, contrary to the commonly held view, that the Demotic spells did not develop organically from pharoanic magic over a long stretch of time, the stages of which cannot be followed due to a complete lack of preserved sources. Instead, they were written against the background of the Greek spells, which were composed by Egyptian The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in Egyptian Ritual (100-300 Ce), 9-10. 58 PGM XII, PGM XIV and PDM XIV. The London-Leiden papyrus has a long and fascinating history. Seom time before 1828, a large cache of papyrus rolls and codices were found by villagers in Thebes. The find came to be known as the "Theban Magical Library." It was acquired by Giovanni Anastasi, an Armenian merchant in Egypt, and Swedish-Norwegian Consul-General from 1828 to 1857 when he died. One of his commercial ventures was a vigorous trade in antiquities. From 1828, he sold parts of the Theban cache to various European collections, even dividing individual handbooks in some cases. This has made it particularly difficult for scholars to determine the overall complexion of the "library." Dieleman's work has brought together pieces of one handbook scattered between London and Leiden. Brashear, who recounts the history of the Theban materials in his ANRW article (pp. 3401-6) claims that PGM IV, V, XIII, and XIV belong to the original find, and that it may also have included PGM I, II, II, VII, XII, and LXI. Dieleman argues for the inclusion of PGM XII and that it and PGM/PDM XIV were part of a single handbook. Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in Egyptian Ritual (100-300 Ce), 14-15. 59 Ibid., 285-94.

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priests anyway and circulated throughout the country starting in the Hellenistic period.60 Dieleman's attention to the bilingual character of the handbook is what is most convincing about his argument both for a priestly milieu and for stereotype appropriation. Demotic became a priestly language over time and by the third century C.E., it would have been preserved as such. It would not have been the everyday language priests used, however.61 Spoken Egyptian was an amalgamation of Greek and Egyptian words, such that "Demotic preserved texts of the Roman era in a state of sacred isolation from a common tongue that was steeped in Greek loan words."62 Frankfurter argues that "to preserve or compose a text in Demotic rather than Greek was essentially scribal conceit...".63 Following W.J. Tait, he notes that there is "abundant evidence that by the second century CE, even the most insular, conservative priesthoods commonly used and conversed in Greek."64 Keeping in mind the status and cultural resonance of Demotic in this period, Dieleman looks carefully at its use in the Theban ritual collection. He notes that the Demotic sections of the handbook preserve 60

Ibid., 293. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity, 251. 62 Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance, 249. 63 Ibid., 250. 64 Ibid. W. J. Tait, "Demotic Literature and Egyptian Society," in Life in a Multi-Cultural Society: Egypt from Cambyses to Constantine (and Beyond), Proceedings of the Symposium Held in Chicago, September, 1990, ed. Janet H. Johnsons, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization (Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1992). 61

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Greek incantations as well as Greek glosses. He argues that this means both that the copyist was translating from Greek into Demotic ("a scribal conceit") and that he could no longer take it for granted that those using the handbook would understand the Demotic, hence the Greek glosses of certain words. The reason the bilingual nature of the handbook signals a priestly context, however, is the aforementioned fact that Demotic had become a language of "sacred isolation," a priestly language. In light of the manifold textuality of the handbook, Dieleman concludes that the Greek texts upon which some of the Demotic translations were based could have been composed by an Egyptian priest as well.65 Thus, the handbook of the Theban priests behind the London-Leiden collection is a "testament to a multicultural society", but also to the creative attempt of these priests to "manipulate various cultural and religious traditions to create an identity appropriate and meaningful within their time."66 Dieleman further nuances his study, however, by pointing out important differences in the content of the Greek and Demotic portions of the handbook. In the case of the latter, namely the Demotic sections, he notes a marked absence of "stereotype appropriation," i.e. in these sections the author(s) or scribe(s) do not present the ritual practitioner in terms that mirror Greek or Roman 65

Dieleman, "Stars and the Egyptian Priesthood in the Graeco-Roman Period," 148. Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in Egyptian Ritual (100-300 Ce), 294.

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expectations. He surmises this is because these texts would have only been accessible to Egyptian priests in the Roman period. So although the use of Demotic may have contributed to their cachet as Egyptian magoi, what these priests said in Demotic was in some sense intracommunal. One telling example of the aforementioned stereotype appropriation is the inclusion of astrological divination into the scope of priestly activities starting in the Hellenistic period and continuing into Roman imperial times, eventually incorporating horoscopic astrology into the range of ritual services the priests could offer to their communities and clientele.67 As Dieleman points out, Hellenistic astronomy was based on a geocentric model that bore little resemblance to the "traditional Egyptian subdivision between heaven, earth and underworld."68 Yet because Egypt had a reputation beyond its borders for being the cradle of the esoteric and mysterious, it also got the reputation over time for being a place steeped in astrological wisdom. Dieleman traces the way in which, over time, priests adopted this stereotype for themselves and began both to practice astrology and claim knowledge of this art for themselves on monuments and in texts. For instance, Dieleman uses the example of the inscribed biography of

67 68

Dieleman, "Stars and the Egyptian Priesthood in the Graeco-Roman Period." Ibid. 60

the priest Harkhebi from the Ptolemaic period whose areas of expertise are identified as knowledge of the stars in heaven and knowledge of snakes on earth (and in particular, knowledge of how to heal snake bites).69 As Dieleman points out, the latter is not surprising given the close association between medicine, healing practices of a wide variety and the priestly milieu in ancient Egypt. In fact, many priestly positions involved the preservation and practice of specific medical and healing specializations from eye diseases to stomach and bowel complaints to, as in the case of Harkhebi, the typology and treatment of snake bites.70 The adoption of horoscopy is, however, new and innovative, and is a strong example of the "stereotype appropriation" and cultural assimilation both Frankfurter and Dieleman attribute to late Roman Egyptian priests. Having determined the identity of the ritual experts behind the papyri handbooks and the way in which this group interacted with the dominant cultural forces of their time and place, consideration needs to be given to evidence of the intellectual and educational milieu of this group found in the artifacts themselves. As already noted, these experts were not only drawing on Egyptian ritual techniques and traditions, but also tapping into the rich panoply of Hellenistic sources of philosophical and religious thinking. Even at a cursory glance, one finds evidence of

69 70

Ibid., 148. Reeves, Egyptian Medicine, Chapter Three.

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Hermetic, Platonic, Gnostic, Syrian, and Hebrew influence. In fact, as Garth Fowden has argued, the Hermetic corpus may also have been produced in this priestly milieu.71 This corpus was a mix of practical and philosophical texts attributed to the god Hermes Trismegistus and other deities of his circle, such as Asclepius.72 Thus Fowden's suggestion about the social and education milieu of the authors of the Hermetic corpus can be pressed into the service of describing the ritualists responsible for the PGM handbooks. By participating in and drawing on a broad range of textual and ritual traditions, the experts who produced, collected and used the formulae in the PGM handbooks engaged in an intellectual tradition in late antiquity that could have served many as an alternative to the more insular, although by no means exclusionary, philosophical schools of the late Platonists.73 Indeed, Fowden finds evidence that members of the

Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind, 16668. Fowden writes: "Such men [representatives of the native clergy] will naturally have been well-disposed toward a doctrine which assimilated the traditions of Egypt and the magical and astrological interests of its temple-dwellers with the fashionable Platonist of the age; and we may easily imagine them among the audience and perhaps even the authors of the Hermetic books, lamblichus may have been mistaken in his belief that the Hermetica had been written by ancient Egyptian priests; but both that belief, and the fact that he saw himself fit to expound the doctrine of Hermes in the guise of a prophetes, are indicative of what seemed probable and reasonable in late antiquity." 72 A. D. Nock and A. -J. Festugiere, Corpus Hermeticum (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1st ed., 1946-54). For an excellent English translation of this collection see Brian P. Copenhaver, Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation with Notes and Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992). 73 In a recent presentation at the Society for Biblical Literature (Boston, 2008), Lynn LiDonnici made the point that although the ritual papyri in the PGM cannot be used for

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traditional Egyptian priesthood were mingling with philosophers and other groups with various intellectual affiliations: As the old priestly culture and especially its languages and literature fell increasingly into desuetude, clerics of a learned bent found it natural to frequent the schools of the Greeks. We quite often encounter representatives of the native clergy teaching grammar or philosophy in Late Antique Alexandria. Hermetism, according to Fowden, associated the ritual traditions of the priesthood and its esoteric knowledge with the fashionable Platonism of the age.75 Hence, priestly participation in the Greek philosophical patrimony and in a broader Mediterranean-wide paideia was one avenue by which members of the traditional Egyptian priesthood could advance their interests and secure a living. And if the PGM, like the Hermetic writings, represents one cluster of late antique intellectual traditions among many others, traditions also associated with this priestly milieu, then we can explore the daemonology represented in it to see how this view of spirits might have served as a competing model and perhaps even a challenge to the Platonist daemonologies we will explore later. As demonstrated at the beginning of this chapter, the PGM collection contains a wide variety of material. Not only does it contain a number of long handbooks of spells, handbooks which will serve as the social history, i.e. they cannot be used to get at the lived reality of everyday people in late antique Egypt, they can be used to study intellectual history. 74 Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind, 167. 75 Ibid.

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basis for the rest of this chapter, it also contains individual ritual formulae and the remains of completed rituals - amulets, curse tablets, and anything else extant on papyri that at one time served a ritual function. This section will focus on the handbooks, because scholars can be more certain about the priestly provenance of these than the more ephemeral, individual papyrus objects. When considering how the ritualists behind the handbooks thought about and ordered the spiritual realm, it is important to note that one finds interesting and significant differences between the handbooks themselves, which may reflect not only the interests of the collector, or the resources at his or her disposal, but also the sorts of interactions he or she may have had with his or her community and clients. For instance, some handbooks contain a larger quantity of spells and rites aimed at remedial solutions to concrete, practical problems, such as specific illnesses. PGM VII is such a handbook.76 It contains spells to keep bugs out of the house,77 to bind lovers,78 and to win favor and victory.79 There are also many spells to remedy physical conditions such as headaches,80 discharges of the eyes,81 fevers,82 coughs,83 swollen testicles,84 hardening of the breasts,85

76

For bibliography on this collection see Brashear, "The Greek Magical Papyri: An Introduction and Survey; Annotated Bibliography (1928-1994)," 3530-34. 77 PGMVII.149-54. 78 PGM VII.191-92. 79 PGMVII.1017-26. 80 PGM VI1.199-201 81 PGM VII.197-98.

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a fallen uterus,

and so forth. Formulae for protection against wild

animals, aquatic creatures, robbers and other concrete dangers are also represented.87 Additionally, the handbook contains a number of spells for divination, dream oracles and direct visions.88 Finally, there is even a section on party tricks entitled "Democritus' table gimmicks" ( A r i u o K p i r o u i r o n y v i a ) , 8 9 All in all, the rites and formulae in this handbook are comparatively brief, especially those pertaining to physical ailments and prophylactic measure against harm or danger. For example, for migraine headache, the formula states, "Take oil in your hands and utter the spell 'Zeus sowed a grape seed; it parts the soil; he does not sow it; it does not sprout.'"90 Or for swollen testicles the recipe is "Take a cord from a coin bag and say with each knot 'Kastor' once, Thais' twice."91 The formulae to procure a lover or an oracle are longer, but they are not as complex as one finds in other handbooks. This complexity at the level of individual spells is represented well by two handbooks in particular, PGM 1.1-347 and IV.1-3274. PGM I (P. Berol. "PGMVII.213-14. 83 PGM VII.203-5. 84 PGMVII.209-10. 85 PGM VII.208-9. 86 PGMVII.260-71. 87 PGM VII.370-73. 88 PGM VII.222-49; 250-54; 255-59; 319-34; 335-47. 89 PGM VI1.167-86. PGM VII. 199-201. TTpos r i u i K p d v i o v AafJcbv k'Xaiov sis Tag x £ ipas OOUEITTE Aoyov 16 Zeus EOireipEv Ai6ov payog - oxi^ei TTJV yfjv. ou oireipEr OUK dva|3aivEi.l Betz, The

Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 121. PGM VII. 209-10. TTpos (3 o u (3 cover AafJcbv cnrdpTov diro <(3a>AavTiou Kcrra anna [AleyE diTa§" IKdcrrcopl, Bis- 16QP Ibid.

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inv. 5025) is a fourth or fifth-century papyrus currently housed in the Berlin Staatliche Museen.92 PGM IV (P. Bibl. Nat. suppl. gr. no. 574), the fourth-century "Paris Magical Papyrus" is housed in the Bibliotheque Nationale.93 In general, compared with PGM VII, the spells in these handbooks tend to be longer and their overall focus tends to center more on divination, direct visions, and communication with divinities than on cures for ailments. Like PGM VII, however, PGM IV also has its share of love spells, as well as formulae for restraining anger. But neither PGM I nor IV is focused on healing and protection against everyday dangers as is PGM VII. These two handbooks, PGM I and IV, will serve as the basis for the rest of the chapter. Although different handbooks have these very different complexions, there are important ways in which a certain set of daemonological presuppositions or principles seem to obtain in all cases. In what follows, four main presuppositions will be discussed. First, the understanding of spirits manifest in the PGM handbooks is nonhierarchical and unsystematic. Second, the spirits in the ritual formulae tend not to be valenced in clearly moral terms. Third, despite these first two presuppositions, many individual rites manifest a concern for thoroughness either in listing spirits or in listing the conditions for which 92

For bibliography on this handbook see Brashear, "The Greek Magical Papyri: An Introduction and Survey; Annotated Bibliography (1928-1994)," 3507-9. 93 For bibliography on this handbook see Ibid.: 3516-27. Both PGM I and IV are likely part of the Theban cache sold off by Anastasi.

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help is requested. Finally, many of the formulae also construct what this chapter will call a totalizing tendency, the tendency to create unique cosmological perspectives that are, in Kapferer's words, "encompassing" and "incorporative."94 As mentioned above, the first thing to note about the daemonological assumptions manifest in the PGM handbooks is that they do not reveal any underlying concern with establishing a hierarchical ordering of spirits. Spirits, whether they are called gods, daemons, angels, archangels, aions, decans, ghosts, spirits of the dead, or otherwise, are not primarily identified by their fixed location in a strict taxonomic schema. Some scholars have associated this construction of the realm of spirits with a more local understanding of religion, namely, an understanding based upon the day-to-day interactions between a ritual expert and his or her community. According to Frankfurter, as well as many anthropologists who work on similar topics cross-culturally, spirits at the local, everyday level are experienced as diverse, unclassified, individual, capricious and ambiguous.95 This is certainly 94

Bruce Kapferer, A Celebration of Demons: Exorcism and the Aesthetics of Healing in Sri Lanka, 2nd ed. (Providence, R.I., Washington, DC: Berg; Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), xii. 95 David Frankfurter, Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Ritual Abuse in History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006), 13. Frankfurter is mainly discussing malign spirits in this work, but much of what he has to say can be applied more generally to the entire daemonological continuum. For other scholarship on this local construction of spirits, see also Charles Stewart, Demons and the Devil: Moral Imagination in Modern Greek Culture, Princeton Modern Greek Studies. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991)., Birgit Meyer, Translating the Devil: Religion

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the prevailing view of spirits in the papyri. For instance, in a spell called "Document to the waning moon,"96 not only do the epithets for Selene proliferate and multiply, but the cast of divinities adjured also includes "Holy Light, Ruler of Tartaros...Holy Beam,"97 Hanken-techtha,98 and Michael, Archangel of angels identified as Lord Osiris.99 The relationship among these figures is left unexplained and implicit. This point is related to the second presupposition, namely that what order one does find, and this is usually an intra-textual order, i.e. specific spells may place certain spirits above or below others, there is no consistent evidence that moral order maps onto ontological order. When spirits are ordered in relation to each other, this order is either based on a sort of spatial understanding of cosmology or it is based on degrees of power, but degrees of goodness do not seem to be an organizing principle to any significant degree. In order to see that the handbooks contained in the PGM do not reflect an underlying concern with hierarchy and taxonomy, and that they do not map moral onto ontological categories, one need only consider

and Modernity among the Ewe in Ghana (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1999), 8894., Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Frankfurter also argues that "demon-belief is "context specific - to a certain afflication, to a certain group of participants in conversation - and it is ad hoc" (15). See Chapter One for quotations from some of these studies on this matter. PGM IV.2241-2538. AEATOS aTTOKpouonKr) irpbs OEATIVTIV. 97 98 99

PGM IV.2241-42. PGM IV.2355. PGM IV.2355-56.

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the various ways in which the word "daemon" is used. In PGM I, for instance, the first rite aims at securing a daemonic assistant.100 One of the invocations included in the procedure adjures a being called the "Good Husbandman, Good Daemon" (dyaSe yEcopye, dya86s Aaincov).101 in a second spell for procuring an assistant, this spirit is identified as an aerial spirit (depiou TTVEUHCO. It is also identified as an "angelos."102 This spirit can create a splendid partly real, partly illusory dinner party, even providing other daemons dressed in sashes to serve it.103 He also "stops very many evil [daemons], he checks wild beasts and will quickly break the teeth of fierce reptiles."104 In other words, the word "daemon" refers to a superior being who rules over other helpful spirits, but the word also refers to evil spirits against which one needs protection. Furthermore, the aforementioned aerial spirit will also carry the suppliant's spirit up into the air with him upon death, for "no aerial spirit which is joined with a mighty assistant will go into Hades, for to him all things are subject."105 Hence the daemon also serves a soteriological

PGM 1.1-42. The Greek word for assistant here is -rrapESpos. For a discussion of these kinds of spells for securing a divine or daemonic assistant, see Leda Jean Ciraolo, "Supernatural Assistants in the Greek Magical Papyri," in Ancient Magic and Ritual Power, ed. Marvin W. Meyer and Paul Allan Mirecki (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995). 101 PGM 1.42-195. yecopyE can also translated as "farmer." 102 PGM I.76. 103 PGM I. 106-12. PGM 1.116-117. Vorrioi irovr^pa 5ainov].ia TrAETcrra, Sfjpag 8E TTOVJEI Kai oSovTaj pii^Ei

EpTTETjcov avlriiiEpcov auvToucos. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 6. PGM 1.178-81. "E'IS y a p 'Ai5r|v ou xIcolprioEi aspiov TTVEuua OUOTCIOEV Kparaicp irapESpcp" TOUTCO y a p

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function, because in this period possibilities for the afterlife abounded, many of which were more desirable than others. "Salvation" was understood by many as the avoidance of the worst of these. The most desirable option was to rise to inhabit a star and escape the sub-lunar sphere altogether.106 However, the very next spell (PGM 1.195-222) protects its user from the "excess of magical power of aerial daemon (Baiuovos dEpiou) [and] fate."107 In other words, the collector of these spells, grouped as they are together in sequence, seems to have recognized that the powerful spirits and daemons he or she was invoking could both work for and against the one who sought their aid. The word daemon is also used to signify the spirits of the dead. PGM IV.296-466,108 a "wondrous spell for binding a love," calls on mainly chthonic gods and infernal gods and daemons (6eoTs KCXI 5aiu.oai Kcn-ax6oviois), as well as "men and women who have died untimely deaths" (dcbpoig TE KCC dcbpais) including youths and maidens.109 In the course of the spell, the word "daemon" comes to refer to all of these

TTavTd UTT6KEIT[C(I1." Ibid., 7. 106

See Alan Scott, Origen and the Life of the Stars: A History of an Idea (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991). for a thorough discussion of this view of the afterlife. 107 PGM 1.215-16. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 8. 108 Ibid., 44-47. This spell is particularly interesting because it instructs the ritualist to create male and female wax or clay figurines, the latter being bound and stuck with copper needles. A figurine of this sort has been found along with a papyrus. S. Kambitsis, "line Nouvelle Tablette Magique D'egypte, Musee Du Louvre, Inv. E 27145, 3e/4e Siecle," Bulletin de I'lnstitut Frangais d'Archaeologie Orientate, Le Caire Bonner Jahrbucher 76 (1976). 109 PGMIV.341-42.

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spirits without distinction. Later in the rite, the lover calls upon goldenhaired Helios to "go to the depths of earth and search the regions of the dead" for the daemon from whose body he holds a remnant in his hand.110 In other words, part of the rite involves using some sort of matter belonging to the corpse of the dead person in order to locate his or her soul in Hades, a soul which will then work on the beloved until she is driven to the lover to "carry out her own sex acts" with him "for all eternity."111 But the lover also has to take precautions in the course of the rite against the harm that the daemon could cause him, having called him up from his place in Hades to do the work of seduction.112 The rite asks that Helios "send him [the daemon or spirit of the dead person] gentle, gracious and pondering no hostile thoughts toward me," asking that he "be not angry at my potent chants."113 In this spell, Helios is the great daemon who presides over "Heaven and Earth, Chaos and Hades" where "men's daemons dwell who once gazed on the light."114 Hence, the word "daemon" refers to both a supreme deity and chthonic spirits. Two other spells in this handbook form an interesting juxtaposition in reference to another aspect of the multifaceted construction of 110

PGM IV.445-49. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 46. 111 PGM IV.405. Ibid., 45. 112 PGM IV.445-46. PGM IV.451-52. "...irdvTa noi EKTEAEOTI, irpauv, HEIAIXIOV nr)5' dvria uoi (ppovEovxa."

Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 46. PGM IV. 443-45 Ibid. "KAO0I, ndKap,OE y a p KXIJ^S, TOV ouiravou riysiiovfja, yairis TE Xaoio Kai 'Ai5ao, Ev6a yEnovra SaiuovEs dv9pcoTTCov oi irpiv cpdoj Eiaop6covT£$."

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daemons in the papyri, namely the possibility and attendant dangers of daemonic possession. PGM IV. 1496-1595 is another love spell in which the supplicant calls upon the spirit invoked to actually enter the beloved, i.e. possess her, "not through her eyes or through her side or through her nails or even through her navel or through her frame, but rather through her 'soul' (5ia TTJS VJA;X%)- And remain in her heart and burn her guts, her breast, her liver, her breath, her bones, [and] her marrow..."115 Another spell from this same handbook, PGM IV. 1227-64, recognizes that in some cases, daemonic possession is a condition which requires remedy, for it contains an exorcistic rite for dealing with these troublesome or tormenting and possessing spirits. The rite invokes typically Hebrew/Christian spirits such as "the God of Abraham", "God of Jacob", "Jesus Chrestos" (excellent one), "the Holy Spirit", "the Son of the Father who is above the Seven", and "lao Sabaoth".116 A long list of voces mysticae contains the name Bes, an Egyptian god protecting sleep and childbirth, both moments vulnerable to daemonic possession.117 The unclean daemon being "conjured" out is Satan who is driven by the following formula: "Come out, daemon, since I bind you with unbreakable, adamantine fetters, and I deliver you into the black chaos

115 116 117

PGM IV. 1525-30. Ibid., 67. Ibid., 62. All of these names are in Old Coptic. PGM IV. 1255. On Bes, see Betz, 333.

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of perdition."118 Hence, the ritualist has the ability to both bring about and cure possession. Just because the latter rite uses Hebrew and Christian formulae does not mean that one should identify it as "Christian." But what is of interest is the fact that the handbook's collector draws on a tradition known for its exorcistic rites for dealing with evil spirits. Thus, the word daemon can signify the highest of cosmic divinities, lesser spirits who are subject to them, the souls of the dead, and evil beings against which one must protect oneself. The flexibility within this word alone points to the understanding of spirits under consideration here, namely that they are not ordered according to strictly hierarchical, clearly and consistently defined taxa, nor are they valenced in any rigorous way. The fact that ritualists include formulae to placate and pacify indicates that these beings are powerful, yes, but also dangerous and in some cases capricious and lacking a clear moral valence. Some of these spirits are understood to be evil. But this seems to mean that they are evil insofar as they cause human suffering and pain. In addition to these two daemonological presuppositions, namely that spirits are not ordered hierarchically nor morally valenced in clear ways, the papyri handbooks reveal another general principle, namely a 118

PGMIV.1241-49.

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penchant for thoroughness that is manifest in many of the individual rites. This thoroughness generally takes one of two forms, at times both. First, there is a tendency to be thorough about listing multiple spirits to rally to one's cause. Some of the rituals are also very thorough about providing complex aretological lists for many of these deities. Second, this penchant for thoroughness in listing and adjuring multiple deities is mirrored in the thoroughness of other amuletic formulae which list the sorts of dangers, ailments, illnesses and so forth, from which one seeks protection. For example, in the "Powerful spell of the bear" (PGM IV. 133189), a spell for accomplishing anything, the ritualist is supposed to call upon an almost endless list of powerful and even terrifying spirits: I call upon you, holy, very-powerful, very-glorious, verystrong, holy autochthons, assistants of the great god, the powerful chief of daemons, you who are inhabitants of Chaos, or Erebos, of the abyss, of the depth of earth, dwelling in the recesses of heaven, lurking in the nooks and crannies of houses, shrouded in dark clouds, watchers of things not to be seen, guardians of secrets, leaders of those in the underworld, administrators of the infinite, wielding power over earth, earth-shakers, foundationlayers, servants of the chasm, shudderful fighters, fearful ministers, turning the spindle, freezing snow and rain, airtraversers, causing summer heat, wind-bringers, lords of Fate, inhabitants of dark Erebos, bringers of compulsion, sending flames of fire, bringing snow and dew, windreleasers, disturbers of the deep, treaders on the calm sea, mighty in courage, grievers of the heart, powerful potentates, cliff walkers, adverse daemons, iron-hearted, wild-tempered, unruly, guarding Tartaros, misleading Fate, all-seeing, all-hearing, all-subjecting, heaven-walkers, spirit-

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givers, living simply, heaven-shakers, gladdening the heart, those who join together death, revealers of angels, punishers of mortals, sunless revealers, rulers of daemons, air-transversers, almighty, holy, unconquerable...119 This formula reflects a remarkable thoroughness in the way it lists spirits. There are a number of other interesting things to note about this spell in addition to its adjuration of so many powerful spirits. First, the portrayal of these spirits here maps quite closely onto the more philosophical depictions of daemons in, for instance, lamblichus' On the Mysteries, as we will see in Chapter 5. For lamblichus, daemons - good daemons that is - rule over matter, changeable nature, and over the furthest recesses PGM IV. 1345-75. A p K T i K r] 8 u v a n i s TrdvTa TroioOoa. Aa(3cbv ovou UEAOVOS o r e a p Kai a i y o s TroiidAris a r e a p Kal xaupou neXavos ariap Kai KUUIVOV ai8ioTTiK6v duq>OTEpa Hi^ov Kai Eiri8ue irpos aptcxov, E'XCOV 6pEi TTEpi rf)v KE<paAr|v x p i ° u SE OOW TCJ X ^ I T ° T S oxeaoi, TO 5E ocbua auvdAeivyai OTupaKivco sAaico Kal EVTuyxavE KpaTcov Kponnuov uovoyEVEs aiyuiTTiov Kai Asys, TTEpi ou BeXeig. TTEpi£coadiiEvos OE(3EVIVOV dppEviKoG 9oiviKO$ Kai KaSioas ETTI y o v a r a Xiye TOV UTTOKEIUEVOV A o y o v lETnicaAoOuai unas, dyious, UEyaAoSuvdnous, UEyaAo56£ous, UEyaa8EVETs, dyious, auT6x6ovas, TrapESpous TOU nEydAou 8EOU, TOUS Kparaious dpxiSaiuovas, OI'TIVEJ EOTE x a o u S> £pE(3ous, d|3uooou, (3u8oG, yairis ouE9ETS, d8Ecopr|Tcov <E>vE90TTTas, Kpu9iucov (puAaKas, KaraxBovicov riyEu.6vas, dTTEipoSioiKiiTds, KpaTaioxBovas, Kivriaiyaious, OTripiyuo6ETas, XaonaTUTTOupyouj, 9piKTOTraAainovas, (poPEpoBiaKparopag, OTpEvj/r|AaKdTous, XiovoPpoxoTrayETs, dspoSpouous, 6EpoKauacb8Eis, dvEUOEiraKTas, KOipavouoipous, OKOTIOEPEPOUS, dvayKETraKTas,

TTUpoTTEMV|;ious, oupavo9oh"OUS, TTVEunaTo8coTas, d9EAo£cbous, KiviTanroAous, 9pEvoyii0ETs, BavaToauvapTas, dyyEAoBeiioras, EK8IKO9COTOS, dvr|Aio8E(KTas, BaiuovoTaieras, dEpoBpopous, TravTOKpaxopas, dyious, dicaTauaxTiTous Aco8- A(3acb8- fJaauu' 'loaK- Za(3aco9 - Idco" 'laKcbir- p a v a p a - OKopToupr nopTpouir E9pauAa 8pEEpaa- Troir|oov TO 8ETVO i r p a y u a / TO 8E EKaTovTaypduuaTov TOU T1/9COVOS y p d 9 £ sis x a p T r l v " 5 doTEpa OTpoyyuAouv Kai Ev8r|aov dvd UEOOV Tfjs asipas TCOV ypauudTcov E£CO (BAETTOVTCOV. EOTIV 5E TO o v o n a TOUTO - a x x ^ P

axaxaX

TrTOU

a

Mi X XX

co

a

a

c

X P X °X X

aTrTOU i

I TV X^P

01

a

XK^P

X " X cnTTOumun xcoX a 7 T T O U

xapaxTTTou- x a x x " X a P a ' X^X TTTEVOXCOXEOU. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 64.

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of heaven.120 According to lamblichus, some of them help to bind the soul to the body, and they govern reproduction and all other acts that connect the human soul with matter.121 They also rule over elemental nature, and although lamblichus does not explicitly associate them with weather, fire, wind, air, snow, hail, rain, water, are all expressions of elemental change. In other words, for both the papyri ritualist and the Platonist, the ability to control and direct the elements is an index of a spirit's power. What differs, as we will see, is that here these beings are called upon as powerful, terrifying beings who get the job done if one is so lucky as to have them on one's side and to be avoided if one does not. Their power, an expression of their ontological status, has little or nothing to do with where they are placed on a moral continuum. Hence, in this spell the primary quality of these entities being emphasized is their power, lamblichus, on the other hand, emphasizes their lack of power in comparison with spirits such as angels, archangels, and gods - beings higher up in terms of their ontological status.122 Their congress with matter, i.e. elemental nature, places them in a less powerful position cosmically-speaking. The main difference between these spells and On the Mysteries then is that in the case of the latter, lamblichus has

120

lamblichus, On the Mysteries, trans. Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2004). See Book 2 in particular for a full discussion of the nature of daemons. 121 lamb. Myst. 2.5 122 lamb. Myst. 2.

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mapped ontological and ethical hierarchies on the same continuum which means that lesser beings are both less powerful and less good. For the ritualist using the spell of the bear, however, goodness is not the issue, but power to wreck some cosmic havoc does appear to matter. As mentioned earlier, the thoroughness manifest in listing hordes of spirits and their aspect is mirrored in the thoroughness of many amuletic and prophylactic formulae which enumerate the dangers against which one seeks protection. These rites are generally briefer but nonetheless aim at a sort of completeness. The healing amulet with which this chapter began (PGM LXXXIX. 1-27) is an example. Little Sophia-Priskilla may be afflicted by a shivering fit, or a phantom or a daemon - all three scenarios are accounted for. Similarly, another amulet (PGM XXXI11.1-25) seeks to save Tais from "every shivering fit, whether tertian or quartan or quotitidian fever, or an every-other-day fever or [one] by night or [even] a mild fever..."123 In other words, not only does the amulet list recognized medical conditions but also any other possible iteration of the condition, namely fever.

PGMXXXIII.1-25. "aKdnJaTle K O K / KOUK/ K O U A / , TTaGJaolv TT\V TaiSa cmo TTCXVTOS

piyous, r|v ETEKEV Tap^auj, i l l Tpiraiou r| TETapTaiou r\ KaBrinspivoO f| iraprinEpivoO f\ VUKTOTTUpETjplO , 6 Tl Eycb E1UI 6 TTaTpoJjTapdSoTOS 6EOS, aK&liaTOS KO]K/ KJPIUK/ KOU[A/1 JriBri

n5ri, rayy Taxu]." Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including Demotic Spells, 267. This list reflects the contemporary taxonomy of fevers in the medical literature, a taxonomy that one finds as early as the Hippocratic corpus.

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Another ritual artifact of Syrian provenance, namely an Aramaic protective bowl, helps to make the point. The bowl in question lists all the possible dangers that could afflict the house where the bowl was buried and its inhabitants: This bowl is designated for sealing and guarding the house, the dwelling and the body of Huna son of Kupitay, so that tormetors, bad dreams, curses, vows, spells, magic practices, devils, demons, liliths, encroachments, and terrors should leave him alone. The secret (amulet) of heaven is buried in heaven, and the secret (amulet) of earth is buried in the earth. I speak the secret (amulet) of this house against all that is in it: against devils, demons, spells, magic practices, all the messengers of idolatry, all troops, charms, goddesses, all the mighty devils, all the mighty Satans, all the mighty liliths.124 This penchant for thoroughness, whether it be expressed in lists of spirits or conditions, challenges scholars to rethink the relative complexity of the daemonological perspective that emerges from the papyri when compared with the systematic discourses on spirits produced by Platonic philosophers of the time. In the case of the ritual handbooks, although a consistent overarching theological or cosmological perspective does not appear to inform them as a group or even at the level of each individual collection, one could argue that each formula, in a sense, creates or recreates a theological perspective that resonates with a larger worldview, but is not bound by it. Every spell implies a willingness and Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 229. This bowl is dated somewhere between the fourth and seventh centuries. It is also included in J. Naveh and S. Shaked, Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity, 2 ed. (Jerusalem: 1987), 124-32.

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flexibility on the part of the practitioner within the ritual context itself to innovate and experiment in a more context-specific way. For instance, the cosmos is a different place in some important sense, when one is in love and desiring one's beloved, or one is in pain on account of a physical ailment, or seeking to remedy a wrong, or looking at the horizon of possibilities that make up the future.125 The cognitive and practical flexibility, the theological/daemonological improvisation reflected in the papyri, means that without a dichotomous good/evil framework, multiple spirits can reveal multiple facets, multiple meanings, multiple powers, and they can make up the world in different ways. But this innovation takes place within an aretological, daemonological, poetic, metaphoric, narrative context that is, in itself, infinitely rich as a result of the mythic traditions on which it draws.126 Hence, one might argue that the priests and ritual experts, in participating in this sort of ritual system, created a rival daemonological framework to that of the philosophers. And by participating in broader cultural and educational currents, as already demonstrated, they represented an alternative path to healing, wisdom and salvation, as well as an alternative intellectual tradition, one that was equally totalizing and which lasted through numerous iterations into the Christian period 125

Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987). According to Scarry, the world is a different place phenomenologically-speaking, when one is in pain, for instance. See the quote from Gager with which this chapter began.

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because of its flexibility and richness.127 It is to this hypothesis that the discussion now turns. In this context the PGM handbooks are "totalizing" in two ways: both because they aim at "accomplishing anything," from healing, cursing, binding, procuring a divine assistant, gaining proximity to divinity, and gaining knowledge through oracles, and also because each ritual evokes and even creates a cosmological framework which situates and defines the supplicant, her condition, place in the world and points of contact with the spiritual as well as the material. For instance, even in something as simple as the PGM VII formula for curing a woman of a fallen uterus, the ritualist shapes a cosmological perspective in which he or she conjures "O Womb," and does so by the one "established over the Abyss, before heaven, earth, sea, light or darkness came to be." In other words, the rite invokes the moment of creation in the Hebrew tradition where the creator is hovering over the face of the waters as a symbol of the birthing context in which this rite takes place. The spirit hovering over the waters is a symbol of the direction the physical womb of the woman in difficulty should move to. Thus the ritualist chooses an appropriate mythic context in which to

127

This will become clear when we look at the "Christian" Coptic papyri in the conclusion. 80

work.128 The most dramatic examples of this mythologizing invoke the use of historiola in individual rites, the narrative of a mythological precedent that mirrors what it is that is supposed to occur in the course of the ritual.129 The use of these mythic precedents is only one example of the kind of totalizing thinking that guides the ritualizing of the PGM. According to Bruce Kapferer, totalizing religious forms are ones in which "old and new ritual forms exist to some extent in symbiosis, each reinforcing the significance, relevance, and authority of the other."130 Kapferer also contrasts totalizing forms of religion and ritual with totalitarian ones. The former have an "encompassing and incorporative quality,"131 while the latter are oriented toward total power and control.132 They attempt to confine all experience and meaning within their limited and tightly defined boundaries. The rites of the PGM can be called totalizing because of their encompassing and incorporative nature. Thus, although in the PGM handbooks spirits of all sorts are generally less differentiated in terms of species and order, and more 128

For a more general discussion of problem of wandering wombs in the papyri, see Christopher Faraone, "New Light on Ancient Greek Exorcisms of the Wandering Womb," Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 144 (2003). 129 For a discussion of the use of historiolae in the PGM, see David Frankfurter, "Narrating Power: The Theory and Practice of the Magical Historiola in Ritual Spells," in Ancient Magic and Ritual Power, ed. Marvin W.; Mirecki Meyer, Paul Allan, (Leiden: Brill, 1995). 130 Kapferer, A Celebration of Demons: Exorcism and the Aesthetics of Healing in Sri Lanka, xiii. 131 Ibid., xii. 132

lUlrl

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morally ambiguous than spirits in Platonist daemonologies, this does not preclude the fact that the ritual experts who prepared these objects and who mediated between people's needs and desires and the spirits invoked to meet these ends, the experts who collected, compiled, transmitted and, in some cases most likely "invented" the rites contained in the papyri handbooks had a complex "totalizing" daemonological perspective. The handbooks reveal a rich cosmology that accounts for and addresses all levels of human needs and desires from the most mundane and immediate concerns such as headaches and scorpion bites to the very heady desire for divination, deification and companionship with the highest gods. These latter goals put the experts behind the collections into closer proximity to the philosophers discussed in subsequent chapters than most scholars have assumed. Furthermore, the fact that they worked in rich daemonological and cosmological modes means that the intellectual tradition these priests and ritualists represented may have been perceived by some as a rival path. For instance, although the vast majority of rituals in the handbooks deal with what one might call "practical matters," a number of them contain spells that reflect goals similar to those of contemporary philosophers: salvation, direct communication and close companionship with divinity, esoteric wisdom derived from such contact, the ability to heal suffering associated with embodiment and so forth. One even finds

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similarities between the ways in which these goals were pursued among these priests and philosophers, lamblichus, for instance, believed that many of these goals could only be attained through ritual. He thought that "god work" (theurgy) was more important than "god talk" (theology), lamblichus' ultimate goal seems to have been the divinization of the soul through union with the highest divinities. We find in the PGM a number of rites that seem to aim at very similar ends. One spell in PGM IV which is often discussed alongside theurgical philosophy is the so-called "Mithras Liturgy" - a long formula that allows the special initiate alone to "ascend to heaven as an inquirer and behold the universe" (PGM IV. 475-829). It is a request for immortal birth to be granted by HeliosMithras.133 It seems the initiate's birth is but temporary as "bitter and relentless necessity" is always pressing down on the human soul.134 But through the steps of the rite, the individual can, for a short time, be transformed and ascend, be "born again in thought,"135 may gaze upon the "unfathomable, awesome water of the dawn."136 In other words, the goal is the ascent of the soul. Both this and the recognition that this achievement is necessarily temporary reflect a perspective closely akin to a Platonist one. For instance, Porphyry claims that Plotinus had been able to make this ascent on four occasions 133 134 135 136

PGM PGM PGM PGM

IV.501 IV.525-26. IV.509. IV.514.

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during the time Porphyry was with his teacher.137 Furthermore, lamblichus states that the theurgist also performs this ascent.138 But lamblichus only states the case, he does not describe how the work is done to enter the highest reaches of the cosmos and consort with the gods. It may well be that his rites may not have differed wildly from the ones recorded in this handbook. The description of the initiate's ascent gives even more compelling evidence that the rite's primary ends are immaterial goods insight, glimpses into the unchanging, divine governance of the cosmos. What is moving about the rite under consideration is that it presents the ascent of the soul as a dramatic series of dangers that attend the journeying soul into realms where it really ought not be. For instance, as the initiate enters the "divine order of the skies" and sees "the presiding gods rising into heaven, and the others settling" (i.e. as it rises into the supralunary sphere of the celestial gods), he or she will see the gods staring intently and then rushing at him or her.139 The rite gives a spoken and ritual formula that will put the gods at ease with the result that the gods will look graciously upon the astral traveler and no longer rush at him or her but rather they will go "about in their own order of affairs" (49)

137

Porph. Plot. 23.17-18. See Plotinus, Enneads (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966). for complete text. 138 lamb. Myst. 5.22. 139 PGM IV.545-556.

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leaving the supplicant to observe the work of the gods.

And in order to

travel to the next stage, the initiate must say: "Silence! Silence! ...I am a star, wandering about with you, and shining forth out of the deep."141 In other words, the ascending soul has to somehow convince the spiritual inhabitants of the upper reaches of the cosmos at each stage that it is not out of place, and that it is one of them. It does so by knowing the right prayers and invocations for each new step of its ascent. The ultimate aim of the entire ritual is to receive a revelation from HeliosMithras directly saying, "Hail, O Lord, O Master of the Water! Hail, O Founder of the earth! Hail, O Ruler of the Wind! O Bright Lightened....Give revelation, O Lord, concerning the NN matter..."142 As it turns out, the initiate is seeking revelation on a specific matter, but does so by attempting to come directly into the presence of the highest god and converse directly and immediately with him. One might object that the PGM ritualist seeks connections with divinity and immortality and so forth in order to achieve more concrete aims, for instance, a revelation on a specific (NN) matter. However, as we will see, the wisdom and knowledge that the philosophers and theurgists pursued and also claimed, gave them, in the minds of their devotees and biographers, powers to do the same kinds of things the spells of the ritual 140

PGM IV.566-67. PGM IV. 574-75. 142 PGMIV.714-19. 141

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experts promised: producing epiphanies of gods and good spirits, revealing corruption, pollution and ritual schemes to cause harm to others, performing healings, and also exorcisms. These similarities form the basis for considering the degree of proximity between the different experts we are investigating in this dissertation - priests of traditional cults and Platonic philosophers - in terms of social and educational milieu. As we will see in subsequent chapters, these two groups were likely closer than some modern scholars would like to acknowledge and closer than these philosophers themselves were often comfortable with admitting. And we will explore their various strategies for enforcing the distance between themselves and these other ritualists and for bolstering their own authority and prestige to the discredit of others.

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Chapter Three - How to Feed a Daemon: The Demonic Conspiracy of Blood Sacrifice and the Moral Valencing of the Realm of Spirits ...[T]hey reasonably guarded against feasts on flesh, so that they should not be disturbed by alien souls, violent and impure, drawn towards their kind, and should not be obstructed in their solitary approach to God by the presence of disruptive daemones} The previous chapter highlighted the fact that spirits at the local level tend not to be clearly and consistently valenced in moral terms. By contrast, as this epigram from Porphyry suggests, in the course of constructing elaborate, systematic and universal daemonologies, one of the first things the philosophers currently under investigation did was to draw distinctions between good and evil spirits.2 The ways in which Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus draw these distinctions serve as one means of approach to their more general reflections on the realm of spirits. Furthermore, although all three Platonists were involved in a very

1

Porph. Abst. 2.47. Porphyry, On Abstinence from Killing Animals, trans. Gillian Clark (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000). "...EiKOTcosEtpuAd^avTOTfiuTcbvoapKcbv 8oivr)v, Vva dXXoTpiais vjA/xctTs (Galois Kai &Ka6ap-rois Trpos T O auyyEVEj EAKOHEVCHS [ir\ EVOXAOTVTO ur|5E EUTTO5I£OIVTO irpooEpxEo8ai novoi Tcp BEtip, Sainovcov xfl Trapouaig EVOXXOVJVTCOV. " 2

This chapter will refer to these speeches about evil daemons as "conspiratorial discourses," discourses that posit an "evil system" made up of "absolutely evil spirits and people" behind "inchoate misfortune." See David Frankfurter, Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Ritual Abuse in History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006), 30. As Frankfurter argues, the creation of such conspiracies can give the ones who construct them a great deal of authority and influence as they both reveal and elaborate the conspiracy and discern the evil of various spirits and persons. See his Chapter Three, "Experts in the Identification of Evil" for more on this topic.

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similar enterprise of mapping out and ordering the spiritual landscape, their thinking about evil spirits reveals important and frequently surprising points of contention and agreement, as well as a significant degree of dialogic interaction amongst all three. In fact, as this chapter and subsequent ones will demonstrate, these philosophers constructed their daemonological discourses to a large extent in conversation with each other. In particular, this chapter will explore the close similarities between Porphyry's discourse on evil daemons as found in On Abstinence from Killing Animals and other fragmentary works and early Christian precedents, including the works of Origen. It will argue that Porphyry developed his ideas about the demonic conspiracy of animal sacrifice in dialogue with these Christian precedents based on his association with Origen. It will also demonstrate that his stance on the question put him at odds with his fellow non-Christian Platonist, lamblichus. Finally, this chapter will advance the argument that the close similarities between Porphyry and Origen on evil spirits is only surprising if one assumes that religion and not social or educational milieu was the primary category that these Platonists used to identify themselves. It will prove that Porphyry and Origen's participation in a common Greek paideia, in particular the cosmology of Plato's Timaeus and Galen's model of humoral medicine, which associate blood with embodiment and generation, makes Porphyry's adoption of the Christian demonization of

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animal sacrifice plausible and consistent with his general Platonic outlook. One point of entry to the Platonic conversation on evil spirits is Eusebius of Caesarea's (c. 263-c. 339 C.E.) Preparation for the Gospel. In this work, Eusebius was occupied with the task of constructing a distinct Christian identity out of two lineages - the Jews on the one hand and the Greeks and Egyptians on the other.3 In order to distinguish Christians from Greeks, Eusebius spent much of his time demonstrating that the oracles and miracles of traditional Mediterranean cult were not merely frauds, although he points to a number of Greek authorities who say as much,4 but rather were the work of evil daemons. Eusebius is far from the first Christian to make this identification between traditional deities and malign spirits. In the second and third centuries CE, one of the most interesting rhetorical moves developed by Christian apologists, philosophers and polemicists was to demonize the traditional Greek and Roman gods, repeatedly associating these gods with evil spirits. It is

3

Eus. PE. Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, trans. Edwin Hamilton Gifford (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1981), Aaron P. Johnson, Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius' Praeparatio Evangelica, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). See both Aaron Johnson, Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius' Praeparatio Evangelica. and Jeremy M. Schott, Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). for two importantly different discussions of the way Eusebius constructs Christian identity in this work. 4 Both Lucian of Samosata (c. 125 - c. 180 C.E.) and Oenomaus (2nd century C.E., Cynic philosopher) were non-Christian writers who focused on the fraudulent nature of many oracles and miracles as well as on the gullibility of the people who believed in them. Eusebius quotes long sections of Oenomaus in his Preparation for the Gospel.

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difficult to determine when this strategy first developed, but we find it consistently used in the works of writers such as Justin Martyr, Tatian, Minucius Felix, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen to name but a few.5 So when Eusebius chose his sources for the construction of his own demonological conspiracy his options were numerous. But Eusebius chose none of these obvious authorities. Rather he made an unlikely but potent choice - he used the works of Porphyry to make most of his key points on this question. This is the same Porphyry whom Eusebius identified as Christianity's most rabid critic, the Porphyry who, according to Eusebius, attacked Origen on account of his form of biblical exegesis and who wrote many books against the Christians.6 What is even more remarkable is that Eusebius finds so much of use in Porphyry. Indeed, Eusebius has little need to quote anyone else. For Porphyry, at certain junctures in his philosophical writing, had reason to comment on the

5

J.Z. Smith, "Towards Interpreting Demonic Powers in Hellenistic and Roman Antiquity" ANRW2A6A, 426-27. This demonization of the traditional Mediterranean pantheon continues in the hagiographical literature of later periods as well. One finds repeated references to holy men and women defeating local demons with names such as Zeus, Artemis, Sarpedon and so forth, and chasing them from their shrines and temples. For the role of demonology in the formation of monastic identity, see D. Brakke, "The Making of Monastic Demonology: Three Ascetic Teachers on Withdrawal and Resistance," Church History 70 (2001). and David Brakke, Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006). 6 Eus. h.e. 6.19.1 Eusebius, The Church History: A New Translation with Commentary, trans. Paul L. Maier (Grand Rapids, Ml: Kregel Publications, 1999). See Mark Edwards, "Porphyry and the Christians," in Studies on Porphyry, ed. George E. Karamanolis and Anne D. R. Sheppard (London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2007). for a careful and nuanced discussion of the limited scope of Porphyry's writings against the Christians.

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nature, location, and work of evil daemons in the cosmos, and in particular, on their association with animal sacrifices. Although Eusebius cites Porphyry to make his own argument associating evil daemons with the rites of traditional Mediterranean polytheism, he also accuses Porphyry of being inconsistent in his views on blood sacrifice. Eusebius presents Porphyry as confused or selfcontradictory by contrasting what the Platonist says in two different places, one suggesting that sacrifices are only acceptable to evil daemons and the other detailing the sacrifices that should be made to all the gods.7 In On Abstinence from Animal Food Porphyry clearly comes out on the side of those who held that blood sacrifices were improper offerings to good spirits, daemons and gods, and are only desirable to daemons gone bad.8 But in one excerpt from On Philosophy from Oracles included in the Preparation, Porphyry cites at length divine instructions for how and which animals ought to be offered to various

7

Eus., PE, 4.7. Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, 158. "The aforesaid author, then, in his work which he entitled Of the Philosophy to be derived from Oracles, gives responses of Apollo enjoining the performance of animal sacrifices, and the offering of animals not to daemons only, nor only to the terrestrial powers, but also to the ethereal and heavenly powers. But in another work the same author, confessing that all, to whom the Greeks used to offer sacrifices by blood and slaughter of senseless animals, are daemons, and not gods, says that it is not right nor pious to offer animal sacrifices to gods." 8 In this work, Porphyry is only concerned about the ritual activities of the elite philosopher. He is not concerned about the diet or religious practices of ordinary people. He writes: "Abstinence from animate creatures...is not advised for everyone without exception, but for philosophers, and among philosophers chiefly for those who make their happiness depend on God and the imitation of God." Porph. Abst. 2.2.

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deities.9 And what little of Porphyry's exegesis on this oracle Eusebius preserves for us gives no indication that he calls this sacrificial order into question. The issue, then, is whether Porphyry was in fact confused on the matter or whether something else was going on in his interpretation of the oracle in question that Eusebius may have found inconvenient to relate. Indeed, there is reason to believe that Porphyry was likely presenting the oracles he'd carefully collected as sacred texts in order to interpret them figurally. And in the case of the oracle on sacrifice, he did so to "interpret away" the literal blood sacrifice he so vehemently opposed elsewhere.10

9

Andrew Smith and Devid Wasserstein, Porphyrii Philosophi Fragmenta, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum Et Romanorum Teubneriana. (Stutgardiae: Teubner, 1993), 314F-15F. Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, 158-59. "Next in order after what has been said concerning piety we shall record the responses given by them concerning their worship, part of which by anticipation we have set forth in the statements concerning piety. Now this is the response of Apollo, containing at the same time an orderly classification of the gods. 'Friend, who has entered on this heaven-taught path, heed well thy work; nor to the blessed gods forget to slay thine offerings in due form, whether to gods of earth or gods of heaven, kings of the sky and liquid paths of air and sea, and all who dwell beneath the earth; For in their nature's fullness all is bound. How to devote things living in due form my verse shall tell, thou in thy tablets write. For gods of earth and gods of heaven each three: For heavenly gods pure white; for gods of earth cattle of kindred hue divide in three, on the altar lay thy sacrifice. For gods infernal bury deep, and cast the blood into a trench. For gentle Nymphs honey and gifts of Dionysus pour. For such as flit for ever o'er the earth fill all the blazing altar's trench with blood, and cast the feathered owl into the fire. Then honey mix'd with meal, and frankincense, and grains of barley sprinkle over all. But when thou comest to the sandy shore, pour green sea-water on the victim's head, and cast the body whole into the deep. Then, all things rightly done, return at last to the great company of heavenly gods, for all the powers that in pure ether dwell, and in the stars, let blood in fullest stream flow from the throat o'er all the sacrifice: Make the limbs a banquet for the gods, and give them to the fire; feast on the rest, filling with savours sweet the liquid air. Breathe forth, when all is done, they solemn vows.'" 10

The confusion Eusebius attributes to Porphyry can also be resolved by looking at other fragments extant from On Philosophy from Oracles, fragments which Eusebius himself includes in the Preparation for the Gospel associating blood sacrifice and evil

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In On Abstinence, Porphyry pursues a wide range of strategies in order to convince his wayward friend, the Roman politician Firmus Castricius, that his recent lapse into carnivorous habits is unhealthy and one with all kinds of dire moral and metaphysical consequences for those who wish to live a philosophical life and assimilate themselves to divinity.11 He highlights the way eating meat binds the soul more closely to the body, and its desires and pleasures, than does a vegetarian diet.12 He also argues that killing animals deprives rational beings of their souls.13 As Gillian Clark points out, the title itself, Peri apokhes empsukhon, already accords animals the status of ensouled beings.14 Porphyry also crafts arguments in response to objections he might expect from philosophical contemporaries such as Stoics and Epicureans. But most importantly, he must answer to the key religious

daemons. See, for instance, Eusebius, Preparation, 4.23, Smith 327F-328F. This chapter will discuss some of these fragments in greater detail. 11 Porph., Abst, 1. For more information about the relationship between Firmus Castricius and both Plotinus and Porphyry see Clark's translation of On Abstinence, footnote 1, page 121. There she writes that "Porphyry and Castricius probably met in Rome, when Porphyry joined (in 263 CE) the group which studied with the philosopher Plotinus." 12 For instance, Porphyry argues that simplicity of lifestyle in general is necessary in order to achieve the highest aims of the philosopher {Abst. 1.57). He writes: "If we are to speak frankly, concealing nothing, there is no other way to achieve our end than by being riveted (so to speak) to the god, and unfastening the rivet of the body and the pleasurable emotions which come from the body; security comes to us by actions, not just by listening to lectures. It might not be possible to be familiar with a god - not even with one of the particular gods, let alone the god who singly is above all and higher than corporeal nature - by following just any lifestyle, especially flesh-eating; one can hardly even with all kinds of purifications of soul and body become worthy of awareness of the god, that is if one has a fine nature and lives a pure and holy life." r3 Porph. Abst. 2.12. 14 Porph. Abst. 8.

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objection that a central part of traditional ritual involves the slaughter of animals. After all, even priests and other ritual experts who occasionally abstain from meat ultimately do so in preparation for festivals and their bloody sacrifices. In response to this objection, Porphyry, in Book 2 of On Abstinence, offers his most dramatic argument for why the philosopher should not eat meat. In this book, Porphyry reveals a grand conspiracy behind the carnivorous diet, a conspiracy in which humans, greedy for the meat their bodies desire, and evil daemons, likewise rapacious for blood and smoke, are both complicit. When addressing the subject of ancient religious practices, it is important to keep in mind that in the ancient Mediterranean, festivals, special feast days for the gods, were most frequently marked with animal sacrifices. The majority of people would have been unable to afford to eat meat on a regular basis, involuntarily observing the dietary restrictions Porphyry recommended.15 Most meat consumed by the average person in the Roman period (and most other ancient epochs for that matter) would have been part of some kind of religious celebration, often in the form of a communal stew made from what was left of the sacrificial victims after the offal and fat had been burned and the choicer bits set aside for the priests. And most people at the time would have

15

S. R. F. Price, Religions of the Ancient Greeks, Key Themes in Ancient History (Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 71.

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experienced this type of meal as part of a celebration in which the proper relations between gods and humans were affirmed.16 It was a time when human hopes for security, health, well-being and success were acknowledged. It was also a time when the society's communal identity and the individual's place within the group was made visible and affirmed. One need only call to mind the Parthenon frieze and the different processional orders represented there, manifesting for all participants the way in which the whole society was structured.17 Hence, Porphyry's interpretation of the animal sacrifices that accompany worship of the gods was a radical reappraisal of tradition. In On Abstinence, Porphyry also offers a kind of genealogy of sacrifices explaining how a primordial sacrificial order became corrupted over time.18 It is telling that he uses Theophrastus as a source for this view, for, as we saw in Chapter Two, Theophrastus was one of the intellectuals who contributed to the process whereby ordinary Greek piety expressed as fear of the gods was transformed into "superstition" through philosophical discourse.19 According to this genealogy of sacrifice, long before Porphyry's time "the most learned of all peoples, living in the most holy of lands which was founded by the Nile, began 16

Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985), 56. 17 Ibid., 54. 18 Porph. Abst. 2.4. 19 See also Dale Martin, Inventing Superstition, Chapter Three - "Inventing Deisidaimonia: Theophrastus, Religious Etiquette and Theological Optimism"

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with Hestia to sacrifice first fruits to the gods of heaven.

These were

foraged items such as leaves and roots. Then these early worshippers began to sacrifice cultivated goods, crops of various legumes and grains. But what happened to catalyze the sacrifice of animals? Here Porphyry's story takes a dark turn. First he describes the way in which, during times of famine or some other kind of misfortune, humans killed each other. This displeased the gods and they created a fitting penalty. Some of the offenders were turned into atheists, people who were deluded about divinity such that they thought the gods were bad. The rest, the gods consigned to the category of "bad sacrificers," or those who participate in unlawful offerings.21 In other words, animal sacrifices represent the human evil of homicide and the delusion that was engendered by the gods as punishment, namely the thought that such offerings are characteristic of proper worship. But if it is not the highest gods who desire the sacrifice of animals, then who does? Porphyry explained that most people live with a confused conception of whom they propitiate when they offer such sacrifices. This confusion was coupled with a general misunderstanding that the class of daemons is undifferentiated and will harm humans if neglected and help

™ Porph. Abst. 2.5. 21 Porph. Abst. 2.7. Indeed, Porphyry implies that it is the aim of evil daemons to incite humans to kill each other and spill each other's blood because this blood is equally, if not more, "nourishing" for these spirits.

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them if propitiated.

According to Porphyry, this view confuses two

different kinds of spirits. Good daemons are those souls which "administer large parts of the regions below the moon, resting on their pneuma but controlling it by reason."23 Their opposite are those souls who are controlled by their pneuma and are carried away by anger and appetite associated with it:24 It is they who rejoice in the 'drink-offerings and smoking meat' on which their pneumatic part grows fat, for it lives on vapors and exhalations in a complex fashion and from complex sources and it draws power from the smoke that arises from blood and flesh.25

The word pneuma ("breath" or "spirit") had a wide variety of meanings in antiquity.26 In the context of Porphyry's daemonological reflections, it refers to "an intermediary between the incorporeal soul and the material world."27 In the Timean tradition, this pneuma, or ochema (oxrina28: 'vehicle' or 'chariot'), is acquired by emanating or descending souls in the celestial realm and "is envisaged as air or fire," but this vehicle " Porph. Abst. 2.37. 23 Porph. Abst. 2.38. . 24 Porph. Abst. 2.38. . Porph. Abst. 2.42. "OUTOI oi XO'POVTES lAoi[$fj TE KV(OT) TE^, 8 I ' cbv canxbv TO

TTveunanKov Kai acouaxiKOV maivETai. £ij y a p TOUTO dxuoTs Kai ava6uuidoEoi TTOIK(XCOS 5ia TCOV TTOIKIAGOV, Kai 8uvauouTai xaTs EK xcbv aiudrcov Kai aapKcbv Kvioais." 26

See Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (Oxford, New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, 1996). for a list of the possible meanings. These include: blast, wind, breathed air, breath, breathe of life, life, divine inspiration, spirit, the spirit of God, spiritual or immaterial being, angel, flatulence. 27 Porphyry, On Abstinence from Killing Animals, 155. 28 Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon. The term can mean support, carriage, chariot; "the supposed vehicle consisting of fire and indestructible matter informed by the soul, its spiritual body, Prod. Inst. 205, cf. lamb. Myst. 5.12."

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"becomes thicker and heavier as it descends through the 'regions below the moon,' where damp air, water and earth predominate."29 Porphyry locates all daemons in this sublunar region, whether good or evil. This pneuma, because it mediates between soul and matter and binds the former to the latter in some way, gives rise to passions and desires. The difference between good and evil daemons, then, seems to arise from the degree to which these souls identify with this pneumatic aspect and its attendant passions. In the case of malign spirits, they have become entangled or riveted to this material aspect. Good daemons, on the other hand, "do everything for the benefit of those they rule, whether they are in charge of certain animals, or crops which have been assigned to them, or of what happens for the sake of these - showers of rain, moderate winds, fine weather, and the other things which work with them, and the balance of seasons within the year."30 These good daemons are also in charge of "skills, and of all kinds of education in the liberal arts, or of medicine and physical training and other such things."31 In other words, they work with matter and mediate between the corporeal and incorporeal in ways that maintain the proper order and well-being of those creatures, plants, animals and humans, who inhabit the sublunar sphere and whose souls are bound to 29

Porphyry, On Abstinence from Killing Animals, 155. The importance of moisture and its association with blood will become apparent later in this chapter. 30 Porph. Abst. 2.38. 31 Porph. Abst. 2.38.

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material bodies in a more complex and complete way. They also serve as "transmitters" (61 TTOP0UEUOVTES) or messengers between gods and humans.32 Evil daemons, on the other hand, no longer minister to their subjects, but to their own desire to feed their pneumatic vessel. They do so by means of moist vapor and blood. This idea that animal sacrifices actually propitiate evil daemons and are not appropriate offerings for true divinity is prefigured in earlier Christian writings.33 Origen, in Contra Celsum, writes that these spirits either occupy images and temples because they have been invoked by certain magical spells or because they have taken over the place through their own efforts in order to "greedily partake of the portions of the sacrifices and seek for illicit pleasure...."34 As mentioned earlier, these ideas have a long history in Christian apologetic by the time Origen begins to write on the question. In what follows, we will see the ways in which Porphyry's ideas reflect those of both Origen and his predecessors. We find our first clue that Eusebius was not entirely forthright when he accused Porphyry of inconsistency in his views on animal 32

Porph. Abst. 2.38. It is important to note that Porphyry did not have a problem with vegetal offerings. Porph. Abst. 2.36. Furthermore, he is not concerned if non-philosophers participate in blood sacrifice and may even have seen this placation of evil daemons as a way of warding off these beings. See Smith and Wasserstein, Porphyrii Philosophi Fragmenta, 326F. 34 Origenes, Cels. 7.64. Origen, Contra Celsum, trans. Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965). 33

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sacrifice when we look at other fragments from On Philosophy from Oracles preserved in Preparation for the Gospel. In certain of these fragments, namely Smith 314F-315F, Porphyry went beyond his arguments in On Abstinence to elaborate the reasons why handling and ingestion of meat was more universally problematic. His discussion begins very generally by emphasizing the ubiquity of these malign spirits. He embarks in this manner in order to highlight the constant danger these spirits pose to the unsuspecting and non-vigilant. This view accords well with ideas about the ubiquity of evil spirits in more general currency in late antique society.35 For instance, he claimed that every house is full of evil daemons. So too is every body, and this possession takes place, predictably, through the ingestion of meat: Malignant spirits inhabited the spiritual landscape of this period with surprising density. They tended to congregate in certain areas in particular- around tombs, near brackish water and sewage and in baths, to name a few places. For instance, Gemma Janson's paper, "Divine help on a Roman toilet," entertains the thesis that depictions of the goddess Fortuna on the wall-paintings of public latrines from Pompeii and Rome may have been there to protect visitors against the demonic at the particularly vulnerable moment of evacuation. This paper was delivered at the conference, "Dirt, Disease, and Hygeine in Rome from Antiquity to Modernity" at the British School at Rome, June 21-22, 2007. In a similar vein, Eunapius records that Porphyry once exorcised a bath of a demon. (Wilmer Cave France Wright, Philostratus and Eunapius; the Lives of the Sophists (Cambridge, Mass. London: Harvard Univ. Press; Heinemann, 1968).) And Charles Stewart reveals an important continuity in the association of demons and water in his anthropological study of twentieth-century Greek society and ideas about the demonic. He notes that the baptismal water itself must be exorcised to avoid the situation that the baptized might become possessed at the very moment when he or she is to enter into the Christian community as a full member. For instance, the priest says the following over the water: "We pray thee, O God, that every aerial and obscure phantom may withdraw itself from us: and that no demon of darkness may concel himself in this water, and that no evil spirit which instills darkening intentions and rebelliousness of thought may descend into it with him (her) who is about to be baptized." (Charles Stewart, Demons and the Devil: Moral Imagination in Modern Greek Culture, Princeton Modern Greek Studies. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991).)

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And furthermore, every body is full of them. For they especially take delight in those beings well-fed on grasses (jcfiq TTOiaTq TpocpaTs). For when we are eating, they approach and sit near the body, and the purifications are because of this, not because of the gods, so that those ones (the evil daemons) might depart. But they especially delight in blood and impurities and they take enjoyment of these entering into those who use them.36 Minucius Felix came close to prefiguring this explanation for daemonic possession in his Octavius. There he wrote that these evil daemons like "being gorged on the fumes of altars or the sacrifices of cattle."37 Indeed, they go to great lengths to be propitiated in this way. They creep "secretly into human bodies, with subtlety as being spirits, they feign diseases, alarm the minds, wrench the limbs."38 Minucius Felix called their disturbed victims "prophets without a temple."39 Upon receiving

36

Smith and Wasserstein, Porphyrii Philosophi Fragmenta, 326F. My translation, "okos

8E TTCXS HEOTOS, Kai 8 i d T O U T O TTpOKaSaipouai, Kai d-iro(3dAAouai TOUTOUS, o r a v 6EOV

KctTaKaAcbai. Kai T O o c o u a x a TOIVUV u e a r a OTTO TOUTCOV Kai y a p u d A u r r a TaTs TroiaTs TpotpaTj x a ' P o u a l - o r r o u u i v c o v y a p riucbv i r p o a i a o i Kai Trpoai^dvouoi xcp acouaTi, Kai 5 i d T O U T O a i ayveTat, o u Sid T O U $ 6EOU$ i r p o a r i y o u u i v c o s , dAA' Vv' O U T O I diTOOTcooi. ndAiOTa 8 '

ai'iiGCTi x a i p o u a i Kai TaTs a K a S a p a i a i j , Kai aTToAauouoi TOUTCOV, EIO8UVOVTE5 T0T5 XpconEvoij. oAcos y a p r\ ETTITOOIS TTJJ irpog T I Eiri9unia5, Kai r) T O U TTVEUHOTOS Tfjj opE^Ecos opyif) dAAaxoSsv o u o<po8puv£Tai f\ EK Tfjs TOUTCOV i r a p o u o i a j - " 3

Minucius Felix, Octavius, 27. "Sic a coelo deorsum gravant, et a Deo vero ad materias avocant, vitam turbant, omnes inquietant, irrepentes etiam corporibus occulte, ut spiritus tenues, morbos fingunt, terrent mentes, membra distorquent, ut ad cultum sui cogant: ut nidore altarium, vel hostiis pecudum saginati remissis, quae constrinxerant curasse videantur. Hi sunt et furentes, quos in publicum videtis excurrere; vates et ipsi absque templo sic insaniunt, sic bacchantur, sic rotantur." Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1965), 5.4.190. 38 Minuc. Octavius, 27. See Latin in previous footnote. 39 Minuc. Octavius, 27.

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what they desire, namely the fumes and blood of sacrifices, the evil spirits affected a cure by leaving their victims.40 Porphyry also held these beings accountable for human illness and plague.41 Significantly, the idea that evil daemons are responsible for disease runs counter to the contentions of Plotinus, Porphyry's teacher. In Ennead 11.9.14, Plotinus critiqued those members of his circle whom he called "gnostics" for believing that diseases are caused by daemons.42 Although Armstrong translates the passage using "evil spirits," Plotinus' own language does not specify the kind of spirits at issue. Plotinus, however, contrasted this view of the origin of disease with the medical one in which disease is the result of excess, deficiency, strain or decay. Plotinus mocked the "gnostic" view by inquiring as to how various cures work on these spirits. He asked, "Does the demon (daemon) starve, and does the drug make it waste away, and does it

Eusebius holds the same view about the way evil daemons ravage bodies and then release them from suffering in order to "fake" a cure. Eus. PE 5.2. 41 Porphyry, On Abstinence, 2.40. "One thing especially should be counted among the greatest harm done by the maleficent daimons: they are themselves responsible for the sufferings that occur around the earth (plague, crop failure, earthquake, droughts and the like), but convince us that the responsibility lies with those who are responsible for just the opposite." 42 It is impossible to determine precisely who Plotinus was referring to with his remarks. Porphyry is the one who gives them the title gnostikoi. But they could have been people who considered themselves philosophers or Christians or both. They might also have been followers of specific teachers such as Valentinus or Basilides. For recent discussions about the problem with the term "Gnostic" and the difficulty of identifying specific historical individuals who qualify as such, see the excellent discussions by both Michael Williams and Karen King. Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), Karen L. King, What Is Gnosticism? (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003).

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sometimes come out all at once or stay inside?

The view that Plotinus

mocks seems to be the one which Porphyry adopted, namely that evil daemons do enter the body through ingestion and linger there, causing various ailments and digestive complaints.44 For instance, in another fragment from On Philosophy from Oracles, Porphyry discussed the actual physical effect these spirits can have on human beings, and he attributed further appetitive and physical phenomena to their interference. He wrote: For universally, the vehemence of the desire towards anything, and the impulse of the lust of the spirit, is intensified from no other cause than their presence; and they also force men to fall into inarticulate noises and flatulence by sharing the same enjoyment with them. For where there is a drawing in of much breath, either because the stomach has been inflated by indulgence, or because eagerness from the intensity of pleasure breathes out much and draws in much of the outer air, let this be clear proof to you of the presence of such spirits there.45 In other words, evil daemons are the cause and somehow the beneficiaries of human gluttony and, as this passage seems to imply,

Plot. Enn. 2.9.14. Plotinus, Enneads (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966). At least this is the case if Eusebius' citation of certain passages from On the Philosophy from Oracles are representative of Porphyry's own ideas and not his citation of someone else's position, which is a possibility. The parallels between the negative views on blood sacrifice found in these fragments and those in the non-fragmentary On Abstinence do suggest that the views in the former are likely Porphyry's own. 44

45

Eus. PE 4.23. Smith and Wasserstein, Porphyrii Philosophi Fragmenta, 326F.

Gifford'S translation. "6X005 y a p ri ETriTaais xfjs TTpos TI ETn8unias, Kai li TOU TTVEuua-ros xfjs opE^ecos opuf) aXAaxoOsv ou acpoSpuvExai fj EK ITIS TOUTGOV irapouoias - 01 Kai EI$ aoriuous
TTETrXripcouEvris, r| rfjs TTpo8uiiias Si' r|Bovfjs Eirixaoiv EK
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sexual lust. And they both incite human beings to participate in these more enthusiastically, but also physically enter the body in such moments through the breath. Indeed, ingestion and incorporation of one body into another, either through eating or through copulation, is a risky business, one fraught with the dangers of pollution and alteration. Here Porphyry has signaled that danger by positing the presence of wicked daemons as participants in such human acts. These ideas mirror his position in On Abstinence where he tells us that human alimentary and sacrificial action feeds the pneumatic vessel of these spirits. Although Porphyry's views on this matter run counter to those of his teacher, this does not mean that Porphyry eschewed contemporary medical explanations for the positions he takes. On the contrary, as this chapter will demonstrate shortly, Porphyry makes use of medical reasoning to ground his views on the association between blood and evil spirits. Although Porphyry differed from Plotinus, we find parallel ideas in Christian writings. The Christian work that comes closest to Porphyry's assertion that evil daemons enter into the bodies of human beings to enjoy food and sex is the Pseudo-Clementine Homily 9. Although this anonymous work is usually dated to the fourth century, scholars contend that it is based on earlier material that would have been contemporary to

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or earlier than Porphyry's works.46 In the Homily, the author explained why it is that evil daemons come to inhabit the bodies of the intemperate: Being spirits, and having desires after meats and drinks and sexual pleasures, but not being able to partake of these by reason of their being spirits, and wanting organs fitted for their enjoyment, they enter into the bodies of men in order that, getting organs to minister to them, they may obtain the things that they wish.47 The parallels between Porphyry and contemporary Christian writers on the nature and effects of evil daemons do not end there. In On Abstinence, Porphyry accused these spirits of being the cause of almost every form of natural and human evil.48 According to him, they were responsible for plagues, as noted earlier, crop failures, and earthquakes. Furthermore, they incite humans to lust and longing for wealth and power, all of which lead to civil conflicts and wars.49 And they do all of this by deceiving ordinary people into thinking that they are gods, and

46

H.A. Kelly, The Devil at Baptism: Ritual, Theology, and Drama (Ithaca, New York: 1985)124. See also Wilhelm Schneemelcher, ed. The New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 2 (Louisville: 1989)485-86. 47 Pseudo-Clementine Homily 9.10. Alexander Roberts et al., The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, American reprint of the Edinburgh ed., 10 vols. (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1980), 277. "-irvEuuaTa OVTEJ Kai TTIV ETTiGuuiav E'XOVTES E15 (JpcoTa Kai TTOTCI tcai auvouaiav, HETaAauPdvEiv 8E uf] SuvdnEvoi 81a TO irvEunaxa sTvai Kai SsToSai opydvcov TCOV "rrpos i f | v xpfloiv E7TiTr|8Eicov, E1$ TCJ dv8pcoTrcov Eioiaoiv acbuaxa, Tva cbcmEp urroupyouvTcov opydvcov TUXOVTES, cbv 9EXOUOIV, ETTITUXETV Buvaxoi cboiv, EITE ppcorcbv, 5id TCOV dv0pcbirou 686VTCOV, EI'TE

auvouoias, 81a TCOV EKEIVOU ai8oicov." GCS 42 (1953) 135. 48 49

Porph. Abst. 2.40. Porph. Abst. 2.40.

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also that "the same [behavior] applies to the greatest gods, to the extent that even the best god is made liable to these accusations..."50 In general then, Porphyry shared with Christians the view that evil daemons can and do inhabit the human body and cause disease. And he agreed with them more generally that those traditional rituals requiring the slaughter of animals were part of a grand conspiracy on the part of these spirits to get what they desired and even needed to thrive - the blood and smoke of sacrifices. In this way, they deceived the unwitting about the nature of true divinity. Finally, both Porphyry and his Christian counterparts believed that participation in these sorts of practices was ultimately polluting. Indeed, the issues of purity and pollution are central in both cases.51 Modern readers may find themselves surprised by the close agreement between Christian writers, particularly Origen and Porphyry, on these matters, and by Porphyry's demonization of animal sacrifice. But this is only surprising if one assumes that religious identity was the primary category which determined the views third-century intellectuals adopted and developed. It is less surprising when one begins to

50

Porph. Abst. 2.40. The recent dissertation of Dayna Kalleres has demonstrated that the centrality of exorcism in the preparation of catechumens for baptism was, in part, motivated by the desire of church officials to purify new members of this pollution, a pollution engendered by their former participation in traditional sacrifices. "Exorcising the Devil to Silence Christ's Enemies: Ritualized Speech Practices in Late Antique Christianity" (PhD Dissertation, Brown University, 2002). 51

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consider the actual connections between these two Platonists. First, both stood directly in the lineage of Ammonius Saccas, the mysterious Alexandrian Platonist and teacher to both Plotinus and Origen.52 Porphyry was Plotinus' student and wrote a biography of his teacher which highlights his connections to Ammonius. In a passage preserved in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, Porphyry indicates that he knew Origen in his youth.53 As Beatrice points out, Porphyry was close enough to Origen at some point in his life to become familiar with the contents of the Alexandrian's library and to be able to identify his main philosophical influences.54

Although some scholars have held the view that the Origen who studied with Ammonius was distinct from the Christian Origen, there is a growing consensus that the Platonist Origen and the Christian Origen are one and the same. Eusebius cites Porphyry himself attesting to the fact that Origen, the Christian, was a student of A m m o n i u s S a c c a s : "aKpoaxris y a p OUTO$ Auncoviou T O U TrXEioTriv EV T0T5 Ka6' riuas Xpovois ETTISOOIV EV q>iXoao
TrpoaipEoiv TT)V Evav-riav EKEIVC^ iropEiav ETToirioaTo" (Eus. h.e. 6.19). See Pier Franco Beatrice, "Porphyry's Judgement on Origen," in Origeniana Quinta:Historica, Text and Method, Biblica, Philosophica, Theologica, Origenism and Later Developments. Papers of the 5th International Origen Congress, Boston College, 15-18 August 1989, ed. Robert J. Daly (Leuven: University Press, 1992), 352. for a discussion of the scholarship positing two distinct Origens. I follow scholars such as Beatrice and T. Bohm in their arguments for a single Origen. See T. Bohm, "Origenes, Theologe Und (Neu-) Platoniker? Oder: Wem Soil Man Misstrauen, Eusebius Oder Porphyrius?" Adamantius 8 (2002). I also wish to thank Elizabeth DePalma Digeser for sharing her recent work on the subject. For the most careful argument for the two Origen hypothesis with whom the forgoing scholars disagree, see Mark J. Edwards, "Ammonius, Teacher of Origen," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 44 (1993). 53 Eus. h.e. 6.19. See also Athanasius Syrus' preface to Porphyry's Isagoge: "Porphyry was from Tyre and was a disciple of Origen..." Smith and Wasserstein, Porphyrii Philosophi Fragmenta, 24n. 29aT. Eunapius also implied that Porphyry had associated with Origen. Wright, Philostratus and Eunapius; the Lives of the Sophists, 359. 54 Beatrice, "Porphyry's Judgement on Origen," 354-55.

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It may even be the case that Porphyry derived his ideas about evil daemons directly from Origen. Both Porphyry and Longinus tell us that Origen wrote a work called Concerning the Demons.55 Furthermore, a number of modern authors have argued for Porphyry's dependence on Origen for his views on evil daemons. Lewy, who subscribed to the view that Origen, the author of the work on daemons, was not the same person as the Christian Origen,56 devoted his Excursus XI in Chaldean Oracles and Theurgy to establishing that Porphyry's "long description of demonology" in On Abstinence, a discourse which he attributes to "some Platonists" (TGOV riAaTwvixcbv TIVE^) was, in reality, based on Origen's work Concerning the Demons.57 This opinion is not limited to supporters of the two Origen hypothesis. Beatrice, who identifies the two Origens as one and the same person, agrees with Lewy about the likelihood that Porphyry's daemonology was based on this treatise.58

Porph. Plot. 3. This is one of the most controversial claims of the one Origen theory, since evidence for the text appears only in Hellene sources and no work of that title survives. Porphyry also says that Origen wrote nothing except On the Spirits (Concerning Daemons) and That the King is the Only Maker. '"Epewiou 8E TTPCOTOU TQS ouv0r|Kas irapapdvTos, Wpvyivr]^ UEV r|KoAou6Ei xcp
(3aaiAEus»." Elizabeth DePalma Digeser takes this to mean that these two works were the only ones which Platonists of the Ammonian school counted as philosophical works I thank her for sharing her forthcoming manuscript, in particular Chapter Three ("Origen as a student of Ammonius") with me on this point. 56 Hans Lewy, Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy: Mysticism, Magic and Platonism in the Later Roman Empire, Nouv. ed. /Tardieu, Michel ed. (Paris: Etudes augustiniennes, 1978), 505. 57 Ibid., 497. 58 Beatrice, "Porphyry's Judgement on Origen," 362. One way in which scholars might determine actual connections between Origen's Concerning the Demons would be to look at extant fragments of the work in Proclus' Commentary on the Timaeus of Plato.

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But one might ask why Porphyry would adopt this view of blood sacrifice, reflecting in an almost wholesale manner the Christian consensus on this point. In fact, if one looks more broadly at some of Porphyry's influences, at ideas in broader circulation amongst an educated Greek-speaking, philosophically-oriented milieu, this is a consistent and logical position for him to take because of a specific set of associations he makes between blood and embodiment. For Porphyry, blood was a humor which is associated with the basest form of human existence, namely the appetitive part of the human soul. In this view, he follows both Plato and Galen, the second-century medical writer and court physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.59 In the Galenic anthropology, which mirrors the tripartite Platonic one outlined in the Republic60 and the 77'maeus,61 humans ingest food which the body turns into blood in the liver. This substance is associated with that part of the human being which concerns itself with nourishment and This is the approach Lewy takes in his Excursis. But given the recent scholarship arguing for a single Origen, these fragments need to be reconsidered. 59 Although it is difficult to determine precisely which works of Galen Porphyry may have been familiar with, he seems to have had a rather comprehensive understanding of contemporary medical views. For instance, a work long attributed to Galen, namely, To Gaurus on How Embryos are Ensouled ("rrpos Taupov mpi TOU TTCOS euv^xouTai r a e'uPpua) has now been ascribed to Porphyry. An edition of the work is forthcoming in 2010: Jan Opsomer James Wilberding, Carlos Steel, Porphyry: To Garus on How Embryos Are Ensouled with Proclus: Ten Questions on Providence (London: Duckworth Publishers, 2010). Although Porphyry's views on blood and the body appear consistent with both Platonic cosmology and Galenic medicine, Porphyry's priority was not the construction of a systematic biological account. Rather, he elides important differences in his sources to present a certain, very consistent, view of blood and moisture that he applied to a number of related theological questions, as we shall see. See, in particular, Book Four of the Republic. 61 See Plat. 7V. 69d-72d.

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reproduction. As the body continues to refine this substance, it rises in the body until it reaches the heart where it becomes a kind of enlivening force associated with what Plato calls the spirited part of the soul, that part which experiences passions of various kinds. Finally, this substance rises to the brain where it is further distilled into what Galen calls psychic pneuma, which "circulated in the ventricles of the brain and throughout the nervous system."62 For Galen, this tripartite physiological system helped to link the body and soul together and to explain how and why "changes in the body could alter one's mental balance and behavior and vice versa."63 A number of Porphyry's works indicate that this model informs his ideas about blood and its connection with embodiment and the appetitive part of the human soul.64 In On the Cave of the Nymphs, a longish allegorical interpretation of ten lines from Homer's Odyssey,65 Porphyry interprets the cave as a

Vivian Nutton, Ancient Medicine, ed. Series of Antiquity, Liba Taub (London and New York: Routledge, 2004), 234. Nutton notes that Plato's description of the human body in the Timaeus owes less to his familiarity with the internal anatomy of the body than to his own preconceptions of the soul (117). However, his view held sway with a great number of subsequent medical writers, Galen included. Galen himself was convinced that Plato had studied with Hippocrates (Nutton, 118), and hence highlighted similarities between these two ancient authorities and elided differences. Porphyry, following in the lineage of Ammonius Saccas and his "philosophy without conflict" would have also looked for similarities amongst his medical and philosophical sources. 63 Ibid. See Galen, 4, 703-36 (CMG). For a translation of this work, see David J. Furley, Wilkie, J. S., Galen on Respiration and the Arteries (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984). 64 The connection between body and soul based on the tripartite physiological system may help to explain why, for Porphyry, the kind of food one ingests is important as it directly affects one's mental state. 85 These lines (102-112) come from Book 8 of Homer's Odyssey. They read: "...and at the head of the harbor is a slender-leaved olive and near by it a lovely and murky cave

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symbol of the descent and re-ascent of the soul into and out of the body. In his interpretation he ties the mistiness of the cave to blood. And he furthermore associates both blood and moisture with desire, pleasure, reproduction and bodily existence. He writes that "in the desire for sexual love the spirit is said to become moist, and the humid element prevails in it when the soul attracts moist vapor because of its propensity to genesis."66 According to Porphyry, the "descent into genesis" is accompanied by a certain kind of pleasure for the soul. Porphyry likens this fact with other celestial souls which are, according to the Stoics, nourished by terrestrial vapors: "The sun is nourished by exhalation from the sea, the moon by spring and river vapors, and the stars by the exhalation from the earth." In this way, "It is inevitable, then, for souls, whether corporeal or incorporeal but dragging a body along with them [as all celestials souls do], to incline towards moisture and to be embodied by a process of moistening..."67 In other words, for Porphyry, all souls which have descended into the celestial and sublunar regions are associated with some kind of body made up of varying proportions of

sacred to the nymphs called Naiads. Within are kraters and amphoras of stone, where bees lay up stores of honey. Inside, too, are massive stone looms and there the nymphs weave sea-purple cloth, a wonder to see. The water flows unceasingly. The cave has two gates, the one from the north, a path for men to descend, while the other, towards the south is divine. Men do not enter by this one, but it is rather a path for immortals." (Lamberton's translation) 66 Porph. Antr. 11. Porphyry, The Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey. A. Rev. Text with Translation by Seminar Classics 609, State Univesity of New York at Buffalo (Buffalo: Dept. of Classics State University of New York at Buffalo, 1969). 67 Porph. Antr. 5.

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air, water, and earth. The bond between their soul and body, i.e. their pneumatic vessel, is nourished by moisture. Porphyry also uses these humoral and elemental principles to explain how certain divinatory practices work by using the souls of the dead. These souls are invoked using moist substances, "an infusion of blood and bile."68 Additionally, he explains the physical appearance of these ghosts and shades. He writes: ...body-loving souls drag along their spirit full of moisture and condense it like a cloud, for moisture condensed in air forms a cloud; and when the spirit is condensed within them by an excess of moisture, they become visible. It is from this type that the apparitions of phantoms come to appear to people, their spirit stained in accordance with their imagination (9avTaa\a).69 Those among them who are "body-loving" take on this moisture and become visible. So just as the sun is nourished by the seas' exhalations, the souls of the dead are, for a time, drawn to and nourished by spilled blood and bile. In On the Cave of the Nymphs, Porphyry does not 60

Porph. Antr. 5.

P o r p h . Antr. 5. " . . . x a l r d s yE (piAoocouaTOus i / y p o v T O TTVEOUCJ EqjEAicoiiEvas iraxuveiv TOOTO COS veqjos- u y p o v y a p EV adpi TTOXUVGEV VEtpos a u v i o T a r a r TTCIXUVOEVTOS 5' EV aureus T O U TTVEUUOTOS irypoO TrAEOvaancp o p a r a s yivEo6ai. Kai EK TCOV TOIOUTCOV aT a u v a v r c o a i T I O I K a r a ( p a v r a a i a v xpcb£ouaai T O Trveuua eiScbAcov Euq>doEis, a i UEVTOI x a B a p a i

yEVEOEcos a-rroTpoTToi." Phantasia, for Porphyry, means the capacity of the soul attached to a body to recall material things as well as their deeds and acts performed in their lives on earth. We might, for instance, think of it as thought with images. Anne Sheppard notes that Porphyry associates phantasia with the 'astral body' or 'vehicle of the soul.' She notes that in To Gaums, "the idea is put forward that the daemons can transfer shapes from the <pavxaoia onto their astral body... In Sententiae 29, Porphyry claims that the souls in Hades still have their astral bodies onto which an image from the cpavTaaDa has been transferred, presumably as an explanation of why Ei'BcoXa in Hades look like the people whose ghosts they are." Anne D. R. Sheppard, "Porphyry's Views on Phantasia," in Studies on Porphyry, ed. George E. Karamanolis and Anne D. R. Sheppard (London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2007), 75.

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explicitly mention evil daemons. But as discussed earlier, the same principles apply in the fall of good daemons into vice and a baser form of existence as documented. According to Porphyry, the only difference between good and evil daemons is that the latter are spirits which have identified with their "pneumatic" part, the part that resembles some form of corporeality and hence is attended by certain desires. A similar sort of reasoning about the association of blood, materiality and the realm of generation governs a number of things Porphyry says in On the Styx.70 Fragment 377F is particularly apropos in this regard. On the Styx, like On the Cave of the Nymphs, takes its departure from certain Homeric verses, in particular, things the poet said about Hades and its various rivers.71 The work exists in fragmentary form, and what remains draws on numerous authorities for its main arguments from Pre-Socratic philosophers such as Empedocles to historians such as Herodotus to the second-century Edessan Christian "Gnostic," Bardaisan, whose accounts of certain Brahmanic water rites Porphyry finds particularly fruitful. 70

For the best current edition of this work, including an excellent commentary, see Cristiano Castelletti, Porfirio: Sullo Stige, 1. ed., Bompiani Testi a Fronte; 99 (Milano: Bompiani Testi a fronte, 2006). For the passages under discussion here, see pp. 96107 and 150-94. 71 According to Cristiano Castelletti, Pausanias attributes to Homer the first introduction of the name of the river Styx into poetry. Castelletti argues that Porphyry takes an interest in Homer's characterization of the river because of the poet's claim that the waters are used in to judge the deeds of the gods. Ibid., 23. Porphyry draws on a number of Homeric references to the river which Castelletti documents in his study of the fragments. See, in particular, Castelletti, Porfirio: Sullo Stige, 25.

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In Fragment 377F, Porphyry creates a map of the afterlife in which he situates various kinds of souls, both human and daemonic. He divides human souls into "buried" and "unburied," by which he seems to mean those who have been released from the body and those whose souls are still attached to their corporeality in some way. In Homer, the buried and unburied are taken literally. In Porphyry's case, the "unburied," those who have not been allowed to cross the river and enter the gates of Hades proper, "participate in the memory of the actions of their lives," and these memories serve as punishment for the unjust, i.e. those who in their life on earth failed to work toward the release of the soul from its corporeality: "For they receive appearances/images (OocvTaaias) of as many fearful things as they have done in the course of life." 72 Their earthly misdeeds are avenged in this manner.73 But the just, the ones who have sufficiently freed themselves from the bonds of corporeal existence and its attendant desires, passions and pollutions, are able to pass "inside" the gates of Hades. There they blissfully forget their life on earth and are known to one another only "according to their own characteristic habits of thought," and not at all as men, i.e. not by their earthly deeds or appearance which manifests itself in shade-like

72

Smith and Wasserstein, Porphyrii Philosophi Fragments, 377F. Translation by Elizabeth Digeser. I thank Professor Digeser for allowing me to consult and use her translation. 73 As we will see, this idea closely resembles those we find in Origen's On First Principles about the punishment of souls. 114

form for those still dwelling on the other side of the river. Rather, their manner of reflection serves to identify and distinguish them. As with On the Cave of the Nymphs, blood is the substance which calls forth these spirits from their forgetful state. Porphyry writes: They would not even utter a sound about human things to those human beings still living if they should not partake of the vapor of blood and by this be informed with respect to human things.74 Indeed, if they did not drink blood in this way, the souls of the blessed would remain in their state of happy forgetfulness about "human things" and would not prophesy to living beings about their fates. Porphyry associates blood with the remembrance of human life because it is the substance which most clearly represents embodied existence at its basest level, the level of nutrition and reproduction. He connects what he takes to be Homer's meaning with medical ideas about blood very explicitly, attributing to the poet the opinion that "in the blood is human being's judgment about mortal things."75 And Porphyry further harmonizes the position he attributes to Homer with one he finds in Empedocles, the pre-Socratic who most focused on medicine and the body. He quotes Empedocles as saying, "[The heart] dwelling in the sea of blood which surges back and forth, where especially is what is called 74

Smith and Wasserstein, Porphyrii Philosophi Fragmenta, 377F." ...ou8' av
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thought by men; for the blood around men's hearts is their thought.

In

other words, when blood reaches the heart, an organ which is naturally fiery, the humor is heated to create a vapor that gives rise to thoughts related to "mortal things" - things pertaining to embodied existence, or thoughts that are connected with passions and images.77 Hence, Porphyry draws on specific associations between blood and corporeal existence that he finds in currency in the Greek paideia of his day, associations that make his adoption of a predominantly Christian view of blood sacrifice plausible.78 We should also keep in mind that Origen frequently drew on medical ideas in his theological and philosophical works.79 Placing Porphyry's works within this larger context, namely the Greek intellectual heritage shared by both Christian and non-Christian philosophers, as well as the educational milieu to which both Origen and Porphyry belonged, helps to explain why Porphyry, to all appearances a staunch defender of Greek religion, especially against its detractors the Christians, would have excised from G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and Malcolm Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts, 2nd ed. (Cambridge Cambridgeshire; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 311. "'EuiTEBoKAfjs TE OUTCO qjaiverai cos o p y d v o u Trpos OUVEOIV TOO ai'nctxos OVTOS XeyEiv: a i ' n a r o s EV TTEXdyEOoi TE0panuEvr| avTiSopovTOS, TTJ TE vorma n d X i a r a tcuKAioKETai dv6pcoTroiaiv, aTua y a p dv8pcoTTOis TTEpiicdpSiov EOTI voriiia." 77

Empedocles himself took a much more mechanistic approach to bodily processes. But Porphyry's harmonizing approach elides the main differences between the PreSocratic philosopher and Plato and Aristotle. 78 It is more than likely that Christian ideas would also have been shaped by the same intellectual currents. 79 Gerald Bostock, "Medical Theory and Theology in Origen," in Origeniana Tertia, ed. Henri Crouzel Richard Hanson (Rome: Edizioni dell' Ateneo, 1985).

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religious practice a whole set of rituals considered for centuries to be absolutely vital to the well-being of states, communities, families, and individuals. The allegorizing mode of Porphyry's philosophical reasoning in On the Cave of the Nymphs and On the Styx, also presents modern readers with a viable solution to the apparent contradiction in Porphyry's stance on the association of evil daemons and sacrifice which Eusebius accuses him of in the Preparation for the Gospel. When Porphyry cites the Apollonian oracle on sacrifice (see footnote 9, for the text), he is likely doing so in order to deal in figural terms with the literal sacrifices the oracle lists. Each of the sacrifices listed in the oracle may have been the subject of a figural interpretation that posited a hidden meaning and explicated it. Porphyry himself says that this oracle contains "an orderly classification of the gods."80 One finds Origen doing something very similar with regards to Hebrew sacrifice in his Homilies on Leviticus. In these sermons, he carefully and systematically interprets away the need for the literal slaughter of animals for the expiation of sins in ancient

Smith and Wasserstein, Porphyrii Philosophi Fragmenta, 314F. ""EOTIV 5E 6 xpn°u6s TOU ATTOAACOVOS, a\ia Kai 5iaipeoiv rfjg TCOV 0EO>V irepiExcov TC^ECOS- " In Other words, it is

the daemonological point that interests him, not the sacrifices. Although we don't have an elaborate daemonology from among Porphyry's extant works, this fragment suggests that he was interested in ordering the realm of spirits in addition to assigning moral distinctions.

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Hebrew cult and instead gives them a new allegorical and explicitly Christian meaning.81 Hence, both Porphyry and Origen share in a similar culture that makes Porphyry's adoption of a seemingly Christian position on blood sacrifice plausible, a fact which is obscured by Eusebius' polemics but also by the assumption of many modern scholars that the positions philosophers tended to take on issues both theological and ritual were determined first and foremost by religious identity. The implicit corollary to this problematic approach is that religious identity in the third century was itself clearly articulated, fixed and static. This assumption has been vigorously challenged in the case of Christian identity for at least the first four centuries CE. But scholars sometimes treat traditional Mediterranean polytheism as a static monolith when in fact Hellenic identity was itself very much in flux and under construction, especially amongst the non-Christian Platonists under discussion in this current study. By focusing on key points of conceptual parallelism and evidence for dialogic exchange between people like Porphyry and Origen, this study does not to deny that Christians and non-Christians were at odds 81

Origen, Homilies on Leviticus: 1-16, trans. Gary Wayne Barkley, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1990), 37. For instance, in Homily 1, Origen explains the meaning of each of the sacrificial animals, associating them one by one with the various orders within the Christian congregation and the kinds of transgressions they were prone to.

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with each other at certain crucial junctures both in texts and in the world. However, part of the aim of this chapter is to challenge the conflict model which tends to view this period in terms of predominantly hostile interactions between Christians and so-called pagans, a model which focuses on difference and assumes fixed and static religious identities and group boundaries.82 Highlighting moments of shared understanding across religious boundaries or the flexibility and permeability of these boundaries themselves serves to call the conflict model into question as an appropriate lens through which to view third-century exchanges among intellectuals such as Origen and Porphyry. The rejection of this model, however, does not mean that important points of disagreement are ignored or even de-emphasized. Rather, it frequently allows scholars to re-locate these points of difference in a more representative and illuminating fashion. There is one issue on which Porphyry differed from Christian writers. That is his prognosis concerning the chances the ordinary person had for avoiding the pollution associated with evil daemons. As we saw earlier in this chapter, Porphyry held the view that participation in animal sacrifice and in the consumption of meat were polluting activities. Given that the vast majority of people at the time would not have shared 82

See the discussion in Chapter One about the problems with "conflict theory" or the "conflict model" and recent scholarship which challenges it and provides alternative models for approaching questions of religious identity in this period. 119

Porphyry's views on the matter, from his perspective relatively few people lived a life free from demonic influence and pollution. Yet he appears to have been relatively unconcerned about the fate of these people, and focused specifically on the best conduct for those seeking to live a philosophical life. Although Porphyry's position is most starkly opposed to Origen's in this regard, the latter expressing a more universal concern for the spiritual well-being of all ensouled creatures, it would be a mistake to suppose that Christians were the real target of Porphyry's argument in On Abstinence. He himself indicated that it was other philosophers with whom he contended.83 In particular, Porphyry was involved in an ongoing debate with his fellow Platonist and former student, lamblichus, a debate which, at the very least, seems to have been carried on in a number of their works, from Porphyry's Letter to Anebo and On Abstinence to lamblichus' On the Mysteries. lamblichus wrote his On the Mysteries in response to a work by Porphyry called the Letter to Anebo. According to the editors of a recent translation of lamblichus' treatise, the letter was somehow aimed at lamblichus.84 In particular, Porphyry disagreed with lamblichus about the necessity of ritual, and specifically blood sacrifice, for the reunion of the

*• Porph. Abst. 2.40. 84 lamblichus, On the Mysteries, trans. Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2004), xxix.

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philosopher's soul with the divine,

lamblichus' response to this view as

expressed in On the Mysteries was a defense of the importance of theurgy, even over and above theology and philosophy.86 The term theurgy (eeoupyia), meaning "god work," originated with second-century Platonists who used it to refer to the "deifying power of Chaldean rituals."87 Porphyry and lamblichus were actively defining this term in the

In spite of the fact that lamblichus thought ritual and theurgy to be more important than Porphyry did, Porphyry's idea of the philosophical life had a clear behavioral dimension and focus. His emphasis on a vegetarian diet and the proper order of appropriate sacrifices to the gods is evidence of such a focus. Furthermore, Porphyry did not discount the importance of ritual for ordinary people, lamblichus, at times, presents Porphyry as holding the view that philosophers can merely think their way to unity with the god, but it is not unlike lamblichus to highlight his differences with Porphyry in the starkest terms possible. This has often led scholars to assume that Porphyry's Letter to Anebo was a kind of attack on lamblichus. It is difficult to gauge the tone of Porphyry's missive, because it only exists in fragments embedded in the work of his opponent. But it may very well be that Porphyry was genuinely hoping to query lamblichus about a series of questions about which Porphyry had not entirely determined his own position. 86 Ritual was not unimportant to Porphyry, as we will see in subsequent chapters. And lamblichus is likely simplifying and overstating Porphyry's view for effect. But what is certain is that lamblichus set more store in rituals and their efficacy for uniting the soul with divinity than did Porphyry. 87 Gregory Shaw, Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of lamblichus (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995) 4. It is difficult to give a definition of the word theurgy (Beoupyia) because its meaning was a matter of debate for some of the philosophers under consideration in this dissertation, as was its importance to the philosophical life and union with God. As Charles Lewy notes, the terms theurgy and theurge/theurgist (6eoupyos) were neologisms from the Chaldean Oracles, a corpus of writings, extant only in fragments, associated with two men, Julian the Chaldean and his son, Julian the Theurgist, who lived during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian and the Antonines (Lewy, Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy: Mysticism, Magic and Platonism in the Later Roman Empire, xiii.) The oracles were a publication of the revelations of the gods to these two holy men. Ruth Majercik, in her masterful study of the Chaldean Oracles, notes that the extant fragments "securely locate the Oracles in a Middle Platonic milieu, especially that type of Middle Platonist which had affinities with both Gnosticism and Hermetism as well as links with Numenius." Ruth Dorothy Majercik Julianus, The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation, and Commentary (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1989), 3. Later Platonists, starting with Porphyry, took up this corpus, just as they did certain Hermetic works, and made use of it for their own purposes, treating the oracles as sacred texts. Hence, the definition of theurgy varied considerably in the third and fourth centuries. For instance, according to Lewy, the Chaldeans did not promise

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course of discussing it. lamblichus took this idea further and argued that traditional religious rituals were established and given to human souls by the gods and that these cult practices exemplified divine principles that provided for the deification of the human soul. The human soul, according to lamblichus, was the lowest of divine beings (eaKcn-os KOOUOS)

and the one most entangled with matter. Hence, it needed to be

freed from the body to realize its true nature.88 Theurgy was the ritual process of loosening the bonds between the human soul and matter. But he also held the view that there were ritual actions appropriate to every stage of the soul's re-ascent.89 Furthermore, as Gregory Shaw has noted, one of lamblichus' primary concerns was to redress the distorted vision of the soul's participation in embodiment depicted in the works of Plotinus and Porphyry, a depiction that their successor felt effaced the Timean vision of embodiment and exported the "demonic" deification (airoeecooij), which is what Platonists such as Porphyry and lamblichus took them to do, but rather immortality (dnra6avaTiau6s) (Lewy, 462). In general, the term came to stand for a set of rituals that would purify either the body or the soul or both and put the individual in touch with various levels of divinity. Gregory Shaw has, by far, done the most work to explicate lamblichus's understanding of the term. In particular, see Chapter Four in the work cited above, "Theurgy as Demiurgy." See also G. Luck, "Theurgy and Forms of Worship in Neoplatonism," in Religion, Science and Magic in Concert and in Conflic, ed. Ernest S. Frerichs J. Neusner (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) and Sarah. Johnston, Hekate Soteira: A Study ofHekate's Role in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature, American Classical Studies; No. 21 (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1990). 88 Shaw, 45. 89 Unlike Plotinus who held that part of the soul remained undescended, lamblichus held the view that the soul was fully descended. For a very thorough and nuanced discussion of both lamblichus' position and his differences with both Plotinus and Porphyry, see Gregory Shaw, Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of lamblichus (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995). In particular see Part 2, "The Nature of the Embodied Soul."

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from within the soul out into the cosmos.

For lamblichus, the

Plotinian/Porphyrian vision denied the soul's participation in the demiurgic project of creating the material cosmos. For lamblichus, this demiurgic work was mirrored in the work of the theurge, both being "godwork." For lamblichus, everyone who practiced religion in the proper way and participated in god-ordained rituals practiced theurgy and could attain some measure of communion with the higher gods. lamblichus' criticisms of Porphyry's questions and positions on the issue of theurgic practices were often pointed. He frequently represents the views of his former teacher as naive and wrong-headed. But there was a great deal at stake for both participants in this debate. As already noted, Porphyry was concerned that philosophers avoid demonic pollution, and he saw participation in animal sacrifice as an impediment to the salvation of philosopher's soul, lamblichus, on the other hand, was more generally concerned about the salvation of all souls and the role cultic practices played in the soteriological process. The question of the nature of evil daemons and their association with blood served as a flash point in the disagreement between the two Platonists. Throughout significant portions of On the Mysteries, lamblichus chided Porphyry for his almost global failure to understand the nature of

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Shaw, 15. Shaw blames the exteriorization of the demonic on Numenius and claims that Plotinus and Porphyry followed their predecessor on this point. 123

daemons, both good and evil, as well as that of other kinds of spiritual beings. In Book I, lamblichus presents Porphyry as confused about whether gods and daemons have bodies and precisely how they relate to their corporeality.91 But the main bone of contention between the two on the matter of daemons arises in Book V. There, lamblichus takes issue with Porphyry's assertion that some spirits "are ensnared by the vapors of, in particular, blood sacrifices."92 lamblichus places this statement about evil daemons beside Porphyry's other assertions about the way in which terrestrial vapors nourish heavenly bodies in order to critique the view which he attributes to Porphyry that deities, and specifically daemons, somehow depend on humans for nourishment. He writes: For it is surely not the case that the creator has set before all living creatures on sea and land copious and readily available sustenance, but for those beings superior to us has contrived a deficiency of this. He would not surely, have provided for all other living things, naturally and from their own resources, an abundance of the daily necessities of life, while to daemons he gave a source of nourishment which was adventitious and dependent on the contributions of us mortals, and thus, it would seem, if we through laziness or some other pretext were to neglect such contributions, the bodies of daemons would suffer deprivation, and would experience disequilibrium and disorder.93 For an overview of the debate between Porphyry and lamblichus on the pneumatic vessel of daemonic souls, see John F. Finamore, lamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul (Chico: Scholars Press, 1985), 11-32. 92 lamb. Myst. 5.9. 93

lamb. Myst. 5.10. "Ou y a p STITTOU TOTS UEV EV y g Kai 6aAdTTT) iTaai Ccpois 6 Brinioupyos aq>9ovov Kai ETOIIIOV 8iaTpo<pr|v TrapE0r|KE, TOTS 5E KpEivrociv r]ucbv EvSeiav TOUTTIS EVETToiriaEV. OU8E TOTS UEV aAXois Ccpo'S &> EOUTGOV Eyqnn-ov irapEOXE TT)V Eirrropiav TCOV Ka6' riuEpav E7TiTT|5Eicov, T0T5 Sainoai 8E ETTEioaKTOv Kai Trap' rincov TCOV avGpcbiTcov

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Here lamblichus appears to misunderstand Porphyry; whether willfully or not, we cannot be certain.94 As mentioned earlier, Porphyry held the view that the pneumatic vessel associated with celestial and sublunar spirits is nourished by vapors, but he in no way makes the well-being of the deities and daemons themselves dependent on these vapors or on sacrifices. Evil daemons, in identifying with their pneumatic aspect, seek to feed that aspect through blood and smoky vapors. But this is a perversion of the proper order between soul and pneuma, this is indeed "disequilibrium and disorder." The details of lamblichus' and Porphyry's respective views on the vehicle of the soul are not of primary importance here, but lamblichus casts the debate in these terms, because he takes issue with Porphyry's interpretation of blood sacrifice as polluting and demonic. lamblichus himself does not have much to say on the nature of evil daemons and other maleficent spirits. He is generally far less preoccupied with their existence and nature, and unlike Porphyry, he does not have a speech about how they related to good daemons. He also attributes less responsibility to them for cosmic evil than does Porphyry, lamblichus does note that evil arises from clinging to the ouvTEAou|i£vr|v E'SCOKE TT)V 5iccTpo<pr|v Kai dog EOIKEV, ECXV Musi's 5i' dpyiav f\ aAAr)v Tiva irpocpaaiv KctToAiycopr|OGOUEv rfjs -roiauTTis Eioqsopas, EvBEfj TGOV Sainovcov xa ocbyaTa Eorai, dauniiETpias TE Kai axa^ias HE0E£EI." 94 Like Eusebius, lamblichus likes to point out the absurdity of Porphyry's ideas if taken to what he considers their logical conclusion.

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"delusions of matter."9

But in general, lamblichus engages with

questions about evil in the context of discussing proper and improper ritual. Evil arises when a soul attempts to put certain portions of the universe into contact with other parts in such a way that it violates cosmic harmony. A different way of putting this is to say that evil arises when an attempt is made to bring the multiplicity of the realm of generation into contact with the realm of unity for some end having to do with the former. This is, of course, an impossibility, but it allows for a situation where phantoms, delusions, false images and epiphanies can arise. And in the context, in particular, of faulty "theurgic" or divinatory practices of this sort, evil daemons, those who have identified with the realm of generation, are able to deceive human beings and direct them to unjust ends. By this, lamblichus means those ends that disrupt cosmic harmony, supplanting divine philia with the illusion of divine contact, and that perpetuate the disunity that is part of the realm of generation. For instance, in Book III, lamblichus counters Porphyry's assertion that there are some who, by standing on "magical characters" are "filled with spiritual influence."96 lamblichus counters that when these amateur ritualists seek to employ such dubious divinatory techniques for questionable ends, all kinds of things can go awry. Instead of calling

lamb. Myst. 3.29. lamb. Myst. 3.13.

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forth the presence of the gods, lamblichus argues that such practices "produce a certain motion of the soul contrary to the gods, and draws from them an indistinct and phantom-like appearance which sometimes, because of the feebleness of its power, is likely to be disturbed by evil daemonic influences."97 In other words, improper divinatory techniques, faulty theurgy we might say, risks falling prey to these spirits. This is the extent to which lamblichus engages with questions about evil daemons and their cosmic effects and activities. And it is telling that his focus is on proper ritual, the main bone of contention with Porphyry. To return, then to the main point, contrary to Porphyry's view that blood sacrifices propitiate and feed evil spirits, lamblichus asserted that all sacrifices were divinely ordained.98 And these ordained practices worked in such a way as to affirm and strengthen the bonds of philia and sympatheia established by gods, heroes, daemons and other good spirits with human souls. When humans performed the divine rites, they activated relationships already built into the fabric and order of the cosmos. According to lamblichus, each cosmic level had its appropriate set of rituals.99 In the case of blood sacrifices, these rites did not

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lamb. Myst. 3.13. As we will see in Chapter Five, lamblichus is also making an argument about who is best fit to perform rites connecting the soul with higher spirits. So not only is he discrediting Porphyry's view, he is also limiting the effectiveness of the practices of those he does not consider true theurgists. 98 lamb. Myst. 5.9. 99 lamb. Myst. 5.9. "Since these relationships are numerous, and some have an immediate source of influence, as in the case of daemonic ones, while others are

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propitiate evil daemons, rather they were the "perfect sacrifice" for those "material gods" (61 OXdioi) who "embrace matter within themselves and impose order on it."100 lamblichus wrote: And so, in sacrifices, dead bodies deprived of life, the slaughter of animals and the consumption of their bodies, and every sort of change and destruction, and in general processes of dissolution are suitable to those gods who preside over matter.101 These animal sacrifices helped and healed the worshipper who was constrained by the body and suffered accordingly. They also aided in the release of the soul from its attachment to the body. Indeed, lamblichus argued that human beings were frequently involved with gods and good daemons who watched over the body, "purifying it from longstanding impurities or freeing it from disease and filling it with health, or cutting away from it what is heavy or sluggish..."102 lamblichus used fire to explain how sacrifices symbolize the way in which these spirits help human souls to become free: "The offering of sacrifice by means of fire is actually such as to consume and annihilate matter, assimilate it to itself rather than assimilating itself to matter, and superior to these, having divine causes, and, higher than these again, there is the one pre-eminent cause, all these levels of cause are activated by the performance of perfect sacrifice; each level of cause is related to the sacrifice in accordance with the rank to which it has been allotted." 100 lamb. /Wysf. 5.14. lamb. Myst. 5.14. "Kcti siri TCOV 6uoicbv TOIVUV T O vEtcpa ocbucrra Kai aiTEOTEprmEva Tfjs £cofJs, qjovog TE TCOV £cpcov Kai KaTavdAcoois TCOV acouaTcov liETaPoAq TE TravToia Kai Da, Kai oAcos "1 irpoiTTcoais < T O T $ > TTJS UATIS TTpoioTauEvoij 0eoTs •TTpooT|KEl•" TO 2

lamb. Myst. 5.16. "oTov KaSaipovTES auTO d i r o Kr|AiScov iraAaicbv f\ voocov ctTToAuovTEs Kai uyEiag irAripouvTES, r\ TO UEV (3apu Kai vcoBpov CJTTOKOTTTOVTES OTT' OUTOU T O 8E Kouqjov Kai S p a a T i p i o v auTcp irapExovTEs..."

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elevating it towards the divine and heavenly and immaterial fire."103 The burning of matter pleases the gods and daemons because it symbolizes the procedures by which souls are liberated from the bonds of generation and become more like the gods.104 This explanation of sacrifice's transformative power ran counter to Porphyry's mere propitiation of evil spirits. One sacrificed and burned animals, their flesh and blood, in order to become free from flesh and body. Instead of being a polluting practice, it was a purifying one. Given the transformative nature of sacrifice, lamblichus insisted that the order in which sacrifices were to be performed could be neither altered nor circumvented. Even the individual who had dedicated his or her life to philosophical pursuits and theological speculation, if he or she wished to be healed of the suffering associated with embodiment and generation, must perform the proper sacrifices in the correct order and manner.105 This position ran counter to the one lamblichus represented as Porphyry's, namely that one can think one's way out of the bonds of nature, regardless of one's ritual participation. Porphyry was of the opinion that the philosopher did not need theurgy but could reach God by

lamb. Myst. 5.11. lamb. Myst. 5.12. lamb. Myst. 5.12.

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virtue of the intellect.106 lamblichus, however, denied that philosophers could escape ritual practices in this way. Porphyry's position raised another concern for lamblichus. Although he fully recognized that not all human beings could become completely purified or free from the grip of matter and return to the soul's source, and although he reserved this end for the true philosopher, lamblichus did not wish to consign ordinary people to a polluted existence, laboring under the delusion that the sacrifices they performed benefited them, when in fact they contributed to their spiritual demise. He writes:

Augustine, in City of God (10.9), describes Porphyry's position on the matter of theurgy in the following way: "In fact Porphyry too puts forward a sort of purification, as it were, of the soul through the practice of theurgy, though with hesitation and a shamefaced sort of argument. He asserts, however, that this art cannot provide for any man a path back to God. So you may see his judgment wavering between alternatives, the crime of sacrilegious occult practices and the open career of a philosopher. For at one time he warns us to beware of this art as being delusive and dangerous in actual practice, as well as prohibited by law, while at another, as if giving in to those who praise it, he says that it does service in purifying one part of the soul, not, to be sure, the intellectual part, which apprehends the truth of intelligible things that have no bodily likenesses, but the spiritual part, whereby we receive the images of corporeal things. For this part, he says, after certain theurgic initiations which are called teletae, mystic rites, becomes fit and suitable for the entertainment of spirits an dangles and capable of seeing gods. Still he admits that the intellectual soul receives no purification from these theurgic teletai such as might make it fit to behold its own God and to perceive the things that truly exist." Translation: Augustine, The City of God against the Pagans in Seven Volumes, trans. David S. Wiesen, vol. Ill, Loeb Classical Editions (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988). Michael Simmons summarizes this position as follows: "The rest of humanity relies upon theurgy: it is not the intellectual part, however, but the vehicle or lower part, that is purified. Although the soul once purified in this way has communion with the ethereal gods, it cannot return to the Father." Michael B. Simmons, "Porphyry of Tyre's Biblical Criticism: A Historical and Theological Appraisal," in Reading in Christian Communities: Essays on Interpretation in the Early Church, ed. Charles A. Bobertz and David Brakke, Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002).

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So if one does not grant some such mode of worship to cities and peoples not freed from the fated processes of generation and from a society dependent on the body, one will continue to fail of both types of good, both the immaterial and the material; for they are not capable of receiving the former, and for the latter they are not making the right offering.107 In other words, lamblichus objected to what he understood to be Porphyry's denial of universal salvation, a path of participation in the gifts of the gods common to both ordinary people and philosophers or theurgists. Augustine, in his City of God, claimed that Porphyry was searching for a universal way, a way to salvation for all souls, not just the souls of a few elite philosophers.108 On Augustine's account, Porphyry failed in his endeavor because he could not overcome his pride and accept that Christianity constituted the answer to his search. It is l a m b . Myst. 2.15. "TToXeoi TOIVUV KCX'I Srjuois OUK aTroAeAuuEvois xfjs yEVEOioupyou uoipas Kai Tfjs dvTexo|iEvris T U V acoudxcov Koivcoviaj E! UT] Bcboei T I $ TOV TOIOOTOV xpoTrou rfjs ayiOTEias, dnq>OTEpcov 8iauapxr|OEi, Kai TCOV duXcov dya8<£>v Kai TCOV EVUACOV T O \IEV yap ou SwvaTai 5E^ao0ai, T0T5 5E OU TrpoodyEi TO OIKETOV. " Porphyry made it very clear

that he was not dealing with the state in his treatise {On Abstinence, 2.33): "For myself, I am not trying to destroy the customs which prevail among each people: the state is not my present subject. But the laws by which we are governed allow the divine power to be honoured by very simple and inanimate things, so by choosing the simplest we shall sacrifice in accordance with the laws of the city..." (Clark translation). (This was, of course, all well and good unless emperors, such as Decius, required people to prove their loyalty to the state by tasting the sacrificial meat offered in honor of the emperor's genius.) Elsewhere, Porphyry indicates that the reason cities sacrifice animals is because, as he has demonstrated, they are being offered to those beings who are involved with inciting human ambition and greed (i.e., evil daemons): "If it is necessary for cities to appease even these beings, that is nothing to do with use. In cities, riches and external and corporeal things are thought to be good and their opposites bad, and the soul is the least of their concerns." (Porph. Abst. 2.43. Clark translation.) 108 Aug. Civ. 10.32. Gillian Clark holds the view that Augustine misrepresents Porphyry's position regarding a via universalis. She writes: "It is much more likely that Porphyry denied any claim that there is a single way of liberating the soul." Gillian Clark, "Augustine's Porphyry and the Universal Way of Salvation," in Studies on Porphyry, ed. George E. Karamanolis and Anne D. R. Sheppard (London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2007), 136.

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impossible to determine whether Porphyry ever earnestly sought to find some via universalis. But it is obvious from On Abstinence that he felt that the salvific regimen he proposed to Firmus Castricianus was one that very few people could attain.109 Hence, Porphyry was making an argument for a form of ritual purity that he recognized openly could only be achieved by a small elite group of specially trained, spiritually devout philosophers. By upbraiding his friend for incontinence where animal food was concerned, he was not prescribing a way of life for everyone. Rather, he highlighted precisely what set him and his peers apart from the ordinary person, namely, his theological knowledge and his ascetic purity. Despite the fact that lamblichus expressed a more general concern about the spiritual well-being of people other than members of the philosophical elite and his own theurgic cast, he was equally invested in establishing his own authority as one who could lead others on the path to salvation, as we shall see in Chapter Five. However, elaborating the universal scope of his soteriological message was precisely the way in which he sought to do this. In this way, lamblichus placed his own theological and theurgical expertise in a larger context than Porphyry did. He saw himself as providing a means for the salvation of more than just 109

Porph. Abst. 2.3. Here Porphyry says that such abstinence "is not advised for everyone without exception, but for philosophers, and among philosophers chiefly for those who make their happiness depend on God and on the imitation of God."

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the philosopher. This salvation may have only been partial or truncated. But at the very least, he set the average practitioner of traditional religion on the path to salvation by participating in rituals that honored different orders of good spirits. Furthermore, the theurgist or priestly philosopher was the one who could broker this salvation effectively for others. So although both Porphyry and lamblichus admitted that few souls could become completely purified and freed from embodiment, lamblichus saw purification as a process in which all souls could participate. And he disagreed with the idea that most souls were constrained to live a polluted existence, a pollution that afflicted them not only because they were prone to enjoy a good meal now and then and participate enthusiastically in carnal pleasure, but, even more tragically, because they worshipped what they believed were gods with harmful sacrifices. Although lamblichus sought to remedy some of the difficult implications of Porphyry's views on popular religion, and although he sought to put all participants in traditional ritual on the path to purification, he still maintained with Porphyry that it was not possible for everyone to be philosophers and to achieve complete release from corporeality and generation. One aspect of Christianity that was so offensive to many intellectual elites in the Late Antique world was the view that all believers were like philosophers, not only saved and purified, but also in

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possession of true wisdom.110 This was, for those living the philosophical life, an impossibility and an affront. Without rigorous ascetic training and intense contemplation, there was no way that the ordinary person could be on a par with a Plotinus or a Sosipatra. What was equally offensive to some Hellenes was the way in which many average, everyday Christians did take up ascetic practices, and at times, with embarrassing zeal. But one must keep in mind that Christians had only one chance at salvation. For Porphyry, the idea that the average person who enjoyed sex or food was at risk of becoming possessed was not troubling in the same way it would be for Origen. Because Porphyry followed the Platonic belief in the reincarnation of souls, the average human being who had regular congress with evil daemons in this life and who lived in a state of pollution, was not eternally doomed as he or she might be in the Christian scheme of things. Rather, although the soul of such an individual might descend into Hades at the end of this life, being too moist and heavy to rise above the earth and ascend to the supralunary sphere, it might well have a chance in the next life to live a relatively un-polluted existence. This soul could dry out, so to speak,

Eusebius uses this framework throughout his Preparation for the Gospel, but in particular, in Book 12. As we will see in Chapter Five, however, Origen does distinguish between different orders of Christians based on their grasp of allegorical and mysterious meanings behind the literal truths of scripture which all believes could apprehend. 134

through ascetic and contemplative practices.111 It could be strengthened and purified. Furthermore, Platonists believed that the world was eternal and objected to the Christian view that God would act in the cosmos in a historical way.112 Origen was one of the most innovative of early Christian writers in creating an historical narrative for the soul's descent and eventual salvation, one which fundamentally undercut the cyclically of the Platonic framework. Hence, although Origen and Porphyry shared similar views regarding the polluting effects of blood sacrifices, Origen, like most other Christian thinkers, believed that this demonic pollution should and could be avoided by everyone. The principle means for doing so was to avoid participating in traditional cult.113 This chapter has mapped out a number of key similarities and differences between Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus on the nature of evil daemons and traditional animal sacrifice. It noted the surprising similarities between Origen and Porphyry on the association of evil daemons with blood sacrifice, an association which put Porphyry at odds 111

Luc Brisson, Porphyre, Sentences: Etudes D'introduction, Texte Grec Et Traduction Frangaise, Commentaire ParL'unite Propre De Recherche No. 76 Du Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, 2 vols. (Paris: Vrin, 2005), 32. 112 Indeed, Porphyry found the idea of a non-cyclical cosmos offensive: "The idea of God acting in history was ridiculous to Porphyry, who believed in a cyclical pattern of history predetermined by heimarmene. This is the main reason why the Christian interpretation of OT prophecy was unacceptable: it was a literary invention post eventum, devoid of all historical truth." Simmons, 95. And "Porphyry describes the eschatological doctrines like the resurrection as absurd because it implies that God interrupts the eternal and logical order of his own universe." Simmons, 96. 113 Although Origen believed in a via universalis, as we will see in the next chapter, he, like Porphyry and lamblichus, was invested in distinguishing between ordinary Christians and priestly philosophers such as himself.

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with his fellow Hellene, lamblichus. It also introduced another point of similarity, this time between Origen and lamblichus, concerning the importance of discovering a universal path of salvation. This point will be explored in more detail in the following chapter. This current chapter has demonstrated that the way these philosophers ordered the realm of spirits using moral distinctions directly challenges the conflict theory by demonstrating that religious identity was not the primary determinant of the positions they took on key philosophical issues. Studying the way third-century intellectuals developed ideas about the origin, nature and place of malign spirits in the cosmos serves as a point of entry into their more universal daemonological discourses, because their efforts to valence the realm of spirits in moral terms was a key component of their more general imposition of a systematic, totalizing order on more local understandings of this realm. This chapter also demonstrated the way in which these demonological and daemonological concerns were intertwined with soteriological questions, questions which the next chapter will continue to explore. The next chapter will directly address the elaborate universal orders these Platonists created and will seek to answer why these intellectuals were so focused on the creation of these spiritual hierarchies within their particular milieu.

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Chapter Four- "Everything in its Right Place": The Universal Daemonologies of Third-Century Platonists

Besides these characteristics, divine appearances flash forth a beauty almost irresistible, seizing those beholding it with wonder, providing a wondrous cheerfulness, manifesting itself with ineffable symmetry, and transcending in comeliness all other forms. The blessed visions of archangels also have themselves an extremity of beauty, but it is not at all as unspeakable and wonderful as that of the gods' divine beauty, and those of angels already exhibit in a partial and divided manner the beauty that is received from the archangels. The pneumatic spirits of daemons and heroes appearing in direct visions both possess beauty in distinct forms... If we are to give them a common denominator, I declare the following: in the same way that each of the beings of the universe is disposed, and has its own proper nature, so also it participates in beauty according to the allotment granted to it. The previous chapter focused on the way in which various philosophers and Christian writers began to valence the realm of spirits in moral terms, dividing spiritual beings into good and evil. The chapter also 1

lamb. Myst. 2.3. lamblichus, On the Mysteries, Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell trans. (Atlanta, 2003). "TTpos Sri TOUTOIS TOTS i8icbpaoi xa HEV BETCX KaXXog oTov durixavov dTraoTpdcTTTEi, OaunaTi HEV KOTEXOV TOU$ opcovTas, BEOTTEoiav 8' Euq>poauvn.v TrapExopEvov, dppriTco 8E Tfj auupETpig dvc^aivoiiEvov, E§r|pr|HEVov 8'dir6 TCOV aXXcov Ei8cbv xfjs EUTTpEirEiag. T a 8E TCOV dpxayyEXcov naicdpia 9Eduaxa UEyiOTOv HEv E'XEI Kai a u r a TO KaXXos, ou u.f)v ETI y ' 6p.oicos appr|Tov Kai 0auu.aaTOv cocnTEp TO 8ETOV Ta 8E TCOV dyysXcov UEpiaTcos fi8r| SiaipsT TO KaXov oiTEp diro TCOV dpxayysXcov Trapa8EXETai. T a 8aiu.6via SE Kai Ta ripcoiKa auTOTTTiKa irvEup.aTa EV E'I8EOI U.EV copiauivois E'XEI TO KaXXog ducpoTEpa, ou p.f|v dXXd TO uiv EV Xoyois T0T5 TTIV ouaiav d<popi£ouai 8iaicoa|ir|0Ev EOTI 8aiji6viov, TO 8' E-JTI8EIKVUU.EVOV Tr|v dvSpiav lipcoi'Kov. T a 8E TCOV

dpxovTcov 8ixf) 8iripTio0co- TO uiv y a p riyEiaoviKov KaXXog Kai auTocpuE^ ETTIBEIKVUOI, T O 8' Euuopcpiav TTEirXaoiiEvriv Kai ETTiOKEuaoTriv EncpaivEi. T a 8E TCOV VJAJXCOV EV Xoyois uiv Kai a u T a 8iaKEKoauriTai TTETTEpaauivois, 8ir|pr|u.£vois 8E u.dXXov TCOV EV T0T5 rjpcoai Kai TTEpiElXTlliliEVOlJ HEplOTCOS KOI KpaTOUU.£VOl$ Uq>' EVO$ E180U5. El 8E 8ET KOTO TTOVTCOV KOlVCOS dcpopiaao8ai, cpriul TCOV OXCOV COOTTEP EKOOTO 8iaTETaKTai Kai cos e'xE1 T fls oiKsias cpuoecos, OUTCO Kai TOW KaXXous auTa KOTO TTJV u i r d p x o u a a v BIOKXTPCOOIV u.£TEiXr|XEvai."

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demonstrated that this step is the first in the creation of more complex daemonological discourses which subsequently order the realm of spirits in more universal terms. It also highlighted the way in which thinking about spirits was often linked to soteriological reflection. This chapter will consider the ways in which Porphyry, Origen and lamblichus continued with their respective projects, creating systematic hierarchies that could subsequently be transposed upon more local understandings of the realm of spirits. It will focus mainly on the latter two philosophers, who devoted large portions of some of their most important works to the question. This chapter will also demonstrate that in the case of Origen and lamblichus, in the course of enforcing order and hierarchy, aspects of their discourses exceed their philosophical framework. This happens in a number of ways. For instance, key distinctions between various orders of spiritual beings are subverted or rendered ambiguous. In other cases, the line between good and evil spirits is blurred such that good spirits are characterized by rather ambivalent qualities, and in the case of Origen, evil daemons even become part of the larger soteriological picture. In other words, this chapter will demonstrate that the act of creating and enforcing difference leads both thinkers to conclusions that call difference into question in radical and interesting ways. Part of the reason for this was that both philosophers (indeed all three), in their efforts to provide theological and philosophical rationales for specific

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ideas about spirits and particular religious rites, were engaged with traditional beliefs and practices at the local level in ways that limited or resisted their endeavors.2 Their daemonological thinking crossed not only religious boundaries, as the previous chapter demonstrated, but social ones as well. These philosophers were attempting to explain and order a pre-existing spiritual landscape populated by beings about which the vast majority of people held some beliefs. The next chapter will discuss why Origen, Porphyry, and lamblichus paid heed to this landscape by situating these thinkers in their third-century societal context and its complex of ritual practitioners and intellectuals. We begin with Porphyry. Although some fragments preserved in Jerome, Michael Psellus and others indicate he may have written a tract on daemons, we do not have an extant daemonological work from him.3 He was, however, interested in daemonological order, as we saw in the previous chapter, and may have even used the long Apollonian oracle 2

We saw in the previous chapter how Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus offered explanations of traditional animal sacrifices, albeit in very different ways. In lamblichus' case, he was earnest about defending traditional sacrifices as god-given rites that are an integral part of the theurgic process. He is also very critical of those "Hellenes" whom he thinks are engaged in ritual "innovation," which eschewing blood sacrifice would certainly be. (lamb. Myst. 7.5.) "For this is the reason why all these things in place at the present time have lost their power, both the names and the prayers: because they are endlessly altered according to the inventiveness (Kaivo-rouiav) and the illegality (irapavouiav) of the Hellenes. For the Hellenes are experimental (vEcoTEpo-TToioi) by nature, and eagerly propelled in all directions, having no proper ballast in them; and they preserve nothing which they have received from anyone else, but even this they promptly abandon and change it all according to their unreliable linguistic innovation." It is possible he is using the term "Hellene" here not to refer to Greeks in general but to intellectual elites such as Porphyry. 3 Andrew Smith and Devid Wasserstein, Porphyrii philosophi fragmenta, Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. (Stutgardiae, 1993). 469F-474F.

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(Smith, 314F-315F) on sacrificial order as a point of departure for reflection on the order of spirits. In a number of extant works and fragments he did address the various orders of good spirits. For instance, in On Abstinence, Porphyry juxtaposes the perverted sacrificial order of traditional cult with an ideal one, the sacrificial practices of the philosophical elite. He writes: So we too shall sacrifice. But we shall make, as is fitting, different sacrifices to different powers. To the god who rules all, as the wise man said, we shall offer nothing perceived by the senses, either by burning or in words. For there is nothing material which is not at once impure to the immaterial. So not even logos expressed in speech is appropriate for him, nor yet internal logos when it is contaminated by the passion of the soul. But we shall worship him with pure silence and pure thoughts about him...For his offspring, the intelligible gods, hymn-singing in words should be added. For sacrifice is an offering to each god from what he has given, with which he sustains us and maintains our essence in being. So as a farmer offers corn ears and fruits, so we offer them fine thoughts about them, giving thanks for what they have given us to contemplate, and for feeding us with the true food of seeing them, present with us, manifesting themselves, shining out to save us.4

4

Porph. Abst. 2.34. Porphyry, On abstinence from killing animals, Gillian Clark trans.

(Ithaca, N.Y., 2000). "dTrdpxEO0ai cbv Kai 8iyydvEi. 6UOCOUEV roivuv Kai riUETs- dXXd 0UOCOHEV, cos Trpoar|KEi, 8iacp6pous T&S 0uaia$ cos &v 8iaq>6pois 8uvd|iEai TrpoadyovTES' 0Ecp piEV TCO ETTI iraaiv, cbs T15 d v i p 00965'iq>r\,UTIBEV Tcbv aia0TiTcov UTITE 0UUICOVTES \IT\T' ETTOvoiid^ovTES- OUSEV y a p EOTIV E'VUXOV, 6 nr| Tcp duXco E\)0US EOTIV aKaSapTOv. 816 OU5E

Xoyoj TOUTCO 6 KctTa 9COvr|v OIKETOS, OU8' 6 i'vSov, o x a v Trd0Ei VJAJXTIS fl UEHOXUOUEVOS, 81a 8E oiyfjs KaOapas Kai Tcbv TTEpi OUTOO xaBapcov EVVOICOU BpriOKEuonev auxov. 8ET d p a ouva90EVTa5 Kai ouoicoSEVTas auTcp rf\v auTcov dvaycoyriv 0uaiav iepav TrpoodyEiv xcp 0Ecp, TTIV aurriv 8E Kai \J\IVOV ouoav Kai rincbv ocoTripiav. EV dira0Eig d p a T % ^A/xfls, TOU 8E 9EOU 0Ecopig r\ 0uaia aurri TEXETTOI. TOT$ 8E OUTOU EKyovois, VOTITOIS 8E OEOTJ fiSri Kai rr)v EK TOU Xoyou uuvcp8iav TTPOO0ETEOV. aTrapxil y a p EKOOTCP cbv 8E8COKEV r| 0uoia, Kai 5f cbv

rincbv xpEcpEi Kai sis TO ETVOI OUVEXEI Triv ouoiav. cos ouv yscopyos 8payndTcov dfrapxETai Kai TCOV aKpo8pucov, OUTCOS riusTs aTrap£couE0a auroTs EVVOICOV TCOV TTEpi aurcbv KaXcov,

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Implicit in this sacrificial order, then, is a spiritual order differentiating between the highest god and the intelligible gods.5 Porphyry derives a parallel between this order and the difference between various social orders at the human level. As noted in the introductory chapter, and as will become evident in Chapter Five, daemonological order can be used to create or enforce certain understandings about social order. Here Porphyry is drawing a distinction between philosophers and farmers, a distinction which is prefigured in Plato's Republic with its distinction between guardians and producers, but is here made to mirror the divine order as well. Porphyry also addressed daemonological orders in other places. For instance, in the fragment from On the Philosophy from Oracles listing all the various sacrifices appropriate to different deities, a fragment which Porphyry likely subjected to figural exegesis, the realm of spirits is divided up between celestial divinities and chthonic ones - a very standard division maintained in both belief and practice in antiquity.6 And it may have been that Porphyry reflected at some length on this

EuxctpioTouvTES GOV rinTv SeScoKaoiv Tf|v 6ecopiav, Kai OTI rinas 5ia rfjs aurcov 9eas a\r|8ivoos rpecpouoi, OUVOVTES Kai (paivopEvoi Kai ffj riUETEpg acoTTipig EiriXdniTOVTES-" 5 There are a number of important precursors for Porphyry's idea here, the most important being the Timaeus itself. 6 Smith and Wasserstein, Porphyrii philosophi fragments. See footnote 9 in Chapter Three for the translation of this fragment.

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distinction in the portions of commentary that Eusebius failed to preserve in his Preparation for the Gospel. Porphyry also expressed curiosity and concern about the various kinds of spiritual beings that inhabit the cosmos in his Letter to Anebo. In fact, his question incites lamblichus to craft a thorough-going daemonological account in Book Two of On the Mysteries. There lamblichus responded to Porphyry's question, "what is the sign of the presence of a god, an angel, an archangel, a daemon or of some archon or a soul?"7 Indeed, lamblichus takes Porphyry's query as his point of departure for a detailed comparative analysis of these various spiritual kinds, not merely in terms of their "signs" but also, as we will see, in terms of their appearances, size and shape, the emotional impression they make, the quality of their light, the thoroughness with which their fire is able to consume matter, their swiftness, the degree of vividness of their self-revelatory images, their ability to perfect the soul, their gifts, the dispositions they create in the souls of those who invoke them, and so forth.8 Hence, Porphyry and lamblichus share an earnest interest in the distinctions between various daemonological orders. Although Origen's spiritual landscape is, at first glance, populated by fewer species of divine beings, it is no less complex. And given the influence Origen may

7 8

lamb. Myst. 2.3. lamb. Myst. 2.3-9.

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have had on Porphyry, he is a logical place to begin mapping out the more universal daemonological systems he and lamblichus created. Origen's own daemonology is most explicitly laid out in his work, On First Principles.9 Likely written sometime between 218 and 225 CE when Origen was still in Alexandria, it was an experimental work, one of the first sustained attempts at a systematic theology, and one which addressed issues of cosmology and cosmogony, soteriology, Christology, theodicy, and, of course, what I have been calling daemonology.10 Origen himself describes his purpose in On First Principles as an attempt to construct a "connected body of doctrine," discovering the truth about particular points which Christ and the We do not have a full Greek version of On First Principles. Nearly all of Origen's works perished as a result of doctrinal controversies in the sixth century and the outcome of the Second Council of Constantinople (553 CE). Fortunately, many of Rufinus' Latin translations survived this purge. These translations have been much maligned by scholars who charge Rufinus with excising or modifying controversial passages in the original text, but according to Henri de Lubac, this criticism has been unjust and insofar as it has prevented scholars from making use of these translations for studying Origen, it has proved detrimental to our understanding of this key figure in the history of philosophy and Christian thought. De Lubac writes: "Even so, more than one historian has refused to make use of these translations. Such purism would be excessive even if the translations were ten times more suspect than they are: it is too much of an invitation to laziness and simple lack of inquiry... In this case, more than elsewhere, the real cure does not lie in abstinence but on the contrary in massive utilization." G. W. Butterworth, Origen on first principles: being Koetschau's text of the De principiis (Gloucester, Mass., 1973). ix. For an overview of some of the history of the debate about Rufinus' reliability as a translator, see Alan Scott, Origen and the Life of the Stars: A History of an Idea (Oxford, 1991). Appendix A: "Rufinus as Translator"., Origen, Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, Ronald E. Heine trans. (Washington, D.C., 1982). 30-9., and Henry Chadwick, "Rufinus and the Tura Papyrus of Origen's Commentary on Romans," Journal of Theological Studies (1959). Although it is my belief that scholars working with Rufinus' translations must proceed cautiously and circumspectly, I agree with de Lubac that utilization and not abstinence is the best solution. 10 Butterworth, Origen on first principles: being Koetschau's text of the De principiis. xxviii-xxix.

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apostles left obscure or unexplained and doing so using "clear and cogent arguments."11 One of the main questions left unelaborated in scripture concerned intermediate spiritual beings, good and evil angels, as well as the devil himself. Origen notes that "the Church teaching lays it down that these beings exist, but what they are or how they exist it has not explained very clearly."12 Origen makes the claim that the apostles left certain doctrines unelaborated in order to "supply the more diligent of those who came after them such as should prove to be lovers of wisdom, with an exercise on which to display the fruit of their ability."13 Origen obviously considered himself to be one of those who were uniquely qualified to participate in this exegetical project, one of those "who train themselves to become worthy and capable of receiving wisdom."14 Part of what initially incited Origen to address these mysterious questions was the emergence of "conflicting opinions" among those professing belief in Christ "not only on small and trivial questions, but also on some that are

11

Origenes, princ. Preface 9. Origenes, princ. Preface 6. "De diabolo quoque et angelis eius contrariisque uirtutibus ecclesiastica praedicatio docuit quoniam sint quidem haec, quae autem sint uel quomodo sint, non satis dare exposuit." Latin edition used throughout: Origen, Traite des Principes, Manlio Simonetti Henri Crouzel trans., Source Chretiennes (Paris, 1978-84). 13 Origenes, princ. Preface 3. "...de aliis uero dixerunt quidem quia sint, quomodo autem aut unde sint, siluerunt, profecto ut studiosiores quique ex posteris suis, qui amatores essent sapientiae, exercitium habere possent, in quo ingenii sui fructum ostenderent, hi uidelicet, qui dignos se et capaces ad recipiedendam sapientiam praepararent." Origenes, princ. Preface 3. 12

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great and important."15 Given his view that much of Christian doctrine remained unelaborated in scripture, it is not surprising that such conflicts developed. One of these conflicts emerged around the views of a group of early Christian thinkers who later came to be labeled "gnostics," writers such as Marcion, Valentinus and Basilides.16 These thinkers, according to Origen, held the view that human souls were "in their natures diverse" and hence had different origins and different opportunities for salvation.17 Origen developed his daemonological framework, in part, in response to this view, a view which, for our purposes, bears relevant similarities to that of Porphyry on the question of universal salvation.18 And the debate between Origen and these "gnostics" bears interesting similarities to the debate between Porphyry and lamblichus on the soteriological potential of ritual. On Origen's interpretation of Marcion, Valentinus and Basilides, these different orders of human souls were the direct result of distinct creative agents in the universe - one good, the other deceptive and defective. The main problem that Origen had to address in response to 15

Origenes, princ. Preface 2. 1 use the word "gnostic" in quotation marks to signal that it is not a term that these three thinkers nor their followers would have used in reference to themselves. The best discussion of the problem of terminology with regard to these early Christian groups is found in Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (Princeton, 1996). 17 Origenes, princ. 2.9.5. 18 Recall that lamblichus objected to Porphyry's conspiratorial demonology in part because it condemned large numbers of people to polluting acts and focused only on the soteriological possibilities of elite philosophers. 16

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his doctrinal opponents was "how it was consistent with the righteousness of God who made the world" that he should make some souls of higher rank and others of "second and third and many still lower and less worthy degrees," a problem which, for them, was solved by positing multiple creative agents in the cosmos.19 Origen radically countered this particular conception of a hierarchy of souls with what some have called his "universalism" or the idea of apocatastasis, the idea that all created intelligences, even those which have fallen the furthest away from God, will someday be restored to their original created nature.20 It is embedded in his answer to the proponents of the

Origenes, princ. 2.9.5. "They ask how it is consistent with the righteousness of God who made the world that on some he should bestow a habitation in the heavens, and not only give them a better habitation, but also confer on them a higher and more conspicuous rank, favoring some with a 'principality', others with 'powers', to others again allotting 'dominions', to others presenting the most magnificent seats in the heavenly courts, while others shine with golden light and gleam with starry brilliance..." See also Maria Barbara von Stritzky, "Die Bedeutung der Phaidros interpretation fur die Apokatastasis-lehre des Origenes," Vigiliae Christianae 31.4 (1977): 282. 20 What Origen definitively thought on this question has been a matter of considerable scholarly debate, especially insofar as Origen's position on the matter appears to extend even to evil daemons and the Devil himself in some fragments and writings attributed to Origen. Henri Crouzel, the great Origen scholar and bibliographer for scholarship on Origen studies, divides the scholarship on this question and in general between two camps - one which sees in Origen a system more conformable with later Origenism (i.e. the Origenism that was condemned in 553 at the Second Council of Constantinople), and a school which takes Origen as a totality but does not reduce his thought to a system and which respects "the continual antitheses of his doctrine and his purpose." Henri Crouzel, "The Literature on Origen 1970-1988," Theological Studies 49 (1988): 499. Crouzel includes himself in the latter camp and places those scholars who take Origen's apocatastasis as his definitive position within the former. In his important work on the philosopher, Henry Crouzel, Origen, A. S. Worrall trans. (Edinburgh, 1989)., his main aim appears to be to establish the orthodoxy of Origen on most theological issues, attributing problematic elements and ideas to the extravagances and distortions of later Origenists. Although Crouzel's work is generally indispensable for anyone working on Origen, this aim is problematic for the reason that Origen was living and thinking in a period before any sort of orthodox position had been resolved upon on

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"gnostic" position that we find his daemonology most clearly elaborated.21 And although this elaboration takes up most of Chapters Eight to Ten of Book Two, he cautions his reader that he, Origen, "must not be supposed to put these [ideas] forward as settled doctrines, but as subjects for inquiry and discussion."22 One of Origen's main concerns in these three chapters was to explain why some rational souls happen to be angels, others evil daemons, and still others, humans. On his view, human beings could not hold God responsible for these differences, because that would imply that God either created deficient beings or participated in the fall of good ones.23 In order to resolve this theodical problem, Origen asserted that all rational souls were created equal and each made a primordial choice

a wide variety of theological questions. Furthermore, as John Sachs demonstrates, the idea of universal salvation was one which Origen's teacher, Clement of Alexandria seems to have held. John Sachs, "Apocatastasis in Patristic Theology," Theological Studies 54:4 (1993): 618-20. The approach I propose to take in this chapter is to follow Crouzel in his insight that it is unwise to treat any one position of Origen's as definitive, to rather take his work as a totality and to respect the "continual antitheses" of his ideas and purpose, but also to suspend the need to bring Origen's thinking into line with later Christian orthodoxy on any one matter. In general, this project is concerned with thirdcentury thinking on daemonology, and Origen's is some of the richest and most complex we have from this epoch. For further studies on the idea of apocatastasis in Origen's writings see L.R. Hennessy, "The Place of Saints and Sinners after Death," in Origen of Alexandria: his world and his legacy, ed. Charles Kannengiesser (Notre Dame, 1988)., Cheryl Riggs, "Apokatastasis and the Search for Religious Identity in Patristic Salvation History," in Religious Identity in Late Antiquity, ed. Robert M. Frakes and Elizabeth DePalma Digeser (Toronto, 2006)., and Stritzky, "Die Bedeutung der Phaidros interpretation fur die Apokatastasis-lehre des Origenes.". 21 This conceptualization of the hierarchy of spiritual beings and its daemonological implications with regard to salvation history can also be found in a number of Origen's sermons. Below we will consider, in particular, his Homily on 1 Kings 28 in this regard. 22 Origenes, princ. 2.8.4. 23 Origenes, princ. 2.9.5.

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with regard to its Creator that subsequently situated it in the cosmic order. In Chapter Nine of Book Two, Origen states that in the beginning, "God made as large a number of rational and intelligent beings" as "he saw would be sufficient."24 In Chapter Eight, Origen called these "minds" and distinguished them from "souls."25 He claimed that before all souls were souls, including the souls of angels, of the celestial bodies and those of humans, they were minds.26 He uses the designation "soul" to indicate what these intelligences or minds became after they fell from their primordial state. Unfortunately, in all cases but one, namely Christ's, these intelligences, using their God-given capacity for free and voluntary movement, "began the process of withdrawal from the good," on account of their "sloth and weariness of taking trouble to preserve the good coupled with disregard and neglect of better things."27 Origen describes this fall in terms of "becoming lost" and also in terms of a cooling process, drawing on key Platonic ideas that associate divinity

Origenes, princ. 2.9.1. Origenes, princ. 2.8.3. This distinction is made in Koetschau's GCS edition (1913) using excerpts from Jerome (£p. Ad Avit. 6): "vous, id est mens, corruens facta est anima, et rursum anima instructa virtutibus mens fiet." 26 Origenes, princ. 2.8.3. According to a quotation found in Jerome (Ep. Ad Avit. 6) included by Koetschau in his GCS edition (1913), Origen stated that "Mind when it fell was made soul, and soul in its turn when furnished with virtues will become mind." ("vous, id est mens, corruens facta est anima, et rursum anima instructa virtutibus mens fiet.") 27 Origenes, princ. 2.9.2. For a discussion of this account of the fall in Origen see Michihiko Kuyama, "Evil and Diversity in Origen's De Principiis," in Origeniana Octava: Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition, ed. L. Perrone (Leuven, 2003). 25

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with fire. In the Timaean (and Heraclitean) cosmos, for instance, divinity was associated with the element of fire. And as we saw in the previous chapter, cold and moisture are associated with matter, body and generation.28 The cooling process Origen speaks of is not a literal, physical process, but rather the cooling of the primordial minds' ardor for God: As therefore God is 'fire' and the angels a 'flame of fire' and the saints are all 'fervent in spirit,' so on the contrary those who have fallen away from the love of God must undoubtedly be said to have cooled in their affection for him and to have become cold.29 According to Origen, the degree to which each created intelligence cooled determined its subsequent place in the cosmos as rational soul, thereby acquiring some kind of body and subsequently becoming subject to both feeling and motion.30 One of Justinian's anathemas included in his Epistola ad Mennam summarizes these positions and highlights the

In fact, Origen makes the statement early on in Chapter Eight that the blood of living creatures is their soul, a position which mirrors closely the one we found in Porphyry's works (Origenes, princ. 2.8.1). 29 Origenes, princ. 2.8.3. Origen even supplies an etymological connection between "psyche" and "psychesthai" stating that the former may have been derived from the latter because "the soul seems to have grown cold by the loss of its first natural and divine warmth" (2.8.3). 30 Origenes, princ. 2.8.1. This subsequent moment of receiving a body also resembles the Timean creation account, not in terms of the moral reasons for it, but in terms of process. In the Timaeus, the Demiurge first creates souls, then sows them into the various celestial bodies like seeds. Then the gods create bodies for them. If they live justly in their bodies, souls return to their celestial home, an idea which has a long history extending even to Origen. See Scott, Origen and the Life of the Stars: A History of an Idea. For a more positive interpretation of embodiment in Origen's works, see Anders-Christian Lund Jacobsen, "Origen on the Human Body," in Origeniana Octava: Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition, ed. L. Perrone (Leuven, 2003).

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daemonological implications of Origen's suppositions. It attributes to Origen the following view: [T]he creation of all rational creatures consisted of minds bodiless and immaterial without any number or name, so that they all formed a unity by reason of the identity of their essence and power and energy and by their union with and knowledge of God the Word; but that they were seized with weariness of the divine love and contemplation, and changed for the worse, each in proportion of his inclination in this direction; and that they took bodies, either fine in substance or grosser, and became possessed of a name, which accounts for the differences of names as well as of bodies among the higher powers; and that thus the cherubim, with the rulers and authorities, the lordships, thrones, angels and all the other heavenly orders came into being and received their names...31

In Book Two, Chapter Nine, Origen extends the logic that informed his systematic ordering of different kinds of spiritual beings to specific differences between the characters and circumstances of individual O r i g e n e s , princ. 2.8.3. "...TrdvTcov T U V XoyiKcbv Tr|v Trapaycoyfiv voas dacoudTous Kai duXous yEyovevai 8ixa TTOVTOS dpiSnou Kai OVOHOTOS, cos Evd8a TrdvTcov TOUTCOV yEVEO0ai Tfj TauTOTHTi Tfjs ouaias Kai 8uvdu.Ecos Kai EVEpyEias Kai xfj Tfpos TOV 6EOV Xoyov EVCOOEI TE Kai yvcboer KOpov 8E a u r a s Xa(3sTv rfjs Ssias dydiTris Kai 0Ecopias, Kai TTpos TO xEipov Tpairfjvai KOTO Tf|v EKOOTOU dvaXoyiav Tfjs siri TOUTO pOTrfjs, Kai EiXricpEvai aconaxa XETTTOUEpEorepa f\ TraxuTEpa Kai ovoiaa KXripcooaa6ai Bid TO cbs OVOHOTCOV OUTGO Kai ocoudTcov Siacpopds ETVOI TCOV dvco 5uvdii£cov Kai EVTEU6EV TOUS UEV XEpou^iu TOUS 8E

d p x d s Kai E^o0aias f\ KupiOTiyras f\ 9TTOVOUS Kai dyyEXous Kai o o a EOT'IV oupdvia T a y n a T a

ysyovEvai TE Kai ovoiaaoOfivai." These anathemas come from the Second Council of Constantinople (553 CE). Koetschau in his critical edition of On First Principles, included them because he was attempting to counteract what he saw as the shortcomings of Rufinus' translation, thinking that Rufinus had suppressed and rewritten certain controversial passages. Scott, Origen and the Life of the Stars: A History of an Idea. 170. As mentioned earlier in footnote 9, scholars now tend to concede that Rufinus' alterations were far less radical than Koetschau and others thought. In response, however, some scholars such as Crouzel have wanted to call into question other fragments such as the anathemas or references in Jerome on the grounds that they may represent later Origenists more than Origen himself. In order to avoid being side-tracked by this ongoing debate, I use these anathemas with caution and never as the exclusive basis for my interpretation of Origen.

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humans, how it is that humans as both larger groups, such as Greeks and barbarians (ethnoi), and as individuals partake of very different fates, many living in diminished and difficult circumstances, some "from the very moment of their birth" being in a "humble position, brought up in subjection and slavery" while others "are brought up with more freedom and under rational influences."32 Origen once again bases these distinctions on the degree to which, as created intelligences, the ardor of these individual beings for the contemplation of their Creator was cooled prior to becoming a soul.33 He uses as his case study the tension between Jacob and Esau over their birthright, asking how God's justice is preserved in the case where "the elder should serve the younger" and God should say "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Romans 9.11-13).34 According to Origen, Jacob's supplanting of Esau in the womb was only just "provided we believe that by his merits in some previous life Jacob had deserved to be loved by God to such an extent as to be worthy of

Origenes, princ. 2.9.3. This is also the way in which Origen accounts for physical differences and disabilities: "Some have healthy bodies, others from their earliest years are invalids; some are defective in sight, others in hearing and speech..." Ibid. Although this position solves Origen's immediate theodical problem, it leads to other moral problems relating to how one ought to respond to the suffering of other human beings. The connection between physical and moral conditions with reference to birth defects and such will continue to be upheld and elaborated throughout the Middle Ages, in part as a result of the medieval reliance on ancient ideas in the domains of the life sciences, and in particular embryology. 34 Origenes, princ. 2.9.7. 33

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being preferred to his brother.

And this situation mirrors the more

general daemonological order prevailing in the cosmos: "so also it is in regard to the heavenly creatures, provided we note that their diversity is not the original condition of their creation..."36 As mentioned earlier, Origen constructed his framework in response to his perception of the cosmologies of individuals such as Marcion, Valentinus and Basilides. Origen rejected the implications of the view that differences in character and circumstance could be accounted for in terms of multiple creative agents and distinct orders of human souls, and he felt compelled to provide an alternate theodicy. In contrast to this dualistic explanation that posited parallel cosmoi, Origen provided a single narrative that encompassed all spiritual beings various classes of angels, humans, evil daemons, thrones, authorities, and so forth - and in important respects, he elided the differences between these by positing a single primordial ontological equality. Thus humans, angels and evil daemons all share in the same history. And the differences between, for instance, an angel and a human or a human and an evil daemon is one of degree and not genus. Furthermore, this framework not only encompassed their original state and their

Origenes, princ. 2.9.7. "...si ex praecedentis uidelicet uitae meritis digne eum dilectum esse sentiamus a deo, ita ut et fratri praeponi mereretur..." 36 Origenes, princ. 2.9.7. "ita etiam de caelestibus creaturis, si aduertamus quoniam ista diuversitas non estcreaturae principium, ..."

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disintegration into diversity, it also had important soteriological implications. Although scholars continue to debate whether Origen definitively held the view that all souls, including those of evil daemons, would eventually be restored to their original, created condition, a state of union with and contemplation of God, there is strong evidence that Origen entertained this idea seriously at a number of junctures, On First Principles being one.37 In BookThree, Chapter Six, for instance, Origen interprets the destruction of the "last enemy," "not in the sense of ceasing to exist, but of being no longer an enemy," and that the "hostile purpose and will which proceeded not from God but from itself will come to an end."38 Butterworth notes that at this juncture in the text, Rufinus appears to have omitted some of Origen's statements about "the final unity of all spiritual beings," and he directs the reader to the last four anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople to fill in the lacunae.39 According to these anathemas, Origen was supposed to have taught that the devil and the spiritual hosts of wickedness "were as

37

For a general overview of some of the scholarly thinking on this question see Ibid, xxxviii-xli. See also Riggs, "Apokatastasis and the Search for Religious Identity in Patristic Salvation History." and Sachs, "Apocatastasis in Patristic Theology." 38 Origenes, princ. 3.6.5. "Destruitur ergo, non ut non sit, sed ut inimicus et mors non sit." 39 These anathemas are used with caution here for the reasons state in footnote 31.

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unchangeably united to the Word of God as the Mind itself (i.e. Christ). In other words, despite the tragic choices of the primordial intelligences, the connection between the fallen souls and their Creator was never permanently severed. Furthermore, the anathemas accuse Origen of holding the view that "all rational creatures will form one unity" once again when these intelligences abandon their bodies and their names, ostensibly as the result of a purificatory process, making the beginning the same as the end, and the end "the measure of the beginning," such that "the life of spirits will be the same as it formerly was."41 This process of restoration is, in fact, how Origen conceives of the afterlife, the resurrection and judgment. In Book Two, Chapter Ten, Origen outlines a universal path of salvation for all souls. He does this by turning to the question of the "contents of the Church's teaching to the effect that at the time of judgment 'eternal fire' and 'outer darkness' and a 'prison' and a 'furnace' and other similar things have been prepared for sinners."42 Using Isaiah 50:11 as the basis for explaining the idea of eternal fire, Origen interprets this fire as purgative and restorative, part of a purifying process commensurate in intensity and duration with both the 40

Butterworth, Origen on first principles: being Koetschau's text of the De principiis.

250, footnote 3. "XII. o n EVOUVTOI xcp GEOU Xoyco OUTCOS dTrapaXXaKaxcos aV TE

ETTOupdviai BuvdpEis Kai TTOVTES oi av9pTroi Kai 6 SidpJoXos Kai TO irvEuuaTiKa TTJS •jrovripias, cos auToj 6 V0O5 6 XEyoiiEvos Trap' airrcbv XpioToj Kai EV uopepf) 6EO0 uirdpxcov
41

Butterworth, 250, footnote 3. Origenes, princ. 2.10.1. "...eo quod iudicii tempore ignis aeternus ettenebrae exteriores et career et caminus et alia his similia peccatoribus praeparata sint..." 42

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original fall and subsequent actions of each rational soul. It is interesting that the element Origen associates with divinity is also part of the curative process whereby souls are purified. The verse itself reads "walk in the light of your own fire, and in the flame which you have kindled for yourselves." Origen argues that these words mean "that every sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire, and is not plunged into a fire which has been previously kindled by someone else or which existed before him."43 This interpretation, of course, helps to mitigate the problem of theodicy in that it absolves God of any responsibility for tormenting souls. For a mere infliction of pain without remedial effect would be unworthy of God.44 According to Origen, the soul's sin, "the history of its evil deeds, of every foul and disgraceful act and all unholy conduct" will be exposed to each soul, and the conscience, "harassed and pricked by its own stings" will become "an accuser and witness against itself."45 Origen explains to his reader the way in which these

Origenes, princ. 2.10.4. "Per quos sermones hoc uidetur indicari, quod unusquisque peccatorum flammam sibi ipse proprii ignis accendat, et non in aliquem ignem, qui antea iam fuerit accensus ab alio uel ante ipsum substiterit, demergatur." 44 Sachs, "Apocatastasis in Patristic Theology," 618. 45 Origenes, princ. 2.10.4. "...cum etiam mens ipsa uel conscientia per diuinam uirtutem omnia in memoriam recipiens, quorum in semet ipsa signa quaedam ac formas, cum peccaret, expresserat, et singulorum, quae uel foede ac turpiter gesserat uel etiam impie commiserat, historiam quandam scelerum suorum ante oculos uidebit expositam: tunc et ipsa conscientia propriis stimulis agitator atque conpungitur et sui ipsa efficitur accusatrix et testis. Porphyry, in On the Styx, has a similar idea about the way the souls of the unjust dead are punished by torments commensurate in kind and degree with their misdeeds. These are the souls, as we saw, that retain some kind of body and cannot pass over into Hades and into forgetfulness of their embodied existence on earth. Origen also holds the view that the soul retains its body in order

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torments already accompany evil deeds almost like shadows: "The soul is burnt up with the flames of love, or tormented by the fires of jealousy or envy, of tossed about with furious anger, or consumed with intense sadness."46 In other words, the motions and feelings that accompany such deeds already prefigure and indicate the sorts of punishments that will work to purge the soul of the effects of these deeds after death. Origen also uses bodily metaphors to illustrate why the soul experiences the pain of punishment. He compares its state of separation from God with a limb of the body torn from its joint: so "when the soul is found apart from that order and connexion and harmony in which it was created by God," it experiences the "torture of its own want of cohesion."47 And he compares this punishment to the bitter medicine that cures certain bodily conditions. The end result for Origen is that all souls will be purified of their sins; the fire having been kindled will burn itself out. For some the blaze will be of significantly greater magnitude and duration. But he does seem to think that it will eventually end.48

that it might go through the punishments it deserves and which will purify it. Porphyry, on the other hand does not see the afterlife as a place of purgation and restoration, but he likely held the view that the process of reincarnation served this function. 46 Origenes, princ. 2.10.5. "...id est cum uel flammis amoris exuritur anima uel zeli aut liuoris ignibus maceratur, aut cum irae agitatur insania uel tristitiae inmensitate consumitur..." 47 Origenes, princ. 2.10.5. "...ita cum anima extra ordinem atque conpagem uel earn armoniam, qua ad bene agendum et utiliter sentiendum a deo creata est, fuerit inuenta nee sibimet ipsi rationabilium motuum conpagine consonare, poenam cruciatiumque putanda sit suimet ipsius ferre discidii, et inconstantiae suae atque inordinationis sentire supplicium." 48 Origenes, princ. 3.6.4-5.

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Furthermore, he does not specify that this is the case for human souls only, and given his assertion that all souls have one primordial nature and shared in the same kind of fall, it would be surprising if he did assert different ends for the various orders of spiritual beings. In a Greek fragment preserved in Leontius of Byzantium which Koetschau includes in his edition of On First Principles, Origen was supposed to have stated that "there is a resurrection of the dead, and there is punishment, but not everlasting. For when the body is punished the soul is gradually purified, and so is restored to its ancient rank."49 The most controversial implication, however, is the possibility that even evil daemons might be restored. Origen never denies it in On First Principles, and may have even stated this position explicitly. For instance, Koetschau also includes in his edition a fragment which states: "For all wicked men, and for daemons, too, punishment has an end, and both wicked men and daemons shall be restored to their former rank."50 Where Origen focused on the role of the purgative and purificatory fire in the soul's restoration in On First Principles, in his Homily on 1 Kings 28 (c, 240's C.E.), he adds a further dimension to this drama. The homily concerns one of the strangest episodes in Hebrew scripture, Origenes, princ. 2.10.3. "yivETai vEKpcov dvdoTaais, Kai yivexai KoAaais dAA'ouK aiTEpavTOs. KoAa^opEVOU yap TOU ocbuafos Karaa uiKpov Kct8aip£Tai r\ y8xr|, Kai OUTCOS aiTOKaeioTaTai sis TV\V dpxaiav Ta£iv." Origenes, princ. 2.10.3. "TTOVTCOV da£(3cbv dv9pcoiTGOV Kai irp6s ye Saiuovcov r\ KoAaaig TTEpas E'XEI. Kai d7TOKaTaoTa9r)OOVTai OOEPETS TE Kai SaiiaovEs EIS xf)v irpTEpav auxcov

Td^iv." This fragment comes from Justinian's Epistola ad Mennam.

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namely, the story of Saul conjuring Samuel through the help of a medium in En-dor. Origen does not directly address the issue of necromantic practice itself and does not criticize Saul for engaging in the practice. Indeed, Origen is nonplussed about the necromantic activity of the king. Origen, rather, is at pains to explain why Samuel, a prophet of God, is in Hades. The implications for Origen's audience are obvious. He writes: [S]ince the history about Saul and the medium affects all, there is a necessary truth regarding its subject. For who, after departing this life, wants to be under the sway of a little demon, in order that a medium may bring up not just one who by chance has believed but Samuel the prophet...?51 Origen implies, then, that mediums generally work necromantic rites using "little demons." But he denies that this could be so in Samuel's case. Nor will Origen concede that the rite may have been performed by an evil daemon posing as Samuel. For no "little demon" could have known what was in God's plan with regard to the end of Saul's reign and the beginning of David's.52 Origen insists that Samuel must have been in Hades and that it was his soul which the medium brought up.53 But what was the soul of a prophet doing in Hades? For earlier Christian writers, this question would not have arisen. All souls of the dead went to Hades 51

Origenes, horn. 1-28 in Num. 1.2. Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah: Homily on 1 Kings 28, John Clark Smith trans. (Washington, D.C., 1998). "ETTE'I uEv-roiye ii ioTopia ii rapi

TOV 2 a o u X Kai TT)V EyyaoTpijiuOov TrdvTcov chrrETai, d v a y x a i a dAr|6Eia KaTa T O V A o y o v . xis y a p d i r a X A a y E i s T O U T O U T O U (Jiou SEAEI ETVOI UTTO E^ouaiav S a i n o v i o u , Vva

EyyaaTpiuuGos d v a y d y r ) o u TOV T u x o v r a TCOV TTETTIOTEUKOTCOV, d A A a ZauouriA TOV •npocprJTriv..." 52 53

Origenes, horn. 1-28 in Num. 5.2-4. Origenes, horn. 1-28 in Num. 6.1-2.

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to await final judgment. But according to Gary Wayne Barkley, Origen was the first to open Paradise to Christians before the Resurrection.54 Thus, one would not expect to find Samuel, other Hebrew prophets, or New Testament saints in Hades. But this is precisely where Origen insists that Samuel is found in 1 Kings 28. His purpose in being there, as it turns out, was to prophesy and proclaim Christ's eventual arrival, not on earth, but in Hades itself. Samuel was not the only one continuing his life's work in the afterlife. According to Origen, John the Baptist also went to Hades. This is somehow fitting seeing as his prophetic vocation began even before birth when he bore witness to Jesus' presence in Mary's womb.55 For Origen, then, the soul, although it does not pass through cycles of reincarnation, indeed because it does not, undergoes a process of salvation that far outstrips its earthly tenure. And although each 54

Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah: Homily on 1 Kings 28, John Clark Smith trans. (Washington, D C , 1998)9. 5 Origenes, horn. 1-28 in Num. 7.3. Luke 1:41-44. This also fits in with Origen's views on the life of the soul prior to its embodied existence. John the Baptist's choices as primordial intelligence already fitted him for a life of prophecy, a life which manifested itself even before birth. According to Sarah lies Johnston, lamblichus also held the view that the truly virtuous would become angels after death, but then they would re-descend to earth, and in a new incarnation, teach and participate in the demiurgic recreation and re-ordering of the cosmos. As Johnston sees it, "the opportunity to spend one life putting into effect what he [the theurgist] had spent all of the last one learning constituted Paradise indeed" (100). In other words, like Origen's prophets in Hades, lamblichus' reincarnated angelic souls continue their pursuit of a sort of universal, albeit circumscribed, salvation. Sarah lies Johnston, "Working Overtime in the Afterlife; or, No Rest for the Virtuous," in Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions, ed. Annette Yoshiko Reed Ra'anan S. Boustan (Cambridge, 2004), 89. Johnston cites lamblichus De Anima 1.389.525. This idea is also represented in the Chaldean Oracles and Synesios' Hymn 1.513.

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rational soul must be purified by the fire it kindles, it is not without resources - prophets, healers, and angels - to help it along. In fact, in their capacity as post mortem ministers of God, the blessed bear a very close resemblance to angels. And, as already noted, based on the single cosmological/teleological framework in which Origen placed all spiritual beings, the differences between angelic and human souls are difficult to enforce in such instances. In other words, although Origen was involved in constructing a daemonological edifice and cosmogonical discourse into which he could emplot the souls of angels, humans and evil daemons, in the end, the story he told undermined any essential distinctions between these spiritual creatures at the ontological level. This edifice leads to very interesting scenarios where one finds souls battling for their proper birthright in the wombs of women, and saints and prophets wandering in the underworld ministering to other souls undergoing the punishments they had "kindled" for themselves in life. But this elision between types of spirits, this difficulty in fixing ontological difference in Origen's schema, does not map onto the sort of cognitive flexibility about spirits that one witnesses at the level of local religion. In fact, Origen's urgent need to explain Samuel's presence in Hades is an example of the philosophical tendency to fix orders and explain what for him could only be apparent amorphousness in the realm of the spiritual,

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an amorphousness which seems not to have troubled the writer of 1 Kings in the first place. Origen's need to provide an explanation for the events in 1 Kings is also interesting and important. He does not, as he is usually wont to do in exegetical moments when the text resists him, provide a figural resolution. In the case of Samuel in Hades, his exegesis is literal. He explains how a great prophet could be in a position to participate in necromantic rites. In this regard, he resembles Porphyry and lamblichus who take account of certain traditional ritual practices, as we shall see in more detail in Chapter Five. And by doing so, these thinkers engage with and take account of religious ideas, beliefs, and practices that appear to belong to different social milieus than those of the educated elite philosopher and which open up their respective daemonological accounts to what we might call "subversive" or "excessive" elements, elements that introduce what has been referred to thus far as amorphousness and ambiguity. Amorphousness and the elision of difference characterizes key aspects of lamblichus' daemonology as well. Unlike Origen, whose cosmogonical rationale for the various spiritual orders is based on moral differences, lamblichus presents his reader with what might be called "descriptive ontology." He takes for granted an emanational framework in which distance from the original One translates into distinct orders of

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being. In this lamblichean framework, daemonological amorphousness shows up in two ways, as the remainder of this chapter will demonstrate. First, human souls, as a result of their participation in theurgic practices, are able to rise up through the spiritual ranks above them to achieve union with the highest echelons of divinity.56 Second, the nature of a number of spiritual orders, as described by lamblichus, comes across as far more morally ambivalent and ambiguous than one might expect from a thinker whose chief aim is to both affirm the goodness of the various celestial and sublunary beings who inhabit and govern the cosmos and to draw clear distinctions between genera of these beings. This moral ambiguity is most pronounced in his descriptions of good daemons. The first kind of amorphousness mentioned above appears in On the Mysteries in Book Two, Chapter Two. There lamblichus notes that although the human soul "has to a lesser degree the eternity of the unchanging life and full actuality," it can, by the good will of the gods, be "elevated to a greater rank, even to that of the angelic order," being "perfected into an angelic soul and an immaculate life."57 In Book One, Chapter Twelve, he identifies the theurgist as the primary beneficiary of 56

lamb. Myst. 2.2. See also 1.12 and 2.6. lamb. Myst. 2.2. "...Sid SE TT|V TCOV 6ECOV (JouAriaiv dya0riv Kai Tiiv cm' auTcov EvSiSouevqv 9COT05 E'AAapyiv TTOAAOKIS Kai dvcoTEpco xcopouaa, ETTI uEi£ovd TE rd£iv xriv dyysAiKinv dvayouEvr|. "OTE 5T\ OUKETI TOTJ Tfjs vjA/xfis opens dvayEVEi, TO 5' oXov TOUTO sis dyyeAiKf)v ^ X ^ v K a l otXPaVTOV TEAEIOOTCU £cor|v. "OSEV 8r| Kai SOKET TravToScmas ouaias Kai EVEpyEias Aoyous TE iravToious Kai E'I'ST) TO 6Aa irapEXEiv EV sauTfj r| yuxil- To 8' si xpil TaAr)0ES EiTTETu, copioTai UEV dsi Ka6' EV TI, Koivouoa 5' EauTr)v TOTS TrporiyounEvoij aiTiois aAAoTE dAAoij auvTaTTETai."

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the divine good will which brings about this state of affairs, the gods "shedding their light upon theurgists, summoning up their souls to themselves and orchestrating their union with them," "accustoming them, even while still in the body, to detach themselves from their bodies, and to turn themselves towards their eternal and intelligible first principle."58 lamblichus calls this a "method of salvation for the soul" (Tfjs yuxns acoTripiov). According to Shaw, the theurgist's soul becomes "universal and divine, yet particular and mortal."59 Through this process, the embodied soul is "freed from its particularity and established in its starry vehicle, the augoeides ochema."60 Although lamblichus is primarily focused on the soteriological possibilities of the theurgist in this particular passage, it is important to keep in mind that the theurgic system as a whole, a system of rites itself ordered to the order of spirits, was a "method of salvation" for all human souls. They might not all achieve the dizzying reaches of the angelic soul, but they were on the right path, so to speak. Unlike Origen, who elides the distinctions between all spiritual beings by emplotting them in the same cosmogonical and soteriological

lamb. Myst. 1.12.

"Aid Tfjs TOIOU-TTIS OOV POUAI^OECOS dq>06vcos oi 0EOI TO cp<£>s

ETTiXdnirouoiv EUHEVETS OVTEJ Kai I'XECP TOTS 0EoupyoTs, Td$ TE VJAJXQS auTciv Eig EOUTOUS

dvaKaXouuEvoi Kai TT\V EVCOOIV airraTs rr\v Trp6$ EOUTOUS xopiyouvTEs, E6!£OVTES TE a u r a s Kai ETI EV ocouaTi o u a a s dqncrraaSai TCOV acouaTcov, em SE TT\V d(5iov Kai vor|TT)v auTcbv dpxiiv TTEpidyEO0ai." 59

Gregory Shaw, Theurgy and the soul: the neoplatonism of lamblichus (University Park, Pa., 1995). 51. 60 Ibid. 52. This refers to the celestial body with which the soul was associated at the time of creation by the Demiurge.

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drama, lamblichus accords human souls alone the ability to unite with the highest divinity in this manner. However, by doing so, he manages to subvert the very daemonological order he is establishing in the first place. It is to this order that we must now turn directly if we are to elucidate the second way in which amorphousness, elision of difference and moral ambiguity call daemonological difference into question in On the Mysteries. As noted earlier, lamblichus takes a question from Porphyry's Letter to Anebo as his point of departure for discussing the various kinds of spirits that inhabit the cosmos. Porphyry asked, "what is the sign of the presence of a god, an angel, an archangel, a daemon, or some archon or a soul?"61 lamblichus takes Porphyry's list as definitive but does not restrict himself to a discussion of the sign of the presence of these beings. He expands his answer to Porphyry's query to encompass a wide set of criteria for distinguishing between genera. These include the appearance or manifestation (
lamb. Myst. 2.3. Early on in Book Two, lamblichus distinguishes between what he calls sublunary archons (those in authority over the cosmos) and material ones (those who are involved with matter), the former being far superior in all respects to the latter. This chapter will address the inclusion of these two species of spirit and the strange differences between them later. 164

soul, the thoroughness with which they consume matter, the fineness of their light, and the disposition received by souls who invoke them.62 One can see how the elaboration of all these distinctions would yield a complex, thorough daemonological discourse, which in fact it does. And one of lamblichus' central aims in undertaking this project was to elucidate how these various orders of spirits mediate between the highest god and the human soul in such a way as to aid (or impede as we will see) the progress of the theurgist to rise above the ranks of other spirits and unite with the highest divinity. It is not necessary for our purposes to review all of lamblichus' distinctions between angels, archangels, daemons, heroes, archons and human souls on the basis of the criteria listed above. Instead we need only focus on one genus, namely daemons, in order to grasp the crux of lamblichus' project and the larger point this chapter is making, namely that despite their best efforts to fix difference and create totalizing discourses, Origen and lamblichus' daemonologies get away from them in the end. Daemons are an apt choice in this instance, not only because they have been the main focus of previous chapters, but also because they appear to be lamblichus' main focus as well. This is likely the case because he was in stark disagreement with Porphyry over the question of the relation of the daemonic soul to its pneumatic vehicle, as 62

lamb. Myst. 2.3-9.

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well as over the issue of blood sacrifice and the propitiation of evil spirits (see Chapter Three). This daemonic focus makes further sense if Shaw is correct in his assessment that lamblichus was motivated by a desire to reestablish the positive ontological status of the material within the demiurgic making and remaking of the world.63 According to lamblichus, daemons were the "generative and creative powers of the gods in the furthest extremity of their emanations and in its last stages of division."64 In other words, daemons were the spiritual beings that represented the extension of divinity into the realm of the material.65 lamblichus' description of daemons proceeds as follows. Unlike the gods whose appearances (
Shaw writes: "According to the Timaeus (41 d), each soul was constituted by the same ratios as the World Soul, and so necessarily participated, to some degree, in the entire world. Consequently, there was nothing essentially perverse about material things or embodied existence." Shaw, Theurgy and the soul: the neoplatonism of lamblichus. 47. l a m b . Myst. 2 . 1 . " A e y c o Toivuv S a i n o v a s UEV K a r a Tag yevvTiTiKas Kcti B r m i o u p y i K a s TCOV 0ECOV Sl/VaUElS EV TQ TTOppCOTCtTCO TfJS TTpOoSoU OCTTOTEAEUTIIOEI Kdl TCOV EOXOTCOV BianEpiaucov T r a p d y E o 8 a i . . . " 65

lamblichus contrasts daemons with what comes immediately below them in his hierarchy, namely heroes. He writes: Since daemons and heroes have thus come into being from different sources, their true nature also differs. That of daemons is fit for finishing and completing encosmic natures, and it exercises oversight on each thing coming into existence; that of heroes is full of life and reason, and has leadership over souls. One must assign to daemons productive powers that oversee nature and the bond uniting souls to bodies; but to heroes it is right to assign life-giving powers, directive of human beings, and yet exempt from becoming." lamb. Myst. 2.2. 66 lamb. Myst. 2.3. Strangely, the appearances of heroes, who are below daemons in the cosmic hierarchy, are gentler than those of daemons.

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the appearances of daemons.

As for the manner in which they

accomplish deeds, "the appearance of swiftness" is more than the reality.68 In other words, daemons put on a good show, but their deeds are characterized by a degree of mediacy.69 By contrast, the deeds of heroes, although less swift than those of daemons, are accompanied by a "certain magnificence."70 They are perhaps more inspiring of magnificent deeds for human souls on this account.71 By this point in lamblichus' description a pattern begins to emerge. Where he describes the gods in universally positive terms, and distinguishes archangels and angels from the gods in terms of degree and not in terms of qualitative difference, he characterizes daemons in more ambivalent, even explicitly negative ways. This is especially b

' lamb. Myst. 2.3. lamb. Myst. 2.4. 69 It is interesting that Porphyry in his Letter to Marcella talks about how daemons like a good show, or as Gillian Clark put it once in conversation, they enjoy the soap opera of human affairs. Porphyry sees his marriage as a form of sacrifice to them. By entering into the fray of marital and familial relations, he puts on a sort of play for them as an offering. He writes: "For none of these causes did I choose another to be partner of my life, but there was a twofold and reasonable cause that determined me. One part was that I deemed I should thus propitiate the gods of generation; just as Sokrates in his prison chose to compose popular music, for the sake of safety in his departure from life, instead of pursuing his customary labours in philosophy, so did I strive to propitiate the divinities who preside over this tragi-comedy of ours, and shrank not from chanting in all willingness the marriage hymn, though I took as my lot thy numerous children, and thy straitened circumstances, and the malice of evil-speakers. Nor were there lacking any of those passions usually connected with a play—jealousy, hatred, laughter, quarrelling and anger; this alone excepted, that it was not with a view to ourselves but for the sake of others that we enacted this spectacle in honour of the gods" (Porph. Marc. 2). Porphyry's letter to his wife Marcella: concerning the life of philosophy and the ascent to the gods, Alice Zimmern trans. (Grand Rapids, 1986). 70 lamb. Myst. 2.4. 71 Material archons are even more disappointing in this regard. They "make a great impression but fall short of fulfillment in their acts." lamb. Myst. 2.4. 68

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obvious when he compares them with the spiritual beings directly below them, namely heroes, but also with the sublunary archons. Heroes, although they appear to be less powerful than daemons, are generally more helpful to human souls. This pattern is equally manifest in the remainder of lamblichus' elaboration. For instance, in the case of epiphanies, those of the gods are at times of such great magnitude as to hide the heavens, "and earth is no longer able to stand firm as they make their descent."72 But the epiphanies of daemons are significantly smaller and not always equal.73 The epiphanies of heroes are smaller still, but "exhibit a greatness of spirit," one greater than their condition.74 Furthermore, the images of daemons are obscure (dnu5pd).75 Their fire is divided and unstable. It can be expressed in speech, and it does not "exceed the power of vision of those who are capable of viewing superior beings."76 Their most ambivalent characteristic arises in the context of lamblichus' discussion of the roles various spirits play in the purification of the soul. Where angels loosen the bonds of matter, daemons draw the soul down towards nature, lamblichus writes that the gift arising from the advent (-rrapouoia) or manifestations of daemons "weighs down the 72 73 74 75 76

lamb. lamb. lamb. lamb. lamb.

Myst. 2.4. Myst. 2.4. Myst. 2.4. Myst. 2.4. Myst. 2.4.

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body, and afflicts it with diseases, and drags the soul down to the realm of nature, and does not remove from bodies their innate sense perception (aioSriaEcos), detains here in this region those who are hastening towards the divine fire, and does not free them from the chains of fate."77 For a Platonist who asserts in the same treatise that the human soul is capable of rising up to join the angelic orders, one can hardly conceive of a more ambivalent "gift." The gods, by contrast, "give to us health of body, virtue of soul, purity of intellect," they remove the "cold and destructive element in us," increasing "vital heat" and making "our light shine with intelligible harmony."78 Even the advent of heroes, who are below daemons, arouses us to "noble and great deeds."79 What then, are we to make of lamblichus' description of daemons, of beings whom he characterizes in terms that appear to counter, resist, and thwart the human soul in its advance toward a better form of existence?

lamb. Myst. 2.6. "...r] 5E TCOV Saiyovcov PapeT UEV TO acbua Kai voaois KOXO^EI, Ka0EXKEi SE Kai TT)V ^ x ^ i v ETTI Tr]v tpuaiv, ocouaTcov 5E Kai Tfjs auyyEvoOs T0T5 acouaaiv aio0r|O£cos OUK dcpioTTioi, TOUS 5' ETT'I TO m/p OTTEUSOVTOS KOTEXEI TTEpi TOV TFJSE TOTTOV, TCOV 8E TT\S

EiuapuEvris Ssaucbv OUK diroXuEi-" lamb. Myst. 2 . 6 . "...dXX' r| UEV TCOV 0ECOV irapouoia SiScoaiv r\\iiv uyEiav OCOUOTOS, VJAJXAS dpETriv, vou Ka0apoTr|Ta Kai TTOVTCOV, COS aTrXcbs E'ITTETV, TCOV EV riuTv ETTI Tas oiKEias

ctpxds dvaycoyiiv. Kai TO UEV ^AJXPOV EV riuTv Kai cpBopoiroiov dcpavt^Ei, TO 5E 0Epu6v aucJEi Kai SuvaTcoTEpov Kai EiriKpaTEOTepov aTTEpyd^ETai, TTOIET TE TfdvTa dvanETpsTv Tfl yuxfi Kai Tcp vcp, voriTfj TE dpuovia TO cpcbs EXXOMTTEI, Kai TO ur\ 6v ocbua cos ocbua TOTS Tfis yuxfjs 690aXnoTs Bid TCOV TOO OCOUOTOS ETTI5E(KVUOIV" /9

lamb. Myst. 2.6. 169

Gregory Shaw explains this ambivalence in terms of the daemons' dual function in the cosmos as both "agents of the Demiurge and as powers that defiled the soul by tying it to matter."80 He writes: This ambivalence was due to the centrifugal activity: in being agents of the demiurge in the 'procession' of the gods, it was [the daemons] task to exteriorize specific aspects of the divine, and in disseminating the divine presence into matter, daimons also led the attention of particular souls into a centrifugal and extroverted attitude. This was what bound them to their bodies and caused them to suffer.81 lamblichus himself eludicates the connection between the human soul's involvement with matter and its subsequent involvement with daemons. He writes: [T]he soul that tends downward drags in its train signs of chains and punishments, is weighed down by concretions of material spirits, and held fast by the disorderly qualities of matter, and is seen submitting itself to the authority of daimons concerned with generation.82 Shaw argues that despite the negative or ambivalent language lamblichus used to describe daemons, their role in the cosmos was useful and necessary. They played a key role in the rehabilitation of the status of matter which Shaw argues was part of lamblichus' goal in On the Mysteries. And they were the means by which the divine was able to

80 81

Shaw, Theurgy and the soul: the neoplatonism of lamblichus. 40. Ibid.

lamb. Myst. 2.7. "...r| 8E K&TCO vEuouoa Seopcov KCCI Ko\aoEcov ETnaupETai ariiiETa, UAIKGOV TE TTVEunaTcov (3pi0Ei OUOTOOEOI, K<xi r a p a x a t s UATIS avcouaAois xaTEXETai, Bainovcov TE yEVEOioupycov EirioTaoias o p a r a i TTpooTTioanEvri Trpo EauTfjs."

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order matter without touching it, without compromising divinity itself. On Shaw's interpretation, then, matter was an impediment only for individual souls, "not for the World Soul or celestial souls (stars)."84 In other words, according to Shaw, lamblichus sought to rehabilitate matter in general, countering the views of philosophers such as Numenius, Plutarch, Plotinus, and Porphyry. But he also had to account for aspects of Plato's own thought that occasionally cast the material in negative terms, most notably with reference to the soul's embodiment and the nature of the pneumatic vessel that accompanied sublunary spirits such as daemons. Shaw further explains lamblichus' meaning: They (daemons) manifested in the rhythms of somatic life: the diastole and the systole of the heart, the rhythms of breath, the digestion of food, and the consistency of the nervous system. In the psychic life they were instincts of preservation, sustaining the hungers and drives that preserve individuals and society. The task of each soul, therefore, was to engage these daimons in a way that "imitates the Demiurge," to act "justly" and in obedience to the laws of the creator gods (Tim. 41c).85 Shaw's explanations serve to mitigate some of the ambivalent aspects of lamblichus' description of good daemons. And Shaw's insights into both Shaw notes that Plato held both positive and negative views on matter at different junctures in his corpus, lamblichus saw these disparate positions as pedagogically useful and ordered Plato's works into a curriculum such that those works which expressed negative views on matter came early on in a student's education and served as a kind of "medicinal shock" which served to refocus the soul's attention away from earthly affairs. Shaw, Theurgy and the soul: the neoplatonism of lamblichus. 37. 84 Ibid. 39. 85 Ibid. 140-41. Shaw also points out that these activities mapped onto the labors "that made up the Pythagorean bios as conceived by lamblichus in De Vita Phyagorica." Shaw, Theurgy and the soul: the neoplatonism of lamblichus. 141.

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lamblichus' philosophical motivations and presuppositions and his faithfulness to the Platonic corpus, as well as Shaw's successful efforts to see On the Mysteries as a philosophically consistent, systematic whole need to be recognized and lauded. However, I would argue that Shaw's approach comparing lamblichus directly with Plato and harmonizing the lamblichean corpus itself cannot entirely account for all the influences and intellectual and religious currents to which this thirdcentury proponent of theurgy was responding. In other words, certain aspects of the lamblichean daemonology "exceed" the Platonic framework set out by Shaw. In order to make my argument on this point, it is necessary to step back for a moment and review some of the history of scholarship on lamblichus. Shaw was involved in a rehabilitation of lamblichus in response to a strong current in mid-twentieth century scholarship on late Roman thought which tended to see the Platonism of the third century through the lens of decline and decadence. In his article "Theurgy and its Relationship to Neoplatonism," E.R. Dodds accused Platonists from Porphyry through Proclus of succumbing to the irrationality and superstition of their age.86 The theurgical focus of these figures, according to Dodds, was proof of "retrogression to the spineless 86

E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley, 1951). E.R. Dodds, "Theurgy and its Relationship to Neoplatonism," Journal of Roman Studies 37 (1947). This article is reprinted with minor changes as Appendix II "Theurgy" in The Greeks and the Irrational, pages 283-31.

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syncretism" from which Plotinus had supposedly tried to escape.87 He also contended that late antique intellectuals, in response to the sense that Christianity was "sucking the lifeblood out of Hellenism," turned to "vulgar magic."88 According to Dodds, this move "is commonly the last resort of the personally desperate, of those whom man and God have alike failed."89 As a result theurgy became "the refuge of a despairing intelligentsia which already felt la fascination de I'abfme."90 Some scholars, including Shaw, have come to the defense of these philosophers against Dodds and others by focusing on their philosophical contributions, the complexity and systematicity of their ideas.91 For instance, in her article "Dreams, Theurgy and Freelance Diviniation: the Testimony of lamblichus," Polymnia Athanassiadi argues that theurgy, at least on the interpretation of lamblichus, was about personal virtue and wisdom.92 This interpretation leads her to conclude that lamblichus

87

Here Dodds follows the nineteenth-century writer Wilhelm Kroll who asserted that Plotinus "raised himself by a strong intellectual and moral effort above the fog-ridden atmosphere that surrounded him." Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational. 286. 88 Ibid. 2 8 8 . 89 Ibid. 90 Ibid. 91 For instance, in his conclusion Shaw asks "was lamblichus' influence due simply to the 'loss of nerve' among late antique intellectuals - as many would have us believe or did he, perhaps, outline a compelling and comprehensive vision of a world that we no longer understand?" Shaw, Theurgy and the soul: the neoplatonism of lamblichus. 237. 92 Athanassiadi defines lamblichan theurgy in the following way: "But of course theurgy is not just a technique (though by a tenuous definition it can be this as well), but rather a dynamic state of mind, varying from individual to individual and additionally undergoing constant change according to the theurgist's state of mind. Attempting a provisional definition based on lamblichus' understanding of the term, I would describe theurgy as the often involuntary manifestation of an inner state of sanctity deriving from a combination of goodness and knowledge in which the former element prevails."

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would have been "horrified by the claim in modern scholarship," i.e. in Dodds' writing, that "theurgy and magic are disciplines resting on the same presuppositions and using some of the same methods."93 In order to divorce theurgy from magic, while still acknowledging the importance of prayer and sacrifice to the lamblichan program, i.e. to the life of one who seeks union with god, Athanassiadi recasts theurgy in terms that downplay the importance of ritual. She also blames modern distortions concerning lamblichus on the excesses and enthusiasms of postlamblichan Platonists who misunderstood their master.94 In other words, the trend in studies that have sought to redress the skewed vision of late antique Platonism found in the writings of earlier historians such as Wilhelm Kroll (nineteenth century) and Dodds (twentieth century) has been to distinguish these philosophers from their contexts and the supposed superstitions and propensities for magical practices exhibited in the population at large. But the work of Athanassiadi and Shaw can and should be taken further, because, although it may spare the Polymnia Athanassiadi, "Dreams, Theurgy and Freelance Divination: The Testimony of lamblichus," Journal of Roman Studies 83 (1993): 116. I would argue that Athanassiadi defines theurgy in terms of its effects and not as a set of practices, whether philosophical, ethical or ritual, which achieve these effects. She also does not tell us where in the lamblichean corpus she finds evidence for her definition. 93 Ibid. 123. 94 "As much by their teaching as by their example, men like Maximus of Ephesus and his pupil Julian foisted on lamblichus the image of the magician. This impression was heightened and further spread by the representatives of the Athenian School, until the diadochus Proclus - or was it Syrianus - administered to the saint of Apamea the coup de grace." Athanassiadi, 128. She makes similar statements elsewhere as well. See, for instance, Polymnia Athanassiadi, "The Oecumenism of lamblichus: Latent Knowledge and its Awakening," Journal of Roman Studies 85 (1995): 247.

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reputation of specific philosophers, in the case of Athanassiadi at least, it relocates the irrationalism Dodds attributed to them in equally problematic directions - either upon their followers or upon everyday people in late antique society. More recently, Emma Clarke raised similar misgivings about attempts to rescue lamblichus from the charge of irrationalism. She writes: lamblichus did not see his treatise as predominantly philosophical, indeed his main point was to reject this method of approach and take a wholly new tack. While I do not deny that there is 'philosophy' in the De Mysteriis, and that some considerable reward lies in digging it out, I would query the tendency to keep our reading of the treatise within these confines; to assess the De Mysteriis in philosophical terms, to squeeze this square peg into a round, intellectual hole, seems to me an extraordinary oversight, lamblichus viewed philosophy as a worthwhile but fundamentally limited method of understanding.95 Although Shaw addresses the philosophical motivations lamblichus may have had for providing a systematic, universalizing alternative to Porphyry's predominantly conspiratorial demonology, he does not account for the origin of those elements of his daemonology which exceed the Timaean framework, lamblichus used this framework to account for aspects of the daemonic that were not present in Plato's cosmology. Plato did not discuss daemons in the Timaeus. And where he did talk about them, namely in the Symposium, he placed them

Emma C. Clarke, lamblichus' De mysteriis: a manifesto of the miraculous (Burlington, VT, 2001). 1-2. 175

between gods and humans as intermediaries, but he mentioned nothing about their role in tying the soul to the material. In Middle Platonism, one finds an increasing focus on daemonology, as demonstrated by John Dillon's important work on this philosophical epoch.96 But it is also the case that all of these philosophers, from Numenius to Plutarch to Porphyry to lamblichus, were not just in dialogue with other Platonists, their predecessors and contemporaries, but they were also thinking within a lived social, cultural and religious context. And they were responding to certain consistent structures and practices, i.e. traditional religion, but also to cultural, social and religious changes.97 Ideas about daemons were also changing in this period in a number of different social milieus. For instance, Sarah lies Johnston sees the first and second centuries CE as a time of important daemonological changes as well as a period in which the relationship between philosophy and religion was changing dramatically.98 So although scholars have gotten very far by

In John Dillon, The Middle Platonists: A Study of Platonism 80 B.C. to A.D. 220 (London, 1977). the author discusses the daemonology of all the thinkers he covers in the book in separate sub-sections, signally the importance of the topic in the works of the Middle Platonists. 97 Recall that lamblichus was himself very critical of what he perceived as "Hellenic innovations." 98

"Even in later contexts when daemons took on a threatening character, they lost none of their intermediary nature. In fact, their unpleasant characteristics were intensified by it. Philosophers such as Plutarch, by putting them between gods and men also made them responsible for all the divine misrepresentations, demands for unpleasant sacrifices, etc., that formerly were blamed on the gods. As the concept of "divinity" became more detached, philosophy and mysticism called for something to fill the roles that the gods...no longer were permitted to fill..." Sarah. Johnston, Hekate soteira: a

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defending lamblichus as a philosophically sophisticated and complex thinker, and although they have managed to explain many aspects of On the Mysteries using a Platonic cosmology, this strategy is ultimately limited in its ability to account for a number of unique and important aspects of lamblichean theurgy. In addition to some of the contradictory and ambivalent aspects of lamblichus' account of good daemons, two other aspects of On the Mysteries point to the fact that his daemonology "exceeds" a strictly philosophical framework. First, his inclusion of archons in his daemonology and their strange division between cosmic and material "species" points to an engagement or dialogue with religious thought and belief in more general currency in late Roman society. Second, throughout On the Mysteries, lamblichus feels impelled to pronounce definitively on a wide range of rites and practices, such as oracles and divination, statue making and animation, the use of special words and characters and so forth, activities which we might think were beyond the normative nexus of religious praxis for most philosophers in antiquity. It is his discourse about these practices that will serve as our point of departure for Chapter Five. His inclusion and elaboration of the

study ofHekate's role in the Chaldean oracles and related literature, American classical studies; no. 21 (Atlanta, Ga., 1990). 34. 177

characteristics of archons serve as the basis for the concluding argument of this chapter. As spiritual beings, lamblichus depicts archons as rather secondrate. Sometimes lamblichus discusses them between angels and daemons, sometimes between daemons and heroes, hence, not even their specific place is fixed in his order. Furthermore, he divides them between cosmic and material species, the former governing things in the sublunary sphere, the latter presiding over matter." But he does not explain the difference, which is especially curious because in the Aristotelian cosmology, the sublunary sphere includes earth and the material elements and is governed by the same set of principles based on this elemental paradigm. The other strange thing about lamblichus' account of archons is that they do not seem to play a philosophically necessary role in the emanational schema. In other words, archons, whether cosmic or material, do not really add anything to lamblichus's system. They seem to be indistinguishable from daemons in terms of their domains of governance and administration. But if lamblichus did not distinguish the two kinds of spirits based on these criteria, one would expect he would do so by explicating the difference between their activities, something which he does not do in any clear way. With regard to the role various spirits play in the story of the human soul, 99

lamb. Myst. 2.3.

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between angels, daemons and heroes, he has covered the "human condition", namely the predicament of the soul's being trapped in matter and its desire to escape this condition when it becomes aware of its true nature. Archons do not appear to play a role in this case. The word itself just means "ruler" in Greek, just as "ayyEAos" can mean "messenger." Archons make regular appearances in many "gnostic" texts as well, texts which often contain elaborate accounts of daemonological order. In certain works included in the Nag Hammadi corpus, they are often ambivalent or even evil figures. Specific archons from these texts, such as Sabaoth, are spirits frequently cited and invoked on amulets and in ritual formulas in the papyri.100 And although it is impossible to determine where lamblichus took his inspiration for their inclusion, it signals important changes in Platonic thinking since the fifth century BCE. However, these are not merely changes that arise within philosophical schools and amongst intellectual elites in dialogue with each other. The point is that lamblichus' categories of spirits are not the outcome of some philosophical derivation, some rational process of reflection on the kinds of spirits that must populate the cosmos between the highest god and the human soul. Rather, they arise from reflection

100

The examples are almost too numerous to record here. A couple examples should suffice. See, for instance, PGM 11.15, 11.116, III.56, III.76. 179

on the kinds of spirits already inhabiting the cosmos for most people. The case of his inclusion of archons suggests a cross-pollination of ideas between various philosophically-inclined groups. We often suppose that this influence runs in one direction only, namely from the more purist philosophical schools, such as the Platonist one, to other less philosophically rigorous ones. But scholars are beginning to question this assumption.101 These schools themselves contained a wide variety of students from diverse walks of life with very different reasons for being present and varying levels of commitment to the philosophical life.102 The importance of this realization is that we cannot maintain the view that intellectuals such as Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus were thinking and developing their daemonological discourses in some isolated milieu apart from the society in which they lived. They were not only in dialogue across religious lines, as Chapter Three demonstrated, but they were also engaged in dialogue across social boundaries. This is signaled by the fact that all three attempted to provide rationales for traditional religious practices and beliefs in one way or another, aspects For instance, at a recent presentation to the Society for Biblical Literature, John Turner challenged scholars who have attempted to dissociate Gnostic thought from what they conceive as genuine Greek, especially Platonic, philosophy. He did so, not only by highlighting the centrality of the cosmology of Plato's Timaeus to a good deal of "Gnostic" thinking. But he also suggested that influence may have actually run the other direction, namely, from certain so-called Gnostic thinkers to Platonists such as Plotinus, especially as they were part of his circle in Rome. (John Turner, "From Gnostic Myth to Mysticism: The Symbiosis of Antique Philosophy and Religion," SBL Boston, November 2008). 102 A good example of this is found in Porphyry's descriptions of Plotinus' students in his Vita Plotinii.

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of religion which had been for the most part local and collective or communal.103 And this rationale, despite its attempts to subsume the local within a universal system, necessarily had to take account of key aspects of the local construction of spirits. What this implies is that even philosophers, who in the ancient Greek world had a reputation for being contemptuous of many "mainstream" or "popular" conceptions and expressions of piety, drew on the local understanding of spirits to fill out their discourses about daemons and other intermediate spirits. They drew on a common pool of cultural references and representations. They were not merely creating systems of their own liking, but trying to make sense of what people already believed. This was not, however, based primarily on a desire to understand the religious and cultic world of these people. Rather, it was part and parcel of what I have identified as a move to impose more complex and systematic daemonological schemas onto more local understandings of the realm of spirits. This chapter has demonstrated that Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus were all concerned about establishing and, in the case of Origen and lamblichus, elaborating a complex, hierarchal, systematic daemonological order. It has also highlighted the ways in which 103

In his conclusion, Shaw aptly notes that lamblichus "attempted to uphold the 'old ways' of traditional religions by interpreting them according to a cosmological and arithmetic schema." But he, even more than Plato, "preserved these schemas in their own cultural expressions, believing that the power of these rites could never be explained intellectually; they had to be enacted and embodied." Shaw, Theurgy and the soul: the neoplatonism of lamblichus. 239-40. 181

daemonological and soteriological concerns were intertwined for these three philosophers. By exploring in detail key aspects of Origen's and lamblichus' daemonologies, we have seen how their efforts to establish and enforce key differences and generic distinctions between orders of spiritual beings were, at crucial junctures, subverted. Differences become elided, what initially appeared as definitive characteristics become amorphous, and "good" spirits take on ambivalent castes, dark tones. In the case of lamblichus, certain "excessive" elements in his discourse belie an engagement with daemonological thinking of a less philosophical sort, the result, perhaps, of an incorporative impulse, coupled with a desire to avoid "Hellenic" (or Porphyrian) "innovation" by taking account of as many aspects of common traditional practice and belief as possible. The question that remains is why these philosophers were so focused on daemons in particular and the realm of spirits in general. Chapter Five will give an answer to this question by situating these thinkers more clearly in the social context of the late third-century Mediterranean world with its vast array of religious traditions and currents and wide variety of ritual experts. And it will demonstrate further that daemonological knowledge grounds claims to ritual expertise and authority for Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus.

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Chapter Five - High Priests of the Highest God: Third Century Platonists as Ritual Experts The real philosopher has knowledge of many things: he notes signs, he understands the facts of nature, he is intelligent and orderly and moderate, protecting himself in all respects. And just as a priest of one of the particular gods is expert in setting up cult-statues of this god, and in his rites and initiations and purifications and the like, so the priest of the god who rules all is expert in the making of his cult statue and in purifications and the other rites by which he is linked to the god.1 The previous chapter demonstrated both that Platonists were keen on developing elaborate and detailed daemonological hierarchies and that they did so in dialogue with more widespread contemporary religious currents. The question this study has yet to answer is why third-century intellectuals such as Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus were focused on this exercise in particular, i.e. on defining, delimiting, and ordering the realm of spirits. As mentioned in Chapter One, part of this enterprise was a continuation of Middle Platonic efforts to grapple with the place of lesser spirits within a philosophical framework which situated a supreme divinity above all other beings. Furthermore, some of these figures, such as Plutarch, were also thinking about how the nature of 1

Porph. Abst. 2.49. Porphyry, On abstinence from killing animals, Gillian Clark trans.

(Ithaca, N.Y., 2000). "Ten-cop y a p iroXXcbv 6 OVTCOS 91X600905 Kai anuEicoTiKos Kai KCJTaAriTTTiKOs TCOV TTJS 9UOECOS TrpaynctTcov Kai OUVETOS Kai KOOHIOS xai uerpios,

TTavxax68Ev ocp£cov EOUTOV Kai cooiTEp 6 Tivog TCOV K a r a UEpos <6ECOV> ispEus EUTTEipos rfjs iSpuoEcos TCOV ayaAuctTcov auToO TCOV TE opyiaaucbv Kai TEXETCOV Ka0dpOEcov TE Kai TCOV OUOICOV, OUTCOS 6 TOU ETTl TTCtOlV 0EOU 'lEpEUJ EliTTElpOS Tfj$ OUTOU d y a X | i a T O T T O l i a 5

KaOdpoEcbv TE Kai Tcbv dXXcov 81' ebv OUVOTTTETOI Tcp 0Ecp."

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these lesser spirits intersected with questions of traditional cult. For instance, Plutarch reflected at length about how oracles work and why they decline and disappear at certain sites. Porphyry and lamblichus were also thinking about questions of cult praxis, as we have seen. However, this study is arguing for more than just continuity between Middle and Late Platonism on the question of daemonology by focusing on what appears to be unique about these later figures, namely their concern to account for and locate all spirits within much more complex philosophical and theological discourses than we find in earlier epochs. This chapter will supply an answer to why this happens when it does and why within this particular milieu by placing these philosophers within a broader third-century social and political context. Part of the answer emerges, as we will see, when we take seriously the concern of these philosophers about proper ritual. From Plato, perhaps even Pythagoras onward, philosophers reflected on their relation to and role in the contemporary social and political order. They frequently argued that their pursuit of wisdom and the insight it yielded served as the basis for their ability to advise rulers and weigh in on matters pertaining to the ideal governance of cities and states.2 In the third century, figures such as Origen, Porphyry, and

2

Plato himself gives us two models for how the philosopher should contribute to the political order. In the Republic, he argues that the ideal ruler is the philosopher-king. In 184

lamblichus refashioned the identity of the philosopher to include another facet, namely ritual expertise and the access it yielded to divinity. This access could be put to use on behalf of both individual souls as well as states.3 All three philosophers used hieratic terms to construct this new identity. Furthermore, they did not merely identify themselves with ordinary priests, but rather, as we see in the quotation with which this chapter opened, as "priests of the god who rules all."4 And they did so, as this chapter will demonstrate, at the expense of the reputation of ordinary local priests of Mediterranean cult. The daemonologies that these three philosophers constructed served as one aspect in their efforts to demote and discredit these ordinary priests. Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus then associated ordinary priests with the worship of lesser spirits within this hierarchy and reserved the title of high priest for themselves. We have already seen the way in which both Porphyry and Origen associated practices of traditional priests, namely animal the Laws, however, he presents the philosopher in an advisorial role. Both models were invoked in subsequent periods, but later Platonists preferred the model of the philosopher as advisor for the general polity. Dominic J. O'Meara, Platonopolis: Platonic political philosophy in late antiquity (Oxford, New York, 2003). See, in particular, Part II, Chapter 9. Recent work by both Dominic O'Meara and Jeremy Schott has convincingly demonstrated a clearly articulated political philosophy in the works of a number of late Platonists. See Ibid. See also Jeremy M. Schott, "Founding Platonopolis: The Platonic Politeai in Eusebius, Porphyry, and lamblichus," Journal of Early Christian Studies 11 (Winter 2003, 2003). Porph. Abst. 2.49. Origen identifies these figures as "high priests." As the important volume edited by Polymnia Athanassiadi and Michael Frede has demonstrated, it was quite common for intellectuals in this period to believe in some kind of supreme divinity and first principle, a god above all other deities and spirits. Polymnia Athanassiadi and Michael Frede, Pagan monotheism in late antiquity (Oxford, New York, 1999).

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sacrifices, with the worship of evil daemons. These thinkers also used their ability to discern and delimit demonic actions to give weight to their own authority. But even lamblichus, the champion of blood sacrifice and defender of traditional rites as part of his theurgic system, was also involved in minimizing or excluding the importance of certain other ritual experts in order to establish himself as the highest authority on divine and cultic matters. This sort of access to divinity was important in the third century in particular, because of a couple of trends in this period. As a number of scholars have noted, emperors themselves were increasingly choosing to identify with specific divinities and emphasized the importance of divine favor in the legitimation of their often tenuous claims to political authority. Additionally, as both J.B. Rives and Garth Fowden have noted, the third century was a time of increasing emphasis on cultural universalism and religious centralization, a trend that would find new expression in the fourth-century struggles over Christian orthodoxy. But already in the third century, religious practice or ritual formed the basis for a number of movements in the direction of religious centralization.5

5

Fowden distinguishes between political, military, economic universalism and cultural universalism, which according to him stands especially for religious universalism, "'religion' being understood to be a constituent part of the wider category 'culture.'" He adds that, in his study, cultural universalism "will be applied to late antiquity's distinctive and dynamic fusion of those two strands of universalism into the type of universalism that aimed at politico-cultural world empire, but however successful, issued eventually

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Rives cites as an example of this movement, Decius' imperial mandate for empire-wide sacrifice.6 It should be no surprise, then, that philosophers in the course of positioning themselves socially and arguing for their place in civil society would do so in terms that emphasized their claim to knowledge and expertise regarding sacrifice and other ritual actions that established connections between the individual and the realm of spirits. Their daemonological discourses served as a textual basis for their claims to expertise and authority. As mentioned in Chapter One, following Frankfurter, such claims are often grounded in this sort of discourse about spirits. As Frankfurter argues, writers and ritual experts working in a daemonological mode seek to impose an order on the amorphous realm of spirits. These self-defined spiritual experts then show "the evil system behind inchoate misfortune," offering their audience "the tangible hope of purifying it."7 Before establishing that this is the case among third-century Platonists, we need to consider how Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus incorporate the figure of the high priest into their identity as philosophers. in commonwealth." Garth Fowden, Empire to commonwealth: consequences of monotheism in late antiquity (Princeton, N.J., 1993). 6 Rives writes: "There can be little doubt that the trend towards monotheism played an important role in the change from local cults to universalizing religions. But to appreciate the significance of Decius' decree on sacrifice, we need to consider not the content of religious belief, but rather the structures of religious organization, i.e., what actions people performed in what circumstances, who had the authority to regulate these actions, and how this authority was organized and expressed." James Rives, "The Decree of Decius and the Religion of Empire," Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999): 135. Frankfurter, 32.

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We also need to see how their priestly status intersects with their daemonological expertise. Origen reflects on the figure of the high priest in Hebrew scripture in a number of his works. In his Homilies on Leviticus, he employed a number of different levels of interpretation.8 Sometimes he discussed the Israelite priests and the prescriptions that pertained to them in very literal terms, marking the difference between the conditions that obtained in earlier epochs and in the postResurrection age. He also figurally interpreted the priestly role and the Levitican laws in great detail. In this context, priests came to stand for a wide range of different things. At times, Origen's interpretative focus is on Christian priests. In other instances, the Israelite priests stand for any true Christian. In other homilies, Christ is the high priest, the ideal intercessor on behalf of the sinful community because he spilled, not the blood of animals, but his own blood. Origen moved between these levels

Origen is well-known for his extensive use of figural interpretation and for his attempts to distinguish and employ various levels of interpretation more generally. (See Book Four of On First Principles for a basic outline of Origen's method of biblical interpretation.) Porphyry objected strongly to Origen's choice to allegorize Hebrew scripture, stating that Origen took the method of allegorical interpretation from the works of Chaeremon, the Stoic and Cornutus, who had applied it to "the mysteries of the Greeks." Eusebius, The Church History: a new translation with commentary, Paul L. Maier trans. (Grand Rapids, Ml, 1999). 6.19. For a helpful discussion of Porphyry's objections to the interpretive endeavors of Origen and his less able followers, see Michael B. Simmons, "Porphyry of Tyre's Biblical Criticism: A Historical and Theological Appraisal," in Reading in Christian Communities: Essays on Interpretation in the Early Church, ed. Charles A. Bobertz and David Brakke, Christianity and Judaism in antiquity (Notre Dame, 2002). See also Pier Franco Beatrice, "Porphyry's Judgement on Origen," in Origeniana Quinta.Historica, Text and Method, Biblica, Philosophica, Theologica, Origenism and Later Developments. Papers of the 5th International Origen Congress, Boston College, 15-18 August 1989, ed. Robert J. Daly (Leuven, 1992).

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and at times it is unclear which sense of the mysterious or level of interpretation he was engaging. But it is difficult to miss certain connections he drew in this corpus of sermons between the high priests he interpreted allegorically and the real priests of the Christian Church, an order to which he himself belonged. Origen's status as a presbyter was not, however, uncontested - a fact which may have contributed to his eagerness to associate himself with the high priests of the ancient Hebrews. Origen's troubles seem to have begun even before he was ordained a priest. In spite of the fact that the patriarch of Alexandria, Demetrius, had put Origen in charge of teaching catechumens, he objected to Origen's teaching in church, something which Origen did when he visited bishops Alexander of Jerusalem and Theoctistus of Caesarea in Palestine around 215 CE. Demetrius, hearing word of Origen's preaching in Caesarea at the enthusiastic behest of the two bishops, ordered the philosopher back to Alexandria. The tensions between the two continued over the next decade. Jerome's letter XXXIII ad Paulam suggests that the enmity was fueled by jealousy on the part of Demetrius because of Origen's popularity as a teacher.9 The situation reached a crisis when Origen made a second trip through Palestine en route to Athens. On this 9

The issue may have been that Origen was preaching without Demetrius' permission at the behest of the Palestinian bishops whom Demetrius considered his subordinates. I thank Elizabeth DePalma Digeser for sharing this interpretation of the situation with me.

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journey the same bishops who had earlier asked him to preach ordained him by laying their hands on him. When Origen returned to Alexandria, he found his presence wholly unwelcome and decided to move permanently to Caesarea around 231 CE. Demetrius called a synod of Egyptian bishops in order to bar Origen from ever teaching in Alexandria again, and shortly thereafter he also had Origen excommunicated. This decision was affirmed by the bishop of Rome.10 Origen lived and worked as a priest and teacher in Caesarea until 251 CE when he was imprisoned and tortured during the Decian persecution. But even during this period, as Pier Franco Beatrice argues, he was involved in actively trying to rehabilitate his status and reputation as a priest beyond Palestine. According to Beatrice, Origen went back to Alexandria after the death of Ammonius Saccas (242 CE), his philosophy teacher of ten years and the founder of an important school of Platonism.11 He may have been trying to reestablish himself as a teacher in Alexandria under the patriarchate of his former student and friend Heraclas. But the new bishop also had Origen expelled (243-44 G. W. Butterworth, Origen on first principles: being Koetschau's text of the De principiis (Gloucester, Mass., 1973). xxiii-xxvii. The precise chronology of these events is difficult to establish based on any one source. Our main source is Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, but as Pier Franco Beatrice has pointed out, Eusebius is not always forthcoming about certain details of Origen's life, his travels and associations with other Platonist philosophers. Beatrice, "Porphyry's Judgement on Origen," 353. 11 Beatrice, "Porphyry's Judgement on Origen," 359. Ammonius Saccas was also the teacher of Plotinus. Beatrice argues that his lineage was shared by his two most illustrious pupils, Origen and Plotinus, both of whom at some point late in the life of the former contested the other's claims to represent the true heritage of their teacher (36062).

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CE).12 On Beatrice's account, Origen proceeded to travel to Rome, via Athens, perhaps to appeal directly to Emperor Philip the Arab and his wife Severa (244-49 CE).13 Whether or not Beatrice is correct in his chronology and his evaluation of Origen's actions and intentions, Origen's status as a presbyter was in question in a number of places outside Palestine, including in his homeland of Egypt, for at least the last two decades of his life. His theology was also subject to vigorous scrutiny and opposition from certain quarters even during his lifetime. Hence, these concerns about his ordination and priestly standing should be placed alongside his statements about the priesthood in his Homilies on Leviticus if one is to understand how these sermons may have functioned to legitimate the Christian priesthood in general and Origen's own position as a presbyter in particular. In Homily Two, Origen identified the high priest as the one "who was anointed; he who kindles fires on divine altars; who sacrifices to God gifts and salutary offerings; he who intervenes between God and men as a propitiator."14 One might be inclined to think that here Origen was speaking of Christ, but in fact he was not. For even such a priest, he

12

Ibid. Ibid., 360. Philip the Arab was thought to have been sympathetic to Christians, at least on Eusebius' account. Eusebius writes that he was even willing to confess his sins to the Bishop of Rome one Passover in order gain admittance to the church. Eus. h.e. 6.34. 14 Origenes, horn. 1-16 in Z_e., 2.1. Origen, Homilies on Leviticus: 1-16, Gary Wayne Barkley trans., The Fathers of the Church (Washington, D.C., 1990). 13

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writes, cannot be entirely free from sin. What sets the priest apart from other sinners, however, is that "he knows and understands his own sin."15 Hence, in this case knowledge and wisdom define the priest for Origen. In Homily Six, while reviewing the process by which a high priest is chosen, he once again affirms that wisdom distinguishes the priest from the rest of the congregation: For in ordaining a priest, the presence of the people is also required that all may know and be certain that from all the people one is chosen for the priesthood who is more excellent, who is more wise, who is more holy, who is more eminent in every virtue...16 But in addition to understanding his own sin, what kind of knowledge sets the priest apart from the rest of the Church? What sort of mysteries does he fathom while others remain content with literality? If one stays with the Homilies on Leviticus, then priestly knowledge focuses on the hidden meaning of rituals and in particular, the ritual of sacrifice.17 But in the Preface to On First Principles, the mysteries that the philosopher-priest apprehends go far beyond the meaning of ritual to include "profound doctrines" about the origin, nature and fate of all rational souls, all spiritual beings, both good and evil. In other words, Origen is referring to his complex daemonological account discussed in Chapter Four, an account that encompasses humans, angels, and evil spirits, an account 15

Origenes, horn. 1 - 16 in Le., 2.1. Origenes, horn. 1-16 in Le., 6.3. 17 In other words, he can read rituals in figural ways when he needs to. 16

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that includes both cosmogonical, soteriological and eschatological elements. Understanding of these doctrines, which in Contra Celsum he called "esoteric and mysterious" (eacoTepixcbv KCU ETTOTTTIXGOV), was not granted to everyone in the apostolic teaching.18 Indeed, as we saw in the previous chapter, the realm of spirits was, for the most part, left unexplained in apostolic teachings and provided "lovers of wisdom" with "an exercise on which to display the fruit of their ability."19 In the beginning of his Commentary on John, Origen associates this order of wise exegetes and philosophers with the high priests of the order of Aaron and distinguishes them from the run-of-the-mill believer as he also does in Contra Celsum and On First Principles.20 He writes:

Origen makes a similar distinction in Contra Celsum between those who understand the hidden meaning of sacred texts and sacred acts and the ordinary believer. He writes: "There are some who because of their great simplicity do not know how to explain their actions with arguments which may not be lightly regarded but what are profound and, as a Greek might say, esoteric and mysterious. They believe a profound doctrine about God and about those beings who through the only-begotten divine Logos have been so honored by God that they participate in the divine nature, and for this reason are also granted the name. There is also a profound doctrine about the divine angels and the opponents of the truth who have been deceived, and who because of this call themselves gods, or angels of God, or good daemons, or heroes who come into being through the transformation of a good human soul. Such Christians will also argue that, just as in philosophy many may think that they are in the right, either because they have fallaciously deceived themselves by plausible arguments, or because they have unthinkingly believed in notions suggested and discovered by others, so also there are some among the bodiless souls and angels and daemons who have been led by plausibilities to call themselves gods. But it was because of these doctrines which men have not been able to discover exactly and perfectly that it was not considered safe for a man to entrust himself to any being as a god, except only to Jesus Christ who rules over all like an arbiter" (Origenes, Cels. 2.37). Origen, Contra Celsum, Henry Chadwick trans. (Cambridge, 1965). 19 Origenes, princ. Preface.3. Butterworth, Origen on first principles: being Koetschau's text of the De principiis. 20 Origenes, princ. Preface.3.

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Most of us who approach the teachings of Christ, since we have much time for the activities of life and offer a few acts to God, would perhaps be those from the tribes who have a little fellowship with the priests and support the service of God in a few things. But those who devote themselves to the divine Word and truly exist by the service of God alone will properly be said to be Levites and priests in accordance with the excellence of their activities in this work. And, perhaps, those who excel all others and who hold, as it were, the first places of their generation will be high priests in the order of Aaron..."21 So the priest, the one who exceeds all others in wisdom, understands both the proper practice of ritual and its hidden meanings. He also knows all about the various spiritual beings that inhabit the cosmos, as well as the specific roles they play in the salvation of the human soul. As we will see, it was also this ritual, daemonological and soteriological knowledge that set the philosopher apart from others as "the priest of the god who rules all" 22 for both Porphyry and lamblichus. It is important to note that by this time actual temple sacrifice had ceased in the Christian, Jewish and Jewish-Christian ritual orders, because the temple had been destroyed in 70 C.E. under Titus. Although Jewish sacrifice had ceased, Origen still felt a strong imperative to recast the entire priestly order and the sacrifices it used to perform in Christian terms. In Homily Six, for instance, he carefully interpreted each piece of the priestly vestments in minute detail. And in Homily One, he 21

Origenes, Jo. 1.10-11. Origen, Commentary on the Gospel According to John, Books 1-10, Ronald E. Heine trans., vol. 80, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, 1989). 22 Porphyry, On abstinence from killing animals. 2.49.

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explains the meaning of each sacrificial animal, associating them one by one with the various orders within the Christian congregation and the kinds of transgressions they were prone to. For example, when discussing the sacrifice of a calf, Origen explains that this animal is the flesh which must be sacrificed and the priest "is in you the mind which is also its understanding in you who are rightly called a priest and 'sons of a priest'."23 Here the Platonic faculty of mind, traditionally associated with the philosopher and the wise ruler, is transposed into a religious mode and becomes the priest.24 In different places, Origen gave accounts of both Hebrew and Greek ritual. In the case of the former, he interpreted the Levitican prescriptions regarding blood sacrifice in figural terms in such a way as to preclude the necessity of actually performing such sacrifices. The only ritual he claimed was necessary and efficacious after Christ's resurrection was baptism.25 When it came to interpreting Greek

Origenes, horn. 1-16 in Le., 1.5. lt is interesting that Porphyry makes a similar point when discussing the kinds of sacrifices are most appropriate for the philosopher to offer to the god: "To the god who rules over all, as a wise man said, we shall offer nothing perceived by the senses either by burning or in words. For there is nothing material which is not at once impure to the immaterial. So not even logos expressed in speech is appropriate for him, nor yet internal logos when it has been contaminated by the passion of the soul. But we shall worship him in pure silence with pure thoughts about him." Porph. Abst. 2.34. 25 One must keep in mind that by baptism, Origen meant a long term process of initiation into a congregation. This process would involve instruction of catechumens of the sort that Origen offered in Alexandria. In many churches, preparation for baptism would have also involved exorcism. For a discussion of various exorcistic practices related to early Christian baptism see H.A. Kelly, The Devil at Baptism: Ritual, Theology, and Drama (Ithaca, New York, 1985). See also Dayna Kalleres, "Exorcising 24

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sacrifice, his main contention, like that of so many other Christian thinkers before him (but also like Porphyry), was that all blood sacrifices were made to evil daemons posing as gods and good spirits. As noted in Chapter Three, implicit in Origen's association of evil daemons with blood sacrifices was the understanding that the personnel who perform them, namely priests, were in service to spiritual beings other than the highest god or gods. Rather, they offered worship to evil spirits. Chapter Three also noted the ways in which Porphyry agreed with Origen's assessment on these matters. Origen and Porphyry also agreed in their insistence that the high priest was the one who serves the highest god,26 and that one becomes a priest of this kind by living a philosophical sort of life, by being the one who, on the characterization of Origen, is most eminent in knowledge and wisdom by having made a study of things mysterious and esoteric. Porphyry also refers to the true philosopher as a high priest, or as the "priest of the god who rules all," and as the "priest of the father." And although he and lamblichus disagreed about the soteriological scope of the priestly activities of the philosopher, as demonstrated by the discussion in Chapter Three of their debate over the meaning and

the Devil to Silence Christ's Enemies: Ritualized Speech Practices in Late Antique Christianity" (Brown University, 2002). 26 Porph. Abst. 2.49. "So the philosopher, priest of the god who rules all, reasonably abstains from all animal food."

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efficacy of animal sacrifice, both were insistent that philosopher-priests such as themselves were superior ritualists. Indeed, traditional rites were at the very center of their exchange in the Letter to Anebo and On the Mysteries. As mentioned earlier, On the Mysteries was a response to a series of questions Porphyry asked in his Letter to Anebo. In addition to asking about animal sacrifice, Porphyry asked many more related questions. He asked about oracles and divination, about the use of charakteres and special words, and about statue making and statue animation (the telestic arts). Each of these questions gave lamblichus the opportunity to draw a key distinction between true theurgical practice and what he calls techne. Scholars have often translated this word as "magic."27 But lamblichus does not use the word Yonjeia in this context, and hence this translation is misleading. It leads readers to think that lamblichus is distinguishing theurgists from some putative class of marginalized "magicians" practicing outside the limits of normative religion. This assumption has prevented scholars from attempting to

27

Polymnia Athanassiadi, "Dreams, Theurgy and Freelance Divination: The Testimony of lamblichus," Journal of Roman Studies 83 (1993): 127. lamblichus, On the Mysteries, Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell trans. (Atlanta, 2003). xliii. In their introduction to On the Mysteries, the editors translate "-rexvri" as "magic."

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identify and socially locate the ritual "technicians" against whom lamblichus juxtaposes his ideas of proper ritual practice.28 Polymnia Athanassiadi, one of the scholars who interprets "techne" in terms of magic, rightly argues that lamblichus sought to distinguish his own theurgical enterprise from the practices of others whom she identifies as "magicians."29 But her assumption is that he did so because what he was doing was, in reality, very different. She does not, however, ask after the identity of these "magicians", or who they might be in relation to lamblichus and other intellectuals. She also uses the so-called magical papyri to represent the kinds of practices she argues lamblichus eschewed.30 But as Chapter Two argued, based on recent scholarship, when one inquires after the source of these artifacts, who created and used them and whether they actually represented "magical practices," one finds that the source of at least some of these artifacts was local priests. If so, it may be that lamblichus was eager to distinguish his theurgy from their rituals because from the outside the differences may not have been as apparent as Athanassiadi supposes or lamblichus might have wished. Furthermore, he may have even

28

See David Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: assimilation and resistance (Princeton, N.J., 1998). Chapter One. He calls these "compensatory developments" in "priestly and temple functions" which "probably encouraged competitive religious systems" (15). Athanassiadi, "Dreams, Theurgy and Freelance Divination: The Testimony of lamblichus," 127. 30 Ibid.: 120,122.

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perceived some priests as rivals for certain kinds of social goods, such as authority and prestige. As Athanassiadi herself notes, On the Mysteries "contains an apology for traditional cult while playing down the importance of sacred places as compared with the authority of holy men, the theurgists who are repeatedly contrasted with mere craftsmen of spirituality." 31 lamblichus was doing this in a period when other holy men, for instance, members of traditional Egyptian priesthoods, were moving outside temple precincts and offering their ritual services to a broader clientele, in part in response to extenuating economic circumstances. The first indication he gives that he may be defining himself with reference to and in distinction from these other contemporary ritualists is his choice to write under the guise of an Egyptian priest, Abamon. 32 He elaborates this identity in more detail as he proceeds by highlighting all the things a true theurgist, a philosopher priest, must know.

31

Athanassiadi, "Dreams, Theurgy and Freelance Divination: The Testimony of lamblichus," 117. 32 Saffrey has offered an intriguing interpretation of this name. He argues that lamblichus combined the Syriac/Hebrew word for father ("Aba") with the Egyptian deity "Amon" (also "Ammon" or "Amoun"), a deity identified by Plutarch with Zeus, the highest god in the Greek pantheon. Thus the name would mean "father of god" (in Greek it would be TTa-rrip 6EO0 or BEOTrcn-cop), a phrase which Porphyry used in his Sententiae to identify the one who has attained the highest level of virtue, namely the level of paradigmatic virtues. H. D. Saffrey, "Abamon, pseudonyme de Jamblique," in Philomathes. Studies and Essays in the Humanities in Memory of Philip Merlan, ed. R. Hamerton-Kelly R.B. Palmer (The Hague, 1971), 234-38.

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In Book Five, lamblichus asserts that sacrifices have a proper order that reflected the cosmic order.33 The law of cult (6 Tfjs Qpr\aK£\as vouos), he writes, "assigns like to like, and extends their principle from highest to the lowest levels..."34 This implies that in order for one to follow the laws of cult, one must have an extensive knowledge of the god to whom one sacrifices and all the appropriate connections - from highest to lowest - that obtain within the physical cosmos to each particular deity. And if one wished to make contact with what lamblichus called "the gods of theurgy" (61 0EoupyiAcov 9eoi), this required considerable knowledge and preparation. In order to emphasize just how rare such an individual is, i.e. one who knows the laws of cult, lamblichus writes: One should not therefore take a feature that manifests itself in the case of a particular individual, as the result of great effort and long preparation, as the consummation of the hieratic art, and present it as something common to all men, but not even as something immediately available to those beginning theurgy, and not yet those who have reached a middling degree of proficiency in it; for even these latter endow their performance of cult with some degree of corporeal influence.35 But who is the individual sufficiently trained in the hieratic art to be able to perform the proper ceremony, a ceremony not simple, but l a m b . Myst.

5 . 2 0 . " O u 8ET 8f| T O EV svi TTOTE UOAIS tcai ovys T r a p a y i y v o n s v o v ETTI T<£> TEAEI

Tfjs ispaTiKfJs T O U T O KOIVOV ocrrcxpaivEiv TTpos ctTTavTas av8pcbiTOU5, aAA' OU8E TTpos TOUS dpxouEvous Tfjs 0EOupyias TroieTaOai auTOXp^na KOIVOV, O08E TTpos TOUS HEOOUVTCXS EV auTfj - Kai y a p OUTOI ancoayETrcos ocouaTOEiSfj TTOIOUVTCXI TT)V EirinEXEiav Tfjs OOIOTTITOS." 34 35

lamb. Myst. 5.20. lamb. Myst. 5.20.

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"multiform" (TTOAUTPOTTOV) and "panharmonic" (-rravapuoviov) and composed of everything contained in the world (cnro -rcdvTcov TCOV EV TCO Kooncp ouvKEKpoTrmEvov)? His answer: the theurgist: "...[since] only the theurgist knows these things exactly through having made trial of them in practice, then only [he] can know what is the proper method of performing the hieratic art."36 Only these theurgists "realize that any elements omitted, even minor ones, can subvert the whole performance of cult."37 And only such a one is able to ascend to the One, "which is supreme master of the whole multiplicity (of divisions) and in concert with that, at the same time, pay court to all the other essences and principles."38 The reader of these passages is led to ask after the identity of these ritual experts, these high priests of the hieratic arts. Certainly lamb. Myst. 5.21. ".. .uovoi BE oi 0Eoupyoi TOUTO ETTI TCOV Epycov iTEipa6EVTEs aKpi|3cbs yiyvcboKOuai, uovoi OUTOI Kai SuvavTai yiyvcboKEiv Tig EOTIV r| TEXsoioupyia Tfjs lEpaTiKfjs..." lamb. Myst. 5.21. "...Kai TO TrapaXEiTrojiEva i'oaoi, xav (JpaxEa fj, OTI TO 6XOV Tfjs SpriOKEias spyov dvaTpEiTE..." l a m b . Myst. 5.22. " T i 5E; oi/x'i T O dKpoTaTov Tfjj iEpaTiicfjs ETT' auTO T O KupicoTaTov T O U 6 X O U TrXriBoug EU duaTpEXEi, Kai EV auTcp a n a Tag TTOXXOS ouoias Kai d p x d s ouvSEpaTTEUEi;"

The hieratic superiority of the theurgist continued to be affirmed in later Platonists, such as Proclus. Polymnia Athanassiadi puts it well when she writes: "It is within this cosmic logic of unity and union through love that Proclus proclaims his optimistic message that the theurgist's ascending practice brings salvation to humanity at large: at that moment 'imitating his own god by whom he is possessed, the divine love breaks away and leads upwards the well-born, perfects the imperfect and provides success to those in need of salvation' (In Ale. 53, 9-12). In other words, in his sweeping ascent towards the realm of 'singing light' the theurgist bolsters the struggle of everyone who strives consciously or unconsciously towards union." Athanassiadi and Frede, Pagan monotheism in late antiquity. 176-77.

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lamblichus would have us count his pseudonymous Abamon among this elite group, and thereby himself. But was he making a similar claim for all Egyptian priests? In fact, he was not. Unlike Origen and Porphyry, however, who both claimed that the priest offering blood sacrifices to the gods was, in reality, worshipping evil daemons, lamblichus granted these practitioners a role in proper cult. As already noted in Chapter Three, these priests made offerings to material spirits (61 uXdioi),39 i.e. good daemons or material archons. But such priests did not offer worship to the higher gods. In other words, they fell short of the expertise of the true theurgist. Hence, like Origen, lamblichus was positioning himself in such a way as to supplant other religious experts and to claim the highest priesthood for himself. Elsewhere in On the Mysteries, lamblichus addressed the status of certain religious personnel in a more explicitly negative fashion while at the same time refuting another claim of Porphyry's. In his Letter to Anebo, Porphyry had asserted that "there are generators of effective images"40 and that they make these images "with the aid of the stars in their revolutions." An effective image of this sort would have been one that incited the god to take up some sort of residence in it. This ritual of statue animation is frequently referred to in the ritual papyri discussed in

lamb. Myst. 5.14. lamb. Myst. 3.28.

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Chapter Two. But Platonic theurgists also practiced this art, seeing it as a kind of demiurgical work, an ensouling of matter.41 And Porphyry himself made explicit reference to the practice of making cult statues when he discussed the philosopher as priest in On Abstinence from Killing Animals. Here I repeat the passage with which this chapter began: The real philosopher has knowledge of many things: he notes signs, he understands the facts of nature, he is intelligent and orderly and moderate, protecting himself in all respects. And just as a priest of one of the particular gods is expert in setting up cult-statues of this god, and in his rites and initiations and purifications and the like, so the priest of the god who rules all is expert in the making of his cult statue and in purifications and the other rites by which he is linked to the god.42

41

This is especially the case among Platonist theurgists who come after lamblichus. According to Todd Krulak, the telestic arts represented the theurgists participation in the demiurgic activity of ensouling matter. Krulak argued this point with reference to Proclus in his presentation "'It's a Small World': Statue Animation and Platonic Cosmogony in Proclus' Commentary on the Timaeus at the November 2007 meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature (San Diego). In his abstract for the paper, Krulak argues that it is important to understand that understand was a ritual that did not occur in isolation, but rather served as a "communal act in which the Platonic cosmogony is remembered and reproduced." He continues: "Proclus' repeated comparisons between the role of the telestes, the ritual expert, and that of the Platonic Demiurge on the one hand, and between the cult image and the Universe on the other, suggest that the practice has implications that extend beyond simply the cultivation of oracular pronouncements.lndeed, ...the cosmogonic rehearsal found in statue animation can be viewed as a communal reminder both of the authority of Plato's account and of the soteriological power of theurgy." P o r p h . Abst. 2 . 4 9 . "Ten-cop y a p TTOXXGOV 6 OVTCOS 91X600905 Kai ariuEicoTiKos Kai KaTaAr|TrnK6s TCOV xfjs 9UOECOS irpayuctTcov Kai OUVETOJ Kai KOOHIOS Kai nerpios, TTavTaxoSev acp£cov E a m w Kai cooTTEp 6 TIVOS TCOV K a r a uspog <8ECOV> ispEug EtmEipos rfjs iopuoEcos TCOV d y a X u a T c o v auTou TCOV TE o p y i a a u c b v Kai TEXETGOV Ka9ctpaEcbv TE Kai TCOV opoicov, oi/Tcog 6 TOO ETTI i r a o i v 0EOU iEpsus E'niTEipos Tfjs a u T o u dyaXuaTOTTOiias KaOdpoEcbv TE Kai TCOV aXXcov 81' cbv auvdiTTETai Tcp 0Ecp."

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In this quotation we see how close Porphyry and lamblichus really were in their understanding of philosophers as priests and theurgists. This is likely part of the reason why lamblichus marked their differences so dramatically. lamblichus objected to the idea that an ordinary image maker might be able to invoke divinities. He responds: Then, in accordance with the truth, we must demonstrate that the image-maker does not use the astral revolutions or the powers inherent in them, or the powers found naturally around them, nor is he at all able to control them; rather he operates with those emanating last from nature in the visible (realm) about the extreme part of the universe, and does so purely by technical skill, and not by theurgic skill.43 Presumably, then, by theurgic skill, one can participate in the demiurgic activity of ensouling matter. But this is the purview of specialists, not everyday 'craftsmen'. Who, then, were the image makers at the center of this disagreement between Porphyry and lamblichus? The one group of artifacts extant from this period that describe the actual ritual of making a cult statue and animating it are the ritual papyri discussed in Chapter Two. And as this earlier chapter argued, the individuals who made and used these artifacts were, more often than not, some kind of local religious expert, a priest of a local temple or shrine. If David lamb. Myst 3.28. " "WOTTEP OUV E'XEI TO dAi^s, OUTGO 8ET Kai dirocpaivEaBai, O T I 5f| auTaTs HEV TaTs TTEpupopaTs f\ TaTs EvuTTapxouaais EV auTctTs SuvduEoiv f\ TaTs K O T O epuaiv TTEpi a i r r d s EviSpuiiEvais OUTE x p f l T a i EISCOAOTTOIOS, OU0' OACOS OUVOTOS EOTIV auTcbv

EcpdTTTEO0ar TaTs 8E OTTO TTJS (puascos aurcov EaxdTcas aTToppEouoais EV Top cpavspcp TTEpi T O TEAEUTCITOV uspos T O U TTOVTOS TEXVIKCOS Trpoo
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Frankfurter and Roger Bagnall are correct in their assessment of the third century religious landscape in Egypt, ordinary temple priests would have engaged in activities such as the creation of amulets and small, portable cult images with increasing frequency as they tried to supplement their dwindling state incomes and bolster their authority and prestige.44 According to Jacco Dieleman, the Greek and bilingual (Greek/Demotic) "magical" papyri bear important resemblances to the Corpus Hermeticum in terms of when these texts first started to be produced and their international content and influence.45 Scholars used to think that both groups of textual artifacts were produced in a Greek cultural context. But more recent research suggests that they reflect Egyptian religious thought and a priestly milieu.46 In his book on the Chaldean Oracles, Hans Lewy correctly notes that what we know of theurgical rites - the lustrations, "conjunctions," supplications and invocations, the telestic arts, and other practices aimed at eliciting epiphanies and autophanes - all are found in the papyri.47 The authors, temple archivists, preservers, and copyists of these ritual or hieratic descriptions were, according to Dieleman, well-educated Egyptian

44

Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: assimilation and resistance. 29-30, 213-14. Roger S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993). 261-68. 45 Dieleman, Priests, tongues, and rites: The London-Leiden magical manuscripts and translation in Egyptian ritual (100-300 CE). 1. 46 Ibid. 2. 47 Hans Lewy, Chaldaean oracles and theurgy: mysticism, magic and platonism in the later Roman Empire, Nouv. ed. /Tardieu, Michel ed. (Paris, 1978). 228.

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priests who were creating religious products that catered to a Hellenistic and Roman clientele.48 So lamblichus was, in essence, discrediting everyday priests as creators and purveyors of religious products that merely engaged the lowest of all natural forces using mere techne. This is peculiar, because at the same time he was posing as one of them. In other words, while he wrote as an illustrious and authoritative Egyptian priest, Abamon, and garnered cultural capital based on this image, he undermined everyday priests. Because the religious landscape of Egypt (and much of the Mediterranean) was in flux and priests were purveying their services, expertise and products to broader clientele with new applications, lamblichus was able to take on this malleable identity and use it for his own ends.49 One possible objection to my efforts in this discussion to put lamblichus into closer proximity, and even rivalry, with the priest-ritualists who created, preserved and used artifacts like the papyri handbooks, "Egyptian priests who had lost their state subsidies with the introduction of Roman rule, had to look for new sources of income and found those in a Greco-Roman clientele willing to pay for divine illumination." Dieleman, Priests, tongues, and rites: The London-Leiden magical manuscripts and translation in Egyptian ritual (100-300 CE). 9. 49 "Egyptian priests, bereft of their income by economic measures taken by the Roman government, mimic the Hellenistic image of their profession to secure financial gain from the Hellenistic elite, which is interested in personal religious experience and close contact with the divine through the agency of an oriental guru." Ibid. 286. We might see Origen's contested priesthood in a similar light. He claimed to be a high priest of sorts, and yet the institutional apparatus for ordaining priests in the Christian church, including the hierarchy of ecclesiastical sees, was still in flux in his lifetime. Hence, the tension between Rome, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, all places where Origen either lived or visited.

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amulets, curses, spells and so forth is that he himself came from a very important family of the highest standing in Syrian society. For instance, Eunapius tells us that lamblichus was of "illustrious ancestry," and he belonged to an "opulent and prosperous family."50 In other words, one might wonder why lamblichus would even bother with these "craftsmen of spirituality" at all, being from the social class he was. But another aspect of his ancestry complicates the picture further. One of lamblichus' ancestors, Sampsigeramos, was a founder of the line of priest-kings of Emesa, a group active in governing the area well into the imperial period.51 This means that lamblichus' own identity as a member of the Syrian elite had a religious dimension that he seems to have taken rather seriously given the topics to which he devoted some of his most important thinking. He is not the only Syrian to have taken this aspect of his ancestry and identity seriously. We need only look at the way in which the emperor Elagabalus both came to power and conducted himself during his reign to find a compelling example of just how far a member of the Syrian provincial elite from a priestly family could go in

50 Eun. VS, 5.1. "METCX TOUTOUS ouonaoTOTaros EiriyivETai cpiXoooepos'IduPXixoj, 6s f)v Kai K a r a yevos \ikv EtTicpavfis Kai TCOV afipcbv Kai TCOV Eu8aiuovcov Traxpis 8E fjv a u r c p XaAids- Kara TT)V KoiAriv -npoaayopEuouEvriv EOTIV r| TTOAIJ." Wilmer C a v e F r a n c e Wright,

Philostratus and Eunapius; the lives of the Sophists, vol. 134, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass. London, 1989). John M. Dillon, lamblichi Chalcidensis in Platonis Dialogus Commentariorum Fragmenta (Leiden, 1973). 5. Dillon writes that the descendents of Samsigeramos "continued to rule Emesa until the reign of Domitian, and even thereafter were dominant in the area" (5). 207

the third century. Although most of his Roman contemporaries saw his behavior as bizarre and offensive, there are other possible perspectives that make sense of some of Elagabalus' actions and choices. For instance, he may have been enacting his role as pontifex maximus in a Syrian idiom. And he may have seen this role as the most important facet of what it meant to be emperor and to rule. The reign of Elagabalus makes the point that in a time of increased social mobility, such as the third century, someone like lamblichus may have had even more at stake as a provincial elite than in earlier periods and hence situated his own social standing within this more fluid late Roman arena. Further support is lent to this interpretation when we consider that members of traditional priesthoods with philosophical predilections in both Syria and Egypt were actively engaged in the production of theological texts, such as the Chaldean Oracles and Hermetic writings. In fact, a certain irony emerges when one asks what lamblichus' sources might have been for his understanding of Egyptian myth, ritual and hieratic practice. It is unlikely that he would have known the Egyptian language. Native Egyptians who wished to better their situation in life learned Greek under both the Ptolemies and the Romans. But it was rare that Greek speakers perceived any advantage in learning Egyptian. Although it is unlikely that lamblichus learned Egyptian, he probably spent time in Egypt. Both B. Dalgaard Larsen and Polymnia

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Athanassiadi argue compellingly that lamblichus spent considerable time in Alexandria as a young man.52 It may have been in Alexandria that he studied with Anatolius, the future bishop of Laodicaea. Scholars generally accept that lamblichus was born around 240 CE53 and that Anatolius left Alexandria after the destruction of the Brucheon quarter around 270 CE, the area of the city where most of the teachers and philosophers were known to have resided.54 Thus, because lamblichus studied with Anatolius before going to Porphyry's school in Rome in his early thirties, Alexandria seems the most likely place for his studies with the former.55 So although lamblichus was a descendent of an important family of priest-kings in Emesa he chose to assume the identity of an Egyptian priest, lamblichus may have also drawn on this Egyptian identity because of the importance of Alexandria to the Platonic lineage

Polymnia Athanassiadi, "The Oecumenism of lamblichus: Latent Knowledge and its Awakening," Journal of Roman Studies 85 (1995): 246. B. Dalsgaard Larsen, "La Place de Jamblique dans la philosophie antique tardive," in De Jamblique a Proclus, ed. H. Dorrie, Entretiens sur I'antiquite classique (Genf, 1975), 24. 53 For the most complete and detailed work on lamblichus' biography as a whole, see John Dillon, "lamblichus of Chalcis (c. 240-325 AD)," Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt 2.36.2 (1987). 54 For a discussion of the events surrounding the destruction of the Bruchion quarter see Christopher Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict (Baltimore, 1997). 28, 366 n. 18. See also Steward Irvin Oost, "The Alexandrian Seditions under Philip and Gallienus," Classical Philology 56 (1961). 55 Athanassiadi also argues for Hermetic influence on lamblichus' writings: "To the present reviewer's mind, [lamblichus] drew much more from Egypt in general and the Hermetic milieu in particular than has ever been suspected... Indeed, one of lamblichus' primary achievements is to have shown how this contemporary Hermetic literature - so diverse in style and content (DMVIII.4.265, 1.260 and VI.5) - had absorbed much that was of Greek and Hellenistic origin without sacrificing its essentially Egyptian character (DMVIII.5; cf VII.5.258)." Athanassiadi, "The Oecumenism of lamblichus: Latent Knowledge and its Awakening," 246.

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of Ammonius Saccas, a lineage which, as Beatrice notes, was not uncontested.56 Based on the foregoing considerations, one can understand why lamblichus may have chosen to fashion his priestly identity in Egyptian terms. The question remains as to the textual sources of lamblichus' knowledge of Egyptian religion. Garth Fowden suggests that lamblichus relied on Hermetic writings in this regard. We find evidence of this Hermetic focus in On the Mysteries, Book Eight, where lamblichus provided his reader with an account of Egyptian theology. Here he interpreted Egyptian cosmology in terms of Platonic emanation, from an original triadic unity mediated by the heavenly gods through Hermes and the leader of the heavenly Kneph, working down to the demiurgic Nous and beyond to Amun, Ptah and Osiris. Fowden notes that scholars have found this account puzzling: "there is some traditional Egyptian material (though not such as was unavailable in the Greek literature on the subject), jumbled together with relatively late Greek philosophical speculation and little clue to how it all fits together."57 Fowden claims that we can only really understand what is going on in Book VIII if we look back to Plutarch to determine what lamblichus may have been reading. In On Isis and Osiris, Plutarch refers to the "so-called books of 56

Beatrice, "Porphyry's Judgement on Origen." Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge, 1986). 138.

57

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Hermes" and explains what can be learned from them regarding Egyptian religion. Fowden concludes that lamblichus must have compiled his account of Egyptian doctrines concerning the gods based on these Hermetic works, texts which already mediated Egyptian religion through a Hellenic/Platonic lens.58 Fowden also notes that lamblichus would have thought of the Hermetica as essentially Egyptian and hence representative.59 But Hermetism was already a hybrid religious movement. Like the Chaldaean Oracles, which mediated eastern religion through a Greek philosophical lens, Hermetism did something very similar for Egyptian religion.60 As noted earlier, scholars now believe that the Hermetic corpus was produced in an Egyptian clerical milieu. For instance, Fowden believes that the authors of these works would have been "In other words, there existed what may best be called theological Hermetica, which described the gods in the Stoic manner in terms of the powers inherent in physical creation and discussed the names variously assigned them by the Egyptians and the Greeks. There are obvious parallels with the passages just quoted from the De Mysteriis; and we may assume that it was at least in part from these theological Hermetica that lamblichus compiled his account of Egyptian doctrine concerning the gods." Ibid. 138-39. rs Ibid. 138. 60 In his critical edition of On the Styx, Cristiano Castelleti makes the point that Porphyry endeavored to look as broadly as possible for common understandings of religious phenomena (in this case, the river Styx, or a river on whose waters humans and divinities take oaths) as part of an attempt to point to some sort of universal religio, patterned, of course, on Platonic and Pythagorean truths. If Castelleti is right, and it seems he is, then Augustine's assertion that Porphyry was seeking a via universalis was, in part correct. However, it does not appear to be a universal path to salvation, but rather a universal Ur-religio. Cristiano Castelletti, Porfirio: Sullo Stige, 1. ed., Bompiani Testi a fronte; 99 (Milano, 2006). 87-88. Castelletti also made this point in a talk to the Ancient Borderlands Focus Group at the University of California at Santa Barbara: "The Styx: Source of Death or Source of Life? A Study of Porphyry's Treatise On the Styx" (May 18th, 2009).

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Egyptian priests of a learned bent. He bases his hypothesis on a number of observations regarding this priestly class in Late Antiquity, their tendency to assimilate to the "politically dominant culture," their attendance at Greek schools, and their teaching activities in traditional Greek subjects such as philosophy and rhetoric.61 As Fowden notes, "Such men will naturally have been well-disposed towards a doctrine which associated the traditions."62 These observations and hypotheses bring the milieu of the elite Platonic philosopher, represented here by Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus, and that of everyday priests of traditional religion(s), into much closer proximity than might be expected. One certainly finds evidence for cross-fertilization in both the conceptual and ritual realms. But one also finds indications of competition between these groups for the same kinds of social goods. Precisely what sort of social goods will be discussed shortly.

Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. 167. Chaeremon was a first-century Egyptian priest (hierogrammateus) and Stoic philosopher who became Nero's tutor before his accession. Athanassiadi notes a similar association of local priests educated in philosophy in second-century Apamea. She cites an inscription which mentions a priest of Bel who was also head of the Epicurean school in the city. She tentatively identifies the sanctuary of Bel and its priesthood as the milieu in which the Chaldean Oracles were produced and disseminated. Philosophical interest in the oracles could have been transmitted through the Platonist philosopher Numenius who's school was also at Apamea. Polymnia Athanassiadi, "The Chaldaean Oracles: Theology and Theurgy," in Pagan Montheism in Late Antiquity, ed. Polymnia Athanassiadi and Michael Frede (Oxford, New York, 1999), 154-55. 62 Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. 16768.

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All of the philosophers under investigation here - Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus - presented themselves as priests. Their claims to be priests were not merely symbolic or metaphoric. Each of them claimed to know about proper and improper ritual, about sacrifices, and about salvific actions. And each of them made claims that their ritual knowledge and priestly status was founded upon deep philosophical contemplation and the esoteric, mysterious, divine insight it yielded. Finally, all three argued that normal everyday priests, i.e. local priests, were priests of mere daemons. In other words, they made the claim that ordinary priests only dealt with lower spiritual beings, even evil ones, and failed to engage with higher beings, not to mention the highest god of all. For Origen, these ordinary priests were priests of evil daemons with no exception, and Christian priests such as himself served the highest God. Similarly Porphyry stated in his Philosophy from Oracles that there were some priests, Egyptians and Phoenicians, who used bloody animals to sate and then chase off evil daemons prior to real worship, and claimed that the priest of the god who rules all was the philosopher and none other, while priests who offered blood sacrifices to gods were mistakenly worshipping evil spirits. For lamblichus, the priest/image maker accomplished his work using the lowest powers to emanate from the divine, those spirits involved with matter and

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generation. Theurgists, such as himself, were the only ones who had sufficient ritual knowledge to save their own souls and those of others. But why did intellectuals such as Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus choose to situate themselves socially in this rather unprecedented manner as priests at this particular historical juncture? In order to answer this question, we need to look at a number of the broader social and political trends of the late Roman period and those of the third century in particular. First, the term "high priest" had an important resonance in the Roman Mediterranean in that it was one of the greatest privileges that the Roman imperial court could bestow on provincial elites. As Rizakis writes: The award of high priesthood was an equally great honor and the choice of candidates was made according to extremely strict criteria that may be summarized as follows: wealth, social position, good relations of the individual in question and his family with the imperial milieu or with the emperor himself. A high priesthood was the highest possible recognition, in one form, of life-long services rendered to the city, to the province, but above all, to Rome...63 The thing we must keep in mind, however, is that for much of the third century, the period when Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus were working Athanasios Rizakis, "Urban Elites in the Roman East: Enhancing Regional Positions and Social Superiority," in A Companion to Roman Religion, ed. Jorg Rupke, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (Maiden, 2007), 327-28. Rizakis' discussion most aptly describes the situation in the first and second centuries CE, but despite the upheaval of the third century, expectations for how the administration of the empire worked likely took some time to change. Furthermore, the workings of empire in the third century allowed for increased social mobility which would have expanded the pool from which candidates for important and prestigious positions would have been chosen.

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most intensely, Rome was in a state of relative upheaval both politically and economically. The respective careers of these philosophers were punctuated by episodic violence, both religiously and politically driven, and by the instability wrought by the frequent turnover of emperors, some of whom came from regions whence these philosophers hailed. For instance, Elagabalus and the Severans, like lamblichus, came from Syria and from important families of Syrian priests. Thus, in the midst of such upheaval, it may have been possible for these intellectuals, subtly and quietly, in the course of philosophical and theological reflections, to coopt the title of "high priest" or "priest of the god who rules all" for themselves. Whether or not this particular resonance, namely "high priest" as part of the cursus honorum, was in any way being invoked by these Platonists and theurgists, there are plenty of other aspects of their adoption of this hieratic status at this particular moment in history which help to explain the phenomenon. As just mentioned, the third century was a period of significant upheaval and disruption. As Hartmut Leppin points out, in antiquity, "contemporaries were predisposed to decode any crisis in religious terms. The mercy of the gods (or God) had to be regained somehow."64 In the third century, "Some strove to practice the old cults with more 64

Hartmut Leppin, "Old Religions Transformed: Religions and Religious Policy from Decius to Constantine," in A Companion to Roman Religion, ed. Jorg Riipke, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (Maiden, 2007), 96.

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care; others sought a more personal contact with the gods; many went both ways."65 We find both responses expressed in the lives of our philosophers. Furthermore, the fact of empire itself made possible a new way of thinking about religion. In his 1993 book, Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity, Garth Fowden argues that the "political universalism" of the Roman Empire, i.e. the existence of a single hierarchical political structure for the entire Mediterranean world, made possible thinking about "cultural universalism." Fowden also contends that monotheism or henotheism, the religious order to which a large group of political, intellectual and social elites subscribed, was wellsuited to this cultural universalism. The fruit of this association between religious/philosophical and political ideology is certainly evident in the writings of Christian historians and apologists in the Constantinian and post-Constantinian periods, such as Lactantius and Eusebius. However, it is not a purely Christian phenomenon. Hierarchical daemonologies that ordered the realm of spirits resembled, in important ways, the hierarchy of empire itself. In the third century, a century of significant upheaval and disruption, reflection on the relationship between the political order and divine order became even more pressing.

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The third century was a time when political leaders at all levels were faced with increasing heterodoxy, and more importantly, increasing heteropraxy. Jews no longer had a temple in which to sacrifice. Christians eschewed sacrifices altogether, an act which constituted a breach of "national security." As James B. Rives notes, the Emperor Decius (201-251 CE) chose sacrifice as the basis for an empire-wide expression of religious conformity and patriotism, an expression of what Fowden might call "cultural universalism." Furthermore, philosophers felt the need to respond to Christian criticisms of "heterodoxy" and "heteropraxy." As Fowden notes, intellectuals who subscribed to some form of traditional religion "sought to explain themselves and rationalize their uncontrollably complex heritage."66 One approach they took was to create ordered spiritual hierarchies and universal, totalizing daemonologies, in a manner similar to their Christian counterparts. As Mastrocinque writes, "Neoplatonism took increasingly the form of theological speculation. Porphyry and, even more, lamblichus were engaged in the study of the gods, the cosmos, and the existing religions of the empire."67

Fowden, Empire to commonwealth: consequences of monotheism in late antiquity. 38. 67 Attilio Mastrocinque, "Creating One's Own Religion: Intellectual Choices," in A Companion to Roman Religion, ed. Jorg Rupke (Maiden, 2007), 389.

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There is a further implication of the efforts of these intellectuals to create totalizing discourses about religion and to establish themselves as ritualists and priests expert in prayers and initiations and salvific rites. When philosophers became apologists for traditional religion in this way, they potentially adopted a new role vis-a-vis political authority with respect to this question of "national security" and its dependence on the well-being of the relationship between divinity and humanity in the ancient world. Namely, the scope of their potential influence became much broader than the average local priest. In reality, it too became universal or empire-wide. This political influence was borne out in reality and in narrative. This influence will be most dramatically expressed in the relationship between the Christian state and the Catholic Church in subsequent centuries, but it had its roots in much earlier epochs including the period under investigation here.68 For instance, there is evidence that both Christian intellectuals (for example, Lactantius) and apologists for traditional religion (Heracles and another anonymous philosopher) were part of Diocletian's court where the latter group weighed in heavily on the issue of what to do about the Christians.69 Earlier, Origen was called to Antioch to consult with Julia 68

See the conclusion to this dissertation for a more detailed discussion of the role and expectations of intellectuals in the Roman state. 69 For a discussion of the possible identity of the anonymous philosopher, see Elizabeth Digeser, "Porphyry, Julian or Hierokles? The Anonymous Hellene in Makarios Magnes' Apokritikos." Journal of Theological Studies 53 (2002): 466-502.

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Mammea on questions of philosophy and theology.

This formidable

woman was a member of an important family of priests to the Syrian god Baal.71 She was also the niece of Julia Domna, daughter of Julia Maesa, aunt to the Emperor Elagabalus, and mother and regent for the Emperor Alexander Severus, a man whose household shrine supposedly contained images of both Jesus and Moses.72 In their accounts of the life of Pythagoras, whom they portray as an expert on sacrifice and religious rites, Porphyry and lamblichus both depict the philosopher advising kings and city rulers as to how to structure and administer a state.73 Finally, in Eunapius' biographies of the later Platonists, he emphasizes their expertise on spirits and their ability to perform various

' u Eus./?.e. 6.21.3-4. See Athanassiadi, "The Chaldaean Oracles: Theology and Theurgy." for an intriguing discussion concerning the possible connections between the priests of this temple and the Chaldean Oracles. 72 Historia Augusta: Severus Alexander, 29.2. 73 lamblichus writes extensively about Pythagoras' ritual knowledge and, in particular, his insights concerning proper sacrifices, lamblichus, On the Pythagorean life, Gillian Clark trans., Translated texts for historians; v. 8 (Liverpool, 1989).See for instance, chapters 24 and 28. In his Life of Pythagoras, Porphyry relates that Pythagoras lived with and learned from Egyptian priests for long periods during his life. He was also initiated into a Cretan priesthood during one of his travels. Porphyry also relates that when Pythagoras arrived on the Italian peninsula, he advised a number of city leaders regarding governance: "During his travels in Italy and Sicily he founded various cities subjected one to another, both of long standing, and recently. By his disciples, some of whom were found in every city, he infused into them an aspiration for liberty; thus restoring to freedom Crotona, Sybaris, Catana, Rhegium, Himera, Agrigentum, Tauromenium, and others, on whom he imposed laws through Charondas the Catanean, and Zaleucus the Locrian, which resulted in a long era of good government, emulated by all their neighbors. Simichus the tyrant of the Centorupini, on hearing Pythagoras's discourse, abdicated his rule and divided his property between his sister and the citizens." See Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, David R. Fideler, and Philip Lamantia, The Pythagorean sourcebook and library: an anthology of ancient writings which relate to Pythagoras and Pythagorean philosophy (Grand Rapids, 1987). 123-36. 71

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wonders.74 He also frequently depicts his heroes advising political rulers and spending time at the imperial court.75 It seems then, that the image of the high priest, the image that third century Platonists sought to construct for themselves, met with considerable success. This is certainly the case in the post-Constantinian era with regard to Christian priests. But it is also the case that the images of high priests constructed by non-Christian philosophers may have allowed traditional religion to flourish for much longer than scholars have sometimes acknowledged. It is certainly the case that we can no longer think of people like Porphyry and lamblichus as marginal figures living in an age of decline and retrogression. They found new ways to reinvigorate old images and roles, and in so doing, they carved out a sphere of influence that extended beyond what many intellectuals can lay claim to in most times and places.

74

For instance, on Eunapius' account, Porphyry once cast out and expelled a certain daemon from a bath (Eun. VS, 457). Eunapius reports that lamblichus once produced a theophany of two hot spring spirits, Eros and Anteros, for his followers(Eun. VS, 459). 75 For example, Sopater was a courtier and valued advisor of Emperor Constantine I. Indeed, Eunapius says that Sopater became an imperial assessor. The emperor eventually put him to death, an act which Eunapius blames on other jealous courtiers who weren't as enthusiastic about "a court so lately converted to the study of philosophy" (Eun. VS, 462).

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Conclusion: Antecedents and Heirs - From the Second Sophistic to Christian Bishops Scholars have long puzzled over how it happened that during and following the reign of Constantine, bishops came to play such a large role in imperial administration and policy-making for the late Roman Empire. Although it has not been the aim of this dissertation to engage with issues pertaining to the fourth century and the Christianization of the Mediterranean world - a process which intensified in the period shortly after the one under discussion in this study - we can make a number of observations about the way in which the third century and the intellectuals under consideration here shed light on subsequent developments. But in order to understand how religious, cultural and political authority intersected in both the third and fourth centuries, it is helpful to turn to a group of second-century intellectuals for a moment, namely the figures about whom Philostratus writes in his Lives of the Sophists. In the second half of the fourth century, Eunapius wrote his Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists in which he created biographical accounts for those whom he considered to be the most important intellectual luminaries of the third and fourth centuries from Porphyry through Chrysanthius, his own teacher. For him, the important biographical details he relates included not only the literary production

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and teaching activities of his subjects, but also the wonders they performed, their ability to interact with the gods, the divine secrets they were privy to, their ability to discern good and evil spirits, and even their willingness to exorcise the latter on occasion. Eunapius also discussed the political connections of these philosophers, focusing a good deal of attention on the brief but important eighteen month period when, for the last time, after decades of Christian rule, a true Hellene of the most resolutely non-Christian stripe was again in power, namely the Emperor Julian (361-63 CE). It is interesting and illuminating for our purposes here that Eunapius' Lives are published in the Loeb Classical Library in the same volume as Philosostratus' Lives of the Sophists, a work written sometime between 230 and 238 CE and dedicated to the then future Emperor Gordion (238-44 CE), the same emperor with whom Plotinus went on campaign to Persia (242-43 CE). In this work, Philostratus provides biographical sketches of the early Greek sophists as well as members the Second Sophistic - a term which refers to sophists and more philosophically inclined intellectuals and public figures from the time of Nero until the early third century. This movement included figures such as Dio Chrysostom, Favorinus, Nicetas of Smyrna, Scopelian, Polemon of Laodicea, Herodes Atticus, Aelius Aristides and Antipater. The continuities and parallels between these second-century intellectuals and the philosophers and bishops of the third and fourth

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centuries are interesting. But they are not so interesting as the differences. It is certainly the case that the nature of sophistic education resembled what one finds in both the third-century philosophy and catechetical schools of the late Roman Mediterranean. Students traveled to learn from the most illustrious and famous teachers of the day, the "schools" of these teachers were often itinerant and informal, and these sophists were often in competition for pupils and in contest with each other over their reputations. Furthermore, many of the sophists gained key posts in the imperial administration giving them direct access to emperors and frequently to the imperial treasury. For instance, a number of these sophists held the post of high priest in the imperial cult, many more were consuls and proconsuls, a number were imperial secretaries. And many of them who had access to inherited wealth and the largesse of the emperor acted the part of local patron in their respective provinces to the point where they, at times, had to be circumspect that they not appear to compete with the emperor in terms of public building and endowments, games and festivities. For instance, according to Philostratus, Herodes Atticus dearly desired to cut a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth using his own funds. However, "he never had the courage to ask the Emperor to grant him permission, lest he should be accused of grasping at an ambitious plan to which not even

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Nero had proved himself equal" (Philostratus Vit. Soph., 552).1 Finally, some of these figures were important religious leaders in their provincial cities, participating in local cult as both initiates and priests. Thus we can draw important parallels between these earlier figures and later Platonists and bishops. This suggests that the sophists and philosophers about whom Philostratus writes, the intellectual luminaries of the period preceding the one we have considered in this study, could have served as a model for the kinds of hopes and even expectations people such as Origen, Porphyry and lamblichus may have held regarding their own place in society. And some of their contemporaries certainly followed closely in the footsteps of these sophists. Plotinus, as mentioned earlier, was close to the Emperor Gallienus and his wife. Philostratus himself serves as a kind of bridge between the sophists he writes about and the philosophers Eunapius focuses on. He was a member of the circle or "salon" of Julia Domna, wife of the Emperor Septimius Severus and mother of the Emperor Caracalla. She was also the aunt of Julia Mamea, mother of the Emperor Alexander Severus. As mentioned earlier, Julia Mamea called Origen to visit her in Syria and consult about wisdom. Lactantius found himself in a rather similar position to the sophist Antipater who became the tutor of Severus' sons 1

Philostratus, Vitae Sophistarum, 552. Wilmer Cave France Wright, Philostratus and Eunapius; the lives of the Sophists, vol. 134, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass. London, 1989). 151.

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before the younger, Geta, was put to death on charges of plotting against his brother. Lactantius was court tutor to Constantine's son Crispus decades later. But not until he had first been appointed to the chair of rhetoric at Nicomedia by Diocletian. And not until after he'd been reduced to penury subsequent to his dismissal from this position as a result the Emperor's edict against the Christians in 303 CE which barred them from teaching philosophy and rhetoric. These few examples demonstrate the continuities between the second, third and fourth centuries as we find them represented in a number of biographical works from this period, both Christian and non-Christian, works such as those written by Porphyry (i.e. his life of Plotinus), Philostratus, Eunapius, Lactantius, and Eusebius. Despite these many similarities, however, it is the differences between the way Philostratus and Eunapius describe their subjects that helps to explain the unique position of bishops with reference to the imperial court and late Roman society in general, their authority and influence, in the post-Diocletianic order. In other words, we cannot understand the social location of bishops without understanding something about the identity and self-fashioning of the third-century Platonists considered in this dissertation. And the most important facet of this identity in this regard is the way they cast themselves in the roles of priests and ritual experts. So although Philostratus mentions some of 225

the religious activities of his subjects, in particular, the honors they receive in terms of high priesthoods and important priestly positions in mystery cults, he does not focus much if at all on miracles or wonders. Nor does he emphasize the way these sophists may have engaged philosophically or theologically with topics pertaining to the nature of divinity and spirits. In other words, what appears to be new in the third century is the hieratic facet of the philosopher's identity discussed in the previous chapter. This priestly and ritual addition to the third-century intellectual's identity is what makes it possible to see the connection between the aspirations and socio-political accomplishments of the second-century sophists and the fourth-century bishops who frequently endeavored, and sometimes even managed to determine imperial policy.2 One of the main arguments of this dissertation has been that the daemonological discourses third-century philosophers constructed served to ground their authority more broadly. Their ability to understand and order the late Roman spiritual landscape in hierarchical and

2

As both Peter Brown and Claudia Rapp have argued, over time as the fortunes of Christianity rose, bishops tended to come from the more elite classes, classes which in previous epochs had given rise to many sophists and philosophers. In other words, members of these classes saw opportunities for themselves within the church hierarchy, which were similar in important respects to those available to intellectuals in earlier periods. Peter Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire, Curti Lecture Series (Madison, 1992). Claudia Rapp, Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition, Transformation of the Classical Heritage (Berkeley, 2005).

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systematic ways constituted a key aspect of their claims to theological and ritual expertise. And their endeavors in this regard met with considerable success if we consider how, at least Porphyry and lamblichus were remembered by Eunapius, namely as philosophers who were able to discern spirits, both good and evil. But this ability to discern spirits was also to become a key facet of the bishop's authority in the fourth century. Indeed, although the Christian tradition focusing on the discernment of spirits has its origins in the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus and his disciples, the third century and the various and intersecting intellectual milieus of the period - Platonists, Gnostics, Hermetists, and Chaldeans, regardless of religious association, whether Christian, Jewish, or Hellene - marks another important moment in the development of this tradition. Recognizing the importance of ritual in the life of the third-century Platonist philosopher also serves to refocus attention on the importance of ritual in late antique Christianity. Most studies that focus on religious personnel in the late Roman Church tend to emphasize the role priests and bishops played in the long, slow process of establishing orthodox doctrinal positions on a variety of theological questions. Few studies take seriously the involvement of these figures in Christian ritual and liturgical practices. Some scholars, such as Dayna Kalleres, have begun to redress this lacuna. Understanding the importance of ritual expertise 227

to the identity of the third-century philosopher and drawing connections between these priestly figures and fourth-century Church personnel offers further avenues of approaching the question of the place of ritual in late antique Christianity and religious authority. Part of ritual expertise in both cases involved the ability to discern, locate and control spirits.3 In many respects, the philosophers under discussion in previous chapters were highly successful in mapping their ordered, systematic, morally-valenced hierarchies of spirits onto more local and amorphous spiritual landscapes. For centuries to come, the spiritual realm was more polarized between good and evil beings than it had ever been previously in the Greek and Roman Mediterranean. And certainly more and more people recognized that at the very top of the spiritual hierarchy was a single, universal, and absolute deity. However, we also have ample evidence that more local understandings of spirits persisted long after the Christianization of the Mediterranean and Western European worlds was considered by most to be a fait accompli. Scholars have long noted that the ways in which Christians began to revere, worship and petition the early martyrs and saints mirrored the ways in which their religious predecessors had interacted and communicated with spirits for centuries. 3

One dramatic example is the way in which Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, used ritual and liturgical settings to establish his own authority. I am not only thinking here of the way he used access to the Eucharist as a means for enforcing his judgments regarding the Emperor Theodosius' behavior. I am also thinking of the way, on a number of occasions, he increased the prestige of his See by locating and identifying, i.e. discerning, the holy relics of martyrs.

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Practices such as incubation and the offering of votives still continue at saints' shines to this day. But we have other evidence from late antiquity for what I have called the local understanding of spirits persisting even within what some scholars have identified as Christian milieus. The volume of Coptic ritual papyri published by Marvin W. Meyer and Richard Smith in 1999 entitled Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power points to this fact. This publication contains 135 ritual texts on papyri, most of which come from the fourth through eleventh centuries CE. There is much in these artifacts that will be familiar to the reader of the Greek ritual papyri discussed in Chapter Two. The spells and formulae are used for the same ends as their earlier counterparts - they are used to procure health, vengeance, love and protection against the ill will of humans and spirits; and they are used to avoid harm, evil, and illness. Many of the formulae are also exorcistic in nature. Although these Coptic papyri tend to use Hebrew and Christian names, formulae and historiolae much more than the earlier Greek papyri, many of them reflect a similar lack of concern with spiritual hierarchy, taxonomy, and order. And most of them reveal important continuities with earlier nonChristian formulae in terms of their structure and their construction of spirits. For instance, P. Berolinensis 5565 is a spell to bring sleep for someone suffering from insomnia. It begins with a dialogue with a spirit called "Abfoure" who is supposed to bring sleep. It also invokes Isis and

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Horus and a historiola about how Isis sets the sun and moon in place. The spell also calls upon Abrasax whom it defines oddly as "the angel who sits upon the tree of Paradise." Finally, it recounts how this angel sent sleep upon the legendary figure Abimilech from Baruch 5:1-4, a sleep which, according to the spell, lasted seventy-five years.4 Abrasax is not usually portrayed as an angel in earlier artifacts, and the spell mixes Hebrew and Egyptian figures without clearly indicating how they are ordered in relation to each other. At the same time, each of the stories it invokes relates to the problem at hand, namely the disconcerting situation of not being able to sleep at the appropriate times. This is only one of many examples in the Coptic ritual papyri that mix traditional Christian, Hebrew and Egyptian elements, angels and daemons, saints and gods, presenting these spirits in amorphous, morally ambiguous ways. Furthermore, God, Jesus, angels, saints and Mary are all called upon to curse enemies in graphic and violent ways. One might be inclined to think that within a Christian milieu this sort of desire to harm others would be problematic and would represent marginal attitudes about vengeance and justice. But contemporary saints' lives from Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor all contain examples of holy men cursing those who make fun of them or doubt their abilities,

4

Marvin Meyer, ed., Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power (Princeton, 1994). 92-3. In Baruch Abimilech only sleeps for sixty-six years.

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sometimes with fatal results. Many of these stories portray their heroes as irascible and even capricious in the use of their power, much like the spirits in the Coptic papyri. In other words, just as in the third century, the degree to which fourth-century Christian theologians and intellectuals were able impose their systematic daemonologies on the local spiritual landscape was mitigated and limited. People continued to conceive of and interact with spirits in much the same way they always had. The example with which this dissertation began, namely my encounter with Sister Galloway in her spiritualist shop on the Nipomo Swap Meet, attests to the persistence of these practices and the presuppositions about spirits that ground them. However, it is safe to say that despite this fact, if an individual sought to establish him or herself as an authority in the late Roman religious, cultural and political realm, it became increasingly important, from the third century on, that he or she be daemonologically "fluent", discursively-speaking, and that he or she have the ritual expertise to discern various species of spiritual beings, locate them, and keep them in their respective places in the cosmos. We can end our discussion with one final example. When reading Athanasius' Life of Antony, one is immediately struck by the way in which Antony's identity as a saint is established primarily through his interactions with malign spirits. He repeatedly demonstrates his ability to defeat evil daemons. He is able to

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discern their tricks and the traps they set for him, he knows where they hang out, and how to overcome them despite their resolute efforts to destroy him. But what is also striking about Athanasius' account is that in the only sermon he includes in his biography, Antony focuses twentyone out of twenty-seven paragraphs on evil daemons. In other words, Athanasius provides an exhaustive daemonological discourse to accompany Antony's ritual actions. Whether or not Antony ever gave such a sermon, its inclusion in the Life demonstrates the point this dissertation has endeavored to make, namely that in late antiquity, from at least the third century on, power and authority were integrally related to one's ability to produce speeches about the realm of spirits and to interact with and control this realm by ritual means.

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