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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



2541
Cornutus, De Natura Deorum, 17


nanperhaps, she hymns many, and hears everything that is hymned about our ancestors and after research from poems and other writings. ‘Ourania’ is knowledge about the heavenly bodies and the nature of the universe – for the ancients called the whole cosmos heaven. ‘Kalliope’ is rhetoric, which is beautiful of voice and beautiful of word; by this, men govern cities and address the people, leading them by persuasion, not force, to whatever they choose. This, in particular, is why Hesiod says that she “serves kings and bards”. Tradition assigns various instruments to them, each showing that the life of the good is well structured, harmonious with itself and consistent. Apollo dances with them because of his affiliation with the arts. Tradition has it that he plays the kithara, for a reason you will learn in a little while. They say that they dance in the mountains because those who love learning need to be alone and are always going into the wilderness, “without which nothing holy is discovered” as the comic poet has it. Because of this Zeus is said to have fathered them during nine nights of intercourse with Mnemosyne:


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

5 results
1. Homer, Iliad, 20, 1 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)

2. Aeschylus, Eumenides, 641-643, 640 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

640. πατρὸς προτιμᾷ Ζεὺς μόρον τῷ σῷ λόγῳ· 640. Zeus gives greater honor to a father’s death, according to what you say; yet he himself bound his aged father, Cronus. How does this not contradict what you say? I call on you as witnesses turning to the judges to hear these things. Apollo
3. Euripides, Hercules Furens, 346-347, 345 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

345. taking another’s wife without leave given, while to save your own friends you have no skill. Either you are a god of little sense, or else naturally unjust. Exit Amphitryon. Choru
4. Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 2.8-2.32 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

2.8. 2. Now, although I cannot but think that I have already demonstrated, and that abundantly, more than was necessary, that our fathers were not originally Egyptians, nor were thence expelled, either on account of bodily diseases, or any other calamities of that sort 2.8. for Apion hath the impudence to pretend, that “the Jews placed an ass’s head in their holy place;” and he affirms that this was discovered when Antiochus Epiphanes spoiled our temple, and found that ass’s head there made of gold, and worth a great deal of money. 2.9. yet will I briefly take notice of what Apion adds upon that subject; 2.9. Now, such men as he are more zealous to justify a sacrilegious king than to write what is just and what is true about us, and about our temple; for when they are desirous of gratifying Antiochus, and of concealing that perfidiousness and sacrilege which he was guilty of, with regard to our nation, when he wanted money, they endeavor to disgrace us, and tell lies even relating to futurities. 2.11. that, he also set up pillars instead of gnomons, under which was represented a cavity like that of a boat, and the shadow that fell from their tops fell down upon that cavity, that it might go round about the like course as the sun itself goes round in the other.” 2.11. Now, if he knew the purity of our temple, he hath entirely omitted to take notice of it; but he forges a story about the seizing of a Grecian, about ineffable food, and the most delicious preparation of dainties; and pretends that strangers could go into a place whereinto the noblest men among the Jews are not allowed to enter, unless they be priests. 2.12. This is that wonderful relation which we have given us by this great grammarian. But that it is a false one is so plain, that it stands in need of few words to prove it, but is manifest from the works of Moses; for when he erected the first tabernacle to God, he did himself neither give order for any such kind of representation to be made at it, nor ordain that those who came after him should make such a one. Moreover, when in a future age Solomon built his temple in Jerusalem, he avoided all such needless decorations as Apion hath here devised. 2.12. though it seems this lamp-bearer of ours opened them easily, or thought he opened them, as he thought he had the ass’s head in his hand. Whether, therefore, he returned it to us again, or whether Apion took it and brought it into the temple again, that Antiochus might find it, and afford a handle for a second fable of Apion’s, is uncertain. 2.13. He says farther, “How he had heard of the ancient men, that Moses was of Heliopolis.” To be sure that was because, being a younger man himself, he believed those that by their elder age were acquainted and conversed with him. 2.13. for it is not reasonable to imitate the clownish ignorance of Apion who hath no regard to the misfortunes of the Athenians, or of the Lacedemonians, the latter of whom were styled by all men the most courageous, and the former the most religious, of the Grecians. 2.14. Now, this [man], grammarian as he was, could not certainly tell which was the poet Homer’s country, no more than he could which was the country of Pythagoras, who lived comparatively but a little while ago; yet does he thus easily determine the age of Moses, who preceded them such a vast number of years, as depending on his ancient men’s relation, which shows how notorious a liar he was. 2.14. However, if any one should ask Apion which of the Egyptians he thinks to be the most wise, and most pious of them all, he would certainly acknowledge the priests to be so; 2.15. But then as to this chronological determination of the time when he says he brought the leprous people, the blind, and the lame, out of Egypt, see how well this most accurate grammarian of ours agrees with those that have written before him. 2.15. and if I be compelled to make mention of the laws of other nations, that are contrary to ours, those ought deservedly to thank themselves for it, who have pretended to depreciate our laws in comparison of their own; nor will there, I think, be any room after that for them to pretend, either that we have no such laws ourselves, an epitome of which I will present to the reader, or that we do not, above all men, continue in the observation of them. /p 2.16. Manetho says that the Jews departed out of Egypt, in the reign of Tethmosis, three hundred and ninety-three years before Danaus fled to Argos; Lysimachus says it was under king Bocchoris, that is, one thousand seven hundred years ago; 2.16. When he had therefore come to such a good resolution, and had performed such wonderful exploits, we had just reason to look upon ourselves as having him for a divine governor and counsellor; and when he had first persuaded himself that his actions and designs were agreeable to God’s will, he thought it his duty to impress, above all things, that notion upon the multitude; for those who have once believed that God is the inspector of their lives, will not permit themselves in any sin; 2.17. Molo and some others determined it as every one pleased; but this Apion of ours, as deserving to be believed before them, hath determined it exactly to have been in the seventh olympiad, and the first year of that olympiad; the very same year in which he says that Carthage was built by the Phoenicians. The reason why he added this building of Carthage was, to be sure, in order, as he thought, to strengthen his assertion by so evident a character of chronology. But he was not aware that this character confutes his assertion; 2.17. The reason why the constitution of this legislation was ever better directed to the utility of all than other legislations were, is this, that Moses did not make religion a part of virtue, but he saw and he ordained other virtues to be parts of religion; I mean justice, and fortitude, and temperance, and a universal agreement of the members of the community with one another; 2.18. for if we may give credit to the Phoenician records as to the time of the first coming of their colony to Carthage, they relate that Hirom their king was above one hundred and fifty years earlier than the building of Carthage; concerning whom I have formerly produced testimonials out of those Phoenician records 2.18. for no other people but we Jews have avoided all discourses about God that any way contradict one another, which yet are frequent among other nations; and this is true not only among ordinary persons, according as every one is affected, but some of the philosophers have been insolent enough to indulge such contradictions, while some of them have undertaken to use such words as entirely take away the nature of God, as others of them have taken away his providence over mankind. 2.19. as also that this Hirom was a friend of Solomon when he was building the temple of Jerusalem, and gave him great assistance in his building that temple, while still Solomon himself built that temple, six hundred and twelve years after the Jews came out of Egypt. 2.19. What are the things then that we are commanded or forbidden?—They are simply and easily known. The first command is concerning God, and affirms that God contains all things, and is a being every way perfect and happy, self-sufficient, and supplying all other beings; the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. He is manifest in his works and benefits, and more conspicuous than any other being whatsoever, but as to his form and magnitude, he is most obscure. 2.21. for he says, that “when the Jews had travelled a six days’ journey, they had buboes in their groins: and that on this account it was that they rested on the seventh day, as having got safely to that country which is now called Judea; that then they preserved the language of the Egyptians, and called that day the Sabbath, for that malady of buboes in their groin was named Sabbatosis by the Egyptians.” 2.21. Accordingly our legislator admits all those that have a mind to observe our laws, so to do; and this after a friendly manner, as esteeming that a true union, which not only extends to our own stock, but to those that would live after the same manner with us; yet does he not allow those that come to us by accident only to be admitted into communion with us. /p 2.22. And would not a man now laugh at this fellow’s trifling, or rather hate his impudence in writing thus? We must, it seems, take it for granted, that all these hundred and ten thousand men must have these buboes! 2.22. 32. Nay, indeed, in case it had so fallen out, that our nation had not been so thoroughly known among all men as they are, and our voluntary submission to our laws had not been so open and manifest as it is 2.23. But, for certain, if those men had been blind and lame, and had all sorts of distempers upon them, as Apion says they had, they could not have gone one single day’s journey; but if they had been all able to travel over a large desert, and, besides that, to fight and conquer those that opposed them, they had not all of them had buboes in their groins after the sixth day was over; 2.23. while they made use of other men as their servants for all the necessaries of life, and had their food prepared for them by the others: and these good and humane actions they do for no other purpose but this, that by their actions and their sufferings they may be able to conquer all those against whom they make war. 2.24. for no such distemper comes naturally and of necessity upon those that travel; but still, when there are many ten thousands in a camp together, they constantly march a settled space [in a day]. Nor is it at all probable that such a thing should happen by chance: this would be prodigiously absurd to be supposed. 2.24. uch as these, that they may be allowed to be as numerous as they have a mind to have them; that they are begotten one by another, and that after all the kinds of generation you can imagine. They also distinguish them in their places and ways of living, as they would distinguish several sorts of animals: as some to be under the earth; as some to be in the sea; and the ancientest of them all to be bound in hell; 2.25. However, our admirable author Apion hath before told us, that “they came to Judea in six days’ time;” and again, that “Moses went up to a mountain that lay between Egypt and Arabia, which was called Sinai, and was concealed there forty days, and that when he came down from thence he gave laws to the Jews.” But then, how was it possible for them to tarry forty days in a desert place where there was no water, and at the same time to pass all over the country between that and Judea in the six days? 2.25. 36. Wherefore it deserves our inquiry what should be the occasion of this unjust management, and of these scandals about the Deity. And truly I suppose it to be derived from the imperfect knowledge the heathen legislators had at first of the true nature of God; nor did they explain to the people even so far as they did comprehend of it: nor did they compose the other parts of their political settlements according to it 2.26. And as for this grammatical translation of the word Sabbath, it either contains an instance of his great impudence or gross ignorance; 2.26. and perhaps there may be some reason to blame the rigid severity of the Lacedemonians, for they bestowed the privilege of their city on no foreigners, nor indeed would give leave to them to stay among them; 2.27. for the words iSabboand iSabbathare widely different from one another; for the word Sabbath in the Jewish language denotes rest from all sorts of work; but the word Sabbo, as he affirms, denotes among the Egyptians the malady of a bubo in the groin. /p 2.27. And to be sure Apollonius was greatly pleased with the laws of the Persians, and was an admirer of them, because the Greeks enjoyed the advantage of their courage, and had the very same opinion about the gods which they had. This last was exemplified in the temples which they burnt, and their courage in coming, and almost entirely enslaving the Grecians. However, Apollonius has imitated all the Persian institutions, and that by his offering violence to other men’s wives, and castrating his own sons. 2.28. 3. This is that novel account which the Egyptian Apion gives us concerning the Jews’ departure out of Egypt, and is no better than a contrivance of his own. But why should we wonder at the lies he tells us about our forefathers, when he affirms them to be of Egyptian original, when he lies also about himself? 2.28. 40. We have already demonstrated that our laws have been such as have always inspired admiration and imitation into all other men; 2.29. for although he was born at Oasis in Egypt, he pretends to be, as a man may say, the top man of all the Egyptians; yet does he forswear his real country and progenitors, and by falsely pretending to be born at Alexandria, cannot deny the pravity of his family; 2.29. Those accusers reproached our legislator as a vile fellow; whereas God in old time bare witness to his virtuous conduct; and since that testimony of God, time itself hath been discovered to have borne witness to the same thing. /p 2.31. As for the Egyptians’ claim to be of our kindred, they do it on one of the following accounts; I mean, either as they value themselves upon it, and pretend to bear that relation to us: or else as they would draw us in to be partakers of their own infamy. 2.32. But this fine fellow Apion seems to broach this reproachful appellation against us [that we were originally Egyptians] in order to bestow it on the Alexandrians as a reward for the privilege they had given him of being a fellow citizen with them; he also is apprised of the ill will the Alexandrians bear to those Jews who are their fellow citizens, and so proposes to himself to reproach them, although he must thereby include all the other Egyptians also; while in both cases he is no better than an impudent liar. /p
5. Heraclitus, Allegoriae, 1.1



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
aeschylus Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
alexandria, platonism and stoicism in, ancient/barbarian wisdom, development of interest in Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
amphitryon Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
apion Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
apollo Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
aristarchus of samothrace Ward, Clement and Scriptural Exegesis: The Making of a Commentarial Theologian (2022) 45
bacchae Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
boys-stones, g. r. Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
briareus Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
colli, g. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
cornutus Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51; Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
dionysus Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
dodds, e. r. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
erynies Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
grammatical archive, commentarial assumptions, intention (διάνοια/ voluntas )' Ward, Clement and Scriptural Exegesis: The Making of a Commentarial Theologian (2022) 45
guthrie, w. k. c. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
hecataeus Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
heraclitus allegorista Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
heraclitus the allegorist Ward, Clement and Scriptural Exegesis: The Making of a Commentarial Theologian (2022) 45
homeric scholia Ward, Clement and Scriptural Exegesis: The Making of a Commentarial Theologian (2022) 45
interest in Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
jews and judaism, anti-semitism, classical Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
kottos Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
lysimachus Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
manetho Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
mcginty, p. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
mythology Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
order Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
orestes Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
otto, w. f. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
philippart, h. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
pohlenz, m. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
poseidon Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
rohde, e. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
tatian and celsus, ancient/barbarian wisdom, development of interest in Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
tatian and celsus Ayres and Ward, The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual (2021) 51
thetis Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
untersteiner, m. Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34
zeus Del Lucchese, Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (2019) 34