1. Plato, Symposium, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 210a. but I doubt if you could approach the rites and revelations to which these, for the properly instructed, are merely the avenue. However I will speak of them, she said, and will not stint my best endeavors; only you on your part must try your best to follow. He who would proceed rightly in this business must not merely begin from his youth to encounter beautiful bodies. In the first place, indeed, if his conductor guides him aright, he must be in love with one particular body, and engender beautiful converse therein; |
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2. New Testament, John, 4.10-4.14, 14.6 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 4.10. Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. 4.11. The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water? 4.12. Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his sons, and his cattle? 4.13. Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again 4.14. but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. 14.6. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. |
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3. Irenaeus, Refutation of All Heresies, 1.15.2, 5.20.1 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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4. Irenaeus, Demonstration of The Apostolic Teaching, 89, 6 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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5. Nag Hammadi, Allogenes, 60.37 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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6. Nag Hammadi, The Apocalypse of Adam, 85.22-85.31 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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7. Nag Hammadi, The Gospel of The Egyptians, 44.22-44.24, 66.11 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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8. Nag Hammadi, The Interpretation of Knowledge, 5.14-5.16 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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9. Nag Hammadi, Trimorphic Protennoia, 37.31, 48.11-48.35 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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10. Nag Hammadi, Zostrianos, 53.15-54.1 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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11. Plotinus, Enneads, 6.7.36 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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12. Porphyry, On The Cave of The Nymphs, 6 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
| 6. This world, then, is sacred and pleasant to souls wno nave now proceeded into nature, and to natal daemons, though it is essentially dark and obscure; from which some have suspected that souls also are of an obscure nature and essentially consist of air. Hence a cavern, which is both pleasant and dark, will be appropriately consecrated to souls on the earth, conformably to its similitude to the world, in which, as in the greatest of all temples, souls reside. To the nymphs likewise, who preside over waters, a cavern, in which there are perpetually flowing streams, is adapted. Let, therefore, this present cavern be consecrated to souls, and among the more partial powers, to nymphs that preside over streams and fountains, and who, on this account, are called fontal and naiades. Waat, therefore, are the different symbols, some of which are adapted to souls, but others to the aquatic powers, in order that we may apprehend that this cavern is consecrated in common to |19 both? Let the stony bowls, then, and the amphorae be symbols of the aquatic nymphs. For these are, indeed, the symbols of Bacchus, but their composition is fictile, i.e., consists of baked earth, and these are friendly to the vine, the gift of God; since the fruit of the vine is brought to a proper maturity by the celestial fire of the sun. But the stony bowls and amphorae are in the most eminent degree adapted to the nymphs who preside over the water that flows from rocks. And to souls that descend into generation and are occupied in corporeal energies, what symbol can be more appropriate than those instruments pertaining to weaving? Hence, also, the poet ventures to say, "that on these, the nymphs weave purple webs, admirable to the view." For the formation of the flesh is on and about the bones, which in the bodies of animals resemble stones. Hence these instruments of weaving consist of stone, and not of any other matter. But the purple webs will evidently be the flesh which is woven from the blood. For purple woollen garments are tinged from blood. and wool is dyed from animal juice. The generation of flesh, also, is through and from blood. Add, too, that |20 the body is a garment with which the soul is invested, a thing wonderful to the sight, whether this refers to the composition of the soul, or contributes to the colligation of the soul (to the whole of a visible essence). Thus, also, Proserpine, who is the inspective guardian of everything produced from seed, is represented by Orpheus as weaving a web (note 7), and the heavens are called by the ancients a veil, in consequence of being,as it were, the vestment of the celestial Gods. |
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13. Epiphanius, Panarion, 40.7.6 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
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