2. New Testament, Mark, 1.23-1.28, 1.34, 5.1-5.20, 9.14-9.29 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.23. Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out 1.24. saying, "Ha! What do we have to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God! 1.25. Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him! 1.26. The unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 1.27. They were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him! 1.28. The report of him went out immediately everywhere into all the region of Galilee and its surrounding area. 1.34. He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. He didn't allow the demons to speak, because they knew him. 5.1. They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 5.2. When he had come out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit 5.3. who had his dwelling in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains 5.4. because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him. 5.5. Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. 5.6. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him 5.7. and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don't torment me. 5.8. For he said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit! 5.9. He asked him, "What is your name?"He said to him, "My name is Legion, for we are many. 5.10. He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 5.11. Now there was on the mountainside a great herd of pigs feeding. 5.12. All the demons begged him, saying, "Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them. 5.13. At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea. 5.14. Those who fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened. 5.15. They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid. 5.16. Those who saw it declared to them how it happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs. 5.17. They began to beg him to depart from their region. 5.18. As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 5.19. He didn't allow him, but said to him, "Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you. 5.20. He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled. 9.14. Coming to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes questioning them. 9.15. Immediately all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him greeted him. 9.16. He asked the scribes, "What are you asking them? 9.17. One of the multitude answered, "Teacher, I brought to you my son, who has a mute spirit; 9.18. and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren't able. 9.19. He answered him, "Unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. 9.20. They brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground, wallowing and foaming at the mouth. 9.21. He asked his father, "How long has it been since this has come to him?"He said, "From childhood. 9.22. often it has cast him both into the fire and into the water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. 9.23. Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. 9.24. Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, "I believe. Help my unbelief! 9.25. When Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again! 9.26. Having cried out, and convulsed greatly, it came out of him. The boy became like one dead; so much that most of them said, "He is dead. 9.27. But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up; and he arose. 9.28. When he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we cast it out? 9.29. He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting. |
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4. Philostratus The Athenian, Life of Apollonius, 3.38, 4.20-4.21, 4.25, 4.45 (2nd cent. CE - missingth cent. CE)
| 3.38. THIS discussion was interrupted by the appearance among the sages of the messenger bringing in certain Indians who were in want of succor. And he brought forward a poor woman who interceded in behalf of her child, who was, she said, a boy of sixteen years of age, but had been for two years possessed by a devil. Now the character of the devil was that of a mocker and a liar. Here one of the sages asked, why she said this, and she replied: This child of mine is extremely good-looking, and therefore the devil is amorous of him and will not allow him to retain his reason, nor will he permit him to go to school, or to learn archery, nor even to remain at home, but drives him out into desert places. And the boy does not even retain his own voice, but speaks in a deep hollow tone, as men do; and he looks at you with other eyes rather than with his own. As for myself I weep over all this and I tear my cheeks, and I rebuke my son so far as I well may; but he does not know me. And I made my mind to repair hither, indeed I planned to do so a year ago; only the demon discovered himself using my child as a mask, and what he told me was this, that he was the ghost of man, who fell long ago in battle, but that at death he was passionately attached to his wife. Now he had been dead for only three days when his wife insulted their union by marrying another man, and the consequence was that he had come to detest the love of women, and had transferred himself wholly into this boy. But he promised, if I would only not denounce him to yourselves, to endow the child with many noble blessings. As for myself, I was influenced by these promises; but he has put me off and off for such a long time now, that he has got sole control of my household, yet has no honest or true intentions. Here the sage asked afresh, if the boy was at hand; and she said not, for, although she had done all she could to get him to come with her, the demon had threatened her with steep places and precipices and declared that he would kill her son, in case, she added, I haled him hither for trial. Take courage, said the sage, for he will not slay him when he has read this. And so saying he drew a letter out of his bosom and gave it to the woman; and the letter, it appears, was addressed to the ghost and contained threats of an alarming kind. 4.20. Now while he was discussing the question of libations, there chanced to be present in his audience a young dandy who bore so evil a reputation for licentiousness that his conduct had long been the subject of coarse street-corner songs. His home was Corcyra, and he traced his pedigree to Alcinous the Phaeacian who entertained Odysseus. Apollonius then was talking about libations, and was urging them not to drink out of a particular cup, but to reserve it for the gods, without ever touching it or drinking out of it. But when he also urged them to have handles on the cup, and to pour the libation over the handle, because that is the part at which men are least likely to drink, the youth burst out into loud and coarse laughter, and quite drowned his voice. Then Apollonius looked up and said: It is not yourself that perpetrates this insult, but the demon, who drives you without your knowing it. And in fact the youth was, without knowing it, possessed by a devil; for he would laugh at things that no one else laughed at, and then would fall to weeping for no reason at all, and he would talk and sing to himself. Now most people thought that it was boisterous humor of youth which led him into excesses; but he was really the mouthpiece of a devil, though it only seemed a drunken frolic in which on that occasion he was indulging. Now, when Apollonius gazed on him, the ghost in him began to utter cries of fear and rage, such as one hears from people who are being branded or racked; and the ghost swore that he would leave the you man alone and never take possession of any man again. But Apollonius addressed him with anger, as a master might a shifty, rascally, and shameless slave and so on, and he ordered him to quit the young man and show by a visible sign that he had done so. I will throw down yonder statue, said the devil, and pointed to one of the images which were there in the Royal Stoa, for there it was that the scene took place. But when the statue began by moving gently, and then fell down, it would defy anyone to describe the hubbub which arose thereat and the way they clapped their hand with wonder. But the young man rubbed his eyes as if he had just woke up, and he looked towards the rays of the sun, and assumed a modest aspect, as all had their attention concentrated on him; for he no longer showed himself licentious, nor did he stare madly about, but he had returned to his own self, as thoroughly as if he had been treated with drugs; and he gave up his dainty dress and summery garments and the rest of his sybaritic way of life, and he fell in love with the austerity of philosophers, and donned their cloak, and stripping off his old self modeled his life and future upon that of Apollonius. 4.21. And he is said to have rebuked the Athenians for their conduct of the festival of Dionysus, which they hold at the season of the month Anthesterion. For when he saw them flocking to the theater he imagined that the were going to listen to solos and compositions in the way of processional and rhythmic hymns, such as are sung in comedies and tragedies; but when he heard them dancing lascivious jigs to the rondos of a pipe, and in the midst of the sacred epic of Orpheus striking attitudes as the Hours, or as nymphs, or as bacchants, he set himself to rebuke their proceedings and said: Stop dancing away the reputations of the victors of Salamis as well as of many other good men deported this life. For if indeed this were a Lacedaemonian form of dance, I would say, “Bravo, soldiers; for you are training yourselves for war, and I will join in your dance'; but as it is a soft dance and one of effeminate tendency, what am I to say of your national trophies? Not as monuments of shame to the Medians or Persians, but to your own shame they will have been raised, should you degenerate so much from those who set them up. And what do you mean by your saffron robes and your purple and scarlet raiment? For surely the Acharnians never dressed themselves up in this way, nor ever the knights of Colonus rode in such garb. A woman commanded a ship from Caria and sailed against you with Xerxes, and about her there was nothing womanly, but she wore the garb and armor of a man; but you are softer than the women of Xerxes' day, and you are dressing yourselves up to your own despite, old and young and striplings alike, all those who of old flocked to the shrine of Agraulus in order to swear to die in battle on behalf of the fatherland. And now it seems that the same people are ready to swear to become bacchants and don the thyrsus in behalf of their country; and no one bears a helmet, but disguised as female harlequins, to use the phrase of Euripides, they shine in shame alone. Nay more, I hear that you turn yourselves into winds, and wave your skirts, and pretend that you are ships bellying their sails aloft. But surely you might at least have some respect for the winds that were your allies and once blew mightily to protect you, instead of turning Boreas who was your patron, and who of all the winds is the most masculine, into a woman; for Boreas would never have become the lover of Oreithya, if he had seen her executing, like you, a skirt dance. 4.25. Now there was in Corinth at that time a man named Demetrius, who studied philosophy and had embraced in his system all the masculine vigor of the Cynics. of him Favorinus in several of his works subsequently made the most generous mention, and his attitude towards Apollonius was exactly that which they say Antisthenes took up towards the system of Socrates: for he followed him and was anxious to be his disciple, and was devoted to his doctrines, and converted to the side of Apollonius the more esteemed of his own pupils. Among the latter was Menippus a Lycian of twenty-five years of age, well endowed with good judgment, and of a physique so beautifully proportioned that in mien he resembled a fine and gentlemanly athlete. Now this Menippus was supposed by most people to be loved by a foreign woman, who was good-looking and extremely dainty, and said that she was rich; although she was really, as it turned out, not one of these things, but was only so in semblance. For as he was walking all alone along the road towards Cenchreae, he met with an apparition, and it was a woman who clasped his hand and declared that she had been long in love with him, and that she was a Phoenician woman and lived in a suburb of Corinth, and she mentioned the name of the particular suburb, and said: When you reach the place this evening, you will hear my voice as I sing to you, and you shall have wine such as you never before drank, and there will be no rival to disturb you; and we two beautiful beings will live together. The youth consented to this, for although he was in general a strenuous philosopher, he was nevertheless susceptible to the tender passion; and he visited her in the evening, and for the future constantly sought her company as his darling, for he did not yet realize that she was a mere apparition.Then Apollonius looked over Menippus as a sculptor might do, and he sketched an outline of the youth and examined him, and having observed his foibles, he said: You are a fine youth and are hunted by fine women, but in this case you are cherishing a serpent, and a serpent cherishes you. And when Menippus expressed his surprise, he added: For this lady is of a kind you cannot marry. Why should you? Do you think that she loves you? Indeed I do, said the youth, since she behaves to me as if she loves me. And would you then marry her? said Apollonius. Why, yes, for it would be delightful to marry a woman who loves you. Thereupon Apollonius asked when the wedding was to be. Perhaps tomorrow, said the other, for it brooks no delay. Apollonius therefore waited for the occasion of the wedding breakfast, and then, presenting himself before the guests who had just arrived, he said: Where is the dainty lady at whose instance ye are come? Here she is, replied Menippus, and at the same moment he rose slightly from his seat, blushing. And to which of you belong the silver and gold and all the rest of the decorations of the banqueting hall? To the lady, replied the youth, for this is all I have of my own, pointing to the philosopher's cloak which he wore.And Apollonius said: Have you heard of the gardens of Tantalus, how they exist and yet do not exist? Yes, they answered, in the poems of Homer, for we certainly never went down to Hades. As such, replied Apollonius, you must regard this adornment, for it is not reality but the semblance of reality. And that you may realize the truth of what I say, this fine bride is one of the vampires, that is to say of those beings whom the many regard as lamias and hobgoblins. These beings fall in love, and they are devoted to the delights of Aphrodite, but especially to the flesh of human beings, and they decoy with such delights those whom they mean to devour in their feasts. And the lady said: Cease your ill-omened talk and begone; and she pretended to be disgusted at what she heard, and in fact she was inclined to rail at philosophers and say that they always talked nonsense. When, however, the goblets of gold and the show of silver were proved as light as air and all fluttered away out of their sight, while the wine-bearers and the cooks and all the retinue of servants vanished before the rebukes of Apollonius, the phantom pretended to weep, and prayed him not to torture her nor to compel her to confess what she really was. But Apollonius insisted and would not let her off, and then she admitted that she was a vampire, and was fattening up Menippus with pleasures before devouring his body, for it was her habit to feed upon young and beautiful bodies, because their blood is pure and strong. I have related at length, because it was necessary to do so, this the best-known story of Apollonius; for many people are aware of it and know that he incident occurred in the center of Hellas; but they have only heard in a general and vague manner that he once caught and overcame a lamia in Corinth, but they have never learned what she was about, nor that he did it to save Menippus, but I owe my own account to Damis and to the work which he wrote. 4.45. Here too is a miracle which Apollonius worked: A girl had died just in the hour of her marriage, and the bridegroom was following her bier lamenting as was natural his marriage left unfulfilled, and the whole of Rome was mourning with him, for the maiden belonged to a consular family. Apollonius then witnessing their grief, said: Put down the bier, for I will stay the tears that you are shedding for this maiden. And withal he asked what was her name. The crowd accordingly thought that he was about to deliver such an oration as is commonly delivered to grace the funeral as to stir up lamentation; but he did nothing of the kind, but merely touching her and whispering in secret some spell over her, at once woke up the maiden from her seeming death; and the girl spoke out loud, and returned to her father's house, just as Alcestis did when she was brought back to life by Heracles. And the relations of the maiden wanted to present him with the sum of 150,000 sesterces, but he said that he would freely present the money to the young lady by way of dowry. Now whether he detected some spark of life in her, which those who were nursing her had not noticed — for it is said that although it was raining at the time, a vapor went up from her face — or whether her life was really extinct, and he restored it by the warmth of his touch, is a mysterious problem which neither I myself nor those who were present could decide. |
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