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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



9610
Plutarch, How A Man May Become Aware Of His Progress In Virtue, 81d


nanin fact, a young man of good parts, on being addressed by this title by another, would be quick to say with a blush: Iam no god, Iassure you; why think me like the immortals? For as Aeschylus puts it: The ardent eye betrays the youthful maid Who once has tasted of the joys of love; but with the young man who has had a taste of real progress in philosophy these words of Sappho are always associated: My tongue breaks down, and all at once Asecret flame throughout my body runs; Nevertheless, you will see an eye untroubled and serene, and you would yearn to hear him speak. Just as persons who are being initiated into the Mysteries throng together at the outset amid tumult and shouting, and jostle against one another


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

6 results
1. Philo of Alexandria, On The Life of Abraham, 70 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

70. The man who had been bred up in this doctrine, and who for a long time had studied the philosophy of the Chaldaeans, as if suddenly awakening from a deep slumber and opening the eye of the soul, and beginning to perceive a pure ray of light instead of profound darkness, followed the light, and saw what he had never see before, a certain governor and director of the world standing above it, and guiding his own work in a salutary manner, and exerting his care and power in behalf of all those parts of it which are worthy of divine superintendence.
2. Philo of Alexandria, On The Confusion of Tongues, 108, 107 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

107. And the expression, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which shall reach to heaven," has such a meaning as this concealed beneath it; the lawgiver does not conceive that those only are cities which are built upon the earth, the materials of which are wood and stone, but he thinks that there are other cities also which men bear about with them, being built in their souls;
3. Philo of Alexandria, On Dreams, 1.164 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

1.164. Now is it not fitting that even blind men should become sharpsighted in their minds to these and similar things, being endowed with the power of sight by the most sacred oracles, so as to be able to contemplate the glories of nature, and not to be limited to the mere understanding of the words? But even if we voluntarily close the eye of our soul and take no care to understand such mysteries, or if we are unable to look up to them, the hierophant himself stands by and prompts us. And do not thou ever cease through weariness to anoint thy eyes until you have introduced those who are duly initiated to the secret light of the sacred scriptures, and have displayed to them the hidden things therein contained, and their reality, which is invisible to those who are uninitiated.
4. Philo of Alexandria, On The Special Laws, 2.166 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

2.166. Since they slipped in the most essential matter, the nation of the Jews--to speak most accurately--set aright the false step of others by having looked beyond everything which has come into existence through creation since it is generate and corruptible in nature, and chose only the service of the ungenerate and eternal. The first reason for this is because it is excellent; the second is because it is profitable to be dedicated and associated with the Older rather than those who are younger and with the Ruler rather than those who are ruled and with the Maker rather those things which come into existence.
5. Plutarch, Moralia, 943c (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

6. Plutarch, How A Man May Become Aware of His Progress In Virtue, 81e (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

81e. but when the holy rites are being performed and disclosed the people are immediately attentive in awe and silence, so too at the beginning of philosophy: about its portals also you will see great tumult and talking and boldness, as some boorishly and violently try to jostle their way towards the repute it bestows; but he who has succeeded in getting inside, and has seen a great light, as though a shrine were opened, adopts another bearing of silence and amazement, and "humble and orderly attends upon" reason as upon a god. To these the humorous remark of Menedemus may, as it seems, be nicely applied;


Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
abraham Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
democracy Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
eleusis, eleusinian Bull, Lied and Turner, Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices: Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty (2011) 382
initiation, initiate Bull, Lied and Turner, Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices: Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty (2011) 382
light Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
mysteries Bull, Lied and Turner, Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices: Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty (2011) 382; Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
passions Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
proselytes Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
providence Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
prudence Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
reason Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
repentance Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369
ritual, silence Bull, Lied and Turner, Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices: Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty (2011) 382
ritual Bull, Lied and Turner, Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices: Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty (2011) 382
silence' Bull, Lied and Turner, Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices: Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty (2011) 382
tamar Wilson, Philo of Alexandria: On Virtues: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2010) 369