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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



10243
Seneca The Younger, Letters, 90.28


nanShe shows us what things are evil and what things are seemingly evil; she strips our minds of vain illusion. She bestows upon us a greatness which is substantial, but she represses the greatness which is inflated, and showy but filled with emptiness; and she does not permit us to be ignorant of the difference between what is great and what is but swollen; nay, she delivers to us the knowledge of the whole of nature and of her own nature. She discloses to us what the gods are and of what sort they are; what are the nether gods, the household deities, and the protecting spirits; what are the souls which have been endowed with lasting life and have been admitted to the second class of divinities,[18] where is their abode and what their activities, powers, and will. Such are wisdom's rites of initiation, by means of which is unlocked, not a village shrine, but the vast temple of all the gods – the universe itself, whose true apparitions and true aspects she offers to the gaze of our minds. For the vision of our eyes is too dull for sights so great.


nanBut it is our vices that bring us to despair; for the second class of rational being, man, is of an inferior order, – a guardian, as it were, who is too unstable to hold fast to what is best, his judgment still wavering and uncertain. He may require the faculties of sight and hearing, good health, a bodily exterior that is not loathsome, and, besides, greater length of days conjoined with an unimpaired constitution.


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

7 results
1. Cicero, On Laws, 1.17, 1.42, 2.11 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

2. Cicero, On Duties, 3.69 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

3.69. Hoc quamquam video propter depravationem consuetudinis neque more turpe haberi neque aut lege sanciri aut iure civili, tamen naturae lege sanctum est. Societas est enim (quod etsi saepe dictum est, dicendum est tamen saepius), latissime quidem quae pateat, omnium inter omnes, interior eorum, qui eiusdem gentis sint, propior eorum, qui eiusdem civitatis. Itaque maiores aliud ius gentium, aliud ius civile esse voluerunt; quod civile, non idem continuo gentium, quod autem gentium, idem civile esse debet. Sed nos veri iuris germanaeque iustitiae solidam et expressam effigiem nullam tenemus, umbra et imaginibus utimur. Eas ipsas utinam sequeremur! feruntur enim ex optimis naturae et veritatis exemplis. 3.69.  Owing to the low ebb of public sentiment, such a method of procedure, I find, is neither by custom accounted morally wrong nor forbidden either by statute or by civil law; nevertheless it is forbidden by the moral law. For there is a bond of fellowship — although I have often made this statement, I must still repeat it again and again — which has the very widest application, uniting all men together and each to each. This bond of union is closer between those who belong to the same nation, and more intimate still between those who are citizens of the same city-state. It is for this reason that our forefathers chose to understand one thing by the universal law and another by the civil law. The civil law is not necessarily also the universal law; but the universal law ought to be also the civil law. But we possess no substantial, life-like image of true Law and genuine Justice; a mere outline sketch is all that we enjoy. I only wish that we were true even to this; for, even as it is, it is drawn from the excellent models which Nature and Truth afford.
3. Lucretius Carus, On The Nature of Things, 1.584-1.586, 2.1-2.36, 5.373-5.375, 5.1105-5.1135, 6.1-6.35 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

4. Plutarch, On Stoic Self-Contradictions, None (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

5. Seneca The Younger, Letters, 90.8, 94.29, 94.37, 94.39-94.40, 95.4, 95.37 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

6. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 7.119 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

7.119. They are also, it is declared, godlike; for they have a something divine within them; whereas the bad man is godless. And yet of this word – godless or ungodly – there are two senses, one in which it is the opposite of the term godly, the other denoting the man who ignores the divine altogether: in this latter sense, as they note, the term does not apply to every bad man. The good, it is added, are also worshippers of God; for they have acquaintance with the rites of the gods, and piety is the knowledge of how to serve the gods. Further, they will sacrifice to the gods and they keep themselves pure; for they avoid all acts that are offences against the gods, and the gods think highly of them: for they are holy and just in what concerns the gods. The wise too are the only priests; for they have made sacrifices their study, as also establishing holy places, purifications, and all the other matters appertaining to the gods.
7. Stoic School, Stoicor. Veter. Fragm., 1.538, 2.42, 2.1008



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
achilles tatius Graverini (2012), Literature and Identity in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. 159
adoration of the lamb (van eyck) Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
apuleius metamorphoses,readers of Graverini (2012), Literature and Identity in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. 159
bible,responses to Sattler (2021), Ancient Ethics and the Natural World, 67
brutus,marcus Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
capitolinus,manlius Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
change (metabolē) to wisdom,between opposite states Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
change (metabolē) to wisdom,in physics Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
change (metabolē) to wisdom Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
charite Graverini (2012), Literature and Identity in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. 159
christianity Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
chrysippus,on initiation Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
chrysippus,on lives Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
cicero,and law of nature Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157
citroni marchetti,sandra Williams (2012), The Cosmic Viewpoint: A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions', 270
cleanthes,on initiates Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
cupid and psyche Graverini (2012), Literature and Identity in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. 159
death Sattler (2021), Ancient Ethics and the Natural World, 67
diogenes laertius Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
diophanes Graverini (2012), Literature and Identity in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. 159
epicureanism Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
epicureans,epicureanism Sattler (2021), Ancient Ethics and the Natural World, 67
epicurus Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
epiphanius Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
fools,mankind as Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157
gods,presence in rome Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
gods,presence in temples Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
initiate (telestēs),cleanthes on Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
initiation (teletē),and perfection Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
islam Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
jesus Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
law of nature,and stoicism Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157
law of nature,and wise man Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157
law of nature,in philo Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157
listening and reading Graverini (2012), Literature and Identity in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. 159
manlius capitolinus,marcus Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
nature,philos and stoics views of Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157
orality Graverini (2012), Literature and Identity in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. 159
perfection (teleutē),and initiation Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
plutarch Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
religion Sattler (2021), Ancient Ethics and the Natural World, 67
religions,roman Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
sage,as divine Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
sage,as initiate' Brouwer (2013), The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates, 65
stoics/stoicism,and the sage Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157
stoics/stoicism,natural law Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157
temples,gods present in Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
theater and theatricality Graverini (2012), Literature and Identity in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. 159
van eyck (adoration of the lamb) Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 230
wise man,katoryvmata of Martens (2003), One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law, 157