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PREFACE
HERMIAS.
Nothing whatever is known of Hermias, the
author of this treatise. Cave refers him
to the second century; but the Benedictine
editor of his works thinks he may with as
great probability be ascribed to the third.
All agree that he was later than Justin Martyr,
whose words and thoughts he occasionally
imitates. The Benedictine editor considers
his whole treatise to be no more than an
expansion of that paragraph in Tatian's work,
§ 25, "You follow the doctrines of Plato,"
&c. (see page 102 of this volume). The
name of philosopher is given to Hermias in
all the manuscript copies of his work, from
which it would seem that, like Justin and
others, he was a Gentile philosopher who
embraced Christianity.
The original Greek text of Hermias has been
often printed. It first appeared at Basle,
8vo., 1553, at the end of DEMETRII CYDONII
Oratio de contemnenda morte;
and, after several intermediate editions,
at the end of Worth's Tatian, 8vo., Oxon.,
1700. But the best edition is at the end
of the Benedictine Justin Martyr, fol., Paris,
1742, until the expected edition of it by
Otto, to correspond with his Justin Martyr,
shall be published. The present translation
is the first (as far as I know) that has
ever been made into the English language.
[...]
xiv
The translation has been made from the text
of Otto for Tatian; from the old Benedictine
edition for Athenagoras, Theophilus, and
Hermias; and from the
Reliquiae Sacrae
of my late venerable friend Dr. Routh, for
the other twenty-one writers contained in
this volume. It was originally intended to
give the Apostolical Fathers in an accompanying
volume, so that the present would have been
vol. ii. of the work ; but, as Archbishop
Wake's excellent translation is easily accessible,
the idea was abandoned.
J. A. GILES. PERIVALE RECTORY, MIDDLESEX,
March 1, 1857.
[From: The Writings of the Early Christians
of the Second Century, namely Athenagoras,
Tatian, Theophilus, Hermias, Papias, Aristides,
Quadratus, &c, collected together and
first translated complete by the Rev. Dr.
Giles. London: John Russell Smith (1857)]
DERISION OF GENTILE PHILOSOPHERS. [Translated
by J. A. Giles, 1857]
1. PAUL the blessed apostle, my beloved brethren,
writing to the Corinthians who inhabit Laconian
Greece, spake saying, "The wisdom of
this world is folly in the sight of God"
[1 Cor. iii, 19], and he said not amiss.
For it seems to me to have taken its beginning
from the rebellion of the angels 1; for which
cause the philosophers put forth their doctrines,
saying things that neither sound the same,
nor mean the same as one another. For some
of them say that the soul is fire, like Democritus;
air, like the Stoics; some say it is the
mind; and some say it is motion, as Heraclitus
2; some say it is exhalation; some an influence
flowing from the stars ; some say it is number
in motion, as Pythagoras; some say it is
generative water, as Hippo; some say an element
from elements; some say it is harmony, as
Dinarchus; some say the blood, as Critias;
some the breath; some say unity, as Pythagoras;
and so the ancients say contrary things.
How many statements are there about these
things ! how many attempts ! how many also
of sophists who carry on a strife rather
than seek the truth!
2. Be it so then: they differ about the soul,
but have 194 pronounced other things about
it in unison: and of others, one man calls
pleasure its good, another its evil, and
again a third man, its middle state between
good and evil. But its nature some call immortal,
some mortal, and others say that it remains
for a time, but others that it becomes brutalised,
others divide it into atoms, others embody
it three times, others assign to it periods
of three thousand years. For though they
do not live even an hundred years, they talk
of three thousand years 3 about to come.
What then must we term these things? They
seem to me, to be a prodigy, or folly, or
madness, or rebellion, or all these together.
If they have found out anything true, let
them agree together about it, or let them
join together, and I then will gladly listen
to them. But, if they distract the soul,
and draw it, one into a different nature,
another into a different being, changing
one kind of matter for another; I confess
I am harassed by the ebbing and flowing of
the subject. At one time I am immortal and
rejoice; at another time again I become mortal
and weep. Anew I am dissolved into atoms:
I become water, and I become air: I become
fire, and then after a little, neither air,
nor fire: he makes me a beast, he makes me
a fish 4. Again then I have dolphins for
my brothers; but when I look on myself, I
am frightened at my body, and I know not
how I shall call it, man, or dog, or wolf,
or bull, or bird, or snake, or serpent, or
chimaera; for I am changed by the philosophers
into all the beasts, of the land, of the
sea, having wings, of many forms, wild or
tame, dumb or vocal, brute or reasoning:
I swim, I fly, I rise aloft, I crawl, I run,
I sit. But here is Empedocles, and he makes
me a stump of a tree.
3. Since then it is not possible for the
philosophers by agreeing together to find
out the soul of man, they can scarcely be
able to declare the truth about the gods
or the universe. For they have this audacity,
that I may not call it infatuation. For those
who are not able to discover their own soul,
seek into the nature of the gods themselves;
and those who do not know their own body,
busy themselves 195 about the nature of the
world. In truth they wholly oppose one another
about the principles of nature. When Anaxa-goras
catches me, he teaches me thus : The beginning
of all things is mind, and this is the cause
and regulator of all things, and gives arrangement
to things unarranged, and motion to things
unmoved, and distinction to things mixed,
and order to things disordered. Anaxagoras,
who says these words, is my friend, and I
bow to his doctrine. But against him rise
up Melissus and Parmenides. Parmenides indeed,
in his poetical works, proclaims that being
is one, and everlasting, and endless, and
immoveable, and in every way alike. Again
then, I know not why I change to this doctrine
: Parmenides has driven Anaxagoras out of
my mind. But when I am on the point of thinking
that I have now a firm doctrine, Anaximenes,
catching hold of me, cries out, "But
I tell you, everything is air, and this air,
thickening and settling, becomes water and
air; rarefying and spreading, it becomes
aether and fire: but returning into its own
nature, it becomes thin air: but if also
it becomes condensed, (says he) it is changed."
And thus again I pass over to this opinion
of his, and cherish Anaximenes.
4. But Empedocles stands opposite chafing,
and crying aloud from Aetna 5. The principles
of all things are enmity and friendship,
the one drawing together, the other separating;
and their strife makes all things. But I
define these to be, like and unlike, boundless
and having bounds, things eternal, and things
made. Well done, Empedocles; I follow you
now even up to the craters of fire. But on
the other hand stands Protagoras, and draws
me aside, saying, Man is the term and arbitrement
of things, and those are things that fall
under sensation: but those which do not so
fall are not in the forms of being. Enticed
by Protagoras with this description, I am
pleased, because every thing or at least
the greatest part is left to man. But on
the other hand Thales nods the truth to me,
defining water to be the principle of all,
and that all things are formed out of the
moist, and are 196 resolved into the moist,,
and the earth rides over the water. Why then
should I not listen to Thales the elder 6
of the Ionians? But his countryman Anaximander
himself says that eternal motion is an older
principle than moisture, and that by it some
things are generated, and some things perish.
And so let Anaximander be our guide.
5. And is not Archelaus of good repute, who
declares that the principles of the whole
are heat and cold ? But again in this also
the grandiloquous Plato does not agree; saying
that the principles are God, and matter,
and example. Now then I am persuaded. For
how shall I not trust a philosopher who made
the chariot of Jupiter ? But behind stands
his disciple Aristotle, envying his master
for his coach-making. He lays down other
principles, to do, and to suffer; and that
the active principle is the aether, which
is acted on by nothing, but the passive has
four qualities, drought, moisture, heat,
and cold: for by the change of these into
one another all things are produced and perish.
We were now tired, changing up and down with
the doctrines, but I will rest on the opinion
of Aristotle, and let no doctrine henceforth
trouble me.
6. But what can I do ? For old men more ancient
than these hamstring my soul: Pherecydes
saying that the principles are Jupiter, and
Tellus 7, and Saturn—Jupiter the aether,
Tellus the Earth, and Saturn Time. The aether
is the agent, but the earth is passive, and
Time in which all created things are comprised.
These old men have contentions with one another.
For Leucippus, deeming all these things madness,
says that the principles are boundless, motionless,
and infinitesimal ; and that the lighter
parts going up, become fire and air, whilst
the heavier parts, subsiding, become water
and earth. How long am I taught such things,
learning nothing true? Unless else Democritus
will set me free from error, declaring that
the principles are Existence and Non-existence,
and that Existence is full, but Non-existence
is empty 8; but the full affects all things
by change or by order in the empty. Perhaps
I might listen to good Democritus, and should
like 197 to laugh with him, did not Heraclitus
persuade me otherwise, at the same time weeping
and saying, Fire is the principle of all
things: it has two states of being, thinness
and thickness: the one active, the other
passive, the one blending, the other separating.
This is enough for me, and I should already
be drunk with so many principles: but Epicurus
9 calls me away from thence also, by no means
to revile his good doctrine, of atoms and
of emptiness. For by the varied and manifold
interweaving of these, all things are born
and perish.
7. I do not contradict you, my best of men,
Epicurus. But Cleanthes 10, raising his head
from the well, laughs at your doctrine. And
myself also derive from him the true principles,
God and matter; and that earth changes into
water, and water into air; that the air floats,
and that the fire comes to the parts near
the earth, that the soul extends through
all the world, of which we also, sharing
a portion, have the breath of life. Which
things then being thus many, another multitude
throngs me out of Libya, Carneades, and Clitomachus,
and all their followers, treading down all
the doctrines of the others, and themselves
declaring plainly, that all things are incomprehensible,
and that a false imagination always hangs
about the truth. What then will become of
me, after having toiled so long a time? How
can I deliver forth so many doctrines from
my mind? For if nothing be comprehensible,
truth is gone from men, and vaunted philosophy
throws a shade rather than conveys a knowledge
of the things that be.
8. But lo, from the old school, Pythagoras
and his fellows, grave and silent men, deliver
to me other doctrines, as mysteries, and
among them this great and ineffable one,
HE HATH SAID. The principle of all things
is unity, but from its forms and numbers
are produced the elements, and the number
and form and measure of each of these is
thus somehow declared. Fire is completed
out of four-and-twenty right-angled triangles,
being contained by four equilateral ones.
Each equilateral one is composed of six triangles,
whence also they liken it to a pyramid. But
air is completed by forty-eight triangles,
198 being contained by eight equilateral
ones. But it is likened to an octahedron,
which is contained by eight equilateral triangles,
each of which is divided into six right-angled
ones, so that they are forty-eight in all.
But water being contained by an hundred and
twenty, is likened also to a figure having
twenty sides, which indeed consists of twenty-six
equal and equilateral triangles .... and
... 11. But the aether is completed of twelve
equilateral pentagons, and is similar to
a figure having twelve sides, Earth is completed
of forty-eight triangles, and is also contained
by six equilateral triangles, and is like
a cube. For the cube is contained by six
squares, each of which extends to four triangles;
so that all together are twenty-four.
9. Thus Pythagoras measures the world. But
I again, becoming inspired, despise my home,
and my country, and my wife, and my children,
and I no longer care for them, but mount
up into the aether itself, and taking the
cubit from Pythagoras, begin to measure the
fire. For Jupiter's measuring it is not enough
for me. Unless also the great animal, the
great body, the great soul, MYSELF, mount
into heaven, and measure the aether, the
rule of Jupiter is gone. But when I have
measured it, and Jupiter has learnt from
me, how many angles fire has, I again go
down from heaven, and eating olives, and
figs and cabbage, I make the best of my way
to the water, and with cubit, and digit and
half-digit, measure the watery being, and
calculate its depth, that I may also teach
Neptune, how much sea he rules over. I pass
over all the earth in one day, collecting
its number and its measure and its forms.
For I am persuaded that, such and so great
a person as I am, of all things in the world,
I shall not make a mistake of a single span.
But I know both the number of the stars,
and of the fishes, and of the wild beasts,
and placing the world in a balance, I can
easily learn its weight. About these things
then my soul has been earnest until now,
to have rule over all things.
10. But Epicurus, stooping towards me, says,
"You have 199 measured one world, my
friend; there are many and endless worlds
12." I am compelled then again to speak
of many heavens, other aethers, and many
of them. Come then, without more delay, having
victualled yourself for a few days' travel
into the worlds of Epicurus. I easily pass
its bounds, Tethys and Oceanus. But when
I have entered into a new world, and as it
were into a new city, I measure the whole
in a few days. And from thence I cross back
into the world again, then into a fourth,
and a fifth, and a tenth, and an hundredth,
and a thousandth, and where will it end ?
For all things already are the darkness of
ignorance to me, and black error, and endless
wandering, and unprofitable fancy, and ignorance
not to be comprehended: unless else I intend
to number the very atoms also, out of which
such great worlds have arisen, that I may
leave nothing unexamined, especially of things
so necessary and useful, from which both
houses and cities prosper. These things have
I gone through, wishing to point out the
opposition which is in their doctrines, and
how their examination of things will go on
to infinity and no limit, for their end is
inexplicable and useless, being confirmed
neither by one manifest fact, nor by one
sound argument.
[Note to the online text: numbers have been
added to the end notes so that they can be
inserted in the text as hyperlinks]
1. Page 193, line 5. rebellion of the angels]
This opinion was held by many other philosophers,
and is refuted by Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom.
i, pag. 310, and vi, pag. 647. It is a well-known
eastern notion, and has been beautifully
embodied in the writings of some of our modern
poets.
2. Line 10. Heraclitus] The editors think
these names of the philosophers were originally
side-notes, and have been copied by mistake
into the text. The Oxford editor says that
the name of Heraclitus is here misplaced,
and should come after exhalation, in the
next line. See Plut. de Placit. Philosoph.
iv, 3. 269
3. Page 194, line 9. three thousand years]
In allusion to Plato's views about the three
periods of three thousand years. See Phaedo,
p. 248.
4. Line 21. a fish] Empedocles and Plato
seem to be here meant. See Tertullian de
Anima, xxxii, and Plato's Timaeus, sub fin.
5. Page 195, line 22. Empedocles] It is said
that Empedocles, in order that he might utterly
disappear from the sight of men and be thought
immortal, leaped into the crater of Mount
Etna, but that one of his shoes was cast
up with the lava, and detected his design.
6. Page 196, line 2. elder] tw~ presbute/rw
tw~n 'Iw&nwn.
7. Line 28. Jupiter and Tellus, &c.]
In Greek Zeus, Chthonia, and Kronos: we use
the equivalent names of the corresponding
Roman deities.
8. Line 35. empty] The doctrine of the plenum
and the vacuum, as it is generally termed.
I prefer the plain English words, full and
empty.
9. Page 197, line 6. Epicurus] The reader
must be told that the doctrine of unrestrained
enjoyment was promulgated, not by this eminent
philosopher, but by his disciples after him,
who took a corollary from his system, as
the exponent of the system itself.
10. Line 11. Cleanthes] the successor of
Zeno as head of the stoic school, famous
for his sobriety----a water-drinker.
11. Page 198, line 7. triangle, &c.]
Here is some omission or corruption in the
Greek. Worth, the Oxford editor of Hermias,
has tried to reconstruct the whole passage:
but it is an unfruitful labour to follow
him; the general idea of the doctrine is
as obvious as it is absurd.
12. Page 199, line 1. endless worlds] The
ancients were not wholly without a knowledge
of the wonders of astronomy, and the immense
number of the heavenly bodies; though it
is generally believed that it was nothing
in comparison with the revelations of modern
science made by means of the telescope.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse,
Ipswich, UK, 2003 to whom we all owe a great
debt. All material on this page is in the
public domain - copy freely. Greek text is
rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic
font, free from here.
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