Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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& (TTparici>Toy — soldiers ; one of the most famous of the degrees of the Mithriac mysteries was that of the Soldier. See Cumont (F.), Textes et Monuments Figures relatifs aux My stores de Mithra (Bruxelles ; 1899), i. 315, and especially 317, n. 1.
6 The Star-spheres. ? The Decans.
8 ./Ether's. 9 avyKocfjiOvvrts rb -KO.V.
10 Or animals. " The Decans.
Bear,1 — just in the middle of the Circle of the Animals,2 composed of seven stars, and with another corresponding [Bear] $ above its head.
Its energy is as it were an axle's, setting nowhere and nowhere rising, but stopping [ever] in the self-same space, and turning round the same, giving its proper motion* to the Lifeproducing Circle,5 and handing over this whole universe from night to day, from day to night.
And after this 6 there is another choir of stars, to which we have not thought it proper to give names ; but they who will come after us,7 in imitation, will give them names themselves.8
9. Again, below the Moon, are other stars,9 corruptible, deprived of energy, which hold together for a little while, in that they've been exhaled out of the earth itself into the air above the earth, — which ever are being broken up, in that they have a nature like unto [that of] useless lives on earth, which come into existence for no other purpose than to die, — such as the tribe of flies, and fleas, and worms, and other things like them.
1 The Great Bear. Compare " Behold the Bear up there that circles round the Pole."
2 The zodiac. 3 The Little Bear.
4 Lit. energy. 5 Cf. § 1 above.
6 Sc. the Bear. 7 Cf. P. S. A., xii. 3 ; xiv. 1.
8 That is, apparently, invent them out of their own heads haphazard.
9 Referring, presumably, to the phenomena of " shooting stars."
For these are useful, Tat, neither to us nor to the world ; but, on the contrary, they trouble and annoy, being nature's by-products,1 which owe their birth to her extravagance.2
Just in the same way, too, the stars exhaled from earth do not attain the upper space.
They cannot do so, since they are sent forth from below ; and, owing to the greatness of their weight, dragged down by their own matter, they quickly are dispersed, and, breaking up, fall back again on earth, affecting nothing but the mere disturbance of the air about the earth.
10. There is another class, 0 Tat, that of the so-called long-haired [stars],3 appearing at their proper times, and after a short time, becoming once again invisible ; — they neither rise nor set nor are they broken up.
These are the brilliant messengers and heralds of the general destinies of things * that are to be.
They occupy the space below the Circle of the
Sun.
When, then, some chance is going to happen to the world, [comets] appear, and, shining for some days, again return behind6 the Circle of the Sun, and stay invisible, — some showing in v. * Lit. below.
2 See the same idea in Plutarch, De Is. et Os., iv. 5, concerning lice.
3 The comets — ruv Ka\ov/j.fvuv KOIJ.CTWV.
the east, some in the north, some in the west, and others in the south. We call them Prophets.1
11. Such is the nature of the stars. The stars, however, differ from the star-groups.2
The stars are they which sail3 in heaven ; the star-groups, on the contrary, are fixed in heaven's frame,4 and they are borne along together with the heaven, — Twelve out of which we call the Zodia.5
He who knows these can form some notion clearly of [what] God is ; and, if one should dare say so, becoming [thus] a seer for himself, [so] contemplate Him, and, contemplating Him, be blessed.
12. Tat. Blessed, in truth, is he, 0 father
[mine], who contemplateth Him.
Her. But 'tis impossible, 0 son, that one in body 6 should have this good chance.
Moreover, he should train his soul beforehand, here and now, that when it reacheth there, [the space] where it is possible for it to contemplate, it may not miss its way.
^ But men who love their bodies, — such men will never contemplate the Vision of the Beautiful and Good.
, seers or diviners.
^ eurrepes Sc iSurrptov 5ia<f>opav Uxovcrtv. The a<TT€pes are the planets, aerolites and comets ; the &ffrpa are the sidera, signs of the fixed stars or constellations.
3 Or float (euwpov/iei/oi), lit. are raised aloft. 4 Or body.
6 The zodiac ; lit. the animal signs, or signs of lives.
6 Cf. Ex. i. 6.
For what, 0 son, is that [fair] Beauty which hath no form nor any colour, nor any mass ? l
Tat. Can there be aught that's beautiful apart from these ?