Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

Porphyry tells us, further, that Pallas, who had, prior to Porphyry's day, written an excellent treatise on the Mithriaca, now unfortunately lost, asserts that all this was vulgarly believed to refer to the zodiac, but that in truth it symbolized a mystery of the human soul, which is invested with animal natures of various kinds,3 according to the tradition of the Magi. Thus they call the sun (and therefore those corresponding to this nature) a bull, a lion, a dragon, and a hawk.

1 Ps. Augustine, Qucestt. Vet. et Nov. Test. (Migne, P. L.y torn, xxxiv. col. 2214 f.).

2 De Abstinentia, iv. 16 (ed. Nauck, p. 253).

3 Of. Clement of Alexandria on the Basilidian theory of "appendages," remembering that the School of Basilides was strongly tinctured with Egyptian ideas. " The Basilidians are accustomed to give the name of appendages (or accretions) to the passions. These essences, they say, have a certain substantial existence, and are attached to the rational soul, owing to a certain turmoil and primitive confusion. On to this nucleus other bastard and alien natures of the essence grow, such as those of the wolf, ape, lion, goat, etc. . . . And not only do human souls thus intimately associate themselves with the impulses and impressions of irrational animals, but they even initiate the movements and beauties of plants, because they likewise bear the characteristics

It is further to be remembered that Appuleius,1 in describing the robe with which he was invested after his initiation into the Mysteries of Isis, tells us that he was enthroned as the sun, robed in twelve sacramental stoles or garments ; these garments were of linen with beautiful paintings upon them, so that from every side " you might see that I was remarkable by the animals which were painted round my vestment in various colours." This dress, he says, was called the " Olympic Stole."

MOMUS

Finally, it may perhaps be of service to make the reader a little better acquainted with Momus.

Among the Greeks Momus was the personification of the spirit of fault-finding. Hesiod, in his Theogony (214), places him among the second generation of the children of Night, together with the Fates. From the Cypria^ of Stasimus,3 we learn that, when Zeus, in answer to Earth's prayer to relieve her of her overpopulation of impious mankind,4 first sent the Theban War, and on this proving insufficient, bethought him of annihilating the human race by thunderbolts (fire) and floods (water), Momus advises the Father of gods and men to marry the goddess Thetis to a mortal, so that a beautiful daughter (Aphrodite-Helen) might be born to of plants appended to them. Nay, there are also certain characteristics [of minerals] shown by habits, such as the hardness of adamant" (F. F. F., p. 276).

1 Metamorphoses, Book xi.

2 Which Pindar and Herodotus ascribed to Homer himself.

3 See Frag. I. from the Scholion on Horn., II, i. 5 ff. « See K. K., 34.

them, and so mankind, Greeks and Barbarians, on her account be involved in internecine strife — namely, the Trojan War. Further, the Scholiast on 1L, i. 5, avers that it was Momus whom Homer meant to represent by the " will " or " counsel " of Zeus.

Sophocles, moreover, wrote a Satyric drama called
" Momus," l and so also Aehseus.2

Both Plato 3 and Aristotle 4 refer to Momus. Callimachus, the chief librarian of the Alexandrian Library, from 260-240 B.C., in his JZtia,5 pilloried his critic and former pupil Apolloniu& Khodius as Momus.

Momus, moreover, was a favourite figure with the Sophists and Ehetoricians, especially of the second century A.D. In Ml. Aristides,6 Momus, as he could find no fault with Aphrodite herself, found fault with her shoe.7 Lucian makes Aphrodite vow to oppose Momus tooth and nail,8 and makes Momus find fault with even the greatest works of the gods, such as the house of Athene, the bull of Zeus, and the men of Hephaestus, — the last because the god-smith had not put windows in their breasts so that their hearts might be seen.9

And, interestingly enough in connection with our treatise, Lucian, in one of his witty sketches,10 makes

1 Frag. 369-374B (ed. Bind.) ; the context of which some believe to be found in Lucian's Hermotimus, 20.

2 Frag. 29, from the Scholion on Aristophanes, Pax, 357.

3 Rep., vi. 487A : " Nor would even Momus find fault with this."

4 De Partt. Animal., iii. 2.