(However let Dionysus himself decide about these things, though I do indeed implore him to inspire my mind and yours with his own sacred frenzy for the true knowledge of the gods, so that we may not by remaining too long uninspired by him have to suffer the fate of Pentheus, perhaps even while we are alive, but most certainly after death has freed us from the body. For he in whom the abundance of life has not been perfected by the essential nature of Dionysus, uniform and wholly indivisible as it is in the divisible world and pre-existing whole and unmixed in all things, he I say who has not been perfected by means of the Bacchic and divine frenzy for the god, runs the risk that his life may flow into too many channels, and as it flows be torn to shreds, and hence come to naught. But when I say “flow” or “torn to shreds” no one must consider the bare meaning of the words and suppose that I mean a mere trickle of water or a thread of linen, but he must understand these words in another sense, that used by Plato, Plotinus, Porphyry and the inspired Iamblichus. One who does not interpret them thus will laugh at them no doubt, but let me assure him that it will be a Sardonic laugh,[209] since he will be forever deprived of that knowledge of the gods which I hold to be more precious than to rule over the whole world, Roman and barbarian put together, yea, I swear it by my lord Helios. But again some god or other and no choice of my own has made me rave with this Bacchic frenzy.)
οὗ δὲ ἕνεκεν ἔφην αὐτά· κατὰ μὲν τὴν διάνοιαν ἀπεμφαίνοντες ὅταν οἱ μῦθοι γίγνωνται περὶ τῶν θείων, αὐτόθεν ἡμῖν ὥσπερ βοῶσι καὶ διαμαρτύρονται μὴ πιστεύειν ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ τὸ λεληθὸς σκοπεῖν καὶ διερευνᾶσθαι. τοσούτῳ δ᾽ ἐστὶ κρεῖττον ἐν τούτοις τοῦ σεμνοῦ τὸ ἀπεμφαῖνον, ὅσῳ διὰ μὲν ἐκείνου καλοὺς λίαν καὶ μεγάλους καὶ ἀγαθούς, [D] ἀνθρώπους δὲ ὅμως τοὺς θεοὺς κίνδυνος νομίσαι, διὰ δὲ τῶν ἀπεμφαινόντων ὑπεριδόντας τῶν ἐν τῷ φανερῷ λεγομένων ἐπὶ τὴν ἐξῃρημένην αὐτῶν οὐσίαν καὶ ὑπερέχουσαν πάντα τὰ ὄντα καθαρὰν νόησιν ἐλπὶς ἀναδραμεῖν.
(To go back then to what led me to say all this. Whenever myths on sacred subjects are incongruous in thought, by that very fact they cry aloud, as it were, and summon us not to believe them literally but to study and track down their hidden meaning. And in such myths the incongruous element is even more valuable than the serious and straightforward, the more so that when the latter is used there is risk of our regarding the gods as exceedingly great and noble and good certainly, but still as human beings, whereas when the meaning is expressed incongruous there is some hope that men will neglect the more obvious sense of the words, and that pure intelligence may rise to the comprehension of the distinctive nature of the gods that transcends all existing things.)
[223] Αἴτιαι μὲν οὖν αὗται τοῦ τὴν τελεστικὴν καὶ μυσταγωγὸν φιλοσοφίαν τὰ μὲν ῥήματα παντὸς μᾶλλον εὐαγῆ καὶ σεμνὰ προφέρεσθαι, κατὰ δὲ τὴν διάνοιαν ἀλλοιοτέραν ποιεῖσθαι τὴν ἐξήγησιν τῶν τοιούτων. ὁ δὲ τῆς τῶν ἠθῶν ἐπανορθώσεως ἕνεκα τοὺς λόγους πλάττων καὶ μύθους παράγων δράτω[210] τοῦτο μὴ πρὸς ἄνδρας, ἀλλὰ πρὸς παῖδας [pg 120] ἤτοι καθ᾽ ἡλικίαν ἢ τῷ φρονεῖν, πάντως δὲ τῶν λόγων τούτων δεομένους. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἡμεῖς σοι παῖδες ἐφάνημεν εἴτε [B] ἐγὼ εἴτε Ἀνατόλιος οὑτοσί, συγκαταρίθμει δὲ τούτῳ καὶ τὸν Μεμμόριον καὶ τὸν Σαλούστιον, πρὸς τούτοις δέ, εἰ βούλει, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἑξῆς, Ἀντικύρας σοι δεῖ· τί γὰρ ἂν ἀκκίζοιτί τις; ἐπεὶ πρὸς τῶν θεῶν καὶ πρὸς αὐτοῦ τοῦ μύθου, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦ κοινῇ πάντων βασιλέως Ἡλίου, τί σοι μέγα ἢ μικρὸν πεποίηται ἔργον; τίνι παρέστης ἀγωνιζομένῳ μετὰ τοὺ δικαίου; τίνα ἐθεράπευσας πενθοῦντα, [C] τῷ λόγῳ διδάξας, ὅτι μὴ κακὸν ὁ θάνατος μήτε τῷ παθόντι μήτε τοῖς οἰκείοις αὐτοῦ; τίς δ᾽ αἰτιάσεταί σε τῆς ἑαυτοῦ μειρακίσκος σωφροσύνης, ὅτι πεποίηκας αὐτὸν ἐξ ἀσώτου σώφρονα καὶ καλὸν οὐ τὸ σῶμα μόνον, ἀλλὰ πολὺ μᾶλλον τὴν ψυχὴν φαίνεσθαι; τίνα δὲ ἄσκησιν ἐποιήσω τοῦ βίου; τί δέ σοι ἄξιον τῆς Διογένους βακτηρίας ἢ ναὶ μὰ Δία τῆς παρρησίας πεποίηται; ἔργον οἴει μέγα βακτηρίαν λαβεῖν ἢ τρίχας ἀνεῖναι, [D] καὶ περινοστεῖν τὰς πόλεις καὶ τὰ στρατόπεδα, καὶ τοῖς μὲν βελτίστοις λοιδορεῖσθαι, τοὺς δὲ χειρίστους θεραπεύειν; εἰπὲ πρὸς τοῦ Διὸς καὶ πρὸς τουτωνὶ τῶν ἀκροωμένων, οἷ δι᾽ ὑμᾶς τὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἐκτρέπονται, ἀνθ᾽ ὅτου πρὸς μὲν τὸν μακαρίτην Κωνστάντιον εἰς Ἰταλίαν ἦλθες, οὐκέτι μέντοι καὶ μέχρι τῶν Γαλλιῶν; καίτοι πορευθεὶς πρὸς ἡμᾶς, εἰ μηδὲν ἄλλο, ξυνεῖναι γοῦν σου τῆς φωνῆς μᾶλλον [pg 122] δυναμένῳ πλησιάζειν ἔμελλες ἀνθρώπῳ. [224] τί δὲ καὶ τὸ περιθοιτᾶν πανταχοῦ καὶ παρέχειν πράγματα ταῖς ἡμιόνοις; ἀκούω δὲ ἔγωγε καὶ τοῖς τὰς ἡμιόνους ἐλαύνουσιν, οἳ μᾶλλον ὑμᾶς ἢ τοὺς στρατιώτας πεφρίκασι· χρῆσθαι γὰρ αὐτοῖς τοῖς ξύλοις[211] ἀκούω τινὰς ὑμῶν χαλεπώτερον ἢ τοῖς ξίφεσιν ἐκεῖνοι. γίγνεσθε οὖν αὐτοῖς εἰκότως φοβερώτεροι. πάλαι μὲν οὖν ὑμῖν ἐθέρμην ἐγὼ τοῦτο τὸ ὄνομα, [B] νυνὶ δὲ αὐτὸ ἔοικα καὶ γράψειν. ἀποτακτιστάς τινας ὀνομάζουσιν οἱ δυσσεβεῖς Γαλιλαῖοι· τούτων οἱ πλείους μικρὰ προέμενοι πολλὰ πάνυ, μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ πάντα πανταχόθεν ξυγκομίζουσι, καὶ προσκτῶνται[212] τὸ τιμᾶσθαι καὶ δορυφορεῖσθαι καὶ θεραπεύεσθαι. τοιοῦτόν τι καὶ τὸ ὑμέτερον ἔργον ἐστί, πλὴν ἴσως τοῦ χρηματίζεσθαι. τοῦτο δὲ οὐ παρ᾽ ὑμᾶς γίγνεται, παρ᾽ ἡμᾶς δέ· συνετώτεροι γάρ ἐσμεν τῶν ἀνοήτων ἐκείνων· ἴσως δὲ καὶ διὰ τὸ μηδὲν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρόσχημα τοῦ φορολογεῖν εὐπροσώπως, [C] ὁποῖον ἐκείνοις, ἣν λέγουσιν οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως ἐλεημοσύνην, τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα γε πάντα ἐστὶν ὑμῖν τε κἀκείνοις παραπλήσια. καταλελοίπατε τὴν πατρίδα ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνοι, περιφοιτᾶτε πάντη καὶ τὸ στρατόπεδον διωχλήσατε μᾶλλον ἐκείνων καὶ ἰταμώτερον· οἱ μὲν γὰρ καλούμενοι, ὑμεῖς δὲ καὶ ἀπελαυνόμενοι. καὶ τί χρηστὸν ἐκ τούτων ὑμῖν ἐγένετο, [D] μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἡμῖν τοῖς ἄλλοις; ἀνῆλθεν ὁ Ἀσκληπιάδης, εἶτα ὁ Σερηνιανός, εἶτα ὁ Χύτρων, εἶτα οὐκ οἶδα παιδάριον ὅ, τι ξανθὸν καὶ εὔμηκες, εἶτα σύ, καὶ μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν ἄλλοι δὶς τοσοῦτοι. [pg 124] τί οὖν ἐκ τῆς ὑμετέρας ἀνόδου γέγονεν ἀγαθόν, ὦ λῷστοι; τίς ᾔσθετο πόλις ἢ τίς ἰδιώτης τῆς ὑμετέρας παρρησίας; οὐκ ἀφρόνως μὲν τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἵλεσθε τὴν ἐπὶ τὸν οὐδὲ ἰδεῖν ὑμᾶς θέλοντα βασιλέα πορείαν, ἀνελθόντες δὲ ἀφρονέστερον αὐτῇ καὶ ἀμαθέστερον καὶ μανιωδέστερον ἐχρήσασθε, κολακεύσαντες ἅμα καὶ ὑλακτήσαντες καὶ βιβλία δόντες [225] καὶ ταῦτα προσαχθῆναι[213] προσλιπαρήσαντες; οὐδένα ὑμῶν οἶμαι ἐγὼ τοσαυτάκις εἰς φιλοόοφου φοιτῆσαι, ὁσάκις εἰς ἀντιγραφέως, ὥστε ὑμῖν Ἀκαδήμεια καὶ Λύκειον ἀντὶ τῆς Ποικίλης τε ἦν τῶν βασιλείων τὰ πρόθυρα.
(These then are the reasons why that branch of philosophy which is connected with initiation and the doctrines of the Mysteries ought by all means to be expressed in devout and serious language, while as regards the thought the narrative may be expounded in a style that has stranger qualities. But one who is inventing tales for the purpose of reforming morals and inserts myths therein, does so not for men but for those who are children whether in years or intelligence, and who on all accounts stand in need of such tales. If, however, you took us for children, me, for instance, or Anatolius here, and you may reckon with us Memmorius also and Sallust and add if you please all the others in due order, then you need a voyage to Anticyra.[214] For why should one pretend to be polite? Tell me, I ask, in the name of the gods, and of myth itself, or rather in the name of Helios the King of all the universe, what have you ever accomplished, great or small? When did you ever champion one who was resisting oppression and had right on his side? When did you ever comfort the mourner and teach him by your arguments that death is not an evil either for him who has suffered it or for his friends? What youth will ever give you the credit for his temperance, and say that you have made him show himself sober instead of dissolute, and beautiful not merely in body but far more in soul? What strenuous discipline have you ever embraced? What have you ever done to make you worthy of the staff of Diogenes or still more, by Zeus, of his freedom of speech? Do you really think it so great an achievement to carry a staff and let your hair grow, and haunt cities and camps uttering calumnies against the noblest men, and flattering the vilest? Tell me in the name of Zeus and of this audience now present, who are disgusted with philosophy because of men of your sort, why was it that you visited the late Emperor Constantius in Italy but could not travel as far as Gaul? And yet if you had come to me you would at any rate have associated with one who was better able to comprehend your language. What do you gain by travelling about in all directions and wearing out the very mules you ride? Yes, and I hear that you wear out the mule drivers as well, and that they dread the sight of you Cynics even more than of soldiers. For I am told that some of you belabour them more cruelly with your staffs than do the soldiers with their swords, so that they are naturally more afraid of you. Long ago I gave you a nickname and now I think I will write it down. It is “monks,”[215] a name applied to certain persons by the impious Galilaeans. They are for the most part men who by making small sacrifices gain much or rather everything from all sources, and in addition secure honour, crowds of attendants and flattery. Something like that is your method, except perhaps for uttering divine revelations: but this is not your custom, though it is ours; for we are wiser than those insensate men. And perhaps too there is this difference that you have no excuse for levying tribute on specious pretexts as they do; which they call “alms,” whatever that may mean. But in all other respects your habits and theirs are very much alike. Like them you have abandoned your country, you wander about all over the world, and you gave more trouble than they did at my headquarters, and were more insolent. For they were at any rate invited to come, but you we tried to drive away. And what good have you, or rather, what have the rest of us derived from all this? First arrived Asclepiades, then Serenianus, then Chytron, then a tall boy with yellow hair—I don't know his name—then you, and with you all twice as many more. And now, my good sirs, what good has come from your journey? What city or individual has had any experience of your alleged freedom of speech? Was it not foolish of you to choose in the first place to make this journey to an Emperor who did not even wish to set eyes on you? And when you had arrived, did you not behave even more foolishly and ignorantly and insanely in flattering and barking at me in the same breath, and offering me your books, and moreover imploring that they should be taken to me? I do not believe that any one of you ever visited a philosopher's school as diligently as you did my secretary: in fact the entrance to the Palace stood for you in place of the Academy and the Lyceum and the Portico.)
Οὐκ ἀπάξετε ταῦτα; οὐ καταβαλεῖτε νῦν γοῦν, εἰ καὶ μὴ πρότερον, ὅτε ὑμῖν οὐδέν ἐστι πλέον ἀπὸ τῆς κόμης καὶ τῆς βακτηρίας; πῶς δὲ καὶ γέγονεν ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν εὐκαταφρόνητος ἡ φιλοσοφία; τῶν ῥητορικῶν [B] οἱ δυσμαθέστατοι καὶ οὐδ᾽ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως Ἑρμοῦ τὴν γλῶτταν ἐκκαθαρθῆναι δυνάμενοι, φρενωθῆναι δὲ οὐδὲ πρὸς αὐτῆς τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς σὺν τῷ Ἑρμῇ, τοῦτο ἐκ τῆς ἀγοραίου καὶ περιτρεχούσης ἁρπάσαντες ἐντρεχείας· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐν παροιμίᾳ περιφερόμενον αὐτὸ γιγνώσκουσι τὸ ὅτι βότρυς πρὸς βότρυν πεπαίνεται· ὁρμῶσιν ἐπὶ τὸν Κυνισμόν· βακτηρία, τρίβων, [C] κόμη, τὸ ἐντεῦθεν ἀμαθία, θράσος, ἰταμότης καὶ πάντα ἁπλῶς τὰ τοιαῦτα. τὴν σύντομον, φασίν, ὁδὸν καὶ σύντονον ἐπὶ τὴν [pg 126] ἀρετὴν ἰέναι[216] ὄφελον καὶ ὑμεῖς τὴν μακρὰν ἐπορεύεσθε· ῥᾷον ἂν δι᾽ ἐκείνης ἢ διὰ ταύτης ἤλθετε. οὐκ ἴστε, ὅτι μεγάλας ἔχουσιν αἱ σύντομοι τὰς χαλεπότητας; καὶ ὥσπερ ἐν ταῖς λεωφόροις ὁ μὲν τὴν σύντομον ἐλθεῖν δυνηθεὶς ῥᾷον ἐκπερίεισι τὴν κύκλῳ, οὐκέτι μέντοι τὸ ἀνάπαλιν ὁ κύκλῳ πορευθεὶς ἔλθοι ἂν πάντως [D] καὶ τὴν ἐπίτομον, οὕτω δὴ[217] καὶ ἐν τῇ φιλοσοφίᾳ τέλος τέ ἑστι καὶ ἀρχὴ μία γνῶναί τε ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀφομοιωθῆναι τοῖς θεοῖς· ἀρχὴ μὲν οὖν ἑαυτὸν γνῶναι, τέλος δὲ ἡ πρὸς τοὺς κρείττονας ὁμοιότης.
(Have done with all this nonsense! At any rate lay it aside now if not before, when you can get no advantage from your long hair and your staff. Shall I tell you how you have caused philosophy to be lightly esteemed? It is because the most ignorant of the rhetoricians, those whose tongues not King Hermes himself could purify, and who could not be made wise by Athene herself with the aid of Hermes, having picked up their knowledge from their industry in frequenting public places,—for they do not know the truth of the current proverb, “Grape ripens near grape”[218]—then all rush into Cynicism. They adopt the staff, the cloak, the long hair, the ignorance that goes with these, the impudence, the insolence, and in a word everything of the sort. They say that they are travelling the short and ready road to virtue.[219] I would that you were going by the longer! For you would more easily arrive by that road than by this of yours. Are you not aware that short cuts usually involve one in great difficulties? For just as is the case with the public roads, a traveller who is able to take a short cut will more easily than other men go all the way round, whereas it does not at all follow that he who went round could always go the short cut, so too in philosophy the end and the beginning are one, namely, to know oneself and to become like the gods. That is to say, the first principle is self-knowledge, and the end of conduct is the resemblance to the higher powers.)
Ὅστις οὖν Κυνικὸς εἶναι ἐθέλει, πάντων ὑπεριδὼν τῶν νομισμάτων καὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων δοξῶν, εἰς ἑαυτὸν καὶ τὸν θεὸν ἐπέστραπται πρότερον. ἐκείνῳ τὸ χρυσίον οὐκ ἔστι χρυσίον, οὐχ ἡ ψάμμος ψάμμος, εἰ πρὸς ἀμοιβήν τις αὐτὰ ἀξετάζοι καὶ τῆς ἀξίας αὐτῶν ἐπιτρέψειεν αὐτῷ τιμητῇ γενέσθαι· [226] γῆν γὰρ αὐτὰ οἶδεν ἀμφότερα. τὸ σπανιώτερον δὲ καὶ τὸ ῥᾷον ἀνθρώπων εἶναι κενοδοξίας ταῦτα καὶ ἀμαθίας νενόμικεν ἔργα· τὸ αἰσχρὸν ἢ καλὸν οὐκ ἐν τοῖς ἐπαινουμένοις ἢ ψεγομένοις τίθεται, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν τῇ φύσει· φεύγει τὰς περιττ`ας τροφάς· ἀποστρέφεται δὲ τὰ ἀφροδίσια. βιαζομένου δὲ τοῦ σώματος, οὐ δόξῃ προστέτηκεν οὐδὲ περιμένει τὸν μάγειρον καὶ τὰ ὑποτρίμματα καὶ τὴν κνίσσαν, οὐδὲ τὴν Φρύνην οὐδὲ τὴν Λαΐδα οὐδὲ τὴν τοῦ δεῖνος[220] περιβλέπεται γαμετὴν οὐδὲ [B] τὸ θυγάτριον οὐδὲ τὴν θεράπαιναν· ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα ἐκ τῶν [pg 128] προστυχόντων ἀποπλήσας τὴν θεραπείαν τοῦ σώματος καὶ τὸ ἐνοχλοῦν ἐξ αὐτοῦ παρωσάμενος, ἄνωθεν ἐκ τῆς Ὀλύμπου κορυφῆς ἐπιβλέπει τοὺς ἄλλους
(Therefore he who desires to be a Cynic despises all the usages and opinions of men, and turns his mind first of all to himself and the god. For him gold is not gold or sand sand, if one enquire into their value with a view to exchanging them, and leave it to him to rate them at their proper worth: for he knows that both of them are but earth. And the fact that one is scarcer and the other easier to obtain he thinks is merely the result of the vanity and ignorance of mankind. He will judge of the baseness or nobility of an action, not by the applause or blame of men but by its intrinsic nature. He avoids any excess in food, and renounces the pleasures of love. When he is forced to obey the needs of the body he is not the slave of opinion, nor does he wait for a cook and sauces and a savoury smell, nor does he ever look about for Phryne or Lais or So-and-so's wife or young daughter or serving-maid. But as far as possible he satisfies his body's needs with whatever comes to hand, and by thrusting aside all hindrances derived from the body he contemplates from above, from the peaks of Olympus, other men who are)
Ἄτης ἐν λειμῶνι κατὰ σκότον ἠλάσκοντας,