[35]. Plutarch, De Iside, 46 ff.; cf. Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 188; Eisele, Zur Demonologie des Plutarch (Archiv für Gesch. der Philos., XVII), 1903, p. 283 f.—Cf. infra, n. [40].
[36]. Arnobius, who was indebted to Cornelius Labeo for some exact information on the doctrines of the magi, says (IV, 12, p. 150, 12, Reifferscheid): "Magi suis in accitionibus memorant antitheos saepius obrepere pro accitis, esse autem hos quosdam materiis ex crassioribus spiritus qui deos se fingant, nesciosque mendaciis et simulationibus ludant." Lactantius, the pupil of Arnobius, used the same word in speaking of Satan that a Mazdean would have used in referring to Ahriman (Inst. divin., II, 9, 13, p. 144, 13, Brandt): "Nox quam pravo illi antitheo dicimus attributam"; he is the aemulus Dei.—Heliodorus who has made use in his Aethiopica of data taken from the Mazdean beliefs (see Monuments relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, volume I, p. 336, n. 2) uses the Greek word in the same sense, (IV, 7, p. 105, 27, Bekker ed.): Ἀντίθεός τις ἔοικεν ἐμποδίζειν τὴν πρᾶξιν.—The Ps.-Iamblichus, De myster., III, 31, § 15, likewise speaks of δαίμονες πονηροὺς οὓς δὴ καὶ καλοῦσιν ἀντιθέους. Finally the magical papyri also knew of the existence of these deceiving spirits (Wessely, Denksch. Akad. Wien, XLII, p. 42, v. 702: Πέμψον μοι τὸν ἀληθινὸν Ἀσκληπιὸν δίχα τινὸς ἀντιθέου πλανοδαίμονος).
[37]. In a passage to which we shall return in note 39, Porphyry (De Abstin., II, 42), speaks of the demons in almost the same terms as Arnobius: Τὸ γὰρ ψεῦδος τούτοις οἱκεῖον· Βούλονται γὰρ εἶναι θεοὶ καὶ ἡ προεστῶσα αὐτῶν δύναμις δοκεῖν θεὸς εἶναι ὁ μέγιστος (cf. c. 41: Τούτους καὶ τὸν προεστῶτα αὐτῶν); likewise Ps.-Iamblichus, De myst., III, 30, 6: Τὸν μέγαν ἡγεμόνα τῶν δαιμόνων.—In the De philos. ex orac. haur. (pp. 147 ff. Wolff), an early work in which he followed other sources than those in De Abstinentia, Porphyry made Serapis (= Pluto) the chief of the malevolent demons. There was bound to be a connection between the Egyptian god of the underworld and the Ahriman of the Persians at an early date.—A veiled allusion to this chief of demons may be contained in Lucan, VI, 742 ff., and Plutarch who, in De Iside, 46, called Ahriman Hades (supra, p. [190]; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, II, p. 131, No. 3), says elsewhere (De latenter viv., 6, p. 1130): Τὸν δὲ τῆς ἐναντίας κύριον μοίρας, εἴτε θεὸς εἴτε δαίμων ἐστίν, Ἄιδην ὀνομάζουσιν. Cf. Decharme, Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs, 1904, p. 431, n. 1.
[38]. The dedication Diis angelis recently found at
Viminacium (Jahresh. Instituts in Wien, 1905, Beiblatt, p. 6), in a country where the Mithra worship had spread considerably seems to me to refer to this. See Minuc. Felix, Octav., 26: "Magorum et eloquio et negotio primus Hostanes angelos, id est ministros et nuntios Dei, eius venerationi novit assistere." St. Cypr., "Quod idola dii n. s.," c. 6 (p. 24, 2, Hartel): "Ostanes et formam Dei veri negat conspici posse et angelos veros sedi eius dicit adsistere." Cf. Tertullian, Apol., XXIII: "Magi habentes invitatorum angelorum et daemonum adsistentem sibi potestatem;" Arnobius, II, 35 (p. 76, 15, Reifferscheid); Aug., Civ. Dei, X, 9, and the texts collected by Wolff, Porphyrii de philos. ex orac. haurienda, 1856, pp. 223 ff.; Kroll, De orac. Chaldaïcis, 1894, pp. 53; Roscher, Die Hebdomadenlehre der griech. Philosophen, Leipsic, 1906, p. 145; Abt, Apuleius und die Zauberei, Giessen, 1909, p. 256.
[39]. Porphyry, De Abstin., II, 37-43, expounds a theory about the demons, which, he says, he took from "certain Platonists" (Πλατωνικοί τινες, Numenius and Cronius?). That these authors, whoever they were, helped themselves freely to the doctrines of the magi, seems to appear immediately from the whole of Porphyry's exposition (one could almost give an endless commentary on it with the help of the Mazdean books) and in particular from the mention that is made of a power commanding the spirits of evil (see supra, n. [37]). This conclusion is confirmed by a comparison with the passage of Arnobius cited above (n. [36]), who attributes similar theories to the "magi," and with a chapter of the Ps.-Iamblichus (De mysteriis, III, 31) which develops analogous beliefs as being those of "Chaldean prophets."—Porphyry also cites a "Chaldean" theologian in connection with the influence of the demons, De regressu animae (Aug., Civ. Dei, X, 9).
I conjecture that the source of all this demonology is the book attributed to Hostanes which we find mentioned in the second century of our era by Minucius Felix, St. Cyprian (supra, n. [38]), etc.; cf. Wolff, op. cit., p. 138; Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 33. As a matter of fact it would be false logic to try to explain the evolution of demonology, which is above everything else religious, by the development of the philosophic theories of the Greeks (see for instance the communications of Messrs. Stock and Glover: Transactions of the Congress of
History of Rel., Oxford, 1908, II, pp. 164 ff.). The influence of the popular Hellenic or foreign ideas has always been preponderant here; and the Epinomis, which contains one of the oldest accounts of the theory of demons, as proved supra, n. [34], was influenced by the Semitic notions about genii, the ancestors of the djinns and the wélys of Islam.
If, as we believe, the text of Porphyry really sets forth the theology of the magi, slightly modified by Platonic ideas based on popular beliefs of the Greeks and perhaps of the barbarians, we shall be able to draw interesting conclusions in regard to the mysteries of Mithra. For instance, one of the principles developed is that the gods must not be honored by the sacrifice of animated beings (ἔμψυχα), and that immolation of victims should be reserved for the demons. The same idea is found in Cornelius Labeo, (Aug., Civ. Dei, VIII, 13; see Arnobius, VII, 24), and possibly it was the practice of the Mithra cult. Porphyry (II, 36) speaks in this connection of rites and mysteries, but without divulging them, and it is known that in the course of its history Mazdaism passed from the bloody to the bloodless sacrifice (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 6).