[59]. See, concerning this oracle, Scholiastes Apollonii ad i. librum, et Tacitus ii. Annal.
[60]. This oracle is mentioned by Herodotus, l. i., by Strabo, l. xiv. and by Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxix.
[61]. See Plutarch in his treatise De Defectu Oraculorum.
[62]. See Plutarch in the above mentioned treatise. Concerning this luciform spirit, or vehicle, which is immortal, and which is called by Olympiodorus αυγοειδες χιτων, a luciform vestment, see my Translation of the fifth book of Proclus on the Timæus.
[63]. It was usual for those who prophesied to carry a wand. Tiresias had a sceptre, and Abaris an arrow. The Scholiast on Nicander says, that the Egyptian and Scythian magi, and also many of those in Europe, prophesied with wands. And Eustathius on the Odyssey, p. 1657, observes, “that there is a certain magic in divine wands,” esse in ραβδοις θειοις τινα μαγειαν.
[64]. That is, to partake of an illumination, which has no σχεσις, or habitude, to any thing material.
[65]. For ἡ προιουσα here, it seems necessary to read ἢ προιουσα.
[66]. Proclus, in his MS. Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato, observes, “that in the mysteries some one of the more imperfect dæmons assumes the appearance of one that is more perfect, and draws down to himself souls that are not yet purified, and separates them from the Gods. Hence, in the most holy of the mysteries [i. e. in the Eleusinian mysteries], prior to the manifest presence of the God [who is invoked], certain terrene dæmons present themselves to the view, disturbing those that are initiated, divulsing them from undefiled good, and exciting them to matter. On this account the Gods [in the Chaldean oracles] order us not to behold them, till we are guarded by the powers imparted by the mysteries. For they say,
Ου γαρ χρη κεινους σε βλεπειν πριν σωμα τελεσθεις.
i. e. It is not proper you should behold them till your body is purified by initiation. And they add the reason,