In answer to questions raised and doubts expressed by Porphyry, the writer of this treatise appeals to the innate idea all men have of the gods as testifying to the existence of divinities countless in number and various in rank (to the correct arrangement of which he, like Iamblichus, attaches the greatest importance). He holds with the latter that above all principles of being and intelligence stands the absolute one, from whom the first god and king spontaneously proceeds; while after these follow the ethereal, empyrean, and heavenly gods, and the various orders of archangels, angels, demons, and heroes distinguished in nature, power, and activity, and in greater profusion than even the imagination of Iamblichus had conceived. He says that all the gods are good (though he in another place admits the existence of evil demons who must be propitiated), and traces the source of evil to matter; rebuts the objection that their answering prayer implies passivity on the part of gods or demons; defends divination, soothsaying, and theurgic practices as manifestations of the divine activity; describes the appearances of the different sorts of divinities; discusses the various kinds of sacrifice, which he says must be suitable to the different natures of the gods, material and immaterial, and to the double condition of the sacrificer as bound to the body or free from it (differing thus in his psychology from Iamblichus); and, in conclusion, states that the only way to happiness is through knowledge of and union with the gods, and that theurgic practices alone prepare the mind for this union—again going beyond his master, who held assiduous contemplation of divine things to be sufficient. It is the passionless nature of the soul which permits it to be thus united to divine beings,—knowledge of this mystic union and of the worship associated with it having been derived from the Egyptian priests, who learnt it from Hermes.
On one point only does the author of the De mysteriis seem not to go so far as Iamblichus in thus making philosophy subservient to priestcraft. He condemns as folly and impiety the worship of images of the gods, though his master held that these simulacra were filled with divine power, whether made by the hand of man or (as he believed) fallen from heaven. But images could easily be dispensed with from the point of view of the writer, who not only held that all things were full of gods (πάντα πλήρη θεῶν, as Thales said), but thought that each man had a special divinity of his own—an ἴδιος δαίμων—as his guard and companion.
The following are the extant works of Iamblichus: (1) On the Pythagorean (Life Περὶ τοῦ Πυθαγορικοῦ βίου), ed. T. Kiessling (1815), A. Nauck (St Petersburg, 1884); for a discussion of the authorities used see E. Rohde in Rheinisches Museum, xxvi., xxvii. (1871, 1872); Eng. trans. by Thomas Taylor (1818), (2) The Exhortation to Philosophy (Λόγος προτρεπτικὸς εἰς φιλοσοφίαν), ed. T. Kiessling (1813); H. Piselli (1888). (3) The treatise On the General Science of Mathematics (Περὶ τῆς κοινῆς μαθηματικῆς ἐπιστήμης), ed. J. G. Friis (Copenhagen, 1790), N. Festa (Leipzig, 1891). (4) The book On the Arithmetic of Nicomachus (Περὶ τῆς Νικομάχου ἀριθμητικῆς εἰσαγωγῆς), along with fragments on fate (Περὶ εἱμαρμένης) and prayer (Περὶ εὐχῆς), ed. S. Tennulius (1688), the Arithmetic by H. Pistelli (1894). (5) The Theological Principles of Arithmetic (Θεολογούμενα τῆς ἀριθμητικῆς)—the seventh book of the series—by F. Ast (Leipzig, 1817). Two lost books, treating of the physical and ethical signification of numbers, stood fifth and sixth, while books on music, geometry and astronomy followed. The emperor Julian had a great admiration for Iamblichus, whom he considered “intellectually not inferior to Plato”; but the Letters to Iamblicus the Philosopher which bear his name are now generally considered spurious.
The so-called Liber de mysteriis was first edited, with Latin translation and notes, by T. Gale (Oxford, 1678), and more recently by C. Parthey (Berlin, 1857); Eng. trans. by Thomas Taylor (1821).
There is a monograph on Iamblichus by G. E. Hebenstreit (De Iamblichi, philosophi Syri, doctrina, Leipzig, 1764), and one of the De myst. by Harless (Das Buch v. d. ägypt. Myst., Munich, 1858). The best accounts of Iamblichus are those of Zeller, Phil. d. Griechen, iii. 2, pp. 613 sq., 2nd ed.; E. Vacherot, Hist. de l’école d’Alexandrie (1846), ii. 57 sq.; J. Simon, Hist. de l’école d’Alexandrie (1845); A. E. Chaignet, Histoire de la psychologie des Grecs (Paris, 1893) v. 67-108; T. Whittaker, The Neo-Platonists (Cambridge, 1901).
(W. R. So.)
[1] Besides the anonymous testimony prefixed to an ancient MS. of Proclus, De Myst. viii. 3 seems to be quoted by the latter as Iamblichus’s. Cf. Meiners. “Judicium de libro qui de Myst. Aeg. inscribitur,” in Comment. Soc. Reg. Sci. Gott., vol. iv., 1781, p. 77.