Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Reformer of the First Century A.D Part 3

And his guides on this occasion, as he a.s.sures his disciples who tried to dissuade him from his endeavour and refused to accompany him, were wisdom and his inner monitor (dmon). Since ye are faint-hearted, says the solitary pilgrim, I bid you farewell. As for myself I must go whithersoever wisdom and my inner self may lead me. The G.o.ds are my advisers and I can but rely on their counsels (i. 18).

SECTION VIII.

THE TRAVELS OF APOLLONIUS.

And so Apollonius departs from Antioch and journeys on to Ninus, the relic of the once great Nina or Nineveh. There he meets with Damis, who becomes his constant companion and faithful disciple. Let us go together, says Damis in words reminding us somewhat of the words of Ruth. Thou shalt follow G.o.d, and I thee! (i. 19).

From this point Philostratus professes to base himself to a great extent on the narrative of Damis, and before going further, it is necessary to try to form some estimate of the character of Damis, and discover how far he was admitted to the real confidence of Apollonius.

Damis was an enthusiast who loved Apollonius with a pa.s.sionate affection. He saw in his master almost a divine being, possessed of marvellous powers at which he continually wondered, but which he could never understand. Like Ananda, the favourite disciple of the Buddha and his constant companion, Damis advanced but slowly in comprehension of the real nature of spiritual science; he had ever to remain in the outer courts of the temples and communities into whose shrines and inner confidence Apollonius had full access, while he frequently states his ignorance of his masters plans and purposes.[89] The additional fact that he refers to his notes as the crumbs[90] from the feasts of the G.o.ds (i. 19), those feasts of which he could for the most part only learn at secondhand what little Apollonius thought fit to tell him, and which he doubtless largely misunderstood and clothed in his own imaginings, would further confirm this view, if any further confirmation were necessary. But indeed it is very manifest everywhere that Damis was outside the circle of initiation, and this accounts both for his wonder-loving point of view and his general superficiality.

Another fact that comes out prominently from the narrative is his timid nature.[91] He is continually afraid for himself or for his master; and even towards the end, when Apollonius is imprisoned by Domitian, it requires the phenomenal removal of the fetters before his eyes to a.s.sure him that Apollonius is a willing victim.

Damis loves and wonders; seizes on unimportant detail and exaggerates it, while he can only report of the really important things what he fancies to have taken place from a few hints of Apollonius. As his story advances, it is true it takes on a soberer tint; but what Damis omits, Philostratus is ever ready to supply from his own store of marvels, if chance offers.

Nevertheless, even were we with the scalpel of criticism to cut away every morsel of flesh from this body of tradition and legend, there would still remain a skeleton of fact that would still represent Apollonius and give us some idea of his stature.

Apollonius was one of the greatest travellers known to antiquity. Among the countries and places he visited the following are the chief ones recorded by Philostratus.[92]

From Ninus (i. 19) Apollonius journeys to Babylon (i. 21), where he stops one year and eight months (i. 40) and visits surrounding cities such as Ecbatana, the capital of Media (i. 39); from Babylon to the Indian frontier no names are mentioned; India was entered in every probability by the Khaibar Pa.s.s (ii. 6),[93] for the first city mentioned is Taxila (Attock) (ii. 20); and so they make their way across the tributaries of the Indus (ii. 43) to the valley of the Ganges (iii.

5), and finally arrive at the monastery of the wise men (iii. 10), where Apollonius spends four months (iii. 50).

This monastery was presumably in Nepal; it is in the mountains, and the city nearest it is called Paraca. The chaos that Philostratus has made of Damis account, and before him the wonderful transformations Damis himself wrought in Indian names, are presumably shown in this word.

Paraca is perchance all that Damis could make of Bharata, the general name of the Ganges valley in which the dominant Aryas were settled. It is also probable that these wise men were Buddhists, for they dwelt in a t??s??, a place that looked like a fort or fortress to Damis.

I have little doubt that Philostratus could make nothing out of the geography of India from the names in Damis diary; they were all unfamiliar to him, so that as soon as he has exhausted the few Greek names known to him from the accounts of the expedition of Alexander, he wanders in the ends of the earth, and can make nothing of it till he picks up our travellers again on their return journey at the mouth of the Indus. The salient fact that Apollonius was making for a certain community, which was his peculiar goal, so impressed the imagination of Philostratus (and perhaps of Damis before him) that he has described it as being the only centre of the kind in India. Apollonius went to India with a purpose and returned from it with a distinct mission;[94] and perchance his constant inquiries concerning the particular wise men whom he was seeking, led Damis to imagine that they alone were the Gymnosophists, the naked philosophers (if we are to take the term in its literal sense) of popular Greek legend, which ignorantly ascribed to all the Hindu ascetics the most striking peculiarity of a very small number. But to return to our itinerary.

Philostratus embellishes the account of the voyage from the Indus to the mouth of the Euphrates (iii. 52-58) with the travellers tales and names of islands and cities he has gleaned from the Indica which were accessible to him, and so we again return to Babylon and familiar geography with the following itinerary:

Babylon, Ninus, Antioch, Seleucia, Cyprus; thence to Ionia (iii. 58), where he spends some time in Asia Minor, especially at Ephesus (iv. 1), Smyrna (iv. 5), Pergamus (iv. 9), and Troy (iv. 11). Thence Apollonius crosses over to Lesbos (iv. 13), and subsequently sails for Athens, where he spends some years in Greece (iv. 17-33) visiting the temples of h.e.l.las, reforming their rites and instructing the priests (iv. 24). We next find him in Crete (iv. 34), and subsequently at Rome in the time of Nero (iv. 36-46).

In A.D. 66 Nero issued a decree forbidding any philosopher to remain in Rome, and Apollonius set out for Spain, and landed at Gades, the modern Cadiz; he seems to have stayed in Spain only a short time (iv. 47); thence crossed to Africa, and so by sea once more to Sicily, where the princ.i.p.al cities and temples were visited (v. 11-14). Thence Apollonius returned to Greece (v. 18), four years having elapsed since his landing at Athens from Lesbos (v. 19).[95]

From Pirus our philosopher sails for Chios (v. 21), thence to Rhodes, and so to Alexandria (v. 24). At Alexandria he spends some time, and has several interviews with the future Emperor Vespasian (v. 27-41), and thence he sets out on a long journey up the Nile as far as Ethiopia beyond the cataracts, where he visits an interesting community of ascetics called loosely Gymnosophists (vi. 1-27).

On his return to Alexandria (vi. 28), he was summoned by t.i.tus, who had just become emperor, to meet him at Tarsus (vi. 29-34). After this interview he appears to have returned to Egypt, for Philostratus speaks vaguely of his spending some time in Lower Egypt, and of visits to the Phnicians, Cilicians, Ionians, Achans, and also to Italy (vi. 35).

Now Vespasian was emperor from 69 to 79, and t.i.tus from 79 to 81. As Apollonius interviews with Vespasian took place shortly before the beginning of that emperors reign, it is reasonable to conclude that a number of years was spent by our philosopher in his Ethiopian journey, and that therefore Damis account is a most imperfect one. In 81 Domitian became emperor, and just as Apollonius opposed the follies of Nero, so did he criticise the acts of Domitian. He accordingly became an object of suspicion to the emperor; but instead of keeping away from Rome, he determined to brave the tyrant to his face. Crossing from Egypt to Greece and taking ship at Corinth, he sailed by way of Sicily to Puteoli, and thence to the Tiber mouth, and so to Rome (vii. 10-16).

Here Apollonius was tried and acquitted (vii. 17--viii. 10). Sailing from Puteoli again Apollonius returned to Greece (viii. 15), where he spent two years (viii. 24). Thence once more he crossed over to Ionia at the time of the death of Domitian (viii. 25), visiting Smyrna and Ephesus and other of his favourite haunts. Hereupon he sends away Damis on some pretext to Rome (viii. 28) and--disappears; that is to say, if it be allowed to speculate, he undertook yet another journey to the place which he loved above all others, the home of the wise men.

Now Domitian was killed 96 A.D., and one of the last recorded acts of Apollonius is his vision of this event at the time of its occurrence.

Therefore the trial of Apollonius at Rome took place somewhere about 93, and we have a gap of twelve years from his interview with t.i.tus in 81, which Philostratus can only fill up with a few vague stories and generalities.

As to his age at the time of his mysterious disappearance from the pages of history, Philostratus tells us that Damis says nothing; but some, he adds, say he was eighty, some ninety, and some even an hundred.

The estimate of eighty years seems to fit in best with the rest of the chronological indications, but there is no certainty in the matter with the present materials at our disposal.

Such then is the geographical outline, so to say, of the life of Apollonius, and even the most careless reader of the bare skeleton of the journeys recorded by Philostratus must be struck by the indomitable energy of the man, and his power of endurance.

We will now turn our attention to one or two points of interest connected with the temples and communities he visited.

SECTION IX.

IN THE SHRINES OF THE TEMPLES AND THE RETREATS OF RELIGION.

Seeing that the nature of Apollonius business with the priests of the temples and the devotees of the mystic life was necessarily of a most intimate and secret nature, for in those days it was the invariable custom to draw a sharp line of demarcation between the inner and outer, the initiated and the profane, it is not to be expected that we can learn anything but mere externalities from the Damis-Philostratus narrative; nevertheless, even these outer indications are of interest.

The temple of sculapius at g, where Apollonius spent the most impressionable years of his life, was one of the innumerable hospitals of Greece, where the healing art was practised on lines totally different to our present methods. We are at once introduced to an atmosphere laden with psychic influences, to a centre whither for centuries patients had flocked to consult the G.o.d. In order to do so, it was necessary for them to go through certain preliminary purifications and follow certain rules given by the priests; they then pa.s.sed the night in the shrine and in their sleep instructions were given them for their healing. This method, no doubt, was only resorted to when the skill of the priest was exhausted; in any case, the priests must have been deeply versed in the interpretation of these dreams and in their rationale. It is also evident that as Apollonius loved to pa.s.s his time in the temple, he must have found there satisfaction for his spiritual needs, and instruction in the inner science; though doubtless his own innate powers soon carried him beyond his instructors and marked him out as the favourite of the G.o.d. The many cases on record in our own day of patients in trance or some other psychic condition prescribing for themselves, will help the student to understand the innumerable possibilities of healing which were in Greece summed up in the personification sculapius.

Later on the chief of the Indian sages has a disquisition on sculapius and the healing art put into his mouth (iii. 44), where the whole of medicine is said to be dependent upon psychic diagnosis and prescience (a?te?a).

Finally it may be noticed that it was the invariable custom of patients on their recovery to record the fact on an _ex-voto_ tablet in the temple, precisely as is done to-day in Roman Catholic countries.[96]

On his way to India Apollonius saw a good deal of the Magi at Babylon.

He used to visit them at mid-day and mid-night, but of what transpired Damis knew nothing, for Apollonius would not permit him to accompany him, and in answer to his direct questions would only answer: They are wise, but not in all things (i. 26).

The description of a certain hall, however, to which Apollonius had access, seems to be a garbled version of the interior of the temple. The roof was dome-shaped, and the ceiling was covered with sapphire; in this blue heaven were models of the heavenly bodies (those whom they regard as G.o.ds) fashioned in gold, as though moving in the ether.

Moreover from the roof were suspended four golden Iygges which the Magi call the Tongues of the G.o.ds. These were winged-wheels or spheres connected with the idea of Adrasteia (or Fate). Their prototypes are described imperfectly in the Vision of Ezekiel, and the so-called Hecatine _strophali_ or _spherul_ used in magical practices may have been degenerate descendants of these living wheels or spheres of the vital elements. The subject is one of intense interest, but hopelessly incapable of treatment in our present age of scepticism and profound ignorance of the past. The G.o.ds who taught our infant humanity were, according to occult tradition, from a humanity higher than that at present evolving on our earth. They gave the impulse, and, when the earth-children were old enough to stand on their own feet, they withdrew. But the memory of their deeds and a corrupt and degenerate form of the mysteries they established has ever lingered in the memory of myth and legend. Seers have caught obscure glimpses of what they taught and how they taught it, and the tradition of the Mysteries preserved some memory of it in its symbols and instruments or engines.

The Iygges of the Magi are said to be a relic of this memory.

With regard to the Indian sages it is impossible to make out any consistent story from the fantastic jumble of the Damis-Philostratus romance. Damis seems to have confused together a mixture of memories and sc.r.a.ps of gossip without any attempt to distinguish one community or sect from another, and so produced a blurred daub which Philostratus would have us regard as a picture of the hill and a description of its sages. Damis confused memories,[97] however, have little to do with the actual monastery and its ascetic inhabitants, who were the goal of Apollonius long journey. What Apollonius heard and saw there, following his invariable custom in such circ.u.mstances, he told no one, not even Damis, except what could be derived from the following enigmatical sentence: I saw men dwelling on the earth and yet not on it, defended on all sides, yet without any defence, and yet possessed of nothing but what all possess. These words occur in two pa.s.sages (iii.

15 and vi. 11), and in both Philostratus adds that Apollonius wrote[98]

and spoke them enigmatically. The meaning of this saying is not difficult to divine. They were on the earth, but not of the earth, for their minds were set on things above. They were protected by their innate spiritual power, of which we have so many instances in Indian literature; and yet they possessed nothing but what all men possess if they would but develop the spiritual part of their being. But this explanation is not simple enough for Philostratus, and so he presses into service all the memories of Damis, or rather travellers tales, about levitation, magical illusions and the rest.

The head of the community is called Iarchas, a totally un-Indian name.

The violence done to all foreign names by the Greeks is notorious, and here we have to reckon with an army of ignorant copyists as well as with Philostratus and Damis. I would suggest that the name may perhaps be a corruption of Arhat.[99]

The main burden of Damis narrative insists on the psychic and spiritual knowledge of the sages. They know what takes place at a distance, they can tell the past and future, and read the past births of men.

The messenger sent to meet Apollonius carried what Damis calls a golden anchor (iii. 11, 17), and if this is an authentic fact, it would suggest a forerunner of the Tibetan _dorje_, the present degenerate symbol of the rod of power, something like the thunder-bolt wielded by Zeus.

This would also point to a Buddhist community, though it must be confessed that other indications point equally strongly to Brahmanical customs, such as the caste-mark on the forehead of the messenger (iii.

7, 11), the carrying of (bamboo) staves (da??a), letting the hair grow long, and wearing of turbans (iii. 13). But indeed the whole account is too confused to permit any hope of extracting historical details.

Of the nature of Apollonius visit we may, however, judge from the following mysterious letter to his hosts (iii. 51):

I came to you by land and ye have given me the sea; nay, rather, by sharing with me your wisdom ye have given me power to travel through heaven. These things will I bring back to the mind of the Greeks, and I will hold converse with you as though ye were present, if it be that I have not drunk of the cup of Tantalus in vain.

It is evident from these cryptic sentences that the sea and the cup of Tantalus are identical with the wisdom which had been imparted to Apollonius--the wisdom which he was to bring back once more to the memory of the Greeks. He thus clearly states that he returned from India with a distinct mission and with the means to accomplish it, for not only had he drunk of the ocean of wisdom in that he has learnt the Brahma-vidya from their lips, but he has also learnt how to converse with them though his body be in Greece and their bodies in India.

But such a plain meaning--plain at least to every student of occult nature--was beyond the understanding of Damis or the comprehension of Philostratus. And it is doubtless the mention of the cup of Tantalus[100] in this letter which suggested the inexhaustible loving cup episode in iii. 32, and its connection with the mythical fountains of Bacchus. Damis presses it into service to explain the last phrase in Apollonius saying about the sages, namely, that they were possessed of nothing but what all possess--which, however, appears elsewhere in a changed form, as possessing nothing, they have the possessions of all men (iii. 15).[101]