Apollonius of Tyana
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Apollonius of Tyana lived in the first century of the Christian era, born about 1 CE and perhaps reaching the age of 100. He was a Neo-Pythagorean philosopher and teacher of Greek origin. His teaching influenced both scientific thought and occultism for centuries after his death.
He is best known through the medium of the writer Philostratus, in whose biography some have seen an attempt to construct a rival to Jesus Christ. Apollonius was a vegetarian, and a disciple of Pythagoras. He is quoted as having said "For I discerned a certain sublimity in the discipline of Pythagoras, and how a certain secret wisdom enabled him to know, not only who he was himself, but also who he had been; and I saw that he approached the altars in purity, and suffered not his belly to be polluted by partaking of the flesh of animals; and that he kept his body pure of all garments woven of dead animal refuse; and that he was the first of mankind to restrain his tongue, inventing a discipline of silence described in the proverbial phrase, "An ox sits upon it." I also saw that his philosophical system was in other respects oracular and true. So I ran to embrace his teachings..."
This is The Prayer of Apollonius of Tyana, circa 23 AD: "Oh, Thou Sun, send me as far around the world as is my pleasure and thine; and may I make the acquaintance of good men but never hear anything of bad ones, nor they of me."
He was born in the city of Tyana, in the Roman Empire province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor, at the beginning of the Christian era. He was educated in the nearby city of Tarsus and in the temple of Asclepius at Aegae, where he devoted himself to the doctrines of Pythagoras and adopted the ascetic habit of life in its fullest sense.
After keeping a vow of silence for five years, he decided to travel to India, and to learn the oriental mysticism of magi, Brahmans and gymnosophists. On his way through Asia and before reaching the Euphrates, he visited the sacred city of Syria called Hierapolis ("Ninos" in Philostratus), where he allegedly attracted a disciple, Damis, who kept a diary of Apollonius's deeds and sayings. These notes described a number of incidents and adventures in the life of Apollonius, including events relating to Roman emperors from Nero (54-68) to Nerva (96-98). Eventually Damis's notes are said to have come into the possession of the empress Julia Domna, wife of the emperor Septimius Severus (194-211), who commissioned Philostratus to use them to assemble a biography of the sage.
The narrative of his travels allegedly given by Damis and reproduced by Philostratus is so full of the miraculous that, in the words of Edward Gibbon, "we are at a loss to discover whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic." On his return to Europe he was saluted as a holy man, and received the greatest reverence from priests and people generally. He himself claimed only the power of foreseeing the future; yet in Rome it was said that he raised from death the daughter of a senator. In the halo of his mysterious power he passed through Greece, Italy and Spain. It was said that he was accused of treason both by Nero and by Domitian, but escaped by miraculous means. Finally he settled in Ephesus, though it is uncertain whether he died there. Philostratus keeps up the mystery of his hero's life by saying, "Concerning the manner of his death, if he did die, the accounts are various."
Philostratus's biography contains a number of obviously fictitious stories, through which, however, it is not impossible to discern Apollonius's general character. About 300 CE, a certain Hierocles endeavored to prove that the doctrines and the life of Apollonius were more valuable than those of Christ. Hierocles was soon refuted by the Christian bishop, Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine, in his extant Reply to Hierocles. In modern times, Voltaire and Charles Blount (1654-1693), the English freethinker, have adopted a similar standpoint. Apart from this extravagant eulogy, it is absurd to regard Apollonius merely as a vulgar charlatan and miracle-monger. If we cut away the mass of mere fiction which Philostratus accumulated, we have left a highly imaginative, earnest reformer who attempted to promote a spirit of practical morality.
He wrote many books and treatises on a wide variety of subjects during his life, including science, medicine, and philosophy. A few decades after his death, the Emperor Hadrian made a collection of his Letters, though it was Philostratus's biography that made him into a major figure of religious history.
Apollonius' fame was still evident in 272, when the Emperor Aurelian besieged Tyana, which had rebelled against Roman rule. In a dream or vision, Aurelian claimed to have seen Apollonius speak to him, beseeching him to spare the city of his birth. In part, Aurelian said Apollonius told him "Aurelian, if you desire to rule, abstain from the blood of the innocent! Aurelian, if you will conquer, be merciful!" Aurelian, who admired Apollonius, spared Tyana.
Medieval Islamic alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan's Book of Stones is a lengthy analysis of alchemical works attributed to Apollonius (called "Balinas") (see e.g. Haq, which provides an English translation of much of the Book of Stones).
Apollonius of Tyana appears as a fictional character in the 1935 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao, as well as the 1964 film adaptation 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
See also
References
F. C. Conybeare published Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana, together with the Letters and the Treatise of Eusebius, in two volumes in the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA, 1912). Robert J. Penella published Apollonius' letters in The Letters of Apollonius of Tyana: A Critical Text (1979 Leiden). C.P. Jones [link] has now produced a new edition and translation of the Life of Apollonius, Books I-IV [link], Books V-VIII [link], with a third volume devoted to the Letters of Apollonius, ancient references to him, and Eusebius's Reply to Hierocles.[link].The best and fullest discussion of the historical Apollonius and the sources for his life can be found in an article by E.L. Bowie, 'Apollonius of Tyana: Tradition and Reality' in Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt 2.16.2 (1987) 1652-99. M. Dzielska's Apollonius of Tyana in Legend and History is especially useful on the local traditions before Philostratus and the post-Philostratean elaborations.
Manly P. Hall, in his magnum opus The Secret Teachings of all Ages, says of Apollonius:
- "The Neo-Pythagorean school flourished in Alexandria during the first century of the Christian Era. Only two names stand out in connection with it--Apollonius of Tyana and Moderatus of Gades. Neo-Pythagoreanism is a link between the older pagan philosophies and Neo-Platonism. Like the former, it contained many exact elements of thought derived from Pythagoras and Plato; like the latter, it emphasized metaphysical speculation and ascetic habits. A striking similarity has been observed by several authors between Neo-Pythagoreanism and the doctrines of the Essenes. (p. 16)
- "Among the celebrities who visited the oracle of Delphi were the immortal Apollonius of Tyana and his disciple Damis. He made his offerings and, after being crowned with a laurel wreath and given a branch of the same plant to carry in his hand, he passed behind the statue of Apollo which stood before the entrance to the cave, and descended into the sacred place of the oracle. The priestess was also crowned with laurel and her head bound with a band of white wool. Apollonius asked the oracle if his name would be remembered by future generations. The Pythoness answered in the affirmative, but declared that it would always be calumniated. Apollonius left the cavern in anger, but time has proved the accuracy of the prediction, for the early church fathers perpetuated the name of Apollonius as the Antichrist. (For details of the story see Histoire de la Magie.)" (p. 63)
- "It has been claimed that Apollonius of Tyana (the Antichrist) was initiated into the Arcanum of Egypt in the Great Pyramid, where he hung upon a cross until unconscious and was then laid in the tomb (the coffer) for three days. While his body was unconscious, his soul was thought to pass into the realms of the immortals (the place of death) After it had vanquished death (by recognizing that life is eternal) it returned again to the body, which then rose from the coffer, after which he was hailed as a brother by the priests, who believed that he had returned from the land of the dead. This concept was, in substance, the teaching of the Mysteries." (p. 183)
External links
- ['Apollonius of Tyana'] explores the sage of Tyana as the model from which a mythical Saint Paul was derived.
- [Apollonius] chapter from the book Occultists and Mystics of All Ages, published in the early 1900's.
- [Apollonius article at Livius.org]
- [Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana]
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