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Apollonius of Tyana

G R S Mead

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1. Page "APOLLONIUS of TYANA", para. 1. APOLLONIUS of TYANA
2. Page "THE PHILOSOPHER-REFORMER OF THE FIRST CENTURY A.D.", para. 1. THE PHILOSOPHER-REFORMER OF THE FIRST CENTURY A.D. A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE ONLY EXIST
3. Page "LONDON AND BENARES THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY 1901", para. 1. LONDON AND BENARES THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY 1901
4. Page "TABLE OF CONTENTS.", para. 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Introductory The Religious Associations and Communities of the Fir
5. Page 1. APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.
6. Page 1. Section I.
7. Page 1. INTRODUCTORY. To the student of the origins of Christianity there is naturally no per
8. Page 2. The Roman histories so-called, to which we have so far been accustomed, cannot help u
9. Page 3. If, for instance, the reader turn to works of general history, such as Merivale’s His
10. Page 5. But, you may say, what has all this to do with Apollonius of Tyana? The answer is sim
11. Page 6. But the reader may retort: Things social and religious in those days must have been i
12. Page 7. The Roman Empire was at the zenith of its power, and had there not been many admirabl
13. Page 9. Section II.
14. Page 9. THE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS AND COMMUNITIES OF THE FIRST CENTURY. In the domain of rel
15. Page 10. It is not, however, to be thought that the private cults and the doings of the religi
16. Page 11. Here, then, we have a vast intermediate ground for religious exercise between the mos
17. Page 12. By common consent the most virtuous livers of Greece were the members of the Pythagor
18. Page 13. But, some one may say, Euripides and the Pythagoreans and Orphics are no evidence for
19. Page 14. We are not, however, among those who believe that the origin of the Therapeut communi
20. Page 15. Among such surroundings as these Apollonius moved; but how little does his biographer
21. Page 17. Section III.
22. Page 17. INDIA AND GREECE. There is, however, another reason why Apollonius is of importance t
23. Page 18. It is plainly asserted by the ancient Greeks that Pythagoras went to India, but as th
24. Page 19. From the time of Alexander onwards there was direct and constant contact between Āryā
25. Page 20. For instance, in the middle of the third century b.c., we know from Asoka’s thirteent
26. Page 22. It is, however, credible that in such communities, if anywhere, Buddhist propaganda w
27. Page 23. But even so, we are not of those who by their own self-imposed limitations of possibi
28. Page 24. However difficult, therefore, it may be to prove, from unquestionably historical stat
29. Page 25. It is not, however, to be thought that Apollonius set out to make a propaganda of Ind
30. Page 27. It is, then, in this atmosphere of charity and tolerance that we would ask the reader
31. Page 28. Section IV.
32. Page 28. THE APOLLONIUS OF EARLY OPINION. Apollonius of Tyana2 was the most famous philosopher
33. Page 29. First, then, with regard to the references in classical and patristic authors. Lucian
34. Page 31. Vopiscus, writing in the last decade of the third century, tells us that Aurelian (Em
35. Page 32. We now come to an incident which hurled the character of Apollonius into the arena of
36. Page 34. After the controversy reincarnated again in the sixteenth century, and when the hypot
37. Page 35. Arnobius, the teacher of Lactantius, however, writing at the end of the third century
38. Page 37. About the same date also we find Isidorus of Pelusium, who died in 450, bluntly denyi
39. Page 38. Thus we see that even among the Church Fathers opinions were divided; while among the
40. Page 40. And though the monk Xiphilinus, in the eleventh century, in a note to his abridgment
41. Page 42. Section V.
42. Page 42. TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND LITERATURE. We will now turn to the texts, translations, and
43. Page 44. We shall now attempt to give some idea of the general literature on the subject, so t
44. Page 46. So far then for the earlier literature of the subject. Frankly none of it is worth re
45. Page 47. This is certainly a healthier standpoint than that of the traditional theological con
46. Page 49. The development of the Jesus-Apollonius miracle-controversy into the Jesus-against-Ap
47. Page 50. With the progress of the critical method, however, opinion has at length partly recov
48. Page 51. As for Tredwell’s somewhat pretentious volume which, being in English, is accessible
49. Page 53. Section VI.
50. Page 53. THE BIOGRAPHER OF APOLLONIUS. Flavius Philostratus, the writer of the only Life of Ap
51. Page 53. “Like most of the Africans, Severus was passionately addicted to the vain studies of
52. Page 55. We thus see, even from Gibbon’s somewhat grudging estimate, that Domna Julia was a wo
53. Page 56. The following is Philostratus’ account of the sources from which he derived his infor
54. Page 58. These are the sources to which Philostratus was indebted for his information, sources
55. Page 59. Now as the ancient writers did not separate their notes from the text, or indicate th
56. Page 59. r any other little-known country, a writer in these days had to drag in all that popu
57. Page 61. But though we must be keenly alive to the importance of a thoroughly critical attitud
58. Page 62. Therefore, in reading the Life of Apollonius let us remember that we have to look at
59. Page 63. To Apollonius the mere fashion of a man’s faith was unessential; he was at home in al
60. Page 65. Section VII.
61. Page 65. EARLY LIFE. Apollonius was born75 at Tyana, a city in the south of Cappadocia, somewh
62. Page 66. When Euxenus asked him how he would begin his new mode of life he replied: “As doctor
63. Page 68. He now took the vow of silence for five years, for he was determined not to write on
64. Page 69. After the five years of silence, we find Apollonius at Antioch, but this seems to be
65. Page 71. He thus endeavoured to bring back the public cults to the purity of their ancient tra
66. Page 72. “After these things,” says Philostratus, as vaguely as the writer of a gospel narrati
67. Page 73. Section VIII.
68. Page 73. THE TRAVELS OF APOLLONIUS. And so Apollonius departs from Antioch and journeys on to
69. Page 74. Another fact that comes out prominently from the narrative is his timid nature.91 He
70. Page 76. This monastery was presumably in Nepāl; it is in the mountains, and the “city” neares
71. Page 77. Philostratus embellishes the account of the voyage from the Indus to the mouth of the
72. Page 79. On his return to Alexandria (vi. 28), he was summoned by Titus, who had just become e
73. Page 80. Now Domitian was killed 96 a.d., and one of the last recorded acts of Apollonius is h
74. Page 82. Section IX.
75. Page 82. IN THE SHRINES OF THE TEMPLES AND THE RETREATS OF RELIGION. Seeing that the nature of
76. Page 83. Later on the chief of the Indian sages has a disquisition on Æsculapius and the heali
77. Page 84. The description of a certain hall, however, to which Apollonius had access, seems to
78. Page 85. With regard to the Indian sages it is impossible to make out any consistent story fro
79. Page 87. The main burden of Damis’ narrative insists on the psychic and spiritual knowledge of
80. Page 88. But such a plain meaning—plain at least to every student of occult nature—was beyond
81. Page 90. At Troy, we are told, Apollonius spent a night alone at the tomb of Achilles, in form
82. Page 91. Now from two obscure sayings (iv. 13, 33), we glean that our philosopher looked upon
83. Page 93. At Lesbos Apollonius visited the ancient temple of the Orphic mysteries, which in ear
84. Page 94. But whether it was that the hierophant of that time was only ignorant, or whether he
85. Page 95. When he entered the adyta of these temples for the purpose of “restoring” the rites,
86. Page 96. In Rome Apollonius continued his work of reforming the temples, and this with the ful
87. Page 98. Apollonius seems to have spent most of the remaining twenty years of his life in Egyp
88. Page 99. Section X.
89. Page 99. THE GYMNOSOPHISTS OF UPPER EGYPT. We now come to Apollonius’ visit to the “Gymnosophi
90. Page 100. This is the very same diction that Philo uses about the Therapeut communities, which
91. Page 102. The whole tendency of Apollonius’ arguments, however, is to remind the community of i
92. Page 103. The last incident that Philostratus records with regard to Apollonius among the shrin
93. Page 104. It is, therefore, only when Apollonius comes forward to do some public act that we ca
94. Page 106. Section XI.
95. Page 106. APOLLONIUS AND THE RULERS OF THE EMPIRE. But not only did Apollonius vivify and recon
96. Page 107. Indeed Damis, although he confesses his entire ignorance of the purpose of Apollonius
97. Page 108. Equally so he journeyed to Rome to meet Domitian face to face, and though he was put
98. Page 110. Section XII.
99. Page 110. APOLLONIUS THE PROPHET AND WONDER-WORKER. We will now turn our attention for a brief
100. Page 111. Already as a youth, in the temple at Ægæ, Apollonius gave signs of the possession of