And next, what do we think about Hesiod, shepherding around Helikon in Boiotia, encountering the singing Muses, being reproached for working as a shepherd, taking from them a branch of laurel, and suddenly he sings, transforming from a shepherd into a poet, just as they say the Korybantists whenever they hear a pipe get the divine in them and go out of their minds? Far from it. Rather, I think Hesiod was hinting that his skill was self-made when he credited responsibility for it to the choir of Muses, just as if someone who became a bronze-smith without any training credited Hephaistos for his self-taught beginnings.
And what about the Cretans? Do you not think that, being well ruled by King Minos, and exaggerating his excellence, they claimed Zeus was his teacher, and that there was a cave of Zeus right there on Ida, and that Minos was frequenting it every nine years, conversing with Zeus, to learn governance from him? Those are the tales of the Cretans.
There was also in Athens a man of Eleusis named Melesagoras. He had not learned any skill, but he was possessed by nymphs, and from divine favor he had wisdom and the power of divination. So goes the story of the Athenians.
And to Athens came another man, a Cretan named Epimenides. And he too could not say he had a teacher, but he was wondrous in divine matters, for he saved the city of the Athenians, afflicted by plague and strife, with atoning sacrifices. And he was wondrous at these not from training, but, he explained, his teacher was a long sleep and dreams.
And in Prokonnesos there was a philosopher named Aristeas. But his wisdom was disbelieved at first, because he did not produce its teacher. So then as a counter to the people’s distrust he invented a story. He claimed that his soul abandoned his body, flew straight up into the ether, circuited Hellas and the barbarian lands and all the islands and rivers and mountains, and that the limit of its excursion was the land of the Hyperboreans, and that it surveyed one after another all the customs, and manners of governance, and natures of countrysides, and changes of climate, and inlets of the sea, and outflows of rivers, and that its view of the heavens was much clearer than from below. And Aristeas was more convincing when he told these things than either Anaxagoras or even Xenophanes, or any other of those who expounded on the nature of reality. For people did not yet clearly understand the excursion of the soul, nor with what sort of eyes it sees all. Instead they simply believed the soul needed to travel abroad if it was to show the truest about all things.
Would you allow then now that we let be Aristeas, Melesagoras, Epimenides and the riddles of the poets with their fables, and turn our minds toward the philosophers from the Lykeion and the noble Akademia? For they do not tell fables nor speak in riddles nor welcome miracle stories […]
Author: Maximus of Tyre
Title of Work: Orations
Location in Work: 38.2-4
Date of Work: c. 185 CE
Original Language: Greek (Attic)
Original Text:
Ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸν Ἡσίοδον τί οἰόμεθα, ποιμαίνοντα περὶ τὸν Ἑλικῶνα ἐν Βοιωτίᾳ, ᾀδούσαις ταῖς Μούσαις ἐντυχόντα, ὀνειδισθέντα τῆς τέχνης τῆς ποιμενικῆς, παρ’ αὐτῶν λαβόντα δάφνης κλάδους, εὐθὺς ᾄδειν, γενόμενον ποιητὴν ἐκ ποιμένος, ὥσπερ φασὶν τοὺς κορυβαντιῶντας ἐπειδὰν ἀκούσωσιν αὐλοῦ ἐνθουσιᾶν, τῶν προτέρων λογισμῶν ἐξισταμένους; πολλοῦ γε καὶ δεῖ. ἀλλὰ ᾐνίξατο, οἶμαι, ὁ Ἡσίοδος τὸ αὐτοφυὲς τῆς αὑτοῦ τέχνης, ἀναθέμενος αὐτοῦ τὴν αἰτίαν τῷ Μουσῶν χορῷ, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ καὶ χαλκευτικὸς γενόμενός τις τέχνης ἄνευ ἀνετίθετο Ἡφαίστῳ φέρων τὸ αὐτόματον τῆς δημιουργίας.
Τί δὲ οἱ Κρῆτες; ἤ σοι οὐ δοκοῦσιν ὑπὸ βασιλεῖ τῷ Μίνῳ κοσμηθέντες καλῶς, ἀγασθέντες τῆς ἀρετῆς, διδάσκαλον αὐτῷ ἐπιφημίσαι τὸν Δία, εἶναι μὲν αὐτόθι ἐν τῇ Ἴδῃ ἄντρον Διός, φοιτῶντα δὲ τὸν Μίνω δι’ ἐνάτου ἔτους, συγγιγνόμενον τῷ Διί, μανθάνειν παρ’ αὐτοῦ τὰ πολιτικά; οὗτοι Κρητῶν λόγοι.
Ἐγένετο καὶ Ἀθήνησιν ἀνὴρ Ἐλευσίνιος, ὄνομα Μελησαγόρας· οὗτος οὐ τέχνην μαθών, ἀλλ’ ἐκ νυμφῶν κάτοχος, θείᾳ μοίρᾳ σοφὸς ἦν καὶ μαντικός· ὡς ὁ Ἀθηναίων λόγος.
Ἦλθεν Ἀθήναζε καὶ ἄλλος, Κρὴς ἀνήρ, ὄνομα Ἐπιμενίδης· οὐδὲ οὗτος ἔσχεν εἰπεῖν αὑτῷ διδάσκαλον, ἀλλ’ ἦν μὲν δεινὸς τὰ θεῖα, ὥστε τὴν Ἀθηναίων πόλιν κακουμένην λοιμῷ καὶ στάσει διεσώσατο ἐκθυσάμενος· δεινὸς δὲ ἦν ταῦτα οὐ μαθών, ἀλλ’ ὕπνον αὑτῷ διηγεῖτο μακρὸν καὶ ὄνειρον διδάσκαλον.
Ἐγένετο καὶ ἐν Προκοννήσῳ ἀνὴρ φιλόσοφος, ὄνομα Ἀριστέας· ἠπιστεῖτο δὲ αὐτῷ ἡ σοφία τὰ πρῶτα, διότι μηδένα αὐτῆς διδάσκαλον προὔφερεν. πρὸς οὖν δὴ τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπιστίαν ἐξεῦρεν λόγον· ἔφασκεν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτῷ καταλιποῦσαν τὸ σῶμα, ἀναπτᾶσαν εὐθὺ τοῦ αἰθέρος, περιπολῆσαι τὴν γῆν τὴν Ἑλλάδα καὶ τὴν βάρβαρον καὶ νήσους πάσας καὶ ποταμοὺς καὶ ὄρη· γενέσθαι δὲ τῆς περιπολήσεως αὐτῇ τέρμα τὴν Ὑπερβορέων γῆν· ἐποπτεῦσαι δὲ πάντα ἑξῆς νόμαια καὶ ἤθη πολιτικὰ καὶ φύσεις χωρίων καὶ ἀέρων μεταβολὰς καὶ ἀναχύσεις θαλάττης καὶ ποταμῶν ἐκβολάς· γενέσθαι δὲ αὐτῇ καὶ τὴν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ θέαν πολὺ τῆς νέρθεν σαφεστέραν. καὶ ἦν πιθανώτερος λέγων ταῦτα ὁ Ἀριστέας μᾶλλον ἢ Ἀναξαγόρας ἢ Ξενοφάνης ἐκεῖνος, ἤ τις ἄλλος τῶν ἐξηγησαμένων τὰ ὄντα ὡς ἔχει· οὐ γάρ πω σαφῶς ἠπίσταντο οἱ ἄνθρωποι τὴν ψυχῆς περιπόλησιν, οὐδὲ οἷστισιν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἕκαστα ὁρᾷ, ἀλλὰ ἀτεχνῶς ἀποδημίας τινὸς ᾤοντο τῇ ψυχῇ δεῖν εἰ μέλλει ὑπὲρ ἑκάστου φράσειν τὰ ἀληθέστατα.
Βούλει τοίνυν Ἀριστέαν μὲν καὶ Μελησαγόραν καὶ Ἐπιμενίδην καὶ τὰ τῶν ποιητῶν αἰνίγματα τοῖς μύθοις ἐῶμεν, ἐπὶ δὲ τοὺς φιλοσόφους τὴν γνώμην τρέψωμεν, τουτουσὶ τοὺς ἐκ Λυκείου καὶ Ἀκαδημίας τῆς καλῆς; οὐ γὰρ μυθολόγοι οὐδ’ αἰνιγματώδεις οὐδὲ τερατείαν ἀσπαζόμενοι [...]
Reference Edition: Trapp, Maximus Tyrius (better for this passage); Koniaris, Maximus Tyrius.
Edition Notes: Some editors including Koniaris have doubted that Maximus would have described Aristeas as a philosopher and have emended ἀνὴρ φιλόσοφος, ὄνομα Ἀριστέας to ἀνὴρ σοφος, ὄνομα Ἀριστέας. But the remainder of the paragraph makes clear that Maximus did think of Aristeas as a philosopher.
Source of Date of Work: Race, Maximus of Tyre, ix.
Commentary:
This excerpt contains one of the two most detailed descriptions of Aristeas’ extracorporeal flight while cataleptic, and the other is also by Maximus. This account is particularly valuable for its summary of the ethnographic and topographic content of the Arimaspeia, and for its clear statement that the journey of Aristeas’ soul extended to Hyperborea, directly contradicting Herodotos’ claim that Aristeas’ journey did not extend outside the human world.
According to Maximus’ Middle Platonist philosophy, the untethered soul could perceive all manner of truths without any need to physically travel, and through philosophy the embodied soul could approach that enlightened state. Maximus interpreted stories in which divine inspiration and/or extracorporeal travel led to wisdom as convenient allegorical fictions by which Aristeas and other early figures explained their enlightenment to people who wouldn’t otherwise have been able to understand.
Parallel accounts of Epimenides are found in connection with other stories about Aristeas by Maximus, Pliny the Elder and Apollonios the paradoxographer, and separately in Diogenes Laertios (1.109).
Epimenides was also mentioned together with Aristeas in stories by Pliny the elder and Apollonius the paradoxographer, and in another story by Maximus, each of which also told the story of Epimenides’ long sleep, and by Iamblichos, Proklos of Lykia, Clement of Alexandria, Tatian and Claudianus Mamertus. A biography of Epimenides was written by Diogenes Laertios (1.10). For testimonies and fragments of writings attributed to him see BNJ Epimenides von Kreta (457) and DK Epimenides (3).
Hesiod’s inspiration by the Muses is told in the Theogony (22). The story of Minos and Zeus is mentioned in the Odyssey (19.178) and by Plato (Laws, 1.624). Anaxagoras and Xenophanes were early philosophers best known for trying to explain the underlying nature of the world. Melesagoras is known only from this text.
Concordance: EGEP Aristeas T12b; BNJ Aristeas (35) F1a; EGF Aristeas T11b; PEG Aristeas T13; Bolton, Aristeas T&F 20