Page:Apollonius of Tyana - the pagan Christ of the third century.pdf/48

Rh justice in hell, whilst a good king like Tantalus is doomed to a frightful punishment. He laughs at the stories of the wars of the giants with the gods, and of Vulcan striking his anvil in the deep caverns of Ætna. The gods, he thinks, should only be represented under the most ideal forms, and the masterpieces of religious art are only valuable so far as they reflect in some degree the ever-beautiful. The sun is the purest and most fitting symbol of the Deity, and hence Apollouius pays homage before all others to the sun and to the sun-gods, Apollo, Æsculapius, Helios, and Hercules. His own name is an indication of his entire devotedness to the worship of the sun. The Brahmins, the wisest of men, who in reality live by his substance, worship the sun all the day long. The essence of the gods is the light of heaven. By partaking of it man becomes a god, and this is only natural in man, inasmuch as his soul is a ray of the Divine essence, imprisoned in the body for awhile, and journeying through a series of existences until the moment when it shall have been sufficiently