Sallust On the Gods and the World/The Hymns of Proclus

THE



OF



Ver. 5. Matter&#8217;s worlds. According to the Chaldaic theology, there are seven corporeal worlds, viz. one empyrean, three ætherial, and three material, which last three consist of the inerratic sphere, the seven planetary spheres, and a sublunary region. But the empyrean and etherial worlds, when compared with the three last, are said to be immaterial, not that they are void of matter, but because the matter from which they are composed bears the relation of an immaterial essence to that of the other worlds, from the extreme purity and vitality of its nature. I only add, that according to the same theology, the sun moves beyond the inerratic sphere in the last of the etherial worlds. See more concerning this in my notes to the Cratylus.

Ver. 7. That is, in the last ætherial world, which is of course the middle of the seven worlds.

Ver. 17. That is, from the first cause, or the good. But the sun is said, by way of eminence, to be the progeny of this highest god, on account of the analogy which he bears to him in his illuminations. For as the good is the source of light of the intelligible world, so Apollo gives light to the supermundane, and the sun to the sensible, worlds.

Ver. 25. I have used the word Hyle, or matter, instead of generation, γενεθλη, which is employed by Proclus, because it is better adapted to the measure of the verses; but the meaning of each word is nearly the same, for the regions of matter are the regions of generation.

Ver. 36. According to the most accurate division of the Demoniacal order, there are six species of dæmons, as we learn from the excellent Olympiodorus, in his Commentary on the Phædo of Plato. There first of these species is called divine, from subsisting according to the one, or that which is superessential in the mundane gods; the second is denominated intellectual, from subsisting according to the intellect of these gods; the third is rational, from subsisting according to the soul with which the mundane gods are connected; the fourth is natural, being characterized from the nature which depends on these gods; the fifth is corporeal, subsisting according to their bodies; and the sixth is material, subsisting according to the matter which depends on these divinities. Or, we may say, that some of these dæmons are celestial, others etherial, and others aërial; that some are aquatic, others terrestrial, and others subterranean. Olympiodorus adds, that irrational dæmons commence from the aërial species; in proof of which he cites the following verse from some oracles, (most probably from the Zoroastrian oracles):

That is, &#8220;Being the charioteer of the aërial, terrestrial and aquatic dogs.&#8221; For evil dæmons, as I have shewn in my Dissertation on the Mysteries, appear in the shape of dogs. And perhaps in this verse the sun is the charioteer alluded to, as it wonderfully agrees with what Proclus says of that deity in the verses before us. I only add, that when irrational dæmons are said to be evil, this must not be understood as if they were essentially evil, but that they are noxious only from their employment; that is, from their either calling forth the vices of depraved souls that they may be punished and cured, or from their inflicting punishment alone: for, indeed, there is not any thing essentially evil in the universe; for as the cause of all is goodness itself, every thing subsisting from thence must be endued with the form of good; since it is not the property of fire to refrigerate, nor of light to give obscurity, nor of goodness to produce from itself any thing evil.

Ver. 45. That is, image of the first cause.

ΕΙΣ ΤΑΣ ΜΟΥΣΑΣ.
== MUSES .==

Ver. 19. Proclus here, I have no doubt, alludes to the Christians.

MINERVA.
Ver. 55, 56. These lines are wanting in the first edition of this hymn in my Dissertation on the Mysteries; and this because the verse to which they correspond in the Greek was not then properly corrected.