{ "title": "On the Contemplative Life or Suppliants", "language": "en", "versionTitle": "merged", "versionSource": "https://www.sefaria.org/On_the_Contemplative_Life_or_Suppliants", "text": { "Introduction": [ "ON THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE OR SUPPLIANTS (DE VITA CONTEMPLATIVA)
INTRODUCTION TO DE VITA CONTEMPLATIVA", "This treatise is except for a few digressions a highly eulogistic account of an ascetic community known to Philo and settled near Alexandria. It is introduced as a counterpart to his description of the Essenes, whether that in Quod Omnis Probus 75–91 or perhaps more probably that in the Hypothetica, 11. 1–18, or possibly some third which has not survived. The Therapeutae are differentiated from the others in that while the Essenes exemplify the practical they represent the contemplative life. They do not have any active occupation or any custom of sharing houses or garments, nor do they even mess together except on special occasions. Another difference is that while the Essenes are exclusively male the Therapeutae admit women freely to such communal life as they have. On the other hand while the Essenes of course observe frugality there is no suggestion that they practised abstinence like the Therapeutae, who carried it to an extreme.", "The treatise does not seem to me to rank high among the works of Philo; the subject is slight and gives little scope to the richness of thought which marks so much of the commentary and in a less degree the exposition of the Law. Historically it is perhaps of some importance as giving an account of an institution with some of the marks of later monasticism for which we have no parallel either without or within the Judaism of the times. And the importance would be much greater if we could suppose that this Alexandrian community was of a type widespread through the world outside. The opening words of section 21 may at first suggest that this was so and the argument of Lucius who maintained that the treatise was spurious was primarily based on this assumption. The Therapeutae, he argued, are said by the author to have been found in many places; if it were so we must have heard of them from other sources, and as we do not hear of them the whole thing must be a fiction. But I do not think that section 21 bears this meaning. This kind he says is found in many parts of the world, particularly in Egypt, and the best of them find a home in a certain spot which he proceeds to describe. But when we look back to find who this kind are it appears that they are religious enthusiasts who give up their property and family ties and go and live in solitude. That this type of character existed in Philo’s time we might take for granted even if we did not have, abundant evidence in his own writings, and it would not be surprising to find them occasionally organizing themselves into communities which would not necessarily attract much attention. Philo however does not assert that they ever did so except in the body which he glorifies in this treatise. Nor does he tell us how numerous they were or how long they maintained themselves. If any inference is to be drawn from the absence of mention elsewhere it would be that this settlement was small and ephemeral.", "In fact it is neither the literary nor the philosophical value nor its historical importance which has made this treatise better known and more discussed than any other work of Philo. It owes its fame to the controversies which have raged round it since the fourth century. The thing began when Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ii. 17 discovered in the Therapeutae a picture of the first Christian converts. After noting the traditional evangelization of Alexandria by St. Mark, he declares that no one could possibly doubt that Philo was referring to the first generation of his converts. In the renunciation of their property, their severe fasting, in the virginity of the women members, in their study of the scriptures including the writings of men of old which are clearly the gospels and apostolic writings and commentaries on the Old Testament such as Paul used—in their festal meetings which are a description of Easter celebrations, and the officials who manage these meetings in whom we may see bishops, priests and deacons, no one can possibly fail to see the first Christians. Nowadays it seems needless to argue that the theory has no foundation whatever. But it is easy to understand that the idea of finding in this Jewish philosopher an account of the life and worship of the early church, particularly in the great city whose evangelization is unnoticed in the New Testament, was very fascinating, and it is not surprising that it was strongly maintained by orthodox churchmen down to the 18th century. Hardly had it died out in the form sketched by Eusebius when it was revived in another form by two German scholars, Grätz and (more elaborately) Lucius in 1880. Eusebius had believed that Philo himself was in good faith describing the actual Christians of his time. Lucius supposed that some unknown writer at the end of the third century A.D. drew up an imaginary account of the monasticism of his own time which he put forth in Philo’s name in order to commend it to readers, who impressed by the authority thus given to it would believe that it was a genuine picture of the primitive church. Somehow Lucius secured the approval not only of such distinguished historians as Schiirer and Zeller but a formidable number of other distinguished scholars. But I find it difficult to understand how anyone who reads Conybeare’s and Wendland’s refutations side by side with Lucius’s dissertation can believe it. I will not attempt to give more than a few main points. Lucius’s strongest argument was the absolute silence elsewhere about the Therapeutae, and this might have weight if we understood the author to assert that communities like that of the Mareotic Lake were to be found everywhere through the Roman world. But as I have said above I see no need to make such a deduction. Lucius also declared that various practices mentioned had Christian parallels, a claim in some cases obviously absurd, in others I daresay justified. But it was necessary to his argument to show that these customs or practices were not only Christian but also non-Jewish and this, if the two writers I have mentioned are to be believed, is rarely if ever the case. But the one great source of evidence on which a student of Philo not expert in Christian Antiquities is entitled to give his opinion is the style and language. Here the evidence as shown not merely in thought but in vocabulary and phrasing seems to me quite beyond dispute. The Testimonia printed by Conybeare at the foot of each page are overwhelming and with the additions made by Wend-land demand at any rate a forger of extraordinary skill. They prove also that Lucius’s study of Philo, as shown in what he considers to be an approximately correct list of the parallels in the treatise with the rest of Philo, was exceedingly inadequate. Whatever was the case when Lucius’s argument was put forward sixty years ago, the tide of opinion has turned against it and rightly so far as I can judge.", "The following is an analysis of the treatise:", "He opens with saying that as a counterpart to the practical type represented by the Essenes he will describe the contemplative type which he calls Therapeutic. The name may originally mean healing but also worshipping, and this is the sense in which he further develops it (1–2). He compares this worship to the honour paid to other objects; the elements, the heavenly bodies and images are each reviewed and their inadequacy exposed (3–7), and this discussion ends with a scathing denunciation of the worst of all these false religions the Egyptian animal worship (8–9).", "We now return to the Therapeutic type; their most essential characteristic is their mystical aspiration to reach the vision of the one God and this leads them to renounce all thoughts of private property (10–13). Philo praises them because in contrast to Anaxagoras and Democritus they do not let their property run to waste but give it over to friends and kinsmen while at the same time they gain leisure to devote themselves to the higher life (14–17). Free from these cares they leave behind them all family ties and seek solitude away from the corrupting influence of cities (18–20).", "While the Therapeutic type in this wider sense is to be found in many parts of the Greek and Barbarian world, and particularly in Egypt, Philo declares that the best of them (in Egypt?) resort from every quarter to a particular spot near the Mareotic Lake, the climate and position of which he describes (21–23). The simple houses of these settlers each of them contain a room set apart for their meditations in which they study the Scriptures and devotional works from sunrise to sunset (24–26). At both times they pray and also compose hymns (27–29). This solitary life is relaxed somewhat on the Sabbath, when they meet in the synagogue where men and women sit in separate partitions and listen to a sermon (30–33). As to their diet, during the six days they eat nothing till sunset and even in some cases fast for three whole days or more, but on the Sabbath it is more generous, though then the food and drink are little more than bread and water (34–37) and this asceticism extends to their dress (38–39).", "The ordinary Sabbath meeting does not seem to include a Symposium, but they have such a thing on occasions. But before giving an account of it Philo makes a digression which takes up about a quarter of the whole treatise, describing the pagan feasts with which he will contrast it. First he notes the savage violence and drunkenness which disfigure such feasts (40–47), secondly the extravagant luxury shown in the appurtenances, couches and drinking vessels and still more in the number, finery and beauty of the attendants (48–52), and the number and variety of the dishes with which the guests gorge themselves (53–56). Greek literature does include two Symposia of a more refined kind, those described by Xenophon and Plato. Yet even these are full of folly, and Philo can see little more in Plato’s than the exaltation of pederasty which he takes the occasion to denounce (57–63). The rest of the treatise (64–90) describes in contrast to the above the festal meeting of the Therapeutae. First the date and occasion (65); then the preliminaries and prayers, the seating in order of seniority in the community, with the sexes separate (66–69); then the nature of the couches used and the qualifications of the attendants who are not slaves but young freemen (69–72); the simplicity of the meal provided (73–74). After they have taken their places on the couches there follows a discourse by the President on some scriptural point bringing out the spiritual lessons that the literal text provides, which is received with all attention followed by applause at the end (75–79). The discourse is followed by hymns, the first sung by the President, the others by the congregation each in turn, while all join in the refrain at the end (80–81). Then at last the meal itself is served (82). After this the vigil begins, the men and women each form a choir, the two choirs sing and dance in turn and then join together (83–85), thus resembling the songs of Moses and Miriam after the destruction of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, which is once more told in some detail (85–87). This is continued till dawn when they stand up and face the east and at sunrise after prayer return each to their own prayer room (88–89). The concluding section sums up the virtues and blessedness of the Therapeutae (90)." ], "": [ [ "[1] I have discussed the Essenes, who persistently pursued the active life and excelled in all or, to put it more moderately, in most of its departments. I will now proceed at once in accordance with the sequence required by the subject to say what is needed about those who embraced the life of contemplation. In doing so I will not add anything of my own procuring to improve upon the facts as is constantly done by poets and historians through lack of excellence in the lives and practices which they record, but shall adhere absolutely to the actual truth. Though I know that in this case it is such as to unnerve the greatest master of oratory, still we must persevere and not decline the conflict, for the magnitude of virtue shown by these men must not be allowed to tie the tongues of those who hold that nothing excellent should be passed over in silence.", "[2] The vocation of these philosophers is at once made clear from their title of Therapeutae and Therapeutrides, a name derived from θεραπεύω, either in the sense of “cure” because they profess an art of healing better than that current in the cities which cures only the bodies, while theirs treats also souls oppressed with grievous and well-nigh incurable diseases, inflicted by pleasures and desires and griefs and fears, by acts of covetousness, folly and injustice and the countless host of the other passions and vices: or else in the sense of “worship,” because nature and the sacred laws have schooled them to worship the Self-existent who is better than the good, purer than the One and more primordial than the Monad.", "[3] Who among those who profess piety deserve to be compared with these?", "Can we compare those who revere the elements, earth, water, air, fire, which have received different names from different peoples who call fire Hephaestus because it is kindled (ἐξάπτω), air Hera because it is lifted up (αἴρω) and exalted on high, water Poseidon perhaps because it is drunk (ποτός), and earth Demeter because it appears to be the mother of all plants and animals?", "[4] Sophists have invented these names for the elements but the elements themselves are lifeless matter incapable of movement of itself and laid by the Artificer as a substratum for every kind of shape and quality.", "[5] What of the worshippers of the bodies framed from the elements, sun, moon or the other stars fixed or wandering, or the whole heaven and universe? But these too were not brought into being self-made, but through an architect of most perfect knowledge.", "[6] What of the worship of the demi-gods? Surely this is quite ridiculous. How could one and the same person be both mortal and immortal, to say nothing of the reproach attaching to the original source of their birth, tainted as it is with the licentiousness of wanton youth which they impiously dare to ascribe to the blissful and divine powers by supposing that the thrice blessed and exempt from every passion in their infatuation had intercourse with mortal women.", "[7] What of the worshippers of the different kinds of images? Their substance is wood and stone, till a short time ago completely shapeless, hewn away from their congenital structure by quarrymen and woodcutters while their brethren, pieces from the same original source, have become urns and foot-basins or some others of the less honourable vessels which serve the purposes of darkness rather than of light.", "[8] For as for the gods of the Egyptians it is hardly decent even to mention them. The Egyptians have promoted to divine honours irrational animals, not only of the tame sort but also beasts of the utmost savagery, drawn from each of the kinds found below the moon, from the creatures of the land the lion, from those of the water their indigenous crocodile, from the rangers of the air the hawk and the Egyptian ibis.", "[9] And though they see these creatures brought to their birth, requiring food, eating voraciously, full of ordure, venomous too and man-eating, the prey of every sort of disease, and perishing not only by a natural but often by a violent death, they render worship to them, they the civilized to the uncivilized and untamed, the reasonable to the irrational, the kinsfolk of the Godhead to ugliness unmatched even by a Thersites, the rulers and masters to the naturally subservient and slavish." ], [ "[10] These indeed, since they infect not only their own compatriots but the peoples in their neighbourhood with their folly, must remain incurable, for they have lost the use of the most vital of the senses, sight. And by this I do not mean the sight of the body but of the soul, the sight which alone gives a knowledge of truth and falsehood.", "[11] But it is well that the Therapeutae, a people always taught from the first to use their sight, should desire the vision of the Existent and soar above the sun of our senses and never leave their place in this company which carries them on to perfect happiness.", "[12] And those who set themselves to this service, not just following custom nor on the advice and admonition of others but carried away by a heaven-sent passion of love, remain rapt and possessed like bacchanals or corybants until they see the object of their yearning.", "[13] Then such is their longing for the deathless and blessed life that thinking their mortal life already ended they abandon their property to their sons or daughters or to other kinsfolk, thus voluntarily advancing the time of their inheritance, while those who have no kinsfolk give them to comrades and friends. For it was right that those who have received ready to their hand the wealth that has eyes to see should surrender the blind wealth to those who are still blind in mind.", "[14] The Greeks extol Anaxagoras and Democritus because smitten with the desire for philosophy they left their fields to be devoured by sheep. I too myself admire them for showing themselves superior to wealth, but how much better are these who did not let their estates serve as feeding-ground for cattle but made good the needs of men, their kinsfolk and friends, and so turned their indigence into affluence. Of the two actions the first was thoughtless, I might say mad, but that the persons concerned have the admiration of Greece, the second showed soberness and careful consideration and remarkable good sense.", "[15] What more does a hostile army do than cut the crops and hew the trees of their opponents’ country to force them to surrender through lack of necessaries? This is what a Democritus did to his own blood-relations, inflicting on them poverty and indigence artificially created, not perhaps with mischievous intent but through lack of foresight and consideration for the interest of the others.", "[16] How much better and more admirable are these who with no less ardour for the study of wisdom preferred magnanimity to negligence and gave away their possessions instead of wasting them, in this way benefiting both others and themselves, others through supplying them with abundant resources, themselves through furthering the study of philosophy? For taking care of wealth and possessions consumes time and to economize time is an excellent thing since according to the physician Hippocrates “life is short but art is long.”", "[17] The same idea is suggested I think by Homer in the Iliad at the beginning of the thirteenth book in the lines", "The Mysians fighting hand to hand, and noble Mare’s-milk-drinkers—
Nought else but milk sustains their life, these men of perfect justice.", "The idea conveyed is that injustice is bred by anxious thought for the means of life and for money-making, justice by holding and following the opposite creed. The first entails inequality, the second equality, the principle by which nature’s wealth is regulated and so stands superior to the wealth of vain opinion.", "[18] So when they have divested themselves of their possessions and have no longer aught to ensnare them they flee without a backward glance and leave their brothers, their children, their wives, their parents, the wide circle of their kinsfolk, the groups of friends around them, the fatherlands in which they were born and reared, since strong is the attraction of familiarity and very great its power to ensnare.", "[19] And they do not migrate into another city like the unfortunate or worthless slaves who demand to be sold by their owners and so procure a change of masters but not freedom. For every city, even the best governed, is full of turmoils and disturbances innumerable which no one could endure who has ever been even once under the guidance of wisdom.", "[20] Instead of this they pass their days outside the walls pursuing solitude in gardens or lonely bits of country, not from any acquired habit of misanthropical bitterness but because they know how unprofitable and mischievous are associations with persons of dissimilar character." ], [ "[21] This kind exists in many places in the inhabited world, for perfect goodness must needs be shared both by Greeks and the world outside Greece, but it abounds in Egypt in each of the nomes as they are called and especially round Alexandria.", "[22] But the best of these votaries journey from every side to settle in a certain very suitable place which they regard as their fatherland. This place is situated above the Mareotic Lake on a somewhat low-lying hill very happily placed both because of its security and the pleasantly tempered air.", "[23] The safety is secured by the farm buildings and villages round about and the pleasantness of the air by the continuous breezes which arise both from the lake which debouches into the sea and from the open sea hard by. For the sea breezes are light, the lake breezes close and the two combining together produce a most healthy condition of climate.", "[24] The houses of the society thus collected are exceedingly simple, providing protection against two of the most pressing dangers, the fiery heat of the sun and the icy cold of the air. They are neither near together as in towns, since living at close quarters is troublesome and displeasing to people who are seeking to satisfy their desire for solitude, nor yet at a great distance because of the sense of fellowship which they cherish, and to render help to each other if robbers attack them.", "[25] In each house there is a consecrated room which is called a sanctuary or closet and closeted in this they are initiated into the mysteries of the sanctified life. They take nothing into it, either drink or food or any other of the things necessary for the needs of the body, but laws and oracles delivered through the mouth of prophets, and psalms and anything else which fosters and perfects knowledge and piety.", "[26] They keep the memory of God alive and never forget it, so that even in their dreams the picture is nothing else but the loveliness of divine excellences and powers. Indeed many when asleep and dreaming give utterance to the glorious verities of their holy philosophy.", "[27] Twice every day they pray, at dawn and at eventide; at sunrise they pray for a fine bright day, fine and bright in the true sense of the heavenly daylight which they pray may fill their minds. At sunset they ask that the soul may be wholly relieved from the press of the senses and the objects of sense and sitting where she is consistory and council chamber to herself pursue the quest of truth.", "[28] The interval between early morning and evening is spent entirely in spiritual exercise. They read the Holy Scriptures and seek wisdom from their ancestral philosophy by taking it as an allegory, since they think that the words of the literal text are symbols of something whose hidden nature is revealed by studying the underlying meaning.", "[29] They have also writings of men of old, the founders of their way of thinking, who left many memorials of the form used in allegorical interpretation and these they take as a kind of archetype and imitate the method in which this principle is carried out. And so they do not confine themselves to contemplation but also compose hymns and psalms to God in all sorts of metres and melodies which they write down with the rhythms necessarily made more solemn.", "[30] For six days they seek wisdom by themselves in solitude in the closets mentioned above, never passing the outside door of the house or even getting a distant view of it. But every seventh day they meet together as for a general assembly and sit in order according to their age in the proper attitude, with their hands inside the robe, the right hand between the breast and the chin and the left withdrawn along the flank.", "[31] Then the senior among them who also has the fullest knowledge of the doctrines which they profess comes forward and with visage and voice alike quiet and composed gives a well-reasoned and wise discourse. He does not make an exhibition of clever rhetoric like the orators or sophists of to-day but follows careful examination by careful expression of the exact meaning of the thoughts, and this does not lodge just outside the ears of the audience but passes through the hearing into the soul and there stays securely. All the others sit still and listen showing their approval merely by their looks or nods.", "[32] This common sanctuary in which they meet every seventh day is a double enclosure, one portion set apart for the use of the men, the other for the women. For women too regularly make part of the audience with the same ardour and the same sense of their calling.", "[33] The wall between the two chambers rises up from the ground to three or four cubits built in the form of a breast work, while the space above up to the roof is left open. This arrangement serves two purposes; the modesty becoming to the female sex is preserved, while the women sitting within ear-shot can easily follow what is said since there is nothing to obstruct the voice of the speaker." ], [ "[34] They lay self-control to be as it were the foundation of their soul and on it build the other virtues. None of them would put food or drink to his lips before sunset since they hold that philosophy finds its right place in the light, the needs of the body in the darkness, and therefore they assign the day to the one and some small part of the night to the other. Some in whom the desire for studying wisdom is more deeply implanted even only after three days remember to take food.", "[35] Others so luxuriate and delight in the banquet of truths which wisdom richly and lavishly supplies that they hold out for twice that time and only after six days do they bring themselves to taste such sustenance as is absolutely necessary. They have become habituated to abstinence like the grasshoppers who are said to live on air because, I suppose, their singing makes their lack of food a light matter.", "[36] But to the seventh day as they consider it to be sacred and festal in the highest degree they have awarded special privileges as its due, and on it after providing for the soul refresh the body also, which they do as a matter of course with the cattle too by releasing them from their continuous labour.", "[37] Still they eat nothing costly, only common bread with salt for a relish flavoured further by the daintier with hyssop, and their drink is spring water. For as nature has set hunger and thirst as mistresses over mortal kind they propitiate them without using anything to curry favour but only such things as are actually needed and without which life cannot be maintained. Therefore they eat enough to keep from hunger and drink enough to keep from thirst but abhor surfeiting as a malignant enemy both to soul and body.", "[38] As for the two forms of shelter, clothes and housing, we have already said that the house is unembellished and a makeshift constructed for utility only. Their clothing likewise is the most inexpensive, enough to protect them against extreme cold and heat, a thick coat of shaggy skin in winter and in summer a vest or linen shirt.", "[39] For they practise an all-round simplicity knowing that its opposite, vanity, is the source of falsehood as simplicity is of truth, and that both play the part of a fountain head of other things, since from falsehood flow the manifold forms of evil and from truth abundant streams of goodness both human and divine." ], [ "[40] I wish also to speak of their common assemblages and the cheerfulness of their convivial meals as contrasted with those of other people. Some people when they have filled themselves with strong drink behave as though they had drunk not wine but some witch’s potion charged with frenzy and madness and anything more fatal that can be imagined to overthrow their reason. They bellow and rave like wild dogs, attack and bite each other and gnaw off noses, ears, fingers and some other parts of the body, so that they make good the story of the comrades of Odysseus and the Cyclops by eating “gobbets” of men, as the poet says, and with greater cruelty than the Cyclops.", "[41] For he avenged himself on men whom he suspected to be enemies, they on their familiars and friends and sometimes even on their kin over the salt and across the board, and as they pour the libation of peace they commit deeds of war like those of the gymnastic contests, counterfeiting the genuine coin of manly exercise, no wrestlers but wretches, for that is the right name to give them.", "[42] For what the athletes do in the arena while sober, in the daylight, with the eyes of all Greece upon them, in the hope of victory and the crown and in the exercise of their skill, are debased by the revellers who ply their activities in convivial gatherings by night and in darkness, drink-besotted, ignorant and skilful only for mischief to inflict dishonour, insult and grievous outrage on the objects of their assault.", "[43] And if no one plays the umpire and comes forward to intervene and separate them they carry on the bout with increased licence to the finish, ready both to kill and to be killed. For they suffer no less than what they mete to others though they know it not, so infatuated are these who shrink not from drinking wine, as the comic poet says, to mar not only their neighbours but themselves.", "[44] And so those who but now came to the party sound in body and friendly at heart leave soon afterwards in enmity and with bodily mutilation,—enmity in some cases calling for advocates and judges, mutilation in others requiring the apothecary and physician and the help that they can bring.", "[45] Others belonging to what we may suppose is the more moderate part of the company are in a state of overflow. Draughts of strong wine act upon them like mandragora, they throw the left elbow forward, turn the neck at a right angle, belch into the cups and sink into a profound sleep, seeing nothing and hearing nothing, having apparently only one sense and that the most slavish, taste.", "[46] I know of some who when they are half-seas-over and before they have completely gone under arrange donations and subscriptions in preparation for to-morrow’s bout, considering that one factor in their present exhilaration is the hope of future intoxication.", "[47] In this way they spend their whole life ever hearthless and homeless, enemies to their parents, their wives and their children, enemies too to their country and at war with themselves. For a loose and a dissolute life is a menace to all." ], [ "[48] Some perhaps may approve the method of banqueting now prevalent everywhere through hankering for the Italian expensiveness and luxury emulated both by Greek and non-Greeks who make their arrangements for ostentation rather than festivity.", "[49] Sets of three or many couches made of tortoise shell or ivory or even more valuable material, most of them inlaid with precious stones; coverlets purple-dyed with gold interwoven, others brocaded with flower patterns of all sorts of colours to allure the eye; a host of drinking cups set out in their several kinds, beakers, stoops, tankards, other goblets of many shapes, very artistically and elaborately chased by scientific craftsmen.", "[50] For waiting there are slaves of the utmost comeliness and beauty, giving the idea that they have come not so much to render service as to give pleasure to the eyes of the beholders by appearing on the scene. Some of them who are still boys pour the wine, while the water is carried by full-grown lads fresh from the bath and smooth shaven, with their faces smeared with cosmetics and paint under the eyelids and the hair of the head prettily plaited and tightly bound.", "[51] For they have long thick hair which is not cut at all or else the forelocks only are cut at the tips to make them level and take exactly the figure of a circular line. They wear tunics fine as cobwebs and of dazzling white girt high up; the front part hangs below the under knee, the back part a little below the back of the knee and they draw together each part with curly bows of ribbon along the line of join of the tunics and then let the folds dangle down obliquely, broadening out the hollows along the sides.", "[52] In the background are others, grown lads newly bearded with the down just blooming on their cheeks, recently pets of the pederasts, elaborately dressed up for the heavier services, a proof of the opulence of the hosts as those who employ them know, but in reality of their bad taste.", "[53] Besides there are the varieties of baked meats, savoury dishes and seasonings produced by the labour of cooks and confectioners who are careful to please not merely the taste as they are bound to do but also the sight by the elegance of the viands. (The assembled guests) turn their necks round and round, greedily eyeing the richness and abundance of the meat and nosing the steamy odour which arises from it. When they have had their fill of both seeing and smelling they give the word to fall to with many a compliment to the entertainment and the munificence of the entertainer.", "[54] Seven tables at the least and even more are brought in covered with the flesh of every creature that land, sea and rivers or air produce, beast, fish or bird, all choice and in fine condition, each table differing in the dishes served and the method of seasoning. And, that nothing to be found in nature should be unrepresented, the last tables brought in are loaded with fruits, not including those reserved for the drinking bouts and the after-dinners as they call them.", "[55] Then while some tables are taken out emptied by the gluttony of the company who gorge themselves like cormorants, so voraciously that they nibble even at the bones, other tables have their dishes mangled and torn and left half eaten. And when they are quite exhausted, their bellies crammed up to the gullets, but their lust still ravenous, impotent for eating (they turn to the drink).", "[56] But why dilate on these doings which are now condemned by many of the more sober minded as giving further vent to the lusts which might profitably be curtailed? For one may well pray for what men most pray to escape, hunger and thirst, rather than for the lavish profusion of food and drink found in festivities of this kind." ], [ "[57] Among the banquets held in Greece there are two celebrated and highly notable examples, namely those in which Socrates took part, one held in the house of Callias and given by him in honour of the victory in which Autolycus won the crown, the other in the house of Agathon. That these deserve to be remembered was the judgement of men whose character and discourses showed them to be philosophers, Xenophon and Plato, who described them as worthy to be recorded, surmising that they would serve to posterity as models of the happily conducted banquet.", "[58] Yet even these if compared with those of our people who embrace the contemplative life will appear as matters for derision. Pleasure is an element in both, but Xenophon’s banquet is more concerned with ordinary humanity. There are flute girls, dancers, jugglers, fun-makers, proud of their gift of jesting and facetiousness, and other accompaniments of more unrestrained merrymaking.", "[59] In Plato’s banquet the talk is almost entirely concerned with love, not merely with the love-sickness of men for women, or women for men, passions recognized by the laws of nature, but of men for other males differing from them only in age. For, if we find some clever subtlety dealing apparently with the heavenly Love and Aphrodite, it is brought in to give a touch of humour.", "[60] The chief part is taken up by the common vulgar love which robs men of the courage which is the virtue most valuable for the life both of peace and war, sets up the disease of effeminacy in their souls and turns into a hybrid of man and woman those who should have been disciplined in all the practices which make for valour.", "[61] And having wrought havoc with the years of boyhood and reduced the boy to the grade and condition of a girl besieged by a lover it inflicts damage on the lovers also in three most essential respects, their bodies, their souls and their property. For the mind of the lover is necessarily set towards his darling and its sight is keen for him only, blind to all other interests, private and public; his body wastes away through desire, particularly if his suit is unsuccessful, while his property is diminished by two causes, neglect and expenditure on his beloved.", "[62] As a side growth we have another greater evil of national importance. Cities are desolated, the best kind of men become scarce, sterility and childlessness ensue through the devices of these who imitate men who have no knowledge of husbandry by sowing not in the deep soil of the lowland but in briny fields and stony and stubborn places, which not only give no possibility for anything to grow but even destroy the seed deposited within them.", "[63] I pass over the mythical stories of the double-bodied men who were originally brought by unifying forces into cohesion with each other and afterwards came asunder, as an assemblage of separate parts might do when the bond of union which brought them together was loosened. All these are seductive enough, calculated by the novelty of the notion to beguile the ear, but the disciples of Moses trained from their earliest years to love the truth regard them with supreme contempt and continue undeceived." ], [ "[64] But since the story of these well-known banquets is full of such follies and they stand self-convicted in the eyes of any who do not regard conventional opinions and the widely circulated report which declares them to have been all that they should be, I will describe in contrast the festal meetings of those who have dedicated their own life and themselves to knowledge and the contemplation of the verities of nature, following the truly sacred instructions of the prophet Moses.", "[65] First of all these people assemble after seven sets of seven days have passed, for they revere not only the simple seven but its square also, since they know its chastity and perpetual virginity. This is the eve of the chief feast which Fifty takes for its own, Fifty the most sacred of numbers and the most deeply rooted in nature, being formed from the square of the right-angled triangle which is the source from which the universe springs.", "[66] So then they assemble, white-robed and with faces in which cheerfulness is combined with the utmost seriousness, but before they recline, at a signal from a member of the Rota, which is the name commonly given to those who perform these services, they take their stand in a regular line in an orderly way, their eyes and hands lifted up to Heaven, eyes because they have been trained to fix their gaze on things worthy of contemplation, hands in token that they are clean from gain-taking and not defiled through any cause of the profit-making kind. So standing they pray to God that their feasting may be acceptable and proceed as He would have it.", "[67] After the prayers the seniors recline according to the order of their admission, since by senior they do not understand the aged and grey headed who are regarded as still mere children if they have only in late years come to love this rule of life, but those who from their earliest years have grown to manhood and spent their prime in pursuing the contemplative branch of philosophy, which indeed is the noblest and most god-like part.", "[68] The feast is shared by women also, most of them aged virgins, who have kept their chastity not under compulsion, like some of the Greek priestesses, but of their own free will in their ardent yearning for wisdom. Eager to have her for their life mate they have spurned the pleasures of the body and desire no mortal offspring but those immortal children which only the soul that is dear to God can bring to the birth unaided because the Father has sown in her spiritual rays enabling her to behold the verities of wisdom." ], [ "[69] The order of reclining is so apportioned that the men sit by themselves on the right and the women by themselves on the left. Perhaps it may be thought that couches though not costly still of a softer kind would have been provided for people of good birth and high character and trained practice in philosophy. Actually they are plank beds of the common kinds of wood, covered with quite cheap strewings of native papyrus, raised slightly at the arms to give something to lean on. For while they mitigate somewhat the harsh austerity of Sparta, they always and everywhere practise a frugal contentment worthy of the free, and oppose with might and main the love-lures of pleasure.", "[70] They do not have slaves to wait upon them as they consider that the ownership of servants is entirely against nature. For nature has borne all men to be free, but the wrongful and covetous acts of some who pursued that source of evil, inequality, have imposed their yoke and invested the stronger with power over the weaker.", "[71] In this sacred banquet there is as I have said no slave, but the services are rendered by free men who perform their tasks as attendants not under compulsion nor yet waiting for orders, but with deliberate goodwill anticipating eagerly and zealously the demands that may be made.", "[72] For it is not just any free men who are appointed for these offices but young members of the association chosen with all care for their special merit who as becomes their good character and nobility are pressing on to reach the summit of virtue. They give their services gladly and proudly like sons to their real fathers and mothers, judging them to be the parents of them all in common, in a closer affinity than that of blood, since to the right minded there is no closer tie than noble living. And they come in to do their office ungirt and with tunics hanging down, that in their appearance there may be no shadow of anything to suggest the slave.", "[73] In this banquet—I know that some will laugh at this, but only those whose actions call for tears and lamentation—no wine is brought during those days but only water of the brightest and clearest, cold for most of the guests but warm for such of the older men as live delicately. The table too is kept pure from the flesh of animals; the food laid on it is loaves of bread with salt as a seasoning, sometimes also flavoured with hyssop as a relish for the daintier appetites.", "[74] Abstinence from wine is enjoined by right reason as for the priest when sacrificing, so to these for their lifetime. For wine acts like a drug producing folly, and costly dishes stir up that most insatiable of animals, desire." ], [ "[75] Such are the preliminaries. But when the guests have laid themselves down arranged in rows, as I have described, and the attendants have taken their stand with everything in order ready for their ministry, the President of the company, when a general silence is established—here it may be asked when is there no silence—well at this point there is silence even more than before so that no one ventures to make a sound or breathe with more force than usual—amid this silence, I say, he discusses some question arising in the Holy Scriptures or solves one that has been propounded by someone else. In doing this he has no thought of making a display, for he has no ambition to get a reputation for clever oratory but desires to gain a closer insight into some particular matters and having gained it not to withhold it selfishly from those who if not so clear-sighted as he have at least a similar desire to learn.", "[76] His instruction proceeds in a leisurely manner; he lingers over it and spins it out with repetitions, thus permanently imprinting the thoughts in the souls of the hearers, since if the speaker goes on descanting with breathless rapidity the mind of the hearers is unable to follow his language, loses ground and fails to arrive at apprehension of what is said.", "[77] His audience listen with ears pricked up and eyes fixed on him always in exactly the same posture, signifying comprehension and understanding by nods and glances, praise of the speaker by the cheerful change of expression which steals over the face, difficulty by a gentler movement of the head and by pointing with a finger-tip of the right hand. The young men standing by show no less attentiveness than the occupants of the couches.", "[78] The exposition of the sacred scriptures treats the inner meaning conveyed in allegory. For to these people the whole law book seems to resemble a living creature with the literal ordinances for its body and for its soul the invisible mind laid up in its wording. It is in this mind especially that the rational soul begins to contemplate the things akin to itself and looking through the words as through a mirror beholds the marvellous beauties of the concepts, unfolds and removes the symbolic coverings and brings forth the thoughts and sets them bare to the light of day for those who need but a little reminding to enable them to discern the inward and hidden through the outward and visible.", "[79] When then the President thinks he has discoursed enough and both sides feel sure that they have attained their object, the speaker in the effectiveness with which his discourse has carried out his aims, the audience in the substance of what they have heard, universal applause arises showing a general pleasure in the prospect of what is still to follow.", "[80] Then the President rises and sings a hymn composed as an address to God, either a new one of his own composition or an old one by poets of an earlier day who have left behind them hymns in many measures and melodies, hexameters and iambics, lyrics suitable for processions or in libations and at the altars, or for the chorus whilst standing or dancing, with careful metrical arrangements to fit the various evolutions. After him all the others take their turn as they are arranged and in the proper order while all the rest listen in complete silence except when they have to chant the closing lines or refrains, for then they all lift up their voices, men and women alike.", "[81] When everyone has finished his hymn the young men bring in the tables mentioned a little above on which is set the truly purified meal of leavened bread seasoned with salt mixed with hyssop, out of reverence for the holy table enshrined in the sacred vestibule of the temple on which lie loaves and salt without condiments, the loaves unleavened and the salt unmixed.", "[82] For it was meet that the simplest and purest food should be assigned to the highest caste, namely the priests, as a reward for their ministry, and that the others while aspiring to similar privileges should abstain from seeking the same as they and allow their superiors to retain their precedence." ], [ "[83] After the supper they hold the sacred vigil which is conducted in the following way. They rise up all together and standing in the middle of the refectory form themselves first into two choirs, one of men and one of women, the leader and precentor chosen for each being the most honoured amongst them and also the most musical.", "[84] Then they sing hymns to God composed of many measures and set to many melodies, sometimes chanting together, sometimes taking up the harmony antiphonally, hands and feet keeping time in accompaniment, and rapt with enthusiasm reproduce sometimes the lyrics of the procession, sometimes of the halt and of the wheeling and counter-wheeling of a choric dance.", "[85] Then when each choir has separately done its own part in the feast, having drunk as in the Bacchic rites of the strong wine of God’s love they mix and both together become a single choir, a copy of the choir set up of old beside the Red Sea in honour of the wonders there wrought.", "[86] For at the command of God the sea became a source of salvation to one party and of perdition to the other. As it broke in twain and withdrew under the violence of the forces which swept it back there rose on either side, opposite to each other, the semblance of solid walls, while the space thus opened between them broadened into a highway smooth and dry throughout on which the people marched under guidance right on until they reached the higher ground on the opposite mainland. But when the sea came rushing in with the returning tide, and from either side passed over the ground where dry land had appeared the pursuing enemy were submerged and perished.", "[87] This wonderful sight and experience, an act transcending word and thought and hope, so filled with ecstasy both men and women that forming a single choir they sang hymns of thanksgiving to God their Saviour, the men led by the prophet Moses and the women by the prophetess Miriam.", "[88] It is on this model above all that the choir of the Therapeutae of either sex, note in response to note and voice to voice, the treble of the women blending with the bass of the men, create an harmonious concent, music in the truest sense. Lovely are the thoughts, lovely the words and worthy of reverence the choristers, and the end and aim of thoughts, words and choristers alike is piety.", "[89] Thus they continue till dawn, drunk with this drunkenness in which there is no shame, then not with heavy heads or drowsy eyes but more alert and wakeful than when they came to the banquet, they stand with their faces and whole body turned to the east and when they see the sun rising they stretch their hands up to heaven and pray for bright days and knowledge of the truth and the power of keen sighted thinking. And after the prayers they depart each to his private sanctuary once more to ply the trade and till the field of their wonted philosophy.", "[90] So much then for the Therapeutae, who have taken to their hearts the contemplation of nature and what it has to teach, and have lived in the soul alone, citizens of Heaven and the world, presented to the Father and Maker of all by their faithful sponsor Virtue, who has procured for them God’s friendship and added a gift going hand in hand with it, true excellence of life, a boon better than all good fortune and rising to the very summit of felicity." ] ], "Appendix": [ "APPENDIX TO DE VITA CONTEMPLATIVA", "(Title and sub-title.) The main title as here printed is that used by Eusebius himself, first when making his famous disquisition on the Therapeutae, Hist. Eccl. ii. 17, and again in his list of Philo’s writings in the next chapter. There can therefore be no doubt of its authenticity, but it is difficult to see why Philo substituted ἱκετῶν for θεραπευτῶν. It does not occur in the treatise itself and though as Conybeare shows there are many passages where ἱκεταί and θεραπευταί are coupled, they are not exactly the same and ἱκεταί does not suit the sense of healing which he gives as an alternative meaning for Therapeutae.", "As for the sub-title, the “fourth (part or book) of the virtues” has no authority from Eusebius but appears to be given in all the MSS. The title of Περὶ ἀρετῶν is given by Eus. ii. 18 to the treatise of which the Legatio as we have it is a part, and he says in ii. 5 that this had five books and in ii. 6 speaks of the sufferings of the Jews in Alexandria as being described in the second book. The sub-title, therefore, affirms that the De Vit. Cont. was the fourth book of this treatise. We may be sure at any rate that Eusebius had no idea of this. But this, being part of the wider question what the complete Περὶ ἀρετῶν consists of and what is the meaning of the title, may be postponed until the Legatio is translated.", "§ 2. προαίρεσις. This word occurs again five times in this treatise, §§ 17, 29, 32, 67, 79, and twice elsewhere in this volume, Quod Omn. Prob. 89 and Hyp. 11. 2. The uses in Philo, all springing from the sense of choice or purpose, may be divided into those which describe the purpose or motive of some particular action and those which indicate the motives and principles which regulate a lifetime or a career. To the first class belong §§ 29 and 79 as I understand the passage, and § 32 might be taken in the same way. In the other passages it is used in the second sense. In §§ 2, 17 and Hyp. 11. 2, where it is applied to the Therapeutae or the Essenes, it may be thought that it simply = the sect itself. So indeed Gifford translates it in the latter passage and L. & S. recognizes this use of the word. But it seems to me better in the Philonic passages to take it as the beliefs and principles held by the sects, thus including both a creed and a rule of life. The various attempts made in this volume to translate it, i.e. “persuasion,” “vocation,” “creed” and “rule of life,” are none of them, perhaps, quite adequate.", "§ 3. (Hephaestus and Poseidon.) So Cornutus (§ 19) says of Hephaestus ἐκ τοῦ ἧφθαι ὠνομασμένος. In the same chapter he, like Philo in De Dec. 54, identifies Ἥρα with ἀήρ, but does not suggest a common derivation. For Poseidon cf. Corn. 4, where he identifies him with ἡ ἀπεργαστικὴ τοῦ ἐν τῇ γῇ καὶ περὶ τὴν γῆν ὑγροῦ δύναμις and adds εἴτʼ ἀπὸ τῆς πόσεως οὕτω κέκληται. This is followed by two alternative suggestions, cf. Philo’s τάχα.", "§ 17. ῥαψῳδίας. Conybeare, scolding Lucius, who saw in this reference to the thirteenth rhapsody the mark of later authorship, says that the division into rhapsodies was the work of Zenodotus and Aristarchus, 250 years before Philo. He does not give his authority for this. As to the use of the word in this sense the lexica do not give any certain evidence. L. & S. (old and revised) gives “portions of an epic poem fit for recitation, etc., e.g. a book of the Iliad or Odyssey, Plut. 2, 186 E, Lucian, D. Mort. 20. 2 and Cont. 9.” In this they are really repeating Stephanus. In the first of the Lucian passages the greater Homeric personalities when in Hades are described as τὰ κεφάλαια τῶν ῥαψῳδιῶν. In the second Homer in Charon’s boat was sea-sick and vomits his rhapsodies. Plutarch is more definite. Alcibiades asks the teacher for a rhapsody of Homer and when the teacher says he has no Homer gives him a box on the ears. In the Life of Alcibiades 7 Plutarch repeats this story, substituting βίβλιον for ῥαψῳδίαν. It is both curious and regrettable that this passage of Philo which so definitely establishes the use of the word for the Homeric books as we have them has not found its way into the lexicon.", "§ 25. μοναστήριον. On this word Conybeare states that it does not exist elsewhere in any Greek document until the end of the third century, when it has acquired the sense of a building or establishment for a single monk or hermit (for which he gives references from Athanasius and other patristic writers) or for several monks together. The statement that it does not occur earlier is confirmed by L. & S. revised, which, apparently ignoring the patristic use, quotes this passage but nothing else earlier than the sixth century. It translates it here by “hermit’s cell,” which does not seem to me a happy phrase. It indicates simply a room in a house, into which no one else is allowed to enter. The familiar “closet” of Matt. 6:6, though the R.V. has replaced it by “inner chamber,” seems to me to carry the same idea.", "Ibid. (End of section.) τὰ ἄλλα presumably refers to writings of some kind. But the words may refer to the συγγράμματα mentioned in § 29, or to the other books of scripture besides those indicated above. So Wendland, who quotes the Canon given by Josephus, Ant. i. 8, i.e. the Law, the Prophets (including the historical books), and the four books of the psalms and precepts of human life, i.e. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Cantica. If Philo means this, τὰ ἄλλα will be the last three. But unless other evidence is forthcoming this seems very conjectural.", "§ 36. λιπαίνουσιν. Wendland, like Conybeare, takes this word to mean “anoint” in the literal sense. He does not translate the passage, but as he thinks that τὰ θρέμματα is figuratively used and cites several passages where Philo uses the word to represent the senses or body as cattle under the guidance of the shepherd, the mind, he presumably would translate it “releasing as it were the animal side from its labours.” He also takes the passage to be a reminiscence of Plato, Menexenus 238 A, where oil is spoken of as πόνων ἀρωγήν, cf. De Aet. 63. With all due deference to two such high authorities, I still hold to the interpretation given in the translation that the relaxation of abstinence on the sabbath is to the Therapeutae what release from labour is to the beasts of burden. The Therapeutae have not endured the labour for which oil is a relief nor is λιπαίνω the natural word for anointing. Wendland certainly makes a point when he remarks that the indicative ἀνίασι would be expected rather than the participle. But the construction may, I think, be explained quite easily by understanding λιπαίνουσι. When he asks if they only eat bread and salt on the sabbath, what did they do on the other days, the natural answer is that on the sabbath they did not fast for the whole day or even until sunset. It is, I think, worth noting that according to Josephus, B.J. ii. 8. 3, the Essenes abstained altogether from the use of oil. Though it is not a decisive point it is a little surprising to find the Therapeutae making a sabbatical luxury of the indulgence which the less ascetic Essenes refuse.", "§ 49. τρίκλινα. “Sets of three couches” is one of the meanings given in L. & S. revised for τρίκλινος (the more usual form) and τρίκλινον which appears to be found occasionally. Conybeare gives “couches for three to recline upon.” Whatever the exact meaning is the point is, as he says, that they are large articles of furniture and therefore it shows extravagance to make them of very expensive material.", "§ 58. (Xenophon’s Symposium.) Philo’s description of this is very superficial. The amusements mentioned chiefly appear at the beginning and end of the banquet and he does no justice to the mixture of banter and seriousness (ἀναμὶξ ἔσκωψάν τε καὶ ἐσπούδασαν) which characterizes most of the talk, nor to the real seriousness in Socrates’ longer speech, while, on the other hand, he ignores the fact that the acceptance of the feature in Greek sentiment so strongly denounced in §§ 60–62 is as prominent here as in Plato’s Symposium.", "§ 59. (Plato’s Symposium.) Philo’s criticisms of this are not very creditable to him. In the first place his equating πάνδημος ἔρως with παιδεραστία is entirely wrong. The essence of πάνδημος ἔρως as represented in Pausanias’s speech, where the phrase principally appears, is that it is περὶ σώματος. It is concerned with women as much as with boys (181 B) and the passion of a male for a younger male plays a greater part in οὐράνιος ἔρως. But more important than this is the error of dismissing the οὐράνιος ἔρως as merely a secondary adjunct brought in to give a touch of humour or wit. Such a description indeed would be appropriate to Aristophanes’ fable of the original third sex which Philo takes so seriously in § 63, but it does not apply to the rest, and much of the picture ascribed by Socrates to Diotima is very much after Philo’s heart. Indeed, he himself uses the word ἔρως in the same idealistic way, e.g. De Ebr. 136.", "Philo, of course, is not the only person who has been shocked by the acceptance in some parts of the Symposium of παιδεραστία as a normal feeling and still more by the apparent callousness of Socrates as described by Alcibiades in the last part. It was perhaps with reference mainly to this that Athenaeus xi. 506 c declares that what Plato says about Alcibiades in the Symposium is not fit for repetition οὐδʼ εἰς φῶς ἄξιον λέγεσθαι, and that, as every Cambridge student learnt in an earlier generation, Paley in the Evidences, part ii. 2, says that Socrates himself was more than suspected of the foulest impurities. Philo makes very little use of the Symposium himself. The only definite reminiscence listed by Leisegang is that noted on p. 232 of this volume, though perhaps the thought of the preference of the Therapeutae for the immortal rather than mortal children in De Vit. Cont. 68 may have in mind Symp. 209.", "§ 65. διʼ ἑπτὰ ἑβδομάδων. Wendland rejects Conybeare’s view almost entirely on the ground that the word cannot yield this sense. He is wrong, I believe, in saying that the words in themselves cannot mean “after seven weeks.” διά in this sense indicates the interval between two events, but whether this interval occurs only once or recurs regularly depends on the context. Here, as stated in the footnote, since weekly sabbaths have been mentioned, “every seven weeks” is the natural meaning. But admitting that Philo has expressed himself carelessly if he means seven weeks after the Passover, is it likely that the Therapeutae, who appear to have been orthodox Jews, discarded the religious calendar of Moses and arranged a new system of festal days which one would have thought would have been difficult in itself? For since periods of fifty days do not fit into the year, this great feast would recur seven times in one year and eight times in another and in different months from year to year.", "Wendland does not notice μεγίστης ἑορτῆς, which is not without its difficulties on Conybeare’s hypothesis but much more perplexing on his. In what sense is every fiftieth day which follows the Symposium on the forty-ninth called the greatest feast and what happened on it? Nor does he notice τὸ μὲν πρῶτον. Conybeare understood this to mean that they first meet on the eve for the banquet, the religious meeting on the day itself for worship being taken for granted. By translating it “first of all” I suggest that he does not rule out other cheerful convivial meals but takes this as the most notable, cf. § 40.", "Ibid. The chief feast. Conybeare, p. 313, gives the following as reasons why Philo describes the Pentecostal meal in preference to the Paschal. The Passover was a domestic feast celebrated more austerely than Pentecost, which was also a day prescribed by the Law for rejoicing; also it occurred in a season more suited to remaining all night in the open air. These are perhaps satisfactory reasons for his selection of the feast for description, but not for his calling it the greatest feast, and Conybeare is mistaken when he says, p. 300, that Philo uniformly refers to Pentecost as the greatest of the feasts. Philo I think only mentions Pentecost three times, De Dec. 160, Spec. Leg. i. 183, ii. 176 ff. In the third of these he remarks that it is a greater feast than the Sheaf which he has just described. In the second he calls it δημοτελεστάτη, i.e. especially national or generally celebrated, while in the first he speaks of the Passover and Tabernacles as the greatest feasts. However this inconsistency is not greater than many of those to be found in Philo’s writings.", "§ 67. (Genuineness of ἀλλʼ ἔτι κομιδῇ νέους παῖδας.) In Hermes, 1916, p. 179, Cohn gives as an additional reason for expunging these words that they make no sense, and that not they but ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἐκ πρώτης … φιλοσοφίας are the antithesis to τοὺς πολυετεῖς καὶ πολιούς. This last is true, but the sentence contains another antithesis, viz. πρεσβυτέρους and νέους παῖδας. This may be awkward, but is perfectly intelligible. Conybeare says “Armenio plane desunt, non tamen omittenda esse videntur.”", "§ 78. Reminding. I think this should be taken as an allusion to the Platonic doctrine that learning is recollection (Meno 81). The knowledge is latent in the mind and the teacher only brings it into consciousness, cf. De Praem. 9.", "Conybeare discussing this thinks that the employment of ὑπόμνησις instead of ἀνάμνησις is against it. But surely if learning is recollection, teaching is reminding. He considers that Spec. Leg. iv. 107 is still more against it, but this seems to me irrelevant. There Philo says that, when the lesson is over, the pupil, by chewing the cud, i.e. by using his memory to call up what the teacher has told him, stamps a firm impression of them on his mind.", "§ 80. (The hymns.) That the Jewish churches in the Hellenistic world should have hymns and that they should be composed in metres familiar to Greeks is perfectly natural, and I presume it was knowledge of such hymns that led Josephus to make the fanciful statement (Ant. vii. 12. 3) that David arranged the Psalms, some in trimeters and others in pentameters, and also that Moses composed both his longer and shorter hymns in hexameters (ii. 16. 4, iv. 8. 44), but I have seen no illustration of this statement of Philo which seems curiously elaborate, particularly its enumeration of Greek metres. Among these προσοδίων (or, at least the variant προσοδιακῶν) and στασίμων are recognized metrical terms. But παραβωμίων and παρασπονδείων are not cited elsewhere, at least as applied to hymns or lyrics, and χορικῶν appears to be a general term for any choral hymn." ] }, "versions": [ [ "Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1941", "https://www.nli.org.il/en/books/NNL_ALEPH001216057/NLI" ] ], "heTitle": "על חיי העיון", "categories": [ "Second Temple", "Philo" ], "schema": { "heTitle": "על חיי העיון", "enTitle": "On the Contemplative Life or Suppliants", "key": "On the Contemplative Life or Suppliants", "nodes": [ { "heTitle": "הקדמה", "enTitle": "Introduction" }, { "heTitle": "", "enTitle": "" }, { "heTitle": "הערות", "enTitle": "Appendix" } ] } }