The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1

The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1

The cult of Phrygian Cybele the Mother of the Gods, known to the Latin world as the Great Mother, Magna Mater, was the first Oriental religion adopted by the Romans. In the Fifth Oration, which is, like the Fourth, a hymn, Julian describes the entrance of the Goddess into Italy in the third century b.c. In Greece she had been received long before, but the more civilised Hellenes had not welcomed, as did the Romans, the more barbarous features of the cult, the mutilated priests, the Galli, and the worship of Attis.783 They preferred the less emotional cult of the Syrian Adonis. In Athens the Mother of the Gods was early identified with Gaia the Earth Mother, and the two became inextricably confused.784 But Julian, in this more Roman than Greek, does not shrink from the Oriental conception of Cybele as the lover of Attis, attended by eunuch priests, or the frenzy of renunciation described by Catullus.785 But he was first of all a Neo-Platonist, and the aim of this hymn as of the Fourth Oration is to adapt to his philosophy a popular cult and to give its Mysteries a philosophic interpretation. The Mithraic religion, seeking to conciliate the other cults of the empire, had from the first associated with the sun-god the worship of the Magna Mater, and Attis had been endowed with the attributes of Mithras. Though Julian's hymn is in honour of Cybele he devotes more attention to Attis. Originally the myth of Cybele symbolises the succession of the seasons; the disappearance of Attis the sun-god is the coming of winter; his mutilation is the barrenness of nature when the sun has departed; his restoration to Cybele is the renewal of spring. In all this he is the counterpart of Persephone among the Greeks and of Adonis in Syria. Julian interprets the myth in connection with the three worlds described in the Fourth Oration. Cybele is a principle of the highest, the intelligible world, the source of the intellectual gods. Attis is not merely a sun-god: he is a principle of the second, the intellectual world, who descends to the visible world in order to give it order and fruitfulness. Julian expresses the Neo-Platonic dread and dislike of matter, of the variable, the plural and unlimited. Cybele the intelligible principle would fain have restrained Attis the embodiment of intelligence from association with matter. His recall and mutilation symbolise the triumph of unity over multiformity, of mind over matter. His restoration to Cybele symbolises the escape of our souls from the world of generation. Julian follows Plotinus786 in regarding the myths as allegories to be interpreted by the philosopher and [pg 441] the theosophist. They are riddles to be solved, and the paradoxical element in them is designed to turn our minds to the hidden truth. For laymen the myth is enough. Like all the Neo-Platonists he sometimes uses phrases which imply human weakness or chronological development for his divinities and then withdraws those phrases, explaining that they must be taken in another sense. His attitude to myths is further defined in the Sixth787 and Seventh Orations. The Fifth Oration can hardly be understood apart from the Fourth, and both must present many difficulties to a reader who is unfamiliar with Plotinus, Porphyry, the treatise On the Mysteries, formerly attributed to Iamblichus, Sallust, On the Gods and the World, and the extant treatises and fragments of Iamblichus. Julian composed this treatise at Pessinus in Phrygia, when he was on his way to Persia, in 362 a.d. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 48664
Author: Julian, Emperor of Rome
Release Date: Apr 7, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Wright, Wilmer Cave, 1868-1951