Intimations of Christianity Among The Greeks

Simone Weil

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000160222
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This book is a collection of Simone Weil's writings, which reflect her intellectual and spiritual concerns, on Greek thought. It discusses how precursors to Christian religious ideas can be found in ancient Greek mythology, literature and philosophy.

XI THE PYTHAGOREAN DOCTRINE¹

¹ From Let Intuitions Prichritiennts, pages 108-171.

PYTHAGOREAN THOUGHT is for us the great mystery of Greek civilization. It recurs everywhere, again and again. It impregnates almost all the poetry, almost all the philosophy—and especially Plato, whom Aristotle regarded as a pure Pythagorean. The music, the architecture, the sculpture, all the sciences of ancient Greece proceeded from it; so did arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, mechanics and biology—that science which is fundamentally the same as ours today. Plato's political thought (in its most authentic form, which means as it is formulated in the dialogue the Statesman) also derives from the Pythagorean doctrine. It embraced almost all secular life. There was then, between the different parts of secular life, and between the secular life as a whole and the supernatural world, as much unity as today there is separation.

The roots of Pythagorean thought extend far into the past. In expounding the concept which is at the centre of that doctrine, Plato evokes a very ancient revelation, which is perhaps the primal one (Philebus). Herodotus says that the Pythagoreans borrowed a large part at least of their beliefs from Egypt. Another ancient historian, Diodorus Siculus, I believe, points to the analogies between Pythagorean thought and Druidic thought, which, according to Diogenes Laertius, was considered by certain people as one of the sources of Greek philosophy. This, be it said in passing, obliges one to regard the Druidic religion as of Iberian origin, just as the metaphysical and religious part of Greek civilization comes from the Pelasgians.

(In parenthesis, Iberians, Pelasgians—that is to say, Aegean-Cretans—Trojans and those assimilated with them, Phoenicians, Sumerians, Egyptians, seem before historic times to have formed around the Mediterranean a homogeneous civilization impregnated by a supernatural and pure spirituality. Most of these peoples are named in the Bible among the descendants of Ham. The Hellenes, according to the testimony of Greek writers, arrived in Greece ignorant of all spirituality; one may perhaps draw from that a valuable conclusion for the mass of Indo-Europeans. The Bible shows that there was very little spirituality in Israel until the Exile. Among the Indo-European peoples, whom one generally associates with Japhet, and those whom the Bible regards as Semites, there are two kinds. Certain of these learned from the peoples they conquered and thus assimilated the spirituality of their captives. Such were the Celts, the Greeks, the Babylonians. Others remained obstinately deaf. Such were the Romans, probably the Assyrians and the Hebrews, at least until the Exile. If, with these thoughts in mind one re-reads the episode of Noah's three sons, it appears that Noah, who was a pure being, righteous and perfect, had a mystic intoxication accompanied by nakedness in the mystical sense. It appears that Noah had a revelation in which Ham shared and in which his two other sons refused to share. The curse which fell upon the descendants of Ham would then be what is, in this world, the lot of those who are too pure. The Hebrews would have arranged the story in a way to justify the massacre of the Canaanites. But Ezekiel expressly compares Egypt to the tree of life of the earthly Paradise, and Phoenicia, at least at the beginning of his story, to the cherub standing by the tree. If this view of the matter is correct, a current of perfectly pure spirituality would have flowed across Antiquity from prehistoric Egypt to Christianity. This current flowed through Pythagorism. (Notice that there is indeed a revelation connected with Noah, for the Bible says that God formed a covenant with humanity in the person of Noah, a covenant whose sign is the rainbow. There can be no covenant between God and man without revelation. Deucalion, the Greek Noah, is the son of Prometheus, to whom Aeschylus and Plato attribute a revelation.)

Today the depth of Pythagorean thought cannot be perceived except by using a sort of intuition. And one cannot exercise such an intuition except from inside; that is to say, only if one has truly drawn spiritual life from the texts studied.

The fundamental texts are two or three fragments from Philolaus, a passage from the Gorgias, two from Philebus and one from Epinomis. There are also some formulas, or equations, transmitted by Aristotle or Diogenes Laertius. To all that, a formula of Anaximander should be joined, although it is not Pythagorean. And one should, as far as possible, bear in mind the totality of Greek civilization.

Here are the texts:

Philolaus¹

¹ Diels.

2 [B 47]. All realities are necessarily either limiting or unlimited, or else limiting and unlimited. Unlimited alone they cannot be, since it is manifest that realities proceed not only from what limits, nor only from what is unlimited. Clearly the order of the world and of things contained therein has been brought into harmony, starting from that which limits and from that which is unlimited.

3 [B 49]. From the beginning there would not even be anything susceptible of being known, if all were unlimited.

4 [B 58]. All that is known involves number. For without number nothing can be thought or known.

8 [B 150]. Unity is the principle of everything.

7 [B 91]. The first to be arranged, the one at the centre of the sphere, is named Hestia.

11 [B 139-160]. The essence of number and of harmony are totally untouched by the false, for that does not belong to them. Falsehood and envy belong to the nature of what is unlimited, unthinkable and without proportion.

The false never projects its spirit into number, for number is essentially hostile to the false. The truth belongs to the same family as number, truth is of the same root.

The essence of number is productive of understanding, a guide and a master for whoever is in perplexity or ignorance about anything. For there would be no clarity in things, either in themselves or in their mutual relations, if there were not number and its essence. Therefore number, fitting all things into the soul through sense perception, renders them comprehensible and mutually in accord, and gives them a body and separates by force each relationship of unlimited and limiting things.

6 [B 62]. The following concerns nature and harmony. What is the eternal essence of things, and nature in itself, can be known only by the divinity and not by man, or else man may know only this. Not even one of the realities could be known to us if there were not the basic essence of things, of which the order of the world is composed, some limiting, the others un-limited. Since the principles which uphold all are not alike, nor of the same root, it would be impossible that the order of the world should be based upon them if harmony were not brought in by some means. For things that are alike and of the same root have no need of harmony; those that are not alike, nor of the same root, nor of the same station, need to be locked together under key by a harmony capable of maintaining them in the world order.

10 [B 61]. Harmony is the unification of what was mixture. It is the common thought of what is separately thought. Cf. Proclus' (Euclid's commentary).

Plato teaches us many marvellous concepts concerning the divinity by means of mathematical ideas. And Pythagorean wisdom also makes use of mathematical ideas as a cloak to hide the mystical way of the divine doctrine. This is the case for all the 'Hieros Logos' and Philolaus in his Bacchantes and the whole teaching method of Pythagoras concerning the divinity.

Plato, Gorgias, 507d

Everyone should flee from licentiousness as fast as his feet can carry him ... and not give liberty to desires or try to satisfy them, a termless evil, a robber's existence! For whoever concedes to liis desires cannot be in close friendship either with another man or with God; for he is not capable of communion; and for whoever there is no communion, there is no friendship. And according to the sages, Callicles, it is communion which unites the heavens and the earth, the gods and men, in friendship, order, restraint, justice. Because of that, this universe has been named order (cosmos) and not disorder and licentiousness. But it seems to me that you do not give your attention to these things, although you are instructed. You have not observed how great a power geometrical equality is both among the gods and among men. You believe you should strive to acquire. This is because you do not pay attention to geometry.

Philebus

16b. No more beautiful way either does, or ever can, exist. I am perpetually in love with it, but often it escapes me and leaves me abandoned, not knowing what to do... . Herein is a gift of the gods to men, that at least is clear to me. And from whatever habitation of the gods it was tossed by a Prometheus, there came at the same time an illuminating fire; and the ancients who were better than we are, and lived nearer the gods, have transmitted this tradition to us. Here it is: that the realities called eternal derive from the one and the many, and carry, implanted within them, the determinate and the indeterminate. We should therefore, since this is the eternal order of things, seek to implant a unity in every kind of domain. We shall find it, for it is there. Once we have grasped this unity, we should examine duality, if that is present, or else trinity, or some other number. Then the same subdivisions must be made upon each one of the subordinate unities. Finally, what at the beginning appeared not only as one, and many, and unlimited at once, appears also with a definite number. One should not apply the idea of the indeterminate to the plurality until one has perfectly well seen the number of that plurality, that number which is the intermediary between the indeterminate and unity. Only then one should abandon the specific unity of all things and lose oneself in the indeterminate [infinite]. The gods then, as I was saying, have transmitted this method of research for our use in learning, and in teaching. The educated men of our time fix unity at random, and the plurality more quickly or more slowly than should be, and pass from the unity to things which are indeterminate; the intermediary escapes them.

26b. It is from this that the seasons and all that is beautiful are produced for us, from things which are indeterminate, and from that which includes limit, from the fact that there is admixture or exchange between them.

(Limit is 'the essence of the equal and of the double and of all that prevents contrary things from diverging among themselves, but brings them into proportion and accord by imprinting number [measure] upon them".)

3 Id. I say therefore that when harmony in living beings is dissolved among us, nature itself is at the same time undone and suffering appears. When harmony is restored with a return to the primitive state, joy appears, if in a few words, as briefly as possible, such great matters may be spoken of.

Epinomis, 990d

He who has learned this science (arithmetic) should then pass immediately to what is called by the ridiculous name of geometry. This is the assimilation of numbers which do not by nature resemble one another, an assimilation made manifest when referred to the properties of plane figures. That this marvel is not human but divine is clear to anyone who can think. Next the numbers that are cubed, corresponding to the properties of solids, and those which were not alike are made so by another art which, when it was discovered, was named stereometry. What is supernatural and miraculous for those who can contemplate and think is that, while power perpetually revolves around duplication, all of nature is marked by the form and the essence of the relationship of opposites, according to each proportion. First that of the numerical double, the relation of one to two, which is double. Then the proportion in respect of power, and that which is again double, going even to what is the solid and palpable, extending from one to eight. And in the relationship between one to two there are the means, the arithmetical mean, at equal distance from the least and the greatest, the harmonic mean, which exceeds the least and is surpassed by the greatest according to the same ratio—thus eight and nine between six and twelve. . . . between these two means, situated at equal distance from both, is found the ratio of which I speak, by which men have received a share in the knowledge of the agreement of voices and of proportion in the apprenticeship of rhythm and of harmony. This is a gift from the blessed choir of the Muses.

Timaeus, 31c

It is impossible that the disposition or arrangement of two of anything, so long as there are only two, should be beautiful without a third. There must be come between them, in the middle, a bond which brings them into union. The most beautiful of bonds is that which brings perfect unity to itself and the parts linked. It is geometrical proportion which, by essence, is the most beautiful for such achievement. For when of three numbers, or of three masses, or of any other quantity, the intermediary is to the last as the first is to the last, and reciprocally, the last to the intermediary, as the intermediary to the first, then the intermediary becomes first and last. Further, the last and the first become both intermediaries; thus it is necessary that all achieve identity; and, being identified mutually, they shall be one.

The Gospel according to St. John

xvii, II, 21, 22, 23. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are .. . That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. . . . And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: [ in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.

xvii, 18. As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

x, 14, 15. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father.

xv, 9, 10. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Symposium

202d. Love ... is a great 'daimon', and that which is 'daimon' is intermediary between God and man . . . being in the middle of the one and the other, it fills the distance in such a manner that the whole is bound together in itself.

210d. That he may see the beauty of the sciences . . . turning toward the vast sea of the beautiful.

Fragment of Anaximander of Miletus

Such is the point of departure of the birth of things and the term of their destruction which occur in conformity to necessity; for they suffer a chastisement and an expiation from each other because of their injustice, according to the order of the times.

The ancient historians of philosophy have transmitted Pythagorean formulae to us, some of them clear and marvellous, as this one which perhaps concerns carnal death, but which surely concerns detachment: μηδ' άπoδημov̂vτα ÉπlστρÉφEσθαl, 'that he who leaves his country does not return.' (Cf. Luke ix, 62: 'No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.') And again: 'Let the man who enters a temple adore, and not speak, nor be occupied with anything temporal.' 'He who follows the divinity is before all things master of his tongue.' (Cf. Epistle of St. James: 'look not at Thyself in a mirror beside a lamp.') This perhaps means not to think of oneself when one thinks of God; 'lack not faith for any marvel concerning the gods and divine dogma'; 'not to gnaw his heart'; 'what is most just is the sacrifice, what is most wise is number'. This has a strange ring: 'Break not the bread, for it is of no advantage in the judgment of the other world.'

Certain formulae are very obscure, as this one which Aristotle cites with disdain: ή δikαιoσv'vη ápiθμòs ìσákis iσos, justice is a number to the second power'. Or one cited by Diogenes Laertius: φiλíαv Èvαpμóviov ìσóτηα, 'friendship is an equality made of harmony'.

The key to these two equations, and many others cited above, is the idea of a mean proportional and of mediation in the theological sense, the first being the image of the second.

It is known that among the Pythagoreans one is the symbol of God. Several testimonies, among them Aristotle's, affirm this of Plato. Heraclitus also, who is very near to the Pythagoreans in many respects—contrary to common opinion—said: 'The One, that unique sage, wishes, and wishes not, to be named Zeus.'

The Pythagoreans considered all created things as having each a number as its symbol. It is of little importance here how they conceived this number and the link between that number and the thing.

Among these numbers, some have a particular bond with unity. These are the numbers which are of the second power or square. By a mediation there is between them and unity an equality of relations $\frac{1}{3}=\frac{3}{9}$.

When the son of God is in a reasonable creature, as the Father is in the Son, that creature is perfectly just. Plato says in the Theaetetus that justice is assimilation in God. Similarity, in the geometrical sense, means proportion. The mysterious equation of the Pythagoreans, and that of Plato which seems clear, have the same meaning. Whoever is just becomes to the Son of God is the Son is to His Father. Doubtless this identity of relations is lot literally possible. However, the perfection proposed to man ihould be something like that, for in many of St. John's precepts the same words are...