Plotinos · Plotinus
XXII. THE APOLLONIAN ORACLE ABOUT PLOTINOS.
(But when I have a long oracle of Apollo to quote, why should I delay over a letter of Longinus's, or, in the words of the proverb, quoted in Iliad xxii. 126 and Hesiod Theogony 35), "Why should I dally near the oak-trees, or the rock?" If the testimony of the wise is to be adduced, who is wiser than Apollo, a deity who said of himself, "I know the number of the grains of sand, and the extent of the ocean; I understand the dust, and I hear him who does not speak!" This was the divinity who had said that Socrates was the wisest of men; and on being consulted by Amelius to discover what had become of the soul of Plotinos, said: "Let me sing an immortal hymn to my dear friend! Drawing my golden bow, I will elicit melodious sounds from my lyre. I also invoke the symphonic voice of the choir of Muses, Whose harmonious power raises exultant paeans, As they once sang in chorus in praise of Achilles, A Homeric song in divine inspiration. Sacred choir of Muses, let us together celebrate this man, For long-haired Apollo is among you! "O Deity, who formerly wert a man, but now approachest The divine host of guardian spirits, delivered from the narrowing bonds of necessity That enchains man (while in the body), and from the tumult caused by the Confusing whirlwind of the passions of the body, Sustained by the vigor of thy mind, thou hastenest to swim (And like the sage Ulysses in Phaeacia), to land on a shore not submerged by the waves, With vigorous stroke, far from the impious crowds.
Persistently following the straightening path of the purified soul, Where the splendor of the divinity surrounds you, the home of justice, Far from contamination, in the holy sanctuary of initiation, When in the past you struggled to escape the bitter waves,[26] When blood-stained life eddied around you with repulsive currents, In the midst of the waters dazed by frightening tumult, Even then the divinities often showed you your end;[27] And often, when your spirit was about to stray from the right path, The immortals beckoned you back to the real end; the eternal path, Enlightening your eyes with radiant beams in the midst of gloomy darkness. No deep slumber closed your eyelids, and when shaken by the eddies (of matter), You sought to withdraw your eyes from the night that pressed down upon them; You beheld beauties hidden from any who devote themselves to the study of wisdom. "Now that you have discarded your cloak of mortality, and ascended Climbing out from the tombs of your angelic soul, You have entered the choir of divinities, where breathes a gentle zephyr. There dwell friendship, and delightful desire, ever accompanied by pure joy; There may one quench one's thirst with divine ambrosia; There bound by the ties of love, one breathes a gentle air, under a tranquil sky.
There dwell the sons of Jupiter, who lived in the golden age; The brothers Minos and Rhadamanthus, the just Aeacus, The divine Plato, the virtuous Pythagoras, And all those who formed the band of immortal love, And who by birth belong to the most blessed of divinities. Their soul tastes continual joy amidst perpetual feasts! And you, blessed man, after having fought many a valiant fight, In the midst of chaste angels, you have achieved eternal Felicity. "Here, O Muses, let us close this hymn in honor of Plotinos; Cease the mazes of the dancing of the graceful choir; This is what my golden lyre had to say of this eternally blessed man!" XXIII. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PLOTINOS; THE ECSTATIC TRANCES. This oracle (pieced out of numerous quotations) says (in some now lost lines, perhaps) that Plotinos was kindly, affable, indulgent, gentle, such as, indeed we knew him in personal intercourse. It also mentions that this philosopher slept little, that his soul was pure, ever aspiring to the divinity that he loved whole-heartedly, and that he did his utmost to liberate himself (from terrestrial domination) "to escape the bitter waves of this cruel life." That is how this divine man, who by his thoughts often aspired to the first (principle), to the divinity superior (to intelligence), climbing the degrees indicated by Plato (in his Banquet), beheld the vision of the formless divinity, which is not merely an idea, being founded on intelligence and the whole intelligible world. I, myself, had the blessed privilege of approaching this divinity, uniting myself to him, when I was about sixty-eight years of age.
That is how "the goal (that Plotinos sought to achieve) seemed to him located near him." Indeed, his goal, his purpose, his end was to approach the supreme divinity, and to unite himself with the divinity. While I dwelt with him, he had four times the bliss of reaching that goal, not merely potentially, but by a real and unspeakable experience. The oracle adds that the divinities frequently restored Plotinos to the right path when he strayed from it, "enlightening his eyes by radiant splendor." That is why it may truthfully be said that Plotinos composed his works while in contemplation of the divinities, and enjoying that vision. "Thanks to this sight that your 'vigilant' eyes had of both interior and exterior things, you have," in the words of the oracle, "gazed at many beauties that would hardly be granted to many of those who study philosophy." Indeed, the contemplation of men may be superior to human contemplation; but, compared to divine knowledge, if it be of any value whatever, it, nevertheless, could not penetrate the depths reached by the glances of the divinities. Till here the oracle had limited itself to indicating what Plotinos had accomplished while enclosed in the vesture of the body. It then proceeds to say that he arrived at the assembly of the divinities where dwell friendship, delightful desire, joy, and love communing with the divinity, where the sons of God, Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus are established as the judges of souls. Plotinos joined them, not to be judged, but to enjoy their intimacy, as did the higher divinities. There indeed dwell Plato, Pythagoras, and the other sages who formed the choir of immortal love. Reunited with their families, the blessed angels spend their life "in continued festivals and joys," enjoying the perpetual beatitude granted them by divine goodness.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.