INTRODUCTION TO THE ORACLES.

THE bulk of the Oracles of Zoroaster has been collected from the writings of the following philosophers: viz. Plotinus, Amelius, Olympius, Porphyrius, Jamblichus, Syrianus, Proclus, Diogenes, Hermias, Eulalius, Priscianus, Damascius, Isidorus, and Simplicius. A few of them were first published by Ludovicus Tiletanus at Paris, with the commentaries of Pletho, to which were subsequently added those of Psellus; but the chief part were collected by Franciscus Patricius, and published with the Hermetic books at the end of his Nova Philosophia. To the labours of Mr. Taylor we are indebted for the addition of about fifty more, and for the references to the works from which all were extracted. I have arranged them according to the subjects which are said to be occultly discussed in the Parmenides of Plato: viz. cause of God-the ideal intelligible, or intellectual world -particular souls-and the material world; and I have placed under a separate head the magical and philosophical precepts and directions.

There can be no question but that many of these oracles are spurious; all those, for instance, which

relate to the intelligible and intellectual orders, which were confessedly obtained in answers given by dæmons, raised for that purpose by the Theurgists,* who, as well as all the later Platonists, made pretensions to magic-not only in its refinements, which they were pleased to designate Theurgy, but also in that debased form which we should call common witchcraft. Nevertheless, several of the oracles seem to be derived from more authentic sources; and, like the spurious Hermetic books which have come down to us, probably contain much of the pure Sabiasm of Persia, and the doctrines of the oriental philosophy.

* The Theurgists were the two Julians, the father called Chaldæus, the son Theurgus. They flourished in the reign of Marcus Antoninus, and were the first who delivered the oracles upon the intelligible orders.

THE

CHALDEAN

ORACLES OF ZOROASTER.

CAUSE.

GOD, FATHER, MIND, FIRE, MONAD, DUAD, TRIAD.*

1. But God is he that has the head of a hawk. He is the first, indestructible, eternal, unbegotten, indivisible, dissimilar; the dispenser of all good; incorruptible; the best of the good, the wisest of the wise. He is the father of equity and justice, self-taught, physical, perfect, and wise, and the only inventor of the sacred philosophy.†

* Mr. Taylor, in his collection of the oracles (Class. Journ. No. 22), has arranged them under the following heads:-1. The oracles which he conjectures may be ascribed to Zoroaster himself. This division includes the collection of Psellus, and in this collection are marked Z. as in the 9th. 2. Oracles delivered by the Theurgists, under the reign of Marcus Antoninus. These relate to the intelligible and intellectual orders, and are here distinguished by a T. as in the 4th. 3. Oracles delivered either by the Theurgists or by Zoroaster, here marked Z. or T. as in the 2d. The rest he has placed together, as uncertain or imperfect in their meaning; to which he has subjoined a few from the treatise of Lydus de Mensibus.

† Euseb. Præp. Evan. lib. i, c. 10.

2.* Theurgists assert that he is a god, and celebrate him as both older and younger, as a circulating and eternal god, as understanding the whole number of all things moved in the world, and moreover infinite through his power and of a spiral form. Z. or T.

3. The mundane god, eternal, boundless, young and old, of a spiral form.

4. For eternity,† according to the oracle, is the cause of never-failing life, of unwearied power, and unsluggish energy.

T.

5. Hence the stable god is called by the gods silent, and is said to consent with mind, and to be known by souls through mind alone.

T.

6. The Chaldæans call the god (Dionysius or Bacchus) Iao in the Phoenician tongue (instead of the intelligible light); and he is often called Sabaoth, signifying that he is above the seven poles, that is the Demiurgus.

7. Containing all things in the one summit of his own hyparxis, he himself subsists wholly beyond.

8. Measuring and bounding all things.

T.

T.

9. For nothing imperfect circulates from a paternal principle.

Z.

10. The Father hurled not forth fear, but infused persuasion.

Z.

* Lobeck seems to be of opinion that neither this nor the one next following has any claim to be inserted.

†The Gnostics used the word aon itself for their different celestial orders. See also Sanchoniatho.