So runs the famous account given by the great French occultist Eliphas Levi, of a magical ceremony undertaken on July 24th 1854 to summon the spirit of the first century philosopher and miracle worker, Apollonius of Tyana. Levi, by his own account, spent twenty-one days fasting, praying and deep in study of his subject before attempting the rite which he later described as "..an actual drunkenness of the imagination, which must act powerfully upon a person otherwise nervous and impressionable.. the voluntary dream of a waking man". Though Eliphas Levis account lacks the drama of Lucifuges appearance in 'The Damnation of Theron Ware', it has a quiet and resigned air that is nevertheless believable, especially in regards to Levis statement that after the event he was ".. no longer the same man; something of another world had passed into me; I was no longer either sad or cheerful, but I felt a singular attraction towards death.." Levi had himself warned others against such rites in his writings, and now found himself sharing too much in the kingdom of the dead.

According to E. M .Butler, the 'ritual' mentioned by Levi, and recited sonorously in the Greek tongue, was the 'Magic Philosophy' of Patricius which he said contained the "doctrine of Zoroaster and the writings of Hermes Trismegistus". The work mentioned is the "Magia Philosophica, hoc est Francisci Patricii summi philosophi Zoroaster et eius CCCXX Oracula Chaldaica' first published by Francesco Patrizzi in Venice, 1591. Actually an extended collection of the late classical 'Chaldaean Oracles' by the magician "Julian the Theurgist', the 'Magia Philosophica' of Patrizzi largely takes over from the earlier and briefer collection of, and commentaries on the same, by the Byzantine scholar Gernistos Pletho whose work on the Oracles seems to have been first composed during his attendace at the Councils of Ferrara and Florence, held in 1438-9 to secure the union of the Roman and orthodox Churches. It would no doubt seem curious to a modern scholar to see the 'Chaldaean Oracles' placed beside the figure of the Pythagorean sage Apollonius of Tyana, but to earlier authorities Apollonius was himself both magician and alchemist, indeed this aspect of his biography has probably yet to be fully written. But first we must go back to Plethon, and through him to the ultimate sources for Levis' imaginary Apollonius.

Gemistos Plethon was born in Constantinople sometime between 1355 and 1360, his father seems to have been chief secretary at the great church of Hagia Sophia, now an immense mosque in Sultanahmet, the old quarter of Istanbul. Some members of his family entered monastic service, one at Mount Athos, another perhaps at Chora. Gemistos himself had a singular distaste for monastic life, and in his later years in Italy and on the island of Mistra displayed a singular lack of interest in Christianity generally, quite in keeping with his adopted character as 'last of the Hellenes' and a living representative of the ancient Sun-cult. At Constantinople he would probably have entered a course of basic education at Hagia Sophia, perhaps under the general tutelage of the great Nikephoras Gregoras, or the eminent Demetrios Kydones. Gemistos Plethon is known to have excelled in the higher education provided, compiling text books for other students ranging from grammar to musical theory, and correcting numerous ancient manuscripts of the astronomical and geographical works of Claudius Ptolemy and of Strabo. Gemistos taught mathematical and literary subjects to many distinguished pupils, one of whom was later to become the immensely powerful Cardinal Bessarion.

Whilst still at Constantinople Gemistos sought out a private tutor, the Hellenized Jewish scholar Elissaeus. Plethos' adversary, the Patriarch Gennadios, lists amongst Elissaeus' influences the writings of the Arab philosopher Averroes (Abu Walid ibn Rushid), the Neoplatonists Iamblichus and Proclus, and the Persian mage Zoroaster. Exactly who Elissaeus was is hard to define, we know that Jews held administrative and teaching posts throughout the Byzantine empire, indeed the traveller Benjamin of Tudela wrote that already by 1168 two and a half thousand Jewish merchants and silk-workers lived in a ghetto across the Golden Horn. Gemistos Plethon could certainly not read Arabic, there is much evidence to suggest that he read nor spoke any significant amount of Latin, and that Hebrew was also unknown to him, as by his time much of the preserved writings and commentaries on ancient philosophy were preserved in these languages and not in the original Greek, we can suppose that Plethon resorted to a Jewish teacher who could provide him with texts.

Elissaeus must have been an unusually gifted and learned man, not only is he credited with producing Greek translations of the Old Testament books (preserved now in the library of St. Marks in Venice ) which he gave to Pletho or to his pupil Bessarion, he also introduced Plethon to the magical and occult writings of his own heritage. According to the Patriarch Gennadios "..this man (Elissaeus) also expounded to Gemistos the doctrines of Zoroaster and others. He was ostensibly a Jew, but in fact a pagan. Gemistos stayed with hjm for a long time, not only as his pupil but in his service, living at his expense, for he was one of the most influential men at the court.." Now we already know that the 'doctrines of Zoroaster' meant the Chaldaean Oracles to Gemistos Plethon, and that he is widely regarded as having himself invented this connection between the two; is it not equally possible, bearing in mind the statement of Gennadios, that the Jew Elissaeus impressed upon Plethos mind the Magian, or Zoroastrian origin of these verses, and that such an orientalizing view of them would be in keeping with a Jewish scholar? Certainly, Plethons selection of verses from the Chaldaean Oracles is briefer than that of the eleventh century occultist Michael Psellus, whose handwritten manuscripts remained in Plethons possession for most of his life, supplied either by Elissaeus, by his old tutor Nikephoras Gregoras who also showed an interest in the Oracles, or bought by Gemistos from one of the numerous dealers in manuscripts working in Constantinople.

As Gemistos Plethos edition of the Chaldaean Oracles differs in so many respects from all others before or since, and as the orientalizing character of the selections and translations stands out in comparison with modem editions I give a complete translation:

Inquire after the channel of the soul: wherefrom, in what order,

Having served the body, to that order from which you flowed

You shall rise again, combining the act with the sacred word.

Incline not downwards: below the earth lies a precipice

That drags down beneath the sevenfold steps, below which

Is the throne of dread Necessity.

Your vessel shall be occupied by the beasts of the earth.

Do not enlarge your Fate.

For nothing imperfect rolls from the sovereignty of the Father.

But the Paternal intellect does not admit her volition

Until she has issued forth out of oblivion and spoken the word,

Having taken in the memory of the holy watch-word of the Father;

You must hasten towards the light and rays of the Father,

Whence your soul was sent out clothed in abundant intellect.

The earth mourns them continually unto their children:

Those who thrust out the soul and inhale are easy to loose.

In the left flanks of the couch is the source of virtue

Which remains wholly within and does not give away its virginity.

The soul of mortals will somehow constrain the god into herself,

Having nothing mortal in her she is utterly intoxicated from God.

For she glories in harmony, beneath which is the mortal body.

Since the soul is a fire, luminous through the power of the Father,

She remains immortal and is mistress of life

And shall be filled with many repletions from the depths of the world.

Seek you Paradise.

Do not pollute the spirit, do not depress the surface.

Even the image has its portion in the circumsplendent place.

Do not leave behind the dung of matter for the precipice.

Do not draw it forth that it may not suffer in going out.

By extending the fiery intellect

To the act of piety, you shall also save the liquidescent body.

Then from the depths of the earth leap forth the dogs of the underworld,

Showing no true sign to mortal man.

Nature gives proof that there exist pure daemons

And that the fruits even of evil matter are worthy and good.

The penalties are constrainers of men,

Let the immortal depth of the soul be leader.

Spread wide all eyes upwards.

O man, the contrivance of most daring Nature!

 

If you say this to me often, you will see the word forever;

For then the curved mass of heaven is not visible.

The stars do not shine, the light of the moon is veiled,

The earth stands not firm. All things appear as lightening.

Do not call upon the self-revealed image of Nature.

Draw tight from all sides the reins of the fire with an untouched soul.

When you behold the most holy fire without form

Flashing with quivering flames through the recesses of the whole world,

Then hearken to the voice of the fire.

The paternal intellect has sown symbols in men's souls.

Learn what is intelligible, for it exists outside the intellect.

There is indeed something intelligible,

Which you must understand by the flower of the intellect.

All things descend from one fire.

For the Father perfected everything and committed it

To the second intellect, which the races of men call the first.

Spells are thought by the Father and think themselves.

They are moved by voiceless wills to have understanding.

Lo! how the world has inflexible intellectual upholders!

The Father has snatched himself away;

But not shutting off his own fire in his intellectual power,

The Father does not impel fear but diffuses persuasion.

The 'Zoroastrian' origins of the Chaldean corpus was much debated throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Patrizzi's criticisms notwithstanding, the name of the ancient Persian sage remained firmly linked to the Chaldean Oracles until the seventeenth century where, with Martin del Rio's 'Disquisitionum Magiacarum', Zoroaster and Orpheus are the fathers of a natural science bordering on black magic, though as the magician Agrippa was to point out, no religion is so full of error that it does not contain any wisdom at all ("..nulla enim religio tam erronea, quae non aliquid sapientiae contineat.." De Occulta Philosophia, 1533).

If the Jew Elissaeus was indeed Gemistos Plethons teacher in the matter of the Chaldaean Oracles, it might be remarked why no mention of traditional Jewish mysticism finds its way into any of Plethons writings. True, much of what we now term Cabbala spread mainly from the west to the east, yet Jewish emigres in the Byzantine Empire were in communication with all parts of the Jewish diaspora, indeed Constantinople proved one of the most fertile grounds for the spread of the Sabbatean heresy two hundred years later. Gemistos seems therefore to have been either unaware of the Cabbala, or perhaps merely uninterested in the same fashion as he was uninterested in Islam and the Christian faith. Gemistos was intent on re-discovering and re-animating the pagan teachings of the ancient Hellenic sages and of theMagi, which he saw preserved in the riddles of his 'Zoroastrian' verses.

Although the charge of practising occult arts was never formally levelled against Gemistos Plethon, he certainly practised astrology and cannot have been unaware of the magical nature of his own studies. Gemistos had many enemies in the church, not least the Patriarch Gennadios, and it is perhaps the fate of his personal tutor Elissaeus (burnt to death in his own dwelling, a judicial execution for religious dissent) which forced Gemistos to maintain such reserve about his own beliefs and practises. As a Christian, nominally at least, it would have been a capitol offence for Gemistos to openly advocate his views regarding the ancient cults, to 'Hellenize' as the legal code of the fourteenth century 'Hexabiblos' of Harmenopoulos has it. Gemistos' advocacy of sun-worship, his veneration for the high priests of pagan learning and his personal zeal for the clearly daemonic 'Chaldaean Oracles' would have brought him ultimately to the stake. Plethon somehow managed to avoid serious catastrophe both in life and after death; buried on the Greek island of Mistra just before its invasion by the Turks, his body was exhumed and carried away to Rimini by one of his most ardent admirers, the Italian warlord and unashamed lover of pagan learning Sigismond Malatesta. Plethons remains were finally entombed in the walls of the Tempio Malstestiano, a reconstructed church designed by Leon Battista Alberti as a quasi-pagan temple, and dedicated to Sigismond's mistress Isotta. The 'Prince' of Rimini kept himself in power by a mixture of genuine erudition, youthful arrogance and military brilliance, yet his reputation for adultery, heresy, and murder caused Pope Pius II to have his effigy twice burnt at Rome.

Magical writings existed in abundance in the Constantinople of Plethos' day, from Byzantine texts of the 'Testament of Solomon' and the 'Exorcism of Athanasios' with their lists of demonic spirits, to the more highbrow writings of Michael Psellus and the fifth century philosopher-magician Proclus Diadochus, penultimate head of the Platonic academy at Athens. The twelfth century sorcerer Gabrielopoulos is said to have kept his magic 'Book of Solomon' inside tortoise shells polished "like pearls", whilst the Solomonic textbook found in the possession of one Isaac Aaron in 1172 was designed to summon legions of demons at once, which fact no doubt led to his demise. The connection between these Byzantine treatises and the later 'Solomonic' textbooks of Northern Europe has been little studied, but certainly the passage from ancient to modem magic lies partly in this field. The famous 'Triangle of Art' in which the spirits are said to appear in the English 'Lesser Key of Solomon' is inscribed with three 'Hebrew' words which on examination are plainly Greek: the "ANAPHAXATON:PRIMEUMATON:TETRAGRAMMATON" written around the exterior of Solomons' Triangle is the usual wizards request for the spirit to "appear in a fair form" with the commanding name of the Most High God appended lest the demon should in any way miscontrue the meaning."[ Anphaneintai] preumenous ap'ommaton.." as a Byzantine clerk might have cobbled together from the "..idoito ..preumenous ap'ommatos.." of Aeschylus. "..May the god appear in a fair shape by this sign.." as one ancie;nt magicains' abbreviated scrawl in the margin of a greco-Egyptian papyrus reads, and there is every reason to believe that the terrible deity summoned ("..the Headless One.. awesome and invisible spirit..") frightened him to death for that particular piece of stupidity. The printed English text of Solomons 'Key' mentioned even includes variants for' Anaphaxeton' ('anapazaton' and 'anaphanaton') which utterly preclude the possibility of its being a Hebrew inscription, 'Primeumaton' is merely a contraction such as would be found in early manuscripts, or such as any Byzantine magician would have quite naturally made themselves.

Plethon would not have been greatly interested in such corrupt textbooks of the wizards art, though he may have been struck by their association with other more laudatory productions. One of the most popular late Byzantine/early medieval magical works is the so-called 'Magic Treatise of Solomon' (titled' Apotelesmatica Pragmateia' in some manuscripts), which often appears with a fragmentary work called the 'Book of the Wisdom of Apollonius of Tyana'. This, and the early fragments of such collections as the 'Hymns of Orpheus' and the 'Golden Verses of Pythagoras' were of intense interest to Gemistos Plethon who spent years collecting, collating and excerpting from these texts. For Gemistos the practise of magical evocation, the summoning of a departed spirit, would have involved a much weightier operation and a purer intention than anything demanded by the 'Solomonic' literature. The great fifth century philosopher-magician Proclus regarded all such rites as a communion of similar spirits, that of the magician with that of the departed. Indeed, as an advocate of the theurgic cult, Proclus, and his erstwhile disciple Gemistos Plethon, saw the evocation as an assistance to the magician from one whose sight was clear to one enmeshed in matter. During the rite, the magicians soul stood in the same peril as it would at death, the being summoned therefore acting the part of a guiding spirit ( daemon paredros ).

Apollonius himself summoned the spirit of the Homeric hero Achilles, which he recounted to his disciple Damis whilst they were crossing the sea of Euboea. True to his pythagorean teachings, Apollonius offered no gifts, no blood sacrifices, no threats to the spirit, but merely approached the mound where Achilles was said to have been interred and offered a simple and sincere prayer:

" O Achilles, most of mankind declare that you are dead, but I cannot agree with them, nor can Pythagoras my spiritual ancestor. If then we hold to the truth, show to us your form; for you would profit not a little by showing yourself to my eyes, if you should be able to use them to attest to your existence."

Achilles, in Homers Iliad (book xxiii), experiences a visitation from the forlorn ghost of Patroclos (entreating Achilles for a proper funeral) which retreated from his grasp and slipped into the earth "with a faint cry". The passage in the Iliad (xxiii, 192f.) where Achilles summons the winds to assist the burning pyre were interpreted by Theurgists and Neoplatonists alike as a type of purification of the deceased's soul and a restitution of it to its own element ( Proclus' 'Commentary on the Republic of Plato' 1,152;7, where the interpretation is ascribed to the divine teacher Syrianus). How different is all this to the pit of blood with which Odysseus fed the spectres of the dead, hoping for a sight of the blind prophet Tiresias (Odyssey xi):

"..gaping with wounds the forms of heroes

strode full majestic, in thundering train:

these and a myriad more swarmed round

and all their dark assembly shrieked;

dumbfounded by the sight, I stood agape,

fear ran sharp-shivering through my blood;

anxious, I command the sacrifice to haste:

fast the flayed victims to the flames are cast,

and mumbled vows and mystic songs applied

To darkest god and gloomy concubine;

desperate I wave my blade at the blood

they started back, their dark throng

trembling stood; whilst round the grim

ditch black blood untasted flowed 'til

most awful of these shades, Tiresias rose!"

 

At the conclusion of Philostratus' work 'The Life of Apollonius of Tyana' is a remarkable account of how one of his pupils, doubting the immortality of the soul, is visited by the master in a type of vivid waking dream (unseen by his associates) and receives the following oracle:

"The soul is immortal, and 'tis no possession of

thine own, but of Providence,

And after the body is wasted away, like a swift

horse freed from its traces,

It lightly leaps forward and mingles itself with

the light air,

Loathing the spell of harsh and painful servitude

which it has endured.

But for thee, what use is there in this'! Some day

when thou art no more thou shalt believe.

So why, as long as thou art amongst the living,

dost thou explore these mysteries?"

This oracle of the now deified Apollonius calls to mind the thirteenth and twenty-second sections of Pletho's 'Chaldaean Oracles', indeed it may itself be regarded as both a genuine communication, and a guide for those hardy souls assaying the theurgic art of ascent to their spiritual original. The Neoplatonist Proclus believed that the gods had shown him the essential psychic signs (the Theurgic 'Character') of several Greek heroes, including that of Plato himself, as well as their "mystic names", a fact which enabled him to bring about their appearance at his evocations. From theurgic writings, those of Proclus especially, we can deduce that in these claims to having evoked such and such a person or deity the subjects experienced a type of self-recollection, a ritual 'anamnesis', whereby the lineage of their own soul was visibly displayed, often very publicly, for the edification and enlightenment of all mankind, "Inquire after the channel of the soul... combining the act with the sacred word" as the Chaldaean Oracles command. At the lowest these evocations constitute the supreme spiritual arrogance, a great thinker like Proclus could be excused his 'evoking' both Plato and the pythagorean Numenius of Apamea, whilst an even more profound philosopher like Plotinus could quite reasonably be supposed to have filled a Roman temple of Isis with the light diffused by his guardian spirit. Yet sure as Julian the Theurgist claimed also to have summoned and questioned Plato, so every unlearned impostor in the ancient world may have claimed spiritual descent for his or her soul from one of the Olympians.

Behind this art of evocation, this 'drawing into being' from the world of invisible potentials, lay a whole science of physical and psychical sympathies and antipathies. The short tract 'On the Priestly Art' by Proclus givesa deceptively simple series of solar correspondences throughout the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, whose theory relies for its justification upon his immense logical and theological treatises, his commentaries upon Plato, the 'Geometry' of Euclid, and the mysticism of the Chaldaean Oracles to which he was addicted. The magicians like Proclus and his predecessor Iamblichus of Chalcis, as well as early Christian writers regarded the composition of angelic, daemonic, and human bodies as participating in the energies of one another and of the Gods in differing degrees. To explain the confusion created by particular types of spiritual experience, these writers had recourse to the idea of a 'vehicle' of the soul, a type of starry envelope free from subjection to normal physical space and time. Apollonius of Tyana, like Pythagoras before him, was credited with the ability to appear in two places at once, sometimes seperated by immense distances. This ability, conferred upon him by his having been initiated into the life of this world and the next finds its traditional expression in the story of how Apollonius visited the cave of Trophonius, mythical builder of Apollo's temple at Delphi and presiding daemon of an oracular cave at Lebadea. According to the story in Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana descended into the cave not to receive a personal oracle, but "..in the interests of philosophy.." to which the officiating priests strongly objected. After seven days Apollonius emerged from the cave carrying a book of pythagorean philosophy, perhaps written in the same 'Cappadocian' dialect of greek in which Apollonius is supposed to have written his works on sacrifices, and on divination by the stars.

This descent into the underworld was viewed by theurgists as a natural progression from normal education, a threefold process of purgation, illumination and perfection. Hierocles, that indefatigable commentator on the 'Golden Verses of Pythagoras' perfectly sums up the aim of this curriculum:

"..Now to all these things that have been said in particular concerning the soul, in regard to its purification, and to its deliverance, we ought to join things of the like nature with these, and that analogically and proportionately answer to them, for the purgation of the luminous body. And hence it necessarily follows, that the purgations which are made by means of the mathematical sciences, should be accompanied by the mystical purgations of the initiations; and that the deliverance, performed by dialectics, should be attended by the introduction to what is most sublime and most excellent. For these are properly the things that purify, and that render perfect the spiritual chariot of the soul, that disengage it from the pollutions and from the disorder of matter, and that render it fit to converse with pure spirits.."

Most ancient authorities regard the pythagorean 'Golden Verses' as the work of Lysis of Tarentum; in his 'Life of Pythagoras', Diogenes Laertius seems to refer to them as ".. the 'Sacred Poem' which begins: 'young men, come reverence in quietude all these my words..", a line echoed in later texts of the 'Golden Verses'. Another early poetical fragment from the 'Scopiads' reads: "..be not shameless before any man..". Clearly, very early pythagoreans circulated genuine sayings of the master with their own oracular utterances, and these passed through numerous versions before being committed to writing. An ancient tradition has it that Apollonius of Tyana produced a work on theurgic magic called 'The Golden Flowers', and it is possible that this is the same as the 'Golden Leaves' of the sage Balinus ( as Arabic texts translate the name Apollonius) accredited with the authorship of an alchemical work called 'The Secret of Creation' which contains an early version of the 'Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistos'. Arabic legends recounting the discovery of the 'Emerald Tablet' influenced much western thinking on the subject, and it is quite possible that in illustrations of the fable (particularly one in the 16th century 'Aurora Consurgens') depicting an aged man holding a tablet, upon which the secret of alchemy is represented as a group hieroglyphs, Apollonius of Tyana may be intended. Confusion between Balinus and Abalinus led to some Arab writers identifying Apollonius of Tyana with 'Apollonius the Carpenter' (actually Apollonius Pergaeus) who wrote a mathematicall treatise on conic sections and constructed mechanical marvels like the speaking automata of the ancients. Alchemical works entered Islamic circles early on, if they were not already there, presumably from centres such as Alexandria and Panopolis. Spiritually inclined alchemical writings are much in evidence from this period, the third century 'Chresopoeia' of the alchemist Cleopatra has a circular diagram inscribed in Greek characters with the following legend: "One is All, of Him is everything, for Him is everything, in Him is everything. The Snake is the One, it has two symbols: Good and Evil". Emanating from the diagram is a long arm, apparently a type of distillation apparatus, suspended from this is a group of symbols which appear to represent an alchemist at work at his 'kerotakis', a basic furnace, whilst alighting upon his head appears a small stick figure of a guardian spirit, rather as the Egyptian god Harpocrates was meant to dwell at the 'summit of the psyche' in the moment of divine union during theurgic rites. A comparison of these ideas with the so-called 'Emerald Tablet' is instructive:

"True without error, certain and most true: that which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above, for performing the miracles of the one true thing. And as all things were from one, by the mediation of one, so all things arose from this one by adaptation; the father of it is the sun, its mother the moon, the wind carries it in its belly, its nurse is earth. This is the father of all perfection, the consummation of all the world. Its power is complete if it be converted to its element. separate the earth from the fire, subtle from gross, gently and with much industry. It ascends from earth to heaven, and descends again to earth, receiving the strength of superiors and inferiors, having the glory of the whole imparted to it. Let all obscurity fly from you, this is the fortitude of all fortitudes, overcoming every subtle and penetrating every solid thing: so was the world created, from hence were all adaptations of which this is the manner. Therefore I am called thrice-great, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. that which I have written is completed concerning the operation of the sun."

Just how credible could it be to assert the identity of these 'Apollonian' writings with the preserved 'Golden Verses' attributed to Lysis? Perhaps the sage of Tyana wrote them from memory in the cave of Trophonius, and subsequent readers altered his words trying to wrest some sense from his mixture of obscurity and dialectical Greek.

The very title 'Golden Verses','Golden Leaves' etc. connects these utterances not just with magic, but with the cult of the dead in ancient Orphism with which so much pythagorean religion was suffused. Thin leaves of gold discovered at Thurii and dating from around the time of Plato bear inscriptions identifying them with Orphic-pythagorean cult. In them the soul of the departed begs Persephone and the company of infernal gods for entry, claiming "..1 too am of you blessed race.." and that "..1 have paid the penalty for deeds unrighteous..". The 'penalty' is the previous incarnated life, incurred by the soul in the otherworld. Another gold leaf proclaims; ".. I have flown out from the circle of heavy grief, and stepped swift-footed upon the circle of joy..". The earliest surviving references to the divine Orpheus in Attic literature contain allusions to spells and incantations "..written down in the Thracian inscriptions of golden voiced Orpheus.." (Euripides, , Alcestis' I. 967). The oracle delivered by Apollonius of Tyana to his doubting pupil regarding the souls escape from the bonds of matter, "..the spell of harsh and painful servitude..", has a distict echo in the verses of the 'Chaldaean Oracles', the pythagorean 'Golden Verses' as well as in these Orphic gold lamellae: "..Blessed and fortunate one! thou shalt be god instead of mortal..".Similar gold plates have been found in tombs from the second to the fourth centuries B.C. at sites ranging from Lipari in Crete, to Sybaris in southern Italy.

These gold plates are not, however the earliest surviving fragments of Orphic-pythagorean cult; a sixth century B.C. Greek colony established at Olbia, situated at the mouth of the river Bug on the Black sea, yielded up to the Soviet archaeologists a small group of rectangular bone plates about two and a half inches long, bearing crude inscriptions and designs variously interpreted as musical instruments or offering tables. A group of three such bone tablets discovered in 1951 bear inscriptions pointing to their Dionysiac-Orphic character:

A[ athanatos?].. "

The rudely scratched letters on these flat bone tokens to the Underworld speak volumes to one aquainted with Dionysiac- Orphic cult: born into life, passing through initiatory death, re-entering life as a devotee of the great god Dionysus, and finally the cryptic final letter ' A ' perhaps for the Greek 'athanatos': 'undying', 'immortal'.

The transformations of life into life, through mystic death and rebirth to everlasting divinity were enjoyed by many long before the days of Apollonius of Tyana. As the Orphics held their souls to be born again in Dionysus, as the theurgists and Neoplatonists claimed divine participation in the natures of particular powers, so Apollonius is credited with heavenly ancestry. Just prior to his birth, the god Proteus appeared to Apollonius' mother in the guise of an "Egyptian daemon", when his mother enquired what sort of child she would bear Proteus simply said "Myself'. No fitter parentage could have been found for the sage who valued foreknowledge above all abilities than the god

"..who knows what is now, what was before, and what will be in the future.."

(Orpheus' Hymn to Proteus)

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