APPENDIX TO THE POSTERITY AND EXILE OF CAIN
§ 1. Epicurus. Philo as usual treats Epicureanism rather superficially. The Epicurean in Cicero, De Natura Deorum (i. 48), says, “hominis esse specie deos confitendum est,” but continues, “nec tamen ea species corpus est, sed quasi corpus.” For the whole subject see Zeller, Epicureans, Engl. Trans. pp. 440 f.
§ 5. The loan which was lent, etc. Cf. Timaeus 42 E, where the “young gods” in making the human body take from the four elements δανειζόμενοι μόρια ὠς ἀποδοθησόμενα πάλιν.
§ 16. τὸ μέγιστον (see crit. note) may be defended by Thucydides’ use in iv. 70 fin., ii. 65. 1, iii. 63. 2, viii. 76. 6 and 92. 6, iv. 108. 4. But the defence is shaky.
§ 57. θησαυρίζονται This word is suggested by the “store-cities” of Exod. 1:11, and also perhaps by βουνός = a pile, from which the LXX. coined the verb βουνίζω = “I pile up,” “accumulate.” (See Ruth 2:14, 16.)
Heliopolis. It is not certain whether this was the On, Rameses, or Beth Schemesch of the Hebrew Scriptures, for it has claims to be regarded as any one of them (Dict. of Geography). When Philo was born its ruins had nearly vanished (ibid.).
§ 59. By τὸν βουνὸν τοῦτον Philo means the mind or conscience. The scene of the covenant between Jacob and Laban was Mount Gilead, which signifies in Hebrew “Heap of Witness.”
Some words seem to have dropped out before πρὸ τούτων τῶν πόλεων, such as ὁ δὲ βουνὸς οὗτος or ἡ δὲ πόλις τῆς μαρτυρίας. In 62 some such title is claimed for Hebron by the words μνήμας ἐπιστήμης <καὶ> σοφίας θησαυροφυλακοῦσα. To understand the argument we must note (1) that Zoan carries with it all the cities of Egypt, 62: (2) that Hebron as interpreted in 62 is equated to the βουνός of 59, and therefore a text which states that Hebron was built before Zoan is equivalent to “the city of the good mind is built before (i.e. ranks above) all the cities of the body or foolish mind.”
§ 62. Command of evacuation. For ἀπόκρισις = “discharge” (from the body) see L.A. i. 13. κακία is a thing to be expelled from the social system.
§ 70. He shall set him alive, etc. The allegory is worked out as follows. The ἄλογος βίος is evil tendencies still alive (which they are not in the case of those whose age or circumstances put them outside temptation). We must atone for them by fighting against them, and finally banish them.
§ 79. Ada. That Ada, the “witness,” stands here for, or at least is exemplified by, the Epicurean school is proved beyond doubt by the use of Epicurean terms. λεία κίνησις comes from the Epicurean definition of pleasure (Usener, Epicurea, pp. 279, 280). ἐπιβολή, translated by Lucretius animi iniectus, is a very leading term for “the act of apprehension which the mind or senses must direct to the ἐνάργημα (‘the clear or close view of phenomena’) which may result in the ἐπιμαρτύρησις (‘confirmation’) or ἀντιμαρτύρησις (‘refutation’) of the δοξαζόμενα (‘opinion formed by the mind on the data of sense-perception’)” (C. Bailey). Philo gives an ethical twist to what properly belongs to the Epicurean theory of cognition.
§ 81. Treating as alike things widely different. Or “treating as things indifferent (in the Stoic sense) things which the wise man holds ‘superior’ and worthy of pursuit.”
§§ 95 ff. The ordinance is this. The meaning of these difficult sections is perhaps as follows. Toil is unnecessary, when you have reached perfection; yet if you still continue to toil, you will have both the toil and the perfection and thus attain absolute holiness. Either without the other is not “absolutely holy,” for that is stated in the text to have three necessary elements: (1) number, i.e. the first stage of virtue that can be “counted” as anything; (2) the rod, or discipline, which is toil; (3) the number 10 or perfection. That “exchanging” toil for perfection really means that you have both is not unintelligible; the effort is lost in success, but may be said to remain with us. The words rendered “While what is beautiful is a perfect good, toil is an imperfect boon,” may perhaps be paraphrased “The morally beautiful is a good thing to which it is essential to have attained its end; toil is a beneficial thing, whether it reach the goal or no.” They are “of equal value” as being equally essential to the truest holiness.
§ 97. Marshalled. τάξαντι = “set us in a rank” corresponds with ἀριθμός above, as παιδεύσαντι corresponds with the “rod,” and τελεσφορήσαντι with the “tenth.”
§ 104. So too with the ear. Wendland in Philologus 57, p. 267, calls attention to the resemblance of this description of the ear’s structure to that placed by Cicero in De Nat. Deor. ii. 159 in the mouth of a Stoic.
§ 108. Speech … admits of endless variations. Philo here and in the following sections adopts the rhetorical idea of the περιστάσεις (circumstantiae) which determined the nature of the speech required on each occasion. These, though sometimes made more numerous, were often reduced as here to six, persons, matters or subjects, causes, manners, times, places. In Latin and mediaeval rhetoric the six often appear as quis, quid, cur, quomodo, quando, ubi. As boys were regularly drilled in this classification in their early exercises (progymnasmata) it was very familiar to the general reader. See Ernesti’s Lexicon Rhetoricum, s. v. περίστασις.
§ 109. οὐδὲ τὰς τυχούσας. Wendland would prefer, instead of this correction for the οὐδὲ τύχης of the MSS., to read οὐδὲ <τὰς τυχούσας> τύχης, on the ground that “fortune” is included in the circumstantiae personarum by the rhetoricians with “nature,” “age,” and others.
§ 113. Easy stages. The thought of this sentence evidently comes from Plato, Cratylus 211 c, where the process by which we arrive at first principles is described as using ἐπαναβασμοί. Its application here, however, is obscure. But it is worth noting that in 2 Kings 20:9 ff. σκιά and ἀναβαθμοί (= “steps on the sundial”) are four times repeated in close conjunction. Philo in the preceding section has dwelt on the word σκιά. Does he perchance mean that, as the shadows on the sundial are due to the sun, so all the shadowy goods of life are meant to lift our thoughts to what is substantial? Is Hezekiah’s vainglorious display of his treasures to the envoys of the king of Babylon the link between the sundial of Ahaz and the inscriptions at Delphi?
Delphi. Perhaps Philo is thinking of the inscription set up at Delphi by Pausanias, as related in Thuc. i. 132. As Thucydides traces the fall of Pausanias to some extent to this inscription, the incident might not unnaturally be regarded as a striking example of a great reverse of fortune. Philo may have known of other similar instances, but it would be quite in his manner to assume from Thucydides’ story that other equally boastful inscriptions had been dedicated there.
§ 138. The wise man is free and a ruler. From the famous Stoic paradoxes. See S. V. F. iii. 589 ff., and Philo’s treatise Quod omnis probus liber sit.
§ 139. profession. ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι, which latinized as profiteri has been the parent of our own profession, is the technical word for teaching any form of wisdom for pay. For this reason, and because of its association with the Sophists, Philo dislikes it.
§ 141. His science … he has ready. Or we might take τῆς τέχνης as = “the art of medicine,” and make ἡ τέχνη understood the subject of πεπόρικε. The ἐπιστήμη in that case is the knowledge which the art forms into a compact body. Compare the favourite definition of art as “a system of concepts organized for some useful end.” The doctor has an infinite τέχνη to draw from, but would Philo represent him as knowing it all? 152 suggests that he would not.
§ 149. In the same way the soul, etc. In the soul’s case, there is no stooping to receive the load, nor depression due to its weight; but there is the glad springing up. ἐπιφορεῖσθαι is probably meant to suggest the more familiar ἐμφορεῖσθαι, for the soul’s “burden” is food.
§ 173. When righteous Noah arises. Perhaps we may assign a more mystical meaning to καθʼ ἢν συνίσταται. The Pythagorean numbers, like the Platonic Ideas, are the archetypes by participating in which things become what they are (cf. Aristotle, Met. i. 5).