On the Cave of the Nymphs

This translation is based primarily on Nauck’s Teubner text but incorporates some of the readings from the more recent text by "Classics Seminar 609" at S. U.N. Y. Buffalo, published with translation as an Arethusa Monograph. For bibliographical information on both editions, see "Literature Cited: Ancient Authors," p. 43. I have referred in footnotes to the editors of the more recent edition simply as "the Buffalo editors," since the format of their edition suggests that they wish the credit and responsibility for their work to be shared. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the scholarship and fine judgment of L.G. Westerink, who led the seminar, are everywhere apparent in that excellent edition. I have presumed to differ significantly with their conclusions at only a few of those points where the manuscripts are defective and the translator is forced to choose among a series of scholarly conjectures.

The numbers close to the left-hand margin refer to the traditional divisions of the text, indicated in both editions. The numbers in brackets refer to the pages of Nauck’s edition.

The only version in English previous to that of the Buffalo editors was that of Thomas Taylor, originally published in 1789 orperhaps a year or two earlier,[1] and revised between that edition and the reprint of 1823. Kathleen Raine and George Mills Harper reprint the earlier version of Taylor’s translation in Thomas Taylor the Platonist, pp. 297-342. There have been a number ofreeditions of Taylor’s text in its various versions, and in spite of its shortcomings it is attractive and of obvious historical interest. In its defense it should be stressed that Taylor referred to it as a "parqphrase translation," apparently indicating by that phrase that he had felt free to elaborate on the text. I have also made use of the excellent French version of Félix Buffière (Les Mythes d’Homère et la pensée grecque, pp. 597-616).

—Robert Lamberton

One is inclined to wonder what on earth the cave in Ithaca means for Homer, the one he describes in the following words:

and at the head of the harbor is a slender-leaved olive and near by it a lovely and murky cave sacred to the nymphs called Naiads. Within are kraters and amphoras of stone, where bees lay up stores of honey. Inside, too, are massive stone looms and there the nymphs weave sea-purple cloth, a wonder to see. The water flows unceasingly. The cave has two gates, the one from the north, a path for men to descend, while the other, toward the south, is divine. Men do not enter by this one, but it is rather a path for immortals.
[Od. 13, 102-112][2]

αὐτὰρ ἐπὶ κρατὸς λιμένος τανύφυλλος ἐλαίη,
ἀγκύλοι δ’ αὐτῆς ἄνθρωπον ἐπίπρατον πέρσοιεδες,
ἰὼν νυμφώδων αἰ νήιδες καλέονται.
ἐν τῷ κριτῆρές τε καὶ ἀμφοροφόρης ἑασι
λάνοι, ἐνθα δ’ ἐπιπτα πιθαλθώσουσι μέλισσαι·
ἐν δ’ ἰστοὶ λίθεοι περιμήκεες, ἔνθα τε νύμφαι
φαρέ’ ὑφαίνουσιν ἀλλήλοιρα, θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι.
ἐν δ’ ὕδατ’ ἀένδοντα. διὼ δὲ τε οἱ θύραι εἰσιν,
αἱ μὲν πρὸς θορεσσὸ καταβαίνεται ἀνθρώποισιν,
αἱ δ’ αὐ-πρὸς νότον εἰσί θεώτεραι· οὐδὲ τι κεῖνη
ἄνδρες ἐσέρχονται, ἀλλὰ ἀθάνατον ὅσδ’ ἔστιν. 

The geographical writers show that on the one hand he has not provided a description of actual things passed down by tradition, because they mention nothing of such a cave in the island-or so Cronius claims. It is clear on the other hand that he would hardly have been credible if he fabricated the cave out of poetic license and yet hoped to convince us that some person in the land of Ithaca had fashioned paths for gods and men - or if not a person, then that nature itself designated a path of descent for all men and then another path for all the gods. The entire universe is full of men and of gods, but the description of the Ithacan cave is far from persuading us that it contains a path of descent for men and one of ascent for gods.

Cronius, after he has called attention to these matters, asserts that it is clear not only to the scholar but to the layman as well, that the poet is in some way allegorizing here and hinting through these lines at some further meaning, forcing us to ask such questions as "What is a gate of men, or one of · gods?" and "What is the meaning of this ’two-gated cave,’ said to be sacred to the nymphs and at the same time both ’lovely’ and ’murky’?" That which is dark and shadowy is by no means "lovely" but on the contrary terrible. We must further ask why the cave is said not simply to be sacred to the nymphs, but for greater precision the expression "called Naiads" has been added. And then, why does he include the kraters and amphoras, when we hear nothing of what is kept in them but rather are told that bees "lay up stores of honey" in them, as in beehives? The "massive looms/’ we may say, were set up as dedications to the nymphs. But why not of wood or some other material? No, they too are made of stone, like the kraters and amphoras. And all this is still the less obscure part of the description -but that on these stone looms the nymphs should "weave sea-purple cloth" is a "wonder" not only "to see" but to hear! Who could remain credulous when told that goddesses go around weaving sea-purple cloaks on stone looms in murky caves, and then that these weavings by the goddesses are visible and moreover of the specific color "sea-purple"? On top of this, it is amazing that the cave should be "two-gated," the one gate made "as a path for men to descend," the other for gods - and that the path men may travel is said to extend in the direction of the North Wind and that for gods toward the South. It is no small mystery why he parcels out the northerly regions to men and the southerly ones to gods, and has not rather chosen to use east and west in this context, since nearly all temples have the statues and the entrances turned toward the East, so that those who enter face the West when they stand face to face with the statues, bringing their prayers and worship to the gods.

Given that the description is full of such obscurities, Cronius concludes that it is not, in fact, a casual fiction created for our amusement, but neither is it a geographically accurate description, and so the poet must be saying something beyond the obvious here. Likewise, he has placed the olive :..o.,tree nearby for some mysterious reason. Even the ancients, he says, considered it a major task to track down and develop all of these things, and now we must attempt to understand them with the help of those who have gone before us and of our own perceptions.

First, then, as far as the description of the place is concerned, those who have written about it and concluded that the cave and the account of it are fictions of the poet seem to have been rather careless, since those who have written the best and most accurate geographical accounts do mention it, and specifically Artemidorus of Ephesus. In the fifth book of his work in eleven books he writes as follows:

Twelve stadia [2.2 km.] east of Cephallenia, going from the harbor of Panormus, lies the island of Ithaca, 85 stadia [15.7 km.] in length, narrow and conspicuous, with a harbor called the harbor of Phorcys. There is also in this harbor a beach where the sacred cave of the nymphs is located, where it is said Odysseus was put ashore by the Phaeacians.

It seems, then, that it is not entirely a Homeric fiction. Whether Horner described it as it was or added something himself, however, the aforementioned problems persist for anyone trying to track down the intention either of those who established the shrine or of the poet who made the additions. The ancients who founded shrines would not have done so without incorporating mysterious symbols nor would Homer have described it in any random manner. To the extent that one undertakes to show that the business of the cave is not a Homeric creation but rather that of those, before Homer’s time, who consecrated the place to the gods, one will be establishing that the dedication is full of the wisdom of the ancients and on this acount that it deserves investigation and its cult symbolism should be interpreted.

Now, the ancients quite appropriately made caves and caverns sacred to the cosmos, taken as a whole as well as in its parts, and passed down the tradition that earth is a symbol of the matter out of which the cosmos emerged. For this reason, some even took earth simply to be that matter itself. The ancients likewise found in caves symbols of the cosmos generated out of matter since, broadly speaking, caves have their own separate nature and identity, but one which is inseparable from that of the earth, surrounded as they are by homogeneous rock, hollow within, but on the outside extending to the infinity of the earth. The cosmos likewise has its own separate nature and identity, and one which is inseparable from matter, for they found a symbol in rocks and stones because these are inert resist the imposition of form upon them. that is, took matter to be "infinite" sense it formless. since itself state flux deprived through takes shape made manifest, dampness humidity caves, their darkness and, as poet says, "murkiness," an appropriate properties cosmos owes matter. on account misty dark intermingling resultant order (διακόσμησις, whence name "cosmos" itself) beautiful lovely. so, moreover, cave might appropriately called "lovely" seen point view one who chances perceives participation forms - contrary, "murky" sees more deeply into penetrates by use mind. thus, far its exterior concerned, viewed superficially, "lovely," but interior depth, "murky."

Likewise the Persian mystagogues initiate their candidate by explaining to him the downward journey of souls and their subsequent return, and they call the place where this occurs a "cave."’ First of all, according to Eubulus, Zoroaster consecrated a natural cave in the mountains near Persia, a flowery cave with springs, to the honor of Mithras, the creator and father of the universe, since the cave was for him an image of the cosmos that Mithras created. The objects arranged symmetrically within the cave were symbols of the elements and _regions of the cosmos. Later, he continues, after Zoroaster, rithe custom of performing the mysteries in caves and grottoes, whether natural or artificial, caught on among others as well. Just as they founded temples, shrines, and altars for the Olympian gods, hearths for burnt offerings for chthonic deities and heroes, and pits and underground sanctuaries for the hypochthonic deities, in the same way they consecrated caves and grottoes to the cosmos and likewise to the nymphs on account of the waters that pour down into caves and come up out of them, The Naiads, as we shall soon explain, are the nymphs that preside over these waters.

Not only did they make the cave a symbol of the generated and perceptible cosmos, but likewise the ancients took it as a symbol of all the unseen powers, since caves are dark and it is the nature of these powers to be invisible. Thus Kronos niakes a cave for himself in the ocean and it is there that he hides his children. Demeter likewise raises Kore in a cave among nymphs, and you will find many other examples of this sort if you go over the works of the theologians.

The following hymn to Apollo makes it clear that they have 8 likewise habitually dedicated caves to the nymphs, and specifically the Naiads who preside over springs and who are called "Naiads" from the waters out of which streams "flow" ’(νάμασιν):[4]

They who live in caves in the earth, nursed to divine utterance by the inspiration of the Muse, have made springs of the water of wisdom fl.ow for you and break through the earth in all the glens, bringing to men the unceasing fl.ow of their sweet streams.

I believe that this is where the Pythagoreans and Plato after them got the idea of calling the cosmos a cave or a grotto, In Empedocles, the powers that guide souls say:

We have come here within this roofed cave [fr, B 120 D-K],

and Plato in the seventh book of the Republic [514a-515b] says,

Picture mankind living in a subterranean dwelling in a cave, with an entrance open to the light and a long path extending the entire length of the cave.

The other speaker says, "This is a bizarre image," and [Socrates][5] continues,

Dear Glaucon, this image is to be applied to everything that has been said up to this point, comparing the place we live, as we experience it with our eyes, to the underground prison, and the light of the fire [that is in the cave] to the power of the sun.

That the theologians made caves symbols of the cosmos and of the encosmic powers has thus been demonstrated, but it has also been asserted above that they made them symbols of the noetic substance, though they reach this conclusion starting from concepts which are quite different. They made them symbols of the sensible cosmos because they are dark and rocky and damp, and the cosmos likewise has these properties because of the matter from which it is sprung, and it resists form and is unstable. They made caves symbols of the noetic universe, on the other hand, because they are not easily grasped by the senses and at the same time they are essentially solid and enduring. For the very same reason they made caves symbols of the obscure, fragmentary powers, and most of all those participating in matter. They created these symbols because caves are natural and nocturnal and shadowy and rocky - not at all, as some have suspected, because of their shape, since not all caves are spherical. When a cave is double, like the one with two entrances that Homer describes,’ they used to consider it symbolic not of the noetic but rather of the sensible cosmos, and likewise the cave under consideration, because its "water flows incessantly," would not be a symbol of the noetic hypostasis, but rather of material existence. For this reason also it is a temple of the Naiad Nymphs, whose name comes from these flowing streams, and not of the Oreiades (Mountain Nymphs), or the Akraides (Summit Nymphs), or some such creatures.

We likewise use the term "Naiad Nymphs" specifically for those powers set over the waters, and the ancients used to us·e the term to designate the general class of souls descending , into ytvwrs.’ They believed that souls settled upon the water, ’ which was "god-inspired" as Numenius says, adding that it is for this reason that the prophet said, "The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters,"’ and that the Egyptians depicted all their gods standing not on dry land but rather in a boat-the sun along with the rest of them -1’1.14th~se are to be thought of as the souls coming down into γενέσεις, and hovering over the water. He goes on to say thaitl1iSis why Heraclitus says, "It is a delight, not a death, for souls to become wet" [Fr. B 77, D-K], for it is a pleasure for them to fall into matter, and elsewhere, "We live their deaths while they live our deaths" [d. Fr. B 62, D-K]. Moreover, he says, the poet calls those in ytvwrs "wet" [61Ep6s, Od.6. 201] because they have damp souls. They are in love with blood and semen, just as the souls of plants are nourished by water.

Some maintain strongly that the bodies in the upper air and 11 in the heavens are nourished by exhalations from streams and rivers and by other rising vapors, and the Stoics believed that the sun was nourished by the vapors rising from the sea, the moon by the waters of springs and rivers, and the stars by vapors rising from the earth. Thus the sun was for them a fiery noetic mass fed by the sea, the moon another fed by the river waters, and the stars still others fed by the exhalations of the earth.

There is a compulsion for souls, whether they are embodied or disembodied but still dragging along some corporeal material - and most of all for those souls that are just about to be bound to blood and moist bodies - to descend to moisture and, once they have been moistened, to become embodied. This explains, moreover, why the souls of those who have died are attracted by pouring out bile and blood and why souls in love with the body drag along with them a damp spirit that condenses like a cloud - for moisture in the air when condensed becomes cloud - and when the spirit in them condenses they become visible because of the excess of moisture. From souls of this sort come the apparitions that sometimes confront people, tinting and manifesting their spirits according to their fantasies. But pure souls avoid γενέσεις.

Heraclitus himself says, "A dry soul is wisest" [cf. fr. B 118 D-K]. That is, right here in this world the spirit becomes damp or saturated, as a function of its sexual desire, 9 and the soul drags a damp vapor along with it from its descent toward γενέσεις.

Thus souls corning into γενέσεις are Naiad Nymphs and so it is the custom to call brides "nymphs" [νύμφαι] as well, since they are being married for childbearing [γενέσεις], and to pour over them water drawn from springs or streams or ever flowing fountains. For souls that have been initiated into the material world and for the deities that preside over γενέσεις, the cosmos is both holy and pleasing, though by nature it is shadowy and "murky": that is why these beings are considered to be misty and to have the substance of mist or air. For the same reason an appropriate temple for them on earth would be a "pleasant grotto," a "murky" one, in the image of the cosmos in which souls dwell as in the greatest of temples. The cave is likewise appropriate for nymphs that preside over the waters since it contains water which If-flows unceasingly." Thus let us say that the cave in question is dedicated to souls and to the nymphs of the realm of the more fragmented powers that preside over flowing streams and springs and are called Pegaean Nymphs (Spring Nymphs) and Naiads for that reason.

Now, what different symbols can we distinguish, referring respectively to souls and to the powers in the waters, in order to be able to maintain that the cave was dedicated in common to both? We may say that the stone kraters and amphoras are symbols of the water nymphs. When these things are made of pottery - that is, of baked clay - they are symbols of Dionysus and are closely associated with the vine, which is the gift of that god, since its fruit is ripened by the fire of heaven.[10] Kraters and amphoras of stone are thus quite appropriate to nymphs presiding over water which flows from rocks. For souls coming down into γενέσεις, and the making of bodies, on the other hand, what could be a better symbol than the stone looms? This is why the poet presumed to say that on these they

weave sea-purple cloth, a wonder to see.

Flesh comes into being by means of bones and wrapped around bones, and stone represents these bones, because within living creatures they resemble stone. This is why the looms were said to be made of stone rather than some other material. The sea-purple cloth would clearly be the flesh, woven of blood: the sea-purple wool, the fiber itself, is ultimately the product of blood and the wool is even dyed with a product derived from living creatures. Likewise, the production of flesh is accomplished both by blood and out of blood. Moreover, the body surely is a cloak for the soul around which it is wrapped, "a wonder to see" whether you consider it from the point of view of the composition of the composite entity or from that of the soul’s bondage to the body. Thus, according to Orpheus, Kore, the overseer of all things sown in the earth, is depicted as a weaver, and the ancients called heaven a urobe,"11 as if it were a garment cast around the heavenly gods.

Why, then, are the amphoras filled not with water but with honeycomb? For he says, "bees lay up stores" in them and T18ai66>00£1v means "put away" [T18tvai] "food" [6601v] and the food and nourishment of bees is honey.

The theologians have used honey to symbolize many different things since it combines multiple powers, and is both cathartic and preservative in its effects. Many things are kept from rotting by honey and it clears up persistent wounds. It is sweet to the taste and is gathered from flowers by bees, which incidentally are born from cattle. When they pour honey instead of water on the initiates in the Lion Mysteries,[12] they call upon them to keep their hands pure of all that which is painful, harmful, or dirty, and since it is an initiate of cathartic fire whose hands are being washed, they use an appropriate substance and avoid water because it is inimical to fire. They also purify the.tongue of all sin by means of honey. On the other hand, when they offer honey to the Persian" as "preserver of the fruit," it is the preservative qualities that they evoke through the symbol. This is the basis on which some have taken it that honey is to be equated with nectar and ambrosia, which the poet talks of pouring into the nostrils to prevent the dead from rotting. Thus honey would be the food of the gods. For this reason, Homer also refers somewhere to "tawny nectar" [11. 19.38,0d.5.93] since this is the color of honey. However, we can determine more precisely by comparing passages from other sources whether honey and nectar are to be equated. According to Orpheus, Zeus used honey to trap Kronos, for full of honey he became blind drunk, as if with wine, and fell asleep, just as did Poros in Plato, full of nectar - "for wine did not yet exist."" In Orpheus, Night, suggesting the honey trick to Zeus, says,

"When you see him laid out under the tall oaks
drunk with the labors of the buzzing bees,
tie him up"
(Orph. fr. 154, Kern).

This is what happened to Kronos, and when he was bound he was castrated, like Ouranos, and the theologian is hinting that divine beings are ensnared by pleasure and drawn down into ytvw1<;, and that they discharge their powers like semen when they are made feeble by pleasure. This is why Kronos castrates Ouranos as he is settling down on Earth, driven by his desire to have intercourse with her, and for the ancients the pleasure of the honey that deludes Kronos and brings about his castration had exactly the same meaning as the pleasure of intercourse. Likewise, Saturn [Kp6vo<;]" is the outermost of the planets and his sphere lies just below heaven [Oupav6<;]. Powers descend from heaven and from the planets, but Saturn receives those that come directly from heaven and Jupiter [Zt6<;] receives them from Saturn.

In view of its relationship to purification, to the prevention of decay and to the pleasure of descent.into the flesh, honey is an appropriate symbol as applied to the Water Nymphs, . standing for the purity of the waters over which they preside and their cleansing powers and their cooperation in ylvw1<; for water does play a part in ytvw1<;. This is the reason why bees store honey in the kraters and the arnphoras.

The kraters symbolize springs-just as a krater is set beside Mithras to stand for a spring-as do the arnphoras, which we use to draw water up from springs. Springs and running 18 streams are appropriate to Water Nymphs and even more so to those nymphs that are souls, whom the ancients specifically called "bees," because of their diligence in the pursuit of pleasure. This is why Sophocles said with great appropriateness, referring to souls,

The swarm of the dead buzzes and rises up
[Fr. 795, Nauck],

and the ancients used to call the priestesses of Demeter "bees," as initiates of the chthonic goddess, and to call Kore herself "Melitodes" or "honey-like" and the moon, which presides over y£vw1<;, they also called "the bee," among other reasons because the moon is also called a bull and Taurus is its exaltation, and bees are born from cattle. Souls corning into y£vw1<;, are likewise "born from cattle," and the god who secretly impedes ytvw1<; is "the cattle-thief."

Honey also has been made a symbol of death and thus they used to pour libations of honey to the chthonic deities. In the same way, they made bile a symbol of life, hinting that the life of the soul expires through pleasure but is revived through bitterness. They also poured sacrifices of bile for the gods, either for this same reason or because death is a release from pain and life here is full of suffering and bitterness.

They did not simply call all the souls entering into ytvw1s "bees," but specifically those that were to live just lives and return after performing acts pleasing to the gods, for bees love to return to their source and are remarkably even-tempered and sober." Thus libations of honey are "sober" libations. Moreover, bees do not light on the flowers of fava beans, which the ancients used to take as a symbol of the direct and unswerving path of ytvecric;, since fava beans are virtually unique among seed-bearing plants in having stems that are continuously hollow and not interrupted by cross membranes at the nodes. Thus honeycombs and bees would constitute appropriate symbols both for Water Nymphs and for souls becoming "brides" as they enter y€.veo1c;.

Before they invented temples for the gods, the earliest men consecrated caves and grottoes to them. The Couretes in Crete consecrated a cave to Zeus as did people in Arcadia to Selene and to Lycaean Pan, and in Naxos to Dionysus. Likewise, wherever they recognized Mithras they propitiated the god with a cave.

Homer was not content to point out that the Ithacan cave had two entrances, but went onto specify that one was toward the North and one toward the South and that the northern one was for descent, though he did not mention whether the southern one was for descent, only that

men do not enter by this one, but rather it is a path for immortals.

We must now explore the intention of those who consecrated the cave (if the poet is reporting historical fact), or his own riddle, if the description is his own fabrication. Numenius and his companion Cronius say the cave is the image and symbol of the cosmos and that there are two extremities in heaven, represented by the summer and winter tropics.[19] The summer tropic is in Cancer, the winter one in Capricorn. Since Cancer is very close to us, this constellation is appropriately associated with the moon, which is the closest of the heavenly bodies to the earth. Since the South Pole remains invisible, Capricorn is associated with the farthest and highest of these bodies, i.e. Saturn.

The signs of the Zodiac extend in order from Cancer to Capricorn: first, Leo, the house of the sun; second, Virgo, the house of Mercury; then, Libra, the house of Venus; Scorpio, the house of Mars; Sagittarius, the house of Jupiter; and Capricorn, the house of Saturn. Working back from Capricorn, Aquarius belongs to Saturn, Pisces to Jupiter, Aries to Mars, Taurus to Venus, Gemini to Mercury, and finally Cancer to the moon.

The usage of referring to these two tropics in Cancer and Capricorn as "gates" goes back to the theologians, while Plato speaks of two "mouths."20 Numenius and Cronius say further that the gate of Cancer is the one through which souls descend and that of Capricorn the one through which they ascend. Note that Cancer is northerly and appropriate for descent while Capricorn is southerly and suited for ascent. The northern regions belong to souls descending into ytvw1s, 23 and the northern "gate" of the cave is precisely the one that is "a path for men to descend." The southern regions belong not to the gods but more properly to those ascending to the gods. For this same reason, Homer did not say the other was a path for "gods" but rather for "immortals," a term which applies equally to souls, on the basis that they are immortal either in themselves or by their nature. Numenius and Cronius say that Parmenides in his Physics mentions the two gates, and that the Romans and Egyptians were acquainted with them. They point out that the Romans celebrate the Saturnalia when the sun is in Capricorn and that in the festival slaves play the part of free men and all goods are considered common property. In this the founder of the rite has hinted at the fact that it is through this gate of heaven and through the festival of Saturn and the house of Saturn [that is, Capricorn] that those who are now enslaved by ytvw1s, are set free, coming to live again and receiving, as it were, another birth. The Romans thus think of the path of Capricorn as one of ascent," and so they call a gate ianus and the "gate month" January, during which the sun is making its ascent from Capricorn, where it reversed its course, and its rising-point on the east24 [73] 25 em horizon is moving steadily toward the North. The Egyptian year does not begin in Aquarius, like the Roman year, but in Cancer. This is because Sothis, which the Greeks call the Dog Star [or Sirius], is near Cancer. The first day of their year is the rising of Sothis, leading ytvw1s into the cosmos.

This explains why Homer has placed the entrances of the cave neither to the East and to the West nor at the equinoxes, under Aries and Libra, but rather in the South and North and at the southernmost and northernmost gates of the heavens, because the cave is consecrated to souls and to Water Nymphs and these regions are appropriate to the birth and rebirth (or departure) of souls. The ancients also located the seat of Mithras by means of the equinoxes. This is why he carried a sword, emblematic of Aries which is the house of Mars, and why he rides the bull of Venus [who governs Libra]. Mithras is both a creator, like the bull, and lord of ytvw1s. Thus he is oriented along the celestial equator with the North on his right and the South on his left. They place [his torchbearer] Cautes to the south because it is hot and the other one, Cautopates, to the north on account of the coldness of the North Wind.[22]

Likewise, they assigned the appropriate winds to souls entering ytvw1s, and departing from it, because some believed that the souls themselves drew spirit [nv•uµa] with them and that they had a similar substance. In any case, the North Wind is appropriate to those souls entering ytvw1s. Thus, for those about to die, the North Wind

breathes upon them and revives them, though at the point of death
[Il.5. 698],

while the South Wind destroys them. The one is colder and tends to freeze them and hold them in the frigid grip of earthly ytvrnrs, while the other is warmer and so melts them and sends them back up to the warmth of the divine. Moreover, since the area of the world which is inhabited is concentrated in the northern part, it is necessary for those who are conceived here to have to do with the North Wind and those who are departing with the South Wind. This is also the reason why, where we live, the North Wind is very violent at its onset but the South Wind becomes more violent before it ceases, for the one falls immediately on us since we live far to the North, while the other starts further away and takes longer to reach us from its source, and it is only when it has cumulatively gathered its forces that it reaches its full strength.

Since souls enter into ytvrnrs through the northern gate, 26 this wind has been called erotic. Take for example:

In the form of a dark-maned stallion [Boreas] covered them and they were impregnated and bore twelve foals
[II. 20. 224-225].

Likewise they say he raped Oreithyia and fathered Zetes and Calais.

On the other hand, it is because they associate the South Wind with the gods that men draw the screens in their temples at noon, following the injunction given by Homer in the passage under consideration, since it is not right for men to enter the temples of the gods by the "southern inclination,"[23] "but it is rather a path for immortals." Moreover, when the god is "at his noon," they place the symbol of midday and the South on the door. Of course, it was not permissible to speak at any gates, at whatever time, since a gate is a holy thing, and for this reason the Pythagoreans and the Egyptian wise men forbade talking while walking through a gate or a door, paying respect by silence to god, who holds the beginning of all things. Homer, too, knows that doors are sacred as can be seen in his description of Oineus, who, instead of shaking before him emblems of supplication, is depicted

shaking the solid doorflaps, supplicating his son
[II. 9. 583].

He also knows of the gates of the sky, which are entrusted to the Hours and determine which places are cloudy. They are opened and closed by clouds to shut the thick cloud and close the gate [Il. 5. 751 =8. 395] and the reason why they "groan" is that thunder as well comes from clouds: the self-moving gates of heaven, over which the Hours preside, groaned [II. 5. 749 =8. 393]. 28 [76] · He somewhere talks of "gates of the sun" [Od. 24. 12] by which he means Cancer and Capricorn, for these are the limits of its travel as it descends from the home of the North Wind into the South and then returns back up to the North. Capricorn and Cancer mark the extremities of the Milky Way and lie near it, Cancer in the North and Capricorn in the South."’ According to Pythagoras, the souls are the "people of dreams" [Od. 24. 12] who, as he says, are assembled in the Milky Way [yalla~fa] which derives its name from "milk" [yalla] because they are nourished with milk when they first fall into ytvw1s. For this reason also, he says, those who call forth souls pour libations of milk and honey to them, since they are accustomed to enter ytvw1s, because of the lure of pleasure. Also, milk is produced from the time of birth.

Furthermore, the southern regions produce bodies which are naturally smaller because the heat exerts an exceptional shriveling force upon them and so for the same reason makes them both smaller and drier. In northern regions, on the other hand, bodies are always large: Celts, Thracians, and Scyths provide ample illustration of this and their soil is rich and moist and provides abundant pasture. Even the name of the North Wind, Boreas, comes from "nourishment" [6opa] since "nourishment" is food and the wind that blows from that part of the earth that is bursting with food, because it is "nourishing," is called Boreas. Thus the northern regions are appropriate to the swarm of mortal beings that have fallen under the power of ytvems, and the southern regions to the more divine class, just as the east belongs to the gods and the west to the lesser divinities [oafµoves].

Since the natural world has its source in dichotomy or otherness [t-rep6T~S], things with two entrances have everywhere been made to symbolize it. The journey is either through the noetic or through the sensible, and within the sensible universe, it is either through the fixed stars or through the planets, and again either along the path of immortality or that of mortality. Likewise, there is a center or node above the earth, one below, one in the East and one in f the West. Then there are opposites such as right and left, night and day - thus the structure of the natural world is drawn into harmony, strung between the opposites.

Plato speaks of two "mouths,"25 one for those going up into heaven and one for those going down into the earth, while the theologians make the "gates" of souls the sun and moon, the ascent taking place through the sun and the descent through the moon. ·

Homer likewise mentions two "pithoi,"

of gifts he gives, one full of evils, the other of benefits
[II. 24. 528],

and the soul is likewise thought of as a pithos in Plato’s Gorgias, where it has two aspects, one being beneficial and the . other maleficent, one rational and the other irrational. The image of the pithos is chosen because souls are containers of actions and conditions of various sorts. In Hesiod, the one pithos is envisioned as closed but the other is opened by pleasure and its contents dispersed in the universe, leaving only hope behind, for in all those individuals in whom the bad soul has utterly failed and become disordered, scattered through matter, the soul sustains itself on good hopes.

In general, then, that which has two gates is symbolic of nature and the natural world and the cave in question is endowed not with one entrance but with two, which are differentiated from one another in accordance with the nature of things: the one is appropriate to gods and to the good, the other to mortals and to the less good. Starting from this, Plato himself envisions his bowls and substitutes pithoi for the amphoras and, as we have said, two "mouths" for the two [78] 32 "gates." Pherecydes of Syros talks of holes and pits, of caves and gates and doors, using these images to hint at the births and rebirths of souls. Rather than unnecessarily increase the bulk of the discussion by drawing in more of the opinions of the ancient philosophers and theologians, we shall take it that the entire meaning of the description has been adequately displayed in those already discussed.

There remains, though, as we are all aware, the problem of explaining the mystery contained in the symbol of the planted olive tree, for surely this expresses something further since it is not simply said to be planted nearby, but "at the head":

and at the head of the harbor is a slender-leaved olive and near by it a ... cave,

and it is not, as one might think, growing there that way by chance, but rather it embraces the riddle of the cave.

Since the cosmos did not come into existence in vain or ·randomly, but exists as the result of the thoughtfulness and intention of god and of noetic nature, the olive, a symbol of god’s thoughtfulness, grows next to the image of the world, which is the cave. The olive tree belongs to Athena and Athena is thoughtfulness. In view of the fact that the goddess was born from the head [of Zeus], the theologian" found an appropriate place when he enshrined the tree at the "head" of the harbor and he indicated through this tree the fact that the universe did not come to be spontaneously nor was it the work of irrational chance, but rather that it is the result of noetic nature and of wisdom. At the same time, the tree is something separate from the cave [as divine wisdom is something separate from the world], but set nearby at the head of the entire harbor.

The olive is evergreen and this is a property that is 33 extremely appropriate to the comings and goings in the cosmos of the -souls to whom the cave is consecrated. In summer, its leaves turn their whitish sides upward and then during winter they turn them the other way. For this reason in prayers and supplications men hold out olive branches, auguring the transformation of the gloom of their troubles into brightness. The naturally evergreen olive likewise serves as a helper in heavy labor, by the fruit that it bears. It is dedicated to Athena and a wreath from it is given to victorious athletes and likewise it is the material of the boughs carried by suppliants. The cosmos, on the other hand, is governed by noetic nature, according to a providence which acts eternally and, so to speak, as if "evergreen"; from that providence come as well both the emblems of victory for the athletes of life and release from heavy labor, and he who draws the pitiful and the suppliants to him is the creator who holds the cosmos together.

Homer says that all outward possessions must be deposited 34 in this cave and that one must be stripped naked and take on the persona of a beggar and, having withered the body away," and cast aside all that is superfluous, and turned away from the senses, take counsel with Athena, sitting with her beneath the olive, to learn how he might cut away all the destructive passions of his soul. No, I do not think Numenius and his friends were off the track in thinking that, for Homer, Odysseus in the Odyssey was the symbol of man passing through the successive stages of ytvw1s and so being restored to his place among those beyond all wavecrash and "ignorant of the sea:"

until you reach men who do not know the sea and put no salt on their food
[Od. 11. 122-123].

"Open sea" and "sea" and "wavecrash" are expressions which likewise in Plato refer to the material universe.

I believe that he called the harbor "the harbor of Phorcys"
(There is a harbor belonging to Phorcys, the old man of the sea
[Od.13. 96]),

for the following reason. Homer provided us from the beginning of the Odyssey with the information that Phorcys’ daughter Thoosa was the mother of the cyclops whose eye Odysseus puts out, and he did so in order that there might be some hint of a memory of Odysseus’ sins right up to his arrival home. Thus the seat beneath the olive is appropriate since Odysseus is a suppliant of the god, appeasing the oaiµwv presiding over ytvw1<; from beneath his suppliant’s branch. It was not in the nature of things for Odysseus to cast off this life of the senses simply by blinding it - an attempt to put an end to it abruptly-and the wrath of the gods of the sea and of matter came upon him as a result of his presumption in trying to do so. 28 These gods must first be appeased by sacrifice and by the hard labor of the poor and by patience. He must at one moment confront and conquer the passions, then bewitch and [81] trick them and so totally free himself from them that, stripped of his rags, he may destroy them all-and even so, he will not be freed from his labors until he has become completely free of the sea and wiped away his very experience of the sea and of matter, so that he thinks that an oar is a winnowing fan in utter ignorance of the business of seafaring.

This sort of exegesis should not be considered forced, nor should it be equated with the sort of thing fanciful interpreters try to render plausible. When one takes into consideration the ancient wisdom and the vast intelligence of Horner, along with his perfection in every virtue, one cannot reject the idea that he has hinted at images of more divine things in molding his little story.’° It is impossible that he should have successfully created the entire basis of the story without shaping that creation after some sort of truth. Let us postpone writing on this, however, and leave it for treatment at some time in the future. This is the end of the explanation of the cave we we have been discussing.

Comments