THE ORIGIN OF THE MAGIC ART

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Magicas vanitates saepius quidem antecedente operis parte, ubicumque causae locusque poscebant, coarguimus detegemusque etiamnum. in paucis tamen digna res est, de qua plura dicantur, vel eo ipso quod fraudulentissima artium plurimum in toto terrarum orbe plurimisque saeculis valuit. auctoritatem ei maximam fuisse nemo miretur, quandoquidem sola artium tres alias imperiosissimas humanae mentis complexa in unam se redegit. natam primum e medicina nemo dubitabit ac specie salutari inrepsisse velut altiorem sanctioremque medicinam, ita blandissimis desideratissimisque promissis addidisse vires religionis, ad quas maxime etiam nunc caligat humanum genus, atque, ut hoc quoque successerit, miscuisse artes mathematicas, nullo non avido futura de sese sciendi atque ea e caelo verissime peti credente. ita possessis hominum sensibus triplici vinculo in tantum fastigii adolevit, ut hodieque etiam in magna parte gentium praevaleat et in oriente regum regibus imperet.

Sine dubio illic orta in Perside a Zoroastre, ut inter auctores convenit. sed unus hic fuerit an postea et alius, non satis constat. Eudoxus, qui inter sapientiae sectas clarissimam utilissimamque eam intellegi voluit, Zoroastren hunc sex milibus annorum ante Platonis mortem fuisse prodidit; sic et Aristoteles. Hermippus, qui de tota ea arte diligentissime scripsit et viciens c milia versuum a Zoroastre condita indicibus quoque voluminum eius positis explanavit, praeceptorem, a quo institutum diceret, tradidit Agonacen, ipsum vero quinque milibus annorum ante Troianum bellum fuisse. mirum hoc in primis, durasse memoriam artemque tam longo aevo, non commentariis intercedentibus, praeterea nec claris nec continuis successionibus custoditam. quotus enim quisque hominum auitu saltem cognitos habet, qui soli nominantur, Apusorum et Zaratum Medos Babyloniosque Marmarum et Arabantiphocum aut Assyrium Tarmoendam, quorum nulla exstant monumenta? maxime tamen mirum est, in bello Troiano tantum de arte ea silentium fuisse Homero tantumque operis ex eadem in Ulixis erroribus, adeo ut vel totum opus non aliunde constet, siquidem Protea et Sirenum cantus apud eum non aliter intellegi volunt, Circe utique et inferum evocatione hoc solum agi. nec postea quisquam dixit, quonam modo venisset Telmesum, religiosissimam urbem, quando transisset ad Thessalas matres, quarum cognomen diu optinuit in nostro orbe, aliena genti Troianis utique temporibus Chironis medicinisn medicis V2R1d. contentae et solo Marte fulminanti. miror equidem Achillis populis famam eius in tantum adhaesisse, ut Menander quoque, litterarum subtilitati sine aemulo genitus, Thessalam cognominaret famulam complexam ambages feminarum detrahentium lunam. Orphea putarem e propinquo artem primum intulisse ad vicina usque superstitionis ac medicinae provectum, si non expers sedes eius tota Thrace magices fuisset. primus, quod exstet, ut equidem invenio, commentatus est de ea Osthanes Xerxen regem Persarum bello, quod is Graeciae intulit, comitatus ac velut semina artis portentosae sparsit obiter infecto, quacumque commeaverat, mundo. diligentiores paulo ante hunc ponunt Zoroastren alium Proconnensium. quod certum est, hic maxime Osthanes ad rabiem, non aviditatem modo scientiae eius, Graecorum populos egit. quamquam animadverto summam litterarum claritatem gloriamque ex ea scientia antiquitus et paene semper petitam. certe Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Plato ad hanc discendam navigavere exiliis verius quam peregrinationibus susceptis, hanc reversi praedicavere, hanc in arcanis habuere. Democritus Apollobechen Coptiten et Dardanum e Phoenice inlustravit voluminibus Dardani in sepulchrum eius petitis, suis vero ex disciplina eorum editis. quae recepta ab ullis hominum atque transisse per memoriam aeque ac nihil in vita mirandum est; in tantum fides istis fasque omne deest, adeo ut qui cetera in viro probant, haec opera eius esse infitientur. sed frustra. hunc enim maxime adfixisse animis eam dulcedinem constat. plenumque miraculi et hoc, pariter utrasque artes effloruisse, medicinam dico magicenque, eadem aetate illam Hippocrate, hanc Democrito inlustrantibus, circa Peloponnensiacum Graeciae bellum, quod gestum est a trecentesimo urbis nostrae anno. est et alia magices factio a Mose et Janne et Lotape ac Iudaeis pendens, sed multis milibus annorum post Zoroastren. tanto recentior est Cypria. non levem et Alexandri Magni temporibus auctoritatem addidit professioni secundus Osthanes comitatu eius exornatus, planeque, quod nemo dubitet, orbem terrarum peragravit.

Extant certe et apud Italas gentes vestigia eius in XII tabulis nostris aliisque argumentis, quae priore volumine exposui. DCLVII demum anno urbis Cn. Cornelio Lentulo P. Licinio Crasso cos. senatusconsultum factum est, ne homo immolaretur, palamque fit, in tempus illut sacra prodigiosa celebrata. Gallias utique possedit, et quidem ad nostram memoriam. namque Tiberii Caesaris principatus sustulit Druidas eorum et hoc genus vatum medicorumque. sed quid ego haec commemorem in arte oceanum quoque transgressa et ad naturae inane pervecta? Britannia hodieque eam adtonita celebrat tantis caerimoniis, ut dedisse Persis videri possit. adeo ista toto mundo consensere, quamquam discordi et sibi ignoto. nec satis aestimari potest, quantum Romanis debeatar, qui sustulere monstra, in quibus hominem occidere religiosissimum erat, mandi vero etiam saluberrimum.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

In former parts of this work, I have had occasion more than once, when the subject demanded it, to refute the impostures of the magic art, and it is now my intention to continue still further my exposure thereof. Indeed, there are few subjects on which more might be profitably said, were it only that, being, as it is, the most deceptive of all known arts, it has exercised the greatest influence in every country and in nearly every age. And no one can be surprised at the extent of its influence and authority, when he reflects that by its own energies it has embraced, and thoroughly amalgamated with itself, the three other sciences which hold the greatest sway upon the mind of man.

That it first originated in medicine, no one entertains a doubt; or that, under the plausible guise of promoting health, it insinuated itself among mankind, as a higher and more holy branch of the medical art. Then, in the next place, to promises the most seductive and the most flattering, it has added all the resources of religion, a subject upon which, at the present day, man is still entirely in the dark. Last of all, to complete its universal sway, it has incorporated with itself the astrological art; there being no man who is not desirous to know his future destiny, or who is not ready to believe that this knowledge may with the greatest certainty be obtained, by observing the face of the heavens. The senses of men being thus enthralled by a three-fold bond, the art of magic has attained an influence so mighty, that at the present day even, it holds sway throughout a great part of the world, and rules the kings of kings in the East.

There is no doubt that this art originated in Persia, under Zoroaster, this being a point upon which authors are generally agreed; but whether there was only one Zoroaster, or whether in later times there was a second person of that name, is a matter which still remains undecided. Eudoxus, who has endeavoured to show that of all branches of philosophy the magic art is the most illustrious and the most beneficial, informs us that this Zoroaster existed six thousand years before the death of Plato, an assertion in which he is supported by Aristotle. Hermippus, again, an author who has written with the greatest exactness on all particulars connected with this art, and has commented upon the two millions of verses left by Zoroaster, besides completing indexes to his several works, has left a statement, that Agonaces was the name of the master from whom Zoroaster derived his doctrines, and that he lived five thousand years before the time of the Trojan War. The first thing, however, that must strike us with surprise, is the fact that this art, and the traditions connected with it, should have survived for so many ages, all written commentaries thereon having perished in the meanwhile; and this, too, when there was no continuous succession of adepts, no professors of note, to ensure their transmission.

For how few there are, in fact, who know anything, even by hearsay, about the only professors of this art whose names have come down to us, Apusorus and Zaratus of Media, Marmarus and Arabantiphocus of Babylonia, and Tarmoendas of Assyria, men who have left not the slightest memorials of their existence. But the most surprising thing of all is, that Homer should be totally silent upon this art in his account of the Trojan War, while in his story of the wanderings of Ulysses, so much of the work should be taken up with it, that we may justly conclude that the poem is based upon nothing else; if, indeed, we are willing to grant that his accounts of Proteus and of the songs of the Sirens are to be understood in this sense, and that the stories of Circe and of the summoning up of the shades below, bear reference solely to the practices of sorcerers. And then, too, to come to more recent times, no one has told us how the art of sorcery reached Telmessus, a city devoted to all the services of religion, or at what period it came over and reached the matrons of Thessaly; whose name has long passed, in our part of the world, as the appellation of those who practise an art, originally introduced among themselves even, from foreign lands. For in the days of the Trojan War, Thessaly was still contented with such remedies as she owed to the skill of Chiron, and her only lightnings were the lightnings hurled by Mars. Indeed, for my own part, I am surprised that the imputation of magical practices should have so strongly attached to the people once under the sway of Achilles, that Menander even, a man unrivalled for perception in literary knowledge, has entitled one of his Comedies “The Thessalian Matron,” and has therein described the devices practised by the females of that country in bringing down the moon from the heavens. I should have been inclined to think that Orpheus had been the first to introduce into a country so near his own, certain magical superstitions based upon the practice of medicine, were it not the fact that Thrace, his native land, was at that time totally a stranger to the magic art.

The first person, so far as I can ascertain, who wrote upon magic, and whose works are still in existence, was Osthanes, who accompanied Xerxes, the Persian king, in his expedition against Greece. It was he who first disseminated, as it were, the germs of this monstrous art, and tainted therewith all parts of the world through which the Persians passed. Authors who have made diligent enquiries into this subject, make mention of a second Zoroaster, a native of Proconnesus, as living a little before the time of Osthanes. That it was this same Osthanes, more particularly, that inspired the Greeks, not with a fondness only, but a rage, for the art of magic, is a fact beyond all doubt: though at the same time I would remark, that in the most ancient times, and indeed almost invariably, it was in this branch of science, that was sought the highest point of celebrity and of literary renown. At all events, Pythagoras, we find, Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato, crossed the seas, in order to attain a knowledge thereof, submitting, to speak the truth, more to the evils of exile than to the mere inconveniences of travel. Returning home, it was upon the praises of this art that they expatiated—it was this that they held as one of their grandest mysteries. It was Democritus, too, who first drew attention to Apollobeches of Coptos, to Dardanus, and to Phœnix: the works of Dardanus he sought in the tomb of that personage, and his own were composed in accordance with the doctrines there found. That these doctrines should have been received by any portion of mankind, and transmitted to us by the aid of memory, is to me surprising beyond anything I can conceive. All the particulars there found are so utterly incredible, so utterly revolting, that those even who admire Democritus in other respects, are strong in their denial that these works were really written by him. Their denial, however, is in vain; for it was he, beyond all doubt, who had the greatest share in fascinating men’s minds with these attractive chimæras.

There is also a marvellous coincidence, in the fact that the two arts—medicine, I mean, and magic—were developed simultaneously: medicine by the writings of Hippocrates, and magic by the works of Democritus, about the period of the Peloponnesian War, which was waged in Greece in the year of the City of Rome 300.

There is another sect, also, of adepts in the magic art, who derive their origin from Moses, Jannes, and Lotapea, Jews by birth, but many thousand years posterior to Zoroaster: and as much more recent, again, is the branch of magic cultivated in Cyprus. In the time, too, of Alexander the Great, this profession received no small accession to its credit from the influence of a second Osthanes, who had the honour of accompanying that prince in his expeditions, and who, evidently, beyond all doubt, travelled over every part of the world.

It is clear that there are early traces still existing of the introduction of magic into Italy; in our laws of the Twelve Tables for instance; besides other convincing proofs, which I have already noticed in a preceding Book. At last, in the year of the City 657, Cneius Cornelius Lentulus and P. Licinius Crassus being consuls, a decree forbidding human sacrifices was passed by the senate; from which period the celebration of these horrid rites ceased in public, and, for some time, altogether.

The Gallic provinces, too, were pervaded by the magic art, and that even down to a period within memory; for it was the Emperor Tiberius that put down their Druids, and all that tribe of wizards and physicians. But why make further mention of these prohibitions, with reference to an art which has now crossed the very Ocean even, and has penetrated to the void recesses of Nature? At the present day, struck with fascination, Britannia still cultivates this art, and that, with ceremonials so august, that she might almost seem to have been the first to communicate them to the people of Persia. To such a degree are nations throughout the whole world, totally different as they are and quite unknown to one another, in accord upon this one point!

Such being the fact, then, we cannot too highly appreciate the obligation that is due to the Roman people, for having put an end to those monstrous rites, in accordance with which, to murder a man was to do an act of the greatest devoutness, and to eat his flesh was to secure the highest blessings of health.