APPENDIX TO ON THE CREATION
(N. B.—S. V. F.= Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta. The references are to sections in Arnim.)
§ 3. Philo starts off with two leading Stoic ideas, “living according to nature” and the “world-citizen.” For the former cf. Diogenes Laertius vii. 87, “Zeno was the first to designate a (man’s) end ‘living according to nature.’ ” For the latter see S. V. F. i. 262. The first use of the actual word κοσμοπολίτης is ascribed to Diogenes the Cynic, who, when “asked whence he came, replied ‘I am a citizen of the world’ ” (Diog. Laert. vi. 63).
§ 25. The words bracketed by Cohn are left so bracketed in the text but untranslated.
§ 26. Time is a measured space, etc. This is the accepted definition of the Stoics. See S. V. F. ii. 509 f. Philo refers to it as Stoic, De Aet. 4, and elsewhere in that treatise.
§ 43. Principles or nuclei, or perhaps “seed-powers”; οἱ λόγοι is equivalent to οἱ σπερματικοὶ λόγοι. The Stoics conceived of a single λόγος σπερματικός manifesting itself in innumerable λόγοι σπερματικοί, which give things their form. See S. V. F. Index, p. 93a.
§ 54. The thought of this section is based on Timaeus 47 A, B, where Plato says that “God bestowed sight on us that we might observe the orbits of reason which are in heaven, and make use of them for the revolutions of thought which are in our souls” (Archer-Hind’s translation).
§§ 72 ff. The idea of these sections is suggested by, or at least receives support from, Timaeus 41, 42, where God creates “young gods” or subordinate ministers to carry on the work for the same reason as is given here, viz. that He might not be responsible for evil.
§ 80. And through the livelong year, or, putting the comma after ἐκδεχόμενοι, “at the end of each year (at intervals of a year) they gather in.”
§ 101. Equal to the sum of its own factors. Like 6 (see 13), 28 is the sum of its factors (1+2+4+7+14), as are 496 and 8128. The word “perfect” is in strictness applied to such numbers only (Nicomachus i. 10).
§ 102. Limits, or “terms.” Ὅρος is the technical word for a “term” in a series. In fact, having been translated into Latin as terminus, it is the progenitor of our own word.
§ 117. The remainder of our soul is divided, etc. This classification is Stoic. It is more usually stated in the form that the soul has eight parts, the ἡγεμονικόν being reckoned as one. See S. V. F. ii. 827 ff.
§ 142. Citizen of the world. See especially 3 and note. The first man fulfilled the Stoic ideal. This view of the superiority of early mankind, though not confined to the Stoics, was strongly held by them. The Golden Age, said Posidonius, was when “regnum fuit penes sapientes” (Seneca, Epistle 90. 5).
§ 148. Torch. The figure of the torch-race is very common. Considering, however, Philo’s love for Plato, it is reasonable to suppose that he is thinking of the mention of it at the beginning of the Republic, 328 A. Cf. Laws 776 B.
§ 160. A human voice. Philo is here attacking Epicureanism. For the Epicurean doctrine that pleasure is the end aimed at by every living creature see Diogenes Laertius x. 128. Thus the serpent’s use of a human voice is interpreted as an allegory showing how vocal and popular that School was. Philo, like most of its opponents, ignores the fact that Epicurus expressly refused to identify pleasure with material pleasures.
§§ 170, 171. The opinions here assailed are (1) that God’s existence is doubtful, held by the Sceptics; (2) that the world is without beginning (ἀγένητος), held, according to Philo’s own statement in De Aet. 10, by Aristotle; the contrary was maintained by Pythagoras, Plato, and the Stoics (S. V. F. ii. 575); (3) the plurality of worlds, originally held by Democritus (see Timaeus 31 A, and Archer-Hind’s note), and afterwards by the Epicureans; (4) that there is no such thing as Providence. This Epicurean tenet is too familiar from Lucretius and other writers to need illustration, but see Diogenes Laertius x. 77, 113, 139.