DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0090
The Elysian Way 41
ignored by them all is of more interest to us. Three writers steeped
in neo-Platonic lore, and drawing perhaps from a single source1,
ascribe to Pythagoras himself the belief that the Milky Way is the
road by which souls come and go. Porphyrios (c. 233—c. 304 A.D.),
who penned an allegorical treatise On the Cave of the Nymphs in
the Odyssey, remarks2:
Elsewhere he (Homer) speaks of'the gates of the Sun3,' meaning Cancer
and Capricornus ; for these are the limits to which it progresses when descend-
ing from north to south and again when ascending from south to north.
Capricornus and Cancer are set at either side of the Milky Way, the latter on
the north, the former on the south. And ' the folk of dreams' according to
Pythagoras4 are the souls, which—he asserts—are gathered together in the
Milky Way, so called from those that are nurtured on milk, when they fall
into birth.
Macrobius (c. 400 A.D.) in his Commentary 0)i the Dream of Scipio
savs5:
The following order is observed in the descent by which the soul of man slips
from heaven to the lower regions of this present life. The Milky Way embraces
the zodiac by means of the circular contact of its oblique periphery in such a
way that it intersects the zodiac at the points where two tropic signs, Capricornus
and Cancer, are said to be. These the physicists have called the gates of the
Sun, because both prevent it from further advance when such is forbidden by
the solstice and turn it back to the pathway of that zone whose bounds it never
quits. It is supposed that through these gates souls pass from heaven to earth
in H. Diels Doxographi Graeci Berolini 1879 p. 364, 22 ff.) tuiv Tlvdayopeiwv oi /iev (oi p.cv
Trvdayopeioi cod. P. Stob.) e<pao~av aarepos eTvat biaKavaiv eKireabvTos fxev d7ro rijs idias
(oiKeias cod. B. Plout.) Zdpas, Sc 6v oe irepiidpa^ (sic cod. G. Flout, et Stob., lireSpa.p.6
codd. (A.) B.C. Plout.) xuP^0V (xwPL0V cod. P. Stob.) KVKXoreptvs avro KaTa<p\ei;avTos
(wepicpX^avTos Stob.) eiri tov /card QaedovTa (cpaedovTos cod. A. Plout. et cod. F. Stob.,
deest locus in cod. C. Stob.) eu.Trpi)(jfxod (KVKXoTepm—kp.irpy\ap.ov om. cod. P. Stob.). oi <5e
tov 7)\iai<bi> Tavry (paul (0??cri cod. P. Stob.) /car' apxas yeyovevai dpb/xov. rives be (ko.1 ins.
cod. B. Plout.) KaroTTTpLKrjv elvai (pavracriav tov ~q\iov ras avyas irpbs tov ovpavbv dva-
k\u>vtos, owep ko.1 iiri (kclttI Stob.) ttjs (yrjs ins. et ead. man. del. cod. P. Stob.) i'piSos teal
{ko.1 om. Stob.) iirl twv vecpQv o-vp.fiaiv<:i. Cp. pseudo-Aristot. erotoapocris. (Diels op. cit.
p. 364 n.) eZVcu Se k&tuj nepl tt\v \ko*totttpiKT\v corr. Diels) <pavTao~'iav b tjXlos (leg. tov r/Xi'ou
et ins. Tots) avyas irpbs tov ovpavbv ava.k\QvTos, oii/irep iwi tt)s ipibos /cat ini twv verpeKuv
o~vp.(Ba.ivei.
1 P. Capelle op. cil. p. 39 f. holds that this was the commentary of some Platonist on
Plat. Tim.
2 Porph. de antr. nymph. 28.
3 Od. 24. 12 175^ nap' 'HeAioio irvXas xal 5ijp.ov bvelpojv.
4 In Quint. Smyrn. 14. 179 ff. the soul of Achilles appears to his son in a dream and
ib. 223 ff. us tlirujv airbpovae 8orj £va\iyKios avprj, | alipa 5' es 'H.\vo~lov nebiov Kiev, yxL
T^TVKTai I ovpavov vwcltolo KaTaLf3ao-irj r' avobbs re [ adav&TOis p.aKap€o~o~iv. The lines
are suggestive of Pythagorean influence.
5 Macrob. comm. in somn. Scip. 1. 12. 1—3. Cp. Favonius Eulogius disp. de somn.
Scip. p. 1 Holder quod et immortalis esset animi mentisque substantia et bene meritis de
re p(ublica) pa<t>ri<a>eque custodibus lactei circuli lucida ac candens habitio (leg.
habitatio) deberetur.
ignored by them all is of more interest to us. Three writers steeped
in neo-Platonic lore, and drawing perhaps from a single source1,
ascribe to Pythagoras himself the belief that the Milky Way is the
road by which souls come and go. Porphyrios (c. 233—c. 304 A.D.),
who penned an allegorical treatise On the Cave of the Nymphs in
the Odyssey, remarks2:
Elsewhere he (Homer) speaks of'the gates of the Sun3,' meaning Cancer
and Capricornus ; for these are the limits to which it progresses when descend-
ing from north to south and again when ascending from south to north.
Capricornus and Cancer are set at either side of the Milky Way, the latter on
the north, the former on the south. And ' the folk of dreams' according to
Pythagoras4 are the souls, which—he asserts—are gathered together in the
Milky Way, so called from those that are nurtured on milk, when they fall
into birth.
Macrobius (c. 400 A.D.) in his Commentary 0)i the Dream of Scipio
savs5:
The following order is observed in the descent by which the soul of man slips
from heaven to the lower regions of this present life. The Milky Way embraces
the zodiac by means of the circular contact of its oblique periphery in such a
way that it intersects the zodiac at the points where two tropic signs, Capricornus
and Cancer, are said to be. These the physicists have called the gates of the
Sun, because both prevent it from further advance when such is forbidden by
the solstice and turn it back to the pathway of that zone whose bounds it never
quits. It is supposed that through these gates souls pass from heaven to earth
in H. Diels Doxographi Graeci Berolini 1879 p. 364, 22 ff.) tuiv Tlvdayopeiwv oi /iev (oi p.cv
Trvdayopeioi cod. P. Stob.) e<pao~av aarepos eTvat biaKavaiv eKireabvTos fxev d7ro rijs idias
(oiKeias cod. B. Plout.) Zdpas, Sc 6v oe irepiidpa^ (sic cod. G. Flout, et Stob., lireSpa.p.6
codd. (A.) B.C. Plout.) xuP^0V (xwPL0V cod. P. Stob.) KVKXoreptvs avro KaTa<p\ei;avTos
(wepicpX^avTos Stob.) eiri tov /card QaedovTa (cpaedovTos cod. A. Plout. et cod. F. Stob.,
deest locus in cod. C. Stob.) eu.Trpi)(jfxod (KVKXoTepm—kp.irpy\ap.ov om. cod. P. Stob.). oi <5e
tov 7)\iai<bi> Tavry (paul (0??cri cod. P. Stob.) /car' apxas yeyovevai dpb/xov. rives be (ko.1 ins.
cod. B. Plout.) KaroTTTpLKrjv elvai (pavracriav tov ~q\iov ras avyas irpbs tov ovpavbv dva-
k\u>vtos, owep ko.1 iiri (kclttI Stob.) ttjs (yrjs ins. et ead. man. del. cod. P. Stob.) i'piSos teal
{ko.1 om. Stob.) iirl twv vecpQv o-vp.fiaiv<:i. Cp. pseudo-Aristot. erotoapocris. (Diels op. cit.
p. 364 n.) eZVcu Se k&tuj nepl tt\v \ko*totttpiKT\v corr. Diels) <pavTao~'iav b tjXlos (leg. tov r/Xi'ou
et ins. Tots) avyas irpbs tov ovpavbv ava.k\QvTos, oii/irep iwi tt)s ipibos /cat ini twv verpeKuv
o~vp.(Ba.ivei.
1 P. Capelle op. cil. p. 39 f. holds that this was the commentary of some Platonist on
Plat. Tim.
2 Porph. de antr. nymph. 28.
3 Od. 24. 12 175^ nap' 'HeAioio irvXas xal 5ijp.ov bvelpojv.
4 In Quint. Smyrn. 14. 179 ff. the soul of Achilles appears to his son in a dream and
ib. 223 ff. us tlirujv airbpovae 8orj £va\iyKios avprj, | alipa 5' es 'H.\vo~lov nebiov Kiev, yxL
T^TVKTai I ovpavov vwcltolo KaTaLf3ao-irj r' avobbs re [ adav&TOis p.aKap€o~o~iv. The lines
are suggestive of Pythagorean influence.
5 Macrob. comm. in somn. Scip. 1. 12. 1—3. Cp. Favonius Eulogius disp. de somn.
Scip. p. 1 Holder quod et immortalis esset animi mentisque substantia et bene meritis de
re p(ublica) pa<t>ri<a>eque custodibus lactei circuli lucida ac candens habitio (leg.
habitatio) deberetur.