The Golden Verses of Pythagoras · 7 of 122 · tr. Florence M. Firth
Section 5 (part 2)
The mortal Oath--that used amongst men--has to be reverenced as an image of the other, and as leading to the greatest strength and stability of character.
And if man would reverence the Oath, then must he do all in his power to understand the laws that govern this universe, and endeavour to preserve harmony and order in all things.
The Illustrious Heroes are the second or middle order of beings, and are turned ever towards God, though not always to the same extent.
They are divided into three subdivisions:--(1) The Angels, or Ambassadors (being nearest to the Immortal Gods in their nature); (2) The Dæmons, or Spirits; and (3) The Heroes.
3.
The Terrestrial Dæmons are the souls of men, beautified with truth and virtue, being Masters of Wisdom, having true p.
14 knowledge.
They are "terrestrial," remaining on earth in order to guide and govern men.
The best worship to be offered to these men (who are men and yet resemble the Illustrious Heroes), is by obeying those precepts they have left and recommended to us, and by following their instructions as laws; purposing to ourselves the same course of life they lead, the tradition of which they have set down in writing.
This tradition gives the principles of truth and rules of virtue, as an immortal and paternal inheritance, to be preserved to all succeeding generations for the common good.
To obey these, and live accordingly, is the truest reverence that can be done them.
4.
"Reverence thy parents." But how it those parents be depraved?
"If the Divine Law directs us to one thing and our parents to another, then in this deliberation we ought to obey the best, disobeying our parents in those things only in which they recede from the Divine Laws." But always a most willing service and obedience must be rendered in all things pertaining to the body or estate.
p.
15 To all others, the duties are in proportion to the nearness of the relationship.
7, 8.
Never must friendship be broken for the sake of riches, or glory, or other frail and perishable things.
Only if the friend falls into a corrupt and degraded mode of life is it right to break the sacred tie of friendship, and then only after every effort has been made to bring him back to the ways of virtue.
Hierocles warns us that we have far more strength than we imagine, and all we need is to feel the necessity of preserving friendship.
11, 12.
If a man makes himself his own guardian, he is then not likely to fall into evil ways if he is out of the reach of public opinion, nor will he be rushed into folly through the influence of companions.
17.
Such calamities as diseases, poverty, loss of friends, etc., are not real ills, for they hurt not the soul, unless it suffers Itself to be precipitated into vice by them.
21-23.
One should be able to hear every sort of doctrine patiently, carefully discriminating between the true and the false.
p.
16 "But it falsehoods be advanced," i.
e.
, false reasonings.
45.
This verse completes the instruction concerning the Civil or Practical Virtues ; verse 48 begins the Instruction concerning the Contemplative Virtues .
Regarding the practical virtues, Hierocles points out that the three aspects of the soul should be employed on them together, (1) Activity, (2) the Mind, and (3) the Emotions.
47.
"I swear it by him," i.
e.
, by Pythagoras.
The knowledge of the Quaternion was one of the chief precepts among the Pythagoreans.
51.
"How far they extend themselves," expresses their specific difference, and "What contains and binds them together" marks their generic community.
53.
Themes
◆Active Contemplationpraxis
A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.
The text distinguishes between 'Civil or Practical Virtues' and 'Contemplative Virtues', implying a mode of meditation focused on higher understanding.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The mortal Oath is described as an 'image' of the divine Oath, reflecting a micro-macro relationship between human and divine covenants.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The instruction to not break friendship for riches or glory implies a spiritual letting-go of material attachments and social status.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The passage emphasizes the 'Divine Will' and 'laws that govern this universe' as active ordering principles that humans must understand and preserve.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
The text states that calamities like disease or poverty are not real ills unless they cause the soul to fall into vice, aligning with evil as a lack of virtue rather than external substance.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The passage describes souls beautified with truth and virtue as resembling Illustrious Heroes, suggesting a transformation toward divine likeness through moral practice.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The passage explicitly mentions three aspects of the soul (Activity, Mind, Emotions) employed on virtues, reflecting the structural concept though using Platonic rather than Gnostic terminology.
A binding agreement or relationship between the divine and a people or individual, establishing mutual obligations.
[auto] The Oath is presented as a binding agreement observed by Gods and to be reverenced by men, establishing mutual obligations between the divine and mortal realms.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
[auto] The passage explicitly describes a chain of beings from Immortal Gods to Heroes (Angels, Dæmons) and finally Men, indicating levels of perfection and proximity to the divine.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
[auto] The passage links character stability and reverence to understanding and knowing God, describing Heroes as Masters of Wisdom with true knowledge.