The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) · 109 of 141 · tr. R.H. Charles
Chapter LXXXVI
LXXXVI. The Fall of the Angels and the Demoralization of Mankind . CHAPTER LXXXVI. 1. And again I saw with mine eyes as I slept, and I saw the heaven above, and behold a star fell from heaven, and it arose and eat and pastured amongst those oxen. 2. And after that I saw the p. 115 large and the black oxen, and behold they all changed their stalls and pastures and their cattle, and began to live with each other. 3. And again I saw in the vision, and looked towards the heaven, and behold I saw many stars descend and cast themselves down from heaven to that first star, and they became bulls amongst those cattle and pastured with them ⌈ amongst them ⌉ . 4. And I looked at them and saw, and behold they all let out their privy members, like horses, and began to cover the cows of the oxen, and they all became pregnant and bare elephants, camels, and asses. 5. And all the oxen feared them and were affrighted at them, and began to bite with their teeth and to devour, and to gore with their horns. 6. And they began, moreover, to devour those oxen; and behold all the children of the earth began to tremble and quake before them and to flee from them.
Themes
◆Archonscosmology
Malevolent planetary rulers or demiurgic powers that govern the material world and obstruct the soul's ascent.
The fallen stars act as malevolent rulers who devour and terrify the inhabitants of the earth, prefiguring the Gnostic concept of archonic powers.
All passages →◇Watchers Descentcosmology
The 1 Enoch narrative in which a class of originally-good angelic beings (the Watchers) descends, mates with women, and teaches forbidden arts — the substrate that Gnostic archons inherits and inverts: archons are born malevolent, the Watchers fall through transgression.
[auto] This passage is the allegorical Animal Apocalypse retelling of the Watchers' narrative, depicting stars (angels) descending to mate with cattle (humans) and produce hybrids.
All passages →Related passages · 1 parallel
◆neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 210 (part 2)
“The Reason-Principle of an ox does not occur except in connection with the Matter appropriate to the ox-Kind.
It must be by such a process that the transmigration, of which we read takes place; the Soul must lose its nature, the Reason-Pri…”
Both passages discuss the concept of degradation or fall from a higher state to a lower one, involving the transformation of souls or beings. Passage A from Plotinus describes the transmigration of souls and the degradation of the Reason-Principle, while Passage B from the apocryphal text describes the fall of angels and their transformation into beasts, leading to the demoralization of mankind.