Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 177 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter VIII-q
On the contrary, divinely-inspired poets, as Hermeas well observes, knock, as it were, at the gates of the Muses, and thus being filled from thence exclaim, Εσπετε νυν μοι Μουσαι And, Μηνιν αειδε θεα— And, Ανδρα μοι εννεπε Μουσα .
For being always extended to them, they dispose the whole of what they afterwards say as derived from their inspiring influence.
With an arrogance too, peculiar to the Romans, who, as a certain Greek poet says, were a people Beyond measure proud.
He associates himself, in his fourth Eclogue, with the Muses, as their equal: Sicelides Musæ, paulo majora canamus.
359 Which reminds me of what Suetonius relates of Caligula, that he would place himself between the statues of Castor and Pollux, and confer privately with Jupiter Capitolinus, fancying that he was intimate with, and of equal dignity with, these divinities.
And as to the poets that have lived since the fall of the Roman empire, it would be ridiculous to suppose that they possessed this highest enthusiasm, as they did not believe in the existence of the sources from whence it is alone genuinely derived.
P.
67 .
The attentive power of the soul.
This is that part or power of the rational soul which primarily apprehends the operations of the senses.
For the rational soul not only has intellect in capacity, the dianoetic power, will, and choice, but another power, which is called by the best of the Greek interpreters of Aristotle, as well as by Iamblichus, το προσεκτικον , the attentive .
This power investigates and perceives whatever is transacted in man; and says, I understand, I think, I opine, I am angry, I desire.
And, in short, this attentive part of the rational soul passes through all the rational, irrational, vegetable, or physical powers.
If, therefore, it is requisite it should pass through all these powers, it will also proceed through the senses, and say, I see, I hear; for it is the peculiarity of that which apprehends energies thus to speak.
Hence if it is the attentive power which says these things, it is this power which apprehends the energy of sensibles; for it is necessary that the nature which apprehends all things should be one, since man also is one.
For if one part of it should apprehend these , and another those things, it is just, as Aristotle says, as if you should perceive this thing, and I that.
It is necessary, therefore, that the attentive power should be one indivisible thing.
P.
74 .
For the human soul is on all sides darkened by body, which he who denominates the river of Negligence, or the water of Oblivion , &c.—— will not by such appellations sufficiently express its turpitude .
“The whole of generation, as well as the human body,” says Proclus in Tim.
lib.
v.
p.
339 , “may be called a river, through its rapid, impetuous, and unstable flux.
Thus also in the Republic, Plato calls the whole genesiurgic nature the river of Lethe; in which are contained, as Empedocles says, Oblivion, and the meadow of Ate; the voracity of matter, and the light-hating world, as the Gods say; and the winding streams 360 under which many are drawn down, as the Chaldean oracles assert.” P.
105 .
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
The passage centrally describes the 'highest enthusiasm' and 'ecstatic rapture' of poets who are divinely inspired to speak as equals with the Muses.
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.
The text references Muses and Gods as sources from which inspiration flows downward to poets.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The 'attentive power' is described as investigating and perceiving energies within man through an inward process.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The human soul is described as 'darkened by body' and separated from the divine sources of inspiration.
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 discusses the soul's capacity to be filled from the Muses and speak as an equal with divinities.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The text distinguishes between the rational soul, its dianoetic power, will, and choice, and an additional attentive power that passes through all other powers.