SOME ETERNAL PRINCIPLES
OF THE ANCIENT HELLENIC
RELIGION
“Every
God is Good, he is not the object of any passion, he is immutable` and this
because every mutable entity can become better or worse` but if it becomes
worse, then it reaches evil, and if it becomes better, this means that it was
evil in the first place.” (Salustius, “About the Gods
and the World”)
“There is no way the Whole to
be divine and its parts not to be divine.” (Celsus, “True word against
the Christians”)
“God is everything and can do
everything. Everything is full of him and only him worths to be studied and to
be honored, because of his blissfulness.” (Ιamblichus, “About Mysteries
and theurgy*1”)
“Every prediction or every
act of the eternal works is the Gods’ work and it is not done because of any
necessity, neither because of any human causes, but because of some causes
known only to the Gods.” (Ιamblichus, “About Mysteries
and theurgy”)
“Τhe Gods’ essences had not
been created, because everything existing eternally cannot ever be born.” (Salustius, “About the Gods
and the World”)
“Gods are not formed in
bodies, because the bodies’ powers have no body.” (Salustius, “About the Gods
and the World”)
“Gods give to everybody these
goods which have their provenance from the perceptible world, but they provide the mental truths only to
the wises.” (Salustius, “About the Gods
and the World”)
“Which God gives something and
demands to get something else back? Every demand shows that there is a need,
but God has not any need.” (Celsus, “True word against
the Christians”)
“The divine work is never
spontaneous (because everything spontaneous has not a real cause and of course,
it comes from a disorder’s situation). Also, every divine work does not result
from any human cause.” (Ιamblichus, “About Mysteries
and theurgy”)
“The Gods’ mills are grinding
very slowly and the result of this grinding will be obvious to our children’s
children, which will be born later, much more later into the future.” (Celsus’ oracle about our
time,
from his work “True word against the
Christians”)
1 Theurgy: the knowledge of the practice of worshipping