Part 8 (1/2)

Thus Simon has six Roots and the Seventh Power, seven in all, as the type of the Aeons in the Pleroma. These all proceed from the Fire. In like manner also the Cabeiric deities of Samothrace and Phoenicia were Fire-G.o.ds, born of the Fire. Nonnus tells us they were sons of the mysterious Hephaestus (Vulcan),[110] and Eusebius, in his quotations from Sanchuniathon, that they were _seven_ in number.[111] The Vedic Agni (Ignis) also, the G.o.d of Fire, is called ”Seven-tongued”

(Sapta-jihva) and ”Seven-flamed” (Sapta-jvala).[112]

In the _Hibbert Lectures_ of 1887, Prof. A.H. Sayce gives the following Hymn of Ancient Babylonia to the Fire-G.o.d, from _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_ (iv. 15):

1. The (bed) of the earth they took for their border, but the G.o.d appeared not,

2. from the foundations of the earth he appeared not to make hostility;

3. (to) the heaven below they extended (their path), and to the heaven that is unseen they climbed afar.

4. In the Star(s) of Heaven was not their ministry; in Mazzaroth (the Zodiacal signs) was their office.

5. The Fire-G.o.d, the first-born supreme, into heaven they pursued and no father did he know.

6. O Fire-G.o.d, supreme on high, the first-born, the mighty, supreme enjoiner of the commands of Anu!

7. The Fire-G.o.d enthrones with himself the friend that he loves.

8. He reveals the enmity of those seven.

9. On the work he ponders in his dwelling-place.

10. O Fire-G.o.d, how were those seven begotten, how were they nurtured?

11. Those seven in the mountain of the sunset were born;

12. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise grew up.

13. In the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling;

14. on the high places of the earth their names are proclaimed.

15. As for them, in heaven and earth they have no dwelling, hidden is their name.

16. Among the sentient G.o.ds they are not known.

17. Their name in heaven and earth exists not.

18. Those seven from the mountain of the sunset gallop forth;

19. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise are bound to rest.

20. In the hollows of the earth they set the foot.

21. On the high places of the earth they lift the neck.

22. They by nought are known; in heaven and in earth is no knowledge of them.[113]

Though I have no intention of contending that Simon obtained his ideas specifically from Vedic, Chaldaean, Babylonian, Zoroastrian, or Phoenician sources, still the ident.i.ty of ideas and the probability, almost amounting to conviction for the student, that the Initiated of antiquity all drew from the same sources, shows that there was nothing original in the main features of the Simonian system.

This is also confirmed by the statements in Epiphanius and the _Apostolic Const.i.tutions_ that the Simonians gave ”barbarous” or ”foreign names” to their Aeons. That is to say, names that were neither Greek nor Hebrew. None of these names are mentioned by the Fathers, and probably the Greek terms given by the author of the _Philosophumena_ and Theodoret are exoteric equivalents of the mystery names. There is abundant evidence, from gems, monuments and fragments, to show that there was a mystery language employed by the Gnostic and other schools.