The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

NOTES SYRIA. 255
persons of the state, and only very much later were they
applied to all who died.
Regarding the diffusion of this belief from the beginning
of the first century of our era, see Diels, Elementum, 1899, p.
73, cf. 78 ; Badstiibner, Beitrdge zur Erkldrung Senecas, Ham
burg, pp. 2 ff. It is expressed in many inscriptions (Fried-
lander, Sitteng., Ill, pp. 749 ff.; Rohde, Psyche, p. 673, cf. 610;
epitaph of Vezir-Keupru, Studia Pontica, No. 85 ; CIL. Ill (Salone),
6384; supra, n. 63, etc.) It gained access into Judaism
and paganism simultaneously (cf. Bousset, Die Religion des
Judcntums I M neutest. Zeitalter, 1903, p. 271, and, for Philo of
Alexandria, Zeller, Philos. der Gricchcn, V, p. 397 and p. 297).
During the third century it was expounded by Cornelius
Labeo, the source of Arnobius and Servius (Nieggetiet, De
Cornelia Labeone [Diss. Munster], 1908, pp. 77-86). It was
generally accepted towards the end of the empire ; see infra,
n. 25. I hope soon to have the opportunity of setting forth
the development of this sidereal eschatology with greater pre
cision in my lectures on "Astrology and Religion in Antiquity"
which will appear in 1912 (chap. VI).
65. According to the doctrine of the Egyptian mysteries the
Elysian Fields were in the under- world (Apul., Metam., XI,
6). According to the astrological theory, the Elysian Fields
were in the sphere of the fixed stars (Macrobius, Coinni.
somn. Scij>. f I, u, 8; cf. Infra, chap. VIII, n. 25). Others
placed them in the moon (Servius, Ad Aen., VI, 887; cf.
Norden, I crgils Buck VI, p. 23; Rohde, Psyche, pp. 609 ff.).
lamblichus placed them between the moon and the sun (Lydus,
De mens.f IV, 149, p. 167, 23, Wiinsch).
66. The relation between the two ideas is apparent in the
alleged account of the Pythagorean doctrine which Diogenes
Laertius took from Alexander Polyhistor, and which is in
reality an apocryphal composition of the first century of our
era. It was said that Hermes guided the pure souls, after
their separation from the body, ek rbv "f\f/i<TTov (Diog. Laert.,
VIII, 31; cf. Zeller, Philos. der Gricchcn, V, p. 106, n. 2).
On the meaning of Hypsistos, cf. supra, p. 128. It appears
very plainly in the passage of Isaiah, xiv, 13, as rendered by
the Septuagint :