Theological Literature or Sects’ Holy Books?
A number of arguments have been raised about the existence of religious sects and
religious rituals related to Hermeticism, late Orphism, or Theurgy. Did they exist
only as literary phenomena or also as religious communities? The problem ought
to be set into the framework of the foundation (on sound bases) of beliefs in the
old gods, and of the reaction to the challenge of the Epicureans and Christians and
to public religion dominated by imperial cults. A first example proves negative. Theurgy
was a very high form of knowledge which could be attained only by few, very
cultivated men, and was often beloved by late Neoplatonic philosophers, such as
Jamblichus and Proclus. Many of them used magical instruments and performed
particular rituals. Their doctrine was transmitted in a private and restricted vein, as
in the case of Proclus:Asclepigenia, Plutarch the thaumaturgist’s daughter, let Proclus know the tradition of
the great Nestorius’ mysteries and all theurgic doctrine which she had inherited from
her father. From then on the master (Proclus) used mostly Chaldaic rituals in order to
purify his soul; he was entertained by nocturnal visions of Hecate and used Hecatic
sistraand rhomboi(instruments whirling on a string) in order to give water or dryness
to Attic land. (Marinus, Vita Procli28)We are told about the miracles, the ascetic life, and the doctrine of several theurgists
in many pagan works of late antiquity, such as the Lives of Philosophersby Eunapius or
the Life of Isidorusby Damascius.
Even more questionable is the existence of Hermetic or Orphic religious com-
munities. No doubt the authors and many readers of Hermetic and Orphic books
performed the normal pagan cults but shaped their beliefs in an intellectual form.
The emperor Julian prayed to Hermes in secret at home (Amm. 16.5.8); a late antique
head of this god has been discovered in a private house at Messene: these facts sug-
gest that Hermes was privately worshiped at home. Hermeticism was produced strictly
by non-Christian theologians, but the Hermetic books were studied also in some
Gnostic circles, that is, by believers who merged forms of heretical Judaism with
Christianity. Fragments of a Hermetic Discourse on Eight and Nine(a treatise on the
theological meaning of the numbers) have been found in the Gnostic library at Nag
Hammadi, in Egypt. The Hermetic books influenced the beliefs of Gnostics and other
believers about salvation of the soul (Arnob. 2.13). A strong Hermetic influence is
shown by an initiatory Egyptian ritual which allowed a man to travel to the highest
heavens and consult the god Mithra (PGM4.679 – 829). Some verses of an Orphic
poem are written on an alabaster cup covered by reliefs representing a winged divine
snake worshiped by 16 members of a sect, probably a Gnostic sect.
Even from these examples it is evident that there is a problem in connecting
Hermetic, Orphic, and Theurgic literature with socially real and well-defined reli-
gious sects or communities. On the other hand, another problem will be faced if
we ask what the Mithraists read as theological literature of their own: maybe the
Zoroastrian apocrypha, but there are reasons to suppose that they also read theurgic
386 Attilio Mastrocinque