The Politics of Philo Judaeus: Practice and Theory, with a General Bibliography of Philo

96 PHILO'S POLITICS

universal father (nary]p KOIVOC) used by Philo in the foregoing quotation

is a reflection of the traditional language used to describe Zeus, the

naTY]p KOIVOC avGpciiruv Kai Geuv,^51 and it is in his fatherhood as well as

in his other aspects that the earthly king is to imitate him. The notion is

most succinctly stated by Sthenidas:

The king would best imitate God by... evincing a fatherly disposition to

those beneath him. For it is in this way that the first God is recognized as

father of gods and men.^52

In view of the fact that the fatherhood of the king was a familiar teach­
ing in antiquity, it is interesting to note that Philo's form of presenting
it indicates that his source, or mode of thinking, was definitely Pythago­
rean. This is clear from a comparison of one of his statements with a
passage of Dio Chrysostom. In describing God as ruler and model for
the king Philo points out that God is

a king exercising a kindly and legal rulership.... But there is no title more

fitting for a king than "father." For what in family relationships parents are

to the children, that the king is to the state, and God is to the world, since

He attunes two most beautiful things in an indissoluble union by the immov­

able laws of Nature, namely rulership with protecting care.^53

Dio describes Zeus:

He is called king by virtue of his rulership and power; he is called Father, it
seems to me, because of his protecting care and kindness; he is called Guard­
ian of the City by virtue of his law and public benefaction, etc.^54

Dio's passage is quite familiarly Stoic in form: an allegorical interpreta­
tion is being suggested for each of a large number of names or epithets
of the god.^55 Philo's formulation is just as Pythagorean as Dio's is Stoic.

For Philo's comparison is expressed in a mathematical proportion: what
the father is to his children that the king is to the state, and that God is
to the world;^56 and the ruling and providential aspects are attuned into

51. Dio Chrys., Orat., II, 75. Zeus is commonly called "father of gods and men" from Homer
    down.


52. See note 50, above; cf. Dio Chrys., Orat., I, 37, 39.


53. Fragment ap. Eusebius, Praep. Evang., VIII, xiv, 2, 3.


54. Orat., I, 40.
    55. On such Stoic allegory see Arnim, SVF, II, Frags. 1021, 1062, 1076; also 528 at end.
    56. Cf. Diotogenes, ap. Stobaeus, IV, vii, 61: e%ei bk xal <bg ftedc; JTOTI X 6 GM-OV PaaiAei>s
    jtoxl rcotav, xal d>c; Jt6?ag jtoxl x6o>iov paoutavg jtoxl fte6v.