BY INNUENDO 51
cident to introduce a new note. The Septuagint calls Potiphar a cook,
and Philo makes much of this fact as well as his being a eunuch (Gen.
xxxix, 1). As a cook his intelligence is obscured by the smoke of the
kitchen, and so he typifies the unintelligent mob. As a eunuch he is also
like the crowd, for they have eyes that see not, appear intelligent but
have no intelligence, have what appear to be the organs of generation,
but no power to generate.^34 So the multitude talks well about virtue, but
really knows and practises nothing of it. In spite of his impotence Jo
seph's master has a wife, for lust (LmB\j\{<x) is really the wife of the
mob. Also as a cook he is devoted to pleasure (y]Sovy)).3S This is the type
of man to whom Joseph was subject, for Joseph apparently managed all
Potiphar's affairs, but was still his slave. Here an aspect of rulership is
introduced which Philo did not get at all from current hellenistic praise
of royalty, namely that the ruler, however much power he may seem to
have, is still the slave of the mob, and must perish if he does not pander
to its lust for pleasure. How is the statesman to hold himself in such a
situation? Philo has praised the politicus enough: he begins at last to
talk straight out. There is no point in the politicus^9 trying to fool him
self that he is not ultimately the slave of the mob; this fact he must
frankly admit. But he is to take the Stoic attitude which insisted that
slavery can go no deeper than the body. The master can never own the
soul. The statesman is to be aware of his citizenship in the great cos-
mopolis, and treat the mob as his wards and children.^36 Freed thus from
spiritual domination, he will make the following commitment toward
his work:
If then I must give judgment, I will do so without favoring the rich man
because of his great property, or the poor man from pity of his misfortunes;
rather, blinding myself to the ranks and standing of the litigants, I will de
clare fairly what shall seem to be just. If I am to act as councillor, I will intro
duce measures for the common good, even though they may not be pleasant.
If I am to be an assemblyman I will leave flattering words to others and
speak in a salutary and helpful way, reproving, warning, and restraining, and
indulging in no raving or insane audacity, but only in sober frankness.^37
In exercising the powers of his office the politicus may have to ad
monish like a parent, give disagreeable medicine like a physician. For
- Jos., 58. 35. Ibid., 59-62. Cf. Plato, Gorgias, 464a^1 , 500b.
- Jos., 67: d>5 dyado? IjtiTQOJtoc; r\ Jiaxrio evvovg.
- Ibid., 72 f.