The Key to the Ancient Gods: Logos/Geometry

I have discovered, for myself, as I am more than sure others have already thought of this and discovered it for themselves, is that, one of the strongest, most important and all-encompassing keys to understanding the writings of the ancients, whether religious or mystical, philosophical, or even theological, (because, lets face it, they really did word things quite quirky!), is realizing they were invested in geometry. Geometry is the key to an enormous amount of insights into the ancients' thinking! It also seriously makes the ancients' supposed gobble-dee-goop or gibberish writings and mystic lunacy come to life!

No longer is it turgid, difficult prose at all, or the ravings of a religious, gnostic-mystical, magical madman let loose on a suffering population, but actually succinct, and very energetic description based on fundamental and stuptifyingly simple geometric reality, as a powerful substrate for an enormous amount of their teachings about reality. I know, I know, it sounds weird right?

But watch as I transform, almost by magic, some of it in many articles for you right in front of your eyes. You are never going to be able to read mythology or much else from the ancient literature quite the same again. But first, some necessary advancement helping us understand the logos in greater breadth and depth.

I will say this in many an article because it is actually key to always keep in mind whether reading Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Cicero, Iamblichus, many Gnostic authors, St. John, or the Bible itself (yes, I am genuinely serious here, as I will show in many articles), including much of the Gnostic "vagaries" or even the Enoch and Pseudepigaphic literature, The Greek Magical Papyri, books concerning Jewish and Christian mysteries, Books of Jeu, Hermetic Writings, that one of the penetrating insights and keys to

grasping their descriptions, whether it is about Paradise, Heaven, Life, or the gods, in so much of their writings, is to recognize and realize that the properties they are ascribing to so many subjects, belong to geometry. Once this is recognized, we have a powerful key to open up a vast majority of their mystery language, images, parallels, ideologies, and much more. It is one of the most singular stunning insights I have come to comprehend about the ancients. Plato was absolutely serious when he placed it at the pinnacle of information essential to know and know about in order to properly grasp reality. We are the heirs to this incredible geometric legacy whether we know it or not, right now this moment, from our very buildings we build, work and live in, to the religious texts we read, and philosophical discourses we scour for truth.

Plato said the study of geometry "plainly compels the soul to employ pure thought with a view to truth itself." He coupled this (or I am!) with "geometry is the knowledge of the eternally existent."[1] Philo, the Jewish philosopher, who lived in Jesus' day, said the Father of the universe used "his archetypal patterns" and created his First-born Son (to Philo, this was the Logos).[2] We need to look a little more into this Logos theme from the ancients as it turns out to be key to the whole affair. Just a little bit of elaboration sets the stage.

This Logos was the singular most important concept in the entire Greek language as we can see in looking at the Liddell-Scott Greek-English Lexicon, under the entry λόγος (Logos) beginning on page 1057, and see the definitions cover 5-6 columns, (two per page) over 3 entire pages! It's first definition was "computation, reckoning." It also means "measure," or even more interesting, "tale", as in a story. It encompasses the meanings of "relation, correspondence, proportion." In mathematics, it means "ratio, proportion," and this is the precise meaning which Iamblichus in his book On The Mysteries, uses it - εί γαρ ούδείς έστι λόγος ούδέ σχέσις συμμετρίας - "For if there is no ratio, no relation of symmetry..."[3] Liddell-Scott also show the meter/rhythm grammar aspect of λόγος as the expression in numerical ratios.[4] And throughout the classical Greek literature, we find concepts such as an embodiment of true or correct principles, right rule, the divine order, regulative and formative forces, scientific knowledge and right process of logical thought, as well as the rhythmical language set to music, all under the meanings and shades of meanings of λόγος.

Of course, the λόγος is most well understood for Christians from the famous making this concept equivalent to Jesus at John 1:1. Jesus was the λόγος, which John translates as meaning "the Word." And this is a viable translation of one meaning of the λόγος. The New Testament, as well as a large block of the Greek writings of the ancient Greek authors emphasize and use the logos in terms of grammatical use and languages, rather than a technical, scientific emphasis of ration and proportion, as we can see in say the very useful lexicon of Wesley J. Perschbacher. which shows it concerns words or things uttered, speech, language, talk, mode of discourse, argument, formula an expression, a reckoning, reasoning, reason, etc., throughout the New Testament.[5] The acquired Greek Papyri from Egypt (in early 1900's) which extended and enlarged so much of our understanding of the New Testament also have several examples of Logos with its meanings which demonstrated "the multitudes" use of these concepts, utterances, judicial accounts, expressions, proportions, and λόγος = "reason."[6] The Bauer, Gingrich, Danker Greek Lexicon shows the same range and depth the Christians inherited the meanings from the Greek classical authors and continued enriching the meanings as they brought in their own Christian concepts into the λόγος.[7]

The enrichment of our own English from this ancient Greek word with its range of meanings is obvious when we consider such derivatives in our own words as "analogy," "apologetics," "biology," "decalogue," "dialogue," "epilogue," "logic," "monologue," "syllogism," "trilogy," etc.[8] Now, of course, Christians zealously maintain that the grammar of the Logos fits their own particular interpretation and brand of theology, such as Daniel B. Wallace, or say Robert Hanna shows,[9] but it's not my intention here of worrying about any kind of "correct doctrine" from any point of view, rather in grasping what the ancients meant when they used the term logos in geometric terms, which is usually ignored by all Christian theologians of our own time.

It was after the age of the epics (Homer) when λόγος gained its incredible range of meanings growing from just the idea of a narrative or rational explanation, now beginning with Herodotus and Plato and Pindar, among others, it acquired history, utterance, fable, legend, ancient proverb, stories, tales, etc.[10] Philo's discussion on the two cherubim in the Garden of Eden controlling the Tree of Life said the λόγος was the "reason" by which God is both "ruler and good." The fiery sword of the cherubim "is the symbol of reason."[11] For Heraclitus, the λόγος was the "unifying formula or proportionate method of arrangement of things... probably related to the general meaning 'measure,' 'reckoning,' 'proportion.'"[12] Marcus Aurelius we are told "uses the term ςρερματικός λόγος (spermatikos logos) to express the generative principle or creative force in nature."[13] In the Ascelpius of the Hermetic Writings, the ό ϑεîός λόγος "Hermes spoke of the divinitatis ratio (ό του ϑεου λόγος, in the sense of ή ϑεολογία, [eh theologia] 'the teaching about God')... ό ϑεîός λόγος apparently means the design or ordinance of God..."[14] In an utterly fascinating description, the logos as divine speech, it is also said that thought was conceived as breath, spirit, πνευμα, and λόγοι = "winds of the soul." It was reported that "we become intelligent by drawing in the divine λόγος through in-breathing..."[15] The idea being that logos permeated the entire universe. And there is another extraordinary fact of how ancients thought of man's relationship to the cosmos and the divine.

"Against the background of Greek philosophy Plato's description of the human mind as ϑεός is by no means extraordinary. In Plato man's νους [nous - man's mind, intellect] is regularly called ϑεîός [theos - godly].[16] Runia also indicates that "Philo is certainly prepared to call the human mind or rational soul 'divine' or 'god-like.'" And more remarkably is "Philo insists that the words κατ είχόνα ϑεου ('according to the image of God') convey a double relation. Man (primarily as νους) is an image of the divine Logos, which is in turn is an image of God. So man is an image of an image."[17] It was the Stoic doctrine that the logos as pneuma pervaded the entire cosmos, something which some actually taught and believed that as we meditate on it, we can breath it in our very selves.

It is quite necessary, if we wish to understand the ancients' views, to realize the extent and variations they believed concerning the logos ideas. We think of it only as something applying to Christ and limit our understanding without danger, but certainly also, without completeness. The logos, attributed to some teachings of Pythagoras, was related to music in such a way as possible for us to actually reproduce it ourselves, as we tinker with intervals in music. It is the same in geometry, according to Walter Burkert. "The ratio 3:4:5 determines the shape of a right triangle, and with its help one can reproduce the right triangle. Thus the λόγος would be 'the group or bundle of numbers that lie hidden in a thing, by use of which it can be not only described but reproduced.'"[18]

There is so much more I could drone on with for page after page, but this is enough to suffice to give us the point that there is tremendous depth to this, far more than merely "the Word," though that is part of the idea also.

Endnotes

1. Plato, The Republic, 526b, and the second quote at Republic 527b, as found in Edith Hamilton, editor, The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Bollingen Series LXXI, Pantheon Books, 4th printing, 1966.

2. C. D. Yong, The Works of Philo Complete and Unabridged, Hendrickson Publishers, 1993: "On the Confusion of Tongues," 14:63 (p. 240).

3. Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell, translators, Iamblichus On the Mysteries, Society of Biblical Literature, 2003: 41.

4. Liddell-Scott A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford, with a supplement, 1968, reprint, 1983: 1057. Granted mine is the reprint from back in 1983, but hey, I got it at a used book sale for $5! Can't beat that with a stick!

5. Wesley J. Pershbacher, editor, The New Analytical Greek Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 11th printing, 2010: 259-260. Cf. Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, New Testament, World Bible Publishers, 1992: 924-926, where he also shows many Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) examples.

6. J. H Moulton, G. Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, Hendrickson Publishers, 2nd printing, 2004: 378-379.

7. Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, University of Chicago Press, 1979: 477-479. Cf. the comments of Eugene A. Nida, Johannes P. Louw, Lexical Semantics of the Greek New Testament, Scholars Press, Society of Biblical Literature, 1992: 4.

8. See Gerald L. Stevens, New Testament Greek Intermediate: From Morphology to Translation, Cascade Books, 2008: 587.

9. See his outstanding Greek grammar text Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar, Beyond the Basics, An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, Zondervan, 1996:257-259, 266-269, wherein he argues about the Jehovah's Witnesses translation of the meaning of John 1:1. Also Robert Hanna, A Grammatical Aid to the Greek New Testament, Baker House Publishing, 1983: 147 argues against the JW interpretation of Jesus being "a god" by noting "The fact that ϑεός has no article does not transform the word into an adjective. It is a predicate noun, of which the subject is λόγος, and it is a fairly universal rule in New Testament Greek that when a predicate noun precedes a verb it lacks the definite article."

10. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, translator and Editor, Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromley, 10 vols., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, reprint, 1985, idea found in Vol. 4: 74.

11. Philo On the Cherubim, translated by F. H. Colson, Rev. G. H. Whitaker, in Philo, 10 vols., Harvard University Press, reprint, 1962, Vol. 2: 25.

12. G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers, Cambridge University Press, 1981: 188. Cf. W. Robertson Nicoll, "The term Logos appears as early as Heraclitus to denote the principle which maintains order in the world." in The Expositor's Greek Testament, 5 vols., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, reprint, 1976, Vol. 1: 683.

13. Nicoll, Expositor's Greek Testament, 1:684.

14. Walter Scott, Hermetica, The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings Which Contain Religious or Philosophical Teachings Ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, Kessinger Publishing, n.d., p. 42.

15. R. B. Onians, The Origins of European Thought, About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate, Cambridge University Press, 1st paperback, 1988: 77, note 9.

16. D. T. Runia, "God and Man in Philo of Alexandria," Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 39 pt 1 (1988): 65.

17. Runia, "God and Man in Philo," p. 67.

18. Walter Burkert, Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism, Harvard University Press, 1972: 438-439.