Travel and Religion in Antiquity

VII: Journeys in Pursuit of Divine Wisdom: Thessalos and Other Seekers

123 VII Journeys in Pursuit of DivineWisdom:Thessalos and Other Seekers Philip A.Harland YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO Silvia Montiglio’s recent Wandering in Greek Culture (2005) draws attention to the significant place that discourses of travel played in a wide variety of literature from Homer and Plato to Dio Chrysostom and novels of the Roman period. Journeys could function in many ways, and the actual process of wandering could be viewed both positively and negatively depending on the author and the purpose behind a given writing. In this wider context of literary representations, one especially important theme that Montiglio touches on pertains to the function of travel in furthering a character’s own development, particularly in the pursuit of knowledge. Ian W. Scott’s chapter in this volume underscores the importance of travel as a means toward education in biographical literature about philosophers such as Apollonius of Tyana and Pythagoras. Yet his focus 124 P RO M OT I N G A D E I T Y O R WAY O F L I F E on disassembling the scholarly category of the itinerant “divine man” did not offer him opportunity to further explore the more specific motif of travel in pursuit of knowledge from the gods or from their earthly representatives . This motif is the focus of the present chapter on divine wisdom in discourses of travel among the elites. Here I use a specific, less-studied instance of travel in pursuit of divine wisdom as a foray into widespread patterns in biographical literature. These stories provide a window onto the interplay of travel and things associated with the gods in the minds of many elite authors of the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. The story presented below takes the form of an introductory letter (usually dated to the first or second century CE) that served as a preface to an astrological herbal, a guidebook on medical materials and their interactions with astrological phenomena. This herbal often goes by the title of the Latin manuscript: Thessalus philosophus de virtutibus herborum (Thessalos the Philosopher on the Virtues of Herbs).1 For our purposes, it does not much matter who wrote this tale. But among the attributions in surviving copies, Thessalos is most likely the original (rather than Harpocration or Hermes Trismegistos).2 Though A.D. Nock briefly discusses this Thessalos case in connection with his survey of “religious curiosity” in antiquity, studies of Thessalos’preface have focused less on discourses of travel and more on issues of pharmacology, astrology, and “religious experience.”3 Since the letter is not readily available in English translation, let me begin by presenting the autobiographical tale from the prologue itself (largely following manuscript “T”; the Greek text is presented in an appendix):4 (1) Thessalos [or: Harpocration in manuscript “T”] to Caesar Augustus [or: Germanicus Claudius in “M”], greetings. While numerous people have attempted to transmit many incredible things in their life, august Caesar, none has been able to bring such plans to completion because of the darkness which is imposed on his thoughts by destiny. Of all those who have lived since eternity, I alone seem to have done anything incredible and known to a precious few. (2) For attempting the deeds, the very deeds which surpass the limits of human nature, I brought them to completion with many trials and dangers. (3) For as I was being trained in grammatical knowledge in the regions ofAsia, I was also being distinguished from all the better students there until I enjoyed the benefits of knowledge. (4) After sailing to highly regarded Alexandria with plenty of silver, I was systematically studying with the most J O U R N E YS I N P U R S U I T O F D I V I N E W I S D O M / H A R L A N D 125 accomplished scholars. I was being commended by everyone on account of my love of hard work and my intelligence. (5) I was also continuously studying the teachings of dialectic physicians, for I passionately desired this knowledge in an extraordinary way. (6) When it was the right time to return home –– for I had already achieved medical advancement according to custom –– I went around the libraries seeking out the necessary medical materials. When I found a certain book of Nechepso dealing with twenty-four medical treatments of the whole body and of every condition...