Apollonius of Tyana through a Medieval Latin Lens

ABSTRACT

This article traces evidence for the medieval reception of Apollonius of Tyana, which In many ways shows parallels to that of Hermes Trismegistus. Thanks to the Arabic tradition transmitted to the west in the later middle ages, there exists a series of interrelated works that serve to connect the late antique practice of manufacturing talismans of Apollonius to instructions for their manufacture. But the impact of Apollonius’ reputation as a magician goes beyond the realms of astral and talismanic magic. The frequent internal attribution to Apollonius in the Ars notoria places him in the company of ancient wonder-workers, and connects him to a tradition of prayer-oriented theurgic magic.

This paper is an outgrowth of the research I have been pursuing for years on the Medieval reception of the mythical figure Hermes Trismegistus.¹ Investigating the reception of Apollonius of Tyana in the Latin West bears a number of similarities to the investigation of Hermes: (1) They are both ancient sages with a reputation for great wisdom; (2) Both originated in the Greek Eastern Mediterranean; (3) The estimated dates of Apollonius’s life, ca. 15–ca. 100 CE, are within the time bracket proposed for the composition of the philosophical Hermetica that have survived till today;² (4) Both have a significant corpus of works that is mainly, but not exclusively, associated with astrology and transmitted primarily via Arabic;³ (5) The names of both figures suffered considerable mutilation across the various transliterations and translations they underwent over their extensive history; and finally, (6) Both have a reputation associating them with magic. I do not mean to neglect the differences between the two—Apollonius was from Anatolia, while the thrice-great Hermes was mostly associated with Egypt. In terms of the Medieval reception of the two figures, there was considerable debate and uncertainty surrounding the genealogy and chronology of up to three different figures, all named Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus,⁴ while Apollonius was known to have been a postdiluvian man of Greek extraction. Another major difference in the reception of the two figures is the existence of an extensive Greek biography of Apollonius authored by Philostratus,⁵ who was writing about four generations after Apollonius’s own death. There is absolutely no equivalent biography for any of the Hermeses.

This paper aims to examine what was known about Apollonius of Tyana in the Latin West during the Middle Ages. The sources through which any knowledge of Apollonius could have been transmitted will be examined in turn: the Latin Church Fathers and other sources from Latin antiquity; Arabic sources in Latin translation, which tend to involve astral magic texts attributed to Apollonius himself; and other later Latin primary sources, such as the Ars notoria,⁶ the Speculum Astronomiae,⁷ and Cecco d’Ascoli. Along the way, the deep links between the story of Apollonius and that of Hermes Trismegistus will be explored and highlighted.

Apollonius was a fairly popular name during the few centuries on either side of the Common Era,⁸ so there exist a number of different Apollonii whose varied biographies could easily be conflated by Medieval readers. Instead of listing them all in this paper, I shall indicate the occurrence of such conflation with other characters when the circumstances arise.

Another difficulty arises from transliterations and translations. In the Arabic language, there is no sound or letter equivalent to our “p” or the Greek “π.” Consequently, Arab scribes encountered difficulties in transliterating Greek words and names containing that letter, using instead a close equivalent plosive letter “b,” or “j” in Arabic. This is how “Apollonius” in Greek becomes “Balinus” or “Belenus” in Latin that has been filtered through Arabic. One consequence of this substantial change in the appearance of this name is that Medieval authors ignorant of Arabic could easily have overlooked the connection between the Arabic figure named Balinus and a Greek figure named Apollonius. This confusion may be at the root of an otherwise obscure Byzantine saint named...