"After all the souls had chosen their lives, they went forward to Lachesis in the same order in which they had made their choices, and she assigned to each the daemon it had chosen as guardian of its life and fulfiller of its choice."

Plato, Republic 620d

"Select verses also of Homer and Hesiod were used by [Pythagoras], for the purpose of correcting the soul."

"Pythagoras, however, thought that music greatly contributed to health, if it was used in a proper manner. The Pythagoreans likewise employed select sentences of Homer and Hesiod for the amendment of souls."

Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras 25 & 29

"[Pythagoras] himself held morning conferences at his residence, composing his soul with the music of the lyre, and singing certain ancient paeans of Thales. He also sang verses of Homer and Hesiod, which seemed to soothe the mind. He danced certain dances which he thought conferred on the body agility and health."

Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras 32

"At once, shaking off my sluggish repose, I jumped up happily and briskly, and eager to purify myself I plunged into the sea. Seven times I immersed my head, since that is the number which the godlike Pythagoras has told us is most appropriate in religious rituals, and then weeping I uttered my silent prayer to the all-powerful goddess."

Apuleius, The Golden Ass 11.1

"Specially, however, the most contemplative of the philosophers, who had arrived at the summit of philosophic attainments, were forbidden superfluous food such as wine, or unjustifiable food, such as was animated, and not to sacrifice animals to the gods, nor by any means to injure animals, but to observe most solicitous justice towards them. ... Eating of the flesh of certain animals was, however, permitted to those whose lives were not entirely purified, philosophic and sacred; but even for these was appointed a definite time of abstinence."

Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras 24

"A man given to contradiction, and very attentive to trifles, is naturally unadapted to learn what is proper."

The Golden Sentences of Democrates 51

If you want to live a life without stress, consider whatever is going to happen in the future as if it has already happened.

Epictetus

The Scale of Virtues: Part Two of a Multipart Series on Virtue

We can divide virtue into two basic types: the slavish and the noble. The slave’s "virtues" are worth little and are mixed with vice. They are the virtues of the person who is courageous only because he doesn't want others to think him cowardly, or temperate only because he fears the consequences of intemperance. In short, he is – absurdly – virtuous because of vice. In contrast, the noble virtues are virtues per se.

Of the noble virtues, we can divide them again into the practical and the divine. The practical virtues make a person good while the sciences of divine virtue make him Godlike. As the small precedes the large, so we must become human beings first, and then Gods.

Of the practical virtues, we can divide them into the natural; the ethical (or habitual); and the civic (or social).

We can divide divine virtue into the cathartic (or purifying); the contemplative (or theoretical); the paradigmatic (or archetypal); and the priestly (or inspired).

Each class of virtue – from the natural all the way up to the priestly – relates to its neighboring classes hierarchically, and they together form a ladder, or scale, of virtues. Each successive class of virtue presupposes the prior one, such that no one can ascend the scale of virtues without first acquiring the prerequisite virtues, and no one who possesses the higher virtues can possibly lack the lower classes of virtue. For example, no one can achieve the state of cathartic virtue without already possessing the natural, habitual, and civic levels of virtue; nor can anyone possess the cathartic virtues but lack the civic.

We will look at the seven classes of the noble scale of virtues in detail in the subsequent parts of this series.

The soul is bound to the body by a conversion to the corporeal passions; and again liberated by becoming impassive to the body.

Porphyry

Natural Virtue: Part Three of a Multipart Series on Virtue

The lowest level of virtue on the scale of virtues is Natural Virtue.

Each virtue is possessed in some sense naturally, since everyone has a measure of wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance from birth. Individuals are more or less brave, more or less self-controlled, and so on, and it is clear that these dispositions are to some extent innate, whether they come to us by chance of birth or were acquired in a past life.

These natural virtues are the sort of virtues we share with animals. Just as it is plain to everyone that some animals have more excellent natures than other members of their species, so it is with human beings. And just as lions are courageous, cattle are temperate, and storks are just, humans are characterized by rationality, natural wisdom.

Along with disposition, natural virtue also encompasses such things as bodily vigor, natural intelligence, acute sense perception (such as good eyesight), and other things of that kind.

Therefore, we see that a naturally virtuous person is one who is by birth fair minded (just), gentle (wise), resistant to fear (courageous), not easily overwhelmed by impulse (temperate), with a sharp mind and a strong body.

But insofar as our endowments are natural, they are, for better or worse, difficult to change through training. As Aristotle wrote, a stone won’t learn to fly no matter how many times you throw it in the air. Some people are predisposed to a life of virtue, others less so. Virtue comes easier for some. That is the way of things.

But everyone, regardless of how naturally excellent they may be, is imperfect. Arrogance is not a virtue, and so we must be aware of our strengths and weaknesses. We must make the most out of what we were born with, erring neither in the direction of conceit nor bitterness.

Sovereign: Bacchus.

Other divinities of particular relevance: Vulcan.

Texts: Plato discusses them in The Laws and Statesman.

"Sin should be abstained from, not through fear, but for the sake of the becoming."

The Golden Sentences of Democrates 7

"And [Dionysius the Great] asked [Plato] again: 'What do you consider to be the work of the statesman?'; and he answered, 'To make his citizens better.'"

Olympiodorus, Commentary on the Alcibiades of Plato 102-103

"Nevertheless I long - I pine, all my days -
to travel home and see the dawn of my return.
And if a god will wreck me yet again on the wine-dark sea,
I can bear that too, with a spirit tempered to endure.
Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now
In the waves and wars. Add this to the total -
Bring the trial on!"

Odyssey, 5.221-27

"You will also find in Homer other principles and origins of all-various names, which are considered by the stupid as nothing more than fables, but are regarded by the philosopher as realities. There is also in him the principle of virtue, but it is called Minerva, and is present with its possessor in all-various labours. There is likewise the principle of love, but it is ascribed to Venus, who presides over the cestus, and imparts desire. The principle of art too is to be found in him, but it is Vulcan who governs fire and communicates art. But with him Apollo rules over the choir, the Muses over the song, Mars over war, Aeolus over the winds, Ocean over rivers, and Ceres over fruits; and there is nothing in Homer without deity, nothing without a ruler, nothing without a principle, but all things are full of divine speeches, and divine names, and divine art."

Maximus Tyrius, Dissertation 16

"Let everyone dearly love his lawful wife and beget children by her. But let none shed the seed due his children into any other person, and let him not disgrace that which is honorable by both nature and law. For nature produced the seed for the sake of producing children, and not for the sake of lust.

A wife should be chaste and refuse impious connection with other men, for otherwise she will subject herself to the vengeance of the daimons, whose office it is to expel those to whom they are hostile from their house, and to produce hatred."

Preface to the Laws of Charondas the Catanean

"The soul reasons best when none of these senses troubles it, neither hearing nor sight, nor pain nor pleasure, but when it is most by itself, taking leave of the body and as far as possible having no contact or association with it in its search for reality."

Plato, Phaedo 65c

"The beauty of a household consists in the conjunction of man and wife, united to each other by destiny, and consecrated to the Gods presiding over nuptial birth and houses, and who harmonize, and use all things in common for their bodies, or even their very souls; who likewise exercise a becoming authority over their house and servants; who are properly solicitous about the education of their children; and to the necessities of life pay an attention which is neither excessive nor negligent, but moderate and appropriate. For, as the most admirable Homer says, what can be more excellent

Than when at home the husband and wife
Live in entire unanimity.
(Odyssey, 7.183)

That is the reason why I have frequently wondered at those who conceive that life in common with a woman must be burdensome and grievous. Though to them she appears to be a burden and molestation, she is not so; on the contrary, she is something light and easy to be borne or, rather, she possesses the power of charming away from her husband things burdensome and grievous. No trouble so great is there which cannot easily be borne by a husband and wife who harmonize and are willing to endure it in common."

Hierocles, Ethical Fragments: On Marriage

"Do not, then, seek to see with mortal eyes [the One] as our account describes it, nor to see that it is in the way in which someone would expect it to be who assumes that all things are perceived by the senses, by which supposition he eliminates that which is most real of all. For the things which one thinks are most real, are least real; and the [materially] large has less genuine existence. But the First is the principle of existence and, again, more authentic than substantial reality. So reverse your way of thinking, or you will be left deprived of God, like the people at festivals who by their gluttony stuff themselves with things which it is not lawful for those going in to the Gods to take, thinking that these are more obviously real than the vision of the God for whom they ought to be celebrating the festival, and take no part in the rites within."

Plotinus, Enneads 5.5.11

"In our view it is God who is preeminently the 'measure of all things', much more so than any 'man', as they say."

Plato, Laws 716c

Some common Christian attacks on paganism followed by strong responses.

Paganism was proto-Christianity.
Counter: Christianity is crypto-paganism.

Elaboration: Christianity is a schizophrenic, rogue quasi-paganism which tried to meld Judaism with pagan philosophy and cult. It isn't even happily monotheistic: the Trinity is incoherent unless understood polytheistically, and most Christians are functionally tritheistic.

Paganism is larping, it's made up, there's no tradition.
Counter: Most of what could be interesting about Christianity is rooted in European paganism, and most of what isn't interesting about it is Jewish. There has always been an undercurrent of pagan spirituality in Europe, and it's beginning to shine brighter now as Christianity slowly dies.

Elaboration: The pagan classics have formed a very significant part of the bedrock of Western Civilization. The worldviews of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, though officially Christian, were heavily influenced by pagan Rome and Greece as well as the native spiritualities of northern Europe. Many people were suspected or accused of being pagan over the centuries. It isn't uncommon in European literature to encounter invocations of the Muses or references to pagan Gods mixed in with references to the Bible. In addition to that, many folk customs with pagan origins have survived. It's true that we cannot - and should not try to - return to the past. We are not ancient Romans or Greeks, nor are we Vikings; we are deeply spiritual modern people who are drawing on a very European spiritual current that has always been there.

Paganism is relativistic, materialistic, amoral, and hedonistic.
Counter: No, it's not. In fact, virtually everything about Christian teaching - including moral teaching - that is good and true was either borrowed from paganism or coincides with paganism. What is bad and false about Christian teaching is either Jewish or unique to Christianity

Elaboration: Paganism is a strong, ennobling way of life with serious metaphysics behind it. We believe that the light of the Gods is constantly shining throughout the universe, and we seek to live in that light.

Christianity is the only thing that can save us from globalism.
Counter: LOL.

Elaboration: First, adopting a religion purely for political reasons is illegitimate and should be avoided. Second, far from saving us from the problems of globalism, Christianity naturally falls in step with it as it seeks to convert even the most foreign peoples to its dogmas, and it struggles (because of its monotheism) to understand how different peoples could have their own different, valid spiritual expressions.

"[Pythagoras] required that libations be made before dining to Zeus the deliverer, and to Heracles and the Dioscuri, celebrating Zeus as the chief and leader of this nourishment, and Heracles as the power of nature, and the Dioscuri as the harmony of all things."

Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Way of Life 155