De Ebrietate

Philo Judaeus

The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 1. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

But these parents of the universe must be taken out of the present discussion; and for the present let us consider their pupils and acquaintances who have had assigned to them the care and superintendence of such souls as are not unwilling to learn and illiterate. Therefore we say that the father is masculine and perfect right reason, and that the mother is that middle and encyclical course of study, and instruction, and learning, which it is honourable and advantageous to obey as a child obeys his parents.

The recommendation then of the father, that is of right reason, is to follow and obey reason, pursuing naked and undisguised truth; and the injunction of learning, the mother that is, is to obey the just customs, which ancient men who embraced opinion, as if it were truth, have established in cities, and nations, and countries.

Now these parents have four classes of children. First of all comes that class which is obedient to them both, the

v.1.p.460
second is that which attends to neither, being the opposite of the former one. Of the others, each is half perfect. For the one is exceedingly attached to its father, and attends to him, but disregards its mother and her injunctions. The other again appears to be attached to its mother, and obeys her in everything, but pays but little attention to its father. The first class, therefore, will carry off the prize of victory as superior to all the others; the second, which is the contrary of it, will meet with defeat and destruction at the same time; and as to each of the others they will claim, one the second prize, and the other the third. The one which is obedient to its father being the second in honour, and the one which obeys its mother being the third.

Now of the soul attached to its mother, yielding to the opinions of the many and constantly changing its appearance in accordance with the various forms arising from the manifold and different ways of life, after the manner of the Egyptian Proteus, who was able to assume the likeness of anything in the whole world, and to conceal his real form so as to render it entirely invisible, the most visible image is Jothor, a compound of pride, who evidently represents a city and constitution of men from all quarters, and of all nations, carried away by vain opinions.