Life. 1.3 Introducing Damis

Map c.1000 CE

Source


"Life of Apollonius of Tyana" by Philostratus

Book 1

1.3 We are introduced to Damis, Apollonius' travelling companion and scribe.

While Damis was likely to be an actual person, some of the content he wrote on his travels doesn't seem to "add up". Therefore, what Philostratus cites as being "Damis", may not be entirely accurate, Philostratus says. We could infer that Damis' own words may have been "added to" or otherwise "embellished" by some scribes who came after him, to defame the name of Apollonius - possibly agents of Rome. Here's some of the points Philostratus makes about Damis:

• Damis was in no means stupid.
• He came from the ancient city of Ninevah (see map above), which by all accounts is far inland, in the region known in those times (1 CE) as the "Hindu Kush" region. The old city today is located in northern Iraq, just west of Mosul by the look of it.
• Damis followed Apollonius as he was a student of 'wisdom' (Sophia, hence: PhiloSophia)
• Damis "records [Apollonius'] opinions and discourses and all his prophecies."
• It was one of Damis' kinsmen who informed Julia Domna, wife of [Emperor] Septimius Severus that this previously unknown documentation of Apollonius' life, existed.

Philostratus says: "Now I belonged to the circle of the empress, for she was a devoted admirer of all rhetorical exercises; and she commanded me to recast and edit these essays, at the same time paying more attention to the style and diction of them; for the man of Nineveh [Damis] had told his story clearly enough, yet somewhat awkwardly."

As well as the record kept by Damis, Philostratus also references these primary sources:

• the book of Maximus of Aegae, which comprised all the life of Apollonius in Aegae
• a will composed by Apollonius

Philostratus states very clearly: "We must not pay attention anyhow to Moeragenes, who composed four books about Apollonius, and yet was ignorant of many circumstances of his life."

Philostratus: "That then I combined these scattered sources together and took trouble over my composition, I have said; but let my work, I pray, redound to the honor of the man who is the subject of my compilation, and also be of use to those who love learning. For assuredly, they will here learn things of which as yet they were ignorant."


And I must add here:  We in these modern times, thank YOU Philostratus, for your diligence to your task. I am sure we look forward to a scholarly work, and one that might astound us at times. But to yourself and Julia Domna, to you both, humanity is very much indebted. And a heartfelt thank you also to those men and women who risked life and limb to smuggle Philostratus' biography of Apollonius out of the library of Alexandria in the common era (CE), before it was burned. Thank you - from BronnyNZ and the world. Much love belongs to you all. I acknowledge you here.

Note from another source: The Great Library of Alexandria

"Apollonius of Tyana's biography was recorded in a work by Philostratus, the Life of Apollonius, which was written some time after the death of Julia Domna (the wife of [Emperor] Septimius Severus) in AD 217."

Original source on Livius:
http://www.livius.org/sources/content/philostratus-life-of-apollonius/philostratus-life-of-apollonius-1.1-5/#1.1

Life. 1.1-2 Pythagoras. Apollonius is no wizard. Sources.

Image   Musa reading a volumen (scroll)


"Life of Apollonius of Tyana" by Philostratus

Book 1

1.1  This is an introduction to Pythagoras.

Apollonius in his younger years, from age 16 to 28 or thereabouts, did his training as a philosopher at the school in Aegae. It is said that Apollonius had a natural interest in and affinity for, the Pythagorean teaching.

Pythagoras' religious predelictions:

• Pythagoras did not wear apparel made from dead animal products
• He abstained from all flesh and from offering animals in sacrifice.
• He would offer honey-cake and frankincense and the hymn of praise - these were the offerings made to the Gods by this man.

It was said that Pythagoras had a direct communication with the Gods, and from that source he learned about things in the natural world, eg: of a physics nature, or mathematics, of sound, pattern, shape and measurement.

"Pythagoras said that Apollo had come to him acknowledging that he was the god in person."

The followers of Pythagoras accepted as law any decisions communicated by him... As part of their training, followers would impose a ritual silence on themselves.


1.2  Philostratus explains that Apollonius is not a wizard.

"For quite akin to theirs was the ideal which Apollonius pursued, and more divinely than Pythagoras he wooed wisdom and soared above tyrants."

"He practiced true wisdom as a sage, and sanely."

"He had interviews with the wizards of Babylon and with the Brahmans of India, and with the nude ascetics of Egypt."

Because of this, some called Apollonius a "wizard" and have maligned his good name.

Philostratus points out that previous philosophers had visited the wizards in Babylon, "and uttered many supernatural truths, yet never stooped to the black art", and even Plato "mingled with his own discourses much of what he heard from the prophets and priests there; and though, like a painter, he laid his own colors on to their rough sketches, yet he never passed for a wizard, although envied above all mankind for his wisdom."

And the same is true to Apollonius, says Philostratus 

Apollonius in fact, did forsee and knew many things before they happened.

Even Anaxagoras protests Philostratus, predicted "that day would be turned into night, and stones would be discharged from heaven round Aegospotami," but were attributed to Anaxagoras' wisdom.

Apollonius made predictions correctly also, but some say "that he achieved these results by art of wizardry."

Philostratus then writes:  "It seems to me then that I ought not to condone or acquiesce in the general ignorance, but write a true account of the man, detailing the exact times at which he said or did this or that, as also the habits and temper of wisdom, by means of which he succeeded in being considered a supernatural and divine being."

[That's interesting! So people at the time thought Apollonius was a God incarnate ??]

Philostratus says: "And I have gathered my information partly from the many cities where he was loved, and partly from the temples whose long-neglected and decayed rites he restored, and partly from the accounts left of him by others and partly from his own letters. For he addressed these to kings, sophists, philosophers, to men of Elis, of Delphi, to Indians, and Ethiopians; and in his letters he dealt with the subjects of the gods, of customs, of moral principles, of laws, and in all these departments he corrected the errors into which men had fallen. But the more precise details which I have collected are as follows."

Original source on Livius:

http://www.livius.org/sources/content/philostratus-life-of-apollonius/philostratus-life-of-apollonius-1.1-5/#1.1

Did "Jesus Christ" ever live? What do the scholars say?

In our study of Apollonius of Tyana, it becomes necessary to look to the academicians to see if their findings point to the existence of an actual "Jesus Christ".

As has been a theme right from the start regarding Apollonius of Tyana, the suppression of information and the hobbling of academics who seek to bring their counter-findings to the fore about the non-existence of "Jesus", has been huge.

As a journalist, this raises some very big questions for me:

• Who is trying to hide all of this information, right from the first century CE to the present? - and more importantly -
• WHY?

The following content is drawn from this article on Wikipedia:  

"The Christ Myth Theory"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_myth_theory

Image  

Who was the Historical Jesus? Did Jesus really exist? 

- An Introduction to Christ Myth Theory 

http://www.holyblasphemy.net/

Wikipedia: "The Christ Myth Theory"

The Christ myth theory is the hypothesis that Jesus never existed, or, if he did, had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity and the accounts in the gospels.

Note: 

(1)  there are no non-Christian references to Jesus dating back to the first century.* 

(2)  Jesus originated from pagan or mythical roots.

[* People argue that Josephus documented Jesus Christ on two occasions in his histories. Arguments against this are: (a) these references could have been added later by Roman scribes under order of a Roman Pope, (b) it is acknowledged by many that Josephus was a puppet of the Roman establishment.]

18th century French academics: Volney and Dupuis argued that Christianity was an amalgamation of various ancient mythologies and that Jesus was a totally mythical character.

19th century German Bruno Bauer, who taught at the University of Bonn, took Strauss' arguments further and became the first author to systematically argue that Jesus did not exist:

1. The gospels were written many decades or even a century after Jesus' estimated year of death, by individuals who likely never met Jesus, and then were edited or forged over the centuries by unknown scribes with their own agendas.
2. There are no surviving historic records about Jesus of Nazareth from any non-Jewish author until the second century, and Jesus left no writings or other archaeological evidence.
3. Certain gospel stories are similar to those of dying-and-rising gods, demigods (sons of gods), solar deities, saviors or other divine men such as Horus, Mithra/Mithras, Prometheus, Dionysus, Osiris, Buddha, and Krishna, as well as Christ-like historical figures like Apollonius of Tyana.

in 1877 in Christ and the Caesars [Bauer] suggested that Christianity was a synthesis of the Stoicism of Seneca the Younger and of the Jewish theology of Philo as developed by pro-Roman Jews such as Josephus.

19th century English academic Godfrey Higgins claims, "the mythos of the Hindus, the mythos of the Jews and the mythos of the Greeks are all at bottom the same; and ... are contrivances under the appearance of histories to perpetuate doctrines,"and that Christian editors “either from roguery or folly, corrupted them all.” (1836)

20th century academics found sources for Christian ideas in Greek and Oriental mystery cults, rather than Judaism. Joseph Klausner wrote that biblical scholars "tried their hardest to find in the historic Jesus something which is not Judaism; but in his actual history they have found nothing of this whatever, since this history is reduced almost to zero.

In 1900, Scottish MP John Mackinnon Robertson argued that Jesus never existed but was an invention by a first-century messianic cult. In Robertson's view, religious groups invent new gods to fit the needs of the society of the time. Robertson argued that a solar deity symbolized by the lamb and the ram had been worshiped by an Israelite cult of Joshua for long and that this cult had then invented a new messianic figure, Jesus of Nazareth. Robertson argued that a possible source for the Christian myth may have been the Talmudic story of the executed Jesus Pandera which dates to 100 BCE.

In 1927, British philosopher Bertrand Russell stated in his lecture Why I Am Not a Christian that "historically it is quite doubtful that Jesus existed, and if he did we do not know anything about him..."

The British archaeologist and philologist John M. Allegro later argued in 1970 that Christianity began as a shamanistic cult.

Mark Hall writes that Allegro suggested the Dead Sea Scrolls all but proved that a historical Jesus never existed.

English professor of German George Albert Wells had a profound impact on the Christ myth theory; according to New Testament scholar Graham Stanton, Wells presented the most thoroughgoing and sophisticated arguments for the Christ myth theory in his books The Jesus of the Early Christians (1971), Did Jesus Exist? (1975), The Historical Evidence for Jesus (1982), The Jesus Legend (1996), The Jesus Myth (1999), Can We Trust the New Testament? (2004), and Cutting Jesus Down to Size (2009). British theologian Kenneth Grayston advised Christians to acknowledge the difficulties raised by Wells.

Wells presented his key arguments in his initial trilogy (1971, 1975, 1982), based on the views of New Testament scholars who acknowledge that the gospels are sources written decades after Jesus's death by people who had no personal knowledge of him. In addition, Wells writes, the texts are exclusively Christian and theologically motivated, and therefore a rational person should believe the gospels only if they are independently confirmed. Wells also argues that Paul and the other epistle writers—the earliest Christian writers—do not provide any support for the idea that Jesus lived early in the 1st century. There is no information in them about Jesus's parents, place of birth, teachings, trial, nor crucifixion.[90] For Wells, the Jesus of the early Christians was a pure myth, derived from mystical speculations stemming from the Jewish Wisdom tradition, while the Gospels were subsequent works of historical fiction.

Wells: The story of the execution of Jesus under Pilate is not an historical account.

21st century Richard Carrier notes, "The hypothesis that Jesus never really existed has started to gain more credibility in the expert community. Some now agree historicity agnosticism is warranted, including Arthur Droge (professor of early Christianity at UCSD), Kurt Noll (associate professor of religion at Brandon University), and Thomas Thompson (professor of theology, emeritus, at the University of Copenhagen). Others are even more certain historicity is doubtful, including Thomas Brodie (director emeritus of the Dominican Biblical Centre at the University of Limerick, Ireland), Robert Price (who has two Ph.D.’s from Drew University, in theology and New Testament studies)," and more recently Hector Avalos professor of Religious Studies and Raphael Lataster doctoral candidate of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney.

Canadian author Tom Harpur dedicated his 2004 book The Pagan Christ to Kuhn, calling him "a man of immense learning and even greater courage" and “one of the single greatest geniuses of the twentieth century.” Harpur suggests Kuhn has not received the attention he deserves since many of his works were self-published.[109]

Presenting the case that the gospels re-work ancient pagan myths, Harpur builds on Alvin Boyd Kuhn when listing similarities among the stories of Jesus, Horus, Mithras, Buddha and others. According to Harpur, in the second or third centuries, the early church created the fictional impression of a literal and historic Jesus and then used forgery and violence to cover up the evidence. Having come to see the scriptures as symbolic allegory of a cosmic truth rather than as inconsistent history, Harpur concludes he has a greater internal connection with the spirit of Christ.


Thomas L. Thompson, Professor emeritus at the University of Copenhagen is the author of a number of books critical of the historicity of the Old Testament. Thompson claims that his PhD dissertation at University of Tübingen on the quest for the historical Abraham was rejected by his examiner Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) since it went against Catholic theology.[112] He was invited to finish his degree at Temple University in Philadelphia where he received his PhD summa cum laude. In his book The Messiah Myth: The Near Eastern Roots of Jesus and David, Thompson argues that the biblical accounts of both King David and Jesus of Nazareth are mythical in nature and based on Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek and Roman literature. For example, he argues that the resurrection of Jesus is taken directly from the story of the dying and rising god, Dionysus.

In 2012, the Irish Dominican priest and theologian Thomas L. Brodie, holding a PhD from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome and a co-founder and former director of the Dominican Biblical Institute in Limerick, published "Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery". In this book, Brodie, who previously had published academic works on the Hebrew prophets, argued that the gospels are essentially a rewriting of the stories of Elijah and Elisha when viewed as a unified account in the Books of Kings. This view lead Brodie to the conclusion that Jesus is mythical... Brodie then views the Elijah–Elisha story as the underlying model for the gospel narratives.

In early 2013, it was reported that the Dominican order had forced Brodie to resign his teaching job and banned him from writing and lecturing while under investigation for disputed teaching. The Dominican order disputed the story and stated that Brodie had already performed three terms as director at the institute and was not intending to serve a fourth, but that the book would be reviewed by a committee of scholars within the Irish Dominicans. The institute's website indicates the investigation is ongoing. The Dominican Biblical Institute closed in 2015. [Really? Very suspicious. Supression of the truth?]

Gerard Norton said: "Brodie's core conviction' [is] that neither Jesus nor Paul of Tarsus were historical.


Canadian writer Earl Doherty wrote in 2009 that the Christ myth theory is "the theory that no historical Jesus worthy of the name existed... [Doherty]: Jesus originated as a myth derived from Middle Platonism with some influence from Jewish mysticism, and that belief in a historical Jesus emerged only among Christian communities in the 2nd century.

Doherty suggests that the early Christian writers describe a Christian movement grounded in Platonic philosophy and Hellenistic Judaism, reaching the worship of a monotheistic Jewish god and what he calls a "logos-type Son". Doherty further argues that Theophilus of Antioch (c. 163–182), Athenagoras of Athens (c. 133–190), Tatian the Assyrian (c. 120–180), and Marcus Minucius Felix (writing around 150–270) offer no indication that they believed in a historical figure crucified and resurrected, and that the name Jesus does not appear in any of them.


American New Testament scholar and former Baptist pastor Robert McNair Price [said] the Christian image of Christ is a theological construct into which traces of Jesus of Nazareth have been woven... Price believes that Christianity is a historicized synthesis of mainly Egyptian, Jewish, and Greek mythologies.

Price writes that everyone who espouses the Christ myth theory bases their arguments on three key points:

1. There is no mention of a miracle-working Jesus in secular sources.
2. The epistles, written earlier than the gospels, provide no evidence of a recent historical Jesus
3. The Jesus narrative is paralleled in Middle Eastern myths about dying and rising gods; Price names Baal, Osiris, Attis, Adonis, and Dumuzi/Tammuz as examples, all of which, he writes, survived into the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Price argues that if critical methodology is applied with ruthless consistency, one is left in complete agnosticism regarding Jesus's historicity: "There might have been a historical Jesus, but unless someone discovers his diary or his skeleton, we'll never know."[124] Price argues that "the varying dates are the residue of various attempts to anchor an originally mythic or legendary Jesus in more or less recent history."

Jesus simply wears too many hats in the Gospels—exorcist, healer, king, prophet, sage, rabbi, demigod, and so on. The Jesus Christ of the New Testament is a composite figure (...) The historical Jesus (if there was one) might well have been a messianic king, or a progressive Pharisee, or a Galilean shaman, or a magus, or a Hellenistic sage... Price cautiously asserts that "a genuine historical figure" may ultimately lie at the root of the Christian religion. That figure would have eventually been made into God through apotheosis [ "to deify" - the glorification of a subject to divine level].

Price also states "I am not trying to say that there was a single origin of the Christian savior Jesus Christ... there may indeed have been such a myth [or actual historic personage], and that if so, it eventually flowed together with other [saviour] images, some one of which may have been based on a historical [individual]."

+ + +

Christ myth theory proponents claim that the age, authorship, and authenticity of the Gospels can not be verified, thus the Gospels can not bear witness to the historicity of Jesus.

There remains a strong consensus in historical-critical biblical scholarship that a historical Jesus did live in the geographical area and the time period noted in the bible.

[The opposite point of view in academia is rigorously defended]:

According to New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman, most people who study the historical period of Jesus believe that he did exist, and do not write in support of the Christ myth theory. Ehrman also notes that these views would prevent one from getting employment in a religious studies department:

"These views are so extreme and so unconvincing to 99.99 percent of the real experts that anyone holding them is as likely to get a teaching job in an established department of religion as a six-day creationist is likely to land on in a bona fide department of biology."

[Red flags right there! ie: Tell everbody you believe Jesus existed, or you lose your job!]


Maurice Casey, theologian and scholar of New Testament and early Christianity, stated that the belief among professors that Jesus existed is generally completely certain. According to Casey, the view that Jesus did not exist is "the view of extremists" and "demonstrably false", and that "professional scholars generally regard it as having been settled in serious scholarship long ago".

[In spite of the fact that archaology can't find "Jesus"!]


Documentaries 

Since 2005, several English-language documentaries have focused, at least in part, on the Christ myth theory:

• The God Who Wasn't There directed by Brian Flemming and featuring Richard Carrier and Robert M. Price (2005)
• The Pagan Christ produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and featuring Tom Harpur (2007)
• Zeitgeist: The Movie directed by Peter Joseph (2007)
• The Hidden Story of Jesus produced by Channel 4 and featuring Robert Beckford (2007)
• Religulous directed by Larry Charles and featuring Bill Maher (2008)
• Caesar's Messiah by Joseph Atwill (2013)

Additionally: 

There is an extensive bibliography available on this Wiki link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_myth_theory

Please join the conversation on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ApolloniusOfTyana/

Religion, Mysticism, Maths and Music - Pythagoras

Pythagoras (c.570-490 BCE) was still a young man when he went to Memphis in Egypt and study mathematics and astronomy with the priests there... He also travelled to study at the temples of Tyre and Byblos in Phoenicia, as well as in Babylon.

In Croton (his native city), Pythagoras established a secret religious society very similar to (and possibly influenced by) the earlier Orphic cult, in an attempt to reform the cultural life of Croton. He formed an elite circle of followers around himself, called Pythagoreans or the Mathematikoi ("learners"), subject to very strict rules of conduct, owning no personal possessions and assuming a largely vegetarian diet. They followed a structured life of religious teaching, common meals, exercise, music, poetry recitations, reading and philosophical study (very similar to later monastic life). The school (unusually for the time) was open to both male and female students uniformly (women were held to be different from men, but not necessarily inferior). The Mathematikoi extended and developed the more mathematical and scientific work Pythagoras began.

Other students, who lived in neighbouring areas, were also permitted to attend some of Pythagoras' lectures, although they were not taught the inner secrets of the cult. They were known as the Akousmatikoi ("listeners"), and they focused on the more religious and ritualistic aspects of Pythagoras' teachings (and were permitted to eat meat and own personal belongings).

The school that Pythagoras established at Croton was in some ways more of a secret brotherhood or monastery. It was based on his religious teachings and was highly concerned with the morality of society. Members were required to live ethically, love one another, share political beliefs, practice pacifism, and devote themselves to the mathematics of nature. They also abstained from meat, abjured personal property and observed a rule of silence (called "echemythia"), the breaking of which was punishable by death, based on the belief that if someone was in any doubt as to what to say, they should remain silent.

Pythagoras saw his religious and scientific views as inseparably interconnected. He believed in the theory of metempsychosisor the transmigration of the soul and its reincarnation again and again after death into the bodies of humans, animals or vegetables until it became moral

Another of Pythagoras' central beliefs was that the essence of being (and the stability of all things that create the universe) can be found in the form of numbers, and that it can be encountered through the study of mathematics. For instance, he believed that things like health relied on a stable proportion of elements, with too much or too little of one thing causing an imbalance that makes a person unhealthy.

He was one of the first to think that the Earth was round, that all planets have an axis, and that all the planets travel around one central point (which he originally identified as the Earth, but later renounced it for the idea that the planets revolve around a central “fire”, although he never identified it as the Sun).

He also believed in the "musica universalis" (or the "harmony of the spheres"), the idea that the planets and stars moved according to mathematical equations, which corresponded to musical notes and thus produced a kind of symphony.

Source:  http://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_pythagoras.html


Ensemble-2 - Musical Meditation with Flute, Gong, and Monochord

Published on Aug 22, 2013
Meditationsmusik mit André Müller (Flute), Michael Fließ (Gong), Roland Hutner (Monochord)
http://www.kiwisound.de, http://www.klangtherapiezentrum.de

Pythagoras and Music (Part 1)

Uploaded on Jun 25, 2009
Pythagoras and Music
Melanie Richards, M.Mus., S.R.C.

Creating A Bed Monochord
      
                                         
Published on Oct 20, 2013

Warmest Greetings!

Here is a small video of the large bed monochord (aka. Pythagorean Monochord) I have recently made. This build took over three months at a cost of around $700. This is the third monochord Ive built and it is by far the largest.

It is tuned to low E at the moment but can be tuned up or down a note as well. It has sixty-four strings made from quality spring steel piano wire. The pegs are home made from brass rod stock and the tuning pins are zither pins bought from Ebay.

This instrument was a pleasure to build and amazing to play. I have had a few people on it so far and all of the response to it has been great. It is truly something that you have to be present to appreciate fully.

Thank you for watching this video and feel free to like it if you like it!

For more information feel free to email me at CrystalReliquary@live.ca

~ Danial

The Pythagorean Monochords

Uploaded on May 21, 2008 

Alternative Healing through Sound, Vibration and Harmonix. 

An overview with Dr. James Hopkins

Pythagoreanism - Apollonius' philosophical roots

Definition:

Pythagoreanism is an early Pre-Socratic [before Socrates] Greek school of philosophy based around the metaphysical beliefs of Pythagoras and his followers. Their views and methods were influential on many later movements including Platonism [Plato], Neo-Platonism and Cynicism.

Article source

Image Source

Pythagoras (570-490 BC)

Ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher. He was born in Phoenician Sydone.
Many facts of his biography are not known reliably. His life is known only from works of other ancient Greek authors. By their opinion Pythagoras met with other famous wisemen and scientists of these times.

It is known that he had lived in Egypt for a long time and studied local mysteries. Then he went to Babel [the temple near Babylon]. Later he went back to Samos. These times it was governed by Polycrates and due to his tyranny Pythagoras was forced to leave Samos.

He settled in the south of Italy. Phythagoras' philosophy and his lifestyle had many followers. They adjoined to form an Order which had great influence in Croton. But later Pythagoras himself had to move to Metapontum because besides followers, the scientist had many enemies.

He gained great success in mathematics. He is considered to discover and prove Pythagorean Theorem and creation of Pythagoras tables. It is known that members of his Order studied cosmology and believed in transmigration. His philosophical theory can be divided into two parts – scientific and religious.

Article source:  http://artcreationforever.com/content/pythagoras.html

It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of Western philosophy.

Article source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras

Image source

History of Thought - Part 2 - The Ancient Eastern World

7. 7 What the Greeks knew •Pythagoras (southern Italy, active 530 BC) –Contemplating is more important than acting –Contemplation leads to logic/mathematics –Mathematics is evidence of eternal truths/divine truths beyond the human mind –Geometry is evidence of perfect forms beyond the forms of nature, –Ecstatic revelation of the essence of nature (Logic becomes religion) –Note: mathematics leads the Pythagoreans to spirituality

8. 8 What the Greeks knew •Pythagoras –The fundamental substance is not a material substance, but an abstract principle (number) –Dualism: distinction between matter and spirit –Immortality of soul and metempsychosis: the soul is a fallen god, trapped in a body, and doomed to a perpetual cycle of rebirth –Ascetic life, vegetarianism –The earth is a sphere (shape of the earth during a lunar eclipse)

14. 14 What the Greeks knew •Anaxagoras (Ionia, active 450 BC) –First openly atheistic philosopher –"Mind" (nous) as the organizing principle of the universe –Nous (intelligence, thought, mind) gives the atoms an order –Life was dispersed as seeds in the universe and eventually landed on Earth ("panspermia")

43. 43 What the Greeks knew •Hellenistic Philosophy –Emphasis on happiness of the individual •Hellenistic Religion –Emphasis on salvation of the individual –Popularity of “mysteries” (Eleusinian, Dyonisian), whose deities are closer to humans and promise salvation •Materialism –Cynicism –Epicureanism –Stoicism

India - Added here since Apollonius journeyed to India. Some commentators speculate that Apollonius was in India for 10 years on his first visit.

160. 160 What the Indians knew •The Vedas –Veda means “knowledge/wisdom” in ancient Vedic –Beliefs of the Indo-Europeans –All Vedas were reserved for male priests of the upper (Brahmin) caste –Not written down but handed down orally from father to son (jealously guarded secrets)

165. 165 What the Indians knew •Brahmanas –Commentaries on the four Vedas –Emphasis on sacrifice (activity of the priests) –Vedic gods downplayed –Prajapati: everything emanates from Prajapati, the primordial consciousness –Gods and humans are emanations of Prajapati

167. 167 What the Indians knew •Upanishads (600 BC) –The metaphysical counterpart of the Veda (eg, the Brihadaranyaka is contained in the Yajurveda) –Philosophical meditation on the meaning of life and the nature of the universe, rather than mythology of gods –Pessimistic vision of the human condition: life is evil/sorrow –Union of the individual soul (“atman”) with the universal soul (“brahman”), rather than devotional acts

169. 169 What the Indians knew •Upanishads (500 BC) –Brahman: the absolute, the soul of the world –Atman: the divine within the self, the soul of the individual –Karma: moral determination of reincarnation –Samsara: endless cycle of death and rebirth, transience of ordinary life –Dharma: social and cosmic order –Dhyana: meditation –First formulation of the law of karma: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4,4,5)

171. 171 What the Indians knew •Brahman •The ultimate cosmic principle •The first cause of the universe •The source of existence •Pure knowledge •Eternal, infinite, and conscious being.

175. 175 What the Indians knew •Suffering and Salvation –Wisdom is the realization that everything is suffering –But the realization of suffering does not lead to pessimism –It leads to salvation –The realization of suffering is the first step towards salvation –Salvation is liberation from suffering –Salvation is achieved by transcending the human condition

176. 176 What the Indians knew •Suffering and Salvation –Salvation is an “awakening” in which one finally sees the truth –Nothing has changed in the world: it is the individual’s state of mind that has changed

177. 177 What the Indians knew •Shramana –Wandering ascetic individual who renounced the world to find salvation in spiritual meditation •Siddhārtha Gautama/ Buddha (Buddhism) •Vardhamana/ Mahavira (Jainism) –Liberation can be achieved by anybody irrespective of caste –Liberation is to be achieved by each individual, either by introspection or by following other individuals

179. 179 What the Indians knew •Siddhartha Gautama (527BC) –Sakyamuni: "sage of the Shakya clan” –Budh: to be aware –Buddha: “the enligthened one”

Image source

185. 185 What the Indians knew •Buddha (527BC) –No god: no Brahman –Brahman replaced by "righteousness" (dharma), living a life of moral and ethical standard (the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path) –Gods are not creators of the universe, and cannot influence human life. They are subject to the same cycle of rebirth. Enlightenment is actually possible only for humans. –No transmigration: souls do not migrate from this life to the next one (there is no self)

206. 206 What the Indians knew •Bhagavad-Gita –700 verse –The god incarnate Krisna/Vishnu reveals himself so that humans can know the divine –Humans must act in order to save themselves –“Action is superior to inaction” –Social life, caring for the family, working, etc are not impediments to salvation - they are as good as ascetism and mysticism –The world was created by a caring god (Vishnu), who helps its creation achieve salvation

213. 213 What the Indians knew •Hinduism and Buddhism –Salvation is achieved by transcending the human condition (enlightenment) •Hinduism: moksha (via yoga) leading to unity of atman (individual soul) with brahman (universal soul) •Buddhism: escape from samsara (nirvana)

Article Source:  History of Thought - Part 2 - The Ancient Eastern World

Metempsychosis (Greek: μετεμψύχωσις) 

A philosophical term in the Greek language referring to transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. Generally, the term is only used within the context of Ancient Greek philosophy, but has also been used by modern philosophers...

The earliest Greek thinker with whom metempsychosis is connected is Pherecydes of Syros; but Pythagoras, who is said to have been his pupil, is its first famous philosophic exponent. Pythagoras is not believed to have invented the doctrine nor have imported it from Egypt. Instead he made his reputation by bringing the Orphic doctrine from North-Eastern Hellas to Magna Graecia, and creating societies for its diffusion. The real weight and importance of metempsychosis in Western tradition is due to its adoption by Plato

Article source

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Chronological Chart of Sources for Pythagoras 

(reverse order)

300 CE	Iamblichus (ca. 245–325 CE)	On the Pythagorean Life (extant)
	Porphyry (234–ca. 305 CE)	Life of Pythagoras (extant)
	Diogenes Laertius (ca. 200–250 CE)	Life of Pythagoras (extant)
200 CE	Sextus Empiricus (circa 200 CE)	(summaries of Pythagoras' philosophy in Adversus Mathematicos [Against the Theoreticians], cited below as M.)
100 CE	Nicomachus (ca. 50–150 CE)	Introduction to Arithmetic (extant), Life of Pythagoras(fragments quoted in Iamblichus etc.)
	Apollonius of Tyana (died ca. 97 CE)	Life of Pythagoras (fragments quoted in Iamblichus etc. It is possible that this work is by another otherwise unknown Apollonius.)
	Moderatus of Gades (50–100)	Lectures on Pythagoreanism (fragments quoted in Porphyry)
	Aetius (first century CE)	Opinions of the Philosophers (reconstructed by H. Diels from pseudo-Plutarch, Opinions of the Philosophers[2nd CE] and Stobaeus, Selections [5th CE])
	Pseudo-Pythagorean texts forged	(starting as early as 300 BCE but most common in the first century BCE)
100 BCE	Alexander Polyhistor (b. 105 BCE)	his excerpts of the Pythagorean Memoirs are quoted by Diogenes Laertius
200 BCE	Pythagorean Memoirs (200 BCE)	a Pseudo-Pythagorean Text (sections quoted in Diogenes Laertius)
300 BCE	Timaeus of Tauromenium 350–260 BCE)	(historian of Sicily)
	Academy Heraclides (ca. 380–310) Xenocrates (ca. 396–314) Speusippus (ca. 410–339)     Lyceum Dicaearchus (ca.370–300) Aristoxenus (ca. 370–300) Eudemus (ca.370–300) Theophrastus (372–288) Aristotle (384–322)
400 BCE	Plato (427–347)
500 BCE	Pythagoras (570–490)

Article source:  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/

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Who wrote the Epistles in the New Testament?

The following conversation flowed this morning on our Facebook group:

"Apollonius of Tyana - The Nazarene".  

It took some very interesting enlightening turns, as you might agree.
I hope you (a) enjoy, (b) think on it. Thank you.

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Preamble to the conversation:

Mead in his "Apollonius of Tyana" (1901) actually said quite plainly that Apollonius went to "Arabia", meaning south of Roman Palestina (see the third map below), but didn't specify his age, nor the length of time he spent there. Apollonius was basically in 'the outback' Mead says, with various other aesthetics and people working on 'the inner life'. It's when I worked out Apollonius' age for the period he was in Roman Judea, that got my attention .

He was still "young" (mid 30s?) Mead says, when he began his trek into the Hindu Kush via north Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, after which he went down into India.  After his five years of silence at 'Pythagorean school' in Ægae  (around age 23-28), Apollonius spent some years in "Arabia". This was before he went across the Hindu Kush mountains (around mid-30s). Therefore, the age Apollonius was in Palestina-Arabia was when he was around 29-34 years old. A strange coincidence?

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That is: Apollonius was in Palestina-Arabia at the same time in history (34-37 CE) the supposed "Jesus" was in ministry, at around age 30-33. How easy it would have been for the "Church Fathers" (Roman elite families) in 325 CE at the Council of Nicea, to concoct a story about a healer-philosopher in Judea who seemingly arrived out of nowhere. The early years of this "Messiah" could easily be padded out with stories of the early years of other "saviors" - Mithra, Tammuz, Dioysus, and others.  Rome had noted that as soon as you gave the people a savior, the people would stop thinking for themselves. This was desirable.

The lingering memory of a white robed, barefoot, good looking young man with very long (never been cut) hair, who brought a message of peace and personal sovereignty to the far flung hills and villages of practically everywhere inhabited right across the Roman Empire, could not be quelled. Rome had to do something. These ideas of "giving to Caesar what is Caesar's (money) but spend the rest of your life doing the will of your maker and serving your fellow man", were far too revolutionary! Rome wanted all!

In 325 CE as the Empire continued to crumble, those sons of the Roman elite families, the patricians - those early "Church Fathers", decided to merge the oral histories, now spread near and far amongst the common people, with their own State Sanctioned version of events about Apollonius. The creation of this "saviour" would "kill two birds with one stone" (if not four):

• It would snuff out memory from the common consciousness of this name "Apollonius"
• It would give the Jews their long-awaited Messiah - a divide and conquer tactic to break up the ongoing Jewish revolutions
• It would keep the money rolling into the "temples" (churches) by way of tithes
• It would keep the people coming to the priests (all born of patrician families originally), where they would hear in the confessional the people's most intimate secrets... including thoughts of insurrection. Very useful indeed!

It's highly possible that Apollonius did venture into northern parts of Judea as he roamed around the hills, finding small towns and villages as he went. But for the "Church Fathers" to concoct their stories, Apollonius needn't have travelled there at all. A generational memory of Apollonius in Roman Judea still remained. It's quite possible these mainly illiterate villagers had forgotten his strange name... so accepting this name "Jesus Christ" as being the name of this young man in bare feet and shiny white linen clothing who had visited their home towns some 300 years before, would easily have been effected by powerful Rome.


This map shows exactly where the territories were in Roman times... so we don't get confused. "Arabia" in the Empire was very small, and didn't go anywhere near south as the House of Saud does today. 

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Palestina-Arabia together comprise the province the New Testament refers to as "Judea".

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This is "Judea" and its surrounding regions. It's such a small area - perfect for walking!

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As Paul-Saul was a Jew, you would think the "Christian churches" that would have been of greatest interest to him, and who he would have been sending letters of encouragement and exhortation to, would have been those communities in Biblical Judea, 2nd century CE. So why don't we find an "Epistle to the Christians at Jerusalem" ?? - at Judea, at Idumea, at Nabatea, at Peraea, at Decapolis, at Gaulantis, at Phoenicia, at Galilee ?? After all, these are the places where "Iesus Christus" was said to have travelled and lived !! 

Here's a map of "Anatolia" or some of us might know it as "Asia Minor".  
Obviously, it's modern day Turkey.

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This makes sense to me (now that i'm looking at his particular map) of why "St Paul" wrote to all of these communities in Asia Minor - because this is where Apollonius is from!

Why are ALL the epistles (predominantly) "to the churches" in Asia Minor? First we have the letter to the Romans (Italy obviously), then we've got two epistles to the people at Corinth (south Greece), a letter each to the Galatians (Galatia, Asia Minor), Ephesians (Ephesus, west coat Asia Minor near Ionia), Philippians (Phillippi, north in Macedonia), Colossians (Colossae, Asia Minor - 15 miles south east of the city of Pisidia), then two more letters to the Thessalonians (Thesolonica, southern Macedonia, on the coast). 

This is where Apollonius came from !!!!  How "coincidental" is that?

ie:  Asia Minor-Anatolia, and Greece - the home of his beloved Pythagoreanism.

Of course "Paul" (A-paul-lonius ??) -

...  or [in Babylonian Magic-speak] "A Paul from somewhere Greek-sounding, like 'Ionia',"

- would be writing to the towns and cities where he grew up and had studied, alongside his philosophical peers. There are NO letters to the people of Judea, which is in fact where you would expect to find the largest populations of Christians to be living, only a century after the crucifixion and resurrection of "Iesus Christus".

Therefore, we have to ask why NO particular attention was being paid to those Christians who stood right in the firing-line of Judaism, by this so-called "Paul"?

It is illogical that this Biblical "Saul-Paul" who (it is said) was a blood-line Jew, would not write to his fellow-Jewish Christian converts in Judea, in the first instance. Not logical !!

"Anatolia"
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Here's what Apollonius said about the Jews.  It appears that not much has changed:

"For the Jews have long been in revolt not only against the Romans, but against humanity; and a race that has made its own a life apart and irreconcilable, that cannot share with the rest of mankind in the pleasures of the table nor join in their libations or prayers or sacrifices, are separated from ourselves by a greater gulf than divides us from Susa or Bactra or the more distant Indies."

Note:  Jewish people are told to not sit down to a meal with non-Jews (goyim)

And finally -

From the page of Flavius Claudius Iulianus in the 4th century: 

"Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."

Fisherman in the Sea of Galilee, 1890-1900

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Apollonius was in Palestine in his early 30s !!

This commentary follows on from yesterday's post about Apollonius' travels. We find out, from running a timeline based on Apollonius' age,  that there is a good possibility that he was in Roman Judea (Palestine) for a period of around 3-5 years, at the same time the Roman-created "Iesus Christus" was supposedly travelling around the area. What are the odds that both Apollonius and "Jesus Christ" were living and working around Palestine-Judea at exactly the same time, and yet they never met each other, never heard of each other, and their biographers never mentioned the other when writing up their histories? We have to come to the startling conclusion:  Maybe one of them didn't exist!

"Iudaea (Judea) Province in the First Century"

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Something important we need to ponder:

 GRS Mead in "Apollonius of Tyana" (1901),: "Philostratus said Apollonius spent some time among the "Arabians" [after he had finished at 'philosophy school' in Ægae - BL] and had been instructed by them (1.20, 4.38). And by Arabia we are to understand the country south of Palestine, which was at this period a regular hot-bed of mystic communities. The spots he visited were in out-of-the-way places, where the spirit of holiness lingered, and not the crowded and disturbed cities, for the subject of his conversation, he said, required “men and not people.” [??] He spent his time in travelling from one to another of these temples, shrines, and commun-ities; from which we may conclude that there was some kind of common freemasonry [like the German Journeyman of today] as it were, among them, of the nature of initiation, which opened the door of hospitality to him."

Roman Empire provinces of the eastern Mediterranean - 1st century CE

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Comparable map:

Roman Empire provinces using Biblical names - 1st century CE 

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Commentary by blogger, Bronwyn Llewellyn  (BL, BronnyNZ)
BA Classical Studies
Otago University, NZ  

From what GRW Mead says in his "Apollonius of Tyana" (1901), Apollonius was around 28-33 years of age when he went to "Arabia". This may have been a "post-apprenticeship" journey consisting of a number of years' travel, such as we see to this day in the medieval tradition (from 5th century CE) of the German carpentary Journeyman. Approximately three years then, could well have been the length of time that Apollonius was in Arabia-Palestina (Judea). 

Does this co-incide with somebody else we know who was said to be teaching in Palestine at this same time?

• Did the Arabian Palestinians hand down oral traditions and stories correctly therefore, of a wise, philosophic young man who performed healing miracles and offered compassionate advice to ordinary people?  - a man with long uncut hair, as depicted in Christian iconography from its beginnings in 325 CE, right up to today?  
• Is memory of this long-haired man that changed the world's thinking towards sovereignty and living free from an oppressor, still within the collective human consciousness today?
• How is it that even modern painters "just know" that Jesus has long hair and is dressed in white?  - They don't. But "something" is so firmly embedded in the collective human consciousness that they just couldn't conceive painting a Jesus with the short Jewish haircut. It's impossible.                                                   
• Image source

Please note:  In Judaism, men have to cut their hair short lest they be seen as effeminate - so how could this long-haired man "Jesus" have been of Jewish origins, unless of course he had been to Pythagorean school? (Not likely). 

• Since Apollonius was a Pythagorean Nazarean, he would wear no animal hide, so he walked with bare feet upon the ground as many indigenous nations do even today, and because he would wear no animal fibre, he only wore white linen. Linen is made from flax fibres after the fleshy layers have been broken down and scraped away. It is extremely durable and lasts for decades.

These memories are still carried down to us today in the "Jesus" iconography we find in Roman and "Protestant" churches (which are still based on the Roman Mithraic traditions), all over the world. More questions are raised:

• In 325 CE in Nicea, did the Roman "Church Fathers" (the Roman elite patricians) decide to rename this visitor to 1st century Arabia-Palestina who had hailed from Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), as one "Iesus Christus"?  
• Did they then reassemble those Apollonius stories from Arabia-Palestina and other places around the Mediterranean for their own liking and purpose?  
• Were the deeds of the Turkish-Greek Apollonius which became centred around the region of Biblical Judea, now in need of a Jewish hero?
• Were these "Church Fathers" (men of these Roman elite families) compelled to do this because they had discovered the legend of Apollonius of Tyana in the Roman Empire was simply, unsuppressable?  
• Was the only solution to merge Roman Mithraism and the ever-popular Egyptian Horus-Isis-Osiris stories with the life and deeds of the Pythagorean orator and healer, Apollonius of Tyana?
• Was the only strategy left to those Roman "Church Fathers", to "muddy the pool" and detract from Apollonius' message of personal sovereignty and direct communication with the great "Primordial Unity" [my term], and introduce (as seen in these other cults) an intermediary priest and a "saviour"?  

An Empire of course, can't extract funds off people when they are gathering in their own homes. Great churches and edifices needed to be built, to keep the weekly tithes rolling in, least the parishoners end up in "eternal damnation" !!

This renaming and creation of this "Iesus Christus" figure I feel was to intentionally hide the fact of who this traveller to Arabia-Palestina really was: 

"Apollonius of Tyana"  

Apollonius was widely talked about all across the Roman Empire for many centuries, even up until the 19th century, with continual suppression at each raising of his name. Vast quantities of literature concerning Apollonius have been burned. "lost" or "buried" along the way. Such was the reputation of Apollonius across the Roman Empire that even ordinary illiterate people could reference his wise teachings and talk about the healings he had performed in his lifetime. You can't hide a phenomena like that for long.

I suspect the memory of Apollonius has lasted so long and has permeated into all of our future generations around the Empire (which still operates to this day and is now global, encompassing not just the Mediterranean), because Apollonius defied directly, one of the cruelest of the Roman Emperors to his face - Domitian !! 

Domitian personified all that was cruel and evil in the Roman Empire - a "man as god" who held the human spirit down, embodying an energy that still dominates humanity to this day in the guise of dead Corporations including Vatican Inc., the biggest business on the planet.

And please remember: There was no internet back in the day (1-3 CE), no printing presses, no radios - so individuals had no way to publicize what was happening in their small village as this great philosopher, orator and healer swept through the Mediterranean world like a bottlebrush, getting into every corruption-filled little corner.

The story of this strangely dressed man with his "revolutionary" ideas that burst like desert flowers from the topsoil of Pythagorean thought, would have spread around the whole Roman Empire like a purposefully burning wildfire (slow, none-the-less). This word-of-mouth teaching would, by my estimation, have taken around 200 years to permeate to all of Europe, the near East and the north of Africa. As they say, "you can't 'unhear' a thing once you've heard it", and the Pythagorean message of peace and personal sovereignty would have ripped into Rome's tough exterior like a truckload of TNT! "The preacher" had to be put down! - even posthumously. 

There were no inter-provincial systems in the Roman world, for recording or distributing any information besides the "Roman authorized version" for anything. So the message would have taken a very long time to trickle out. Once it did, the hearts of all people who heard this Pythagorean message, would have opened and embraced the sense of its reason and compassion.

As we have now with CNN, ABC, BBC Fox News, et al., the Roman Empire, which I feel became centralized at the Vatican on behalf of the elite patrician families, certainly wasn't into disseminating the truth! The 'battle' was on...  Who would win the propaganda war?

The difference in our era is this:  We Now See "Them" (the elites). We see the game! And we have amazing new technology available that allows us to see the tricks...  "Know the truth, for the truth will set you free!"

And that's a very good start!

Keep spreading the Truth!  The "revolution" will not be won by an individual standing as "saviour". The "revolution" is to be won by us all !!

Related article: "The Veil"
unveiled

Africa’s biggest Jesus statue

Jan 4, 2016 

Please feel free to compare this image with other Apollonius of Tyana images on this blog. The Chinese sculptors of this barefoot Jesus got it right! This less European depiction of the Christus figure comes within a smidgen of the likeness of our historic Apollonius.

A Jew with long hair? I don't think so.

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Private life, Education, Personal qualities, Philosophy, Religion, Travel, Role model, his Legend lives on...

This compendium or 'Curriculum Vitae' of Apollonius will be added to over time as references from various authors, commentators and translators are sourced.  Please refer to this article from time to time to see updates. Thank you.

Roman Empire provinces of the eastern Mediterranean - 1st century CE

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APOLLONIUS 

Private life

Apollonius was born at Tyana, a city in the south of Cappadocia, somewhere in the early years of the Christian era. His parents were of ancient family and considerable fortune. (1.4)  Mead

At the age of twenty his father died (his mother having died some years before) leaving a considerable fortune, which Apollonius was to share with his elder brother, a wild and dissolute youth of twenty-three. Being still a minor, Apollonius continued to reside at Ægae [a town on the sea coast east of Tarsus where he attended 'philosophy school' - BL].  Mead

[At age 21 after the death of both his parents]:  He seems to have devoted his time to setting in order the affairs of the family, for he distributed the rest of his patrimony among certain of his relatives, [he had already given his brother half of his share - BL] and kept for himself but a bare pittance.  Mead

After the five years of silence [around age 28], we find Apollonius at Antioch.  Mead  [which is on the border of Syria and Turkey - BL]

"Philostratus said Apollonius spent some time among the "Arabians" [after he had finished at 'philosophy school' in Ægae - BL] and had been instructed by them (1.20, 4.38). And by Arabia we are to understand the country south of Palestine, which was at this period a regular hot-bed of mystic communities. The spots he visited were in out-of-the-way places, where the spirit of holiness lingered, and not the crowded and disturbed cities, for the subject of his conversation, he said, required “men and not people.” [??] He spent his time in travelling from one to another of these temples, shrines, and communities; from which we may conclude that there was some kind of common freemasonry [like the German Journeyman of today] as it were, among them, of the nature of initiation, which opened the door of hospitality to him."  Mead

“After these things,” says Philostratus [possibly referring to his time spent in 'Arabia' (Palestine-Judea) - BL], Apollonius determined to visit the Brachmanes and Sarmanes. [That is the Brâhmans and Buddhists].  Mead

What induced our philosopher to make so long and dangerous a journey [to India] nowhere appears from Philostratus, who simply says that Apollonius thought it a good thing for a young man to travel. It is abundantly evident, however, that Apollonius never traveled merely for the sake of travelling. What he does he does with a distinct purpose. And his guides on this occasion (as he assures his disciples who tried to dissuade him from his endeavour and refused to accompany him), were wisdom and his inner monitor (dæmon). [sic]  Mead

“Since ye are faint-hearted,” says the solitary pilgrim, “I bid you farewell. As for myself I must go whithersoever wisdom and my inner self may lead me. The Gods are my advisers and I can rely on their counsels.” (1.18)

Personal qualities

At an early age he gave signs of a very powerful memory and studious disposition, and was remarkable for his beauty.  Mead

[From the age of 14 it was noted]:  His extraordinary “memory,” which infused life into the dull utterances of his tutor [Euxenus], urged him on...  Nevertheless he retained his affection for the man who had told him of the way, and rewarded him handsomely (1.7). Mead

[At age 21 after the division of his familial inheritance]:  He required but little, he said, and should never marry (1.13). Mead

Education

At the age of fourteen he was sent to Tarsus, a famous centre of learning of the time, to complete his studies. But mere rhetoric and style and the life of the “schools” were little suited to his serious disposition, and he speedily left for Ægæ, a town on the sea coast east of Tarsus. Here he found surroundings more suitable to his needs, and plunged with ardor into the study of philosophy.  Mead

When [his primary studies had been completed] Euxenus asked him how he would begin his new mode of life. He replied: “As doctors purge their patients.”  [A reference to a vegetarian diet - BL].  Mead

Philosophy

[From the age of 14] Apollonius enjoyed the society and instruction of pupils and teachers of the Platonic, Stoic, Peripatetic, and Epicurean schools of philosophy; but though he studied all these systems of thought with attention, it was the lessons of the Pythagorean school upon which he seized with an extraordinary depth of comprehension, [??] and that, too, although his teacher, Euxenus, was but a parrot of the doctrines and not a practiser of the discipline. But such parroting was not enough for the eager spirit of Apollonius.  Mead

At the age of sixteen “he soared into the Pythagorean life, winged by some greater one.” [Sci., than his tutor; namely, the “memory” within him, or his “dæmon.”] [sic. BL] Mead

[From the age of around 22 years]:  He took the vow of silence for five years, for he was determined not to write on philosophy until he had passed through this wholesome discipline. These five years were passed mostly in Pamphylia and Cilicia, and though he spent much time in study, he did not immure himself in a community or monastery but kept moving about and travelling from city to city. The temptations to break his self-imposed vow were enormous. His strange appearance drew everyone's attention, the laughter-loving populace made the silent philosopher the butt of their unscrupulous wit, and all the protection he had against their scurrility and misconceptions was the dignity of his mien and the glance of eyes that now could see both past and future. Many a time he was on the verge of bursting out against some exceptional insult or lying gossip, but ever He restrained himself with the words: “Heart, patient be, and thou, my tongue, be still.” [In colloquial language: "Have patience and keep your mouth shut." - BL]  [Compare Odyssey, 10.18] (1.14)  Mead

Religious practices

[From the age of 14]:  Apollonius became intimate with the priests of the temple of Æsculapius, when cures were still wrought.  Mead

He refused to touch anything that had animal life in it, on the ground that it densified the mind and rendered it impure. He considered that the only pure form of food was what the earth produced, fruits and vegetables.  Mead

He also abstained from wine, for though it was made from fruit, “it rendered turbid the æther [This æther was presumably the mind-stuff.] in the soul” and “destroyed the composure of the mind.”  Mead

He went barefoot, let his hair grow long, and wore nothing but linen.  Mead

[From aound age 18]:  He lived in the temple, to the admiration of the priests and with the express approval of Æsculapius, [That is to say presumably he was encouraged in his efforts by those unseen helpers of the temple by whom the cures were wrought by means of dreams, and help was given psychically and mesmerically] and he rapidly became so famous for his asceticism and pious life, that a saying [“Where are you hurrying? Are you off to see the youth?”] of the Cilicians about him became a proverb (1.8). Mead

[From the age of 20]:  The temple of Æsculapius had now become a busy centre of study, and echoed from one end to the other with the sound of lofty philosophical discourses. Mead 

Wherever he went, he always held to a certain regular division of the day -

The morning was devoted by Apollonius to the divine science:

• At sun-rise he practised certain religious exercises alone, the nature of which he communicated only to those who had passed through the discipline of "four years" (five ?) silence. 
• He said, one should on day’s dawning enter the presence of the Gods, [That is to say, presumably, spend the time in silent meditation].  Mead

• He said: "Spend the time till midday in giving and receiving instruction in holy things."  Mead
• He then conversed with the temple priests or the heads of the community, [depending on whether] he was staying in a Greek or non-Greek temple with public rites, or in a community with a discipline peculiar to itself, apart from the public cult. [??]  Mead 

Blogger comment: "cult" likely meaning 'community culture' - being meetings, ceremonies, workshops, (kirtan, yoga), etc. as you might find in modern ashrams in India today. - BL

Apollonius said: "Not till after noon devote themselves to human affairs."  The afternoon was devoted to instruction in ethics and practical life.

• He [did not] neglect the people; it was his invariable custom to teach them, but always after midday; for those who lived the inner life.  Mead

Care for the body in the evening.

• After the day’s work he bathed in cold water, as did so many of the mystics of the time in those lands, notably the Essenes and Therapeuts. (1.16)  Mead

Plato and Aristotle by Raphael. 
Detail showing many pairs of bare feet.

Role model

On coming of age [at 21 ?] he returned to Tyana to endeavour to rescue his brother from his vicious life. His brother had apparently exhausted his legal share of the property, and Apollonius at once made over half of his own portion to him, and by his gentle admonitions restored him to manhood. Mead  [Both of their parents had died by then - BL].

The most important part of his work was with those who were following the inner life, and who already looked upon Apollonius as a teacher of the hidden way. To these his comrades (eta?????) and pupils (??), he devoted much attention, being ever ready to answer their questions and give advice and instruction. Not however that he neglected the people...  Mead  [who he taught after midday - BL].

Setting wrongs to right

[During his five year vow of silence ages c.23-28 years]: Yet even this stern repression of the common mode of speech did not prevent his good doing.  Even at this early age he had begun to correct abuses. With eyes and hands and motions of the head, he made his meaning understood, and on one occasion, at Aspendus in Pamphylia, prevented a serious corn riot by silencing the crowd with his commanding gestures and then writing what he had to say on his tablet (i 15).  Mead

He endeavoured to bring back the public cults [community culture] to the purity of their ancient traditions, and to suggest improvements in the practices of the private brotherhoods.  Mead

Legendary tales

Legends of the wonderful happenings at his birth were in circulation, and are of the same nature as all such birth-legends of great people. Mead

Source material:

Apollonius of Tyana -- by G.R.S. Mead. Section 7. Early life.