Apollonius of Tyana on Sacrifice

Apollonius of Tyana · Mystic Verse and Insights Series · 4 pages

Four pages gathering what Philostratus and the letters attributed to Apollonius record on the subject of sacrifice, arranged under running headings so that each position can be found quickly, with references to Conybeare's translation in the footnotes.

The governing claim is that the gods stand in no need of sacrifices at all, and that the way to win their favour is to acquire wisdom and do good to such men as deserve it — followed by the sharp remark that atheists, however, can offer sacrifice. From this comes the objection to blood: the priests defile the altar with blood, and then people ask in amazement why their cities are visited with calamity, a folly compared to Heraclitus's image of trying to purge away mud with mud. The strongest statement is that it is best to make no sacrifice to God at all — no lighting of a fire, no calling him by any name that men employ for things of sense — because God is over all and first, needing nothing even from the other gods, and the only fitting offering is man's best reason rather than the word that comes out of his mouth, since mind needs no material things to make its prayer. The last part of the file is narrative: Apollonius, following Pythagoras's example of sacrificing a bull made of flour, offers one made of frankincense, and when an Egyptian priest asks what induces him not to sacrifice like the rest, he turns the question round and asks what induces the priest to sacrifice in that way.

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