the life of apollonius of tyana At critical moments in the development of humanity, often, great sages come into the world as messengers. One of them was the neo-Pythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana, a town in Cappadocia (current Turkey). He lived from 2 BC to 98 AD. His life has been recorded by the Roman author Philostratus.
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t was their often-impossible task to remind humanity of its divine descent and to encourage it to live accordingly again. By their holy and pure life, they showed how the forces of the Supernature affect our world. They were able to make them perceptible again for the benefit of the human being. In this way, they were able to save others and themselves in what seems to us, a ‘magical’ way. They showed us the path and demonstrated special signs, because nature was their ally. It was told of Jesus that he was able to walk on water, that he arose after having been crucified, that he healed people and was able to give them exceptional advice. His life was a symbolic inspiration for all who felt the original life vibrate in them. Apollonius of Tyana, too, proved to be able to perform ‘miracles’. Yet, how can we tell who he was? It seems the passage of time has tried to wipe away his history, and to a large extent, the overzealous work of an ambitious cleric, bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, is to be blamed for this. Apollonius was so popular that, at the beginning of the fourth century, the bishop was unable to do anything other than to point out the dubious nature of the biography, written during the second century, to those who worshipped him. Eusebius’ patronising writings did not fail to be effective. Everything was done to erase the existence of Apollonius of Tyana from the memory of humanity, because there could, after all, be one Messiah only. Many records about Apollonius have been lost and destroyed, 44 pentagram 5/2011
with the exception of some correspondence with emperors, consuls and philosophers, plus the notes and diaries of his faithful pupil, Damis, whom Apollonius had met during his journeys through Mesopotamia, and on which Philostratus based his biography. HIS LIFE It was Julia Domna, the studious and
philosophical spouse of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (emperor from 193-211), who asked Philostratus to edit the extensive material that she had received from a distant relative of Damis, and to turn it into an easily readable book. On the basis of this material, Flavius Philostratus, a well-known Greek philosopher and author, rewrote the biography, approximately a hundred years after Apollonius’ purported death. It is assumed that Apollonius was born around the year 4 BC or 2 AD in the southeast of Turkey in the small village of Tyana at the foot of the Taurus Mountains. Shortly before his birth, Apollonius’ mother had a vision, in which the god Proteus – one of Poseidon’s sons – told her that it was he who would become her son. Similar to the story around Jesus’ birth, also the story around Apollonius’ coming is lavishly adorned with legends. Legend tells us that his mother fell asleep in a meadow. Swans formed a circle around her and suddenly began to shout loudly at the moment of birth. A bolt of lightning came from the sky, which also retracted into it again.
