On the Mysteries of the Egyptians - Pimander - Asclepius

Porphyry, who among the Platonists is called "the Philosopher" on account of his excellence, sent a long letter to Egypt to the priest Anebo, full of various and weighty questions regarding all branches of philosophy, especially concerning God, and the angels, daemonsIn Neoplatonism, daemons are intermediary spirits between gods and humans, not necessarily malevolent spirits., and souls; concerning providence, fate, prophecies, magic, miracles, sacrifices, and vows. Iamblichus, his student, replied to Porphyry’s questions. He introduces, however, Abammon, an Egyptian priest, as the one responding to Porphyry on behalf of his disciple Anebo, to whom Porphyry had sent the letter.

Of this entire inquiry, therefore, and of the truly divine response, I have—as if still too occupied with Plotinus Ficino had recently completed his massive translation and commentary on Plotinus, published in 1492.—translated nearly every individual sense rather than the words themselves original: "singula fermè non verba, sed sensa traduxi." A common humanist approach prioritizing the "spirit" of the text over literal word-for-word accuracy.. Thus, it should not be considered surprising if the speech seems disjointed in places, especially at the very beginnings of the argument, where the loss of words is of less consequence. Henceforth, the connection of the words will appear more continuous. I have indeed been forced at times to insert some word for the sake of continuity or understanding.

The cause of this more rapid edition was Pierleone Pierleoni da Spoleto (d. 1492), a famous physician and scholar who served the Medici and was a close friend of Ficino., a man most desirous of all secrets. Truly, that which I admire most of all is that he always seems to strive for those things which he already possesses. For by a certain divinity of his intellect, he attains the secrets of the Philosophers—both Greek and barbarianoriginal: "barbarorum." In this context, it refers to non-Greek ancient wisdom traditions, such as the Egyptian, Chaldean, or Persian.—which have not yet been read.