Complete Works of Philo Judaeus, Vol. 2

...Each of the impious is found to be the creator of such a city for his own wretched soul, until God, having considered their sophistic arts, brings about a sudden and great confusion original: "Gen. 11, 4 sqq.". This will happen when they not only "build a city and a tower, whose head will reach to heaven," that is, each one constructs a logos argument/discourse, which they propose as having as its head the appropriate thought, which is symbolically called heaven. For it is necessary for every argument to have as its head and end the meaning being clarified, for the sake of which long digressions and speeches are accustomed to be made by eloquent men.

§. 16. They have progressed so far in cursed impiety that they not only deem it worthy to raise such cities through themselves, but they also force the virtue-loving multitude of Israel, having appointed taskmasters and teachers of evil works over it. For it is said original: "Exod. 1, 11." that, having been afflicted by the taskmasters, they build three cities for the king of the country: Pithom, Rameses, and On, which is Heliopolis. These, more tropically, signify the mind, the senses, and the logos reason/speech—the things that concern us. For Pithom is the logos, because persuasion is about it; and it has the interpretation "a mouth crushing." Since the logos of the base man is also external, and he practices overturning noble things. Rameses is the senses; for the mind is eaten away and devoured by each of the senses, as if by a moth, being shaken and torn apart. For the fantasies that enter, not for the sake of pleasure, produce for it a blinded and laborious life. And On is called a mound, but is symbolically the mind; for on this are stored the arguments of all things. The lawgiver is also a witness, having called On the "city of the sun"; for just as rising...