Though placed in the tomb, men fly away to them, the stars.
Sirius makes Unis fly to heaven among his brothers, the stars. [...]

Wepwawet flies Unis to heaven
Among his brothers the stars:
Unis takes the arm of the wild goose
Unis beats the wing of the turtle dove,
Fly fly away man fly away Unis from in your hand.

(Pyramid of Unis, Antechamber, North Wall 1, as translated by Susan Brind Morrow.)

Lift up your face, stars in the dawn, Unis is coming.
You will see his transformation into a great star.
Unis flows forth as a white bird.
Unis is restored to you to eternity.

(Pyramid of Unis, Antechamber, West Gable 6, as translated by Susan Brind Morrow.)

Come rise, come climb,
Come climb, come float.
It is the floating up that is the rising
Of Unis onto the knees of Isis.
Climb, Unis onto the knees of Nephthys,
To the limit of the father of Unis, the universe itself.
Let Unis be counted among the stars.
Count him precious, protected among the stars.

(Pyramid of Unis, Antechamber, South Wall 7, as translated by Susan Brind Morrow.)

συστήσας δὲ
Having put together τὸ πᾶν
the All, διεῖλεν
(the Maker) divided up ψυχὰς
souls

ἰσαρίθμους
equal in number τοῖς ἄστροις,
to the stars, ἔνειμέν θ’
and he distributed ἑκάστην
each (soul)

πρὸς ἕκαστον,
to each (star); καὶ
and, ἐμβιβάσας
putting them in ὡς
like ἐς ὄχημα
into a vehicle,

τὴν τοῦ παντὸς φύσιν
the nature of the All ἔδειξεν,
he showed them, νόμους τε τοὺς εἱμαρμένους
and about the laws of fate

εἶπεν αὐταῖς,
he told them: ὅτι γένεσις πρώτη μὲν
how a first birth ἔσοιτο τεταγμένη
would be appointed μία
the same

πᾶσιν,
to all, ἵνα
so that μήτις
nobody ἐλαττοῖτο
might be disrespected ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ,
by him;

δέοι δὲ
but he needed them, σπαρείσας
having sown αὐτὰς
them

εἰς τὰ προσήκοντα ἑκάσταις ἕκαστα ὄργανα χρόνων
into the instrument of time belonging to each, φῦναι
to grow into

ζῴων τὸ θεοσεβέστατον,
the most devout of creatures, [...] καὶ
and ὁ μὲν
the one

εὖ τὸν προσήκοντα χρόνον βιούς,
who has lived its own time well,

πάλιν εἰς τὴν τοῦ συννόμου πορευθεὶς οἴκησιν ἄστρου,
having gone back to the home of its associated star, βίον
a life

εὐδαίμονα
well-spirited* καὶ
and συνήθη
appropriate to its disposition ἕξοι[.]
shall have.

• well-spirited: εὐδαιμονία eudaimonia, a term notoriously difficult to translate (since we lack it in English-speaking countries, I suppose).

(Platon, Timaios 41d-42b.)]]>https://amissio.net/diary_2026.html#31may31 May 2026 00:00 MDT

ἦν ὅτε
It was when μυρία φῦλα
myriad races κατὰ χθόνα πλαζόμενα ⟨αἰεί // ἀνθρωπων
of men, always wandering over the land,

ἐ⟩βάρυ⟨νε
were weighing heavy upon βαθυ⟩στέρνου πλάτος αἴης.
the breadth of the deep-bosomed earth,

Ζεὺς δὲ
and Zeus, ἰδὼν
seeing this, ἐλέησε,
pitied her; καὶ
and ἐν πυκιναῖς πραπίδεσσιν
in his expansive* mind

κουφίσαι ἀνθρώπων παμβώτορα σύνθετο γαῖαν,
resolved to lighten the all-nourishing earth of men

ῥιπίσσας
by stoking πολέμου μεγάλην ἔριν
a great conflict of war Ἰλιακοῖο,
in Ilias,

ὄφρα
so that κενώσειεν θανάτωι βάρος.
her burden might be lightened by death. οἳ δ’ ἐνὶ Τροίηι // ἥρωες
So the heroes in Troië

κτείνοντο,
were being killed, Διὸς δ’ ἐτελείετο βουλή.
and the will of Zeus was being fulfilled.

• expansive: πυκινός “dense,” but amusingly, in Greek, a “dense” mind is a good thing, while in English, a “dense” mind is a bad thing!

(Kupria, as quoted by a scholiast on Ilias I 5, Διὸς δ’ έτελείετο βουλή “the will of Zeus was being fulfilled.”)]]>https://amissio.net/diary_2026.html#22may22 May 2026 00:00 MDTMost sources give the familiar riddle of Sphinx, “What has one voice but becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?” But Athenaios mentions a lost tragedy by Theodektes of Phaselis which gives a different riddle:

κἀν τῷ Οἰδίποδι δὲ τῇ τραγῳδίᾳ
And in the tragedy The Oidipous τὴν νύκτα
of the night καὶ
and τὴν ἡμέραν
of the day

εἴρηκεν
he speaks αἰνιττόμενος·
riddlingly: εἰσὶ
“There are κασίγνηται διτταί,
two sisters,* ὧν
of which

ἡ μία
the one τίκτει
gives birth to τὴν ἑτέραν,
the other, αὐτὴ δὲ τεκοῦσʼ
and the mother herself ὑπὸ τῆσδε
to the child

τεκνοῦται.
is born.”

• two sisters: in Greek, νύξ nux “night” and ἡμέρα hemera “day” are feminine nouns.

(Athenaios, Dinner Sophists X §75.)

The Greek Anthology records a couple versions of this riddle (XIV 40–1), though at this late date, I suppose only Apollon remembers if either of them are from the myth. The first is in verse and, at least to my beginner’s eyes, seems rather overwrought; but the second is cute and runs as follows:

Μητέρ’ ἐμὴν τίκτω καὶ τίκτομαι· εἰμὶ δὲ ταύτης ἀλλοτε μὲν μείζων, ἄλλοτε μειοτέρη.

I bear my mother and she bears me;
 sometimes I’m bigger, and sometimes, she.

(Greek Anthology XIV 41.)

Now, if the riddle is a legitimate mystery teaching, the given answer (of “day and night”) isn’t the real one, but a hint: and just like the first riddle indicates the stages of the soul’s journey in the material world—aimlessly as a “child,” then working on the civic virtues as an “adult,” then working on the purificatory virtues as an “elder”—the second refers to the means by which it is accomplished: the deeper answer is therefore γένεσις genesis “birth” and τελευτή teleute “death” (also both feminine nouns), which Sokrates famously tells us give way to each other (Platon, Phaido 69e–72d). It is a hint towards the doctrine of reincarnation.]]>https://amissio.net/diary_2026.html#20may20 May 2026 00:00 MDTA friend sent me a set of Greek alphabet flash cards, which is cute but composed of fairly random words, which isn’t terribly exciting. I thought it might be more fun to put together a matched set of words on some theme, and after a little thought I figured it might just barely be possible to put together a full alphabet composed entirely of Homeric epithets of divinities. I worked on it on-and-off for a week or so, and I managed to come up with a list that isn’t too bad, if I do say so, myself!

Epithet	Divinity	English Translation
ἀργυρόπεζα	Θέτις	Thetis “of the silver feet”
βαθυδινήεις	Σκάμανδρος	“deep-eddying” Skamandros
γέρων (ἅλιος)	Πρωτεύς	Proteus, “the old man (of the sea)”
διάκτορος	Ἑρμείας	“runner” Hermeias
ἐννοσίγαιος	Ποσειδάων	“earth-shaker” Poseidaon
ζόφος	Ἔρεβος	“gloomy” Erebos
ἠΰκομος	Λητώ	Leto “of the lovely hair”
θυγάτηρ (Διός)	Περσεφόνεια	Persephoneia, “the daughter (of Zeus)”
ἰοχέαιρα	Ἄρτεμις	“arrow-pouring” Artemis
καλλίσφυρος	Ἰνώ	Ino “of the pretty ankles”
λευκώλενος	Ἥρη	Here “of the white arms”
μιαιφόνος	Ἄρης	“bloodstained” Ares
νύμφη	Καλυψώ	“fae” Kalupso
ξάνθη	Δημήτηρ	“yellow” Demeter
Ὀλύμπιος	Ζεύς	“Olumpian” Zeus
περικλυτός	Ἥφαιστος	Hephaistos, “who is known everywhere”
ῥοδοδάκτυλος	Ἠώς	Eos “of the rosy fingers”
στυγερός	Ἀΐδης	“dread” Haïdes
Τριτογένεια	Ἀθήνη	“thrice-born” Athene
Ὑπερίων	Ἠέλιος	Heëlios, “who walks on high”
Φοῖβος	Ἀπόλλων	“pure” Apollon
χρυσείη	Ἀφροδίτη	“golden” Aphrodite
ψυχή	Τειρεσίας	“the soul” of Teiresias of Thebai
(πόδας) ὠκέα	Ἶρις	“swift (of foot)” Iris

I briefly considered pulling out my old SAT solver to find valid assignments, since it’s perfect for this kind of problem: we would define one boolean variable for “should we select this epithet for this divinity?” and add constraints such that at least one epithet is selected for each letter of the alphabet, at most one epithet is selected for each letter of the alphabet, and at most one epithet is selected for each divinity. In the end, though, I managed it all by hand—solving problems by hand is good for the soul, anyway!

I tried to include every major divinity and favor their most recognizable epithets. This wasn’t always possible, unfortunately, because so many of them share the same letters (α, β, ε, κ, π, and χ are particularly strained!) and some divinities are so associated with a particular epithet that its use is almost mandated (how could one possibly omit ἀργυρόπεζα and ῥοδοδάκτυλος!?). I think the list I came up with is pretty satisfactory, though, and I only have a few complaints:

• The only divinity that I really wanted to include but couldn’t was Kirke, but she simply doesn’t have many epithets to work with. (My favorite is πολυφάρμακος “of many potions,” but π is a hot letter, and that epithet is used only once, anyway.) Some minor divinities that didn’t make the cut are Amphitrite, Eidothea, Eris, Kharis, Okeanos, and Paiëon.
• The inclusion of Erebos is, perhaps, pushing it a little bit, being more of a location rather than a divinity proper, but ζ was otherwise open and I couldn’t find a better choice.
• μιαιφόνος isn’t one of the primary epithets of Ares, but those all conflict with some of the most-contested letters, while μ was pretty open. Still, it’s common enough and quite recognizable, so I don’t feel too bad about it.
• ψυχή is a noun rather than epithet, but I don’t think there aren’t any epithets of divinites beginning with ψ! I only found ψυχρός “cold” (used of snow) and ψολόεις “smoky” (used of lightning); so no matter what, we have to cheat a little bit. One might argue that Teiresias isn’t a divinity, but surely one can’t argue that his soul is mortal, either...

Everything has four causes: life, then motion, then generation, and finally dissolution. The first is connected to the second by Unity below “the Invisible,” the second to the third by Mind below the Sun, and the third to the fourth by Nature below the Moon.

(Ploutarkhos on the Angel of Sokrates §22.)

Now, it occurs to me that we live in a thrice-nested orbital system:

• The Earth and Moon rotate around each other, defining an orbital plane (the “lunar plane”) which encompasses the Earth-Moon system.
• The Earth-Moon system and the Sun rotate around each other, defining an orbital plane (the “ecliptic plane”) which encompasses the solar system.
• The solar system and Sagittarius A* (the black hole at the center of the galaxy) rotate around each other, defining an orbital plane (the “galactic plane”) which encompasses the galaxy.

Now, since we’re on the Earth, we might very reasonably define each system to be “ruled” by the other party who gives rise to the system alongside us: the Earth-Moon system is ruled by the Moon, the solar system is ruled by the Sun, and the galaxy is ruled by Sagittarius A*.

Further, it is noteworthy that Sagittarius A*, being a black hole, is “invisible” to us.

Further, since Motion is defined by the second cause, we should expect it to be the “final” thing moving in space, and it is noteworthy that this is the case: the Earth-Moon system, the solar system, and the Milky Way all spin around in circles, but the Milky Way doesn’t revolve around anything higher, it simply exists in space.

These suggests to me that Trophonios was, perhaps, equating Earth with the Earth-Moon system, Water with the solar system, Air with the galaxy, and Fire with the universal substrate itself.

On top of that, the Earth-Moon plane is inclined around 5° to the ecliptic plane, and so the two planes intersect: while the intersection of two planes is a line, we’re in the middle of that line, so we say they intersect at two points (in the directions of the two rays pointing out from that midpoint); we call these two points of intersection the “lunar nodes” (they are where eclipses occur). Similarly, the ecliptic plane is inclined around 60° to the galactic plane; we call these two points of intersection the “galactic nodes.” Porphurios and Macrobius talk about how these two nodes are the “gates” by which one transitions between the planes; but this, too, suggests these orbital planes bound their respective modes of consciousness.

If that’s all so, then I have a lot of questions. Are these all just symbolic metaphors hammered onto the shield of Akhilleus by Hephaistos for the benefit of seekers, or are they in fact the case? Does the degree of inclination from the prior plane indicate how much the local ruler deviates from the distant ruler? Do souls literally go to the Sun when they die? Do they literally go on to explore the galaxy when they ascend? Do they literally become stars to do so? Are souls literally formed in the “stellar nursery” in the center of the galaxy? Since there are no “gates” between the Milky Way and the larger universe, is that why souls can’t exist as individuals beyond Air? Did the Egyptians somehow know all of this? If so, how?]]>