On Divine things and ‘Future-telling’ – Apollonius of Rhodes

Here we present and analyze an excerpt from the ‘Argonautics’ by Apollonius of Rhodes.

Argonautics, Book B, Verses 311-316

In Ancient Greek: «Κλύτε νυν. Ου μεν πάντα πέλει θέμις ύμμι δαήναι ατρεκές, όσσα δ’ όρωρε θεοίς φίλον, ουκ επικεύσω. Αασάμην και πρόσθε Διός νόον αφραδίησιν χρείων εξείης τε και ες τέλος. Ώδε γαρ αυτός βούλεται ανθρώποις επιδευέα θέσφατα φαίνειν μαντοσύνης, ίνα και τι θεών χατέωσι νόοιο»

In English: «Listen now. It is not just to know everything clearly, but I will not hide from you the things that the gods want. Previously, when I used to recklessly announce what Zeus thinks, in order and up to the end, I was mistaken. As he indeed wants the divine laws/commandments of divination to be revealed short/deficient to humans, so that they will always be in the need to learn what the gods think»

NovoScriptorium: It is not appropriate for one to exactly know the future. It is only appropriate for men to know all that pleases the Divine. Those who know, should not reveal thoughtlessly and recklessly to the others ‘what Zeus thinks’. Man must always have the need of/for God.

So, people who intensively spend time on ‘future-telling’ do not practice the right thing. The right thing for Man is to know/learn all the things that please God; Man should not try to acquire various types of knowledge (rational, scientific but occult, too) in order to help him predict the future, that is, a procedure which not only hides a superficial and arrogant tendency, but surely and in every case leads to Pride and Presumption.

The future belongs to the ‘Will of God’. It is at least stupid, if not excessively arrogant, for man to enter the procedure of ‘future-telling’. The methods he uses for this are well known: astrology, card-reading, etc. But the truth is that only those who are actuated by the Holy Spirit are in the position to receive true revelations about the future, and, even in this case, again and always, never full/complete.

Even if one knows in depth the Divine things, as for possible revelations about the future, he should have a lot of discretion so that he speaks of these things as much as he should, when he should and where he should. For a variety of reasons; so that the Divine things are not ‘degraded’ when shared with the unworthy; so that confusion is avoided when shared with people unable to realize the Divine things and more bad is done instead of good; so that the Divine things do not become objective to exploitation from possible cunning/sly people; and so that the speaker and connoisseur of the Divine things escapes the temptation of Pride.

Man always has the need of/for God, whether he calls upon Him or not. Things are put in such order that man always needs God and seeks His assistance. Any good-will person realizes that this is very good for us, humans. Because for various reasons (mainly because of reasons of either pain or pleasure) very often we ‘forget’ God. We forget our only true Ally in Life, the Giver/Provider of it! So, there exists and functions an invisible mechanism that always tries to reconnect us with Him. And continuously offers us chances for this. Of course, it is upon each one of us what to do in the end, as Free Will is never violated from God.

Isidoros Aggelos