Theagogy

THEAGOGY (Θεαγωγία, from Θεός = God and ἀγωγός = Who Attracts, Who Evokes). - It is a technical term of theurgic liturgy, by which was denoted the evocation of a deity, performed coercively by a priest (Iamblichus, De myst., 2, 10; 6, 1; Porphyry, Ad Aneb., 29).

Theagogy occupied a central place in that Neoplatonic philosophy which, after Plotinus, especially in the schools of Syria and Pergamon (Iamblichus, Aedesius, Priscus, Maximus), took on a magical character. The art, which taught the manner of making the gods appear by means of ritual formulas (ἀναγκαί), was called ἀναγωγή ἱερατικὴ ὁ ἱερατικὴ τέχνη (a work of Proclus, partially translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino under the title De sacrificio et magia, is the Ἱερὶ τῆς ἱερατικῆς τέχνης; cf. J. Bidez-F. Cumont, Catal. des manusc. alch. grecs, VI). The priest, by its means, became κλήτως (evoker) and ἐπαναγκός of the deity (cf. Porphyry, De philos. ex orac. haur., p. 158 VI), and accomplished the miracle of evocation (ἐπαγωγή; cf. Plato, Resp., 364 c.; Leg., 933 d). The deity was constrained by the ritual-theurgic operation to enter into a statue or into the body of the evoker, who thus became the δοχείο of the numen, and to answer the questions that were put to it (cf. Firmicus Maternus, De err. prof. relig., 13). An evident opposition to theagogy is revealed in the Christian Neoplatonism of Ps. Dionysius the Areopagite, De div. nom., 3, 1.

Giuseppe Faggia