Editing Apollonius of Tyana (section)

== Impact ==

=== Antiquity ===
In the 2nd&nbsp;century the satirist [[Lucian of Samosata]] was a sharp critic of Neo-Pythagoreanism. After AD&nbsp;180 he wrote a pamphlet wherein he attacked [[Alexander of Abonoteichus]], a student of one of Apollonius's students, as a [[charlatan]] and suggested that the whole school was based on [[fraud]].<ref>Lucian of Samosata: ''Alexander, or The False Prophet'', in: ''Lucian'', vol.&nbsp;4, ed. A.M. Harmon, Cambridge (Mass.) 1992 (Loeb Classical Library no.&nbsp;162), pp.&nbsp;173-253 (Apollonius is mentioned on p.&nbsp;182).</ref> From this we can infer that Apollonius really had students and that his school survived at least until Lucian's time. One of Philostratus's foremost aims was to oppose this view. Although he related various miraculous feats of Apollonius, he emphasized at the same time that his hero was not a magician but a serious philosopher and a champion of traditional Greek values.<ref>Flinterman pp.&nbsp;60-66, 89-106.</ref>

When Emperor [[Aurelian]] conducted his military campaign against the [[Palmyrene Empire]], he captured Tyana in AD&nbsp;272. According to the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' he abstained from destroying the city after having a vision of Apollonius admonishing him to spare the innocent citizens.<ref>''Historia Augusta'', ''Vita Aureliani'' 24.2-9; 25.1.</ref>

In Late Antiquity [[Amulet|talismans]] made by Apollonius appeared in several cities of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]], as if they were sent from heaven.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christopher P. Jones, Apollonius of Tyana in Late Antiquity |url=https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/3256.christopher-p-jones-apollonius-of-tyana-in-late-antiquity |access-date=2018-08-02 |website=chs.harvard.edu |language=en |archive-date=2 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802193207/https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/3256.christopher-p-jones-apollonius-of-tyana-in-late-antiquity |url-status=dead }}</ref> They were magical figures and columns erected in public places, meant to protect the cities from afflictions. The great popularity of these talismans was a challenge to the Christians. Some Byzantine authors condemned them as sorcery and the work of demons, others admitted that such magic was beneficial; none of them claimed that it didn't work.<ref>Dzielska pp.&nbsp;99-127, 163-165.</ref>

In the [[Western Roman Empire]], [[Sidonius Apollinaris]] was a Christian admirer of Apollonius in the 5th&nbsp;century. He produced a [[Latin]] translation of Philostratus's ''Life'', which is lost.<ref>Sidonius Apollinaris, ''Epistolae'' 8.3; for the interpretation of this passage see André Loyen (ed.), ''Sidoine Apollinaire'', vol. 3: ''Lettres (Livres VI-IX)'', Paris 1970, pp.&nbsp;196-197.</ref>

=== The Middle Ages ===
During the medieval period, a number of works related to [[Hermeticism|Hermetic philosophy]] and [[medieval European magic]] were falsely attributed to Apollonius of Tyana which spanned the Greek, Arabic, and Latin traditions. 

In the Greek tradition, there is ''The Book of Wisdom'' (Greek: ''Biblos Sophias'') which is a twelfth-century astrological magic book that dates to the fifth century but survives only as late as the fifteenth century<sup>[unclear]</sup>. ''The Book of Wisdom'' may also have survived in the Latin and Arabic traditions as having been published and distributed as a series of short separate tracts or chapters under a variety of different titles.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Apollonios de Tyane |title=The book of wisdom of Apollonius of Tyana |last2=Marathakis |first2=Ioannis |last3=Ayash |first3=Nasser B. |date=2020 |publisher=Ioannis Marathakis |isbn=978-1-0966-5876-4 |location=Lieu de publication inconnu}}</ref> 

In the Latin tradition, there is the ''Golden Flowers'' (''Flores Aurei'') which is a thirteenth-century book of angelic magic which supposedly contains Apollonius' select extracts and prayers from the mythical and lost ''Book of Flowers of Heavenly Teaching'' (''Liber Florum Caelestis Doctrinae'') compiled by King Solomon. The ''Golden Flowers'' was later compiled with its own derivative text called the ''New Art'' (''Ars Nova'') which would later become known as ''The Notory Art'' (''[[Ars Notoria]]''). The ''Notory Art'' explains that Apollonius of Tyana is the spiritual successor to King Solomon's angelic magic; for this reason, ''The Notory Art'' is often classified as belonging to the Pseudo-Solomonic corpus of magical literature. Another pseudepigraphal Latin work attributed to Apollonius of Tyana is the lost ''On Making Angelic Things'' (''De Angelica Factura'' or ''De Angelica Factione'') cited by the Italian university professor [[Cecco d'Ascoli]] in his commentary on the Sphere of the Cosmos by [[Johannes de Sacrobosco|John de Sacrobosco]]. Another falsely attributed work is ''On the Seven Figures of the Seven Planets'' (''Liber De Septem Figuris Septem Planetarum'') which describes the seven [[magic square]]s attributed to the seven classical planets.

In the Arabic tradition, Apollonius of Tyana is called the "Master of the Talismans" (''Sahib at-tilasmat'') and known as Balinus (or, Balinas, Belenus, or Abuluniyus). The ninth-century ''Book of Balinas the Wise: On the Causes, or, the Book of the Secret of Creation'' (''Kitab Balaniyus al-Hakim fi'l- 'llal, Kitab Sirr al-khaliqa wa-san 'at al-tabi'a'') expounds upon the origins of the cosmos and its causes in six chapters and narrates the story of how Apollonius entered the crypt of [[Hermes Trismegistus]] to discover the [[Emerald Tablet]] (''Tabula Smaragdina'') which became a foundational text of [[alchemy]]. In this way, Apollonius of Tyana becomes the philosophical and alchemical successor to Hermes Trismegistus. Another Arabic book falsely attributed to Apollonius is the ''Treatise on Magic'' (''Risalat al-Sihr'') cited within the ''Great Introduction to the Treatise on Spirits and Talismans'' which was translated by [[Hunayn ibn Ishaq]] (''al-Mudkhal al-Kabir ila 'ilm af 'al al-Ruhaniyat waw Talassimat''). The ''Treatise on Magic'' might be the same work under its Latin titles ''De Hyle'' and ''De Arte Magica'' as cited by Cecco d'Ascoli.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Ars notoria: the notory art of Solomon: a medieval treatise on angelic magic and the art of memory |date=2023 |publisher=Inner Traditions |isbn=978-1-64411-528-2 |editor-last=Castle |editor-first=Matthias |location=Rochester, Vermont}}</ref>

=== Modern era ===
[[File:Apollonius Tyanaeus - Apollonius of Tyana in a hat holding an orb. With dragon, sphinx and tree.jpg|thumb|Apollonius of Tyana on a book cover or a frontispice, before 1800.]]
Beginning in the early 16th century, there was great interest in Apollonius in Europe, but the traditional ecclesiastical viewpoint prevailed, and until the [[Age of Enlightenment]] the Tyanean was usually treated as a demonic magician and a great enemy of the Church who collaborated with the devil and tried to overthrow Christianity.<ref>Dzielska pp.&nbsp;193-204.</ref>

[[Eliphas Levi]] made three attempts to raise the shade of Apollonius of Tyana by occult ritual, as described in his textbook on magic ''[[Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie|Dogme de la magie]]'' (1854).<ref>{{Cite book |last=McIntosh |first=Christopher |title=Eliphas Lévi and the French occult revival |date=1975 |publisher=Rider |isbn=978-0-09-112270-6 |edition=2. impr |location=London|pages=101–104}}</ref>

=== Apollonius of Tyana in Baháʼí Scripture ===
The ''[[Tablets of Baháʼu'lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas#Lawḥ-i-Ḥikmat (Tablet of Wisdom)|Tablet of Wisdom]]'', written by [[Bahá'u'lláh]], the founder of the [[Baháʼí Faith]], names "Balinus" (Apollonius) as a great philosopher, who "surpassed everyone else in the diffusion of arts and sciences and soared unto the loftiest heights of humility and supplication."<ref>Bahá’u’lláh, ''[http://bahai-library.com/writings/bahaullah/tb/8.html Lawh-i-Hikmat (Tablet of Wisdom)]'' in: ''[http://bahai-library.com/bahaullah_tablets_bahaullah Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas]'', Wilmette 1988, pp.&nbsp;135-152, §31.</ref> In another text Baháʼu'lláh states that he "derived his knowledge and sciences from the [[Hermetica|Hermetic Tablets]] and most of the philosophers who followed him made their philosophical and scientific discoveries from his words and statements".<ref>Brown, Keven (1997). ''[http://bahai-library.com/brown_hermes_apollonius Hermes Trismegistus and Apollonius of Tyana in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh]'', in: ''Revisioning the Sacred: New Perspectives on a Baháʼí Theology'', ed. Jack McLean, Los Angeles, pp.&nbsp;153-187.</ref>

=== Apollonius of Tyana in contemporary literature and film ===
[[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]] refers to Apollonius in ''[[The Last Days of Pompeii]]'' and ''[[Zanoni]]'' as a great master of occult power and wisdom.

Apollonius appears in [[Gustave Flaubert]]'s novel ''[[The Temptation of Saint Anthony (novel)|The Temptation of Saint Anthony]]'', where he tempts the titular saint with divine wisdom and the power to perform miracles. As a miracle worker and neo-Pythagorean philosopher, the character of Apollonius is used as a bridge between the two sections of the book covering the temptations of human sages and the temptations of the gods.

Apollonius of Tyana is a major character in [[Steven Saylor]]'s [[historical fiction|historical novel]] ''[[Empire (Saylor novel)|Empire]]'', which depicts his confrontation with the harsh Emperor [[Domitian]]. Apollonius is shown confounding the Emperor (and many others) in quick-witted dialogue, reminiscent of [[Socrates]]. The book's plot leaves ambiguous the issue of whether Apollonius possessed true magical power or that he was able to use [[suggestion]] and other clever tricks.

[[Avram Davidson]]'s [[science fiction]] novel ''[[Masters of the Maze (novel)|Masters of the Maze]]'' has Apollonius of Tyana as one of a select group of humans (and other sentient beings) who had penetrated to the center of a mysterious "Maze" traversing all of space and time. There he dwells in eternal repose, in company with the [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Biblical Enoch]], the Chinese [[King Wen of Zhou|King Wen]] and [[Lao Tze]], the 19th-century Briton [[Benjamin Bathurst (diplomat)|Bathurst]], and various other sages of the past and future, some of them [[Martian]]s.

In ''[[The Circus of Dr. Lao]]'' (1935) by [[Charles G. Finney]], Apollonius appears in the employ of Dr. Lao's circus and brings a dead man back to life. Apollonius of Tyana is one of the 7 circus characters portrayed by Tony Randall in the 1964 film ''[[The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao]]''. This character does not have any philosophical context, rather he is a sideshow attraction similar to a fortune-teller who, besides being blind, has been blessed with clairvoyance. While he always speaks the truth, ugly or not, about the future, he is accursed with an ironic fate – nobody ever believes what he says.

In television, Apollonius of Tyana was portrayed by [[Mel Ferrer]] in ''[[The Fantastic Journey]]'' episode entitled "Funhouse". Apollonius was banished centuries ago to a time zone by the gods for opposing them. When the time zone travelers led by the 23rd century healer and pacifist named Varian arrive at a seemingly abandoned carnival, Apollonius intends to lure them into his funhouse of horrors so that he can possess the body of one of the travelers and escape his eternal imprisonment.

[[John Keats|Keats]]' poem ''[[Lamia (poem)|Lamia]]'' mentions and discusses Apollonius.