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Translated from the Greek original by Frederick Crombie.
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 103
Chapter XXII.
After this, Celsus, desiring to exhibit his learning in his treatise against us, quotes also certain Persian mysteries, where he says: "These things are obscurely hinted at in the accounts of the Persians, and especially in the mysteries of Mithras, which are celebrated amongst them. For in the latter there is a representation of the two heavenly revolutions,--of the movement, viz., of the fixed [4396] stars, and of that which take place among the planets, and of the passage of the soul through these. The representation is of the following nature: There is a ladder with lofty gates, [4397] and on the top of it an eighth gate. The first gate consists of lead, the second of tin, the third of copper, the fourth of iron, the fifth of a mixture of metals, [4398] the sixth of silver, and the seventh of gold. The first gate they assign to Saturn, indicating by the 'lead' the slowness of this star; the second to Venus, comparing her to the splendour and softness of tin; the third to Jupiter, being firm [4399] and solid; the fourth to Mercury, for both Mercury and iron are fit to endure all things, and are money-making and laborious; [4400] the fifth to Mars, because, being composed of a mixture of metals, it is varied and unequal; the sixth, of silver, to the Moon; the seventh, of gold, to the Sun,--thus imitating the different colours of the two latter."
[4396] tes te aplanous.
[4397] klimax hipsipulos. Boherellus conjectures heptapulos.
[4398] kerastou nomismatos.
[4399] ten chalkobaten kai sterrhan.
[4400] tlemona gar ergon hapanton, kai chrematisten, kai polukmeton einai, ton te sideron kai ton ;;Ermen.
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/contra-celsum-3.asp?pg=103
