click here to return to contents pageA Note on the
Chariot of Zeus
But the first of The Twelve Leaders (i.e. The Liberated Gods)C, is said by Socrates to drive a Winged Chariot (pthnp n a r ma)C in The Heavens. How therefore, can he who is connected with The Kosmos, and who approximates to The Gods in The Heavens, be considered as the same with him (i.e. The Demiurgos)C who is exempt from all [Kosmic Natures,]T and who abides, as Timæus says, in his own accustomed manner?
(Proclos, Theol. Plat. VI, Ch. 19 tr. Taylor)
The CHARIOT (a rma) of LIBERATED ZEUS
o me n mhgaV hgemwn en ouranw ZeuV , elaunwn pthnon arma, prwtoV poreuetai, diakosmwn panta kai epimeloumenoV · (Phaedr. 246e)
"Now The Great Leader in Heaven, Zeus, driving a Winged Chariot, goes first, arranging all things and caring for all things." (Fowler, Loeb 36)
arma does not merely mean a chariot, but a complete equipage, including the horses (LSJ9 [1996] s.v., as an organised and disciplined unity — in fact, arma is a Pythagorean word for ‘Unity’ (ibid. s.v. III).
It especially signifies a war-chariot, but is also used for a racing-chariot, and even just for the team of horses yoked to either. (ibid. s.v. I., I.3)
It should be noted that Liberated Zeus leads an army of Gods and Daimons, an organised group united to a single purpose and way of Life, and so rides in a war-chariot.
The Contrast between The Divine CHARIOT (arma) of ZEUS
and The IRRATIONAL VEHICLE (ochma-pneuma) of Human SOULS
arma is opposite to ochma (LSJ9 [1996], s.v. I), which is the term used for the Irrational Vehicle or Pneuma (Ochma-Pneuma) of the Human Sou in the Timaeus (41E). In the myth of the Phaedrus, it is ‘heated’ by the Inspiration of Intelligible Beauty, and so is energised to grow its Wings.
(See EROS-3.REF, Ann. 6: "The HEAT of INTELLECTUAL FIRE and The WIN
GS of The Dry SOUL".)
In exoteric terms ochma signifies a vehicle drawn by mules (ibid.). What a powerful image this creates: on the one hand there is the sleek, light, rapid war-chariot (arma) of Zeus; on the other a mule-cart (ochma) dragged by an ill-matched and inharmonious pair of mules — each of them born of ill-matched parents — as the Vehicle of a Human Soul.
arma is also opposite to armamaxa (ibid.), a covered carriage, generally luxuriously appointed, and used by women and Persian notables, e.g. the Persian ambassadors to Susa. (ibid. s.v. armamaxa); for, esoterically, the arma is not a vehicle of the Senses, but of the vaulting purpose of Reason and Intellect.
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