By nature Heraiskos had a more godlike appearance, but the one who was more knowledgeable in the wisdom of the Egyptians, [was] Asklepiades, because the latter had been spending so much time studying Egyptian [wisdom], but the former had been traveling; but each one nevertheless fell far short of the other in natural ability or in understanding.[1]
Heraiskos actually had a natural talent for distinguishing between religious statues that were animated and those that were not. For as soon as he looked at one his heart was struck by a sensation of the divine and he gave a start in his body and his soul, as though seized by the god. If he was not moved in such a fashion then the statue was soulless and had no share of divine inspiration. In this way he distinguished the secret statue of Aion which the Alexandrians worshipped as being possessed by the god, who was both Osiris and Adonis at the same time according to some mystical union. There was also something in Heraiskos' nature that rejected defilements of nature. For instance, if he heard any unclean woman speaking, no matter where or how, he immediately got a headache, and this was taken as a sign that she was menstruating. Thus while he lived there was always something godlike about him; and at his death, when Asklepiades was preparing to give the customary things to the priests, especially the garment of Osiris on his body, at once secret symbols shone with light on all parts of the fabric, and around them were seen kinds of appearances appropriate to a god, showing clearly with what great gods he had been a dinner-guest. Even his birth had something mystical about it: he is said to have issued from his mother holding the shushing finger up to his lips, just as the Egyptians tell the story about Oros and before Oros about Helios. As a result, since the finger was fused to his lips, he needed surgery, and he went through life with a scar on his lip, a clear sign for everyone to see of his marvelous birth.
Hence his life also reached such a point that his soul always resided in hidden sanctuaries[2] as he practiced not only his native rites in Egypt but also those of other nations, wherever there was something left of these.[3]
And Heraiskos became a Bakkhos, as a dream designated him.[4]
But Asklepiades devoting himself more to the Egyptian books was more precisely acquainted with their native theology, having investigated its origins and middle, and simply busying himself with the ignorance of the furthest limits, as it is possible to know clearly from the hymns which he composed to the gods of the Egyptians, and from the treatise which he undertook to write encompassing the harmony of all theologies. And he wrote a book encompassing lore of the primeval Egyptians not less than thirty thousand years but even a little more.[5]
Heraiskos was not only good and gentle, but he was inclined to anger at wickedness and manfully resisted the schemes of men, without ever transgressing the measure of justice. For Ammonios and Erythrios[6] the Egyptian contended with each other in Byzantium, and each always continued to thrust the other into the most extreme dangers.[7]
See [sc. further] concerning Heraiskos under Gesios.[8]