Clement of Alexandria — Stromata 8

But it was not only the most highly intellectual of the Egyptians , but also such of other barbarians as prosecuted philosophy , that affected the symbolic style. They say, then, that Idanthuris king of the Scythians, as Pherecydes of Syros relates, sent to Darius, on his passing the Ister in threat of war , a symbol , instead of a letter, consisting of a mouse, a frog, a bird, a javelin, a plough. And there being a doubt in reference to them, as was to be expected, Orontopagas the Chiliarch said that they were to resign the kingdom; taking dwellings to be meant by the mouse, waters by the frog, air by the bird, land by the plough, arms by the javelin.

But Xiphodres interpreted the contrary; for he said, If we do not take our flight like birds, or like mice get below the earth, or like frogs beneath the water, we shall not escape their arrows; for we are not lords of the territory. It is said that Anacharsis the Scythian, while asleep, covered the pudenda with his left hand, and his mouth with his right, to intimate that both ought to be mastered, but that it was a greater thing to master the tongue than voluptuousness. And why should I linger over the barbarians, when I can adduce the Greeks as exceedingly addicted to the use of the method of concealment? Androcydes the Pythagorean says the far-famed so-called Ephesian letters were of the class of symbols .

For he said that ἄσκιον (shadowless) meant darkness, for it has no shadow; and κατάσκιον (shadowy) light, since it casts with its rays the shadow; and λίξ if is the earth, according to an ancient' appellation; and τετράς is the year, in reference to the seasons; and δαμναμενεύς is the sun, which overpowers ( δαμάζων ); and τὰ αἴσια is the true voice. And then the symbol intimates that divine things have been arranged in harmonious order — darkness to light, the sun to the year, and the earth to nature's processes of production of every sort.

Also Dionysius Thrax, the grammarian, in his book, Respecting the Exposition of the Symbolical Signification in Circles , says expressly, Some signified actions not by words only, but also by symbols : by words, as is the case of what are called the Delphic maxims, 'Nothing in excess,' 'Know yourself,' and the like; and by symbols , as the wheel that is turned in the temples of the gods, derived from the Egyptians , and the branches that are given to the worshippers. For the Thracian Orpheus says:— Whatever works of branches are a care to men on earth, Not one has one fate in the mind , but all things Revolve around; and it is not lawful to stand at one point, But each one keeps an equal part of the race as they began.