Gymnosophists of the Indians
group · 2 works · 2 mentions · 2 anchored passages
gymnosophists of the Indians · the gymnosophists of the Indians
in the texts
Stromata
Indian ascetics known for self-immolation, used as a comparison for false martyrdom.
For they do not preserve the character of the faithful man's martyrdom, not having known the truly existent God, but give themselves over to an empty death, just as the gymnosophists of the Indians give themselves to a vain fire.
Adversus Marcionem
Indian ascetic philosophers cited as worshippers of natural elements.
as Thales water, Heraclitus fire, Anaximenes air, Anaximander all the heavenly bodies, Strato heaven and earth, Zeno air and aether, Plato the stars (which kind of gods he calls fiery) — when, considering of the world its greatness and force and power and honour and beauty, the resource, the constancy, the law of the several elements, which conspire to the begetting, nourishing, completing, and re …