But, you ask, why among our symbolical terms ([Greek:  saemantika]) we prefer barbarous (words) to our respective native (tongues)?  There is also for this a mystic reason.  For it was the gods who taught the sacred nations, such as the Egyptians and Assyrians, the whole of their sacred dialect, wherefore we think that we ought to make our own dialects resemble the speech cognate with the gods.  Since also the first mode of speech in antiquity was of such a nature, and especially since they who learnt the first names concerning the gods, mingled them with their own tongue—­as being suited to such (names) and conformable to them—­and handed them down to us, we therefore keep unchanged the rule of this immemorial tradition to our own times.  For of all things that are suited to the gods the most akin is manifestly that which is eternal and immutable.[115]

The existence of this sacred tongue perhaps accounts for the constant distinction made by Homer between the language of the gods and that of men.[116] Diodorus Siculus also asserts that the Samothracians used a very ancient and peculiar dialect in their sacred rites.[117]

These “barbarous names” were regarded as of the greatest efficacy and sanctity, and it was unlawful to change them.  As the Chaldaean Logia say: 

     Change not the barbarous names, for in all the nations are there
     names given by the gods, possessing unspeakable power in the
     Mysteries.[118]

And the scholiast[119] adds that they should not be translated into Greek.

It is, therefore, most probable that Simon used the one, three, five, and seven syllabled or vowelled names, and that the Greek terms were substitutes that completely veiled the esoteric meaning from the uninitiated.

The names of the seven Aeons, as given by the author of the Philosophumena, are as follows:  The Image from the Incorruptible Form, alone ordering all things ([Greek:  eikon ex aphthartou morphaes kosmousa monae panta]), also called The Spirit moving on the Waters ([Greek:  to pneuma to epipheroumenon epano tou hudatos]) and The Seventh Power ([Greek:  hae ebdomae dunamis]); Mind ([Greek:  nous]) and Thought ([Greek:  epinoia]), also called Heaven ([Greek:  ouranos]) and Earth ([Greek:  gae]); Voice ([Greek:  phonae]) and Name ([Greek:  onoma]),[120] also called Sun ([Greek:  haelios]) and Moon ([Greek:  selaenae]); Reason ([Greek:  logismos]) and Reflection ([Greek:  enthumaesis]), also called Air ([Greek:  aaer]) and Water ([Greek:  hudor]).

The first three of these are sufficiently explained in the fragment of Simon’s Great Revelation, preserved in the Philosophumena, and become entirely comprehensible to the student of the Kabalah who is learned in the emanations of the Sephirothal Tree.  Mind and Thought are evidently Chokmah and Binah, and the three and seven Sephiroth are to be clearly recognized in the scheme of the Simonian System which is to follow.