Orphic Hymns

Learn, O Musaeus, from my sacred song

What rites most fit to sacrifice belong.

Jove I invoke, the earth, and solar light,

The moon’s pure splendour, and the stars of night.

Thee, Neptune, ruler of the sea profound,

Dark-hair’d, whose power can shake the solid ground;

Ceres abundant, and of lovely mien,

And thee, chaste Proserpine, great Pluto’s queen ;

The huntress Dian, and bright Phoebus’ rays,

Far darting God, the theme of Delphic praise ;

And Bacchus, honour’d by the heav’nly choir,

Impetuous Mars, and Vulcan, God of fire.

Th’ illustrious power who sprung from foam to light,

And Pluto, potent in the realms of night ;

With Hebe young, and Hercules the strong,

And you to whom the cares of births belong.

Justice and Piety august I call,

And much fam’d Nymphs, and Pan the God of all.

To Juno sacred, and to Mem’ry fair,

And the chaste Muses I address my pray'r ;

The various Year, the Graces, and the Hours,

Fair-hair'd Latona, and Dione’s pow’rs.

The Corybantes and Curetes armed I call

And the great Saviours, sons of Jove, the king of all:

Th’ Idean Gods, the angel of the skies,

Prophetic Themis with sagacious eyes,

With ancient Night, and Daylight I implore,

And Faith and Dice source of blameless laws adore;

Saturn and Rhea, and great Thetis too,

Hid in a veil of dark celestial blue.

I call great Ocean, and the beauteous train

Of Ocean’s daughters in the boundless main :

The strength of Atlas ever in its prime,

Vig’rous Eternity, and endless Time.

The splendid Stygian pool, and placid Gods beside,

And demons good and bad that o'er mankind

preside ;

Illustrious Providence, the noble train

Of daemon forms, who fill th’ etherial plain ;

Or live in air, in water, earth, or fire,

Or deep beneath the solid ground retire.

The white Leucothea of the sea I call,

And Semele, and Bacchus’s associates all ;

Paleemon bounteous, and Adrastia‘ great,

And sweet-tongu’d Victory, with success elate ;

The beauteous Ida and Adrastia sprung

From the same sire.

Great Esculapius, skill’d to cure disease,

And dread Minerva, whom fierce battles please ;

Thunders, and Winds in mighty columns pent,

Epopian Hecate, Trivia, lovely dame,

Of earthly, wat’ry, and celestial frame,

Sepulchral, in a saffron veil array’d,

Pleas'd with dark ghosts that wander thro’ the

shade ;

Persea, solitary goddess, hail !

The world’s key-bearer, never doom’d to fail ;

In stags rejoicing, huntress, nightly seen,

And drawn by bulls, unconquerable queen ;

Leader, nymph, nurse, on mountains wand ring, hear

The suppliants who with holy rites thy power

revere,

And to the herdsman’ with a fav’ring mind draw

near

O venerable Goddess, hear my pray’r,

For labour pains are thy peculiar care.

In thee, when stretch’d upon the bed of grief,

The sex, as in a mirror, view relief.

Guard of the race, endued with gentle mind,

To helpless youth benevolent and kind ;

Benignant nourisher; great Nature’s key

Belongs to no divinity but thee.

Thou dwell’st with all immanifest to sight,

And solemn festivals are thy delight.

Thine is the task to loose the virgin’s zone,

And thou in ev’ry work art seen and known.

With births you sympathise, tho’ pleas’d to see

The numerous offspring of fertility.

When rack’d with labour pangs, and sore distress’d,

The sex invoke thee, as the soul’s sure rest ;

For thou alone canst give relief to pain,

Which art attempts to ease, but tries in vain.

Assisting Goddess, venerable pow’r,

Who bring’st relief in labour’s dreadful hour ;

Hear, blessed Dian, and accept my pray’r,

And make the infant race thy constant care.

leian MSS. in the British Museum, and which, from the

manner of it, was, I have no doubt, written by Proclus,

Hecate is called Prothyrea. For the second line of this

hymn, which is entitled Tuvyos Kowos, or a Common Hymn, is

Xap’ Exary, IpoSupae, peyacGeves, addos eavros.

See the whole of this hymn in the original, and also a

translation of it at the end of my Collectanea.

Night, parent Goddess, source of sweet repose,

From whom at first both Gods and men arose ?°.

1° The first subsistence of the Goddess Night is at the

summit of that divine order which is denominated by Chal-

Plato, m the Phzdrus, the supercelestial place, and in

which he says the plain of Truth is situated, which, as we

are informed by Hermeas (in Phzdr.) obscurely indicates

the whole order of the series of Night. What Hermeas

afterwards adds on this subject is too important to be

omitted, and is as follows :—‘“ Theologists likewise pecu-

liarly establish Truth in the supercelestial place.” For

Orpheus, speaking about Night, says, that “she possesses

the truth * of the Gods,” and

To her, prediction wholly true was giv'n.

She is also said to prophesy to the Gods. Homer, too, indi-

cates concerning this Goddess. For, speaking about Jupiter,

Sleep says,

Night, the great tamer both of Gods and men,

To whom I fled, preserv’d me from his wrath ;

For he swift t Night was fearful to offend.

be inserted.

+ As Night, from her subsistence at the summit of the intelliigble and

at the same time intellectual order, is absorbed in the intelligible, hence

Homer divinely denominates Night swift. For the Chaldean Oracles

call the intelligible Gods swi/t.

OF ORPHEDS.

Hear, blessed Venus, deck’d with starry light,

In Sleep’s deep silence dwelling Ebon night !

But Plato says he shall dare to speak concerning it, because

he is going to assert something affirmatively about it. The

dread, however, is lest we should be led to something un-

appropriate and vile in such like doctrinal concerns. He

is also concordant in what he says about the supercelestial

place, with what he asserts in [the first hypothesis of] the

Parmenides, about the first principle of things. For he

there indicates this principle by negations ; except that he

absolutely denies all things of the first principle: but of the

supercelestial place he denies some things, and affirms others.

For the Goddess Night is superior to certain orders, but

inferior to others; and as the first principle of things is

superessential, so Night is supercelestial [i e. is above that

intellectual order which is denominated Heaven]. Why,

however, are souls not said to see Heaven, but to become

situated in, and be conjoined with it, yet are not conjoined

with the natures above Heaven, but perceive them only?

In answer to this it may be said, that it is necessary contact

should exist, as far as to a certain thing. Why, therefore, as

far as to this? Because neither are the Gods under Jupiter

said to be united to Phanes; but this is alone asserted of

Jupiter, and he is said to be united through Night as a

medium.

But how does Plato say, that the supercelestial place is

without colour? Is it in the same manner as we say, that

vuxe cern.

Dreams and soft ease attend thy dusky train,

Pleas’'d with the length’ned gloom and feastful

strain,

nature and soul are colourless? But what is there admirable

in asserting this? And if we admit this, what* will there

be transcendent in the supercelestial place, since the same

thing is possessed both by nature and soul? May we not

say that Plato, in what is here asserted, very much fol-

lows the beforementioned theologists [viz, Homer, Orpheus,

Hesiod, and Musaeus], and disposes what he says con-

formably to them? For after the order of Nights there are

three orders of Gods, viz. of Heaven, the Cyclops, and the

Centimani [or Gods with a hundred hands], the proper

names of whom Plato denies of the supercelestial place.

For of the Gods which abide within Phanes, Heaven is

the first that becomes visible from him ; for Heaven and

Earth first proceeded out of Phanes; and Heaven is first

illuminated by the divine light of Phanes; since Orpheus

says that Night is united to him:

No eye but that of sacred Night alone

Beheld Protogonus ; for all the rest

Were lost in wonder at th’ unhop’d for light,

Which glitter’d from th’ immortal Phanes’ skin.

But that which is visible and illuminated is coloured, since

colours are certain illuminations. Hence Night and all the

supercelestial place, being above Heaven, which is visible,

they are very properly said to be without colour. For

night also is opposed to day, because the latter is illumi-

nated and coloured. And through the privation of colour,

indeed, Plato manifests that the place of the Nights is

above the kingdom of the Heaven ; but through the privation

of figure, that it is above the order of the Cyclops. For theo-

logy says, that figure is first unfolded into light in these,

Dissolving anxious care, the friend of mirth,

With darkling coursers riding round the earth.

and that the divinities, the Cyclops, are the first principles

and causes of the figures which subsist every where. Hence

theology says, that they are manual artificere. For this

triad * is perfective of figures.

And in their forehead one round eye was fix’d.t

In the Parmenides, likewise, Plato, when he speaks of the

straight, the circular, and that which is mixed ¢ [from both

these], obscurely indicates this order. But these Cylops,

as being the first causes of figures, taught Minerva and

Vulcan the various species of figures.

These the first manual artists were, who taught

Pallas and Vulcan all things :

[says Orpheus]. We must not therefore wonder on hearing

that Vulcan and Minerva are the causes of figures. For

Vulcan is the cause of corporeal figures, and of every mun-

dane figure; but Minerva, of the psychical and intellectual

figure ; and the Cyclops of divine, and the every where exist-

ing figure. Hence it is evident, that the supercelestial place

is above the order of the Cyclops.

But by the privation of contact Plato manifests that this

place is above the Centumant ; for these first come into con-

tact, as it were, with all the fabrication of things. Hence

theology denominates them hundred-handed ; for through the

hands we touch, make, and distinguish all things. Farther

still, the touch pervades through the whole body. Theology

t The words xaz vo puxroy are omitted in the original, but ought to be

inserted, as will be evident from a perusal of the first hypothesis of the

Parmenides,

Goddess of phantoms and of shadowy play,

Whose drowsy pow’r divides the nat’ral day ;

therefore, symbolically, calls these hundred-handed, as touch-

ing all the fabrication of things, and being the causes of it.

The triad *, however, of the Centimani is of a guardian

nature. But Plato adduces negatively what he found cele-

brated affirmatively by the theologist. For what Orpheus

calls Night, that Plato denominates without colour. And

what the former says negatively is without falsehood,

Prediction without falsehood was to Night

Of allthings giv’n. [says Orpheus. ]

that the latter celebrates, as having about tt the genus of true

science, and as being truly existing essence. Plato also, having

celebrated the supercelestial place by three negations, again

adduces three affirmations, introducing three of them from

being. For, since this order is a triadic one, Plato very

properly preserves the triadic, both in the negative and

affirmative conclusions. Or it may be said that, since it is

both one and being, and is triadic according to each of

these, he indicates the negative conclusions according to

the superessential one, but the affirmative according to

being. Here likewise the first number is unfolded into

light.

In the next place Hermeas enumerates the different kinds

of Truth, as follows: ‘‘ Superior illuminate subordinate

natures with the light of Truth. We must extend the eye

of intellect therefore to these four; viz. the one, which is

the first principle of things ; Phanes, who is the boundary

of the intelligible, but the exempt principle of the intellec-

tual Gods (for the Nights are principles with which prin-

ciple is co-ordinate) ; Jupiter, who is the king of the super-

mundane, but the boundary of what are properly called the

By Fate’s decree you constant send the light

To deepest hell, remote from mortal sight ;

For dire Necessity, which nought withstands,

Invests the world with adamantine bands.

Be present, Goddess, to thy suppliant’s pray’r,

Desir’d by all, whom all alike revere,

Blessed, benevolent, with friendly aid

Dispel the fears of twilight’s dreadful shade.

intellectual Gods ; and the Sun, who is the king of sensible

natures. But each of these illuminates the beings that are

under * it with the truth, which it possesses from an order

placed above that which it illuminates. Thus the Sun

imparts supermundane light to sensibles; and hence the

essence of it is said to be from supermundane natures.

Again, Jupiter illuminates supermundane essences with

intellectual light. Phanes illuminates the intellectual Gods

with intelligible light; and the principle of all things fills

the intelligible Gods, and all things, with the divine light

proceeding from himself” +.

Great Heav’n, whose mighty frame no respite

knows, :

Father of all, from whom the world arose ;

Hear, bounteous parent, source and end of all,

For ever whirling round this earthly ball ;

Abode of Gods, whose guardian pow’r surrounds

Th’ eternal world with ever during bounds !2;

Whose ample bosom, and encircling folds

The dire necessity of nature holds.

Etherial, earthly, whose all-various frame,

Azure and full of forms, no power can tame.

All-seeing, source of Saturn and of time,

For ever blessed, deity sublime,

Propttious on a novel mystic shine,

And crown his wishes with a life divine.

O Ever untam’d Ether, rais’d on high

In Jove’s dominions, ruler of the sky ;

Great portion of the Stars and lunar light,

And of the Sun, with dazzling lustre bright ;

All-taming pow’r, ethereal shining fire,

Whose vivid blasts the heat of life inspire ;

The world’s best element, light-bearing pow’r,

With starry radiance shining, splendid flow’r ;

O hear my suppliant pray’r, and may thy frame

Be ever innocent, serene, and tame.

the subordinate by participation, is originally Egyptian,

but is also said by Proclus, in Tim. p. 2, to be Orphical.

For in enumerating the Orphic traditions concerning Phanes,

Night, Heaven, Saturn, Jupiter, and Bacchus, he observes,

eoTt yap kat ev I'n Oupavos, cat ev Oupary Ty (lege I'n)° xac

évrav0a pev o Oupavos xPovwws, exee dé ovpaywws 7 I'n* Kae

yap ovpaviay kat tyv (lege ynv rnv) Lednvnv Opdevs rpocn-

yopevoev. i. e. “For Heaven is in Earth, and Earth in

Heaven. And here indeed [i. e. in the Earth] Heaven

subsists terrestrially ; but there [in the heavens] Earth sub-

sists celestially. For Orpheus also calls the Moon celestial

earth,”

O micuty first-begotten, hear my pray’r,

Twofold, egg-born, and wand ring thro’ the air ;

Bull-roarer }5, glorying in thy golden wings,

From whom the race of Gods and mortal springs.

Ericapeeus, celebrated pow’r,

Ineffable, occult, all-shining flow’r.

*Tis thine from darksome mists to purge the sight’¢,

All-spreading splendour, pure and holy light ;

or the demiurgus of the universe, is in the intellectual what

Phanes is in the intelligible order of Gods ; and hence he

is said by Orpheus to have absorbed Phanes prior to his

fabrication of the world; the theologist indicating by this

his participation of all the primary paradigmatic causes of

things which subsist in Phanes. As Porphyry, therefore, in

his treatise De Antro Nympharum, informs us, ‘‘ that the

Persian deity Mithra, as well as the dull, is the demiurgus

and lord of generation, the reason is obvious why Proto-

gonus is called in this hymn bwll-roarer, the roaring signify-

ing the procession of ideas to the formation of the world.

And this is conformable to what is asserted respecting

ideas in the Chaldean oracles, viz.

Novus xarpos epportnoe vonoas axpad: BovAy

Tlappopdovs cdeas.

i. e. “ The intellect of the father made a crashing noise, un-

derstanding with unwearied counsel omniform ideas.” For

the crashing noise indicates the same thing as the roaring

of Protogonus.

And Proclus, in the Fifth Book of his MS. Commentary on

the Parmenides of Plato, evidently, as it appears to me,

alludes to this verse. For, speaking of the intelligible

monad, or the summit of the intelligible order, at the ex-

tremity of which Protogonus subsists, he says, ‘‘It is by

no means wonderful if this monad comprehends the whole

intellectual pentad, viz. essence, motion, permanency, same-

Hence, Phanes, call’d the glory of the sky,

On waving pinions thro’ the world you fly.

Priapus, dark-eyed splendour )’, thee I sing,

Genial, all-prudent, ever blessed king.

With joyful aspect on these rites divine

And holy Telste propitious shine.

ness, and difference, without division, and in the most pro-

found union ; since through this union all these are after a

manner one. For all things are there without separation,

according to a dark mist, as the theologist asserts.” Adia-

KPITWY KaYTWY OVTWY KATA OKOTOETCAY optxAny. In which

passage the two last words form a part of the above Orphic

line.

But the reason why Protogonus, or Phanes, is said to

purge the sight from dark mists, is because the primary

causes of things which in the deities prior to him subsist in

ineffable union, all being in all, are by him first unfolded

into intelligible light.

VIL

Wit# holy voice I call the stars on high,

Pure sacred lights, and demons of the sky.

Celestial stars, dear progeny of Night,

In whirling circles beaming far your light ;

Refulgent rays around the heav’ns ye throw,

Eternal fires, the source of all below.

With flames significant of Fate ye shine,

And aptly rule for men a path divine.

In seven bright zones ye run with wand ring

flames, .

And heaven and earth!®§ compose your lucid frames :

With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright,

For ever shining thro’ the veil of Night.

Hail, glittering, joyful, ever wakeful fires !

Propitious shine on all my just desires,

These sacred rites regard with conscious rays,

And end our works devoted to your praise.

lll tists

VIII

AND MANNA.

Hear, golden Titan, whose eternal eye

With matchless sight illumines all the sky.

Native, unwearied in diffusing light,

And to all eyes the object of delight :

Lord of the Seasons, beaming light from far,

Sonorous, dancing” in thy four-yok'd car.

With thy right hand the source of morning light,

And with thy left the father of the night.”

‘From thy bland dance repelling deadly ill,

Salubrious Pseon blossoms into light,

Health far diffusing, and th’ extended world

With streams of harmony innoxious fills,”

*® The hand is a symbol of power. Hence Proclus, in

Theol, Plat. lib. 6, p. 3, says that those who are skilled in

divine concerns attribute two hands to the Sun; denomi-

nating one the right hand, the other the left.

Agile and vig’rous, venerable Sun,

Fiery and bright around the heav’ns you run,

Foe to the wicked, but the good man’s guide,

O’er all his steps propitious you preside.

With various-sounding golden lyre ’tis thine

To fill the world with harmony divine.

Father of ages, guide of prosp’rous deeds,

The world’s commander, borne by lucid steeds.

Immortal Jove”, flute-playing, bearing light,

Source of existence, pure and fiery bright ;

Bearer of fruit, almighty lord of years,

Agile and warm, whom ev'ry power reveres.

Bright eye, that round the world incessant flies,

Doom’d with fair fulgid rays to set and rise ;

Dispensing justice, lover of the stream,

The world’s great master, and o’er all supreme.

Faithful defender®, and the eye of right,

Of steeds the ruler, and of life the light :

With sounding whip four fiery steeds you guide,

When in the glittering car of day you ride,

Propitious on these mystic labours shine,

And bless thy suppliants with a life divine.

Hear, Goddess queen, diffusing silver light,

Bull-horn’d*4, and wand’ring thro’ the gloom of

Night.

guAaca autoyv erevie, xedXevoce Te Taow avaccew, “That the

Demiurgus established the Sun over the whole of the uni-

verse, and fashioned him as its guardian, commanding him

to govern all things.”

%3 The Moon is called in this hymn both ceAnvn and pnvn,

the former of which words signify the Moon in the language

%4 ‘We are informed by Porphyry, in his treatise De Antro

Nymph. that the ancient priests of Ceres, called the Moon,

who is the queen of generation, i, e. of the sublunary regions,

a bull. He adds, “And Taurus is the exaltation of the

Moon.” And Olympiodorus, in his MS. Commentary on

the Gorgias of Plato, says that the Moon, according to

ancient theologists, is drawn by two bulls; by two, on

account of her increase and diminution; but by bulls, be-

cause as these till the ground, so the Moon governs all

those parts which surround the earth.

With stars surrounded, and with circuit wide

Night’s torch extending, through the heav’ns you

ride : :

of the Gods ; and the latter is the appellation given to her

by men, as is evident from the following Orphic fragment :

Mycaro 8 addnv yore awreiptrov, nvre LeAnvnv

Adavaror kAnfovew, ertxGovo. Se re Mnvyp.

H wodN’ oupe exet, WOAN’ acrea wodXa peAaOpa.

ie. “But he (Jupiter) fabricated another boundless earth,

which the Immortals call Selene, but men Mene; which has

many mountains, many cities, many houses.” This differ-

ence of names arises from the difference between divine

and human knowledge. For, as it is well observed by the

Platonic philosophers, as the knowledge of divine natures

is different from that of partial souls like ours; so with

respect to names, some are divine, exhibiting the whole

essence of that which is named ; but others are human, which

only partially unfold their signification. On this difference

of names, Proclus, in the last chapter of his first book on the

Theology of Plato, admirably remarks as follows: ‘The

first, most principal, and truly divine names are established

in the Gods themselves. But the second names, which are

imitations of the first, and which subsist intellectually, are

of an allotment pertaining to demons. And again, we may

say that those names which are the third from the truth,

which are logically devised, and which receive the ultimate

resemblance of divine natures, are unfolded by scientific

men, at one time energizing divinely, and at another intel-

lectually, and generating moving images of their inward

spectacles. For as the demiurgic intellect establishes re-

semblances about matter of the first forms contained in

himself, and produces temporal images of things eternal,

divisible images of things indivisible, and adumbrated

images as it were of true beings, after the same manner I

think the science that is with us representing intellectual

production fabricates resemblances of other things, and also

Female and male ®, with silv’ry rays you shine,

And now full-orb’d, now tending to decline.

of the Gods themselves, representing that which is void of

composition in them, through composition; that which is

simple, through variety ; and that which is united, through

multitude ; and thus fashioning names ultimately exhibits

images of divine natures, For it generates every where

name as if it were a statue of the Gods. And as the

theurgic art through certain symbols calls forth the exube-

rant and unenvying goodness of the Gods into the illumi-

nation of artificial statues; thus also the intellectual science

of divine concerns, by the compositions and divisions of

sounds, unfolds the occult essence of the Gods.” See more

on this subject in the additional notes to my translation of

the Cratylus of Plato.

OF ORPHEUS. Q

Mother of ages, fruit-producing Moon, ~

Whose amber orb makes Night’s reflected noon: ‘|

Lover of horses, splendid queen of night, :

All-seeing pow’r, bedeck’d with starry light,

Lover of vigilance, the foe of strife,

In peace rejoicing, and a prudent life :

Fair lamp of Night, its ornament and friend,

Who giv’st to Nature’s works their destin’d end. ;

Amphietus, this Polymnia. In the eighth sphere, that

Pericionius, this Urania. But in the soul of the world they

call the gnostic power Bacchus Eribromus, but the animating

power Calliope. From all which the Orphic theologists

infer, that the particular epithets of Bacchus are compared

with those of the Muses, for the purpose of informing us

that the powers of the Muses are, as it were, intoxicated

with the nectar of divine knowledge ; and in order that we

may consider the nine Muses, and nine Bacchuses, as re-

volving round one Apollo, that is about the splendour of one

invisible Sun.” The greater part of this passage is pre-

served by Gyraldus in his Syntagma de Musis, and by

Natales Comes in his Mythology, but without mentioning

the original author. As in each of the celestial spheres,

therefore, the soul of the ruling deity is of the female, and

the intellect is of the male characteristic, it is by no means

wonderful that the Moon is called in this hymn “female

and male,”

|

nd

Queen of the stars 2’, all-wise Diana, hail !

Deck’d with a graceful robe and ample veil.

Come, blessed Goddess, prudent, starry, bright,

Come, moony-lamp, with chaste and splendid light,

Shine on these sacred rites with prosp’rous rays,

And pleas’d accept thy suppliants’ mystic praise.

Tous puotkous Noyous ets evepyetay, Kat To auroredes (lege

areXes) rns uAnS TeNEtovea’ Sto Kat Aoxcay aurny ore Seodoyot,

kato ev OearrnTy Dwxparns kadovow, ws THs puoikns wpoodou,

Kat yerynoews epopov. The epithet in the Orphic hymn is

TeNecpopos, i. e. bringing to a perfect end.

# In the original acrpapyy. This appellation was first

given to the Moon by the Phosnicians, as we are informed

by Herodian. This Goddess likewise was called by the

Africans Urania. Vide Selden. de Diis Syriis, p.

Nature, all-parent, ancient and divine,

O much mechanic mother, art is thine;

Heav’nly, abundant, venerable queen,

In ev ry part of thy dominions seen.

Untam’d, all taming, ever splendid light,

All ruling, honour’d, and supremely bright.

Immortal, first-born, ever still the same,

Nocturnal, starry, shining, powerful dame.

Thy feet’s still traces in a circling course,

By thee are turn’d, with unremitting force.

are corruptible remain perpetually in the world, being held

together by the causes of forms which she contains.”

Hence Nature is represented in this hymn as turning the

stil traces of her feet with a swift whirling. For since she is

the last of the demiurgic causes, her operations amply sym-

bolize with the traces of feet. But the reason why the

epithets of much-mechanic, artist, connecting, all-wise provi-

dence, &c., are given to Nature, which evince her agreement

with Minerva, is because, as Proclus in the above extract

informs us, she every where weaves together partial natures

with wholes. Hence, according to the Orphic theology,

as we also learn from Proclus, Minerva fashioned the

variegated veil of Nature, from that wisdom and virtue

of which she is the presiding deity. Nature therefore, from

her connecting and uniting power, and from her plenitude

of seminal productive powers, has an evident agreement

with Minerva ; whose divine arts, according to the Orphic

theology, reduce whatever is discordant and different in the

universe into union and consent.

Again, it is well observed by Simplicius, in his Commen-

tary on the Second Book of Aristotle’s Physics, ‘‘ that one

of the conceptions which we form of Nature is, that it is the

character of every thing, and that in consequence of this,

we employ the name of it in all things, and do not refuse to

say the nature of soul, of intellect, and even of deity itself.”

Nature, therefore, as indicating the characteristic or hyparxis

of divinity, is in perfect conformity to the symbolical theo-

logy of Orpheus, said to be without a father, and at the

ee

eee

Pure ornament of all the Pow’rs divine,

Finite and infinite alike you shine ® ;

To all things common, and in all things known,

Yet incommunicable and alone.

Without a father of thy wondrous frame,

Thyself the father whence thy essence came ;

Mingling, all-flourishing, supremely wise,

And bond connective of the earth and skies.

Leader, life-bearing queen, all various nam’d,

And for commanding grace and beauty fam’d.

same time the father of her own being. For all the Gods,

according to this theology, though they proceed by an

appnros expavors or ineffable unfolding into light from the

first principle of things, yet at the same time are avroredets

vrocrace:s, or self-perfect, and self-produced essences. And

when Nature in this hymn is said to be incommunicable and

alone, this must be considered as indicating the charac-

teristic of the great first principle of all. For so far as the

principle of all things he is incommunicable ; since it is im-

possible that there should be more than one principle of alJ

things.

Justice, supreme in might, whose general sway

The waters of the restless deep obey.

Etherial, earthly, for the pious glad,

Sweet to the good, but bitter to the bad :

All-wise, all-bounteous, provident, divine,

A rich increase of nutriment is thine ;

And to maturity whate’er may spring,

.You to decay and dissolution bring.

Father of all, great nurse, and mother kind,

Abundant, blessed, all-spermatic mind :

Mature, impetuous, from whose fertile seeds

And plastic hand this changing scene proceeds.

All-parent pow’r, in vital impulse seen,

Eternal, moving, all-sagacious queen.

By thee the world, whose parts in rapid flow,

Like swift descending streams, no respite know ®,

On an eternal hinge, with steady course,

Is whirl’d with matchless, unremitting force.

Thron’d on a circling car, thy mighty hand

Holds and directs the reins of wide command :

Various thy essence, honour’d, and the best,

Of judgment too, the general end and test.

Intrepid, fatal, all-subduing dame,

Life everlasting, Parca, breathing flame.

Immortal Providence, the world is thine,

And thou art all things, architect divine.

O, blessed Goddess, hear thy suppliants’ pray’r,

And make their future life thy constant care ;

Give plenteous seasons and sufficient wealth,

And crown our days with lasting peace and health.

and formation, but never possess real being; and is like

the image of a lofty tree seen in a rapid torrent, which has

the appearance of a tree without the reality ; and which

seems to endure perpetually the same, yet is continually

renewed by the continual renovation of the stream.

o)

Strone@ past’ral Pan, with suppliant voice I call,

Heav’n, sea, and earth, the mighty queen of all,

Immortal fire ; for all the world is thine,

And all are parts of thee, O pow’r divine.

Come, blessed Pan, whom rural haunts delight,

Come, leaping, agile, wand’ring, starry light.

Thron’d with the Seasons, Bacchanalian Pan,

Goat-footed, horn’d, from whom the world began ;

Whose various parts, by thee inspir’'d, combine

In endless dance and melody divine.

In thee a refuge from our fears we find,

Those fears peculiar to the humankind.

3! Pan, as we are informed by Damascius, first subsists

at the extremity of the intelligible order, being there no

other than the celebrated Protogonus or Phanes ; but, ac-

cording to his mundane subsistence, he is the monad or

summit of all the local Gods and demons, In the statues

of him his upper parts resemble those of a man, but his

lower parts those of a brute [viz. of a goat] indicating by

this, that in the universe rationality has dominion over

irrationality. As, therefore, according to his first subsist-

ence, he is the primary exemplar of the universe ; the reason

is obvious why in this hymn he is celebrated as all things.

OF ORPHEDS.

Thee, shepherds, streams of water, goats rejoice,

Thou lov’st the chase and Echo's secret voice :

The sportive Nymphs thy ev’ry step attend,

And all thy works fulfill their destin’d end.

O all-producing pow’r, much-fam’d, divine,

The world’s great ruler, rich increase is thine.

All-fertile Peean, heavenly splendour pure,

In fruits rejoicing, and in caves °2 obscure.

True serpent-horned Jove *®*, whose dreadful rage,

When rous’d, ’tis hard for mortals to assuage.

By thee the earth wide-bosom’d, deep and long,

Stands on a basis permanent and strong.

Th’ unwearied waters of the rolling sea,

Profoundly spreading, yield to thy decree.

Old Ocwan, too, reveres thy high command,

Whose ligyuid arms begird the solid land.

The spaciodys air, whose nutrimental fire

And vivid bl\gsts the heat of life inspire ;

The lighter frdgme of fire, whose sparkling eye

Shines on the si&mmit of the azure sky,

Submit alike to th&ze, whose gen’ral sway

All parts of matter, VA2rious form’d, obey.

All natures change thro™:. thy protecting care,

And all mankind thy lib’ral W.runties share ;

For these, where’er dispers’d thro.,”, boundless space,

Still find thy providence support t * -eir race.

Come, Bacchanalian, blessed pow’r, draw near,

Enthusiastic Pan, thy suppliants hear, ‘

Propitious to these holy rites attend,

And grant our lives may meet a prosp’rol., \s end ;

Drive panic fury too, wherever found, the

From humankind to earth’s remotest bound.

tt.

bi

\by

,

\

XIT.

Hear, strenuous Hercules, untam’d and strong,

To whom grand works and powerful hands belong,

Titan untam’d, rejoicing and benign,

Of various forms, eternal and divine.

Father of Time, the theme of gen’ral praise,

Ineffable, adored in various ways,

Magnanimous, in divination skill’d,

And in th’ athletic labours of the field.

’Tis thine, strong archer, all things to devour,

Supreme, all-helping, all-producing pow’r.

To thee mankind as their deliv’rer pray,

Whose arm can chase the savage tribes away.

Unweary'd, earth’s best blossom *, offspring fair,

To whom calm peace and peaceful works are dear.

Self-born, with primogenial fires *° you shine,

And various names, and strength of heart are thine:

light. From this heaven and earth resident in the imtel-

lectual Phanes, Orpheus, according to Proclus, derives the

sublunary orders of the Gods; and amoung these (vid. Procl.

in Tim. p. 2), he enumerates the following progeny of

the intellectual earth. ‘She prodaced seven beautiful pure

virgins with voluble eyes, and seven sons, all of them kings,

and covered with downy hair. The daughters are Themis

and prudent Tethys, and fair-haired Mnemosyne and blessed

Thea ; together with Dione, having an illustrious form, and

Phoebe, and Rhea the mother of king Jupiter. Moreover,

this illustrious earth generated celestial sons, which are

also surnamed Titans, because they took revenge on the

great starry Heaven ; and these are Ceous, and great Craaus,

and robust Phorcys, and Saturn, and Ocean, and Hyperion,

and Jupiter.” Now as Hercules is celebrated in this hymn

as the Sun, and the Sun is the same with Hyperion, the

reason is obvious why Hercules is called ‘“‘Earth’s best

blossom.” And we shall find that Saturn, in the follow-

ing hymn, is called ‘‘ blossom of Earth;’’ and Themis, in

hymn, ‘‘ Young blossom of Earth ;” and the Titans, in

hymn, ‘‘ The illustrious progeny of Heaven and Earth.”

Again,

Phanes, as we are informed by Athenagoras, is denomi-

nated by Orpheus Hercules and Time. Hence, we see the

reason why Hercules in this hymn is said “to shine with

primogenial fires ;” since he is no other than Protogonus in

the intelligible and intellectual worlds, and the Sun in the

sensible world. Or in conformity to the Orphic theory

mentioned in the Introduction, it may be said that he is

celebrated with solar epithets, as being one of the satellites

of the Sun.

% In the editions of Gesner and Hermann we have in this

place Bok:ow, and in the edition of Eschenbach godis: ; but

Thy mighty head supports the morning light,

And bears, untam’d, the silent gloomy night ;

From east to west, endu'd with strength divine,

Twelve glorious labours to absolve is thine ;

Supremely skill’d, thou reign’st in heav’n’s abodes,

Thyself a God, amidst th’ immortal Gods.

With arms unshaken, infinite, divine,

Come, blessed pow’r, and to our rites incline ;

The mitigations of disease convey,

And drive disastrous maladies away.

Come, shake the branch with thy almighty arm,

Dismiss thy darts, and noxious fate disarm.

the true reading is, I have no doubt, ¢Acyw, conformably

to the above translation. Scaliger also in his version has

‘* Ignibw’ primigenis florens.”

XITT.

Eternal father, mighty Titan °°, hear,

Great sire of Gods and men, whom all revere ;

Endu’d with various counsel, pure and strong,

To whom increase and decrement belong.

Hence matter’s flowing forms thro’ thee that die,

By thee restor’d, their former place supply.

The world immense in everlasting chains,

Strong and ineffable thy pow’r contains ;

Father of vast eternity, divine,

O mighty Saturn, various speech is thine ;

Blossom of earth and of the starry skies,

Husband of Rhea, and Prometheus wise.

Obsteteric pow’r and venerable root,

From which the various forms of being shoot ;

No parts peculiar can thy pow’r enclose,

Diffus’d thro’ all, from which the world arose.

O best of beings, of a subtle mind,

Propitious hear, to suppliant pray’rs inclin’d ;

The sacred rites benevolent attend,

And grant a blameless life, a blessed end.

OF ORPHEDS.

IuLustrious Rhea, to my pray’r incline,

Daughter of various-form’d Protogonus °° divine,

%8 Phanes or Protogonus, as we are informed by Proclus

Who driv’st thy sacred car with speed along,

Drawn by fierce lions, terrible and strong.

Mother of Jove, whose mighty arm can wield

Th’ avenging bolt and shake the dreadful shield.

Brass-sounding ®®, honour’d, Saturn’s blessed queen,

Drum-beating, fury-loving, of a splendid mien.

in Tim, p. 2, not only subsists among the intelligible, but

also among the intellectual Gods; in the demiurgic order,

and among the. supermundane and mundane Gods, And in

a similar manner Night and Heaven: for the peculiarities

of these are received through all the middle orders. Hence,

as Rhea is one of the progeny of the intellectual Earth

resident in Phanes, as we have before observed, the reason

is obvious why she is said in this hymn to be the daughter

of Protogonus, The Phanes, however, and Earth, from

which Rhea proceeds, subsist in that divine order which is

denominated by the Chaldean theologists voyros Kas voepos,

intelligible and at the same time intellectual, and is celebrated

by Plato in the Phedrus under the appellation of Heaven,

This order, as subsisting between the intelligible and intel-

lectual orders, participates of the former, and is xara oxeow

through proximity and alliance, the latter. Hence it is

primarily intellectual.

% The reason why Rhea is here called brass-sowndtng, and

in the next line drwm-beatiny, is in consequence of the en-

thusiastic energy of which she is the source. Hence, says

Porphyry, in his Epistle to Anebo: “Some of those who

suffer a mental alienation energize enthusiastically on hear-

ing certain cymbals or drums, or a certain modulated

sound, such as those who are Corybantically inspired, those

who are possessed by Sabazius, and those who are inspired

by the mother of the Gods.” On this passage, Iamblichus

(De Myst. Sect. ITI. Cap. 9) beautifully observes as follows :

‘‘That music is of a motive nature, and is adapted to excite

the affections, and that the melody of pipes produces or

OF ORPHEUS,

Thou joy’st in mountains and tumultuous fight,

And mankind’s horrid howlings thee delight.

heals the disordered passions of the soul, changes the tem-

peraments or dispositions of the body, and by some melodies

causes a Bacchic fury, but by others occasions this fury to

cease ; and likewise how the differences of these accord

with the several dispositions of the soul, and that unstable

and variable melody is adapted to ecstasies, such as are

the melodies of Olympus, and others of the like kind;

all these appear to me to be adduced in a way foreign to

enthusiasm. For they are physical and human, and the

work of our art; but nothing whatever of a divine nature

in them presents itself to the view.

“'We must rather, therefore, say that sounds and melodies

are appropriately consecrated to the Gods, There is also

an alliance in these sounds and melodies to the proper

orders and powers of the several Gods, to the motions in

the universe itself, and to the harmonious sounds which

proceed from the motions. Conformably therefore to such

like adaptations of melodies to the Gods, the Gods them-

selves become present, For there is not any thing which

intercepts ; 8 that whatever has but a casual similitude to

directly participates of them. <A perfect possession likewise

immediately takes place, and a plenitude of a more excel-

lent essence and power.” In Cap. 1, also he observes,

“that since the power of the Corybantes is in a certain

respect of a guardian and efficacious nature, and that of

Sabazius appropriately pertains to Bacchic inspiration, the

purifications of souls, and the solutions of ancient divine

anger, on this account the inspirations of them entirely

differ from each other. With respect, however, to the

Mother of the Gods, those who are precedaneously inspired

by her are women ; but the males that sre thus inspired

are very few in number, and such as are more effeminate.

This enthusiasm, however, has a vivific and replenishing

power, on which account also it in a remarkable degree

War's parent, mighty, of majestic frame,

Deceitful saviour *°, liberating dame.

differs from all other mania.” In this extract the reason

why Iamblichus says that the enthusiasm of the Mother of

the Gods has a vivific power is because she is a vivific

Goddess, or the source of life to all things, being the same

with Rhea, See more on this most interesting subject in

my translation of this work of Iamblichus on the Mys-

teries.

Mother of Gods and men, from whom the earth

And spacious heav’ns derive their glorious birth.

Th’ etherial gales, the deeply spreading sea,

Goddess, aerial-form’d, proceed from thee.

Come, pleas’d with wand’rings, blessed and divine,

With peace attended on our labours shine ;

Bring rich abundance ; and, wherever found,

Drive dire disease to earth’s remotest bound.

ing into light the fountains of life, and the latter firmly

establishing this life exempt from its proper rivers. The

same thing is also demonstrated by him in Plat. Theol.

lib. v. Damascius also, rep: apywy, observes, Ty Peg

oydous mpoonkel, ws ext ray Kwndéioy KaTa Tas dratpececs,

Kat ovdey nTTOV eoTWoY Wayiws Kat KuBiws. i.e. The

ogdoad, or number eight, pertains to Rhea, as being moved

to every thing, according to divisions or distributions of

her essence, and nevertheless at the same time she remains

firmly and cubically established.” Damascius uses the

word cubically, because eight is a cubic number. Rhea,

therefore, considered as firmly establishing her offspring

Jupiter, in Saturn, who exists in unproceeding union, is

fabulously said to have given Saturn a stone instead of

Jupiter, the stone indicating the jirm establishment of

Jupiter in Saturn. For all divine progeny, at the same

time that they proceed from, abide in their causes. And

the secret education of Jupiter indicates his being nurtured

in the intelligible order: for this order is denominated by

ancient theologists occult,

4 - THE MYSTICAL HYMNS

O Jove, much-honour’d, Jove supremely great,

To thee our holy rites we consecrate,

Our pray’rs and expiations, king divine,

For all things to produce with ease, thro” mind

is thine.

Hence mother Earth and mountains swelling high

Proceed from thee, the deep and all within the sky.

Saturnian king, descending fram above,

Magnanimous, commanding, sceptred Jove ;

All-parent, principle and end of all #3,

Whose pow’r almighty shakes this earthly ball ;

“1 For a copious developnient of the nature of this divinity,

see the additional notes.

“ What I have here translated thro’ mind, is in the original

du. ouv kepadny, as it appeared to me to be obvious, that by

the head mind must be indicated, of which the head is the

receptacle,

OF ORPHEUS. AT

Ev’n Nature trembles at thy mighty nod,

Loud-sounding, arm’d with light’ning, thund’ring

God.

flow from their principle. In conformity to this, the follow-

ing Orphic verses are cited by Proclus, in Tim. p.

Hence with the universe great Jove contains

Extended ether, heav’n’s exalted plains ;

The barren sea, wide-bosom’d earth renown’d,

Ocean immense, and Tartarus profound ;

Fountains and rivers, and the boundless main,

With all that Nature’s ample realms contain,

And Gods and Goddesses of each degree ;

All that is past, and all that e’er shall be,

Occultly, and in fair connection lies

In Jove’s vast belly, ruler of the skies.

In the last line of these verses, the belly of Jupiter is indi-

cative of all that subsists as a middle in the universe ; the

belly being the middle part of the body. So that the poet,

by asserting that all things are contained in the belly of

Jupiter, occultly signifies to us, that this deity is not only

the beginning and end, but also the middle of ali things, as

comprehending all middles in himself. A certain modern,

not having the smallest conception of what the Greek

theologist meant by the belly of Jupiter, says, somewhere

in his voluminous mythological treatise, in answer to one

who rightly conceived that the latter part of the above

Orphic lines contained a grand image of the maker of the

universe, “ that it excited no other idea of Jupiter than that

of an enormous glutton.”

In the same place also, Proclus cites other Orphic verses,

which are likewise to be found in the Treatise de Mundo

(ascribed to Aristotle) ; previous to which he observes, that

the Demiurgus, being full of ideas, comprehended through

these all things in himself, as the theologist Orpheus says.

Source of abundance, purifying king,

O various-form’d, from whom all natures spring ;

With these verses I have connected others, conformably to

the order of Stephens, Eschenbach, and Gesner, as follows :

Jove is the first and last, high thund’ring king,

Middle and head, from Jove all beings spring.

In Jove the maJe and female forms combine,

For Jove’s & man, and yet a maid divine.

Jove the strong basis of the earth contains,

And the deep splendour of the starry plains.

Jove is the breath of all; Jove’s wondrous frame

Lives in the rage of ever-restless flame.

Jove is the sea’s strong root, the solar light ;

And Jove’s the moon, fair regent of the night.

Jove is a king, by no restraint confin’d ;

And all things flow from Jove’s prolific mind :

One is the power divine, in all things known,

And one the ruler absolute, alone.

For in Jove’s royal body all things lie,

Fire, night and day, earth, water, and the sky ;

The first begetter’s pleasing Love and Mind ;

These in his mighty body Jove confin’d.

See how his beauteous head and aspect bright

Tllumine heav’n, and scatter boundless light !

Round which his pendent golden tresses shine,

Form’d from the starry beams, with light divine,

On either side two radiant horns behold,

Shap’d like a bull’s, and bright with glitt’ring gold ;

And East and West in opposition lie,

The lucid paths of all the Gods on high.

His eyes the Sun and Moon with borrow’d ray ;

His mind is truth, unconscious of decay,

Royal, etherial; and his ear refin’d

Hears ev’ry voice and sounds of ev’ry kind. .

Thus are his head and mind immortal bright,

His body boundless, stable, full of light.

Propitious hear my pray’r, give blameless health,

With peace divine, and necessary wealth.

Strong are his members, with a force endu’d,

~ Pow’rful to tame, but ne’er to be subdu’d.

Th’ extended region of surrounding air

Forms his broad shoulders, back, and bosom fair ;

And thro’ the world the ruler of the skies,

Upborne on natal rapid pinions, flies.

His sacred belly earth with fertile plains

And mountains swelling to the clouds contains.

His middle zone’s the spreading sea profound,

Whose roaring waves the solid globe surround.

The distant realms of Tartarus obscure,

Within Earth’s roots, his holy feet secure ;

For these, Earth’s utmost bounds, to Jove belong,

And form his basis permanent and strong.

Thus all things Jove within his breast conceal’d,

And into beauteous light from thence reveal’d.

Jupiter, therefore, or the Demiurgus, is, according to

Orpheus, all things, as containing in the unfathomable

depths of his essence the causes of every thing which the

sensible universe contains, these causes infinitely transcend-

ing the effects which they produce. Hence, by a causal

priority, he is every thing which is contained in the sensible

world. Pherecydes Syrus, also, conformably to this doc-

trine, says of Jupiter, as we learn from Kircher (in Cédip.

Egypt. tom. ii. p. 8),

O Seos eort KuKNos, TeTpaywvos, Kat Se Tpir-ywvros

Kewos 3 9 ypapuen, Kevrpov, Kat TayTa 3po wayTwy.

i, e. “ Jove is a circle, trigon, and a square,

Centre and line, and all things before all.”

Thus too, the ineffable principle of things is said to be all

things prior to all, not as containing all things multitudi-

nously in itself, but as that from which all things are

ineffably unfolded into light.

D

O royat Juno, of majestic mien,

Aerial-form’d, divine, Jove’s blessed queen,

Thron’d in the bosom of cerulean air,

The race of mortals is thy constant care.

The cooling gales thy pow’r alone inspires,

Which nourish life, which ev'ry life desires.

Mother of show’rs and winds, from thee alone,

Producing all things, mortal life is known :

All natures share thy temp’rament divine,

And universal sway alone is thine,

With sounding blasts of wind, the swelling sea

And rolling rivers roar when shook by thee.

Come, blessed Goddess, fam’d almighty queen,

With aspect kind, rejoicing and serene.

«« Juno is called by the Orphic theologists, as we are in-

formed by Proclus, fwoyovos Sea, the vivific Goddess; an

epithet perfectly agreeing with the attributes ascribed to

her in this hymn. Proclus also in Plat, Theol. p.

says, “‘that Juno is the source of the procreation of the

soul.” See more concerning this divinity in the additional

notes.

Hear, Neptune, ruler of the sea profound,

Whose liquid grasp begirds the solid ground ;

Who, at the bottom of the stormy main,

Dark and deep-bosom’d hold’st thy wat’ry reign.

Thy awful hand the brazen trident bears,

And Ocean’s utmost bound thy will reveres.

Thee I invoke, whose steeds the foam divide,

From whose dark locks the briny waters glide ;

Whose voice, loud sounding thro’ the roaring deep,

Drives all its billows in a raging heap ;

When fiercely riding thro’ the boiling sea,

Thy hoarse command the trembling waves obey.

Earth-shaking, dark-hair’d God, the liquid plains

(The third division) Fate to thee ordains.

*Tis thine, cerulean demon, to survey,

Well-pleas'd, the monsters of the ocean play.

Confirm earth’s basis, and with prosp’rous gales

Waft ships along, and swell the spacious sails ;

Add gentle Peace, and fair-hair’'d Health beside,

And pour abundance in a blameless tide.

“© See the nature of this divinity unfolded in the addi-

tional notes.

XVITI.

A HYMN.

PLuTo, magnanimous, whose realms profound

Are fix'd beneath the firm and solid ground,

In the Tartarean plains remote from sight,

And wrapt for ever in the depths of night.

Terrestrial Jove *5, thy sacred ear incline,

And pleas’d accept these sacred rites divine.

Earth’s keys ‘’ to thee, illustrious king, belong,

Its secret gates unlocking, deep and strong.

*Tis thine abundant annual fruits to bear,

For needy mortals are thy constant care.

To thee, great king, all-sov’reign Earth's assign’d,

The seat of Gods and basis of mankind.

“ Pluto, says Proclus, in Plat. Theol. p. 3, is called

terrestrial Jupiter, because he governs by his providence the

earth and all it contains,

Proclus, in the Excerpta from his Commentary on the

Cratylus of Plato, informs us that initiators into the Myste-

ries, in order that sensibles might sympathize with the

Gods, employed the shuttle as a signature of separating, a

cup of wivific, a sceptre of ruling, and a KEY of guardian

power. Hence Pluto, as the guardian of the earth, is here

said to be the keeper of the earth’s keys.

Thy throne is fix’d in Hades’ dismal plains,

Distant, unknown to rest, where darkness reigns ;

Where, destitute of breath, pale spectres dwell,

In endless, dire, inexorable hell ;

And in dread Acheron, whose depths obscure,

Earth's stable roots eternally secure.

O mighty demon, whose decision dread,

The future fate determines of the dead,

With captive Proserpine, thro’ grassy plains,

Drawn in a four-yok’d car with loosen’d reins,

Rapt o’er the deep, impell’d by love, you flew

Till Eleusina’s city rose to view :

There, in a wondrous cave obscure and deep,

The sacred maid secure from search you keep,

The cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display

An entrance to the kingdoms void of day.

Of works unseen and seen thy power alone

To be the great dispensing source is known.

All-ruling, holy God, with glory bright,

Thee sacred poets and their hymns delight,

Propitious to thy mystics’ works incline,

Rejoicing come, for holy rites are thine.

O Fatuer Jove, who shak’st with fiery light

The world, deep-sounding from thy lofty height.

From thee proceeds th’ etherial lightning’s blaze,

Flashing around intolerable rays.

Thy sacred thunders shake the blest abodes,

The shining regions of th’ immortal Gods.

Thy pow’r divine the flaming lightning shrouds

With dark investiture in fluid clouds. |

’Tis thine to brandish thunders strong and dire,

To scatter storms, and dreadful darts of fire ;

. With roaring flames involving all around,

And bolts of thunder of tremendous sound.

Thy rapid dart can raise the hair upright,

And shake the heart of man with wild affright.

Sudden, unconquer’d, holy, thund’ring God,

With noise unbounded flying all abroad ;

With all-devouring force, entire and strong,

Horrid, untam’d, thou roll’st the flames along.

Rapid, etherial bolt, descending fire,

The earth, all-parent, trembles at thine ire ;

The sea all-shining, and each beast, that hears

The sound terrific, with dread horror fears :

When Nature’s face is bright with flashing fire,

And in the heav’ns resound thy thunders dire.

Thy thunders white the azure garments tear,

And burst the veil of all-surrounding air.

O Jove, all-blessed, may thy wrath severe,

Hurl’d in the bosom of the deep appear,

And on the tops of mountains be reveal’d,

For thy strong arm is not from us conceal’d.

Propitious to these sacred rites incline,

And to thy suppliants grant a life divine,

Add royal health, and gentle peace beside,

With upright reas’ning for a constant guide.

As the Primary Cause of Lightning. |

{

é

AND MANNA.

I cau the mighty, holy, splendid, light,

Aerial, dreadful-sounding, fiery-bright,

Flaming, etherial light, with angry voice,

Lightning thro’ lucid clouds with crashing noise.

Untam’d, to whom resentments dire belong,

Pure, holy pow’r, all-parent, great and strong :

Come, and benevolent these rites attend,

And grant the mortal life a pleasing end.

AERIAL Clouds, thro’ heav’ns resplendent plains

Who wander, parents of prolific rains ;

Who nourish fruits, whose wat’ry frames are hurl’d,

By winds impetuous, round the mighty world.

Loud-sounding, lion-roaring, flashing fire,

In Air’s wide bosom bearing thunders dire :

Impell’d by each sonorous stormy gale,

With rapid course along the skies ye sail.

With gentle gales your wat’ry frames I call,

On mother Earth with fruitful show’rs to fall.

AND MANNA.

Tetuys I call, with eyes cerulean bright,

Hid in a veil obscure from human sight :

Great Ocean’s empress, wand’ring thro’ the deep,

And pleas’d, with gentle gales, the earth to sweep ;

Whose ample waves in swift succession go,

And lash the rocky shore with endless flow :

Delighting in the sea serene to play,

In ships exulting, and the wat’ry way.

Mother of Venus, and of clouds obscure,

Great nurse of beasts, and source of fountains pure.

O venerable Goddess, hear my pray’r,

And make benevolent my life thy care ;

Send, blessed queen, to ships a prosp’rous breeze,

And waft them safely o’er the stormy seas.

X XITI.

O tHov who dost the roots of Ocean keep

In seats cerulean, demon of the deep,

With fifty nymphs (attending in thy train,

Fair virgin artists) glorying thro’ the main :

The dark foundation of the rolling sea,

And Earth’s wide bounds belong, much-fam’d, to

thee.

Great demon, source of all, whose pow’r can make

The sacred basis of blest Ceres shake,

When blust’ring winds in secret caverns pent,

By thee excited, struggle hard for vent.

Come, blessed Nereus, listen to my pray’r,

And cease to shake the earth with wrath severe ;

Send to thy mystics necessary wealth,

With gentle peace, and ever tranquil health.

Davauters of Nereus, resident in caves

Merg’d deep in ocean, sporting thro’ the waves ;

Fifty inspir’d Nymphs, who thro’ the main

Delight to follow in the Triton’s train,

Rejoicing close behind their cars to keep ;

Whose forms half wild are nourish’d by the deep,

With other Nymphs of different degree,

Leaping and wand’ring thro’ the liquid sea.

Bright, wat’ry dolphins, sonorous and gay,

Well-pleas’d to sport with bacchanalian play ;

Nymphs beauteous-ey'd, whom sacrifice delights,

Give plenteous wealth, and bless our mystic rites ;

For you at first disclosed the rites divine,

Of holy Bacchus and of Proserpine,

Of fair Calliope, from whom I spring,

And of Apollo bright, the Muses’ king.

Proteus I call, whom Fate decrees to keep

The keys which lock the chambers of the deep ;

First-born, by whose illustrious pow’r alone

All Nature’s principles were clearly shown.

Pure sacred matter to transmute is thine,

And decorate with forms all-various and divine.

All-honour’d, prudent, whose sagacious mind

Knows all that was and is of ev’ry kind,

With all that shall be in succeeding time,

So vast thy wisdom, wondrous and sublime :

For all things Nature first to thee consign’d,

And in thy essence omniform confin’d.

O father, to thy mystics’ rites attend,

And grant a blessed life a prosp’rous end.

SEED, EXCEPT BEANS AND AROMATICS.

O mother Earth, of Gods and men the source,

Endu’d with fertile, all-destroying force ;

All-parent, bounding, whose prolific pow’rs

Produce a store of beauteous fruits and flow’rs.

All-various maid, th’ immortal world’s strong base,

Eternal, blessed, crown’d with ev'ry grace ;

From whose wide womb as from an endless root,

Fruits many-form'd, mature, and grateful shoot.

Deep-bosom’d, blessed, pleas’d with grassy plains,

Sweet to the smell, and with prolific rains.

All-flow’ry demon, centre of the world,

Around thy orb the beauteous stars are hurl’d

With rapid whirl, eternal and divine,

Whose frames with matchless skill and wisdom shine.

Come, blessed Goddess, listen to my pray’r,

And make increase of fruits thy constant care ;

With fertile Seasons in thy train draw near,

And with propitious mind thy suppliants hear.

& According to the Orphic theology, Earth is the mother

of every thing of which Heaven is the father. See the

additional notes.

XX VIT.

ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES.

Mortuer of Gods, great nurse of all, draw near,

Divinely honour’d, and regard my pray’r.

Thron’d on a car, by lions drawn along,

By bull-destroying lions, swift and strong,

Thou sway’st the sceptre of the pole divine,®!

And the world’s middle seat, much fam’d, is thine.

Hence earth is thine, and needy mortals share

Their constant food, from thy protecting care.

From thee at first both Gods and men arose ;

From thee the sea and ev'ry river flows.

Vesta and source of wealth thy name we find

To mortal men rejoicing to be kind ;

For ev'ry good to give thy soul delights.

Come, mighty pow’, propitious to our rites,

All-taming, blessed, Phrygian Saviour, come,

Saturn’s great queen, rejoicing in the drum.

Celestial, ancient, life-supporting maid,

Inspiring fury; give thy suppliant aid ;

With joyful aspect on our incense shine,

And pleas’d, accept the sacrifice divine.

XX VITI.

Hermes, draw near, and to my pray’r incline,

Angel of Jove, and Maia’s son divine ;

Prefect of contests, ruler of mankind,

With heart almighty, and a prudent mind.

Celestial messenger of various skill,

Whose pow’rful arts could watchful Argus kill.

With winged feet tis thine thro’ air to course,

O friend of man, and prophet of discourse :

Great life-supporter, to rejoice is thine

In arts gymnastic, and in fraud divine.

With pow’r endu’d all language to explain,

Of care the loos’ner, and the source of gain.

Whose hand contains of blameless peace the rod,

Corucian, blessed, profitable God. |

Of various speech, whose aid in works we find,

And in necessities to mortals kind.

Dire weapon of the tongue, which men revere,

Be present, Hermes, and thy suppliant hear ;

Assist my works, conclude my life with peace,

Give graceful speech, and memory’s increase.

Mercury, were placed in the Paleestree ; of music, and hence

he is honoured as Avpacos, the lyrist among the celestial

constellations ; and of disciplines, because the invention of

geometry, reasoning, and language is referred to this God.

He presides, therefore, over every species of erudition,

leading us to an intelligible essence from this mortal abode,

governing the different herds of souls, and dispersing the

sleep and oblivion with which they are oppressed. He is

likewise the supplier of recollection, the end of which is a

genuine intellectual apprehension of divine natures.”’

X XIX.

A HYMN.

Daveuter of Jove, Persephone divine,

Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline :

Only-begotten, Pluto’s honour’d wife,

O venerable Goddess, source of life :

’Tis thine in earth’s profundities to dwell,

Fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell.

Jove’s holy offspring, of a beauteous mien,

Avenging Goddess, subterranean queen.

The Furies’ source, fair-hair’d, whose frame proceeds

From Jove’s ineffable and secret seeds.

Mother of Bacchus, sonorous, divine,

And many-form’d, the parent of the vine.

Associate of the Seasons, essence bright,

All-ruling virgin, bearing heav’nly light.

With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind,

Horn‘d, and alone desir’d by those of mortal kind.

O vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight,

Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight:

OF ORPHEUS,

Whose holy form in budding fruits we view,

Earth's vig’rous offspring of a various hue :

Espous’d in autumn *, life and death alone

To wretched mortals from thy pow’r is known:

For thine the task, according to thy will,

Life to produce, and all that lives to kill

Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase

Of various fruits from earth, with lovely Peace :

Send Health with gentle hand, and crown my life

With blest abundance, free from noisy strife ;

_ Last in extreme old age the prey of Death,

Dismiss me willing to the realms beneath,

To thy fair palace and the blissful plains

Where happy spirits dwell, and Pluto reigns.

5 “The rape of Proserpine, says Sallust (De Diis et

Mundo, cap. 4) is fabled to have taken place about the

opposite equinox ; and this rape signifies the descent of

souls.” wept ‘youw Tyy evavriay tonueptay yn Tys Kopys

aprayn pvOodoyerra yeverIar, o bn Kadodos est Twy Wuxuw.

According to Lydus De Mensibus, the festival of Proser-

pine was celebrated on the sixth of the Nones of October.

Hence the reason is obvious why Proserpine is said in this

hymn to have been espoused in autumn.

, 5 Proclus, in Plat. Theol. p. 3, informs us, that accord-

ing to the Eleusinian mysteries, Proserpine, together with

Pluto, governs terrestrial concerns, and the recesses of the

earth ; and that she supplies the extreme parts of the uni-

verse with life, and imparts soul to those who by her power

are rendered inanimate and dead. This is perfectly con-

formable to what is said in the above hymn.

Baccuus I call loud-sounding and divine,

Inspiring God, a twofold shape is thine :

Thy various names and attributes I sing,

O firstborn, thrice begotten, Bacchic king.

Rural, ineffable, two-form’d, obscure,

Two-horn’d, with ivy crown’d, and Euion *’ pure :

Bull-fae’d and martial, bearer of the vine,

Endu’d with counsel prudent and divine :

Omadius, whom the leaves of vines adorn,

Of Jove and Proserpine occultly born

In beds ineffable; all-blessed pow’r,

Whom with triennial off’rings men adore.

Immortal demon, hear my suppliant voice,

Give me in blameless plenty to rejoice ;

And listen gracious to my mystic pray’r,

Surrounded with thy choir of nurses fair.

XX XI.

A HYMN.

Learine Curetes, who with dancing feet

And circling measures armed footsteps beat :

Whose bosoms Bacchanalian furies fire,

Who move in rhythm to the sounding lyre:

Who traces deaf when lightly leaping tread,

Arm-bearers, strong defenders, rulers dread :

Fam’d Deities the guards of Proserpine °,

Preserving rites mysterious and divine :

Come, and benevolent this hymn attend,

And with glad mind the herdsmans life defend.

XX XIU.

A HYMN.

ONLY-BEGOTTEN, noble race of Jove,

Blessed and fierce, who joy’st in caves to rove :

O warlike Pallas, whose illustrious kind,

Ineffable, and effable we find :

Magnanimous and fam’d, the rocky height,

And groves, and shady mountains thee delight :

In arms rejoicing, who with furies dire

And wild the souls of mortals dost inspire.

Gymnastic virgin of terrific mind,

Dire Gorgon’s bane, unmarried, blessed, kind :

Mother of arts, impetuous ; understood

As fury by the bad, but wisdom by the good.

Female and male, the arts of war are thine,

O much-form’d, dragoness ©, inspir’d, divine :

O’er the Phlegrean giants ®!, rous’d to ire,

Thy coursers driving with destruction dire.

nm Se pecorns, yuxn apxixn’ n de weparwois, apern apxixn.

i. e. “Of the zoogonic principles, the summit is called

Hecate ; the middle, ruling Soul ; and the extremity, ruling

Virtue.” The supermundane order is also called by Pro-

clus apxicn, because the divinities of which it consists are

principles and rulers.

The reason, therefore, is obvious why Minerva in this

hymn is said to delight in caves, rocks, groves, and shady

mountains ; for this arises from her union with Diana. And

hence it appears, that Runkenius was mistaken in asserting

that these epithets were misplaced. We may likewise

hence see the reason why, in line thirteen, Minerva is

called “ female and male,” as well as the Moon; and why

the Moon in the hymn to her is called ravcoge xovpy, “‘all-

wise virgin.”

© It is easy to perceive the agreement between Minerva,

who is characterized by divine wisdom and providence, and

a dragon ; since, according to Phurnutus, a dragon is of a

vigilant and guardian nature.

Sprung from the head of Jove, of splendid mien,

Purger of evils, all-victorious queen.

essential separations supernally originate from that division

of first operating causes [i.e. from bound and infinity],

which is perfectly arcane ; and subsisting according to those

principles which are expanded above wholes, they dissent

from each other; some being suspended from the unifying

monad bound, and about this determining their subsistence,

but others receiving in themselves a never failing power

from that infinity which is generative of wholes, and is a

cause productive of multitude and progression, and about

this establishing their proper essence. Just, therefore, as

the first principles of things are separated from each other,

all the divine genera and true beings are divided from each

other, according to an orderly progression. Hence some of

them are the leaders of wnion to secondary natures, but

others impart the power of separation ; some are the causes

of conversion, convolving the multitude of progressions to

their proper principles; but others bound the progressions,

and the subordinate generation from the principles, Again,

some supply a generative abundance to inferior natures, but

others impart an immutable and undefiled purity ; some bind

to themselves the cause of separate good, but others of the

good which is consubsistent with the beings that receive it,

And thus in all the orders of being is such a contrariety of

genera diversified. Hence permanency, which establishes

things in themselves, is opposed to efficacious powers, and

which are full of life and motion. Hence, too, the kindred

communion of sameness receives a division according to

species opposite to the separations of difference; but the

genus of similitude is allotted an order contrary to dissi-

militude ; and that of equality to inequality, according to the

same analogy. Is it, therefore, any longer wonderful, if

the authors of fables, perceiving such contrariety in the

Gods themselves and the first of beings, obscurely signified

this to their pupils through battles? the divine genera, in-

_

Hear me, O Goddess, when to thee I pray,

With supplicating voice both night and day,

deed, being perpetually united to each other, but at the

same time containing in themselves the causes of the union

and separation of all things.

We may also, I think, adduce another mode of solution ;

viz, that the Gods themselves are impartibly connascent

with each other, and subsist uniformly in each other, but

that their progressions into the universe, and their com-

munications are separated in their participants, become

divisible, and are thus filled with contrariety ; the objects

of their providential exertions not being able to receive in

an unmingled manner the powers proceeding from thence,

and without confusion their multiform illuminations, We

may likewise say, that the last orders which are suspended

from divine natures, as being generated remote from first

causes, and as being proximate to the subjects of their

government, which are involved in matter, participate them-

selves of all-various contrariety and separation, and parti-

bly preside over material natures, minutely dividing those

powers which presubsist uniformly and impartibly in their

first operating causes. Such, then, and so many, being

the modes according to which the mystic rumours of the-

ologists refer war to the Gods themselves :—other poets,

and those who have explained divine concerns through a

divinely inspired energy, have ascribed wars and battles

to the Gods according to the first of those modes we

related, in which the divine genera are divided conform-

ably to the first principles of wholes. For those powers

which elevate to causes are, after a manner, opposed to those

that are the sources of generation, and the connective to the

separating ; those that unite to those that multiply the pro-

gression of things; total genera to such as fabricate partibly ;

and those which are expanded above to those that preside

over partial natures; and hence fables, concealing the truth,

assert that such powers fight and war with each other.

And in my latest hour give peace and health,

Propitious times, and necessary wealth,

And ever present be thy vot’ries aid,

O much implor’d, art’s parent, blue-ey’d maid.

On this account, as it appears to me, they assert that the

Titans were the antagonists of Bacchus, and the Giants of

Jupiter. For union, indivisible energy, and a wholeness

prior to parts * are adapted to those fabricators that have a

subsistence prior to the world. But the Titans and Giants

produce the demiurgic powers into multitude, divisibly ad-

minister the affairs of the universe, and are the proximate

fathers of material natures,”

Proclus, in his elegant hymn to Minerva, says of this

victory of Minerva over the Giants :

H cogins reracaca SeostBeas wvAewvas,

Kat xOovrwy dayacaca Oewnaxa pura yryarvrur.

i. e. The God-trod gates of wisdom by thy hand

Are wide unfolded, and the daring band

Of earth-born giants, that in impious fight,

Strove with thy sire, were vanquish’d by thy might.”

*~

OF ORPHEUS. T

XX XITTI.

O powerful Victory, by men desir’d,

With adverse breasts to dreadful fury fir’d,

Thee I invoke, whose might alone can quell

Contending rage and molestation fell.

*Tis thine in battle to confer the crown,

The victor’s prize, the mark of sweet renown ;

For thou rul’st all things, Victory divine !

And glorious strife, and joyful shouts are thine.

Come, mighty Goddess, and thy suppliant bless,

With sparkling eyes, elated with success ;

May deeds illustrious thy protection claim,

And find, led on by thee, immortal fame.

Buiest Peean, come, propitious to my pray’r,

Illustrious pow’r, whom Memphian tribes revere,

Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health,

Lycorian Pheebus, fruitful source of wealth :

Spermatic, golden-lyr’d, the field from thee

Receives its constant rich fertility.

Titanic, Grunian ®, Smynthian, thee I sing,

Python-destroying ®, hallow’d, Delphian king :

6 ‘‘Typhon, Echidna, and Python being the progeny of

Tartarus and Earth, which is conjoined with Heaven, (says

Olympiodorus in MS. Comment, in Phzdon.) form, as it

were, a certain Chaldaic triad, which is the inspective

guardian of the whole of a disordered fabrication [i. e. of

the fabrication of the last of things].” Orc Taprapou Kaz

I'ns rns aufvyovons tw Ovpavy, o Tudwy, 4 Extdva, o

IIlv@wy, ovoy Xaddarkyn Tis Tpras ehopos Tys aTaKrous wacns

Snucoupytas. And in another part of the same Commentary

he says, “that Typhon is the cause of the all-various sub-

Rural, light-bearer, and the Muses’ head,

Noble and lovely, arm’d with arrows dread :

Far-darting, Bacchian, twofold, and divine,

Pow’r far diffus’d, and course oblique is thine.

O Delian king, whose light-producing eye

Views all within, and all beneath the sky ;

Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure,

Who omens good reveal’st, and precepts pure ;

Hear me entreating for the human kind,

Hear, and be present with benignant mind ;

For thou survey’st this boundless ether all,

And ev’ry part of this terrestrial ball

Abundant, blessed ; and thy piercing sight

Extends beneath the gloomy, silent night ;

¢

terranean winds and waters, and of the violent motion of

the other elements. But Echidna is a cause revenging

and punishing rational and irrational souls; and hence the

upper parts of her are those of a virgin, but the lower those

of aserpent. And Python is the guardian of the whole of

prophetic production, Though it will be better to say, that

he is the cause of the disorder and obstruction pertaining to

things of this kind. Hence, also, Apollo destroyed Python,

in consequence of the latter being adverse [to the prophetic

energy of the former} O sey Tugwy rns ravroms Tw

Uroyewy Wvevparwy Kat vdaTwy, Kat TWY adrAWY goLXELWP

Biacov kwycews atrios’ n Se Acxidva Tipwpos atria Kae Ko\ac-

TUK AoyiKwr Te Kat aoywy Yuxwr’ dio Ta ev ayw wrapSevos°

Ta be KaTw egw opewdys’ o de IlvSwy ppovpos rns parrucns

oAns avadocews’ apewov Se rns wept ravra aragias Te Kat

avyrippatews arriov Aeyew do cat Amo\Awy auroy avaipe

EVAYTLOULLEV OP,

Beyond the darkness, starry-ey’d ®, profound,

The stable roots, deep-fix’d by thee, are found.

The starry-eyed darkness, beyond which Apollo is here

said to fix his roots, is the sphere of the fixed stars, the

region immediately beyond which consists of the etherial

worlds, which according to the Chaldeans are three. For

they assert that there are seven corporeal worlds, one

empyrean and the first ; after this, three etherial, and then

three material worlds, which last consist of the inerratic

sphere, the seven planetary spheres, and the sublunary

region, But that, according to the Orphic theology, there

is an etherial world beyond the sphere of the fixed stars is

evident from the following mystic particulars respecting the

Oracle of Night, which are transmitted to us by Proclus in

his admirable Commentary on the Timeeus, p. 6 and p.

‘‘The artificer of the universe (says he), prior to his whole

fabrication, is said to have betaken himself to the Oracle of

Night, to have been there filled with divine conceptions, to

have received the principles of fabrication, and, if it be

lawful so to speak, to have solved all his doubts. Night,

too, calls upon the father Jupiter to undertake the fabrica-

tion of the universe ; and Jupiter is said by the theologist

[Orpheus] to have thus addressed Night :

Mata Sew virarn, Nuvg auBpore, rws rade Ppacecs ;

TIws dec p’aSavarwy apxny xparepodpova SecSar ;

IIws de wor ev TL Ta Warr’ Egat, Kat Xwpis eKaS ov ;

Le. O Nurse supreme of all the pow’rs divine,

Immortal Night! how with unconquer’d mind

Must I the source of the Immortals fix?

And how will] all things but as one subsist,

Yet each its nature separate preserve ?

To which interrogations the Goddese thus replies :

Adept wavra wept apary AaBe ry Hen perow

The world’s wide bounds, all-flourishing, are thine,

Thyself of all the source and end divine.

Oupavoy, ev de re -yarav amecpror, ev Se Sadaccay,

Ey de re reipea wavra, ra 7’ ovpavos erepaywro.

i. e, All things receive enclos’d on ev’ry side,

In Ether’s wide, ineffable embrace ;

Then in the midst of Ether place the Heav’n,

In which let Earth of infinite extent,

The Sea, and Stars the crown of Heav’n be fixt.

We also learn from Psellus, that according to the Chal-

deans there are two solar worlds; one which is subservient

to the etherial profundity ; the other zonaic, being one of

the seven spheres. (See his concise Exposition of Chaldaic

Dogmas.) And Proclus, in Tim. p. 2, informs us, “ that

according to the most mystic assertions, the wholeness of

the Sun is in the supermundane order. For there a solar

world and a total light subsist, as the Oracles of the Chal-

deans affirm.” Oc ye muorikwrarot Twy oywr, Kat Thy

odornTa avrov (solis) Tyy ev Tots vIEepKocmis mapadedw-

Kaow* exet yap o nAtaKos KoopLoc, kat TO OAOY hws, ws at TE

Kaddacwv gnuot Neyouot. These etherial worlds pertain to

the supermundane order of Gods, in which the wholeness of

the Sun subsists. But by the wholeness (odorns) Proclus

means the sphere in which the visible orb of the Sun is

fixed, and which is called a wholeness, because it has a

perpetual subsistence, and comprehends in itself all the

multitude of which it is the cause. Conformably to this,

the Emperor Julian (in Orat. v. p. 3) says: ‘* The orb of

the Sun revolves in the starless, much above the inerratic

sphere. Hence he is not the middle of the planets, but of

the three worlds [i. e. of the three etherial worlds], accord-

ing to the telestic hypothesis.” O dicxos ert rys avacrpov

peperat, wodu trys amdavous vyndorepas, Kat ovrw Se Twy

fev wravwpevwv ovK efec TO pecov, Tpluw be TwY Koomwy

Kara ras reNeoTixas urofeces. From all this, therefore, it

’Tis thine all Nature’s music to inspire

With various-sounding, harmonizing lyre ® :

is evident why Apollo in this hymn is said to fix his roots

beyond the starry-eyed darkness; for this signifies that

Gods are inserted by him in the etherial worlds; roots

being indicative of summits (axpornres) and such, accord-

ing to the Orphic and Chaidaic theologists, are the Goda.

Hence Proclus (in MS. Comment. in Parmenid. lib. vi.)

beautifully observes, “ As trees by their summits are firmly

established in the earth, and all that pertains to them is

through this earthly ; after the same manner divine natures

are by their summits rooted in the one, and each of them is a

unity and one, through an unconfused union with the one

itself.” xaSarep yap Ta devipa rats eavrew Kkopypas end-

purrar Ty yy, Kat est ynwa Ta Kar'exewas, Tov auTov TpoToY

Kat Ta Seca, Tats eaurTwy axpornow eveppi{wrar TW Ev, Kat

exagov aurwy evas est Kat ev, dia THY pos TO Ev aovyxXuUTOV

EvWT.

Now the last string thou tun’st to sweet accord %,

Divinely warbling, now the highest chord ;

adds, ‘ Perhaps the objection of Aristotle to this assertion

of the Pythagoreans may be solved as follows, according to

the philosophy of those men: all things are not commen-

surate with each other, nor is every thing sensible commen-

surate to every thing, even in the sublunary region. This

is evident from dogs, who scent animals at a great distance,

and which are not smelt by men. How much more, there-

F

Th’ immortal golden lyre, now touch’d by thee,

Responsive yields a Dorian melody.

fore, in things which are separated by so great an interval

as those which are incorruptible from the corruptible, and

celestial from terrestrial natures, is it true to say that the

sound of divine bodies is not audible by terrestrial ears ?

But if any one, like Pythagoras, who is reported to have

heard this harmony, should have his terrestrial body exempt

from him, and his luminous and celestial vehicle, and the

senses which it contains, purified, either through a good

allotment, or through probity of life, or through a perfection

arising from sacred operations, such a one will perceive

things invisible to others, and will hear things inaudible

by others. With respect to divine and immaterial bodies,

however, if any sound is produced by them, it is neither

percussive nor destructive, but it excites the powers and

energies of sublunary sounds, and perfects the sense which

is coordinate with them. It has also a certain analogy

to the sound which concurs with the motion of terrestrial

bodies. But the sound which is with us, in consequence of

the sonorific nature of the air, is a certain energy of the

motion of their impassive sound. If then, air is not passive

there, it is evident that neither will the sound which is

there be passive. Pythagoras, however, seems to have

said that he heard the celestial harmony, as understanding

the harmonic proportions in numbers, of the heavenly bodies,

and that which is audible in them. Some one, however,

may very properly doubt why the stars are seen by our

visive sense, but the sound of them is not heard by our ears !

To this we reply, that neither do we see the stars them-

selves ; for we do not see their magnitudes, or their figures,

or their surpassing beauty. Neither do we see the motion

through which the sound is produced; but we see, as it

were, such an illumination of them as that of the light of the

sun about the earth, the sun himself not being seen by us.

Perhaps too, neither will it be wonderful, that the visive

All Nature’s tribes to thee their diff’rence owe,

And changing seasons from thy music flow :

Hence, mix’d by thee in equal parts, advance

Summer and Winter in alternate dance ;

This claims the highest, that the lowest string,

The Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring :

Hence by mankind Pan royal, two-horn’d nam’‘d,

Shrill winds emitting thro’ the syrinx fam’d ® ;

sense, as being more immaterial, subsisting rather according

to energy than according to passion, and very much trans-

cending the other senses, should be thought worthy to re-

ceive the splendour and illumination of the celestial bodies,

but that the other senses should not be adapted for this

purpose.”’

Zeus de re wavtwy est Seos, Wavrwy TE Kepagsns,

IIveuvpact ovptfwv, povaior Te aepopuxrors.

ie. “Jupiter is the God of all, and the mingler of all

things, emitting shrill sounds from winds and air-mingled

voices.”

Since to thy care the figur’d seal’s consign’d ®,

Which stamps the world with forms of ev’ry kind.

Hear me, blest pow’r, and in these rites rejoice,

And save thy mystics nth a supplant voice.

Dark-ve’p Latona, much invoked queen,

Twin-bearing Goddess, of a noble mien ;

Ceantis great, a mighty mind is thine,

Offspring prolific, blest, of Jove divine :

Pheebus proceeds from thee, the God of light,

And Dian fair, whom winged darts delight ;

She in Ortygia’s honour'd regions born,

In Delos he, which lofty mounts adorn.

Hear me, O queen, and fav'rably attend,

And to this Telete divine afford a pleasing end.

Hear me, Jove’s daughter, celebrated queen,

Bacchian and Titan, of a noble mien :

In darts rejoicing, and on all to shine,

Torch-bearing Goddess, Dictynna divine.

O’er births presiding ”, and thyself a maid,

To labour pangs imparting ready aid :

Dissolver of the zone, and wrinkled care,

Fierce huntress, glorying in the silvan war :

Swift in the course, in dreadful arrows skill’d,

Wand ring by night, rejoicing in the field :

Of manly form, erect, of bounteous mind,

Illustrious demon, nurse of humankind :

Immortal, earthly, bane of monsters fell,

’Tis thine, blest maid, on woody mounts to dwell :

Foe of the stag, whom woods and dogs delight,

In endless youth you flourish fair and bright.

O universal queen, august, divine,

A various form, Cydonian pow’r, is thine.

Dread guardian Goddess, with benignant mind,

Auspicious come, to mystic rites inclin’d ;

Give earth a store of beauteous fruits to bear,

Send gentle Peace, and Health with lovely hair,

And to the mountains drive Disease and Care.

XXXVIT.

O mieuty Titans, who from Heav’n and Earth

Derive your noble and illustrious birth,

Our fathers’ sires, in Tartarus ”! profound

Who dwell, deep merg’d beneath the solid ground:

Fountains and principles from whom began

Th’ afflicted miserable race of man 7:

7 ‘*Tartarus (says Olympiodorus in MS. in Comment, on

Phzedon.) is a Deity who is the inspective guardian of the

extremities of the world, just as Pontus [the sea] is the

guardian of the middle, and Olympus of the summits of the

universe, And these three are to be found not only in the

sensible world, but also in the demiurgic intellect, in the

supermundane, and the celestial order.” Or: o Taprapos

€OTL TAS ECXATIAS TOV KogpoU emicKoTWY, ws o Tlovros ras

pecornras, ws o Odvpuros ras axpornras’ eorw ovy Tpets

evpew ouk ev Ty atcOyTw povw Tw Se KocUYW, a\Aa KaL EY TY

Snpcoupyixy vy, Kas ev TW Koouu (lege vrepKocmup) StaKxoopy,

Kat EV TW OUpAVL,

Who not alone in earth’s retreats abide,

But in the ocean and the air reside ;

Since ev’ry species from your nature flows,

Which, all-prolific, nothing barren knows.

Avert your rage, if from th’ infernal seats

One of your tribe should visit our retreats.

vehemently allured ; and among the rest, he was particu-

larly captivated with beholding his image in a mirror;

during his admiration of which he was miserably torn in

pieces by the Titans ; who, not content with this cruelty,

first boiled his members in water, and afterwards roasted

them by the fire. But while they were tasting his flesh

thus dressed, Jupiter, excited by the steam, and perceiving

the cruelty of the deed, hurled his thunder at the Titans ;

but committed his members to Apollo, the brother of Bacchus,

that they might be properly interred. And this being per-

formed, Dionysius (whose heart during his laceration was

snatched away by Minerva and preserved), by a new rege-

neration, again emerged, and he, being restored to his

pristine life and integrity, afterwards filled up the number

of the Gods. But in the mean time, from the exhalations

formed from the ashes of the burning bodies of the Titans

mankind were produced. The reader who is desirous of

having a complete development of this fable will find it in

my abovementioned Treatise on the Mysteries, Suffice it

to say at present, in elucidation of this Orphic hymn, that

(as Olympiodorus beautifully observes in MS. Comment. in

Pheedon.) we are composed from fragments, because through

falling into generatiun, i. e, into the sublunary region, our

life has proceeded inte the most distant and extreme divi-

sion; but from Titannic fragments, because the Titans are

the ultimate artificers of things, and the most proximate to

their fabrications, Of these Titans, Bacchus, or the mun-

dane intellect, is the monad, or proximately exempt pro-

ducing cause.

OF ORPHEDS.

AXXVITI.

Brass-BEATING Salians, ministers of Mars,

Who wear his arms the instruments of wars ;

Whose blessed frames, heav’n, earth, and sea com-

pose,

And from whose breath all animals arose :

Who dwell in Samothracia’s sacred ground,

Defending mortals through the sea profound.

Deathless Curetes, by your pow’r alone,

The greatest mystic rites to men at first were shown.

Who shake old Ocean thund’ring to the sky,

And stubborn oaks with branches waving high.

‘Tis yours in glittering arms the earth to beat,

With lightly leaping, rapid, sounding feet ;

Then ev'ry beast the noise terrific flies,

And the loud tumult wanders thro’ the skies.

sublunary region they are the divinities of such winds as

are of a purifying nature.

The dust your feet excites, with matchless force

Flies to the clouds amidst their whirling course ;

And ev'ry flower of variegated hue

Grows in the dancing motion form’d by you ;

Immortal demons, to your pow’rs consign’d,

The task to nourish and destroy mankind,

When rushing furious with loud tumult dire,

O’erwhelm’d, they perish in your dreadful ire ;

And live replenish’d with the balmy air,

The food of life, committed to your care.

When shook by you, the seas with wild uproar,

Wide-spreading, and profoundly whirling, roar.

The concave heav’ns with echo’s voice resound,

When leaves with rustling noise bestrewthe ground.

Curetes, Corybantes, ruling kings,

Whose praise the land of Samothracia sings ;

Great Jove’s assessors ; whose immortal breath

Sustains the soul, and wafts her back from death;

Aerial-form’d, who in Olympus shine

The heavenly Twins” all-lucid and divine :

Blowing, serene, from whom abundance springs,

Nurses of seasons, fruit-producing kings.

OF ORPHEDS.

XX XIX.

Tue mighty ruler of this earthly ball

For ever flowing, to these rites I call ;

Martial and blest, unseen by mortal sight,

Preventing fears, and pleas’d with gloomy night :

Hence fancy’s terrors are by thee allay’d,

All-various king, who lov’st the desert shade.

Each of thy brothers killing, blood is thine,

Twofold Curete, many-form’d, divine.

By thee transmuted, Ceres’ body pure

Became a dragon’s savage and obscure :

Avert thy anger, hear me when I pray,

And, by fix’d fate, drive fancy’s fears away.

O UNIVERSAL mother, Ceres fam’d,

August, the source of wealth, and various nam’d:

Great nurse, all-bounteous, blessed and divine,

Who joy’st in peace ; to nourish corn is thine.

Goddess of seed, of fruits abundant, fair,

Harvest and threshing are thy constant care.

Lovely delightful queen, by all desir'd,

Who dwell’st in Eleusina’s holy vales retir'd.

Nurse of all mortals, whose benignant mind

First ploughing oxen to the yoke confind ;

And gave to men what nature’s wants require,

With plenteous means of bliss, which all desire.

I'n unrnp ravruv, Anuarne wovrodoretpa, |

i. e. ‘‘ Earth, mother of all things, Ceres, source of wealth.” ; |

It must be observed that, according to the Orphic theology,

Ceres is‘ the same with Rhea, the vivific Goddess, who

is the centre of the intellectual triad. See the additional

notes.

In verdure flourishing, in glory bright,

Assessor of great Bacchus, bearing light:

Rejoicing in the reapers’ sickles, kind,

Whose nature lucid, earthly, pure, we find.

Prolific, venerable, nurse divine,

Thy daughter loving, holy Proserpine.

A car with dragons yok’d ’tis thine to guide,

And, orgies singing, round thy throne to ride.

Only-begotten, much-producing queen,

All flowers are thine, and fruits of lovely green.

Bright Goddess, come, with summer’s rich increase

Swelling and pregnant, leading smiling Peace ;

Come with fair Concord and imperial Health,

And join with these a needful store of wealth.

CrRALIAN queen, of celebrated name,

From whom both men and Gods immortal came ;

Who widely wand’ring once, oppress’d with grief,

In Eleusina’s valleys found’st relief,

Discovering Proserpine thy daughter pure

In dread Avernus, dismal] and obscure ;

A sacred youth while thro’ the earth you stray,

Bacchus, attending leader of the way ;

The holy marriage of terrestrial Jove

Relating, while oppress’d with grief you rove.

Come, much invok’d, and to these rites inclin’d,

Thy mystic suppliant bless, with fav’ring mind.

I catt Thesmophorus, spermatic God,

Of various names, who bears the leafy rod :

Misa, ineffable, pure, sacred queen,

Twofold Iacchus, male and female seen.

Illustrious, whether to rejoice is thine .

In incense offer’d in the fane divine ” ;

Or if in Phrygia most thy soul delights,

Performing with thy mother sacred rites ;

Or if the land of Cyprus is thy care,

Pleas’d with the well crown’d Cytheria fair ;

Or if exulting in the fertile plains

With thy dark mother Isis, where she reigns,

With nurses pure attended, near the flood

Of sacred Egypt, thy divine abode :

Wherever resident, benevolent attend,

And in perfection these our labours end.

7 i, e. The legislator.

usual thing in the Orphic theology.

7 i. e. The temple of Ceres Eleusina,

XLHE.

Davuauters of Jove and Themis, Seasons bright,

Justice, and blessed Peace, and lawful Right,

Vernal and grassy, vivid, holy pow’rs,

Whose balmy breath exhales in lovely flow’rs ;

8 “Sacred rumour (says Procl. in Tim..book iv. p.

of my translation of that work) venerates the invisible

periods [subsisting under one first time], and which are the

causes of those that are visible; delivering the divine

names of Day and Night, and also the causes that con-

stitute, and the invocations and self manifestations of Month

and Year. Hence they are not to be surveyed superficially,

but in divine essenees, which: the laws of sacred institutions

and the oracles of Apollo order us to worship and honour,

by statues and sacrifices, as histories mform us. When

these also are reverenced, mankind are also supplied with

the benefits arising from the periods of the Seasons, and of

the other divinities in a similar manner ; but a preternatural

disposition of every thing about the earth is the consequence

of the worship of these being neglected. Plato, likewise,

in the Laws proclaims that all these are Gods, viz. the

Seasons, Years, and Months, in the same manner as the

Stars and the Sun ; and we do not introduce any thing new

by thinking it proper to direct our attention to the invisible

powers of these prior to those that are visible.”

Conformably to what Proclus here says, viz. “that a pre-

ternatural disposition of every thing about the earth is the

_,

All-colour'd Seasons, rich increase your care,

Circling, for ever flourishing and fair :

Invested with a veil of shining dew,

A flow’ry veil delightful to the view :

Attending Proserpine, when back from night

The fates and graces lead her up to light ;

When in a band harmonious they advance,

And joyful round her form the solemn dance.

With Ceres triumphing, and Jove divine,

Propitious come, and on our incense shine ;

Give earth a store of blameless fruits to bear,

And make these novel mystics’ life your care.

consequence of the worship of these powers being neglected.”

The inhabitants of Patros, in Egypt, said to the prophet

Jeremiah, ‘‘But we will certainly do whatsoever thing

goeth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the Queen of

Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we

have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes,

in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem : for

then had we plenty of victuals and were well, and saw no evil.

But since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of

Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, we have

wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword

and by famine.” Jeremiah, chap. 4, v. 1,

CapMEAN Goddess, universal queen,

Thee, Semele, I call, of beauteous mien ;

Deep-bosom’d, lovely flowing locks are thine,

Mother of Bacchus, joyful and djvine,

The mighty offspring, whom Jove’s thunder bright

Fore’d immature, and fright’ned into light.

Born from the deathless counsels, secret, high,

Of Jove Saturnian, regent of the sky ;

Whom Proserpine permits to view the light,

And visit mortals from the realms of night.

Constant attending on the sacred rites,

And feast triennial, which thy soul delights ;

When thy son’s wondrous birth mankind relate,

And secrets pure and holy celebrate.

Now I invoke thee, great Cadmean queen,

To bless thy mystics, lenient and serene.

X LV.

ENNALIS ®,

A HYMN.

Come, blessed Dionysius, various-nam’‘d,

Bull-fac’d, begot from thunder, Bacchus fam’d.

Bassarian God, of universal might,

Whom swords and blood and sacred rage delight:

In heaven rejoicing, mad, loud-sounding God,

Furious inspirer, bearer of the rod :

By Gods rever’d, who dwell’st with humankind,

Propitious come, with much rejoicing mind.

LickniTaN Bacchus, bearer of the vine,

Thee I invoke to bless these rites divine :

Florid and gay, of Nymphs the blossom bright,

And of fair Venus, Goddess of delight.

"Tis thine mad footsteps with mad Nymphs to beat,

Dancing thro’ groves with lightly leaping feet :

From Jove’s high counsels nurst by Proserpine,

And born the dread of all the pow’rs divine.

Come, blessed God, regard thy suppliant’s voice,

Propitious come, and in these rites rejoice.

8 i.e. The Fan-bearer. Concerning Lilmitus, and the

following Bacchuses, see note, on the Moon.

OF ORPHEUS,

XLVITI.

Baccuus Pericionius, hear my pray’r,

Who mad’st the house of Cadmus once thy care,

With matchless force his pillars twining round,

When burning thunders shook the solid ground,

In flaming, sounding torrents borne along,

Propt by thy grasp indissolubly strong.

Come, mighty Bacchus, to these rites inclin‘d,

and bless thy suppliants with rejoicing mind.

Hear me, illustrious father, demon fam’d,

Great Saturn's offspring, and Sabazius nam‘d ;

Inserting Bacchus, bearer of the vine,

And sounding God, within thy thigh divine,

That when mature, the Dionysian God

Might burst the bands of his conceal’d abode,

And come to sacred Tmolus, his delight,

Where Ippa® dwells, all beautiful and bright.

6 «Many (says Plutarch, Symp. 4, 5, p. 6) even now

call the Bacchuses Sabbi, and they utter this word when

they celebrate the orgies of the God’ [Bacchus]. ZafBous

Kat vuy ert ToXXot Tous Baxxous Kadovor, Kal TavTnV adiace

THY Pwvnv, oray opyiagover Ty Bey. “But the power of

Sabazius (says Iamblichus de Myst. sect. iii. cap. x.) appro-

priately pertains to Bacchic inspiration, the purifications of

souls, and the solutions of ancient divine anger.” See the

note on this passage in my translation of that work.

8 “Toppa (says Proclus in Tim, lib. ii. p. 1), who is the

soul of the universe, and is thus called by the theologist

[Orpheus], perhaps because her intellectual conceptions are

essentialized in the most vigorous motions, or perhaps on

account of the most rapid lation of the universe, of which

she is the cause,—placing a testaceous vessel on her head,

Blest Phrygian God, the most august of all,

Come aid thy mystics, when on thee they call.

°

and encircling the fig leaves that bind her temples with a

dragon, receives Dionysius [or Bacchus]. For with the

most divine part of herself, she becomes the receptacle of

an intellectual essence, and receives the mundane intellect,

which proceeds into her from the thigh of Jupiter. For

there it was united with Jupiter; but proceeding from

thence, and becoming participable by her, it elevates her to

the intelligible, and to the fountain of her nature. For she

hastens to the mother of the Gods, and to mount Ida [i. e.

to the region of ideas, and an intelligible nature], from

which all the series of souls is derived. Hence, also, Ippa

is said to have received Dionysius when he was brought

forth from Jupiter.” H yey yap Irma rov ravros ovoa

yuxn, Kat ourw KekAnpLevy wapa Tw Deodroyy, Taxa wey oTt

Kat €v akualoTarais KWnoETW EVVONTELS aUTNS oVTLWYTOL,

Taxa de Kae dia THv otvrarny rov mayTos dopay ns eoTw

atria, Aexcov (lege ArKwov) emt tns Keparns Beuevyn, Kat

Spaxovrt avTw weptorpeyaca, To Kpadiatoy uvmodexerae Aro-

vucov’ THY yap eauTyns Seorarw, ywerat THs voEepas ovotas

vmodoxn, Kat dexerat Tov eykooptoy vow, o Se awo rou

Mnpou tov Atos mpoeow es auTnv’ nv yap Exel curnvwpevos,

Kat mpoe\Owy, Kat peOeKros auTy ‘yevouevos, ews TO voNTOP

GQUTyY avayel, Kal THY EaUTNS WHynv’ EewevyeTas yap *Wpos

THY ENTepa Twv Sewv, ka THY Idnv, ad’ ys waca Tw Puxwy

n getpa’ dvo Kat oudAd\auBavecPar xa Irma Neyerat TiKTovTt

Ty Att

X LIX.

Great nurse of Bacchus, to my pray’r incline,

For holy Sabus’ secret rites are thine,

The mystic rites of Bacchus’ nightly choirs,

Compos’d of sacred, loud-resounding fires.

Hear me, terrestrial mother, mighty queen,

Whether on Ida’s holy mountain seen,

Or if to dwell in Tmolus thee delights,

With holy aspect come, and bless these rites.

A HYMN.

Hear me, Jove’s son, blest Bacchus, God of wine,

Born of two mothers, honour’d and divine ;

Lysian Euion Bacchus, various-nam'd,

Of Gods the offspring, secret, holy, fam’d.

Fertile and nourishing, whose liberal care

Augments the fruit that banishes despair.

Sounding, magnanimous, Lenzan pow’r,

O various-form’d, medicinal, holy flow’r :

Mortals in thee repose from labour find,

Delightful charm, desir’d by all mankind.

Fair-hair’'d Euion, Bromian, joyful God,

Lysian, insanely raging with the leafy rod.

To these our rites, benignant pow’r, incline,

When fav’ring men, or when on Gods you shine ;

Be present to thy mystics’ supplant pray’r,

Rejoicing come, and fruits abundant bear.

Nympus, who from Ocean fam’d derive your birth,

Who dwell in liquid caverns of the earth ;

Nurses of Bacchus, secret-coursing pow’rs,

Fructiferous Goddesses, who nourish flow’rs :

Earthly, rejoicing, who in meadows dwell,

And caves and dens, whose depths extend to hell.

Holy, oblique, who swiftly soar thro’ air,

Fountains,and dews,and winding streams your care,

Seen and unseen, who joy with wand’rings wide,

And gentle course thro’ flow’ry vales to glide;

8 «‘ Nymphs (says Hermeas, in Schol. in Phedrum.) are

Goddesses who preside over regeneration, and are minis-

trant to Bacchus, the offspring of Semele. Hence they

dwell near water, i. e. they ascend into generation [or the

sublunary realms]. But this Bacchus [of whom they are

the offspring] supplies the regeneration of the whole sen-

sible world.” Nuyda Se ecow ePopor Sear rns wadryyeveruas,

uroupyo. Tov ex Dewedns Acovucov’ dio xac wapa Tw vdare

€lol, TovTEoTL TH everest ETLBEeByKkacw" ovros de o Atovycos

Tys wahvyyeverias vrapxe. wavros rou aicOyrov. He adds,

“that some of them excite the irrational nature, others

nature herself, and others preside over bodies.”

With Pan exulting on the mountains’ height,

Inspir’d, and stridulous, whom woods delight :

Nymphs od’rous, rob’d in white, whose streams

exhale

The breeze refreshing, and the balmy gale ;

With goats and pastures pleas’d, and beasts of prey,

Nurses of fruits, unconscious of decay.

In cold rejoicing, and to cattle kind,

Sportive, thro’ ocean wand’ring unconfin’d.

O Nysian nymphs, insane, whom oaks delight,

Lovers of spring, Peonian virgins bright ;

With Bacchus and with Ceres hear my pray’r,

And to mankind abundant favour bear ;

Propitious listen to your suppliant’s voice,

Come, and benignant in these rites rejoice ;

Give plenteous seasons and sufficient wealth,

And pour in lasting streams, continued health.

Baccuus phrenetic ®, much nam‘d, blest, divine,

Bull-horn’d, Lenean, bearer of the vine ;

From fire descended, raging, Nysian king,

From whom initial ceremonies spring.

8” According to the fragment preserved by Ficinus, which

we have before cited, Trietericus Bacchus is the gnostic

power, or intellect of the Sun. Hence as the Sun is to the

sensible world what Protogonus, or Phanes, is to the in-

tellectual orders ; for the latter illuminates those orders

with intelligible, and the former the sensible world with

supermundane light ; in consequence of this analogy, the

reason is obvious why Trietericus is called in this hymn

Ericapeus, i. e. Protogonus ; and also why he is said to be

both the father and the offspring of Gods. For Protogonus

is intelligible intellect (vous voyros), and is the father of the

Gods ; and Trietericus, or the solar intellect, subsists causally

in Protogonus, and proceeds from him and the intellectual

orders of Gods. From his causal subsistence, therefore, in

Protogonus, he is the father of the Gods; but as proceeding

from them, he is their offspring.

\

Liknitan Bacchus, pure and fiery bright,

Prudent, crown-bearer, wand ring in the night ;

Nurst in Mount Mero, all-mysterious pow’r,

Triple, ineffable, Jove’s secret flow’r :

Ericapeeus, first-begotten nam‘d,

Of Gods the father and the offspring fam’d.

Bearing a sceptre, leader of the choir,

Whose dancing feet phrenetic furies fire,

When the triennial band thou dost inspire,

Omadian, captor, of a fiery light,

Born of two mothers, Amphietus bright ;

Love, mountain-wand’ring ®, cloth’d with skins of

deer,

Apollo golden-ray’d ®, whom all revere.

Great annual God of grapes, with ivy crown’'d,

Bassarian, lovely, virginlike, renown’d.

Come, blessed pon'r, regard thy mystics’ voice,

Propitious come, and in these rites rejoice.

consequently is superior to essential intellect and intellec-

tual vision. Hence Love, according to his first subsistence,

is said to be blind, as having a superintellectual energy.

This being premised, it is no longer wonderful that Triete-

ricus should be called Love. “For the theologist [Or-

pheus], says Proclus, in Tim. lib. ii. p. 1, long before us,

celebrates the demiurgic cause in Phanes. or there, as he

says, the great Bromius, or all-seeing Juptter, was, and amtece-

dently existed ; in order that he might have as it were the

fountains of the twofold fabrication of things. He also

celebrates the paradigmatic cause [i. e, Phanes] in Jupiter.

For again, he likewise is, as he says, Metis the jirst genera-

tor, and much pleasing Love. He is also continually deno-

minated by him Dionysius, and Phanes, and Ericapzus.

All the causes, therefore, participate of, and are in each

other. mada yap o Seodoyos ev ye TY harynre Tnv Snucoupy-

KNV aiTLay avuuynocev” exes yap nV TE Kat Wponv wowep edn

Kat auros, Bpojuos Te pweyas Kat fevs 0 Wavomrns’ Kat ev TY

du Tnv wapadevryparixny’ unTis yap au Kat ouTIs EoTiW ws

oneot.

Kat Myris rpwros -yeverwp, xat Hpws modvreprns’

auros Te 0 Atovuoos Kar payns Kat npiKeTratos, guvEXWws ovou“a-

Serar’ Tavra apa mereiAnX nv adAnAwWY Ta aiTia, Kat Ev aAADAOLS

€OTU.

LIIL

EXCEPT FRANKINCENSE.

TrerrestriaL Dionysius, hear my pray’r,

Rise vigilant with Nymphs of lovely hair:

Great Amphietus Bacchus, annual God,

Who laid asleep in Proserpine’s abode,

Her sacred seat, didst lull to drowsy rest

The rites triennial and the sacred feast;

Which rous’d again by thee, in graceful ring,

Thy nurses round thee mystic anthems sing ;

When briskly dancing with rejoicing pow’rs,

Thou mov’st in concert with the circling hours.

Come blessed, fruitful, horned, and divine,

And on this sacred Telete propitious shine ;

Accept the pious incense and the pray’r,

And make prolific holy fruits thy care.

AND THE PRIESTESSES OF BACCHUS.

Great nurse of Bacchus, to my pray’r incline,

Silenus, honour'd by the pow’rs divine ;

And by mankind at the triennial feast

Illustrious demon, reverenc’d as the best :

Holy, august, the source of lawful rites,

Phrenetic pow'r, whom vigilance delights ;

Surrounded by thy nurses young and fair,

Naiads and Bacchic Nymphs who ivy bear,

With all thy Satyrs on our incense shine,

Demons wild-form’d, and bless the rites divine.

Come, rouse to sacred joy thy pupil king ®!,

And Brumal Nymphs with rites Lenean bring ;

Our orgies shining thro’ the night inspire,

And bless, triumphant pow’r, the sacred choir.

A HYMN.

Heav Ny, illustrious, laughter-loving queen,

Sea-born, night-loving, of an awful mien ;

Crafty, from whom necessity first came,

Producing, nightly, all-connecting dame.

Tis thine the world with harmony to join %,

For all things spring from thee, O pow’r divine.

The triple Fates are ruled by thy decree,

And all productions yield alike to thee:

Whate’er the heav’ns, encircling all, contain,

Earth fruit-producing, and the stormy main,

Thy sway confesses, and obeys thy nod,

Awful attendant of the Brumal God.

Goddess of marriage, charming to the sight,

Mother of Loves, whom banquetings delight ;

Source of persuasion, secret, fav’ring queen,

Illustrious born, apparent and unseen ;

H

Spousal, Lupercal, and to men inclin’d,

Prolific, most-desir'd, life-giving, kind.

Great sceptre-bearer of the Gods, ’tis thine

Mortals in necessary bands to join ;

And ev'ry tribe of savage monsters dire

In magic chains to bind thro’ mad desire.

Come, Cyprus-born, and to my pray’r incline,

Whether exalted in the heav’ns you shine,

Or pleas’d in od’rous Syria to preside,

Or o'er th’ Egyptian plains thy car to guide,

Fashion’d of gold ; and near its sacred flood,

Fertile and fam’d, to fix thy blest abode ;

Or if rejoicing in the azure shores,

Near where the sea with foaming billows roars,

The circling choirs of mortals thy delight,

Or beauteous Nymphs with eyes cerulean bright,

Pleas’d by the sandy banks renown’d of old,

To drive thy rapid two-yok’d car of gold;

Or if in Cyprus thy fam’d mother fair,

Where nymphs unmarried praise thee ev’ry year,

The loveliest nymphs, who in the chorus join,

Adonis pure to sing, and thee divine.

Come, all-attractive, to my pray’r inclin’d,

For thee I call, with holy, reverent mind.

Mucu nam’d, and best of demons, hear my pray’r,

The desert loving, deck’d with tender hair ;

Joy to diffuse, by all desir’d, is thine,

Much form’d, Eubulus, aliment divine.

Female and male, all-charming to the sight,

Adonis, ever flourishing and bright ;

At stated periods doom’d to set and rise

With splendid lamp, the glory of the skies.®

Two horn’d and lovely, reverenc’d with tears,

Of splendid form, adorn’d with copious hairs.

Rejoicing in the chase, all-graceful pow’r,

Sweet plant of Venus, Love's delightful flow’r :

Descended from the secret bed divine

Of Pluto’s queen, the fair-hair'd Proserpine.

’Tis thine to sink in Tartarus profound,

And shine again thro’ heav’ns illustrious round ;

Come, timely pow’r, with providential care,

And to thy mystics earth's productions bear.

and with many other parts of the hymn.

% < Adonis (says Hermeas, in his Scholia on the Phsedrus

Hermes, I call, whom Fate decrees to dwell

Near to Cocytos, the fam’d stream of hell,

And in Necessity’s dread path, whose bourn

To none that reach it e’er permits return.

O Bacchic Hermes, progeny divine

Of Dionysius, parent of the vine,

And of celestial Venus, Paphian queen,

Dark-eyelash’d Goddess, of a lovely mien :

Who constant wand’rest thro’ the sacred seats

Where Hell’s dread empress, Proserpine, retreats ;

To wretched souls the leader of the way,

When Fate decrees, to regions void of day.

Thine is the wand which causes sleep to fly,

Or lulls to slumb’rous rest the weary eye ;

For Proserpine, thro’ Tart’rus dark and wide,

Gave thee for ever flowing souls to guide.

Come, blessed pow’r, the sacrifice attend,

And grant thy mystics’ works a happy end.

of Plato) presides over every thing that grows and perishes

in the earth.” ereidn ruv ev yy pvoperwy Kat aroBiwoKome-

yuw o Seoworns Adwms epeoryce. p,

aa. ape an an

I cai, great Love, the source of sweet delight,

Holy and pure, and charming to the sight ;

Darting, and wing’d, impetuous fierce desire,

With Gods and mortals playing, wand’ring fire :

% The following development of the nature of the Divinity

Love is extracted from the admirable Commentary of Pro-

clus on the First Alcibiades of Plato, as illustrative of the

Orphic dogmas respecting this God. ‘Love is neither to

be placed in the first nor among the last of beings. Not in

the first, because the object of Love is superior to Love ;

nor yet among the last, because the lover participates of

Love. It is requisite, therefore, that Love should be estab-

lished between the object of love and the lover, and that it

should be posterior to the beautiful, but prior to every

nature endued with love. Where then does it first subsist ?

How does it extend itself through the universe, and with

what monads does it leap forth ?

‘‘There are three hypostases among the intelligible and

occult Gods; and the first, indeed, ig characterized by the

good, understanding the good itself, and residing in that

place where, according to the [Chaldean] Oracle, the pater-

nal monad abides ; but the second is characterized by wis-

dom, where the first intelligence flourishes; and the third

by the beautiful, where, as Timeus says, the most beautiful

of intelligibles abides. But there are three monads according

Agile and twofold, keeper of the keys

Of heav’n and earth, the air, and spreading seas ;

to these intelligible causes, subsisting uniformly according

to cause in intelligibles, but first unfolding themselves into

light in the ineffable order of the Gods, [i. e. in the summit

of that order which is called intelligible, and at the same

time intellectual,] I mean faith, truth, andlove. And faith,

indeed, establishes all things in good; but truth unfolds

all the knowledge in beings; and lastly, Jove converts all

things, and congregates them into the nature of the beauti-

ful. This triad thence proceeds through all the orders of

the Gods, and imparts to all things by its light a union with

the intelligible itself. It also unfolds itself differently in

different orders, every where combining its powers with the

peculiarities of the Gods. And among some it subsists

ineffably, incomprehensibly, and with transcendent union ;

but among others, as the cause of connecting and binding ;

and among others, as endued with a perfective and forming

power. Here again, it subsists intellectually and pater-

nally ; there, in a manner entirely motive, vivific, and effec-

tive: here, as governing and assimilating ; there, in a libe-

rated and undefiled manner ; and elsewhere, according to a

multiplied and divided mode, Love, therefore, supernally

descends from intelligibles to mundane concerns, calling all

things upwards to divine beauty. ‘Truth, also, proceeds

through all things, illuminating all things with knowledge.

And lastly, faith proceeds through the universe, establish-

ing all things with transcendent union in good. Hence the

[Chaldean] Oracles assert, ‘that all things are governed by

and abide in these.’ And, on this account, they order The-

urgists to conjoin themselves to divinity through this triad.

Intelligibles themselves, indeed, do not require the amatory

medium, on account of their ineffable union. But where

' there is a union and separation of beings, there also Love

abides. For it is the binder and conciliator of natures pos-

terior and prior to itself; but the converter of subsequent to

Of all that Ceres’ fertile realms contains,

By which th’ all parent Goddess life sustains,

prior, and the elevating and perfecting cause of imperfect

natures.

“The [Chaldean] Oracles, therefore, speak of Love as

binding, and residing in all things; and hence, if it con-

nects all things, it also copulates us with the governments

of demons, But Diotima calls Love a great demon, be-

cause it every where fills up the medium between desiring

and desirable natures. And, indeed, that which is the

object of Love vindicates to itself the first order; but that

which loves is in the third order from the beloved object.

Lastly, Love usurps a middle situation between each, con-

gregating and collecting tegether that which desires and

that which is desired, and filling subordinate from superior

natures, But among the intelligible and occult Gods, it

unites intelligible intellect to the first and secret beauty, by

a certain life better than intelligence. Hence [Orpheus]

the theologist of the Greeks calls this Love blind; for he

says of intelligible intellect,

Tlotpawwy rpardédecow avonparoy wKuy epwra.

i, e. In his breast feeding eyeless rapid Love.

But in natures posterior to intelligibles, it imparts by illu

mination an indissoluble bond to all things perfected by

itself: for a bond is a certain union, but accompanied by

much separation. On this account the [Chaldean] Oracles

are accustomed to call the fire of this Love a copulator: for

proceeding from intelligible intellect, it binds all following

natures with each other, and with itself. Hence it conjoins

all the Gods with intelligible beauty, and demons with Gods;

but it conjoins us with both Gods and demons. In the Gods,

indeed, it has a primary subsistence ; in demons a second-

ary one; and in partial souls a subsistence through a cer-

tain third procession from principles, Again, in the Gods

Or dismal Tartarus is doom’d to keep,

Widely extended, or the sounding deep ;

For thee all Nature’s various realms obey,

Who rul’st alone, with universal sway.

Come, blessed pow’r, regard these mysitc fires,

And far avert unlawful mad desires.

it subsists above essence : for every genus of Gods is super-

essential. But in demons it subsists according to essence :

and in souls according to illumination. And this triple

order appears similar to the triple power of intellect. For

one intellect subsists as imparticipable, being exempt from

all partial genera; but another as participated, of which

also the souls of the Gods participate as of a better nature ;

and another is from this ingenerated in souls, and which is,

indeed, their perfection.” See more concerning this Divi-

nity in the notes on the speech of Diotima in the Banquet

of Plato. (Vol. iv. of my Plato.)

Davuauters of darkling Night, much nam’d, draw

near,

Infinite Fates, and listen to my pray’r;

Who in the heavenly lake % (where waters white

Burst from a fountain hid in depths of night,

And thro’ a dark and stony cavern glide,

A cave profound, invisible) abide ;

nei el el le Ml -

From whence, wide coursing round the boundless

earth,

Your pow’r extends to those of mortal birth ;

To men with hope elated, trifling, gay,

A race presumptuous, born but to decay.

To these acceding, in a purple veil

To sense impervious, you yourselves conceal,

When in the plain of Fate you joyful ride

In one great car, with Glory for your guide;

Till all-complete your heav’n appointed round,

At Justice, Hope, and Care’s concluding bound,

The terms absolv’d, prescrib’d by ancient law,

Of pow’r immense, and just without a flaw.

For Fate alone with vision unconfin’d

Surveys the conduct of the mortal kind.

Fate is Jove’s perfect and eternal eye,

For Jove and Fate our ev ry deed descry.

Come, gentle pow’rs, well born, benignant, fam’d,

Atropos, Lachesis, and Clotho nam’d ;

Unchang’d, aerial, wand’ring in the night,

Untam’'d, invisible to mortal sight ;

Fates all-producing, all-destroying, hear,

Regard the incense and the holy pray’r ;

Propitious listen to these rites inclin’d,

And far avert distress, with placid mind.

ao ee ee

Hear me, illustrious Graces, mighty nam’d,

From Jove descended, and Eunomia fam’d,

Thalia and Aglaia fair and bright,

And blest Euphrosyne, whom joys delight :

Mothers of mirth; all lovely to the view,

Pleasure abundant, pure, belongs to you :

Various, for ever flourishing and fair,

Desir’d by mortals, much invok’d in pray’r ;

Circling, dark-ey’d, delightful to mankind,

Come, and your mystics’ bless nth bounteous mind.

% In the same manner as Bacchus subsists in Jupiter,

and Esculapius in Apollo, so the Graces subsist in Venus,

as we are informed by the philosopher Sallust, in his golden

Treatise on the Gods and the World.

LXL

A HYMN.

Ture, Nemesis, I call, almighty queen,

By whom the deeds of mortal life are seen :

Eternal, much rever'd, of boundless sight,

Alone rejoicing in the just and right :

Changing the counsels of the human breast

For ever various, rolling without rest.

To evry mortal is thy influence known,

And men beneath thy righteous bondage groan ;

For ev'ry thought within the mind conceal’d

Is to thy sight perspicuously reveal’d.

The soul unwilling reason to obey,

By lawless passion rul’d, thine eyes survey.

All to see, hear, and rule, O pow’r divine,

Whose nature equity contains, is thine.

Come, blessed, holy Goddess, hear my pray’r,

And make thy mystics’ life thy constant care :

Give aid benignant in the needful hour,

And strength abundant to the reas’ning pow’r ;

And far avert the dire, unfriendly race

Of counsels impious, arrogant, and base.

co al

LXIL

Tue piercing eye of Justice bright I sing,

Plac’d by the sacred throne of Jove the king,

Perceiving thence, with vision unconfin’d,

The life and conduct of the human kind %,

To thee revenge and punishment belong,

Chastising ev’ry deed unjust and wrong.

Whose pow’r alone dissimilars can join,

And from th’ equality of truth combine :

For all the ill persuasion can inspire,

When urging bad designs with counsel dire,

’Tis thine alone to punish ; with the race

Of lawless passions, and incentives base ;

For thou art ever to the good inclin’d,

And hostile to the men of evil mind.

Come, all-propitious, and thy suppliant hear,

Till fates’ predestin’d fatal hour draws near.

% The first four lines of this hymn are, as I have observed

in the Introduction, cited by Demosthenes in his first Oration

against Aristogiton.

O siEssep Equity, mankind’s delight,

Th’ eternal friend of conduct just and right :

Abundant, venerable, honour’d maid,

To judgments pure dispensing constant aid,

And conscience stable, and an upright mind ;

For men unjust by thee are undermin’d,

Whose souls perverse thy bondage ne’er desire,

But more untam’d decline thy scourges dire.

Harmonious, friendly pow’r, averse to strife,

In peace rejoicing, and a stable life :

Lovely, convivial, of a gentle mind,

Hating excess, to equal deeds inclind :

Wisdom and virtue, of whate’er degree,

Receive their proper bound alone in thee.

Hear, Goddess Equity, the deeds destroy

Of evil men, which human life annoy ;

That all may yield to thee of mortal birth,

Whether supported by the fruits of earth,

Or in her kindly fertile bosom found,

Or in the realms of marine Jove profound.

A HYMN.

Tue holy king of Gods and men I call,

Celestial Law, the righteous seal of all:

The seal which stamps whate’er the earth contains,

And all conceal’d within the liquid plains:

Stable, and starry, of harmonious frame,

Preserving laws eternally the same.

Thy all-composing pow’r in heav'n appears,

Connects its frame, and props the starry spheres ;

And unjust Envy shakes with dreadful sound,

Toss’d by thy arm in giddy whirls around.

*Tis thine the life of mortals to defend,

And crown existence with a blessed end ;

For thy command alone, of all that lives,

Order and rule to ev'ry dwelling gives.

Ever observant of the upright mind,

And of just actions the companion kind.

Foe to the lawless, with avenging ire,

Their steps involving in destruction dire.

Come, blest, abundant pow’r, whom all revere,

By all desir’d, with fav’ring mind draw near ;

Give me thro’ life on thee to fix my sight,

And ne’er forsake the equal paths of right.

MaGNANIMovs, unconquer’d, boist’rous Mars,

In darts rejoicing, and in bloody wars ;

Fierce and untam’d, whose mighty pow’r can make

The strongest walls from their foundations shake :

Mortal-destroying king, defil’d with gore,

Pleas’d with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar.

Thee human blood }, and swords, and spears de-

light,

And the dire ruin of mad savage fight.

9 ‘¢ Mars, as we are informed by Proclus, in Plat.

Repub. p. 3, is the source of division and motion, sepa-

rating the contrarieties of the universe, which he also per-

petually excites, and immutably preserves in order that the

world may be perfect and filled with forms of every kind.

Hence, also, he presides over war. But he requires the

assistance of Venus, that he may insert order and harmony

into things contrary and discordant.

1 “The slaughter which is ascribed to Murs (says Her-

mias, in Plat. Phedr.) signifies a divulsion from matter

through rapidly turning from it, and no longer energizing

physically, but intellectually. For slaughter, when applied

to the Gods, may be said to be an apostacy from secondary

natures, just as slaughter in this terrestrial region signifies

& privation of the present life.”

Stay furious contests, and avenging strife,

Whose works with woe embitter human life ;

To lovely Venus and to Bacchus yield,

For arms exchange the labours of the field ;

Encourage peace, to gentle works inclin’d,

And give abundance, with benignant mind.

LXVL

AND MANNA.

Strong, mighty Vulcan, bearing splendid light,

Unweary’'d fire, with flaming torrents bright :

Strong-handed, deathless, and of art divine,

Pure element, a portion of the world is thine :

All-taming artist, all-diffusive pow’r,

Tis thine, supreme, all substance to devour :

I

+, and Stars, light pure

- narts to men appear.

ities, tribes belong,

ach and strong.

‘neline,

sine

frame,

ve.

and clear,

Ether, Sun, Moo

For these thy luci

To thee all dwellings,

Diffus’'d thro’ mortal bodies,

Hear, blessed pow’r, to holy rites

And all propitious on the incense sh{C

Suppress the rage of fire’s unweary’d

And still preserve our nature’s vital flan\

Great Esculapius, skill’d to heal mankind,

All-ruling Pean, and physician kind ;

Whose arts medic’nal can alone assuage

Diseases dire, and stop their dreadful rage.

fluctuating nature of bodies; and hence, says Olympio-

dorus, he operates with bellows, (ev gvaats) which occultly

signifies his operating in natures (avre tov ev rats ducect),

This deity, also, as well as Mars, as Proclus observes, in

Plat. Repub. p. 3, requires the assistance of Venus, in

order that he may invest sensible effects with beauty, and

thus cause the pulchritude of the world.

ympio-

ecultly

TET).

ves, in

1us, in

y, and

sts in

, says

OF ORPHEUS. 13]

Strong, lenient God, regard my suppliant pray’r,

Bring gentle Health, adorn’d with lovely hair ;

Convey the means of mitigating pain,

And raging deadly pestilence restrain.

O pow’ all-flourishing, abundant, bright,

Apollo’s honour’d offspring, God of light ;

Husband of blameless Health, the constant foe

Of dread disease, the minister of woe :

Come, blessed saviour, human health defend

And to the mortal life afford a prosp’rous end.

that Esculapius springs into light from the bland dance of

the Sun.

Zys 5’ aro perhtxodwpos adektKaxov Qiacecns

Tlacnwy Braornoey, env 5 eweraccev vyecny,

TlAnoas appovys wavamrnuovos evpea Koomov.

i, e. “From thy bland dance repelling deadly ill,

Salubrious Peon blossoms into light,

Health far diffusing, and th’ extended world

With streams of harmony innoxious fills.”

O mucu desir’d, prolific, gen’ral queen.

Hear me, life-bearing Health, of beauteous mien,

Mother of all; by thee diseases dire,

Of bliss destructive, from our life retire ;

And ev'ry house is flourishing and fair,

If with rejoicing aspect thou art there.

Each deedal art thy vig’rous force inspires,

And all the world thy helping hand desires.

Pluto, life’s bane, alone resists thy will,

And ever hates thy all-preserving skill.

O fertile queen, from thee for ever flows

To mortal life from agony repose ;

And men without thy all-sustaining ease

Find nothing useful, nothing form’d to please.

Without thy aid, not Pluto’s self can thrive,

_ Nor man to much afflicted age arrive;

For thou alone, of countenance serene,

Dost govern all things, universal queen.

Assist thy mystics with propitious mind,

And far avert disease of ev'ry kind.

Vocirerous Bacchanalian Furies hear!

Ye I invoke, dread pow'rs, whom all revere ;

Nightly, profound, in secret who retire,

Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megara dire :

Deep in a cavern merg’d, involv'd in night,

Near where Styx flows impervious to the sight.

To mankind’s impious counsels ever nigh,

Fateful, and fierce to punish these you fly.

Revenge and sorrows dire to you belong,

Hid in a savage vest, severe and strong.

_ Ab wowat pepotrwr ayKrepat.

i. e. as Psellus explains it, the powers that punish guilty

souls bind them to their material passions, and in these, as

it were, suffocate them; such punishment being finally the

means of purification. Nor do these powers only afflict the

vicious, but even such as convert themselves to an imma-

terial essence: for these through their connection with

matter require a purification of this kind. This illustrates

what is said in the seventeenth and three following lines of

this hymn.

Terrific virgins, who for ever dwell,

Endu’d with various forms, in deepest hell ;

Aerial, and unseen by human kind,

And swiftly coursing, rapid as the mind.

In vain the sun with wing’d effulgence bright 1%,

In vain the moon far darting milder light,

Wisdom and virtue may attempt in vain,

And pleasing art, our transport to obtain ;

Unless with these you readily conspire,

And far avert your all-destructive ire.

The boundless tribe of mortals you descry,

And justly rule with Right’s impartial eye.

Come, snaky-hair’d, Fates many-form’d, divine,

Suppress your rage, and to our rites incline.

Hear me, illustrious Furies, mighty nam‘d,

Terrific pow’rs, for prudent counsel fam’d ;

Holy and pure, from Jove terrestrial born,

And Proserpine, whom lovely locks adorn :

Whose piercing sight with vision unconfin’d

Surveys the deeds of all the impious kind.

On Fate attendant, punishing the race

(With wrath severe) of deeds unjust and base.

Dark-colour’d queens, whose glittering eyes are

bright

With dreadful, radiant, life-destroying light :

Eternal rulers, terrible and strong,

To whom revenge and tortures dire belong ;

Fateful, and horrid to the human sight,

With snaky tresses 1%, wand’ring in the night :

1 «FKischylus (says Pausanias, in Attic. cap. 2) was

the first that represented the Furies with snakes in their

hair.” On this passage I have observed in a note in my

translation of Pausanias as follows: Those who are of

opinion that the Orpbic hymns are spurious compositions

will doubtless imagine that their opinion is indisputably

Hither approach, and in these rites rejoice,

For ye I call with holy suppliant voice.

confirmed by the present passage: for the Furies, in the

above hymn, are called ogiomAoxapol, or snaky-hatred ; and

consequently, it may be said, they must have been written

posterior to the time of Eschylus, if what Pausanias asserts

be true. It must, however, be remembered, that Eschylus

was accused of inserting in his tragedies things belonging

to the Mysteries ; and we have shown, in the Introduction

to these Hymns, that they were used in the Eleusinian

Mysteries. If this be the case, either Pausanias is mis-

taken in what he asserts of Eschylus in this place; or,

which appears to me to be more probable, being a man

religiously fearful of disclosing any particulars belonging

to the mysteries, he means that no one prior to Eschylus

openly represented the Furies with snakes in their hair.

There is also a passage in the Cataplus of Lucian which

very much corroborates my opinion. The passage is as

follows: eure por, eredecOns yap, w Kumoxe ra EXevowr, ovx

omowa Tors exer Ta erSade cor Soxer; KN, ev Aeyets* cov our

mwpocepxeTat tis Sgdovxovoa, PoBepoy Tt, Kat ameidnTiKoY

mpocBrerovea’ apa wou Epwvyus ecrw; i. e. Tell me,

Cynic, for you are initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries, do

not the present particulars appear to you to be similar to

those which take place in the Mysteries? Cyn. Very much

so. See then, here comes a certain torch-bearer with a

dreadful and threatening countenance. Is it, therefore, one of

the Furies? It is evident from this passage, that the Furies

in the Mysteries were of a terrible appearance, which

Pausanias informs us was not the case with their statues;

and it is from this circumstance of the statues of these

divinities not being dreadful in their appearance, that he

infers Eschylus was the first that represented them to be

so. Hence, as the Mysteries were instituted long before

_Eschylus, it is evident that the terrible aspects of the

Furies were not invented by him: and it is more than pro-

i ee —« + —e . i — = —

I catt, Melinoe, saffron-veil’d, terrene,

Who from dread Pluto’s venerable queen,

Mixt with Saturnian Jupiter, arose,

Near where Cocytus’ mournful river flows ;

bable that this dreadful appearance was principally caused

by the snakes in their hair. The present hymn too calls the

Furies goBepwres, i. e. terrific to the sight.

But from what Natales Comes narrates from Menander, it

is evident that the snaky tresses of the Furies were not the

invention of Eschylus, For he informs us that Menander

says, in one of his plays, ‘‘it is fabulously reported that

Tisiphone became enamoured of a certain beautiful youth,

whose name was Cytheron, and that her love for him being

very ardent, she contrived the means of conversing with

him. He, however, being terrified at her formidable aspect,

did not deign to answer her; on which she took one of the

snakes from her hair and threw it at him, which occasioned

his death. But through the commiseration of the Gods,

the mountain which was before called Asterius was from

him denominated Cytheron.” ‘“Fabulati sunt antiqui neque

has quidem severissimas Deas Cupidinis vim potuisse devi-

tare, quando scriptum reliquit Menander in rebus fabulosis,

Tisiphonem ;in amorem cujusdam pueri formosi Cytheronis

nomine incidisse, cujus desiderium cum ferre non posset,

verba de congressu ad illum proferenda curavit. At is

formidandum aspectum veritus, neque responso quidem dig-

ee eE EE eee

When, under Pluto’s semblance, Jove divine

Deceiv'd with guileful arts dark Proserpine.

Hence, partly black thy limbs and partly white,

From Pluto dark, from Jove etherial bright.

Thy colour’'d members, men by night inspire

When seen in spectred forms, with terrors dire ;

Now darkly visible, involv’d in night,

Perspicuous now they meet the fearful sight.

Terrestrial queen, expel wherever found

The soul’s mad fears to earth’s remotest bound ;

With holy aspect on our incense shine,

And bless thy mystics, and the rites divine.

nam fecit, quo illa unum e suis draconibus e capillis convul-

sum in eum conjecit, quem serpens intra nodos constringens

interemit, ubi Deorum misericordia mons ab illo dictus fuit,

qui prius Asterius dicebatur.” Natalis Comit. Mythol.

lib. iii. p. 2. As none of the ancient tragedians, there-

fore, were the inventors of the fables which are the subjects

of their dramas, but derived them from authors more ancient

than themselves, it is not at all probable that this fable was

invented by Eschylus, and taken by Menander from him.

LX XII.

ApprRoacy, queen Fortune, with propitious mind

And rich abundance, to my pray’r inclin‘d :

Placid and gentle Trivia, mighty nam’d,

Imperial Dian 1%, born of Pluto fam’d,

17” Fortune, according to the Platonic, which is the same

with the Orphic theology, is that divine power which dis-

poses things differing from each other, and happening con-

trary to expectation, to beneficent purposes. Or it may be

defined to be that divine distribution which causes every

thing to fill up the lot assigned to it by the condition of its

being. This divinity, too, congregates all sublunary causes,

and enables them to confer on sublunary effects that particu-

lar good which their nature and merits eminently deserve.

“But the power of Fortune (says Simplicius, in Aristot.

Physic. lib. ii. p. 8) particularly disposes in an orderly

manner the sublunary part of the universe, in which the

nature of what is contingent is contained, and which being

essentially disordered, Fortune, in conjunction with other

primary causes, directs, places in order, and governs,

Hence she is represented guiding a rudder, because she

governs things sailing on the sea of generation [i. e. of the

sublunary world]. Her rudder too is fixed on a globe,

because she directs that which is unstable in generation.

In her other hand she holds the horn of Amalthea, which is

full of fruits, because she is the cause of obtaining all

divine fruits. And on this account we venerate the fortunes

Mankind’s unconquer’d endless praise is thine,

Sepulch’ral, widely wand’ring pow’r divine !

In thee our various mortal life is found,

And some from thee in copious wealth abound ;

While others mourn thy hand averse to bless,

In all the bitterness of deep distress.

Be present, Goddess, to thy vot’ries kind,

And give abundance with benignant mind.

of cities and houses, and of each individual ; because being

very remote from divine union, we are in danger of being

deprived of its participation, and require, in order to obtain

it, the assistance of the Goddess Fortune, and of those

natures superior to the human, who possess the characteris-

tics of this Divinity. Jndeed, every fortune is good ; for every

attainment respects something good, nor does any thing evil

subsist from divinity. But of things that are good, some are

precedaneous, and others are of a punishing or revenging cha-

racteristic, which we are accustomed to call evils. Hence we

speak of two Fortunes, one of which we denominate Goon, and

which is the cause of our obtaining precedaneous good ; but

the other EVIL, which prepares us to receive punishment or

revenge.”

From this beautiful passage, it is easy to see why For-

tune, in this hymn, is called Diana; for each of these

divinities governs the sublunary world. See the original

of the above admirable extract from Simplicius in the notes

to my Pausanias.

LX XIII.

Tuer, mighty ruling Demon dread, I call,

Mild Jove, life-giving, and the source of all:

_ Great Jove, much wand’ring, terrible and strong,

To whom revenge and tortures dire belong.

Mankind from thee in plenteous wealth abound,

When in their dwellings joyful thou art found ;

Or pass thro’ life afflicted and distress‘d,

The needful means of bliss by thee suppress’d.

Tis thine alone, endu’d with boundless might,

To keep the keys of sorrow and delight.

O holy blessed father, hear my pray’r,

Disperse the seeds of life-consuming care,

With fav’ring mind the sacred rites attend,

And grant to life a glorious blessed end.

LX XIV.

I catt, Leucothea, of great Cadmus born,

And Bacchus’ nurse, whom ivy leaves adorn.

Hear, powerful Goddess, in the mighty deep

Vast-bosom’d, destin’d thy domain to keep:

In waves rejoicing, guardian of mankind ;

For ships from thee alone deliv’rance find,

Amidst the fury of th’ unstable main,

When art no more avails, and strength is vain.

When rushing billows with tempestuous ire

O’erwhelm the mariner in ruin dire,

Thou hear’st with pity touch’d his suppliant pray’r,

Resolv’d his life to succour and to spare.

Be ever present, Goddess ! in distress,

Waft ships along with prosp’rous success :

Thy mystics thro’ the stormy sea defend,

And safe conduct them to their destin’d end.

she presides over bodies which are tossed about through

the variety of fortuitous events.” Conformably to this,

Proclus, in his very elegant hymn to the Sun, invokes that

divinity as a blessed demon,

A\Na Sew apiore, wupioredes, oABte Sarpwy.

O nurs’p with Dionysius, doom’d to keep

Thy dwelling in the widely spreading deep ;

With joyful aspect to my pray’r incline,

Propitious come, and bless the rites divine ;

Thy mystics thro’ the earth and sea attend,

And from old Ocean’s stormy waves defend :

For ships their safety ever owe to thee,

Who wand’rest with them thro’ the raging sea.

Come, guardian pow’r, whom mortal tribes desire,

And far avert the deep’s destructive ire.

Dauauters of Jove, loud-sounding, and divine,

Renown’'d, Pierian, sweetly speaking Nine ;

To those whose breasts your sacred furies fire,

Much form’d, the objects of supreme desire.

Sources of blameless virtue to mankind,

Who form to excellence the youthful mind :

Who nurse the soul, and give her to descry

The paths of right with reason’s steady eye.

Commanding queens, who lead to sacred light

The intellect refin’d from error’s night ;

And to mankind each holy rite disclose,

For mystic knowledge from your nature flows.

1 «©The Muses (says Proclus, in Hesiod Op. p. 6)

derive their appellation from investigation: for they are the

sources of erudition.” He adds “that Jupiter is said to be

the father, and Mnemosyne the mother of the Muses, be-

cause the learner ought to possess both intelligence and

memory, the latter of which Mnemosyne imparts, and the

former Jupiter.’ See more concerning the Muses in the

additional notes.

Clio, and Erato who charms the sight,

With thee, Euterpe, minist’ring delight :

Thalia flourishing, Polymnia fam’d,

Melpomene from skill in music nam’d :

Terpsichore, Urania heav’nly bright,

With thee who gav’st me to behold the light.

Come, venerable, various pow’rs divine,

With fav’ring aspect on your mystics shine ;

Bring glorious, ardent, lovely, fam’d desire,

And warm my bosom with your sacred fire.

EX XVII.

OR THE

Goddess of Memory.

Tue consort I invoke of Jove divine,

Source of the holy, sweetly speaking Nine;

Free from th’ oblivion of the fallen mind,

By whom the soul with intellect is join’d

Reason’s increase and thought to thee belong,

All-powerful, pleasant, vigilant, and strong.

’Tis thine to waken from lethargic rest

All thoughts deposited within the breast ;

And nought neglecting, vig’rous to excite

The mental eye from dark oblivion’s night.

Come, blessed pon’r, thy mystics’ mem’ry wake

To holy rites, and Lethe’s fetters break.

1 “*Memory (says Plotinus) leads to the object of

memory.” (ayet yap 7 mynun pos To pynuovevTrov.) But

the object of memory to the soul is intellect, and the forms

or ideas it contains, to which the soul tends through remi-

niscence ; 8 that the Goddess of Memory is very properly

said by Orpheus to conjoin the soul with intellect.

LX XVIII.

Hear me, O Goddess, whose emerging ray

Leads on the broad refulgénce of the day ;

Blushing Aurora, whose celestial light

Beams on the world with redd’ning splendours

bright.

Angel of Titan, whom with constant round -

Thy orient beams recall from night profound :

Labour of ev’ry kind to lead is thine,

Of mortal life the minister divine.

Mankind in thee eternally delight,

And none presumes to shun thy beauteous sight.

Soon as thy splendours break the bands of rest,

And eyes unclose, with pleasing sleep oppress ‘d ;

Men, reptiles, birds, and beasts, with gen’ral voice,

And all the nations of the deep rejoice;

For all the culture of our life is thine.

Come, blessed pow’r, and to these rites incline :

Thy holy light increase, and unconfin’d

Diffuse its radiance on thy mystics’ mind.

LX XIX.

ILLustrious Themis, of celestial birth,

Thee I invoke, young blossom of the earth

All-beauteous virgin ;. first from thee alone

Prophetic oracles to men were known,

Giv’n from the deep recesses of the fane

In sacred Pytho, where renown'd you reign.

From thee Apollo’s oracles arose,

And from thy pow’r his inspiration flows.

Honour’d by all, of form divinely bright,

Majestic virgin, wand’ring in the night.

Mankind from thee first learnt perfective rites,

And Bacchus’ nightly choirs thy soul delights ;

For the God’s honours to disclose is thine,

And holy mysteries and rites divine.

Be present, Goddess, to my pray’r inclin’d,

And bless thy Telete nith fav’ring mind.

OF ORPHEUS. .

Boreas, whose wintry blasts, terrific, tear

The bosom of the deep surrounding air ;

Cold icy pow’r, approach, and fav’ring blow,

And Thrace awhile desert, expos’d to snow :

The air’s all-misty dark’ning state dissolve,

With pregnant clouds whose frames in show’rs re-

solve.

Serenely temper all within the sky,

And wipe from moisture Ether’s splendid eye.

1 “Orpheus (says Simplicius, in Aristot. de Animé,

lib. 1.) appears to have called the aptitude of bodies, with

respect to life, respiration ; but the total and universal causes

winds, without which partial causes cannot make bodies

properly adapted animated.”

Sea-BorN, aerial, blowing from the west,

Sweet gales, who give to weary’d labour rest.

Vernal and grassy, and of murm’ring sound,

To ships delightful through the sea profound ;

For these, impell’d by you with gentle force,

Pursue with prosp’rous fate their destin’d course.

With blameless gales regard my suppliant pray’r,

Zephyrs unseen, light-wing’d, and form’d from air.

OF ORPHEUS,

Wipe-coursine gales, whose lightly leaping feet

With rapid wings the air’s wet bosom beat,

Approach, benevolent, swift-whirling pow’rs,

With humid clouds the principles of show’rs ;

For show’ry clouds are portion’d to your care,

To send on earth from all-surrounding air.

Hear, blessed pow’r, these holy rites attend,

And fruitful rains on earth all-parent send.

LXXXITI.

Ocean I call, whose nature ever flows,

From whom at first both Gods and men arose;

Sire incorruptible, whose waves surround,

And earth’s all-terminating circle bound :

‘*But Ocean (says Orpheus) remained within his place of

Hence every river, hence the spreading sea,

And earth’s pure bubbling fountains spring from

thee.

Hear, mighty sire, for boundless bliss is thine,

Greatest cathartic of the pow’rs divine :

abode, considering to what he should direct his attention,

and whether he should deprive his father of strength, and

unjustly mutilate him in conjunction with Saturn, and the

other brethren, who were obedient to their dear mother ; or

leaving these, stay quietly at home, After much fluctuation

of thought, however, he remained peaceably at home, being

angry with his mother, but still more so with his brethren.”

He therefore abides, and at the same time proceeds together

with Tethys; for she is conjoined with him according to

the first progeny. But the other Titans are induced to

separation and progression. And the leader of these is the

mighty Saturn, as the theologist says; though he evinces

that Saturn is superior to Ocean, by saying that Saturn

himself received the celestial Olympus, and that there

being throned, he reigns over the Titans; but that Ocean

obtained all the middle allotment. For he says, ‘‘ that Ocean

dwells in the divine streams which are posterior to Olym-

pus, and that he environs the Heaven which is there, and

not the highest Heaven, but as the fable says, that which

fell from Olympus, and was there arranged.”

As the latter part of what is here said from Proclus, is a

very remarkable Orphic fragment, and is not to be found in

the Collection of the Orphic remains by either Gesner or

Hermann, I shall give the original for the sake of the

learned reader. Kaz roe ye ort o Kpovos umreprepos eort rov

Oxeavou, dedndwxev o Oeodoyos wah Neywr" Tov pev Kpovoy

ovrov xaTahauBavew tov oupavioy Odupmrov, KeKet Oponc-

Gevra, Bacitevey twv Tiraywy' rov Se Oxeavoy rnv dAntw

aracay THY peony’ vateY yap avTov ev Tos OEeowreotos

petOpos Tors wera Tow Odvpwov, Kas Tov exec weprewew Oupavor,

Earth's friendly limit, fountain of the pole,

Whose waves wide spreading and circumfluent rol.

Approach benevolent, with placid mind,

And be for ever fo thy mystics kind,

@\N’ ov Toy axporaror, ws 8¢ gnow o pvOos, Tov euwerorTa

rou Oudupmou, Kat exer reraypevor,

Proclus also, in p. 2, speaking of the nine deities men-

tioned by Plato in the Timeus, according to their sublunary

allotment ; for they originally proceed from the intellectyal

order, says : “ Heaven terminates, Earth corroborates, and

Ocean moves all generation. But Tethys establishes every

thing i in its proper motion ; intellectual essences in intellec-

tual, middle essences in physical [or such as pertain to

soul], and such as are corporeal in psychical motion ; Ocean

at the same time collectively moving all things. "Saturn

alone divides intellectually ; Rhea vivifies; Phorcys dis-

tributes spermatic productive principles; Jupiter perfects

things apparent from such as are unapparent; and Juno

evolves according to the all-various mutations of visible

natures.”

LXX XIV.

THE FUMIGATLON FROM AROMATICS.

Daveuter of Saturn, venerable dame,

Who dwell’st amidst great fire’s eternal flame ;

1 «Saturn (says Proclus, in Cratyl, p. 8) in conjune-

tion with Rhea, produced Vesta and Juno, who are coordi-

nate with the demiurgic causes. For Vesta imparts from

herself to the Gods an uninclining permanency and seat in

themselves, and an indissoluble essence. But Juno imparts

progression, and a multiplication into things secondary.

She is also the vivifying fountain of wholes, and the mother

of prolific powers; and on this account she is said to

have proceeded together with Jupiter the Demiurgus; and

through this communion she generates maternally such

things as Jupiter generates paternally. But Vesta abides

in herself, possessing an undefiled virginity, and being the

cause of sameness to all things, Each of these divinities,

however, together with her own proper perfection, possesses

according to participation the power of the other. Hence

some say that Vesta is denominated from ¢gsence, (amo rs

eco.as*, lege ovorcas) looking to her proper hyparxis. But

others, surveying her vivific and motive power, which she

derives from Juno, say that she is thus denominated as be-

img the cause of impulsion, (ws woews ovcay a:riqy.) For all

°* My manuscript has egrias* but the edition of this work, by the very

learned Professor Boissonade, Leipsic, 1, has egos. The true reading

however is doubtless. ovcvas.

In sacred rites these ministers are thine,

Mystics much blessed, holy, and divine.

divine natures are in all, and particularly such as are co-

ordinate with each other, participate of, and subsist im each

other. Each, therefore, of the demiurgic and vivific orders

participates the form by which it is characterized from

Vesta. The orbs of the planets, likewise, possess the same-

ness of their revolutions from her; and the poles and

centres are always allotted from her their permanent rest.

Vesta, however, does not manifest essence, but the abiding

and firm establishment of essence in itself ; and hence this

Goddess proceeds into light after the mighty Saturn. For

the Divinities prior to Saturn have not a subsistence in

themselves and in another, but this originates from Saturn.

And a subsistence in self is the peculiarity of Vesta, but in

another of Juno.” What is here said by Proclus about a

subsistence in self and in another, the reader will find

explained in the notes on my translation of the Parmenides

of Plato.

In addition to the above admirable development of the

nature of Vesta by Proclus, it is necessary to add, that this

Goddess, according to her mundane allotment, is the Divi-

nity of the Earth; and as such she is celebrated in the

present hymn. Hence Philolaus, in a fragment preserved

by Stobseus (Eclog. Phys. p. 5), says, “that there is a fire

in the middle at the centre, which is the Vesta of the

universe, the house of Jupiter, the mother of the Gods, and

the basis, coherence, and measure of nature.” Hence it

appears that they are greatly mistaken who suppose the

Pythagoreans meant the Sun by the fire at the centre; and

this is still more evident from what Simplicius says in his

Commentary on Arist. de Ccelo, lib. ii. for he there observes,

“that the Pythagoreans supposing the decad to be a perfect

number, were willing to collect the bodies that are moved

in a circle into the decadic number. Hence they say, that

the inerratic sphere, the seven planets, this our earth, and

In thee the Gods have fix’d their dwelling place,

Strong, stable basis of the mortal race.

the antichthon complete the decad; and in this manner

Aristotle understands the assertions of the Pythagoreans.”

He then adds: Oc de yrnovecrepoy avrwy peracxovres, To

fev Tup ev Tw peo Hace THY SnutoupyiKny Suvamw, Ex TOV

fecov oAnv THYv nv Tpepoveay, Kat TO Wuxopevoy aurns

aveyetpovoay’ dc, ot ev Znvos mupyov avro Kadovow, ws

autos ev rots Hudayopeos dunynoaro’ ot dé Atos duAaxny, ws

ey Trovrois* ot de Acos Opovoy’ ws adAor haciw* ayrpov de ryv

‘nv edeyov, ws opyavoy Kas aurny Tov xpovou’ nuepwy yap

€OTW auTn, Kat vuKTwy, aria. i. e. “ But those who more

genuinely participate of the Pythagorean doctrines say

that the fire in the middle is a demiurgic power, nourishing

the whole earth from the middle, and exciting whatever it

contains of a frigid nature. Hence some call it the tower

of Jupiter, as he (i. e. Aristotle) narrates in his Pythagorics.

But others denominate it the guardian of Jupiter, as Aris-

totle relates in the present treatise. And according to

others it is the throne of Jupiter. They called, however,

the earth a cavern, as being itself an instrument of time: for

it is the cause of day and night.” In that part of this

remarkable passage, in which it is said that the Pythago-

reans called the earth a cavern, it is necessary for ayrpoy to

read aotpov, a star. For a little before both Aristotle and

Simplicius inform us, that the Pythagoreans asserted that

the earth exists as one of the stars. And this is confirmed by

their calling the earth one of the instruments of time: for the

stars are thus denominated by Plato in the Timseus. Meur-

sius, in his Denarius Pythagoricus, p. 1, thinks we should

read xeyrpov for avrpov; but he was evidently mistaken.

From this account, given by Simplicius, it appears that

‘the abovementioned decad of the Pythagoreans consists of

the inerratic sphere, the seven planets, the earth, and the

fire in the centre of the earth,

1 . THE MYSTICAL HYMNS

Eternal, much form’d, ever florid queen,

Laughing"® and blessed, and of lovely mien ;

Accept these rites, accord each just desire,

And gentle health and needful good inspire.

1 “The laughter of the Gods (says Proclus, in Plat.

Polit. p. 8) must be defined to be their exuberant energy

in the universe, and the cause of the gladness of all mun-

dane natures. But as such a providence is’ incomprehen-

sible, and the communication of all good from the Gods

is never failing, Homer very properly calle their laughter

unextinguished.” He adds, “fables, however, do not assert

that the Gods always weep, but that they laugh without

ceasing. For tears are symbols of their providence in

mortal and frail concerns, and which now rise into exist-

ence, and then perish; but laughter is a sign of their

energy in wholes, and those perfect natures in the universe

which are perpetuaily moved with undeviating sameness.

On which account, I think, when we divide demiurgic

productions into Gods and men, we attribute laughter to

the generation of the Gods, but tears to the formation of

men and animals; whence a certain poet, in his hymn to

the Sun, says

Mankind’s laborious race thy tears excite,

But the Gods, laughing, blossom’d into light.

But when we make a division into things celestial and

sublunary, again, after the same manner, we must assign

laughter to the former and tears to the latter. And when

we reason concerning the generations and corruptions of

sublunary natures themselves, we must refer the former to

the laughter, and the latter to the tears of the Gods. Hence

in the mysteries also, those who preside over sacred insti-

tutions order both these to be celebrated at stated times.”

Steep, king of Gods, and men of mortal birth,

Sov’ reign of all, sustain’d by mother Earth ;

For thy dominion is supreme alone,

O’er all extended, and by all things known.

*Tis thine all bodies with benignant mind

In other bands than those of brass to bind.

Tamer of cares, to weary toil repose,

And from whom sacred solace in affliction flows.

Thy pleasing gentle chains preserve the soul,

And e’en the dreadful cares of death control ;

For Death, and Lethe with oblivious stream,

Mankind thy genuine brothers justly deem.

With fav’ring aspect to my pray’r incline,

And save thy mystics in their works divine.

Tues I invoke, blest pow’r of dreams divine,

Angel of future fates, swift wings are thine.

Great source of oracles to human kind,

When stealing soft, and whisp’ring to the mind,

Thro’ sleep’s sweet silence, and the gloom of night,

Thy pow’r awakes th’ intellectual sight ;

To silent souls the will of heaven relates,

And silently reveals their future fates.

Forever friendly to the upright mind,

Sacred and pure, to holy rites inclin’d ;

For these with pleasing hope thy dreams inspire :

Bliss to anticipate, which all desire.

Thy visions manifest of fate disclose,

What methods best may mitigate our woes ;

Reveal what rites the Gods immortal please,

And what the means their anger to appease ;

For ever tranquil is the good man’s end,

Whose life thy dreams admonish and defend.

But from the wicked turn’d averse to bless,

Thy form unseen, the angel of distress ;

No means to check approaching ill they find,

Pensive with fears, and to the future blind.

Come, blessed pow’r, the signatures reveal

Which heav’n’s decrees mysteriously conceal,

Signs only present to the worthy mind,

Nor omens ill disclose of monstrous kind.

Hear me, O Death, whose empire unconfin’d

Extends to mortal tribes of ev’ry kind.

On thee the portion of our time depends,

Whose absence lengthens life, whose presence ends.

L

me at i

Thy sleep perpetual bursts the vivid folds

By which the soul attracting body holds 12" :

Common to all, of ev'ry sex and age,

For nought escapes thy all-destructive rage.