The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

NOTES ROME AND THE ORIENT. 217
rb tyvxpbv tfSwp, Archiv fur Religionswiss., VIII, 1905, p. 504, n.
i. [Cf. infra, ch. IV, n. 90.] Among the hymns of greatest
importance for the Oriental cults we must cite those in honor
of Isis, discovered in the island of Andros (Kaibel, Epigr.,
4028) and elsewhere (see ch. IV, n. 6). Fragments of hymns
in honor of Attis have been preserved by Hippolytus (Philo-
soph., V, 9. pp. i68ff.) The so-called orphic hymns (Abel,
Orphica, 1883), which date back to a rather remote period, do
not seem to contain many Oriental elements (see Maas, Or
pheus, 1895, pp. 173 ff.), but this does not apply to the gnostic
hymns of which we possess very instructive fragments. Cf.
Mon. myst. de Mithra, I, p. 313, n. i.
15. Regarding the imitations of the stage, see Adami, De
poetis seen. Graecis hymnorum sacrorum imitatoribus, 1901.
Wiinsch has shown the liturgic character of a prayer to As-
klepios, inserted by Herondas into his mimiambi (Archiv fur
Religionswiss., VII, 1904, pp. 95 ff.) Dieterich believes he
has found an extensive extract from the Mithraic liturgy in a
magic papyrus of Paris (see infra, ch. VI, Bibliography). But
all these discoveries amount to very little if we think of the
enormous number of liturgic texts that have been lost, and
even in the case of ancient Greece we know little regarding
this sacred literature. See Ausfeld, De Graecorum precationibus,
Leipsic, 1903; Ziegler, De precationum apud Graecos
formis quaestiones selectae, Breslau, 1905 ; H. Schmidt, Ve~
teres philosophi quomodo iudicavcrint de precibus, Giessen,
1907.
16. For instance, the hymn "which the magi sung" about
the steeds of the supreme god ; its contents are given by Dion
Chrysostom, Oral., XXXVI, 39 (see Mon. myst. Mithra, I. p.
298; II, p. 60).
17. I have in mind the hymns of Cleanthes (Von Arnim,
Stoic, fragm., I, Nos. 527, 537), also Demetrius s act of re
nunciation in Seneca, De Provid., V, 5, which bears a sur
prising resemblance to one of the most famous Christian pray
ers, the Suscipe of Saint Ignatius which concludes the book
of Spiritual Exercises (Delehaye, Lcs Icgendes hagiographiqucs,
1905, p. 170, n. i). In this connection we ought to
mention the prayer translated in the Asclepius, the Greek text