The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

OF ORPHETJS. 45
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, repi apxwv, observes, Ty Peq 7
oy6oas ITpOCTVKEl, WS €a1 ITUU K~Y~S€~CT~
KKTU TCZS &U~~EQELS,
KUL ou8sv ~TTOY E G T W ~ ITU~~~WS
Kar KU~LKWS. 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 Jimt 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.