The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

OF ORPIIEUS.
TO THE TITANS.
THE FUMIGATION FROM FP1ANKINCENSE.
0 MIGHTY Titans, who from Heav'n and Earth
Derive your noble and illustrious birth,
Our fathers' sires, in Tartarus 71 profound
Who dwell, deep merg'd beneath the solid ground:
Fountains and principles from whom began
Th' afflicted miserable race of man 72 :
"Tartarus (says Olympiodorus in MS. in Comment. on
Phzdon.) 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." 071 o Taprapos
7as
pegor~~as, us o OXvp~os ras atcpor~ras* E~TLV OUY TPELS
~upeiv OUK EV ry aic~Syry povy ry 6~ ~ocpy, aXXa Kai ev ry
Gyptovpyr~y vy, Kai EV ry KOU,UL~ (lege vacp~ocpiq) Gratcocpy,
egrt ras rexarlas TOW ~ocpov EnicKorrwv, ws o ~IOVTOS
KUl EV Tq OUPUVlLt).
72 The reasons why the Titans are said in this hymn to be
the fountains and priliciples of mankind depends on the
following arcane narration, for the sources of which I refer
the reader to my Treatise on the Eleusinian and Bacchic
Mysteries : Dionysius, or Bacchus, while he was yet a boy,
was engaged by the Titans, tllrougb the stratagems of Juno,
in a variety of sports, with which that period of life is so