The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

90 TEE MYSTICAL HYMNS
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 daemons, 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 bestrew theground.
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 74 all-lucid and divine :
Blowing, serene, from whom abundance springs,
Nurses of seasons, fruit-producing kings.
7* I have before observed that the Curetes and Corybantes
are celebrated in this hymn as one and the satne, on account
of the profound union subsisting between the two. Hence
the progression of these two orders into the heavens forms
the constellation called the Twins.