The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

XLII.
TO MISA.
THE FURTIGATION FROM STORAX.
1 CALL Thesmophorus 77, sperrrlatic God,
Of various names, who bears the leafy rod :
Misa, ineffable, pure, sacred queen,
Twofold Iacchus 78, male and female seen.
Illustrious, whether to rejoice is thine
In incense offer'd in the fane divine Yg ;
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 Cytl~eria 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.
77 i. e. The legislator.
7-t is well known that Iacchus is a rnystic appellation
of Bacchus, so that Misa is Bacchus. Misa is also said to
be both male and female, because this divinity comprehends
in himself stable power and sameness, which are of a mas-
culine characteristic, and the measures of life and prolific
powers, which are f e~niniue peculiarities. This mixture of
the male and female in one and the same divinity is no un-
usrlal thing in the Orphic theology.
79 i. e. The temple of Ceres Eleusina.