03.04.2013 Views

The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

ADDITIONAL NOTES. 173<br />

fore who looks without attention to the name <strong>of</strong> Saturn<br />

will consider it as signifying insolence. For to him who<br />

suddenly hears it, it manifests satiety and repletion. Why<br />

therefore, since a name <strong>of</strong> this kind is expressive <strong>of</strong> inso-<br />

lence, do we not pass it over in silence, as not being<br />

auspicious and adapted to the Gods? May we not say that<br />

the royal series l4 <strong>of</strong> the Gods, beginning with Phanes and<br />

ending in Bacchus, and producing the same sceptre super-<br />

nally as far as to the last kingdom, Saturn being allotted<br />

the fourth royal order, appears according to the fabulous<br />

pretext, differently from the other kings, to have received<br />

the sceptre insolently from Heaven, and to have given it to<br />

Jupiter ? For Night receives the sceptre from Phanes ;<br />

14 This royal series consists <strong>of</strong> Phanes, Night, Heaven, Saturn, Jupiter,<br />

Bacchus. "Ancient theologists (says Syrianus, in his Commentary on<br />

the fourteenth book <strong>of</strong> Aristotle's Metaphysics) assert that Night and<br />

Heaven reigned, and prior to these the mighty father <strong>of</strong> Night and<br />

Heaven, who distributed the world to Gods and mortals, and who first<br />

possessed royal authority, the illustrious Ericapeus.<br />

Night succeeded Ericapeus, in the hands <strong>of</strong> whom she has a sceptre :<br />

To Night Heaven succeeded, who first reigned over the Gods after mother<br />

Night.<br />

Chaos transcends the habitude <strong>of</strong> sovereign dominion : and, with respect<br />

to Jupiter, the oracles given to him by Night manifestly call him not the<br />

first, but the fifth immortal king <strong>of</strong> the Gods.<br />

According to these theologists therefore, that principle which is most<br />

emiuently the first, is the one or the good, after which, according to<br />

Pythagoras, are those two principles Bther and Chaos, which are supe-<br />

rior to the possession <strong>of</strong> sovereign dominion. In the next place succeed<br />

the first and occult genera <strong>of</strong> the Gods, in which first shines forth the<br />

father and king <strong>of</strong> all wholes, and whom on this account they call<br />

Phanes."

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!