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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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xxxiv INTRODUCTION.<br />

be evident, from the following arguments, to<br />

the intelligent reader. For that hymns were<br />

written by <strong>Orpheus</strong> is testified by Plato in<br />

the eighth book <strong>of</strong> his Laws, and by Fausa-<br />

nias in his Boeotics, who also says that they<br />

were few and short ; from whcnce, as Fabri-<br />

cius lg justly observes, it appears that they<br />

were no other than those which are now<br />

extant20. But that they were used in the<br />

Eleusinian Mysteries is evident from the<br />

testimony <strong>of</strong> ~~cornedes, who says that they<br />

were sung in the sacred rites pertaining to<br />

Ceres, which honour was not paid to the<br />

Homeric hymns, though they were more elegant<br />

than those <strong>of</strong> <strong>Orpheus</strong> ; and the Eleusinian<br />

were the mysteries <strong>of</strong> Ceres. And that<br />

Lycomedes alludes, in what he here says, to<br />

these hylnns is manifest, first from Pausanias,<br />

who in his Attics (cap. 37) observes,<br />

"that it is not lawful to ascribe the invention<br />

<strong>of</strong> beans to Ceres." He adds, " and he<br />

who has been initiated in the Eleusinian<br />

lg Vid. Biblioth. Graec. tom. i. p. 114.<br />

20 I omit the testimonies <strong>of</strong> Cyril contra Julian, lib. i.<br />

p. 25, and <strong>of</strong> Suidas, because their authority is <strong>of</strong> little<br />

value on this subject.

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