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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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INTRODUCTION. xxxv<br />

mysteries, or has read the poems called Orphic,<br />

will know what I mean." Now Porphyry De<br />

Abstinentia, lib. iv. informs us, that beans<br />

were forbidden in the Eleusinian mysteries 21 ;<br />

and in the Orphic Hymn to Earth the sacri-<br />

ficer is ordered to fumigate from every kind<br />

<strong>of</strong> seed, except beans and aromatics. But<br />

Earth is Vesta, and Vesta, as we are in-<br />

formed by Proclus 22, is comprehended to-<br />

wether with Juno in Ceres. Again, Suidas<br />

b<br />

informs us, that reher17 signifies a rnystic sacri-<br />

Jice, the greatest and most vene~able <strong>of</strong> all others,<br />

(8vara pu~r~bw8~719, r) p~yrcrq fcab r~p~w~ara).<br />

And Proclus, whenever he speaks <strong>of</strong> the Eleu-<br />

sinian mysteries, calls them the most holy<br />

teletai 23, ayr wra.rar ~ XET~L. Agreeably to this,<br />

the Orphic <strong>Hymns</strong> are called in the Thryllitian<br />

manuscript reXera~; and Scaliger justly<br />

observes, that they contain nothing but such<br />

invocations as were used in the mysteries.<br />

Besides, many <strong>of</strong> the hymns are expressly<br />

thus called by the author <strong>of</strong> them. Thus the<br />

21 IIapayyo)lezai yap ~ aEXtvoivc i aacx~u8ai Kai KU~OLKL-<br />

~ W V opvi9ov, KUL ~XOUWV, KUL KUapWV, poias TE Kal p~Xwv. p.<br />

353, Edit. Trajec.<br />

See the Additional Notes.<br />

23 In Plat. <strong>The</strong>ol. et in Comment. in Alcibiad.

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