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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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xxxviii INTRODUCTION.<br />

i. e. "I sing the all-seeing eye <strong>of</strong> splendid<br />

Justice, who sits by the throne <strong>of</strong> king Jupi-<br />

ter, and from her celestial abode beholds the<br />

life <strong>of</strong> nlultiform mortals."<br />

<strong>The</strong> Eleusinian mysteries also, as is well<br />

known, were celebrated at night; the princi-<br />

pal reason <strong>of</strong> which appears to be this, that<br />

the greater mysteries pertained to Ceres, and<br />

the less to Proserpine24 and the latter pre-<br />

ceded the former. But the rape <strong>of</strong> Proser-<br />

pine, which was exhibited in these mysteries,<br />

signifies, as we are informed by Sall~st~~,<br />

the descent <strong>of</strong> souls. And the descent <strong>of</strong><br />

souls into the realms <strong>of</strong> generation is said, by<br />

Plato in the tenth book <strong>of</strong> his Republic, to<br />

take place at midnight, indicating by this<br />

the union <strong>of</strong> the soul with the darkness <strong>of</strong> a<br />

corporeal nature. This too, I suppose, is<br />

what Clemens Alexandrinus27 means when<br />

25 Hgav Ta ,UEV pr/aXa T ~ Aqp~rpos'<br />

S<br />

t#ov~s rr]s avqs Svyarpos. Interp. Grec. ad Plut. Aristophanis.<br />

26 De Diis et Mundq cap. iv.<br />

ra 8~ pitcpa ~CPQI-<br />

YVKTL rqs $v~qs<br />

au~roXqv aro TOV aupa.ros. Clem. Alex.<br />

Stroma. lib. iv. p. 530, Sylburg.

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