The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

OF ORPHEUS.
Saturn and Rhea, and great Thetis too,
Hid in a veil of dark celestial blue.
I call great Ocean, and the beauteous train
Of Ocean's daughters in the boundless main :
The strength of Atlas ever in its prime,
Vig'rous Eternity, and endless Time.
The splendid Stygian pool, and placid Gods beside,
And daemons good and bad that o'er mankind
preside ;
Illustrious Providence, the noble train
Of dzmon forms, who fill th' etherial plain ;
Or live in air, in water, earth, or fire,
Or deep beneath the solid ground retire.
The white Leucothea of the sea I call,
And Semele, and Bacchus's associates all ;
Palaemon bounteous, and Adrastia 4 great,
And sweet-tongu'd Victory, with success elate ;
4 This divinity is one among others in this Exordium to
whom there is no hymn in these Orphic Telets. But the
following particulars respecting this Goddess, extracted
from the Scholia of Hermeas on the Phaedrus of Plato, are
given on account of their great importance, end because
they illustrate a part of the Orphic theology. ' ' Adrastia
is a divinity seated in the vestibules of Night, and is the
offspring of Melissus and Amalthea. Melissus, therefore, is
to be assumed as a power providentially attending to secon-
dary natures ; but Amalthea must be considered according to
the unchanging and the uneffeminate. Hence Adrastia was
generated from unchangeable Providence, and she is the
sister of Ida.
The beauteous Ida and Adrastia sprung
From the same sire.