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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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24 THE MYSTICAL HYMNS<br />

With sounding whip four fiery steeds you guide,<br />

When in the glittering car <strong>of</strong> day you ride,<br />

Propitious on these mystic labours shine,<br />

And bless thy suppliants with a life divine.<br />

IX.<br />

. TO THE MOON^^.<br />

THE FUMIGATION FROM AROMATICS.<br />

HEAR, Goddess queen, diffusing silver light,<br />

Bull-horn'd24, and wand'ring thro' the gloom <strong>of</strong><br />

Night.<br />

I<br />

(bvha~a avrov ETEV~E, KE~EVGE TE T~GLY avacueiv, "That the<br />

Demiurgus established the Sun over the whole <strong>of</strong> the universe,<br />

and fashioned him as its guardian, commanding him<br />

to govern all things."<br />

23 <strong>The</strong> Moon is called in this hymn both Q E X I ) and ~ ~ pqv?,<br />

the former <strong>of</strong> which words signify the Moon in the language<br />

24 We are informed by Porphyry, in his treatise De Antro<br />

Nymph. that the ancient priests <strong>of</strong> Ceres, called the Moon,<br />

who is the queen <strong>of</strong> generation, i. e. <strong>of</strong> the sublunary regions,<br />

a bull. He adds, "And Taurus is the exaltation <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Moon." And Olympiodorus, in his MS. Comlnentary on<br />

the Gorgias <strong>of</strong> Plato, says that the Moon, according to<br />

ancient theologists, is drawn by two bulls; by two, on<br />

account <strong>of</strong> her increase and diminution ; but by bulls, be-<br />

cause as these till the ground, so the Moon governs all<br />

those parts which surround the earth.

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