A Dissertation on the Life and Theology of Orpheus: Section II

SECT. II.

LET us now proceed to his theology; exchanging the obscurity of conjecture for the light of clear evidence; and the intricate labyrinths of fable for the delightful though solitary paths of truth.

e. The vulgar systems of mythology are here entirely useless; and he who should attempt to elucidate the theology, or hymns of Orpheus, by any modern hypothesis, would be as ridiculously employed, as he who should expect to find the origin of a copious stream, by pursuing it to its last and most intricate involutions. In conformity with modern prejudices, the author of the Letters on Mythology, endeavours to prove, that the Orphic hymns deify the various parts of nature, not considered as animated by different intelligences but as various modifications of

f, Of all beings it is necessary that some should move only, that others should be entirely moved; and that the beings situated between these two, should participate of the extremes, and both move and be moved. Among the first in dignity and order are those natures which move only; the second, those which move themselves; the third, those which move and are moved; and the fourth, those which are moved only. Now the second class of these, or the self-motive natures, since their perfection consists in transition and mutation of life, must depend upon a more ancient cause, which subsists perpetually the same;

) Διονυσιακὴ, Αδωναϊκὴ, from whence many orders and differences of Gods proceed, intelligible e, intellectual, super-mundane, mundane, celestial, authors of generation. And among these some in the order of guardian, demiurgic, elevating and comprehending Gods; perfecters of works, vivific, immutable, absolute, judicial, purgative, &c. and besides these to each particular divinity, he added a particular multitude of angels, dæmons, and heroes; for according to Proclus, relating the

f "About every God there is a kindred multitude of angels, heroes, and dæmons. For every God presides over the form of that multitude which receives the divinity." He likewise considered a difference of sex in these deifies, calling some male, and others female; the reason of which distinction g Proclus, with his usual elegance and subtilty, thus explains.

"The division of male and female comprehends in itself, all the plenitudes of divine orders. Since the cause of stable power and identity, and the leader Χὸρηγος of being, and that which invests all things with the first principle of conversion, is comprehended in the masculine order. But that which generates from itself, all various progressions and partitions, measures

But that Orpheus was a monarchist, as well as a polytheist, is not only evident from the preceding arguments, originally derived from his Theology, but from the following verses quoted by Proclus h.

Hence with the universe great Jove contains
The æther bright, and heav'ns exalted plains
Th' extended restless sea, and earth renown'd
Ocean immense, and Tartarus profound; i, lies
In Jove's wide womb, the ruler of the skies.

And in the same place, Proclus has preserved to us another copy of Orphic verses, which are also found in the writer (de Mundo); previous to which he observes, that the demiurgus, or artificer of the world, being full of ideas, comprehended by these all things within himself, as that theologer (Orpheus) declares. With these verses we have connected others, agreeable to the order of Stephens, Eschenbach, and Gesner, as follows.

Jove is the first and last thund'ring king,
Middle and head, from Jove all beings spring; l himself proves with his usual sagacity and depth. But here it is necessary to observe, that Orpheus and the Platonists do not conceive the Deity to be all things, as if he were a divisible, corporeal nature; but that he is all things, because present every where, and to every being totally, though more or less intimately present, according to the various gradations and approximations of being. So that he is to be considered as containing

m, explaining the properties of incorporeal natures, God, intellect, and soul are each of them every where, because .no where. But God is every where, and at the same time, in no place of any being posterior to his nature; but he is only such as he is, and such as he willed himself to be. But intellect is indeed in the Deity, yet every and in no place of its subordinate essences. And soul is in intellect, and in the Deity, every where and no where with respect to body; but body exists in and in intellect, and .in God. And though all beings, and nonentities, proceed from, and subsist in the

n, which is incapable of being at the same time every where and no where, but which partially participates of each, And in another place of the same excellent fragment, he tells us that the ancients explaining the property of an incorporeal nature, as far as this can be effected by discourse, when they affirmed it to be one, at the same time add, that it is likewise all things; that it is every where, and no where, and that it is totally present in every whole. He adds, they express its nature entirely by contrary properties, that they may remove from it the fictitious and delusive conceptions of bodies which obscure those properties by which true being is known o.

p. This opinion a modern philosopher, or a modern writer on mythology, will doubtless consider as too ridiculous to need a serious refutation the one, because he believes the phenomena may be solved by mechanical causes; and the other, in consequence of a system originating from prejudice, and supported without proof. However, prejudice apart,

q the Pythagorean: "Those," says he, "who assert that there is but one God, and not many Gods, are deceived, as not considering that the supreme dignity of the divine transcendency consists in governing beings similar to itself, and in surpassing others. But the other Gods have the same relation to this first and intelligible God, as the dancer, to the Coryphæus, and as soldiers to their general, whose duty is to follow their leader. And although the same employment is common both to the ruler, and those who are ruled; yet the latter, if destitute of a leader, could no longer conspire together in one occupation; as the concord of the fingers and

dancers, and the expedition of the army, must fail, if the one is deprived of the Coryphæus and the other of the captain or commander." To the same purpose Plotinus r shews that it is perfectly philosophical to suppose a multitude of Gods subordinate to the One supreme. "It is necessary," says he, "that every man should endeavour to be as good as possible, but at the same time, he should not consider himself as the only thing that is good but should be convinced that there are other good men, and good dæmons in the universe, but much more Gods: who though inhabiting this inferior region, yet look up to that higher world; and especially that most blessed Soul, the ruling Divinity of this universe. From whence a

s. "And perhaps," says

Indeed in consequence of the Platonic doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul, it is not strange that we should know so little of those divine and exalted beings above us; since from our union with generation and material concerns, we are imbued with oblivion, ignorance, and error. "We are similar," as Porphyry t well observes, "to those who enter or depart from a foreign region, not only in casting aside our native manners and customs; but from the long use of a strange country we are imbued with affections, manners, and laws foreign from our natural and true religion, and with a strong propensity to

"Let us also," says be, "sacrifice, but in a manner becoming the offspring of intellect, bringing with us the most exalted offerings, with our most exalted powers. To the Divinity indeed, who is above all things, as a wise man said, neither sacrificing nor dedicating any thing sensible or material; for there is nothing subsisting by material concretion, which must not be deemed impure by a nature entirely free from the contagion of body. Hence even the discourse, which is proffered by the voice is not proper to be addressed to a cause so sublime and ineffable; nor the internal speech of the soul, if contaminated with any perturbation, or mixed with any

e, another Apollo; and again, this justice, and another Temperance. They proceeded also

x, upon sacrifice and magic, of which the following is a paraphrase.

"In the same manner as lovers gradually advance from that beauty which is apparent in sensible forms, to that which is divine; so the ancient priests, when they considered that there was a certain alliance and sympathy in natural things to each

Footnotes

13:e In the latter part of this Dissertation, we shall discourse on the agreement between the doctrine of Orpheus and the Platonists.

16:f Procl. lib. i. Theol. Plat.

26:e Θεοι Νοεροὶ, Ὑπερκόσμιοι, Ἐγκὸσμιοι Et inter hos, aliæ τάξεις Φρυρητιχῶι ϑεῶν, Δημιυργικῶν, Ἁναγωγῶν, Συνεκλιχῶν Τελεσιυρῶν· Ζωογόνων, Ἀλρεπλων, Ἀπολϋὶων, Κριτικῶν, Καθαρλικῶν, &c. Eschenb. Epig, p. 58.

27:f In Timæum. p. 67.

27:g In Tim. p. 290.

29:h In Tim. p, 95.

30:i I have here followed the correction of Eschenbach, who reads σείρα instead of συῥῥα which is I think more expressive and philosophical.

32:k His mind is truth, and a little after, His; body full of light; or, Νοῦσ δέ ἀψευδὴς and Σωμα δέ ϖεριψεγγὲς, perfectly agree with what Pythagoras affirmed, concerning God; that in his soul he resembled truth, and in his body light.

33:l Enn. 5, lib, vi.

34:m Vide Ἀφορμαὶ ϖρὸς τα Νοητά. p. 233.

36:n Meaning material forms and qualities.

36:o It is remarkable that in the Hymn to Nature, among the following, the Deity is celebrated as all things, yet the poet adds that he is 37:p If the word Gods offends the ear of the reader, he may substitute in its stead, thrones, dominions; &c. for I do not discourse concerning words.

38:q Stob. Ecl. Phys. p. 5.

38:r En. 2. lib. ix. cap. 9.

40:s In Tim. p. 286.

42:t De Abstinentia, lib. i.

56:e In the latter part of this Dissertation, we shall shew the wonderful agreement of the following Hymns, with the names given by Pythagoras to numbers.

74:x As a Latin version only of this valuable work is published, the reader will please to make allowances for the Paraphrase, where it may be requisite.

A Dissertation on the Life and Theology of Orpheus: Section II

SECT. II.

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