The Initiations of Orpheus: LXXXIII: To Vesta

LXXXIII.

TO VESTA.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS.

Daughter of Saturn, venerable dame,
The seat containing of unweary'd flame;  2

8

Footnotes

220:2 XXXIII. Ver. 2] The seat containing of unweary'd flame. Vesta is celebrated in this Hymn as the earth, and is the same with the mother of the Gods; as is evident from the Hymn to that divinity, in which she is expressly called Vesta. Now this perfectly agrees with the fragment of Philolaus the Pythagorean, preserved by Stobæus, in Eclog. Phys. p. 51. "Philolaus (says he) places fire in the middle at the centre, which he calls the Vesta of the universe, the house of Jupiter, the mother of the Gods, and the basis, coherence, and measure of nature." From whence it appears, that they are greatly mistaken who suppose the Pythagoreans meant the sun, by the fire at the centre: and this is still more evident, from the following words of Simplicius de Cælo, lib ii. Οἱ δὲ γνησίςερον ἀυτον μετασχόντες,

221:8 Ver. 8] Laughing and blessed. Proclus, in Plat. Rep. p. 384. observes, that we ought to interpret the laughter of the Gods as an exuberant operation in the universe; and the gladness of mundane concerns, under the providence of a divine cause. But since such a providence, says he, is incomprehensible, and is a never failing communication of all divine goods; we must allow that Homer justly calls the laughter of the Gods ἄσϐεςος {Greek á?sbesos} or inextinguishable. He adds, that fables do not represent the Gods as always weeping, but affirm that they laugh