DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0025
15
24. In this universal character, he is celebrated by the Greek
poets under the title of Love or Attraction, the first principle of
animation; the father of gods and men; and the regulator and
disposer of all things.1 He is said to pervade the universe with
the motion qfi his wings, bringing pure light: and thence to be
called the splendid, the self-illumined, the ruling Priapus ? light
being considered, in this primitive philosophy, as the great nutri-
tive principle of all things.3 Wings are attributed to him as the
emblems of spontaneous motion; and he is said to have sprung
from the egg of night, because the egg was the ancient symbol of
organic matter in its inert state ; or, as Plutarch calls it, the material
of generation,* containing the seeds and germs of life and motion
without being actually possessed of either. It was, therefore, car-
ried in procession at the celebration of the mysteries, for which
reason, Plutarch, in the passage above cited, declines entering
into a more particular disquisition concerning its nature ; the Pla-
tonic Interlocutor, in the Dialogue, observing, that though a
small question, it comprehended a very great one, concerning the
generation of the world itself, known to those who understood the
Orphic and sacred language; the egg being consecrated, in the
Bacchic mysteries, as the image of that, which generated and con-
tained all things in itself.*
3"W—■ I —n————a.....—W ...... II I II II.....■»! I IWi—«BB
1 See Aristoph, OpviS. 693. ed. Brunk. Hesiod. Theogon. 116. Parmenid.
apud Stoba\ c. xii. Orph. Hymn. v. xxix. et lvii.
1--Traixcpaes epvos,
oo~o~o>y ds ffKoroecraav aurifj-avpucyas S^ix^v,
iravrrj divrjtis TTTtpvyoiy pmais Kara Kofffioy,
\ap.Trpov ayaiv <paos ayvoy' a<p' ov ere (payrira KUiKriaKov,
7)0'i] T\pi7\i:ov ayaKTa, KO.L avravyr] eAi/ca)7TW.
Orph. Hymn. V. v. 5.
: 3 ci to 6vf]t{av fj.71 Ka,raitxxvV£(T^ iTl
Yeye(?/\a, rrjy yow Trayra ^otTKovcray (pKoya
aiSeio-e' otostos ?j\iou. Sophocl. CEd. Tyr. 14$7.
+ 'tAtj tt]S yevtfft&s. Sympos. lib. ii. q. 3.
5 Ey juecrov et'AKe rrpo/SAr/^a irepi rov uou /cat ttjs opviQos, frxorcpov yevoiro Trporepoy av<
Kdl 2uAAas 6 traipos, zvnwv, <5ti it»cpw Trpo@XTyia.Tl, Kada-nep opyavip, fieya teal $apv
o-aMvo^tey to irepi tov KOfffiou ttjs yevzeews, aTrqyoptvo'e.--aeir/w ^vveTOLtti tov
GptpiKov icai Upov Koyoy, os ovic opvi&os fxovoy to aw cnTotpaiyei Tvpt=ff$vTepoy, aAAa kui
cuWafiuy airaffay avrtp rrjy a-rrayTcoy 6/j.ov Trpstrfivytyziav avaTiOrjOi' Hat r aAAa y.tv
24. In this universal character, he is celebrated by the Greek
poets under the title of Love or Attraction, the first principle of
animation; the father of gods and men; and the regulator and
disposer of all things.1 He is said to pervade the universe with
the motion qfi his wings, bringing pure light: and thence to be
called the splendid, the self-illumined, the ruling Priapus ? light
being considered, in this primitive philosophy, as the great nutri-
tive principle of all things.3 Wings are attributed to him as the
emblems of spontaneous motion; and he is said to have sprung
from the egg of night, because the egg was the ancient symbol of
organic matter in its inert state ; or, as Plutarch calls it, the material
of generation,* containing the seeds and germs of life and motion
without being actually possessed of either. It was, therefore, car-
ried in procession at the celebration of the mysteries, for which
reason, Plutarch, in the passage above cited, declines entering
into a more particular disquisition concerning its nature ; the Pla-
tonic Interlocutor, in the Dialogue, observing, that though a
small question, it comprehended a very great one, concerning the
generation of the world itself, known to those who understood the
Orphic and sacred language; the egg being consecrated, in the
Bacchic mysteries, as the image of that, which generated and con-
tained all things in itself.*
3"W—■ I —n————a.....—W ...... II I II II.....■»! I IWi—«BB
1 See Aristoph, OpviS. 693. ed. Brunk. Hesiod. Theogon. 116. Parmenid.
apud Stoba\ c. xii. Orph. Hymn. v. xxix. et lvii.
1--Traixcpaes epvos,
oo~o~o>y ds ffKoroecraav aurifj-avpucyas S^ix^v,
iravrrj divrjtis TTTtpvyoiy pmais Kara Kofffioy,
\ap.Trpov ayaiv <paos ayvoy' a<p' ov ere (payrira KUiKriaKov,
7)0'i] T\pi7\i:ov ayaKTa, KO.L avravyr] eAi/ca)7TW.
Orph. Hymn. V. v. 5.
: 3 ci to 6vf]t{av fj.71 Ka,raitxxvV£(T^ iTl
Yeye(?/\a, rrjy yow Trayra ^otTKovcray (pKoya
aiSeio-e' otostos ?j\iou. Sophocl. CEd. Tyr. 14$7.
+ 'tAtj tt]S yevtfft&s. Sympos. lib. ii. q. 3.
5 Ey juecrov et'AKe rrpo/SAr/^a irepi rov uou /cat ttjs opviQos, frxorcpov yevoiro Trporepoy av<
Kdl 2uAAas 6 traipos, zvnwv, <5ti it»cpw Trpo@XTyia.Tl, Kada-nep opyavip, fieya teal $apv
o-aMvo^tey to irepi tov KOfffiou ttjs yevzeews, aTrqyoptvo'e.--aeir/w ^vveTOLtti tov
GptpiKov icai Upov Koyoy, os ovic opvi&os fxovoy to aw cnTotpaiyei Tvpt=ff$vTepoy, aAAa kui
cuWafiuy airaffay avrtp rrjy a-rrayTcoy 6/j.ov Trpstrfivytyziav avaTiOrjOi' Hat r aAAa y.tv