Who scatterest the twilight clouds of darkness from the eyes,
And roamest throughout the world upon the flight of thy wings,
Who bringest forth the pure and brilliant light, wherefore I invoke thee as Phanes,
As Priapus the king, and as dazzling fountain of splendour.
Come, then, blessed being, full of wisdom and generation, come in joy
To thy sacred, ever-varying mystery. Be present with the Priests of thy Orgies.
From Orpheus.3
What Orpheus has asserted upon the subject is as follows: "From the beginning the Ether was manifested in time," evidently having been fabricated by God: "and on every side of the Ether was the Chaos; and gloomy Night enveloped and obscured all things which were under the Ether." by attributing to Night a priority, he intimates the explanation to be, that there existed an incomprehensible nature, and a being supreme above all others, and pre-existing, the demiurgus of all things, as well of the Ether itself (and of the night)4 as of all the creation which existed and was concealed under the Ether. Moreover he says, "Earth was invisible on account of the darkness: but the Light broke through the Ether, and illuminated the Earth and all the material of the creation:" signifying by this Light, which burst forth through the Ether, the before-mentioned being who was supreme above all things: "and its name," which Orpheus learnt from the oracle, is Metis, Phanes, Ericepus," which in the common Greek language may be translated will (or counsel), light, life-giver; signifying, when explained, that these three powers of the three names are the one power and strength of the only God, whom no one ever beheld, and of whose power no one can have an idea or comprehend the nature. "By this power all things were produced, as well incorporeal principles as the sun and moon, and their influences, and all the stars, and the earth and the sea, and all things that are visible and invisible in them. And man," says he, "was formed by this God out of the earth, and endued with a reasonable soul," in like manner as Moses has revealed.--"J. Malala", p. 89.--"Ced.--Suidas v. Orpheus."
From Orpheus.
Metis bearing the seed of the Gods, whom the blessed
Inhabitants of Olympus call Phanes Protogonus.
"In Crat."
And Metis, the first father, and all-delightful Eros.
"In Tim. II." 102.
Soft Eros and inauspicious Metis.
"Ib". 181.
Metis bearing the generation of the Gods, illustrious Ericepus.
From Orpheus.
Orpheus has the following theological speculation in allusion to Phanes. Therefore the first God bears with himself the heads of animals, many and single, of a bull, of a serpent, and of a fierce lion, and they sprung from the primeval egg in which the animal is seminally contained.
"Proc. in Tim."
From The Ancient Theologists.
The theologist places around him the heads of a ram, a bull, a lion, and a dragon, and assigns him first both the male and female sex.
Female and father is the mighty god Ericapus.
To him also the wings are first given.
"Proc. in Tim."
From The Ancient Theologists.5
They, the theologists, assert that Night and Heaven (Ouranus) reigned, and before these their most mighty father.
Who distributed the world to Gods and Mortals,
Over which he first reigned, the illustrious Ericepus,
After whom reigned Night,
Having in her hands the excellent sceptre of Ericepus,
After whom Heaven (Ouranus),
Who first reigned over the Gods after his mother Night.
From The Ancient Theologists.
In short, that to the power of the Sun is to be referred the control and supremacy of all things, is indicated by the theologists, who make it evident in the mysteries by the following short invocation.
Oh, all-ruling Sun, Spirit of the world, Power of the world, Light of the world.--"Macrob. Sat." lib. i. c. 23.
Next
Footnotes
1 Eusebius and Proclus omit the fifth and sixth verses between the parentheses. Aristotle places the fourth before the third.
2 This cosmogony is delivered by the Birds in the comedy so called, and in this line they claim the priority of birth before the gods as well as men.
3 I have given this fragment from Malala, in whose text it appears to be less corrupted. It was originally preserved by Timotheus, who has evidently endeavoured to explain it upon Christian principles. His parenthetical explanations have been considered as part of the Orphic text, and been the cause of its obscurity. Without tampering with the text, I have endeavoured to restore it in the translation to its original purity. It is, doubtless, the same passage from the theogony of Orpheus, commented upon by Damascius. See infra.
4 Omitted by Ced.
5 This extract from a MS. of Syrian is is given by Lobeck, Aglaophamus I. 577, and a translation of it with the Orphic lines from a MS. of Gale, was first given by Mr. Taylor, Class. Jour. Xvii. 163.