Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

"The98 Eleusinian andPrincipio casluni ac terras, camposque liquentesLucentemque globum luuse, Titaniaque astraSpiritus intus alit, totumque infusa per artusMens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.Inde hominum peeudumque genus, vitseque volantum,Et qu8B marmoreo fert monstra sub sequore pontus.Igneus est ollis vigor, et cselestis origoSeminibus, quantum non noxia corpora tardant,Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra.Hinc metuunt cupiuntque:dolent, gaudentque : neque aurasDespiciunt clausa tenebris et carcere caeco.*For the sources of the soul sexistence arealso the principles from which it fell; andthese, as we maylearn from theTimmis ofPlato, are the Demiurgus, the mundane soul,and the junior or mundane gods.f Now, of* "First of all the interior spirit sustains the heaven and earthand watery plains, the illuminated orb of the moon, and the Titanianstars ;and the Mind, diffused through all the members, givesenergy to the whole frame, and mingles with the vast body [of theuniverse]. Thence proceed the race of men and beasts, the vitalsouls of birds and the brutes which the Ocean breeds beneathits smooth surface. In them all is a potency like fire, and acelestial origin as to the rudimentary principles, so far as theyare not clogged by noxious bodies. They are deadened by earthlyforms and members subject to death ;hence they fear and desire,grieve and rejoice ;nor do they, thus enclosed in darkness andthe gloomy prison,t Timceus.xliv.behold the heavenly air."Deity (Demiurgus) himself formed thedivine; and then delivered over to his celestial offspring [the