Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

"Bacchic Mysteries.121markable testimony of Olympiodorus, in hisexcellent manuscript Commentary on thePhcedo of Plato.* "In the sacred rites," sayshe,popular purificationsare in the firstplace brought forth, and after these such asare more arcane. But, in the third place,collections of various things into one are received ;after which follows inspection. ^Theethical and political virtues therefore areanalogous to the apparent purifications ;thecathartic virtues which banish all externalimpressions, correspond tothe more arcanepurifications.^ The theoretical energies aboutintelligibles, are analogous to the collections ;and the contraction of these energies into an*We have taken the liberty to present the following version ofthis passage, as more correctly expressing the sense of the original : "At the holy places are first the public purifications. Withthese the more arcane exercises follow ;and after those the obligations are (aostassi;)taken, and the initiations follow, endingwith the epoptic disclosures. So, as will be seen, the moral andsocial (political) virtues are analogous to the public purifications ;the purifying virtues in their turn, which take the place of alltheexternal matters, correspond to the more arcane disciplines ;contemplative exercises concerning things to be known intuitively to the taking of the obligations ; the including of them asan undivided whole, to the initiations ;and the simple ocular viewof simple objects to the epoptic revelations."