Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

Bacchic Mysteries. 165day the crier was accustomed to admonishthe mystae to betake themselves to the sea.Now the meaning of this will be easilyunderstood, by considering that, according tothe arcana of the ancient theology, as may belearned from Proclus, * the whole planetarysystem is under the dominion of Neptune;and this too is confirmed by MartianusCapella, who describes the several planetsas so many streams.fallsHence when the soulinto the planet Saturn, which Capellacompares to a river voluminous, sluggish,and cold, she then first merges herself intofluctuating matter, though purer than thatof a sublunary nature, and of which water isan ancient and significant symbol. Besides,the sea is an emblem of purity, as is evidentfrom the Orphic hymn to Ocean, inwhich thatdeity is called ftscov ayvtojia jisyioTGv, tlieonagnisma megiston, i. e. the greatest purifier ofthe gods : and Saturn, as we have alreadyobserved, is pure [intuitive] intellect. Andwhat still more confirms this observation is,that Pythagoras, as we are informed by Por-* Theology of Plato, book vi.