Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

200 Meusinian andguardian deity, dissolving at his pleasure thebonds by which the soul is united to thebody, since he is the cause of a parted life.But it is necessary that the passive or feminine nature of our irrational part, throughwhich we are bound in body, and which isnothing more than the resounding echo,as itwere, of soul, should suffer the punishmentincurred by descent ;aside the [divine]for when the soul castspeculiarity of her nature,she requires her own, but at the same time amultiform body, that she may again becomein need of a common form, which she haslost through Titanic dispersioninto matter.But in order to see the perfect resemblance between the manner in which oursouls descend and the dividing of the intuitive intellect by mundane natures, let thereader attend to the following admirablecitation from the manuscript Commentaryof Olympiodorus on the Phcedo .of Plato :"It is necessary, first of all, for the soul toplace a likeness of herself in the body. Thisis to ensoul the body. Secondly,it is neces-