Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

52 Eleusinian andmm [abyss] of body, L e. into profounddarkness and oblivion, is through the medium of a material nature ;and this mediumis surrounded by the black bosom of Cocytus,*that is, by bitter weeping and lamentations, the necessary consequence of the soul sunion with a nature entirely foreign to herown. So that the poet in this particular perfectly corresponds with Empedocles in theline we have cited above, where he exclaims,alluding to this union,For this I weep, for this indulge my icoe,That e er my soul such novel realms should know.In the next place, he thus describes thecave, through which -/Eneas descended tothe infernal regions:Spelunca alta fuit, vastoque immanis hiatu,Scrupea, tuta lacu nigro, memorumque tenebris :Quam super haud ullae poterant impune volantesTendere iterpennis: talis sese halitus atrisFaucieus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat:Unde locum Graii dixerunt nomine Aornum 1* Cocytus, lamentation, a river in the Underworld,t Davidson sTranslation."There was a cave profound andhideous, with wide yawning mouth, stony, fenced by a black lake,