Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

"56 Ehminian andAnd, leaving Earth s obscurity behind,By a light leap, directs his steps to thee.And that material demons actually appeared to the initiated previousvisions of the gods themselves,to the lucidis evidentfrom the following passage of Proclus inhis manuscript Commentary on the firstAlcibiades: sv TGUCa:rorcovayaihov etc"^v 6Xv]v -TupoxaXoDjJisvat./. e.In the most interior sanctities of the Mysteries, before the presence of the god, therushing forms of earthly demons appear, andcall the attention from the immaculate goodto matter." And Pletho (on the Oracles),expressly asserts, that these spectres appeared in the shape of dogs.After this, ^Eneas is described as proceeding to the infernal regions, through profoundnight and darkness :Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram,Perque domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna.of everything evil. But why the soul is thus immerged and punished is nowhere explained. A. W.