Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

58 Eleusinian andTerribiles visu formae ; Lethumque Laborque ;Turn consanguineus Lethi Sopor et mala mentisGaudia, mortiferiimqiie adverse in limine bellumFerreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens,Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis.In medio ramos annosaque brachia panditUlmus opaea ingens:quam sedem somnia vulgoVana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent.Multaque praeterea variarurn monstra ferarum :Centauri in foribus stabulant, Scyllgeque biformes,Et centumgeminus Briareus, ac bellua Lernaa,Horrendum stridens, flammisque armata Chimasra,Gorgones Harpyiaaque, et formo tricorporis umbras.*And surely it is impossible to draw a morelively pictureof the maladies with which a* "Before the entrance itself, and in the first jaws of Hell, Griefand vengeful Cares have placed their couches ;pale Diseases inhabit there, and sad Old Age, and Fear, and Want, evil goddessof persuasion, and unsightly Poverty forms terrible to contemplate! and there, too, are Death and Toil; then Sleep, akin toDeath, and evil Delights of mind and; upon the opposite thresholdareseen death-bringing War, and the iron marriage-couches ofthe Furies, and raving Discord, with her viper-hair bound withgory wreaths. In the midst, an Elm dark and huge expands itsboughs and aged limbs; making an abode which vain Dreams aresaid to haunt, and under whose every leaf they dwell.these, are many monstrous apparitions of various wild beasts.Besides allCentaurs harbor at the gates, and double-formed Scyllas, the hunThedred-fold Briareus, the Snake of Lerna, hissing dreadfully, andChimasra armed with flames, the Gorgous and the Harpies,the shades of three-bodied form."and