Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

"64 Eleusinian andCerberus haec ingens latratu regna trifauciPersonat, adverse recubans immanis in antro.*ViByCerberus we must understand the discriminative part of the soul, of which a dog,on account of its sagacity, is an emblem and;the three heads signify the triple distinctionof this part, into the intellective [or intuitional], cogitative [or rational], and opinionativepowers./ With respect f to the threekinds of personsdescribed as situated on theborders of the infernal realms, the poetdoubtless intended by this enumeration torepresent tous the three most remarkable* "At length across the river safe, the prophetess and the man,he lands upon the slimy strand, upon the blue sedge. Huge Cerberus makes these realms [of death] resound with barking from histhreefold throat, as he lies stretched at prodigious length in theopposite cave."tin the second edition these terms are changed to dianoieticand doxastic, words which we cannot adopt, as they are notaccepted English terms. The no-us, intellect or spirit, pertainsto the higher or intuitional part of the mind; the dianoia orunderstanding to the reasoning faculty, and the doxa, or opinionformingpower, to the faculty of investigation. Plotinus, accepting this theory of mind, says: Knowledge has three degreesopinion, science, and illumination. The means or instrument ofthe first is reception ;of the second, dialectic ;of the third, intuition." A. W.