90 modern than the above period, as it must have been so easy to detect the forgery, from the original initiations which were even extant at the time in which Suidas lived.
In the former part of this Dissertation, we asserted that we should derive all our information concerning the Orphic theology, from the writings of the Platonists; not indeed without reason.
For this sublime theology descended from Orpheus to Pythagoras, and from Pythagoras to Plato; as the following testimonies evince.
"Timæus (says Proclus) f being a Pythagorean, follows the Pythagoric principles, and these are the Orphic traditions; for what Orpheus delivered mystically in secret discourses, these Pythagoras learned p.
91 when he was initiated by Aglaophemus in the Orphic mysteries." Syrianus too makes the Orphic and Pythagoric principles to be one and the same; and, according to Suidas, the same Syrianus composed a book, entitled the Harmony of Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato g .
And again Proclus h : it is Pythagorical to follow the Orphic genealogies; for from the Orphic tradition downward by Pythagoras, the science concerning the Gods was derived to the Greeks." And elsewhere i , "All the theology of the Greeks is the progeny of the sacred initiations (μυσαγωγιαι) of Orpheus.
For Pythagoras first learned the orgies of the Gods from Aglaophemus; but Plato was the second who received a p.
92 perfect science of these, both from the Pythagoric, and Orphic writings." Now in consequence of these testimonies, our hymns ought to agree with the doctrine of Pythagoras; especially since Onomacritus, their Author, was of that school.
And that .they do so, the following discovery abundantly evinces.
Photius, in his Bibliotheca, has preserved to us part of a valuable work, written by Nicomachus the Pythagorean, entitled Theological Arithmetic; in which he ascribes particular epithets, and the names of various divinities to numbers, as far as to ten.
There is likewise a curious work of the same title, by an anonymous writer, which is extant only in manuscript.
From these two, and from occasional passages respecting numbers according to Pythagoras, found in the Platonic writers, Meursius p.
93 has composed a book, which he calls Denarius Pythagoricus; and which is an invaluable treatise to such as are studious of the ancient philosophy.
On perusing this learned book, it seemed to me necessary, that as the divinities, ascribed to each number, had a particular relation to one another, they should also have a mutual agreement in the following hymns.
And on the comparison I found the most perfect similitude: a few instances of which I shall select, leaving a more accurate investigation of this matter to the learned and philosophical reader.
In the first place then, among the various names ascribed to the monad or unity, are those of the following Gods; viz.
the Sun, Jupiter, Love, Proteus, Vesta.
Now in the hymn to the Sun we find the epithet , O immortal p.
94 Jove.
In that to Love πυρίδρομος, or wandering fire, which is likewise found in the hymn, to the Sun.
In the hymn to Love, that deity is celebrated as having the keys of all things k ; viz.
of æther, heaven, the deep, the earth, &c.
And Proteus is invoked as possessing the keys of the deep l .
Themes
◆Divine Hiddennesstheology
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The theology is described as delivered 'mystically in secret discourses' and through initiations.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
References to 'sacred initiations', 'orgies of the Gods', and the Neoplatonic context (Proclus, Syrianus) imply ritual engagement with divine powers.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
[auto] The author argues for a 'perfect similitude' and mutual agreement between the numerical structure of divinity and the epithets found in the hymns.
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
[auto] The passage describes a 'two-fold power' in celestial orbs consisting of knowledge and vivifying forces, often divided into male and female principles.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
[auto] The Monad is explicitly discussed as the number one associated with specific gods like the Sun and Jupiter in the Pythagorean framework presented.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
[auto] The passage extensively details the correspondence between Pythagorean numbers (Monad through Decad) and specific divine epithets and deities within the Orphic hymns.