Hymn X (part 2)

For the World is one, and only-begotten. Opusc. Mythol. p. 203. 131:17 Ver. 17] The sportive nymphs . This is because Pan rejoices in the exhalations produced from humid substances; without which the world cannot subsist. Phurnutus . 131:22 Ver. 22.] In caves obscure . A cave, as we learn from Porphyry, de Antro Nympharum, is an apt symbol of the material world; since it is agreeable at its first entrance on account of p. 132 its participation of form, but is involved in the deepest obscurity to the intellectual eye, which endeavours to discern its dark foundation. So that, like a cave, its exterior and superficial parts are pleasant; but its interior parts are obscure, and its very bottom, darkness itself. 132:23 Ver 23.] True serpent-horned Jove . The reason why Pan is horned, is, because Jove is the mingler of all things, according to Orpheus, as we learn from Jo. Diac. Allegor. in Hesiod. p. 305; and the word κερασήσ is as Gesner observes, derived from the verb κεράννυμι, to mingle: so that horns are an occult symbol of the mingling and tempering power of the demiurgus of the world. But the literal meaning of the word κερασήσ is horned serpent; and one of the heads of Protogonus is that of a serpent. We may add that Pan considered as the soul of the world, is with great propriety called Jove; since that appellation is given by Orpheus to the mundane soul.