XLI.
TO MISES.
The FUMIGATION from STORAX.
Call Thesmophorus * , spermatic God, Of various names, who bears the leafy rod: Mises, ineffable, pure, sacred queen, Two-fold Iacchus, male and female seen: Illustr'ous, whether to rejoice is thine In incense offer'd, in the fane divine + ; Or if in Phrygia most thy soul delights, Performing with thy mother sacred rites; Or if the land of Cyprus is thy care, Well pleas'd to dwell with Cytherea fair; 10 p.
174 Or if exulting in the fertile plains With thy dark mother Isis, where she reigns, 12 p.
175 With nurses pure attended, near the flood Of sacred Egypt, thy divine abode: p.
176 Wherever resident, blest pow'r attend, 15 And with benignant mind these labours end.
Footnotes 173:* Or the legislator.
173:+ Or Eleusina.
174:12 My dark mother Isis .
According to Plutarch, in his treatise of Isis and Osiris, Isis is the mother of Orus, who is called by the Greeks Apollo; and Iacchus it is well known is a mythic sirname of Bacchus.
Now Apollo is frequently called in the orphic writings Bacchus; as in the Hymn to that deity, Bacchian and Two-fold .
And Apollo, as we have frequently observed, is in the intelligible world, the king and father of the universe, Protogonus, or Ericapæus, and in the sensible world the Sun.
So that Mises or Bacchus is celebrated in this Hymn by the same appellations as are given to Protogonus and Apollo: for he is called spermatic, ineffable, male and female, &c.
which last appellation is given to Protogonus in the Orphic verse preserved by Proclus, lib.
ii.
in Timæum.
Θή#ισ καὶ γενέτωρ κρατερὸς ϑεὸς ὴρικεπαῖοσ That is, "Female and father (or male), strong God Ericapæus" Indeed it is common with the Orphic theologers, to celebrate causes as the same with effects, and effects with their causes; the supreme as the subordinate, and the subordinate as the supreme.
And this in consequence of the mysterious union, subsisting between all the divine orders, and through every part of the universe; every thing, except the first cause, being stamped as it were with the same great seals of ideas, and existing on this account in sympathy and similitude with natures, both superior and subordinate to its essence.
And here I cannot but take notice of the mistake of Macrobius, who imagines that all the Gods according to Orpheus, may be reduced to the Sun; the other divinities being but so many different appellations of that deity: for it is sufficiently evident to those who are skilled in the Orphic theology, that Orpheus was a Polytheist as well as a monarchist.
But this mistake of Macrobius is not wonderful; p.
175 as we may say of him what Plotinus said, on reading the book of Longinus concerning principles , φιλόλογοσ μὲν ὁ Λογγῖνοσ, φιλόσοφοσ δὲ ὐδαμῶσ, i.
e.
Themes
◆Apophatic Theologytheology
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The deity is described as 'ineffable,' indicating transcendence beyond full conceptual description.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
[auto] The commentary explicitly states that divine natures exist in sympathy and similitude with one another across superior and subordinate levels.
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.
[auto] The passage combines ritual fumigation with Neoplatonic commentary on engaging divine orders through sympathy and sacred names.