dominates, both Zeus and Dionysos fade away into Helios, who becomes Zeus Dionysos, sire of sea, of earth, of all things.' The poet thus concludes his description of the kosmic Zeus-Dionysos Would you behold his head and his fair face, It is the resplendent heaven, round which his golden locks On each side are the two golden taurine horns, The risings and settings, the tracks of the celestial gods; His infallacious mind the royal incorruptible ether.1 The golden horns or track of the solar photosphere belong to Dionysos as Chrysokeros.2 Subsection V.-The Neo-Platonik Orphik Hymns. The eighty-eight so-called Orphik Hymns which have come down to us are evidently the work of Neo-Platonists, though, perhaps, some fragments of them may be of earlier date; but they are, nevertheless, interesting in many respects as presenting to a considerable extent 'a faithful reflection of ancient ideas.'3 Many points relating to Dionysos which occur in them I notice elsewhere. Hymn xxix. describes him as the son of Persephone, and Hymn xliv. as the son of Semele. This, however, is not contradictory, even supposing that Persephone and Semele are two distinct personages; for the god is also said to be Dimetor, Bimatris, Son-of-twomothers. He is the son of Semele from his connection with the Phoenician house of Kadmos, and he is the son of Persephone, daughter (Kore) of earth (Demeter), in consequence of his kosmogonic affinities. The Awful Damsel represents what we might really expect from 6 1 Cory, Ancient Fragments, 290. 2 Vide inf. IV. iii. 2, VIII. i. IX. iii. iv. 3 Cf. Poseidon, xl. Hymn 1. 1, lii. 9. her position as Queen of the Under-world: a mixture of Pelasgic and Eastern traditions.' But the concept of Dionysos as son of Persephone, though not contradictory, is necessarily posterior to that of Dionysos as son of the daughter of Kadmos. The foreign god, as such, is the son of a Phoenician mother; and afterwards, when his nature is found to be kosmogonic, he becomes with equal propriety the son of a mysterious kosmogonic and chthonian goddess. In Hymn xxiv. 10, the poet, addressing the Nereïdes, says : You at first disclosed the rites divine Of holy Bacchus and of Proserpine.-Taylor. What possible connection there can be between the innocent sea-nymphs, daughters of Nereus, the true Aryan sea-god and rival of the Semitic Poseidon, and the Phoenician Dionysos, and Persephone the majestic' and 'terrible,' it is difficult to say, unless, indeed, the statement is the poetic expression of the fact that the cult of the two mysterious divinities came by sea into Hellas. Many of the lines of the Hymns consist of strings of adjectival epithets illustrating the almost numberless phases of the god, some very ancient, some comparatively modern. All the more important of these will be separately noticed under the head of Dionysiak Nomenclature.3 Hymn xxxi. connects the Kouretes, legendary inhabitants of Akarnania, Kyretis (Aitolia), and Krete, with Dionysos and Persephone. The connection is not Hellenik, and points towards Phoenicia, and Asia Minor, the home of mingled people,' Semitic, Aryan, and Turanic. Hymn xlii. invokes Dionysos under the name of Mise, as the sexless spirit of kosmic life, who, like Zeus Kerastes, is the mixer of all things.' The Law-giver I 1 Cf. Gladstone, Juv. Mun. 309 et seq. Cf. Poseidon, vi. Vide inf. VIII. i. 4 Cf. IV. iii. 2. 5 Vide inf. VIII. i. Thesmophoros. invoke, narthexbearing1 Dionysos, many-named Eubouleus, and holy Mise,3 mysterious queen, male and female, two-natured Iakchos.'4 And the poet proceeds to connect this strange being particularly with Phrygia, Kypros, and Egypt. Hymn xlv. is inscribed to Dionysos Bassareus Trieterikos, in whose honour a trieteris, or triennial festival, was held. The epithet also applies to several other deities, especially Poseidon. Various epithets, also, connected with the Bull are ascribed to Dionysos in the Hymns; this connection, again, is entirely Semitic, and will be fully noticed and illustrated subsequently.7 Hymn xlvi. is addressed to Dionysos as Liknites, i.e. bearing the liknon, or fan-shaped basket, which, filled with fruit and offerings, was carried in the Bakchik festivals. Hymn xlvii. is addressed to Dionysos as Perikionios, or the Twiner-round-the-pillars, 10 because, when he shook the Theban land,11 he preserved the house of Kadmos. Hymn xlviii. is addressed to Sabazios, the Phrygian phase of Dionysos,12 who is here described as having, like Zeus, inserted the infant Dionysos in his thigh. Thus, at a comparatively late date, varient forms of the same divinity came to be regarded as distinct beings. Hymn 1. is addressed to Dionysos as Lysios,13 Lenaios,14 the god of the wine-press, who frees men from care. In Hymn li. 3, the Nymphs are called the Nurses of Bakchos.15 This connection is older than the Homerik Poems.16 Hymn lii. addressed to Dionysos as Trieterikos,17 is almost one continued string of epithets, including Bakcheus, Taurokeros, 7'08. 1 Vide inf. VIII. i. Narthekophoros. 2 Vide ibid. Eubouleus. 3 Vide ibid. Mise. 4 Vide ibid. Iakchos. 5 Vide inf. V. i. VIII. i. Bassareus. 6 Vide inf. VIII. ii. Bull. 7 Inf. IV. iii. 2, IX. iii. Tauroke 8 Vide inf. VIII. i. Liknites. • Inf. VI. i. 10 Vide inf. VIII. i. Perikionios. 12 Inf. V. ii. VIII. i. Sabazios. 14 The Festival of the Lenaia is noticed, inf. VI. i. 15 Vide inf. IV. i. 3. 16 Cf. Hom. Hymn, xxiv. Sup. sec. i. 5. 17 Vide sup. 6 Nysios, Eubouleus, Liknites, Protogonos, Erikepaios, Omadios, Keros, Dimetor, Bassareus, Nebridostolos, Polyparthenos, many of which have already been more or less illustrated, and all of which will be again referred to.1 Hymn liii. is addressed to Dionysos as Amphietes, or Having-a-yearly-festival, an epithet to which the god was well entitled. This is Dionysos Chthonios, a divinity of the Under-world, who, for a season, sleeps in the sacred abode of Persephone.' Hymn liv. is addressed to the Satyr Seilenos, the nurturer or foster-father of Dionysos. The Satyroi and Seilenoi appear to be conceptions more Aryan than Semitic, and their connection with Dionysos is not one of the earliest features in his history. Mr. Cox, however, with considerable probability, regards the ass of Seilenos as a link between him and the East, and observes, The grotesque form which Seilenos is made to assume may be an exaggeration of the western Greeks, who saw in the ass which bore him a mere sign of his folly and absurdity, while it points rather to the high value set on the ass by Eastern nations. It was, in fact, the symbol of his wisdom and his prophetical powers, and not the mere beast of burden which, in Western myths, staggered along under the weight of an unwieldly drunkard.'4 Hymn lv. addressed to the Semitic Aphrodite, Kyprogenes,5 or Kypros-born, describes her as the associate of Bakchos.' Both divinities are alluded to as personages, and not as mere representatives of Love and Wine, and the connection is altogether Semitic and Phoenician. Hymn lvi. is addressed to Adonis, the wellknown Phoenician god Adon, the Hebrew Adonai or Lord. Adonis, be it observed, is with the Hymn-writer only another name for Dionysos, and so he is Polyonymos, 6 the many-named, the best of heavenly beings,' as Zagreus and Iao are the highest of gods.' So Adonis is Eubouleus, the Wise-counselling, and Dikeros, the Twohorned, 'nourisher of all,' i.e. vital power of the world, 'male and female;' or, as Shelley says, 'a sexless thing it seemed,' in fact the two-natured Iakchos.' Ever fresh and vigorous, he is, like Dionysos, both solar and kosmogonic. Adonis, ever flourishing and bright; At stated periods doom'd to set and rise And shine again thro' heaven's illustrious round. Taylor. Dionysos, Adonis, Iao, 'these three agree in one.' Hymn lxxiv. is addressed to Leukotheë, daughter of Kadmos, 'a nurturer of Dionysos,' and also called Ino; and Hymn lxxv. to her son Paleimon, 'nurtured with Dionysos,' and also called Melikertes.1 It is unnecessary to enter more fully into the varied detail of these Hymns. Many points connected with them will be noticed and illustrated in different parts of the Work; and they are here referred to, not as being themselves of high antiquity, but as having preserved to a considerable extent the aroma of an archaic period, although mingled with, and often almost overpowered by, the stupifying incense of a comparatively modern mysticism.2 Subsection VI.-Neo-Platonism. The learned reader will observe that I have carefully avoided and shall not, except in this subsection, allude to the arbitrary mysticism rightly styled Neo-Platonism, that 1 As to Ino and Melikertes, vide 2 Vide subsec. vi. inf. VI. i. 2. |