To Trietericus

p. 183

LI.

TO TRIETERICUS.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS.

BACCHUS fanatic, much-nam'd, blest, divine,
Bull-fac'd Lenæan, bearer of the vine;
From fire descended, raging, Nysian king,
From whom initial ceremonies spring:
Liknitan Bacchus, pure and fiery bright, 5
Prudent, crown-bearer, wandering in the night;
Pupil of Proserpine, mysterious pow'r,
Triple, ineffable, Jove's secret flow'r:
Ericapæus, first-begotten nam'd,
Of Gods the father, and the offspring fam'd: 10  ¹⁰
Bearing a sceptre, leader of the choir,
Whose dancing feet, fanatic Furies fire,
When the triennial band thou dost inspire.
Loud-sounding, Tages, of a fiery light,
Born of two mothers, Amphietus bright: 15

p. 184

Wand'ring on mountains, cloth'd with skins of deer,
Apollo, golden-ray'd, whom all revere.
God of the grape with leaves of ivy crown'd,
Bassarian, lovely, virgin-like, renown'd
Come blessed pow'r, regard thy mystics voice, 10
Propitious come, and in these rites rejoice.

Footnotes

183:10 Ver. 10.] Of Gods the father, &c. According to the fragment preserved by Ficinus, and translated in our Dissertation, Trietericus is the nostic power, or intellect of the Sun; and the Sun is in the sensible world, what Protogonus or Phanes is in the intelligible world, or, in other words, the Sun is the Phanes of the material world, for Trietericus is expressly called in this Hymn Protogonus. With perfect agreement, therefore, to the Orphic theology, Protogonus, considered as the first of the secret genera of the Gods, is the father of the Gods; but considered as the Sun of the material world, he is the offspring of the Gods.