ORPHEUS. 
feems to be no reaion ul his fingle teftimony fhonld prepon- 
verfal confent of all antiquity, which 
ap On heues was the fon of Oa by birtha Thra- 
Homer, 
afhrming that he was — in pieces 7 women. For "which 
reafon, in the vifion of Herus Pamphylius, in Plato, Or- 
pheus’s foul, pafling into another body, is faid to have chofen 
d mufical animal, on account of the 
death which vad had poke on uk 
truth of Orp was not only acknowledg Plato, 
but alfo by Pres ace ne lived before ‘Aritotle, 3 in his ora- 
tion in praife of Butiris; and confirmed by the grave hifto- 
rian, Diodorus Siculus, who fays, that Orpheus a ceraed 
applied himfelf to literature, and when he had learned ra 
pd the mythological of ey. - tra- 
cae into Egypt, where he foon became the greate!t pro- 
ficient among the Greeks, in a vee of religion, theo- 
was this hiftory of Orpheus 
eligae myfteries of the G 
thence “ealled Threfkeia, as it wasa Thracianinvention. On 
ac of the great antiquity of Orpheus, there have been 
alpen fables intermingled with his hiftory, yet there 
appears no reafon that we fhould difbelieve the exiftence of 
fuch a man 
a myftagogue ; 
and it is ours, after e ing his ie to rank him 
among the firft cultivators of mufic and poetry, and to give 
him that exalted and refpectable ftation among illuftrious 
bards, which has been allowed him by z ona all antiquity. 
e family of Orpheus is traced by fir Ifaac Newton 
for feveral generations; ‘¢ Sefac pafling over oe Hellefpont, 
conquers Thrace, kills Lycurgus, king of that country, 
hi m, and one of his finging women, to 
Ocagrus, the fon of Tharops, and father of Orpheu 
hence Orpheus is faid to have had the mufe Calliope for 
his mother.’ 
He is allowed by moft ancient authors to have — in 
| 
Mufic was fo clofely connected in ancient 
moft fublime fciences, that Orpheus united 
with theology. He ab- 
nd p 
Egypt, as well as thofe of eee , Many ages 
The paffage in _— Ariftotle is faid to have denied the 
exiftence of Orpheus 1s loft, and it now refts on Cicero’s 
nd with ee to theslozy, Dio 
re us that his father Oeagrus gave him his firft inftru€tions 
to him the myfteries of Bacchus, as 
_He became afterwards 
new ideas concerning hea ceremonies nothing 
contributed fo much to his fkill in theological pad as 
his journey into Egypt, where, being initiated into the myf- 
teries of Ifis and Otis or of Ceres and Bacchus, he ac- 
quired a knowledge concerning fees expiations, fune- 
ral rites, and other points of religious w worthip, far fuperior 
t into Greece the whole fable of ‘Ofiris, 
e eafily received this tale, and were much flattered by the 
inftitution of the ceremonies in honour of Ofiris. “Chus 
rpheus, who wa aa reat veneration at the Grecian 
hebes, of w s become a citizen, admirably 
h he 
adapted this fable, and rendered it refpeQable, not only by 
his beautiful verfes, and manner of finging t ut 
the reputation he had bas ala "of being profoundly {killed 
in all religious concerns 
At his return mto Greece, according to Paufanias, he was 
held in the higheft veneration by the people, as they imagined 
he had difcovered the fecret of welder aid crimes, purifying 
criminals, curing difeafes, and appealing the angry gods. 
He formed and promulgated an idea of a hell, from the 
funeral ceremonies of Egyptians, which was receive 
throughout all He inftituted the myltteries and 
He rk pene the Eginetes, and that of Ceres 
and indeed 
are moftly pieces of incantation and real conjuration. 
the death BF his wife Eurydice, he retired to a place in 
Thefprotia, called Aornos, where an ancient oracle gave 
anfwers to fuch as evoked the dead. e there fancied he 
faw his dear Eurydice, and at his departure flattered himfelf 
that the followed him ; but upon looking behind him, and 
not feeing her, he was fo afflicted, that he foon died of 
grief, 
ief, 
5° 
o 
There were perfons among the ancients who made public 
ane ~ conjuring up gholts, and there were temples 
mony of conjuration was to be performed. 
eee eg ae of that which was in Thefprotia, where 
rpheus went to call up the ghoft of his wife Eurydice. 
It is this very journey, and the motive which put him upon 
it, that made it ie he went down isto heli. 
The iat ae pena this ftory, and given to the 
lyre of O 
Eurydice, upon condition that he wo ould not look at her, till 
he had quitted their dominions ; a bleffing which he foon for- 
feited, by a too eager and fatal affeGtion. 
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