Note 390 — Chapter IV · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ORPHICI

κύκλου τ’ ἀλλῦσαι καὶ ἀναψῦξαι κακότητος. The line is attributed to Orpheus by Simplicius in his Commentary on Aristotle, de Caelo, II. p. 168 (ed. Karsten). According to Proclus, in Plat. Tim. V. 380 A, B, it was part of a prayer which Orphics used when being initiated in the mysteries of “Demeter and Cora.” The Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration and its adoption by the Orphics are well set out by Luebbert in his Commentatio de Pindaro dogmatis de migratione animarum cultore, Bonn, 1887, q.v.