Note 391 — Chapter IV · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ORPHICI

All these prohibitions persisted, and we meet with them in nearly all the religions hereafter described including the Manichaean. The filiation may well be direct, as such sects as the Valentinians grew up in an atmosphere of Orphic teaching. If, however, it should appear that the Orphic notions on this subject were derived from some Western Asiatic source, it is plain that the Ophites and Manichaeans may have drawn theirs from the same fount and independently.