Note 409 — Chapter IV · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ORPHICI

It has been suggested that this is a figure for the initiated dead receiving all that they wish. It should be noted, however, that in the Zoroastrian religion the flood of molten metal which is to burn the wicked is to feel to the faithful like warm milk. So N. Söderblom, La Vie Future d’après la Mazdéisme, Paris, 1901, p. 266, quoting the Dinkard and the Bundahish. The phrase is discussed by M. Salomon Reinach in Revue Archéol. 1901, II. pp. 202-213, and Cultes, Mythes et Religions, Paris, 1909, t. II. pp. 123-134. M. Alline, in Xenia, Athens, 1912, connects it with the supposed Orphic idea that blessed souls inhabit the Milky Way.