Note 427 — Chapter IV · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ORPHICI

In a hymn preserved for us by Hippolytus (Philosophumena, Bk V. c. 1, p. 176, Cruice) the “multiform Attis,” who has just been declared “in a hymn of the Great Mysteries” to be the god who is called Adonis, Osiris, Adam (by the Samothracians), Corybas and Pappas, is thus addressed: “I will sing Attis, son of Rhea, not with the sound of trumpets, nor with the Idaean flutes in harmony with the songs of the Curetes. But I will mingle with my lay Phoebus’ music of lutes. Evoe Evan, since thou art Pan, since thou art Bacchus, since thou art the shepherd of white stars.” In the address to Musaeus with which the collection of Orphic Hymns begins, the Mother of the Gods, Attis, Men, Aphrodite Urania, and Adonis are invoked together. See Abel’s Orphica, p. 58. In Roman times Attis and Sabazius seem to be identified, while Adonis is often confounded with them. See Maury, Rel. de la Grèce, III. p. 102 and n. 4.