Note 1370 — Chapter X · ORPHIC MYSTERIES. (continued 2)

This passage is of such cardinal importance that the text is given below. The birth of Brimos and the ‘ear of grain reaped’ are often cited separately as elements in Eleusinian rites, but so far as I know their substantial identity has never been noted, nor has attention been called to the fact that they are both Dionysiac (Thraco-Phrygian) elements. The text is that of Cruice, Philosophoumena, Paris 1860, p. 170. Λέγουσι δὲ αὐτόν, φησί, Φρύγες καὶ ‘χλοερὸν στάχυν τεθερισμένον’ καὶ μετὰ τοὺς Φρύγας Ἀθηναῖοι μυοῦντες Ἐλευσίνια, καὶ ἐπιδεικνύντες τοῖς ἐποπτεύουσι τὸ μέγα καὶ θαυμαστὸν καὶ τελειότατον ἐποπτικὸν ἐκεῖ μυστήριον, ἐν σιωπῇ τεθερισμένον στάχυν. Ὁ δὲ στάχυς οὗτός ἐστι καὶ παρὰ Ἀθηναίοις ὁ παρὰ τοῦ ἀχαρακτηρίστου φωστὴρ τέλειος μέγας καθάπερ αὐτὸς ὁ ἱεροφάντης, οὐκ ἀποκεκομμένος μέν, ὡς ὁ Ἄττις, εὐνουχισμένος δὲ διὰ κωνείου καὶ πᾶσαν παρῃτημένος τὴν σαρκικὴν γένεσιν νυκτὸς ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι ὑπὸ πολλῷ πυρὶ τελῶν τὰ μεγάλα καὶ ἄρρητα μυστήρια βοᾷ καὶ κέκραγε λέγων ‘ἱερὸν ἔτεκε πότνια κοῦρον Βριμὼ Βριμόν,’ τουτέστιν ἰσχυρὰ ἰσχυρόν. Πότνια δέ ἐστι, φησίν, ἡ γένεσις ἡ πνευματική, ἡ ἐπουράνιος, ἡ ἄνω· ἰσχυρὸς δέ ἐστιν ὁ οὕτω γεννώμενος. φησίν of course refers to the Naassene not the Hierophant.