Note 1411 — Chapter X · ORPHIC MYSTERIES. (continued 2)

The account of Psellus is for obvious reasons rather resumed than translated. Some of the rites recorded by Psellus are not in harmony with modern conventions, and for my purpose it is not needful to discuss them. But once for all I wish to record my conviction that such evil as we find in these mysteries we bring with us. The mind of Herondas is not the measure of primitive sanctities. The story of Babo or Baubo has always been a stumbling-block, but we know now that her action was a primitive and perfectly reverent προβασκάνιον; as such it is depicted on ancient amulets. Its significance and its apotropaic potency alike appear in the very early matriarchal legend of the Lycian Bellerophon (Plut. de mulier. virt. IX.). The true mystic said with Heracleitos (ap. Clem. Protr. II. p. 30): Εἰ μὴ γὰρ Διονύσῳ πομπὴν ἐποιεῦντο καὶ ὕμνεον ἆσμα αἰδοίοισιν, ἀναιδέστατα εἴργαστ’ ἄν· αὐτὸς δέ Ἀΐδης καὶ Διόνυσος ὅτεῳ μαίνονται καὶ ληναίζουσιν. See Pfleiderer, Die Philosophie des Heraklit im Lichte der Mysterienidee, p. 28.