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| Chapter XV.—Testimony of Orpheus to monotheism.
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Chapter XV.—Testimony of Orpheus to
monotheism.
At all events, we must
remind you what Orpheus, who was, as one might say, your first teacher of
polytheism, latterly addressed to his son Musæus, and to the other
legitimate auditors, concerning the one and only God. And he spoke
thus:—
“I
speak to those who lawfully may hear:
All
others, ye profane, now close the doors,
And,
O Musæus! hearken thou to me,
Who
offspring art of the light-bringing moon:
The
words I utter now are true indeed;
And
if thou former thoughts of mine hast seen,
Let
them not rob thee of the blessed life,
But
rather turn the depths of thine own heart
Unto
the place where light and knowledge dwell.
Take
thou the word divine to guide thy steps,
And
walking well in the straight certain path,
Look
to the one and universal King—
One,
self-begotten, and the only One,
Of
whom all things and we ourselves are sprung.
All
things are open to His piercing gaze,
While
He Himself is still invisible.
Present
in all His works, though still unseen,
He
gives to mortals evil out of good,
Sending
both chilling wars and tearful griefs;
And
other than the great King there is none.
The
clouds for ever settle round His throne,
And
mortal eyeballs in mere mortal eyes
Are
weak, to see Jove reigning over all.
He
sits established in the brazen heavens
Upon
His golden throne; under His feet
He
treads the earth, and stretches His right hand
To
all the ends of ocean, and around
Tremble
the mountain ranges and the streams,
The
depths, too, of the blue and hoary sea.”
And again, in some other place he
says:—
“There
is one Zeus alone, one sun, one hell,
One
Bacchus; and in all things but one God;
Nor
of all these as diverse let me speak.”
And when he swears he says:—
“Now
I adjure thee by the highest heaven,
The
work of the great God, the only wise;
And
I adjure thee by the Father’s voice.
Which
first He uttered when He stablished
The
whole world by His counsel.”
What does he mean by “I adjure thee by the
Father’s voice, which first He uttered?” It is the Word of
God which he here names “the voice,” by whom heaven and earth
and the whole creation were made, as the divine prophecies of the holy
men teach us; and these he himself also paid some attention to in Egypt,
and understood that all creation was made by the Word of God; and
therefore, after he says, “I adjure thee by the Father’s
voice, which first He uttered,” he adds this besides, “when
by His counsel He established the whole world.” Here he calls the
Word “voice,” for the sake of the poetical metre. And that
this is so, is manifest from the fact, that a little further on, where
the metre permits him, he names it “Word.” For he
said:—
“Take thou the Word divine to guide thy
steps.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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