Whosoever Has Been Initiated In The Mysteries Of
The Cabeiroi, Which The Samothrakians Perform Having Received Them
From The Pelasgians,
That man knows the meaning of my speech; for
these very Pelasgians who became dwellers with the Athenians used to
Dwell before that time in Samothrake, and from them the Samothrakians
received their mysteries. So then the Athenians were the first of the
Hellenes who made the images of Hermes with the /phallos/, having
learnt from the Pelasgians; and the Pelasgians told a sacred story
about it, which is set forth in the mysteries in Samothrake. Now the
Pelasgians formerly were wont to make all their sacrifices calling
upon the gods in prayer, as I know from that which I heard at Dodona,
but they gave no title or name to any of them, for they had not yet
heard any, but they called them gods from some such notion as this,
that they had set in order all things and so had the distribution of
everything. Afterwards when much time had elapsed, they learnt from
Egypt the names of the gods, all except Dionysos, for his name they
learnt long afterwards; and after a time the Pelasgians consulted the
Oracle at Dodona about the names, for this prophetic seat is accounted
to be the most ancient of the Oracles which are among the Hellenes,
and at that time it was the only one. So when the Pelasgians asked the
Oracle at Dodona whether they should adopt the names which had come
from the Barbarians, the Oracle in reply bade them make use of the
names. From this time they sacrificed using the names of the gods, and
from the Pelasgians the Hellenes afterwards received them: but when
the several gods had their birth, or whether they all were from the
beginning, and of what form they are, they did not learn till
yesterday, as it were, or the day before: for Hesiod and Homer I
suppose were four hundred years before my time and not more, and these
are they who made a theogony for the Hellenes and gave the titles to
the gods and distributed to them honours and arts, and set forth their
forms: but the poets who are said to have been before these men were
really in my opinion after them. Of these things the first are said by
the priestesses of Dodona, and the latter things, those namely which
have regard to Hesiod and Homer, by myself.
As regards the Oracles both that among the Hellenes and that in Libya,
the Egyptians tell the following tale. The priests of the Theban Zeus
told me that two women in the service of the temple had been carried
away from Thebes by Phenicians, and that they had heard that one of
them had been sold to go into Libya and the other to the Hellenes; and
these women, they said, were they who first founded the prophetic
seats among the nations which have been named: and when I inquired
whence they knew so perfectly of this tale which they told, they said
in reply that a great search had been made by the priests after these
women, and that they had not been able to find them, but they had
heard afterwards this tale about them which they were telling.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 23 of 71
Words from 11608 to 12161
of 37770
