[40] The Cataposis of Phanês by Zeus one of the most memorable
points of the Orphic Theogony. Lobeck, p. 519.; also Fragm. vi.
p. 456 of Hermann’s Orphica.
From this absorption and subsequent reproduction of all things by
Zeus, flowed the magnificent string of Orphic predicates about
him,—
Ζεὺς ἀρχὴ, Ζεὺς μέσσα, Διὸς δ᾽ ἐκ πάντα τέτυκται,—
an allusion to which is traceable even in Plato, de Legg. iv. p.
715. Plutarch, de Defectu Oracul. T. ix. p. 379. c. 48. Diodôrus
(i. 11) is the most ancient writer remaining to us who mentions
the name of Phanês, in a line cited as proceeding from Orpheus;
wherein, however, Phanês is identified with Dionysos. Compare
Macrobius, Saturnal. i. 18.
But there is one new personage, begotten by Zeus, who stands
preëminently marked in the Orphic Theogony, and whose adventures
constitute one of its peculiar features. Zagreus, “the horned child,”
is the son of Zeus by his own daughter Persephonê: he is the favorite
of his father, a child of magnificent promise, and predestined, if he
grow up, to succeed to supreme dominion as well as to the handling
of the thunderbolt. He is seated, whilst an infant, on the throne
beside Zeus, guarded by Apollo and the Kurêtes. But the jealous Hêrê
intercepts his career and incites the Titans against him, who, having
first smeared their faces with plaster, approach him on the throne,
tempt his childish fancy with playthings, and kill him with a sword
while he is contemplating his face in a mirror. They then cut up his
body and boil it in a caldron, leaving only the heart, which is picked
up by Athênê and carried to Zeus, who in his wrath strikes down the
Titans with thunder into Tartarus; whilst Apollo is directed to collect
the remains of Zagreus and bury them at the foot of Mount Parnassus.
The heart is given to Semelê, and Zagreus is born again from her under
the form of Dionysos.[41]
[41] About the tale of Zagreus, see Lobeck, p. 552, _sqq._ Nonnus
in his Dionysiaca has given many details about it:—
Ζαγρέα γειναμένη κέροεν βρέφος, etc. (vi. 264).
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