He shall partake of the life of the gods, and he shall see
Heroes mingled with gods, and he too shall be seen by them.
And he shall rule a peaceful world with his father’s virtues.”
[111]. Δίκη (Justice), daughter of Zeus and Themis, who, after the Golden Age, forsook the degenerate earth.
[112]. Thanks to this eclogue, Virgil later attained the honor of being a semi-Christian poet. To this he owes his position as guide to Dante.
[113]. Both are represented not only as Christian, but also as Pagan. Essener and Therapeuten were quasi orders of the Anchorites living in the desert. Probably, as, for instance, may be learned from Apuleius (“Metamorphoses,” lib. XI), there existed small settlements of mystics or consecrated ones around the sacred shrines of Isis and Mithra. Sexual abstinence and celibacy were also known.
[114]. .sp 1
“Below the hills, a marshy plain
Infects what I so long have been retrieving:
This stagnant pool likewise to drain