[192] Regarding the musical accompaniment to such ecstatic dances, Iamblichus propounds the extraordinary theory that the reason why certain sounds and melodies produce an ecstatic state is because before the soul entered the body it was “an auditor of divine harmony,” and when, being in the body, it hears these, it recollects the divine harmony and participates in it; hence the cause of the ecstatic state and the faculty of divination (De Mysteriis, III. 9 end).
[193] Die sequenti variis coloribus indusiati et deformiter quisque formati, facie caenoso pigmento delita et oculis obunctis graphice prodeunt, mitellis et crocotis et carbasinis et bambycinis iniecti, quidam tunicas albas in modum lanciolarum quoquoversum fluente purpura depictas cingulo subligati, pedes luteis induti calceis; deamque serico contectam amicuio mihi gerendam imponunt brachiisque suis humero tenus renundatis, attollentes immanes gladios ac secures, evantes exsiliunt incitante tibiae cantu lymphaticum tripudium. Nec paucis pererratis casulis ad quandam villam possessoris beati perveniunt et ab ingressu primo statim absonis ululatibus constrepentes fanatice pervolant, diuque capite demisso cervices lubricis intorquentes motibus crinesque pendulos in circulum rotantes, et nonnunquam morsibus suos incursantes musculos, ad postremum ancipiti ferro quod gerebant sua quisque brachia dissicant. Inter haec unus ex illis bacchatur effusius ac de imis praecordiis anhelitus crebros referens, velut numinis divino spiritu repletus, simulabat sauciam vecordiam, prorus quasi deum praesentia soleant homines non sui fieri meliores sed debiles effici vel aegroti.... Arrepto denique flagro, quod semiviris illis proprium gestamen est, contortis taeniis lanosi velleris prolixe fimbriatum et multiiugis talis ovium tesseratum, indidem sese multinodis commulcat ictibus, mire contra plagarum dolores praesumptione munitus. Cerneres prosectu gladiorum ictuque flagrorum solum spurcitia sanguinis effeminati madescere.... The translation is that of S. Gaselee in “Loeb Classical Library” (1915).
[194] In ERE, VI. 403 a; we give the quotation in full as this large Encyclopaedia is not, for many, easily accessible.
[195] On the Korybantes, the mythical attendants on Kybele, who were supposed to dance in wild fashion with the goddess on the mountains, see Rohde, Psyche..., II. 48 ff. (1907); the name was also given to the eunuch priests of the goddess in Phrygia.
[196] Panofka, Dionysos und Thyiden, pl. I. 2 (1853).
[197] Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 453 (1903).
[198] The treasure is in the Berlin Museum, Cat. 2290; Harrison, op. cit., p. 428.
[199] Harrison, op. cit. p. 393; see also Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, I. 162, II. 840, 1293; Lobeck, Aglao., II. 1085 ff.; Bekker, Anecdota Graeca, I. 234.
[200] Harrison, op. cit. p. 397; Gruppe, op. cit. II. 748, 1293; Reinach, Orpheus, p. 123.
[201] Philo, De Vita Contempl. II.