Night, parent goddess, source of sweet repose,
From whom at first both Gods and men arose,
Hear, blessed Venus, deck'd with starry light (5)
In sleep's deep silence dwelling Ebon night!
Dreams and soft ease attend thy dusky train,
Pleas'd with the lengthened gloom and feastful strain.
Dissolving anxious care, the friend of Mirth,
With darkling coursers riding round the earth.
Goddess of phantoms and of shadowy play,
Whose drowsy pow'r divides the nat'ral day:
By Fate's decree you constant send the light
To deepest hell, remote from mortal sight;
For dire Necessity which nought withstands,
Invests the world with adamantine bands.
Be present, Goddess, to thy suppliant's pray'r,
Desir'd by all, whom all alike revere,
Blessed, benevolent, with friendly aid
Dispell the fears of Twilight's dreadful shade.
5: See the reason why Night is called Venus, in the notes to Hymn V to Protogonus. Below -
9: According to Orpheus, as related by Syrianus in Metaph. Aristot. p.114, the first principle of all things is Unity or the Good itself, and after this the Duad, or Aether and Chaos, subsists, according to Pythagoras. The first of these, or Aether, approaches to a similitude of the one itself, and is the representative of bound; the other, Chaos, comprehends in its essence multitude and infinity. Afterwards (says Syrianus) the first and secret genera of the Gods subsists, among which the first apparent is the king and father of the universe, whom on this account they call Phanes. Now this first and secret genera of the Gods is no other than all the demiurgical and intellectual ideas, considered as proceeding to the production of the sensible World, from their occult subsistence in Aether and Chaos, whose mutual connection Orpheus represents under the symbol of an egg: upon the exclusion of which egg, by night considered as a principle, the God Phanes came forth, who is hence denominated Protogonus.
Dio kai par Orfei o FanhV perikalleoV aiqeroV uioV onomazetai, kai abroV ErwV, says Proclus, in Tim. ii. p.132, i.e. "on this account Phanes is called by Orpheus, the son of beautiful Aether, and tender Love." There is like-wise another valuable passage on this subject from Proclus, in Tim. p.291. as follows. "Orpheus delivers the kings of the Gods, who preside over the universe according to a perfect number; Phanes, Night, Heaven, Saturn, Jupiter, Bacchus. For Phanes is first adorned with a sceptre, is the first king, and the celebrated Ericapacus. But the second king is Night, who receives the sceptre from the father Phanes. The third is Heaven, in-vested with government from Night. The fourth Saturn, the oppressor as they say of his father. The fifth is Jupiter, the ruler of his father. And the sixth of these is Bacchus. But all these kings having a supernal origin from the intelligible and intellectual Gods, are received into the middle orders, and in the world, both which they adorn. For Phanes is not only among the intelligible Gods, but also among the intellectual ones; in the demiurgic order, and among the super-mundane and mundane Gods. And Night and Heaven in a similar manner: for the peculiarities of these are received through all the middle orders. But with respect to the great Saturn him-self, has he not an order prior to that of Jupiter, and likewise posterior to the jovial king, distributing the Dionysiacal administration (dhmiourgia) together with the other Titans? and this indeed in a different manner in the heavens and in things above the moon. And differently in the inerratic stars and in the planets; and in a similar manner Jupiter and Bacchus." Now on comparing the present hymn, and the hymns to Night, Heaven, Saturn and Jupiter together, we shall find them celebrated as the sources of all things; and Bacchus is expressly called Protogonus.
