y the stroke of a
thunderbolt, while he was accompanying the Argonauts; and
Apollodorus says the same. Diodorus Siculus calls him one of the
kings of Thrace; while other writers, among whom are Cicero and
Aristotle, assert that there never was such a person as Orpheus. The
learned Vossius says, that the Phoenician word 'ariph,' which
signifies 'learned,' gave rise to the story of Orpheus. Le Clerc
thinks that in consequence of the same Greek word signifying 'an
enchanter,' and also meaning 'a singer,' he acquired the reputation
of having been a most skilful magician.

We may, perhaps, safely conclude, that Orpheus really did introduce
the worship of many Gods into Greece; and that, possibly, while he
promulgated the necessity of expiating crimes, he introduced
exorcism, and brought magic into fashion in Greece. Lucian affirms
that he was also the first to teach the elements of astronomy.
Several works were attributed to him, which are now no longer in
existence; among which were a Poem on the Expedition of the
Argonauts, one on the War of the Giants, another on the Rape of
Proserpine, and a fourth upon the Labours of Hercules. The Poem on
the Argonautic Expedition, which now exists, and is attributed to
him, is supposed to have been really written by a poet named
Onomacritus, who lived in the sixth century B.C., in the time of
Pisistratus.

After his death, Orpheus was reckoned in the number of Heroes or
Demigods; and we are informed by Philostratus that his head was
preserved at Lesbos, where it gave oracular responses. Orpheus is
not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod. The learned scholar Lobeck, in his
Aglaophamus, has entered very deeply into an investigation of the
real nature of the discoveries and institutions ascribed to him.

FABLE II. [X.86-105]

Orpheus, retiring to Mount Rhodope, by the charms of his music,
attracts to himself all kinds of creatures, rocks, and trees; among
the latter is the pine tree, only known since the transformation of
Attis.

There was a hill, and upon the hill a most level space of a plain, which
the blades of grass made green: {all} shade was wanting in the spot.
After the bard, sprung from the Gods, had seated himself in this place,
and touched his tuneful strings, a shade came over the spot. The tree of
Chaonia[10] was not absent, nor the grove of the Heliades,[11] nor the
mast-tree with its lofty branches, nor the