Ogyges. 65^ Speai^ Here however J. K. appears to think that it oughf to be translated not dark^ but Ogygian^ that is connected with certain ancient institutions founded by Ogyges; for at Celeae, near Phlius, were celebrated nocturnal rites, similai- to those of Eleusis. Now it is to a supposed connexion be- tween Ogyges and the Eleusinian mysteries that J. K. ascribes the place which he fills at the head of the kings of Attica. Darkness is the prominent character of the mysteries : hence their founder was an Ogyges^ a man of darkness. I do not find it distinctly explained in J. K'^s essay, why, on this supposition, Ogyges was made the Jirst king of Attica: since the introduction of the mysteries was according to all the legends of comparatively late date. Perhaps however the author considers this seeming inconsistency sufficiently recon- ciled by his remark, that Ogyges properly belonged not to Attica but to Boeotia, from which the mysteries themselves were imported to Eleusis : this we may suppose led the Attic tnythographers to place Ogyges as far back as possible in their list. The main question however is : what reason we have for connecting the name of Ogyges with the Eleusinian mysteries : for if Pindar could use the epithet Ogygian of the Phliasian mountains, because Eleusinian rites were celebrated in a neigh^ bouring town, Ogyges must have been very intimately asso- ciated with these rites. The first trace of such an association which J. K. points out, is a genealogy of the hero Eleusis, whom the Eleusinians named as the founder of their city, and who, according to one account, was a son of Ogygus. Then the Eleusinian religion came from Bceotia — for in that country there was an ancient Eleusis, and out of it Eumolpus came into Attica — and Ogyges was king of Bceotia, or at least, as he gave his name to the Ogygian gate, of Thebes, the Ogygian city. But it must be observed that all this does not in the slightest degree connect Ogyges with the Eleusinian rehgion : for the Eleusinians themselves, though, with a licen- tiousness of fiction which even Pausanius cannot tolerate (i. 38. 7.), they made their hero Eleusis a son of Ogyges, still did not ascribe any share in the foundation of their mysteries either to Eleusis or his father; and if we inquire about the motive which suggested this fiction to them- none
