Page 56 [56]
ZSUZSANNA TURCSÁN-TÓTH
[...] The theologians spoke of these, Capricorn and Cancer, as of two gates; and
Plato called them orifices. Of these, Numenius and Cronius say that they ascend
through Capricorn.
According to Porphyry, the outstanding importance of the Capricorn and
the Cancer comes from the fact that they are located on the two sides,
the northern and southern part of the Milky Way. The Milky Way itself is
the place where the souls gather, waiting for entry into human existence.
Porphyry mentions not only the gates of the sun but their guardians too,
whom he also defines as the Horae.*” Now, in the middle of the pediments on
the coins, there is a gate guarded by two female figures raising their hands.
Likewise, on the chest of the goddess, there are two female figures raising
a wreath above the Cancer. In Porphyry’s interpretation, the Cancer on
the goddess’s chest appears as a gate, more exactly, as the gate of souls, and
the female figures appear as the guardians of these gates.
3! Porph. Antr. 22. Trans. John M. Duffy (ed.), Porphyrius, The Cave of the Nymphs in Odyssey,
Buffalo, Arethusa, 1969.
"2 Porph. Antr. 27.
« 54 ¢
Daroczi-Sepsi-Vassanyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 54 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:12