He, on a moonless night, in verses speaks thus

I went to the park earlier to clear my head and possibly do some devotional writing. So I’m sitting there having a cigarette and thinking about how Melinoë fits into my evolving cosmology when a couple of homeless teens approach the nearby pylon and start to graffiti it. At first I thought they were just taggers but later as I passed by it on my way out of the park I saw that they had left a lovely image of a phoenix bird encircled by flame in saffron-hued spray-paint.

A couple hours later I’m doing some reading and come across an interesting passage (4.35-36) from Hippolytos’ Philosophumena:

Nor shall I be silent about their lecanomancy which is an imposture. For, making a closed chamber, and anointing the ceiling with cyanus for present use, they introduce certain vessels of cyanus, and stretch them upwards. The cauldron, however, full of water, is placed in the middle on the ground; and the reflection of the cyanus falling upon it presents the appearance of heaven. They have made a certain opening in the floor and set over this the cauldron which has a glass top and a stone bottom. And underneath there is a secret chamber in which hide the assistants who put on the costumes of whatever god or demon the magician wishes to display. Seeing this, the dupe becomes astonished and subsequently believes whatever the magician tells him to be true.

And this is how the magician produces the burning demon. First he traces on the wall the figure of whoever he wishes to make appear and then secretly anoints it with a drug compounded in this way … with Laconian and Zacynthian bitumen. Then, as if under the influence of prophetic frenzy, he moves the lamp towards the wall and the drug is ignited and burns with considerable splendour.

And this is how he makes a fiery Hekate appear to fly through the air. Concealing a certain accomplice in a place which he wishes, and taking aside his dupes, he persuades them to believe what he is about to show them and further exhorts them to keep their eyes fixed until they see the flame in the air. After having given them these instructions, he, on a moonless night, in verses speaks thus:-

Infernal and earthly and heavenly Bombo, come!
Goddess of waysides, of cross-roads, lightbearer, nightwalker,
hater of the light, lover and companion of the night,
who rejoicest in the baying of hounds and in purple blood;
who dost stalk among corpses and the tombs of the dead
thirsty for blood, who bringest fear to mortals
Gorgo and Mormo and Mene and many-formed one.
Come thou propitious to our libations!

While he is speaking fire is seen borne through the air and the spectators, terrified by the strangeness of the sight, cover their eyes and cast themselves in silence on the earth.

But the success of the artifice is enhanced by the following contrivance. The accomplice whom I have spoken of as being concealed underneath the cauldron, when he hears the appropriate line of the incantation holds up a kite or hawk, sets fire to it and then releases it. The bird, however, frightened by the flame, is borne aloft, and makes a proportionably quicker flight. The deluded persons conceal themselves in fright and throw themselves down to the ground as if they were beholding something divine. The winged creature, however, being whirled round by the fire, is borne whithersoever chance may have it, and burns now the houses, and now the courtyards. Such is the prescience of the magicians.

Not only do I take this to be a pretty clear sign that I’m on the right track (not just with regard to Melinoë but all the stuff I’ve been getting about fire and baptism lately) it reminds me of a section from the Derveni Papyrus I was reading a couple nights back:

… Erinyes … of the Erinyes … they honor … are souls … funeral libations in droplets … bring honor … for each something birdlike … fitted to the music … (Col. 2)