MYSTERY RELIGIONS, GRECO-ORIENTAL

The word "mysteries," as used in this article, signifies the secret cults of Greco-Roman antiquity permeated by Orientalism. They form two groups. (1) Autochthonous Greek cults; in Roman times only those of Eleusis and of Dionysus—with Orphism as a branch of the latter—were still important. (2) Oriental cults; only the Phrygian and Egyptian cults developed into the complete form of a mystery religion, whereas the Syrian Adonis cult did not reach this stage. The mysteries of Mithras

have their own ideology and their own history. Therefore, they are treated separately near the end of the article.

A first question is whether the mysteries, in respect to origin, can be thought of as a whole. The answer must be affirmative, except for Orphism and Mithraism, both of which were artificial creations. The three Oriental cults, along with the Eleusinian mysteries of Demeter, belong to the same eastern Mediterranean group and have a prehistoric origin. Their unifying principle is their fertility aspect, typical of the cults of agricultural populations. Occupying a central place is a female figure, fertility personified; closely connected with her is another figure, fecundity, i.e., actual fertility or its products. This second figure, her partner, undergoes in his own person the dramatic change of the seasons in nature from yearly birth to yearly death. In Eleusis this partner is a young woman; in the Oriental types of this religion, a young man.

Chief Focal Areas. Four great focal points of fertility religion may be distinguished: ancient Crete, North Anatolia (Phrygia), Syria, and Egypt. This fourfold grouping contains many secondary focal points that are omitted in this article for the sake of brevity. The form of the fertility rite found in Syria goes back to the Sumero-Babylonian cult of Ishtar and the myth of Dumuzi-Tammuz, the existence of which is already attested for the 3d millennium b.c.

Ancient Crete. The copious data furnished by archeological excavation on Creto-Mycenean civilization show that, while the phenomenon of life stood in the forefront of thought and feeling, there are only very few traces of those excesses (e.g., the reaper vase of Knossos) such as are often connected with living fertility religions. According to present knowledge it seems that all religion here is dominated by an apparently single female deity ruling simultaneously three realms: the kingdom of animals and plants (better perhaps, of all growth), the abode of the dead, and the domain of war. The last function may be a part or a concomitant function of her role as goddess of the royal palaces and of the kings themselves. Images on seals depict religious dances of priestesses. They express a belief in the epiphany of the goddess and her male partner. At her entrance all vegetative life starts moving ecstatically. The sarcophagus of Hagia Triada shows a death cult combined with the veneration of a fertility and earth goddess. The name of Dionysus has been deciphered on one of the tablets in Linear Script B as part of a theophoric cognomen. It is, however, uncertain whether this member of the old Cretan pantheon already possessed the essential traits of the classical Dionysus and also, whether he may be considered the partner of the great goddess of nature. Neither of the two hypotheses can be wholly rejected. In any case, the Eleusinian Demeter, goddess of the fertility of the earth, is one of the most important descendants of the ancient Cretan nature goddess. The dramatic element characterizing the Eleusinian cult has its prototype in the partly ecstatic cult of ancient Crete. This assumption, which is more or less the opinion of M. P. Nilsson (The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival [2d ed. Lund 1950]), revives an old thesis of P. Foucart. Further research of the Minoan tablets may be expected to clarify ancient Cretan correlations, for both Eleusis and Dionysus, though for the latter the correlation Asia Minor—Thrace—seems to be the more important.

North Anatolia. In the culture cycle of North Anatolia, rock carvings in the vicinity of the old Hittite capital (near Ankara) depict two deities that, on account of the flowers they offer each other, were formerly dubbed god and goddess of spring and considered as prototypes of the later couple Cybele-Attis. These Hittite deities are now recognized as complex in nature, representing the sun goddess of Arinna and the Hittite representative of the Hurrian weather god Teshub. Nevertheless, there remains the motif of a "sacred marriage," which often points to a fertility cult, and in the numerous train of one of the two deities a direct ancestor of the later Cybele has been recognized. The orgiastic element, characteristic for the pair Attis and Cybele at an early date, may have been present at this early stage of the Anatolian cult; but the Phrygian invaders of Asia Minor from Thrace certainly strengthened it. The Artemis of Ephesus is but an offshoot of this Anatolian mother. She was worshiped only incidentally and in secret rites. Their details are not known.

The goddess Anahita, is in reality an East Anatolian deity whom the Persians worshiped. Her cult in Asia Minor spread westward at an early date and she appears in company with Mithras. The similarity between Cybele and Anahita—the two were often interchanged—led at times even to a local fusion of the concomitant figures of both Attis and Mithras, although they had nothing in common with each other (cf. W. Wüst, "Mithras" in Paulys Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. G. Wissowa et al. [Stuttgart 1893– ]15.2 [1932] 2135–).

Syria. The Syrian fertility goddess bears different names in different places of worship. Especially important is the goddess called in Greek the consort of Adonis of Byblos (likewise Aphrodite), and the Dea Syria of Hierapolis, also called Bambyce, Atargatis (i.e., the Atar of Attis). Conformities in ceremonial, particularly the emasculation of male followers, prove that the principal figure of this cult kept much of the nature of the old Anatolian goddess. Likewise, the old Mesopotamian Ishtar lives on in the Syrian Astarte, as is evident also from the close correspondence between Adonis of Byblos and the old Mesopotamian Dumuzi-Tammuz. Since, in the final development of the Egyptian myth, Isis finds the body of Osiris in Byblos, the clear mythological connection between the Syrian and Egyptian pair of vegetation deities is thereby indisputably confirmed.

Egypt. In Egypt the fertility aspect is found not only in Isis but, considering the connection between gods and animals, also in Hathor. The latter was represented as a horned cow or else—a case of incompleted iconographic anthropomorphism—with a cow's head. But in Egypt itself, and especially in the Egyptian component of Hellenism, Isis and her partner Osiris were destined to have a far greater influence.

Mythicoritual Development of the Basic Vegetation Duality. A mother goddess does not occupy the supreme role in cult, as she did in Crete, among any of the Near Eastern peoples where such a female divinity is found. Everywhere male deities have the leading place. Thus, in Mesopotamia several great gods, e.g., Anu, Enlil, Ea, Marduk, and Ashur, tower above the goddess Ishtar, notwithstanding her position as mistress of life, who appears now as virgin, now as wife and mother, while her lover Dumuzi-Tammuz shares the tragic fate of all nature heroes. In Syria at Bambyce, beside the godess

one finds the god designated as Attis—and as the superior figure. The whole ritual as represented on coins shows that he is not conceived as having a secondary position, as the Phrygian Attis and the later Adonis of Byblos had. Lucian's description in his De Dea Syria makes this clear.

The same is true of the female successor of the North Anatolian mother goddess, named usually after the many individual mountains in the forests of which she was thought to roam, but less frequently after towns. The invasion of the Phrygians, a people related to the Greeks, brought her into contact with a religious sphere that assigned the chief role to a male deity. And the mountain mother surely had to take a subordinate position herself wherever the Greek colonists of Asia Minor seized power. Thus, in Homer the Idaean Mother—the "Mother of Mt. Ida" of the Trojans—is represented as being closely connected with Zeus, but as subject to him. Copious archaeological evidence from the mountain dominating Ephesus, of later date but clearly pre-Christian, has confirmed the different relative positions of mistress of nature and high god. A whole row of reliefs depict the triad Zeus, with beard; the Great Mother, with tympanon and other emblems and flanked by lions; and the youth Attis. One of the inscriptions of Ephesus expressly mentions Zeus as the autochthonous, or ancestral god. Hence, it may be concluded that the Greeks did not favor the elevation of Attis to the status of a true god, as is to be noted here and there in Phrygia as a result of his assimilation to Men, the moon god; nor did they favor the loose relationship of Attis and Cybele, which will be discussed below.

In the chief centers of population the cult of the Great Mother had extensive temple possessions and was under the control of a hierarchic priesthood that often politically administered the temple territory. It is sufficient to mention the temple-states of Ma (i.e., mother), Commagene, Bambyce, Hierapolis Castabala, and also the theocratic state of Ephesia. But the fact that a supreme deity of the stature of Zeus was being recognized at the same time proves that these fertility cults were not to be regarded as the total expression of religion but rather as elements in the whole religious complex of the area. That is very important for the understanding of their precise nature after their expansion westward, especially in the Roman Empire. The individual Oriental cults could not, and probably did not, wish, of their own accord at least, to compete with Christianity. They were part of the total potential of paganism that under imperial leadership wished to prevent Christianity from conquering souls.

Common Elements in the Mystery Cults. Their original structural likeness was not lost in later development, although naturally the cults emanating from a single point of departure came to differ considerably in details. The similar course of historical evolution makes it possible to sketch the nature of this group of Oriental cults together, at least with regard to their main features.

It is appropriate to start with the myth, since it contains so many common elements. In every case there is a basic pair of deities dissimilar in rank. Of these two, the female figure embodies fertility itself, whereas her male companion (who is intended to portray fecundity, the result of fertility, i.e., the abundant growth of plants and animals) is represented sometimes as her son, sometimes as her lover, and hence exhibits a peculiar hybrid character. This basic personification opened the road for further mythology, and it was a road that could not help leading into many byways.

O. Kern has given the following explanation. In the subtropical regions that are regarded as the home of the mysteries, namely, Asia Minor, Egypt, and the Aegean area, the change from the winter stagnation of nature into sprouting vegetation and the still greater change seen in the decline of growth in summer as a result of heat and drought usually occur abruptly and are full of contrasts. These contrasts, with their very disquieting effects on the feelings, found expression in emotional outbursts, and the more so as men pictured to themselves the proximate cause of the death, assumed as real, that the mythological being representing biological life was destined to undergo. Typical for Phrygia is the legend of the death of Attis, circulating with many variations; he emasculates himself out of remorse for his unfaithfulness toward his mistress, the Great Mother. In Syria, Adonis dies during the hunt, killed by a wild boar. In Egypt, Osiris succumbs to the snares of Seth, who symbolizes the hot desert wind that is so dangerous to most plants.

When once this stage was reached in the construction of the myth, a psychologically simpler motivation followed. A double set of feasts, often gathered in a cycle, mourning the disappearance of vegetation and again hailing its reappearance, was established. Instead of a merely mild, sympathetic feeling for the impersonal decay of nature, one could now abandon himself to personal grief at the tragic death of a being regarded as a youthful and handsome person. This personal relation gave a new emphasis to the joyous feast that belonged to the whole series of religious celebrations. These expressions of religious emotion were publicized by mass actions and not by individuals. In this way primitive celebrations honoring demigods of vegetation became great public festivals in their area of origin.

Intense excitement, however, could easily lead in two directions to sexual excesses. Cruelty and lust are passions that are psychologically closely related. It seems that in prehistoric times it was considered a service to the community to give to the Mistress of Nature the sacrifice of sexual power through emasculation. This may be compared to sacred prostitution, which represented an offering to the powers of fertility, and was often regarded as a magic act. Research has confirmed for many of these cults the emasculation of priests even of the highest class, although it is difficult to ascertain how widespread this practice actually was in later historical times. In many places, e.g., in the service of the Magna Mater of Pessinus, the emasculated high priest was called Attis and therefore as such was the companion or attendant of the goddess. This peculiar fact has led to the opinion that the emasculation of cult personnel, long practiced as a fertility sacrifice, was transferred to the myth of the god, thus providing the mythical αἴτιον (explanation) for the ancient rite.

The Element of Secrecy. All the cultic phenomena mentioned have been postulated on fairly solid ground for the early part of the 1st millennium b.c., and for the areas of origin of the Oriental group of the later Hellenistic mysteries. If the god occupying the primary position in the pair of vegetation divinities in northwestern Asia Minor is called Zeus, the insertion "Homeric religion" on the table is justified. The Indo-European tribes that fused with the original inhabitants of the Aegean area and founded the Greek people looked upon these ecstatic fertility rites as foreign and strange. The knightly and warlike class of nobles of the archaic and legendary period immortalized by Homer gave a tone to the religious sphere and kept itself aloof from the whole world of chthonic cults. Hence, since the older religious element was pushed into the background in Greece, it was in Greece itself that psychological necessity gradually led to secrecy. The autochthonic population, keeping strictly to the ancient forms of worship (e.g., in Eleusis) came to practice them apart and surrounded them with a wall of silence.

But even in Greece it is not likely that this esoteric factor, necessitated by circumstances, was the sole reason for the origin of secrecy. An added reason may have been that the rites had a partly sexual character, as is obvious from the pronounced biological mentality from which they derived their origin. This is also why many women's cults (e.g., the Thesmophoria at Athens and the cult of the Bona Dea at Rome) were closed to men. Some authors, K. Kerényi, e.g., have tried with much insight to show that male societies were at the root of the ancient secret cults. This hypothesis is manifestly untenable in the case of the most important cults (e.g., that of Eleusis), since they were open to both sexes from the outset, although their priestly functions were in the hands of women. Lastly, wherever eschatological hopes came to be connected with the performance of the rites, a certain awe for the latter, which were said to conceal something sublime, tended to encourage the practice of secrecy on the part of all. At Eleusis, it is true, this hope itself is not part of the secret but only the ritual way for becoming a sharer in it.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

The early Christian writers, especially clement of alexandria, are severe in their criticism of the Eleusinian Mysteries (see Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. 2.21.2).

General Characterization and Early History. This cult may claim a detailed treatment because of the long tradition of supporting evidence and its important role in the classical period. It seems very probable that, at the beginning of the 3d century b.c., the Hellenistic form of the Egyptian mysteries was fashioned on the Eleusinian by Timotheus, a member of the Eleusinian priestly family of the Eumolpids, and that a similar imitation may be assumed in the case of the final elaboration of the cult of the Magna Mater and Attis under the early Roman principate.

Thus the Eleusinian ritual may be regarded as a typical and historical Greco-Oriental mystery religion. It includes the Dionysiac mysteries, the second mystery cult rooted in early Greek religion. Specialists such as U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff hold that the latter was not merely the only mystery cult still active in imperial times, but that it was very important. The discoveries in the Roman cemetery under St. Peter's at Rome have shown that in the later years of the 2d century a.d. Dionysian emblems had replaced Egyptian ones. Although this fact may be explained as a matter of fashion, it tends to reveal in any event a newly awakened interest in Dionysus as a porter god and god of the netherworld—aspects of the deity that were stressed in the mysteries.

The Eleusinian mysteries belong to a cycle of feasts performed in two stages, a year apart, or even in three stages, thus requiring a total period of three years if performed according to rule. The three stages are: initiation (μύησις), dedication (τελετή), and full revelation of the mystery (ἐπóπτεια). A person could take part in these ceremonies only once, but it was not a civic duty to participate. It is not certain whether famous Athenians, who were deeply interested in ancestral beliefs, such as the tragedian Aeschylus, were mystai of Eleusis. Yet the Eleusinian celebrations were considered to have an importance and to bring honor to the city. Eleusis, originally, was not connected with Athens; it was an independent and significant place, the residence of a king. The foundations of the citadel reach back partly to the beginning of the 1st millennium b.c. The place of worship was structurally connected with the royal stronghold situated on the top of the adjacent height.

By the early 7th century b.c., Eleusis had lost its independence to Athens. As a result, the administration of the cult passed into the hands of Athenian officials, who respected the old customs, as ancient religious sentiment demanded. Thus, they permitted the old Eleusinian families, among which certain ritualistic functions were hereditary, to retain their rights and privileges, reserving for themselves, however, the power of appointing the high priest.

The Celebration of the Mysteries. The celebration of the mysteries was connected with Athens in the following manner. The preliminary ceremonies were held in Athens and were somewhat modified. But the second and third stage of the ceremonies, which took place in September (Boedromion) and could be held only in Eleusis, began with a solemn procession from Athens to Eleusis.

The dominant theme of the myth is the mother love of Demeter for her daughter Kore—this generic name being apparently older than the individualized name Persephone. Many who might be indifferent to other features of this myth could still appreciate this beautiful human motif. Everywhere else the core of the myth is not mother love but sexual love between man and woman, and only in the Egyptian mysteries is this sexual love the love between husband and wife (Isis and Osiris). In Egypt a child, the boy Horus, is added to this couple, but that is only a side aspect of the myth and does not affect it in any essential way, as it does in part at Eleusis. Actually, however, as regards the symbolism of the Eleusinian Kore, the dominant feature is her relationship to Pluto, the god of death. Kore, the bride whom he captures, represents the final destiny of all vegetative life, indeed of all earthly life, and thus can portray human death in an allegorical manner. The other associations with her and her mother, intended and aroused by the mysteries, become more meaningful only when both become mediators of a better life after death.

The Eleusinian hope is the high point of the so-called Homeric Hymn to Demeter, where in 5.479–481 the lot of the initiated in the hereafter is pictured as more pleasant than that of the noninitiated. Several verses later, they are called the blessed on whom the pair of exalted and chaste goddesses bestow their loving care. The same word blessed (ὄλβιος) describing the lot of the initiates is used by Pindar (Frg. 137, ed. Bergk) and Sophocles (Turchi, no. 152). The word ὄλβιος has about the same sense as the word μακάριος used in the two accounts of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:3– ; Lk 6:20–). But whereas this word, as used by the Evangelists, praises as blessed the way of life made possible by the New Covenant, the sole title to Eleusinian blessedness is initiation. There is no question of atonement. Only the worst criminals were excluded from initiation, a point severely criticized already in antiquity.

Opinions differ respecting the performance of the rites in the second and third stages and also respecting the precise arrangement of the interior of the sacred building. Benches for spectators, cut out of rock and still recognizable today, prove that participants in the cult engaged in liturgic actions that were visible to all. Literary allusions to emotions of fear manifested by the spectators, and likewise the express mentioning of a descent (καταβάσιον) by Asterius (Hom. 10; Patrologia Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne, 161 v. [Paris 1857–66] 40:324B) suggest the dramatic performance of the moving legend of the rape of Persephone by Pluto. Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. 2.21) has preserved for us the so-called password (σύνθημα) of Eleusis. It is a formula to be repeated by the candidate for final admission, who had to show thereby that he had passed the intermediate stage. Thus one learns the main actions. The formula runs: "I have fasted, I have drunk of the sacred cup [κυκεών], I have taken [the things] from the sacred chest, having tasted thereof I have placed them into the basket and again from the basket into the chest." The fasting and drinking from a ritualistic container evidently aim to imitate ceremonially the fasting of Demeter out of sorrow for the disappearance of her daughter, as related in the legend, and also the drink with which she refreshed herself after having been cheered by the indecent jests of her maid Baubo.

Fertility Aspects of the Rites. In his account, Clement of Alexandria puts the Baubo scene before the cultic action and criticizes it harshly. The handling of the anonymous things (ἀπόρρητα) suggests that they were symbols of female and male sexuality. The dual containers, differentiated by the names "chest" and "basket," seem also to confirm this view. This assumption seems logical and is confirmed by other intimations of the Church Fathers.

This explanation of the last act of the synthema, or password ceremony, which is described in such cryptic language, seems sound for intrinsic and extrinsic reasons.(1) Such an act is in keeping with a fertility cult. Other secondary Eleusinian rites contain this feature, as the call to the earth: [symbol omitted]ε, χύε, "rain, conceive" (Proclus, In Tim. 40E). (2) This action is appropriate to the second stage of the rites. (3) Certain finds in the temple of Demeter at Priene, a kind of affiliate of Eleusis, similar to the one established especially in Alexandria, show a marked sexual emphasis. These finds suggest directly the use of the female sexual symbols as a means of initiation. The simultaneous use of the male symbol is the more easily explained, since the latter plays a central role in the Hellenistic mystery rites that exhibit a more or less close dependence on Eleusis.

The procedure at the third stage, revelation (ἐπόπτεια), is known through independent and credible assertions of early ecclesiastical writers and Fathers. Two acts are mentioned. The first is the "hierogamy," or sacred marriage between the high priest (hierophant) and priestess (cf. Gregory of Nazianzus and Proclus; Turchi, nos. 32–). It was probably intended to symbolize the mythical nuptials of Demeter and Iasion on the thriceplowed field (Hesiod, Theog. 969–972), itself the mythical symbol of the sacred marriage of heaven and earth. Hippolytus furnishes important additional information. The priest raised a freshly cut ear of wheat—obviously the fruit of this sacred marriage—with the loud cry: "The exalted goddess bore a holy boy, the strong one bore a strong child" (Turchi, no. 130). As a confirmation of the prehistoric age of this rite and of the relation of the nucleus of the Eleusinian cult actions to the early farming stage of culture, it is to be noted that the same rite has been found in North Africa and in the period preceding the spread of the Indo-European culture in the West (cf. D.J. Wölfel in König, Christus, 1:340–).

Thus, one sees that at Eleusis hope in a better life to come and improvement of material welfare, which is so dependent on the fruits of the earth, are closely connected. St. Paul has pointed out an association of ideas between wheat and the hereafter (1 Cor 15.37). Eleusinian eschatology, however, did not embrace precisely what for Paul was the symbolism of the sprouting seed, namely, bodily resurrection. The quasi-official formulation of the Eleusinian hope in the Homeric Hymn is remarkably modest. It does not look beyond a life in the lower world, and even for this it dares to promise the initiates, as opposed to noninitiates, only a gradual improvement in their lot.

Evaluation and Later History. Yet these rites gave their initiates the consolation that there was at least one form of divine worship that showed some interest in the great question of the beyond. The official cults of the Greek states ignored this problem. The Olympians enjoyed their own blessedness without caring for the future lot of men. M. J. Lagrange has given the noblest interpretation of the Eleusinian Mysteries; one should not speak blindly of magic here, but should regard the whole procedure as an act of trust in the power of the "august goddesses." But despite the consolation furnished by the rites and the veneration they enjoyed from age itself, they could not withstand critical examination. The comfort could be only as real as the persons of the divinities themselves.

Later classic times and especially the Hellenistic age, however, recognized fully the symbolic-mythical values contained in the rites. Not only in Athenian but in all ancient literature, Eleusis was renowned as an inalienable jewel of the city of Athens, a symbol of its cultural contributions, the first and most basic of which was the raising of cereals. Even after the mysteries had lost all credence in ancient Greece, including Attica itself, they were still celebrated with pomp as old folk customs, with a feeling for history and with a treasuring of the past for its own sake. During the several revivals of Greek culture, beginning with the great efforts of Hadrian, the mysteries' power of attraction was proved again and again, especially in the case of the Romans who took pleasure in becoming initiates. Alaric destroyed a great part of the sanctuary in a.d. 395, and the celebration of the rites was forbidden by the laws of Theodosius the Great in the same period.

The Cult of the Great Mother, or Magna Mater

Within a limited space it is not possible to cover all vegetation or fertility cults that have mystery elements. The cult of the Great Mother, however, deserves formal treatment, being both so representative and so important. The early Greeks were already familiar with the mother of Zeus (Μήτηρ 'Ρέα), simply as mother of the gods, a figure undoubtedly related to the mother goddess of Asia Minor. But this Greek Rhea has no partner of such dubious and uncertain status as Cybele's partner Attis. When, therefore, the Phrygian goddess with her companion Attis asked for admission, as was inevitable in a commercial town such as Athens as a result of the influx of immigrants from Asia Minor, the new mother goddess was not identified simply with Rhea but had to be satisfied, like all foreign cults, with a place outside the city walls.

But apparently, already before the Persian wars, some traits of the Asian form of the mother cult had been introduced into the Greek worship of Rhea. This has psychological probability in its favor, since Pindar praises the venerable Asian Mother in one of his Olympic odes (on Hiero). In the Hellenistic Age, the worship of the Magna Mater is conducted at the Peiraeus in full Asiatic style by the ὀργεὼνες (i.e., men who celebrate the orgia ) with the assistance of a special cult personnel. There is mention of a priestess of Attis and a couch (κλίνη) that she must prepare for the god. This act may represent the mourning over the dead Attis, who previously seems to have been honored by joyous dances around a throne. Plato was familiar with the exotic ritual of enthronement (ἐνθρονισμός) as part of the initiation of the followers of the Magna Mater, the corybantes (Euthyd. 429D).

Eight hundred years after Plato, in the 4th century a.d., when taurobolia were celebrated in Athens in honor of the Magna Mater, the Asian Mother definitely entered the Greek pantheon and had Demeter and Kore beside her as companion goddesses—a situation that would have been unthinkable in early times.

The Cult of Magna Mater in the Roman Period. The Romans knew Adonis at an early time in their history, partly through the Greeks of south Italy, and partly through the Etruscans. In 205 b.c., in the crisis of the Second Punic War, they introduced the cult of the Asian Mother from Pessinus in Galatia. The Phrygian cult was given a place on the Palatine, opposite the later house of Livia, but the astute heads of the Roman state allowed only one annual public celebration: the lustration of the image of the Magna Mater in the Almo stream, which had no connection with the fate of Attis. The cult, in the form given it by the emperor Claudius, who was interested in religious antiquities, is known through its incorporation in the Roman religious calendar as well as through archeological representations, e.g., on a sarcophagus in S. Lorenzo fuori le mura. In order to understand the performance of the cult in this later and elaborated form, one must remember the personality of Attis as the representation of the nature cycle and also the basic structure of his myth as outlined earlier in this article. A pine tree, which was intended to represent the hero, profusely decorated as a tree of spring and adorned with an image of Attis, was carried in procession (Firmicus Maternus, De errore prof. rel. 22). At the same time, the tree, since it was an evergreen, may have symbolized his ostensibly newly assumed life, though the myth says nothing about this. Then the procession with the image of the Magna Mater was carried out with much greater pomp. Quite apart from these public ceremonies, secret rites were also performed. As in Eleusis, these were obviously based on ritualistic imitation of events in the myth. Firmicus Maternus mentions a ceremony of mourning the dead (ibid. 23), probably but not necessarily referring to Attis, and an anointing of the throat of the candidates with oil, with the accompanying words: "Take courage, mystae, you belong to a god who has been saved, and he will also be your salvation from toil." Even more valuable is the formula reported in common by both Firmicus Maternus and Clement of Alexandria: "I have eaten from the tympanon [drum], I drank from the kymbalon [cymbal]"—both are instruments employed in the worship of the goddess. Whereas in Firmicus the words "I became a mystes of Attis" follow immediately, Clement mentions (Protr. 2.15) two more mystic acts: "I carried the kernos, I slipped into the bridal chamber." The kernos, a container having several parts and found already in ancient worship, was employed as something intended obviously to produce its effect as an archaic rite. The last statement quoted gives a key at least to the general meaning.

Evaluation and Later History. Obviously the rite was intended to impress upon the mystai the subjective certainty of having been united in a special way with the goddess, as in a mystic marriage or, on a more modest plane, as Lagrange has proposed, as a personal servant of the Great Mother. It seems clear that the strong motivation of hope present in this cult, a hope in harmony with the religious interests of the Greco-Roman period, probably served as a foundation for a belief in a higher and better life beyond the grave. It would thus be in the line of the Eleusinian ideology. The rhetorical vehemence with which Firmicus, the chief source, criticizes such rites must be understood in the light of the times. But the Christian polemist is right in reminding the believers in these mysteries that the whole activity has no real value or meaning, since it is based entirely on myth. In form and content the sacred formulas are essentially an imitation of the Eleusinian "symbol." Formally they are a synopsis of the rites that the candidate for membership had to undergo before he could be admitted to the final initiation. In content these rites are modeled on the myth, as the containers chosen for food and drink are the drum and the cymbal. These instruments were said to have been used by the goddess on her mythical journey through the mountains of Asia Minor and hence were employed also in the public processions in honor of Cybele.

Something original, something as yet without analogy in any Greek cult, is mentioned by Prudentius (Peristeph ). In some 80 verses he describes the ceremony of the taurobolium in the cult of the Magna Mater. It deserves notice here because the rebirth mentioned in the pertinent inscriptions as the expected effect has often been compared with the rebirth that is promised as an effect of baptism (Ti 3:5). But the taurobolium aimed at a restoration of physical forces only through the blood of a bull. The general atmosphere of the rite is not one of spiritual hopes, and it is occasionally taken over as a rite beneficial for the common good (pro salute Caesaris ). All the Western evidence dates from the 2d century a.d. on.

The Mysteries of Dionysus

Between the Eleusian and the Dionysian mysteries there are several important differences. The cult of Eleusis keeps its external structure unchanged, primarily because it is bound to a definite locality, but the cult of Dionysus varies considerably in place and time. The significance of the two Eleusinian divinities is already evident from the Homeric poems; and in addition to the data furnished by archeology, a considerable body of relatively clear information is found in early Christian literature.

As regards the secret worship of Dionysus (i.e., mystery rites that go back to the pre-Hellenic period), the evidence comes in part from widely separated places and is difficult to correlate. Furthermore, the evidence is open to serious question on the historical side and refers to markedly different periods. Yet Dionysus is a divinity who is clearly the object of a mystery cult. This is evident from his local origin and his myth, scanty as it is, as well as from the nature of the god as revealed by the sum of all available data—and especially by the data preserved in the form of his cult.

According to Greek legend, Dionysus came to Greece from Thrace (as in Euripides's Bacchae ) and also by sea (as is recalled in the role of the vehicle in the form of a ship employed in the Athenian Dionysia). The recently established connection of this god with ancient Cretan religion tends to confirm that he was not out of harmony with the Greek fertility worship and was integrated into it at an early date. The restriction of the domain of Dionysus to wine, and more specifically to viticulture, is found in certain ancient writers, e.g., Diodorus, who have spun out long myths on Dionysus as the god of wine. Relying on this evidence, H. Jeanmaire thinks he can clarify more sharply the particular function of this god and his cult. The difficulty is that among the late mythographers it is hard to distinguish between earlier and later myths. The Orphics elaborated the saga of the birth of the god into a confused pattern of stories in order to obtain a foundation for their profound speculation. The older saga tells of the tragic death of the god's mother, Semele, and it is highly suggestive that this name means earth, as P. Kretschmer has established. The desire to see Zeus cost her her life.

The myth relates matters that normally belong to child rearing, but with this difference, that the people engaged in this task are naturally mythical persons. Thus Hermes entrusts the care of the child to the nymphs, but it soon escapes from its nurses. This incident provides the Boeotian cult of Dionysus, at least in the later period, with the motif of a search in the mountains for Dionysus by the Thyads. The latter are but other names for the frenzied female attendants of the god, the Maenads, who personify in the cult the nymphs assigned to the care of the child by Hermes.

The birth of a god who, like Dionysus, is so closely connected with vegetation and belongs to the old pair of fertility divinities, must be followed by a death. Accordingly, Philochorus, a specialist in the history of religion writing in the early Hellenistic age, mentions a tomb of Dionysus within the temple precinct of Delphi. The ceremonies devoted to the awakening of the god to a new birth took place, however, only every third year. This was a very awkward situation, since Dionysus was regarded as being temporarily in residence at Delphi, substituting for Apollo, who was thought to spend the winter with the Hyperboreans.

The love affair between Dionysus and Ariadne is typical of the vegetation myth: Ariadne's early death is the counterpart of the disappearance of Persephone. The myth, which in the elaborate literary form given it by poets such as Nonnus (5th century a.d.) tells of Dionysus's journey to India, is very late. It is merely a reflection of Alexander's Indian campaign.

Spread of the Cult and Its Special Features. The older myths of the journeys of Dionysus reflect the early propagation and the peculiar nature of the cult. This cult, manifestly an ecstatic one from the outset and under the strong influence of women, was spread successfully despite the opposition of political authorities, as indicated in the story of the revenge of Dionysus on the Theban king Pentheus. Euripides in his Bacchae describes this revenge in detail. Bacchus (Dionysus) induces Pentheus to search for the Maenads who are roving about Mt. Parnassus, but they take him for an animal and tear him to pieces. This is, at the same time, one of the earliest accounts of the rite of omophagy. During the winter and early spring, female worshipers of Dionysus used to roam about Parnassus, hunting down wild animals, tearing them apart, and eating their raw flesh.

Phrygia furnishes more convincing evidence than does central Greece for the ceremony of the awakening of Dionysus. Here he passes for a god hibernating in the realm of Persephone—a slight mitigation only of the idea of the death of the vegetation god, who in spring is brought in with great pomp at the feast of the Katagogia (cf. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Die Religion der Griechen [Leipzig 1932] 2:373–). In the Hellenistic period there is mention of a state-controlled cult of Dionysus at Miletus, in which raw flesh was eaten, evidently a civilized continuance of ancient savage customs, but subsequently placed under state control (ibid. 372). The mad celebrations in the Parnassus region, which were intended also to awaken the god Dionysus, did not exclude men completely but were the special privilege of women. In this respect, because of the esoteric tendency present, the celebrations in question fall within the general framework of the mystery cult.

The time after Alexander witnessed a general revival of Dionysian worship. For Egypt, there is proof for the spread of secret Dionysian rites in the fact that Ptolemy Philopator took measures to bring even the privately conducted rites of Dionysus under his control. A royal decree ordered those in possession of initiation formulas to register them in person with the government; obviously the government feared excesses. About the same time this cult, which for a long time had been prevalent in southern Italy, exhibited a new development, characterized by violence, sexual excesses, and even murder; and it spread to Rome itself. Therefore the Roman Senate took prompt and severe action, as is recorded in the extant inscription on bronze, the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus and by the historian Livy (39.14.1).

The Pompeian Evidence. Nevertheless, more moderate forms of the rite were allowed to continue, as is proved by the series of paintings in one of the halls of the so-called Villa dei Mysteri (also called the Villa Item). The connection with the cult of Dionysus is certain, since in this cycle of paintings Dionysus, with his familiar attribute the thyrsus, or staff, and reposing on the bosom of his beloved Ariadne, occupies the commanding place. This obviously mythical scene may be considered as expressing the inner meaning of the mystery that is to be dramatically presented. As the precise portraiture indicates, the actors include not only definite persons, such as the mistress of the house, but also, along with them and without sharp distinction, mythical beings such as Silenus and Pan. A winged form, whether a mythical figure or a personification of the mystic rite (τελετή), lays the lash upon the back of a woman. This scene is framed first by the unveiling of the phallus, the initiation proper, and secondly by the solo dance of a woman. If it was intended to symbolize the joys of the hereafter to be expected from participation in the initiation, this dance, not perhaps positively licentious and yet not especially exalted in character, bears witness to the typically pagan concept of the future life. In any case, the series of scenes in the Villa Item, whether representing an initiation into a mystery or simply a bridal ceremony, is characteristic of a Greco-Roman Dionysian ritual, with an emphasis on sensation and surprise.

This set of paintings of the Villa Item, notably the initiation rite proper (i.e., the unveiling of the phallus), is paralleled by a series of so-called Campanian reliefs, and M. I. Rostovtzeff has interpreted the paintings of the Casa Omerica in Pompeii as having much the same content. Accordingly, it seems assured that some kind of mystery cult of Dionysus flourished in the vicinity of Naples in the 1st century a.d. Whether the inscription of Agripinilla describes genuine Dionysiac worship or refers to more or less licentious revels under the cloak of mystery rites is not clear (see M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 2 v. [2d ed. Munich 1955–61] 2:343–344). By this time the Hellenistic mystery religion had developed a kind of "common liturgical language" with fixed formulas.

Problems of Interpretation. The real secret seems to be the sexual element, but sublimated as a symbol of all fertility. The striving to come into closer contact with the mystery divinities, however, is difficult to explain, especially in the case of Dionysus, when one looks for the precise reason why Dionysus should be a particularly fitting mediator of hopes for the hereafter. Heraclitus of Ephesus, reflecting on the riotous scenes during the Dionysia in his city in the 5th century b.c., states in one of his customary obscure utterances: "They celebrate the grape feast in honor of Hades." But he says this as one who sees more deeply than the common man, and he says it with pensive melancholy in the light of the contrast between festive joy and the frailty of all vegetative and earthly life. In any case, the cycle of Dionysian myths, while to a limited degree symbolizing growth, offers far less expectation of salvation than is the case in the Oriental group.

A ritualistic drama commemorating the annual awakening and passing of vegetation, as mentioned earlier, maintained itself in a few places only, e.g., in Delphi and in Phrygia. Even this fact would hardly be known, unless historians such as Plutarch with antiquarian interests had reported it. Dionysus was surnamed from the outset Lyseus as a symbolic personification of or as the mythical giver of wine. All that ancient speculation itself associated with this title exhibits an attempt at a theological interpretation of this metaphor, which has interest chiefly because, beneath the play of legend, it reveals the religious aspirations and longing for salvation on the part of pagan souls.

Orphism

The myth of the child Dionysus already pointed in the direction of the Dionysus of Orphism. The latter figure, it is true, has received a highly complex elaboration and is overladen with fantastic myths that cannot be told here in detail. And yet Orphism is so important that some attention must be given it in this article. It was certainly a combination of opposites and had a bad name in antiquity because of its practice of licentious rites and its strange manner of life. Orphism, the origins of which continue to be warmly debated, alone among the mystery religions—except perhaps Mithraism and the Egyptian mysteries because of their emphasis on eschatology— possessed a complete system of doctrine, and was concerned with the dissemination of knowledge. All other mysteries, being essentially forms of worship, aimed only at producing certain dispositions of mind and vague hopes.

Earlier History. In the modern investigation of mystery religions, Orphism has long occupied a special place through the importance assigned to it by Plato. Whether the latter agrees with the opinions he introduces from Orphism is not always clear from his words. It is to be assumed rather that he wishes merely to praise the general character and line of thought that he quotes in support of his own doctrines, e.g., the belief in retribution in the hereafter and therefore in the meaning of human life as involving moral responsibility.

In support of such a view of life Orphism created a profound myth. It can be traced back to an origin in single individuals and in the first place to Onomacritus, who lived in the age of the Pisistratids (6th–5th century b.c.). The lot of man is viewed as a miserable result of an original sin, yet one not committed by man but by his mythical ancestors. According to Orphic teaching men are formed out of the ashes of the Titans, sons of Uranus and Gaia, therefore, of a pre-Olympian race of gods. They had been destroyed by the lightning of Zeus because they had committed the outrage of tearing to pieces and devouring his child Dionysus, all except his heart. Athena brought the heart to Zeus, who in turn swallowed it and produced another Dionysus, namely, the Dionysus of Orphism. The Papyrus Smily, also called the Papyrus Gurob after its place of discovery in Egypt (Kern, Orph. Frg. 31), dates from the 3d century b.c. and confirms the earlier myth. In mentioning the playthings of the child Dionysus, it tells of the Titans tearing him to pieces. They fell upon him while he was playing a child's game, amusing himself with the apples of the Hesperides. This tends to prove its existence at an earlier date in the Greek area, the sole source for its spread to Egypt. It is very interesting to note that writers under the early empire are the first to tell that the Titans had devoured the limbs of the child.

Orphism, in keeping with the formal, artificial character of its origins, left free scope for further development and personal transformation. But as opposed to the view of I. M. Linforth, it must be maintained that closed Orphic associations, therefore societies of mystai, existed already in classical Greek times. In the Hellenistic age, the Papyrus Gurob—perhaps because it was the cult legend of one of the Dionysian societies that by order of Ptolemy Philopator was required to turn over religious documents—appears to confirm the existence of mysteries under Orphic influence. Orphism in this period, however, seems to have been the object of scholarly study rather than a living and active cult.

Later History and Evaluation. An Orphic book of hymns dating from the early imperial age seems to be the work of certain societies, especially in the city of Pergamon, where a shrine has been discovered in which deities praised in the hymns were worshiped. But the manner of worship that the book indicates has nothing to do with a mystery religion so far as almost all external rites described are concerned. The cosmogony of Orphism— which is intended to include its theogony and anthropogony—was fully elaborated apparently only at a late date and is known exclusively from Neoplatonic sources. It gives an important place to the primitive cosmic egg. This motif is not a mythical Greek fabrication but belongs to the earliest mythological cosmogony and can be traced back to very early prehistoric cultures. In the Roman imperial age it was connected with the figure of Aion. The Aion of Modena is of the greatest value historically. It is a figure so loaded with attributes as to leave an unaesthetic impression; but to the men of late antiquity, to which it belongs, it served as a symbol of the esoteric wisdom underlying the outward representation. The so-called Orphic passports for the dead, found in Crete and south Italy, contain instructions for a confession of innocence similar to those with which the ancient Egyptians provided themselves for their meeting with the judge of the dead in the other world. Connection with Egypt, accordingly, has been suggested for this Orphic phenomenon (see Prümm, Dictionnaire de la Bible, suppl. ed. L. Pirot et al. [Paris 1928– ] 6:72).

Mithraism and Other Oriental Mysteries

At the outset, it may be stated that there are certain analogies with Orphism. These analogies are found in the form of its origin and in its emphasis on doctrinal content. Mithraism, like Orphism, was founded by specific individuals. Magi, Persian priests from north and east Persia and from the highlands of Cappadocia, consciously influenced by the tendencies toward a union of Greek and Oriental religious elements, created this cult in the 4th—3d century b.c. The Oriental basis was primarily Persian popular religion and not Persian Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster had condemned all gods of the popular religion without being able to extirpate them. The Magi put the Indo-Persian deity Mitra, conceived as a noble figure and given certain features of the Babylonian sun-god Shamash, in the center of a theogonic and cosmogonic myth. The name Mitra means truth, faithfulness, or contract. (see mithras and mithraism.)

Sources of Mithraism. In the absence of literary sources, the myth must be interpreted essentially from the monuments, a relatively large number of which have been preserved. The fairly copious monumental evidence is to be explained in part from the nature of the places of worship. The latter were artificial grottoes, imitations of natural caves, which were low and small and could accommodate only a few dozen worshipers. No Mithraic association had more than 100 members, and most of them had a much smaller number. Since the worshipers were mostly soldiers, the Mithraea, or shrines of the cult, have been found especially on the frontiers—hence, in Britain, along the Rhenish and Danubian Limes, and in Africa and Asia. Dura-Europos on the Euphrates was a flourishing center of Mithraism. After the abandonment of the military frontiers under various pressures, these shrines, often wholly or partly subterranean, no longer occasioned special interest, and thus much of their content was left intact. Obviously Rome as a military center and world capital with a large percentage of foreigners in its population has revealed many Mithraic shrines, though these may not have been used simultaneously. Archeological investigation has identified more than 50. Ostia, possibly more Orientalized than Rome, has yielded 18 Mithraea, a relatively large number, even if they are usually small.

The Mithraic Myth. The doctrine of Mithraism, a combination of Greek theogony and an Iranian myth, is concerned with the origin of fertility from a celestial bull. The god, born out of a rock, who enters an already existing pantheon of the Greek type, brings this bull from the kingdom of the moon and kills him. This triumph of youthful force was given a typical iconographic form by a great artist and this form was never changed: a representation of Nike bringing a sacrifice of thanksgiving after victory. This achievement of Mithras made Mithraism an appropriate religion for soldiers. Further mythical scenes beside the main picture show another battle of Mithras, this time with the Sun (Sol, Helios ), who finally receives him in friendship and takes him to heaven in his chariot. The last scene undoubtedly embodies the hope that is impressed in seven ceremonial stages (Raven, Nymph, Soldier, Lion, Persian, Sun-runner, Father): an expectation of an afterlife in the sky, which gained ground under the empire, because an underworld hereafter came to be felt as gloomy and repulsive.

Mithraic Ritual. The whole interior of the Mithraic shrine is arranged for holding a meal in the ancient way, with participants reclining on couches—hence the benchlike structures along the side walls. The meal consisted of bread and water. But neither the meal nor the Mithraic baptism—exclusively a form of purification as found in many religions—was the essential element of Mithraic ritual. The all-important feature was the tests of courage required for admission to the higher degrees. They are represented in formidable fashion in the Mithraeum of Capua and partially also in that found under the church of St. Prisca in Rome. An inscription from the latter mentions a cauterisatio, the branding with the sign of the god, a ceremony that Tertullian compares with confirmation. A Mithraeum discovered at San Marino (Castelli Romani) exhibits beautiful cultic scenes.

For the higher speculations associated with Mithraism, the Borysthenic discourse of the famous Sophist Dio Chrysostom (b. c. a.d. 40; d. after 112), is repeatedly cited. He describes a cosmogony and an anthropogony, including a kind of original sin of man, in the sense of Plato's Phaedrus, but with emphasis on the Stoic doctrine of universal conflagration. It is not known, however, to what extent this is his own personal doctrine (cf. M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 2:688). The age and origin of the figure of Aion, which is often represented separately along with the bull scene and which resembles the Orphic Aion of Modena, are doubtful. The opinion of F. Cumont, who would have Aion dominate the whole pantheon, has lost ground. The figure is now identified rather with Ahriman himself, the evil principle of Mazdaism, and it seems that a place was found for this worship in Mithraism.

Other Oriental Mysteries. It is not necessary here to deal in detail with the cult of Adonis—which never became a fully developed mystery religion—and with the Egyptian mysteries, since their more important aspects were covered earlier in the article and in particular in the treatment of the Mysteries of Eleusis. Attention was called also to the possibility of connecting the congratulation of the mystai on "the god that has been saved," which is directed perhaps to the mystae of the Magna Mater, with the mystae of Osiris. Since the various mysteries had so much in common, it is very much to the point to refer to a passage in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius. It makes a journey to the elements or the stars the core of the mysteries of Isis. This journey was probably intended to be an actual anticipation of the eventually expected real journey to the stars (see Metamorphoses 11.23).

Relations with Christianity

The question of the relations between the mystery religions and Christianity arose in the 19th century as a result of the simultaneous operation of two factors, namely, the systematic scholarly investigation of the history of the mystery religions by classical philology and archeology and the decline in the belief in the historical reliability of the New Testament revelation as a consequence of socalled liberal and historical exegesis. Within the limits of this article, only the high points concerning the question of relationship can be treated. For detailed coverage, see the bibliography following this article.

New Testament Evidence and Its Interpretation. In contrast to the Old Testament, where a specific warning is given against Adonis worship, the Gospels mention the Magi; and this in itself might well be interpreted as containing an allusion to a mystery cult, namely, that of the Persian Mithras (cf. Matthew ch. 2). On the basis of the copious evidence for the employment of Semitic equivalents in the Qumran texts for the Greek mysterion, it is clear that the mere use of the term mysterion does not mean that St. Paul consciously wished to imply a connection between Christian and pagan use of the term, to say nothing of any positive approval of any Christian connection with pagan mysteries whether in their forms of worship or in their literary or written presentations. Paul uses the word mysterion nearly always in the singular, while by contrast the pagan mysteries are nearly always mentioned in the plural. The following point is more significant. Paul employs the singular form mysterion in the sense of the secret, hidden design of God in its totality. There is no emphasis on the cult aspect.

Christian Mystery and Pagan Mystery. Forms of worship, namely, the Sacraments, may be included in the term mysteria as found in 1 Cor 4.1; but in that case, as incorporated into the plan of salvation as a unity and in subordination to the Apostles' mission of serving as ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor 5.19, 20).

Even among Catholics, a certain school of exegesis has maintained that Paul saw the tragic experiences of the heroes of the mysteries as a divine pedagogy for the pagans to prepare them for the message of salvation, and from that point of view intended to represent, as opposed to the pagan mystery cults, the real and true mystery. This is unlikely, however, for several reasons. The ancient mysteries do not represent a historical fact, but a regularly recurring annual rhythm. In Christian worship "representation" is not a theatrical and mimic one in a series of separate acts, but is centered as one single moment, the redemptive and decisive act of the Lord on the cross. Finally, in Christian worship this remembrance of a fact is not connected with specific seasons (at least in apostolic times), but takes place every Sunday, and continues to be observed even after the institution of the main liturgical feasts with Easter as their center.

The Apostles' various admonitions against revels, banquets, etc., cannot be interpreted as referring specifically and literally to the mysteries; at most they are concerned with the excesses occasioned by the public and private worship of Dionysus (Rom 13.13; Eph 5.18). Some exegetes suspect an implied condemnation of the mysteries in the reminiscence in 1 Cor 12.1 of a "magic urge" on the part of hearers to certain cults. Such scholars adopt this view because they believe that Paul, with the idea of the "dumb idols" vividly in mind, is perhaps thinking of those divinities whose emotional worship presents a certain resemblance to excesses connected with phenomena at Corinth. A more likely reference to pagan mysteries is to be found in the heresy of Colossae (see Dictionnaire de la Bible, suppl. ed. L. Pirot et al. [Paris 1928– ] 6 [1960] 218–222).

Bibliography: The literature on the mystery religions is voluminous and, given the difficulties presented by the sources, on many points there is no unanimity among scholars. The older literature in this field, furthermore, is dominated, in general, by a tendency to regard Christianity as largely, if not exclusively, an adaptation of the pagan mysteries. General works. n. turchi, Fontes historian mysteriorum aevi hellenistici (Rome 1923). r. follet and k. prÜmm, "Mystères," Dictionnaire de la Bible, suppl. ed. l. pirot et al. (Paris 1928–) 6 (1960) 1–225; Religionsgeschichtliches Handbuch (new ed. Rome 1954) esp. 213–356 and 843–846. (These comprehensive studies by the contributor give full details and furnish copious bibliography). o. kern and t. hopfner, "Mysterien," Paulys Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. g. wissowa et al. (Stuttgart 1893–) 16. 2 (1935) 1209–1350. u. von wilamowitz-moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen, 2 v. (Berlin 1931–32). m. p. nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 2 v. (2d ed. Munich 1955–61). (The contents of these last two standard, comprehensive works can be easily controlled through the excellent indexes.) f. cumont, Lux perpetua (Paris 1949). Special works. p. foucart, Les Mystères d'Éleusis (Paris 1914). g. mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (Princeton 1961), with good bibliog.; he rejects, however, interpretations given by a number of other scholars. m. p. nilsson, The Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic Age (Lund 1957). m. i. rostovtzeff, Mystic Italy (New York 1927). h. jeanmaire, Histoire du culte du Bacchus (Paris 1959). a. bruhl, Liber Pater. Origine et expansion du culte dionysiaque à Rome et dans le monde romain (Paris 1953). o. kern, Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin 1922). i. m. linforth, The Arts of Orpheus (Berkeley 1941). w. k.c. guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion (2d ed. London 1952). j. carcopino, Aspects mystiques de la Rome païenne (Paris 1941). h. graillot, Le Culte de Cybèle Mère de Dieu, à Rome et dans l'Empire romain (Paris 1912). m. j. lagrange, "Attis et le Cristianisme," Revue biblique 28 (1919) 419–480. g. nagel, "Les Mystères d'Osiris dans l'ancienne Égypte," Eranos-Jahrbuch 11 (1944) 145–166. a. j. festugiÈre, Personal Religion among the Greeks (Berkeley 1960). m. p. nilsson, "The Syncretistic Relief of Modena," Symbolae Osloenses 24 (1945) 1ff. On the relations of the mystery religions and Christianity, in addition to k. prÜmm, "Mystères," 173–225 op. cit., see h. pinard de la boullaye, L'Étude comparée des religions, 3 v. (5th ed. Paris 1929) 1:361–544. k. prÜmm, Der christliche Glaube und die altheidnische Welt, 2 v. (Leipzig 1935). l. de grandmaison, Jesus Christ: His Person, His Message, His Credentials, 3 v. (New York 1935–37) v. 3, esp. 349–377. m. j. lagrange, Introduction à l'étude du Nouveau Testament, pt. 4, Critique historique, pt. 4.1, Les Mystères: L'Orphisme (2d ed. Paris 1937) esp. 187–224. c. colpe, Die religionsgeschichtliche Schule: Darstellung und Kritik ihres Bildes vom gnostlischen Erlösermythus (Göttingen 1961). c. vagaggini, Il senso teologico della liturgia (2d ed. Rome 1958); Eng. Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy, tr. l. j. doyle (Collegeville, Minn. 1959).

[k. prÜmm]