THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
by the pilgrims
carried
lingam of the Hindu.
to Eleusis,
and answers
19
to the yoni, as the phallus corresponds to the
^
The iMysteries, indeed, by the name of whatever god they might be called, were invariably
mixed nature, beginning in sorrow and ending in joy. They sometimes described the
allegorical death and subsequent revivification of the Deity in whose honour they were
of a
celebrated, whilst at others they represented
on account of the
It
all in
loss either of a
the wanderings of a person in great distress
^
husband, a lover, a son, or a daughter.
admits of very little doubt that the Mysteries, by whatever
substance the same.
We
name they were
were
by Julius Firmicus,^ that in the nocturnal celebration of the Bacchic
are informed
called,
rites
a statue was laid out upon a couch, as if dead, and bewailed with the bitterest lamentations.
When a sufficient space of time had been consumed in all the mock solemnity of woe, lights
were introduced, and the hierophant having anointed the aspirants, slowly chanted the
following distich:
Qappelre jiivnal rov Oiov
Eo"Tat
yap
yjixlv
crecrtofTjJLfi'Ov
Ik irovoiv (TojTJ^pta.
Courage, ye Mystse, lo, our God is safe,
And all our troubles speedily shall end.
And
the epoptct
now passed from
the darkness of Tartarus to the divine splendour of
Elysium.*
Lucius, describing his initiation into the Mysteries of
reader,
you
will very anxiously ask
me what was
says
Isis,
then said and done
:
—
?
"
Perhaps, inquisitive
I
would
tell
you
if it
could be lawfully told.
I approached to the confines of death, and having trod on the
He then
threshold of Proserpine, cd midnight I saw the sun shining with a splendid light."
on to say, " that his head was decorously encircled with a crown, the shining leaves of the
goes
palm
tree projecting
his initiation
by
from
it
like rays of light,
delightful, pleasant,
and that he celebrated the most joyful day of
and facetious banquets.""
In the Samothracian mysteries the initiated received a purple ribbon, which was intended
to guarantee
them against
by
perils
Prom numerous
sea.
passages of ancient writers,
we may
There is no reason for supposing tliat
Encyclopajdia Britannica (1878, Eleusinia, Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, Bart.).
the Eleusinian Mysteries involved any more than this symbolical teaching which centres in