Part 5

It would be a great mistake to regard the Eleusinian Mysteries as a result of illuminism or rationalism. Rather were they an institution not less religious, not less faithful to the ancient traditions than the popular religion itself; with this difference only, that the latter contented itself with honoring the gods contemplated in the human form, while the mysteries emphasized the infinite pre-eminence of the divine nature over the human. Hence the mystic religion was guarded by the state authorities with the same zeal as the anthropomorphic religion of the vulgar.

No one saw in the one any danger to the other. The two forms of religion were branches of one tree, Pantheism, and herein only differed, that the one saw the Divine in all earthly things, the other sought for it there and strove for union with it. It is equally vain to look in the Eleusinia for either Rationalism or Monotheism. Monotheism, i. e., absolute severance of the earthly from the divine without hope of union, was a purely Oriental idea, quite incomprehensible to the Grecian mind: no ancient Greek writer ever dreamed of a creative demiurgus, in the Egyptian sense, nor of an angry and revengeful Yahve, like the Hebrews.

So great was the veneration for the Eleusinia among the Grecian states, that during the mystic festivals hostilities were suspended between opposing armies; and despisers of the mysteries, betrayers of the secret doctrine, and unbidden witnesses of the rites, were punished capitally or with lifelong banishment. In the year 411 B. C. the poet Diagoras of Melos, who threw a figure of Herakles into fire, to put the hero to his thirteenth labor, and who had betrayed the mysteries, was banished for his irreligion. Even after the death of Hellenic liberty the Roman emperors took an interest in maintaining the Eleusinian sanctuaries. Hadrian sought and obtained the initiation, Antoninus erected edifices at Eleusis, nay, some of the early Christian emperors, as Constantius II. and Jovian, in their decrees forbidding nocturnal festivals made an exception of the Eleusinia; and after the destruction of the sacred buildings, the rites seem to have been still practiced.

The sum of all that is known of the doctrine taught at Eleusis is as follows: The myth underlying these mysteries was the rape, by Pluto, of Persephone, daughter of Demeter. Pluto, god of the netherworld in the popular belief, lord of the abode of the damned, in other terms, the personification of the sun that goes down in the west, hence of the sun of the nighttime, or of the Wintertime, carries off Persephone (personification of the world of plants), as she is plucking flowers (for as the cold season comes on the flowers wither and die), and takes her with him to the realm of shades, where she occupies the throne with him. But her mother Demeter, being, as goddess of the earth, the mother of the plant-world, and so too protectress of husbandry, wanders about lamenting, for indeed the earth loses its adornments, its loveliest features, in Winter. But at last the gods take pity on the hapless wanderer and bring about an agreement between her and Pluto, whereby Persephone is permitted to live in the upperworld in Summer, returning to the netherworld for Winter: here is signified the fecundity of the soil, and also the resurrection of man after his body has been dropped like a grain of corn in the earth. The union of Persephone with Bacchus, i. e., with the sun-god whose work is to promote fruitfulness, is an idea special to the mysteries, and means the union of humanity with godhead, the consummation aimed at in the mystic rites. Hence in all probability the central teaching of the mysteries was Personal Immortality, analogue of the return of the bloom to plants in Spring.

Now the festivals at Eleusis have reference to this myth. Of these festivals there were two, the Lesser Eleusinia in Spring (the month Anthesterion, March), when the ravished one came up out of the netherworld into the sunlight; these festivals were observed at Agrae; and the Greater Eleusinia in Autumn (the month Boedromion, October), when she must follow her sullen spouse again to Hades; they were observed at Athens and Eleusis. There was a preliminary celebration at Athens, and at Eleusis the high celebration. The preliminary solemnity lasted six days, Boedromion 15th to 20th. On the first day Initiates from every region wherever the Greek language was heard and Grecian hearts beat for the gods, assembled in the Poecile at Athens and there heard the order of the exercises proclaimed by the Hierophant, after his aides had first in a loud voice bidden the bloodguilty to depart. On the second day the mystae were summoned to go down to the seashore and to perform in the sacred brine the act of purification, requisite for a worthy observance of the solemnity. The remaining days were spent in performing the prescribed sacrifices, sharing in the sacrificial banquets, and making the customary solemn processions. On the sixth day came the grand Iacchus Procession, numbering thousands of mystae, of both sexes; these, issuing from the Sacred Gate, wended along the Sacred Road to Eleusis. They wore crowns of parsley and myrtle, and in their hands carried ears of corn, implements of husbandry and torches; for though the procession set out betimes it moved slowly, and reached the destination late, to celebrate the festival in the hallowed night. Iacchus himself was believed to be the leader of the procession, which was headed by his image in the form of a babe with costly toys and cradle. The line of march lay along the brink of the sea over the same flowery fields and grassy meadows of the Thriasian plains, which had been the scene of the rape of Persephone. The route was fourteen miles long, but to the participants in their festive mood it was short, and besides they made frequent halts at the various sanctuaries on the way, practicing mystic rites and offering sacrifices. The rude wild chorus of the Hymn to Iacchus resounded, with intervals of animated dances and flute-playing, and frequent shouts of Io, Iacchus, hail! But as we learn from the “Frogs” of Aristophanes, the processionists meanwhile indulged freely in merriment, chaffing their fellows, and making love to the women and girls. It was customary for women to make the journey in wains till a demagogue in the time of Demosthenes procured the abolition of this “privilege of the rich.”

In the evening of the first day at Eleusis the mystae in common drank of the sacred potion Kykeon, by which Demeter was comforted at Eleusis during her wandering. It was a decoction of barley, wine, and grated cheese; to these afterward were added, one by one, honey, milk, certain herbs, salt, and onions. During the three succeeding nights the performing of the mystic rites and the initiations took place, the principal feature being the torch-processions representing Demeter’s search for Persephone: during the day the Initiates seem to have fasted. After the initiations the festival was transformed into a scene of merriment and gymnastic competition. Probably the mystae returned to Athens processionally, and there the report on the festival was made to the Boule, whose non-initiated members had first to retire.

It was at these festivals that the rites of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries were performed. Initiation was in two degrees, viz., that of the Lesser, and that of the Greater mysteries. Initiation into the Lesser mysteries took place during the preliminary festival, and that into the Greater mysteries either at the greater festival next ensuing or at the greater festival of a subsequent year. The Initiates of the Lesser mysteries were called Mystae, those of the Greater mysteries, Epoptae (those who have seen). It is probable that at both of the annual festivals the mystae took part only in the external ceremonies, and that only the Epoptae (or adepts) were admitted into the Sacred House at Eleusis, or inducted into the occult meaning of the festivals and ceremonies: this we infer from the exceedingly large number of the mystae.

The one who wished to be admitted to the mysteries had to apply to an initiated citizen of Athens, who by appointment of the authorities served as mediator between him and the priests: hence he was called Mystagogos, guide or sponsor of the postulant. As a rule the postulant was required to be a Hellene. Foreigners were admitted only when they were men of distinction, such, for example, as the Scythian philosopher Anacharsis. After the conquest of Greece by the Romans, Roman citizens stood on equality with Hellenes. There was no discrimination on the ground of sex. But no one stained with bloodguiltiness could be admitted.

Those who came up for admission to the degree of Epoptes, and who, as we suppose, had never entered the “Mystic House,” were left to wander through its mazes, in profound darkness, meeting toils and hindrances and dangers. Then followed rites in which the courage of the candidates was subjected to the severest tests, so as to fill them with “fear and trembling and dread amaze.” It is very probable that the terrors of the test were borrowed from the Grecian ideas of the netherworld. But after the darkness came brightness, after Tartarus Elysium, the Field of the Blest. The epoptes was suddenly gladdened by a miraculous light; smiling plains and meadows invited his footsteps, whence we must infer that the Mystic House was furnished forth with most ingenious scenic mechanisms, as trapdoors, magic lanterns, and other optical contrivances. Celestial voices and harmonies were heard, charming dances were executed, eye and ear were flattered by a display of the uttermost resources of Grecian art; and last came the most impressive scene of all, when the hierophant threw open the door of the inmost shrine of Demeter, bade the epoptae enter in, withdrew the veils from the images of the gods (whose true meaning was thus made known), and showed godhead in its most radiant splendor.

That the Initiates of the mysteries regarded their chances in the netherworld as better than those of the profane we learn not only from the sarcastic Aristophanes, who in the “Frogs” scores the mystae as in myrtle groves they revel amid fluting and dancing, while the profane wander in darkness and mire, lapping water like dogs; but the serious-minded Sophocles tells us the same thing in a fragment quoted by Plutarch: “O, thrice blest the mortals who have witnessed these solemn rites, when they go down to Hades: for them alone is there life in the netherworld; for all others bootless affliction and misery.”

5. THE MYSTERIES OF SAMOTHRACE.

Next after the Eleusinia, the most ancient and renowned of the Grecian mysteries were those of the Cabiri in the island of Samothrace. Who the Kabeiroi were—men, or intermediate beings half human, half divine, also how many they were, no satisfactory conclusion has yet been reached on these points. But they date from very high antiquity, before the evolution of the several Grecian deities. In Egypt, according to Herodotus (III., 37), they were “worshiped as sons of Hephaestus (he means Ptah, god of Memphis); and were, like their father, figured in the shrine as Pygmies.” That in the language of Phoenicia Kabirim means “the great, the mighty ones,” is of no consequence, for here “great” is not used in the sense of bodily largeness. Neither is it any objection that in Greece the Kabeiroi are regarded as beings subordinate to the gods: for the earlier gods ever do take second place when new gods get footing. In early Egyptian mythology and religion the Cabiri were personifications of the stars; and the mysteries of Samothrace were originally an astromythology, though in time their astral significations were forgotten. From a remark of Herodotus (II., 51) that the Athenians got from the Pelasgians inhabiting the island of Samothrace their custom of figuring Hermes with the Phallus (and everyone who has acquaintance with the secret cult of the Cabiri knows what that means), we are led to infer that in the Cabiric mysteries the reproductive forces of nature played an important part: the symbol of those forces, the Phallus, was employed by the nations of the East and from them passed to the Greeks, who originally had no leaning toward such obscene imaginings. The same inference is suggested by Juvenal’s remark that in love affairs it was the fashion to swear by the Cabiri. For initiation into the Samothracian mysteries the novice was required to submit to a purification by fire and to fumigation, and to make a sort of confession. Plutarch tells of a Spartan who at his initiation inquired of the priest whether he should confess his sins to him or to the gods; and on the priest replying, “To the gods.” “Then,” said the penitent, “give way, I will tell it to the godhead alone.” Men, women, even children were initiated, and the professed received a purple band, which they wore around the body, in the assurance that by this means they would be safe against perils by sea.

The Greeks used to tell of their fabled heroes, Orpheus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, etc., that they were Initiates of these mysteries; and Philip II. of Macedon and his queen Olympias, parents of Alexander the Great, underwent this initiation. There were Cabirian mysteries also in several other Grecian islands, and in several places on the continent, both in Greece and in Asia Minor.

6. THE MYSTERIES OF CRETE.

In the island of Crete were celebrated the mysteries of Zeus. According to the myth, the father of the gods and lord of all the world, to foil the designs of his father Cronos, who had devoured all his other children, was, while yet a child, taken by his mother Rhea to that island for refuge, and there guarded in a grotto of Mt. Ida and nourished with milk and honey by the people, who meanwhile, by dealing blows on each other’s shields, kept up such a din as drowned the wailing of the babe. In Crete was also shown a sepulchre of Zeus. Regarding the Cretan mysteries we know this only, that in the Springtime the birth of the god was commemorated at the grotto and his death at the sepulchre, and that the while the young people (who represented the Curetae), in armor, with dance and song and with loud beating of cymbals and drums, enacted the story of the childhood of Zeus.

7. THE DIONYSIA.

An ancient national cult among the Hellenes, into which a mystic element was imported from without, was the worship of Dionysos or Bacchus, i. e., of the sun as promoting the growth of the vine: its end was plainly to glorify the physical world, the material world, in all its manifestations of life and force. Hence the Bacchus cult is one predominantly materialistic, addressed to the sense of bodily pleasure, the appetite for food and the sexual desire; and yet, inasmuch as viticulture, like agriculture, is one of the factors of civilization, and as the Drama had its origin in these Dionysiac festivals, it cannot be denied that for many elements of our intellectual and spiritual culture we are indebted to this cult. Of the festivals of Dionysos some belonged exclusively to the popular religion, but others were connected with mysteries. Those of the former class had their chief seat in Attica, the others elsewhere. Of these non-mystic festivals of Dionysos in Attica there were seven, occurring in different months of the year, from the season of the vintage in Autumn till toward Spring, or while the new wine was in fermentation; and some of these festivals were held in the country, others in the city. On such occasions gymnastic sports of a ludicrous sort were carried on, as dancing on one leg, leaping on a leathern bag blown up with air and greased with oil outside, and trying to maintain equilibrium, etc. At the head of a procession composed of men and women of all ranks and degrees were borne the sacrificial implements, then followed the victim, a he-goat, and soon came the image of the Phallus, borne aloft with great pomp. So little did the Greeks possess of our peculiar sense of shame that they looked on this symbol as something entirely proper, not scrupling even to sing satirical verses about it. After the sacrifice came jesting, banter, travesty, and with travesty pantomime, in which was enacted the history of the god, including of course his fabled adventures. The stage had its rise in such festivals as these. The Spring festival, held in the month Anthesterion (month of flowers) was kept with special solemnity. It marked the time when the wine was racked off into the earthen pots. It was at this festival that the Basilissa (wife of the Basileus), accompanied by fourteen other women, entered the holy of holies of the ancient temple of Dionysos (at all other times women were forbidden to enter it), and there made a secret offering with mystic rites and vows.

But we have the genuine “mysterium” in the Dionysia Trietera, or triennial festival of Dionysos. Festivals of this class seem to have originated in Thrace, and hence among a people of Pelasgian stock. The spirit of the Thracians, which was naturally of a gloomy cast, but when their slumbering passions were awakened became wildly enthusiastic, seemed in these festivals, or rather these transports of moral frenzy, to pass into the persons of the lighthearted and selfcontrolled Hellenes. The mad extravaganza of this phenomenon in the history of man and his ways is seen in the Grecian hero-myth, which tells of the great singer Orpheus and Pentheus, king of Thebes, being torn limb from limb by the furious Maenads at festivals of Bacchus, the former because after the death of his beloved Eurydice he never more would hear of woman’s love, and the latter because he had spied on the festivals. For these festivals were observed by women exclusively, who, drunken with wine, knew no restraints of reason or humanity: they were called maenades (madwomen) or Bacchae, and their festivals Orgia (orgies). The orgies were conducted on mountain sides or in mountain gorges at night under the light of torches, the fair participants, clothed in fawnskins, armed with the thyrsus wreathed with ivy and vine leaves, with hair disheveled, and, as the story goes, snakes tangled with its locks, or held in the bacchantes’ hands. This festival, which occurred in the mild midwinter of Hellas, the time of shortest days and longest nights, continued over several days, during which the maenads, shunning all association with the male sex, sacrificed, drank, danced, jubilated, made noise with the double-pipe and the brazen tymbal, nay, as the (manifestly improbable) story runs, with their own hands tore asunder the bull, symbol of the god, and destined to the sacrifice, and gloated over the victim’s bellowing for pain. This feat was to show forth the death of Zagreus, one of the forms under which Dionysos appeared, and in which he was torn asunder by the Titans because he had been chosen by Zeus for his successor as ruler of the universe. The flesh of the bull was torn in shreds with the teeth by the maenads and devoured raw. Then the raving Bacchae invented a fable about the death of their god, and how he was lost and how he must be found again. But all the anxious searching was vain, and hope was centered in the finding again of the all-quickening Springtide. The observance of the Dionysia was not marked with these extravagances everywhere: in Attica such excesses were never seen. But Athenian women would attend the secret festival on Parnassus near Delphi, heedless of the mantle of snow on the summit.

8. THE ROMAN BACCHANALIA.