Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/138

126 MYSTERIES these passages we may infer the belief of the writers that important truths were enigmatically 1 expressed in the Mysteries, and that the intellect which could pene trate beneath the surface was able to apprehend them. Plutarch says that it required a philosophic training and a reverent religious frame of mind to comprehend the Mysteries. Similarly Aristotle expressly says that no in struction was given to the /ZL O-TCU, but that, while in a suitable state of receptivity, their emotions and character were acted upon. The testimony of the Christian writers is entirely to the same effect ; while stigmatizing the im pure character of some of the rites, they always admit that the Mysteries were intended to lead the people up to a knowledge of religious truth. 2 It is obvious that the essential point on which the effect of the ceremony depended was that the mind of the initiated should be wrought up to a pitch of eager, rapt expectancy and breathless attention. The attentive silence of the spectators at the Mysteries was proverbial. Many means contributed to produce this state. A certain amount of previous training and instruction was imparted by the fnxrraywyoi to the candidates. It is true that all who had been initiated had the right to act as /xuo-raywyot, that they were left legally free to introduce any one whom they thought fit, that the amount of instruction they could impart varied accord ing to their character and education. Lobeck has em phasized all these elements which tended to impair the character and lessen the effect of the Mysteries. But though this point is incapable of proof, the general char acter of the Mysteries suggests that custom may have modified to some degree the freedom allowed by law, and that the Eleusinian officials tried to regulate the instruc tion given. Moreover, the lesser Mysteries were a kind of preparation for the greater, and Clement mentions that in them, and in them alone, a certain amount of instruction was given to the jaw-rat. 3 These circumstances combined with the general belief of the people in the holiness and power of the Mysteries to produce in the mind of the /AVCTTCU an expectant feeling and a disposition to look for some meaning in the spectacle. The grades of admission to the Mysteries tended to pro duce the same impression. The process of initiation was not a momentary one, completed in one act ; it extended over an elaborate series of stages, and the ancients certainly associated these successive steps with a gradual increase of knowledge and insight. The candidate was initiated in the lesser Mysteries in Anthesterion (February) at Athens ; he was admitted as a /XMTTT/S at Eleusis in the following Boedromion (September), but he could not attain the higher initiation as eTroTm/s till at least one year more had elapsed. It was also believed that a higher order of initiation was reserved for those who were qualified for the offices of iepo</>ttVT?7? and SaSou^o?, in which the last knowledge of the cultus was imparted to them. 4 Finally, the physical circumstances of the initiation were such as to produce an excited and high -strung nervous condition. The nine days fast, very strictly observed, 5 the long march from Athens to Eleusis and the frequent 1 The word "enigma" is used by Sopater, Diasr. Zetcm., p. 120 ; Clem. Alex. , Strom., p. 658, and Christian writers frequently ; Lobeck, pp. 143, 189. 2 Plut., Isid., Ixviii. ; Aristot. ap. Synes., Or., p. 48 (ed. Petav.) ; Cic., N. D., i. 42, is important, rerum magis natura cognoscitur quam deorum. 3 Cl. Alex., Strom., v. 689 ; Lobeck, p. 140. 4 Theon Smyrn., Mathem., i. p. 18, quoted by Lobeck, p. 39. 8 It is nowhere mentioned that the /UWTCU fasted nine days, but the analogy of the nine days fast of Demeter makes it quite safe to assume that this was the rule for her worshippers; see Hymn, 1. 47-9. The fast was perhaps, like the Mohammedan Ramadan, observed only while the sun was up ; but, in addition to this, various kinds of food were wholly prohibited, see Lobeck, pp. 189-91. religious ceremonies with which it was marked, the wander ing by night around the shores and plain of Eleusis with torches in search of the lost Cora, all tended to produce a strained enthusiastic state. And the season of the year and of the month for the nights were dark co-operated ; Boedromion fell about the end of the hot season, when the bodily strength is usually low. Then came the actual Mysteries : the //VCTTOU were admitted to the holy building ; the splendid illumination seemed clazzlingly bright after the darkness outside ; the strange apparitions, the impressive voices, the gorgeous dresses of the actors, the magnificence of the sacred drama, to which the highly suggestive and symbolic art of Greece no doubt contributed largely, all these they saw and heard in awestruck silence. Then came the crowning act of the ceremony : they had perhaps before this drunk the sacred draught with which the god dess had refreshed herself after her long fast, but now the holy things which the goddess had herself shown to the daughters of Celeus were revealed to them. They were admitted one by one to touch, to kiss the holy things, to lift them from the cist, to put them into the basket, to taste them, to replace them in the cist, and to pronounce the sacred formula. The scene that takes place in every modern Greek church on the eve of Easter Sunday gives some faint idea of the character of this TrapaSoo-ts. This state of enthusiasm was common to all Mysteries, especially to the Phrygian. It was susceptible of great abuses, e.g., the self-mutilation and the immorality of the Phrygian rites. But the spirit of Hellenism toned down the excesses, while it tried to preserve the fervour and self-forgetfulness of the Phrygian and Bacchic orgies. The relation of the state to the Mysteries contributed to regulate the excited fervour of the celebrants. While it never interfered with the established ritual, the state was the last judge in cases of misdemeanour ; it appointed officials to control the expenditure and conduct the public part of the ceremony. Inscriptions 6 have thrown much light on this point, but it is not possible here to dwell on it. The Mysteries of Eleusis were the one great attempt made by the Hellenic genius to construct for itself a religion that should keep pace with the growth of thought and civilization in Greece. The strained enthusiasm at tendant upon them seems at first strange and unhellenic to a mind accustomed to the moderated chastened tone of Greek art and literature, and to the spectacular character of Greek exoteric religion with its utter want of vitality and religious fervour. The public religion either became, like the Panathenaia, a purely political display of the power and splendour of Athens, or else, like much of the old ceremonial of the acropolis, was performed perfunc torily. It had no hold on the mind of the people ; its simple antique ceremonies told nothing of the subjects which troubled men s minds, the thoughts of sin, of a future life, and of punishment for guilt. But the Mysteries con cerned themselves precisely with these subjects : they pro vided a series of preliminary purifications for their votaries ; they turned men s minds to the deeper problems of life and death, and gave them new views; they made some attempt to reach and touch the individual mind. Thus, while the public Hellenic religion sank into disrepute, the Mysteries became more and more important as time elapsed. It is impossible to reconstruct the mystic ceremonial, but sufficient indications are given for us to understand its general character. It consisted of acts and words, SpwfAcva. and Aeyo/ievct, which supplemented one another, and were both required to make an intelligible whole. 7 6 See the inscription of Andania, and the important inscription of Eleusis published in Butt. Corr. Hell., 1880. 7 The case of the young man in Sopater s imaginary trial proves this very clearly.