the condition of things from that obtaining as above described,
though the Brahmins were further away from the other castes than in
other countries where the priests came from the common people; by
the latter the Brahmins used to be regarded as Gods and did all they
could to perpetuate this feeling. By this fact alone they became a
self-constituted mystic organization, being themselves pantheists while
the people were idolators. Though they taught pantheism in their sacred
books, the second and third castes, namely the warriors and farmers,
did not understand the teaching, and the fourth caste dared not read
them at all.
In this pantheism penitents and hermits were esteemed as above kings
and heroes; but even the life of a hermit was not exacting enough
for them, so they organized the idea of a soul of the universe so
incomprehensible that, as they themselves acknowledged, no man could
comprehend it or instruct another in it. Despairing of solving the
problem they finally fancied that the universe was a phantasm, and that
the earth and all things earthly were nothing. They taught that through
countless aeons of time men grew always worse, and were born only to
suffer and die, or to do penance in the torments of an indescribable
Hell. Naturally of all these things the people could only understand
the teachings pertaining to hell and future punishment, and so the
Brahmins contrived for them a supreme deity, having the same name as
their Soul of the Universe, namely Brahma, whom they made the creator
but playing a passive part. The people were not content, however,
with an absentee passive God, but paid much more attention to Vishnu
the preserver, and the dreaded Siva, the destroyer. After a while
these three Gods were united in a sort of trinity, represented by a
three headed figure, but without temples or sacrifices. The Brahmins
continued their subtleties and divided the people into parties, like
the scholiasts and disputants of the middle centuries of our present
Christian era, and so the Hindoo religion became more and more debased.
However, in the sixth century B. C., Buddha, that great figure in
early history, endeavored to save it by a reform which found much more
encouragement in the West, and to the far East of India, than in India
itself, and which has since assumed a more composite character by
fusion with the religions of the surrounding countries.
Buddha formed first a monastic society based upon ethical doctrines,
whose underlying principle was that only by a renunciation of
everything can man find safety, peace and comfort. Buddha's first
teachings were mystic and for the initiated only; his followers
believed also in reincarnation. After his death and that of those who
were supposed to have lived before him, and who were expected to appear
again, and who had been raised to the dignity of Gods, (and after
their number had been added to that of the popular Hindoo Gods and
to the Gods of the other people), then Buddhism became a polytheism,
and because of the variety of possible explanations and the necessary
exegesis, assumed in the end the dimensions of a secret mystic doctrine.
The Hellenes undoubtedly did, in the beginning, worship natural
forces under the form of animals, especially of serpents; later human
and animal forms were united, and so they had deities with heads of
animals, or with the bodies of horses like the Centaurs, or with the
hoofs of goats like the Satyrs. But the natural Greek taste for the
beautiful early asserted itself; the figures of Gods came by degrees
to express the ideal of physical perfection, that is the human shape,
and the Grecian religion became essentially a worship of the beautiful,
and not as among Oriental religions a worship of the unnatural or
hideous. They forgot the astronomic and cosmic significance of the
early myths and held rather to personifications of the normal forces,
of which their poets sang as of mortal heroes. They never dreamt of
dogma, creed or revelation, demanded only that man honor the Gods, but
left it to the taste of each one how he should suitably perform his
acts of reverence. It must be confessed, however, that in candor and
chastity they left much to be desired; but this may be explained when
we remember that their own Gods set them a very poor example in these
respects. Still history will forgive them much because they loved
much. The Greeks were exceedingly liberal in their interpretations
concerning the Gods, while the various peoples constituting the Greek
race were not at all agreed as to the number and respective rank
of the Gods whom they worshiped. Thus one would be disowned here,
another there; while in one place greater honor would be paid to one,
or elsewhere to another; exactly as in the case of the Saints among
the Catholic people of to-day. They went so far in their worship
of the beautiful as to divide the Gods among the localities which
possessed statues of them, which Gods came to be regarded as distinct
individuals; so that even Socrates doubted whether Aphrodite of the sky
and Aphrodite of the people were or were not the same person.
Furthermore in their liberality they made Gods to hand for every
emergency, and even worshiped the unknown Gods, as St. Paul long ago
recorded. For the Greeks these Gods were neither monsters like those
of Egypt, India and Chaldea, nor incorporeal spirits like the Gods of
Persia and of Israel, but human beings with all the human attributes.
For the Greeks neither Jehovah existed, nor a personal devil in any
form. Like the Greeks themselves their Gods had many human failings,
though in them religion survived many mythological creations like the
Centaurs, the Satyrs, etc. These were merely folklore beings enacting
parts ranging from terror to farce, and never receiving divine honors.
Grecian religion was, so to speak, the established church of the
Greek states, but came to be in time a cloak for the designs of the
politicians; in which respect history has many times repeated itself.
For instance Socrates was made to drink his cup of hemlock on the
pretext that he had apostatized from the state religion. Still even
in his day heresy played no part except among politicians. Every one
could plainly state his convictions, and Aristophanes in his comedies
introduced Gods in the most ridiculous and compromising situations. So
long as the public worship of the Gods went on the state cared little
for the upholding of positive or suppressing of negative beliefs. The
Gods were entitled to sacrifices and the people to divine aid, but they
could regulate the interchange to suit themselves. The greatest public
crimes were violation of temples and profanation of sacred things; one
must leave the images alone even if he did not believe in the Gods they
represented. Punishment of blasphemy was only inflicted when complaint
was made. Foreign Gods could be introduced and worshiped at will,
providing only that the customary honors were rendered to those at home.
Such religious freedom could naturally only exist during the minority
or the absence of a priestly class. Anyone could transact business
with the Gods or conduct sacrifices; priests were employed only in
the temples, and outside of them they had neither business, influence
nor privileges. Their pantheism was comprehensive; the Gods were
everywhere, and the honor done to them consisted in invocations,
votive offerings and sacrifices. The Grecian religion recognized no
official revelation which all were required to believe, though it did
not deny the possibility of revelations at any time. Their oracles
were obtainable only in particular places and through duly qualified
individuals. At one time in ancient Greece conjuration was in vogue,
but the Gods and demons who indulged in it were all borrowed from
foreign sources, and in time it degenerated into pure magic.
The Greeks, however, could not get away from the sentimental notion
that belief in the Gods must have an ethical side and must be
subordinate to their faith; in other words that human nature was
something entirely different from the divine to which it was subject.
Alienation from the God in which they believed led necessarily to the
impulse to seek him, which was the leading motive in the institution of
the Grecian mysteries,--Gods who were man's equals were not sufficient
for the Greeks. In the beginning of these mysteries they borrowed the
art of the popular religion, disregarded the science of the day as
well as the philosophic doctrines of their great men, held in contempt
both human power and human knowledge, and devoted themselves almost
entirely to self-introspection, meditation on revelation, incarnation
and resurrection, and presented these things in dramatic forms and
ceremonies, by which illusions they hoped to make more or less
impression upon the senses. The Grecian mysteries were the opposite
of genuine Hellenism. The true Greek was cheerful, happy, clear in
perception, and his Gods appeared to him as do their statues to us
to-day. But Greek mysticism was full of gloom, symbolism and fantastic
interpretations; in every way it was unhellenic and abnormal, having no
fit place in their soil nor in their age. It always has been the case
that sentimental, romantic or mystical dispositions find delight in the
mysterious, while logical minds are unmoved by it. From the Mysteries
no man was excluded, save those who had shown themselves unworthy of
initiation. They had their origin in the early rites of purification
and atonement; the former being at first only bodily cleansing, which
later took on a moral significance; while the atonement was a sort
of expiation which came with the consciousness of sin and desire for
forgiveness. Atonement was most called for in case of blood guiltiness,
and consisted largely in the sacrifices of animals, burning of incense,
etc. In all the ancient mysteries these two features of purification
and expiation played a great part.
Of them all the oldest and most celebrated were those instituted at
Eleusis, in Attica, in honor of the Goddess Demeter (Latin Ceres),
and her daughter Persephone (Latin Proserpina). To these were added
later a masculine deity, known at first as Iacchos, whose name is
probably related to Jao, which appears in Jovispater or Jupiter, and
to the Hebrew Yahve or Jehovah. Later, however, B was substituted for
I and Iacchos was made to read Bacchus. Jao was the Harvest God, and
consequently God of the grape, hence the close relation to Bacchus.
The Greek word Eleusis means _advent_, and commemorates the visit of
Demeter while wandering in search of her daughter,--which reminds one
of the Egyptian story of Isis. Moved by gratitude, Demeter bestowed
upon the people of Eleusis the bread-grain and the mysteries. From this
city the cult of these two deities spread over all Greece and most of
Asia Minor, passed into Italy in modified form, and thus became widely
accepted. The people built at Eleusis a temple in pure Doric style and
a Mystic House in which the secret festivals were held. The city was
connected with Athens by a Sacred Way, which was flanked with temples
and sanctuaries, while in Athens itself was a building, the Eleusinion,
in which a portion of the mysteries were celebrated. The buildings at
Eleusis were in good preservation until the fourth century A. D., when
they were destroyed by the Goths under Alaric, and at the instigation
of monkish fanatics. You will see, then, that the mysteries were widely
observed in Asia Minor, and at a time when they must have deeply tinged
the religious views and habits of a large portion of the population
prior to the beginning of the Christian Era.
The Eleusinian mysteries were always under the direction of the
Athenian government, and the report of their celebration was always
rendered to the grand council of Athens. The function of the priests
was an hereditary and exclusive privilege and the mysteries as a
whole were under the immediate care of a sacred council. The people
contented themselves mainly with honoring the Gods, while in these
mysteries the original endeavor was to emphasize the preëminence of
the divine over the human, hence their careful guardianship by the
authorities of the state. Both were offshoots of pantheism, one seeing
the divine in all earthly things, the other constantly searching for
it there, and striving to unite with it. Monotheism, that is absolute
separation of the human from the divine without hope of union, is a
purely Oriental conception, quite incomprehensible to the Greek mind.
No ancient Greek ever conceived of a creative deity in the Egyptians'
sense, nor of a vengeful Jehovah like that of the Hebrews.
The Eleusinian mysteries were most highly venerated among the Greeks;
so much so that during their celebration hostilities were suspended
between opposing armies, while those who witnessed them uninvited or
betrayed the secret teaching, or ridiculed them, were executed or
banished. So late even as the period of the Roman supremacy the Roman
Emperors took an interest in maintaining these mysteries, and some of
the early Christian Emperors, like Constantius II. and Jovian, while
forbidding nocturnal festivals made an exception of these.
The sum of the original Eleusinian doctrine is a myth based upon the
rape of Demeter's daughter Persephone by Pluto, all of which is the old
story of the seasons and the changes brought about in their regular
succession; and as Persephone was ultimately united with Bacchus but
returned to the lower world for the winter, we see typified first, the
fruitfulness of the Sun God; secondly, the fecundity of the soil, and,
thirdly, the resurrection of the body, which having been dropped like
the grain into the earth was supposed to rise from it again after a
similar fashion. How much this may have to do with present Christian
beliefs concerning the resurrection may not be easily decided.
Nevertheless it is of interest that the doctrine of the resurrection
is of pre-Christian origin and is traceable through heathen teachings,
even if having no greater support than the analogy above cited. The
central teaching of the mysteries was probably that of a personal
immortality analogous to the return of bloom and blossom to plants in
the spring.
There were two festivals held at Eleusis, the _lesser_ in March, when
the ravished Persephone came up out of the nether world into the
sunlight; and the _greater_ in October when she had to follow her
sullen spouse into Hades again. The preliminary celebration was held
at Athens, and lasted six days, from October 15th to 20th. They all
assembled upon that day and went down to the seashore for the rite of
purification, the other days being spent in sacrificing and marching
in solemn procession. On the last of them came the grand Bacchic
procession, when thousands of both sexes wended their way along the
sacred road to Eleusis; the distance to be traveled was fourteen miles,
but many stops were made. Arrived at Eleusis the first evening was
devoted to drinking the decoction called _kykeon_, by which Demeter was
originally comforted during her wanderings. During the first days the
initiated feasted and performed their mystic rites, consisting largely
of torch light processions at night. After these were over the festival
became a scene of merriment and athletic competition. The fasting and
solemn cup, along with others of their rites, remind one of certain
Christian observations perpetuated to the present day, while the severe
tests to which those desiring initiation were subject have been more
or less imitated by the Free Masons and other secret societies of
mediaeval or modern times. The Mystic House must have been furnished
with all the resources of the stage and the most ingenious stage
carpentry of that day, and makes one think of Scottish Rite Masonry
of this. The initiates regarded their chances in the next world as
much better than those of the common people, as all the ancient Greek
writers acknowledge.
In age and renown the mysteries of the Cabiri, in the island of
Samothrace, rank next to those of Eleusis. They date back to a time
preceding the evolution of several of the Grecian deities. These
Mysteries implied originally an astro-mythology, losing in time its
astral meaning. In these Samothracian mysteries the reproductive forces
of nature figured most prominently, and through them the Phallic
worship of the Orientals was transmitted to the Greeks. Into these
mysteries women and even children were initiated. There were also
Cabirian mysteries in several other Islands in the Grecian Archipelago,
as well as on the continent.
Mysteries were also celebrated in the Island of Crete, in honor of
Zeus. We know but little concerning them save that in the spring time
the birth of the God was commemorated in one place, and his death at
another, and that amid loud noises the story of the childhood of Zeus
was enacted by the young.
As already remarked the worship of Bacchus was imported and in him was
personified the influence of the sun upon the growth of the vine, while
the ultimate tendency was to the glorification of life and force; in
other words, it was eminently materialistic and appealed to the grosser
senses. The Dionysian mysteries originated in Thrace, and among a
people of Pelasgian stock, who were naturally gloomy save when aroused,
when their enthusiasm became exaggerated into transports of frenzy. In
time a distinction obtained between the Dionysian mysteries and the
festivals. At least seven different non-mystic festivals occurred in
Attica during the year, which were of popular character, during which
the Phallic worship, if any, predominated. The fabled adventures of
Bacchus were enacted and the dramatic stage originated at this time
and from this beginning. On the other hand, a triennial festival of
Dionysos was held in which women participated who, saturated with wine,
lost all restraint and humility and were called _maenades_ or mad
women, while their festivals were spoken of as _orgia_, whence our
modern term orgies. These were conducted at night, upon the mountains,
by torch-light, in mid-winter, while the women, who were clothed in
skins, shunned all association with men, and drank, danced, sang and
committed all sorts of excesses, finally sacrificing a bull, in honor
of the god, whose flesh they devoured raw. They then raved about
the death of their god and how he must be found again; all hope in
rediscovering him centering in the quickening springtime.
Bacchus worship, bad as it was in Greece, was surpassed in Rome, Livy
even comparing the introduction of the Bacchic cult into Rome to a
visitation of the plague. In its Etruscan and Roman form it became
simple debauchery with a thin veneering of religion. So abominable did
it become in time that in 186 B. C., the Consul Albinus was compelled
to suppress it. Seven thousand persons were implicated at that time,
and the ringleaders and a multitude of their accomplices were condemned
to death or exile. The senate decreed that the Bacchanalia should
never again be held in Rome or Italy, and the places sacred to Bacchic
worship were to be destroyed. These orgies continued unchecked outside
of Italy, and in time reappeared again even upon Italian soil, until
the days of the Roman Emperors, when they reached a pitch of absolute
shamelessness, as in the case of the notorious Messalina.
Time fails in which to mention all of the other debased mysteries
which were met with in the various parts of Greece and Italy. Among
them, however, must be recorded those of the mother of Rhea, those of
Sebazios, and those of Mithras, all of which were finally collected
by the sect of Orpheans. Among the Persians Mithras was the Light,
and his worship was perhaps the purest cult that could be imagined.
Later it was combined with sun worship, and Mithras became a Sun God,
and as such generally recognized among the different peoples. To the
early Greeks Mithras was unknown, but in the later days of the Roman
Empire his mysteries made their appearance and gained great prominence.
The monuments represented a young man in the act of slaying a bull
with a dagger, while all around are human and animal figures, the
youth standing for the Sun God who, on subduing Taurus in May, begins
to develop his highest power. The original beautiful rites later
degenerated and became orgies. Among the original rites was a form of
baptism and the drinking of a potion made of meal and water. Human
sacrifices were in some places a part of the cult.
The most disreputable of all these mysteries appear to have been the
Sabazian, which were made up of several earlier forms, and were mere
excuses for gluttony and lewdness, while the priests of the cult were
most impudent beggars.
Thus in time the mysteries were stripped of all the beauties of a
heavenly origin and became of earth exceedingly earthy, while their
initiates, lost to all shame and decency, persisted nevertheless
in their sacred hypocrisy, until the hideous night of the Gods
disappeared before the glow of a brighter morning.
After this rather long preliminary portion, we are now prepared,
as otherwise we could not be, to consider the relation between the
Christian religion and these ancient mysteries. Granting that Jesus was
the founder of the Christian religion, we must remember, nevertheless,
that he was distinctly a Jew, spent his life in Judea, and based his
teachings upon Judaism; also that long before his day Judaism was
thoroughly indoctrinated with Greek elements, and that after his
crucification the propaganda was carried on not so much by Jews as
by Greeks and men of Grecian education. Between the Greeks and the
Jews there were then, as now, the greatest differences; differences
which have already been epitomized, but which may be thus summarized.
On one side the closest union between God or the Gods and man, most
lofty sentiments and finest sense of art-form, a priesthood making no
pretentions and exerting little influence, a nation sustaining active
commercial relations with the world, and all imbued with eagerness to
adopt whatever was novel; on the other side, the widest separation
between Jehovah and man, a substitution of theology and religious
poetry for a study of nature, a nation ruled by priests and protected
against all access from without, either by sea or caravan, adhering
determinedly to the old and distrusting whatever was new.