23 In Greece the Oriental cults expanded much less than in any other
religion, because the Hellenic mysteries, especially those of Eleusis,
taught similar doctrines and satisfied the religious needs.
24 The development of the "ritual of purification" has been broadly
expounded in its entirety, by Farnell in _The Evolution of Religion_, 1905,
pp. 88 ff.
25 We shall mention this subject again when speaking of the taurobolium in
ch. III, pp. 67 ff.
26 We cannot dwell here upon the various forms assumed by that purifying
rite of the Oriental mysteries. Often these forms remained quite primitive,
and the idea that inspired them is still clear, as where Juvenal (VI, 521
f.) pictures the {222} worshiper of the _Magna Mater_ divesting himself of
his beautiful garments and giving them to the _archigallus_ to wipe out all
the misdeeds of the year (_ut totum semel expiet annum_). The idea of a
mechanical transfer of the pollution by relinquishing the clothes is
frequent among savages; see Farnell, _op. cit._, p. 117; also Frazer,
_Golden Bough_, I^2, p. 60.
27 Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 157 ff.; Hepding, _Attis_, pp.
194 ff.--Cf. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, III^2 pp. 424 ff.
28 Cf. Augustine _Civit. Dei_, X, 28: "Confiteris tamen (sc. Porphyrius)
etiam spiritalem animam sine theurgicis artibus et sine teletis quibus
frustra discendis elaborasti, posse continentiae virtute purgari," cf.
_ibid._, X, 23 and _infra_, ch. VIII, n. 24.
29 Here we can only touch upon a subject of very great interest. Porphyry's
treatise _De abstinentia_ offers a fuller treatment than is often possible
in this kind of studies.--See Farnell, _op. cit._, pp. 154 ff.
30 On [Greek: exomologêsis] in the religions of Asia Minor, cf. Ramsay,
_Cities_, I, p. 134, p. 152, and Chapot, _La province romaine d'Asie_,
1904, pp. 509 ff. See also Crusius, "Paroemiographica," _Sitzungsb. Bayr.
Akad._, 1910, p. 111.
31 Menander in Porphyry _De abstin._, II, 15; cf. Plutarch, _De
Superstit._, 7, p. 168 D.; Tertullian, _De Paenit._, c. 9.--Regarding the
sacred fishes of Atargatis, see _infra_, ch. V.--In Apuleius (Met. VIII,
28) the _gallus_ of the goddess loudly accuses himself of his crime and
punishes himself by flagellation. See Gruppe, _Griech. Myth._, p. 1545;
Farnell, _Evol. of Religion_, p. 55.--As a matter of fact, the confession
of sin is an old religious tradition dating back to the Babylonians; cf.
Lagrange, _Religions sémit._, p. 225 ff. Schrank, _Babylonische Sühnriten_,
1909, p. 46.