54. We have explained this theory above, p. 125. It was foreign to the
religion of Zoroaster and was introduced into the mysteries of Mithra with
the Chaldean astrology. Moreover, ancient mythological ideas were always
mixed with this learned theology. For instance, it was an old Oriental
belief that souls, being regarded as material, wore clothing (_Mon. myst.
Mithra_, I, p. 15, n. 5; Bousset, _Archiv für Religionswiss._, IV, 1901, p.
233, n. 2; _Rev. hist. des relig._, 1899, p. 243, and especially Böklen,
_Die Verwandtschaft der jüdisch-christlichen und der parsischen
Eschatologie_, Göttingen, 1902, pp. 61 ff.) Thence arose the notion
prevalent to the end of paganism, that the soul in passing through the
planetary spheres, took on the qualities of the stars "like successive
tunics." Porphyry, _De abstin._, I, 31: [Greek: Apoduteon ara tous pollous
hêmin chitônas k. t. l.]; Macrobius, _Somnium Sc._, I, 11, § 12: "In
singulis sphaeris aetherea obvolutione vestitur"; I, 12, § 13: "Luminosi
corporis amicitur accessu"; Proclus, _In Tim._, I, 113, 8, Diehl ed.:
[Greek: Periballesthai chitônas], Procl., _Opera_, Cousin ed., p. 222:
"Exuendum autem nobis et tunicas quas descendentes induti sumus"; Kroll,
_De orac. Chaldaïcis_, p. 51, n. 2: [Greek: Psuchê hessamenê noun]; Julian,
Or., II, p. 123, 22, (Hertlein). Cf. Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-römische
Kultur_, p. 168 n. 1. Compare what {270} Hippolytus, _Philos._, V, I, says
of Isis (Ishtar?) in connection with the Naasenians. She is [Greek:
heptastolos], because nature also is covered with seven ethereal garments,
the seven heavens of the planets; see Ps.-Apul., _Asclepius_, 34 (p. 75, 2
Thomas): "Mundum sensibilem et, quae in eo sunt, omnia a superiore illo
mundo quasi ex vestimento esse contecta." I have insisted upon the
persistence of this idea, because it may help us to grasp the significance
attributed to a detail of the Mithra ritual in connection with which
Porphyry relates nothing but contradictory interpretations. The persons
initiated into the seven degrees were obliged to put on different costumes.
The seven degrees of initiation successively conferred upon the mystic were
symbols of the seven planetary spheres, through which the soul ascended
after death (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 316), the garments assumed by the
initiates were probably considered as emblems of those "tunics" which the
soul put on when descending into the lower realms and discarded on
returning to heaven.