Greco-Roman mysteries

See Western esotericism for modern mystery religions in Western culture

century, Christianity stood in direct competition for adherents with the mystery schools, insofar as the mystery
schools too were an intrinsic element of the non-Jewish
horizon of the reception of the Christian message. They
too were embraced by the process of the inculturation of
Christianity in its initial phase, and they made their own
contribution to this process.[3]:152 In Klauck and McNeils opinion, the Christian doctrine of the sacraments,
in the form in which we know it, would not have arisen
without this interaction; and Christology too understood
how to 'take up' the mythical inheritance, purifying it and
elevating it.[3]:152

1 Denition
The term Mystery derives from Latin mysterium,
from Greek mysterion (usually as the plural mysteria
), in this context meaning secret rite or doctrine. An individual who followed such a Mystery was
Hydria by the Varrese Painter (ca. 340 BC) depicting Eleusinian a mystes, one who has been initiated, from myein to
scenes
close, shut, a reference to secrecy (closure of the eyes
and mouth)[4]:56 or that only initiates were allowed to obMystery religions, sacred mysteries or simply mysterserve and participate in rituals. The Mysteries were thus
ies, were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for
schools in which all religious functions were closed to the
which participation was reserved to initiates (mystai).[1]
uninitiated and for which the inner workings of the school
The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy
were kept secret from the general public.
associated with the particulars of the initiation and the
ritual practice, which may not be revealed to outsiders.
The most famous mysteries of Greco-Roman antiquity
were the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were of consider- 2 Characteristics
able antiquity and predated the Greek Dark Ages. The
mystery schools ourished in Late Antiquity; Julian the Mystery religions form one of three types of Hellenistic
Apostate in the mid 4th century is known to have been religion, the others being the imperial cult or ethnic reinitiated into three distinct mystery schools most no- ligion particular to a nation or state, and the philosophic
tably the Mithraic Mysteries. Due to the secret nature of religions such as Neoplatonism. This is also reected in
the school, and because the mystery religions of Late An- the tripartite division of "theology" by Varro, in civil thetiquity were persecuted by the Christian Roman Empire ology (concerning the state religion and its stabilizing effrom the 4th century, the details of these religious prac- fect on society), natural theology (philosophical speculatices are derived from descriptions, imagery and cross- tion about the nature of the divine) and mythical theology
cultural studies. Because of this element of secrecy, we (concerning myth and ritual).
are ill-informed as to the beliefs and practices of the vari- Mysteries thus supplement rather than compete with civil
ous mystery faiths. We know that they had a general like- religion. An individual could easily observe the rites of
ness to one another.[2]:50f
the state religion, be an initiate in one or several mysterJustin Martyr in the 2nd century explicitly noted and identied them as demonic imitations of the true faith, and
that the devils, in imitation of what was said by Moses,
asserted that Proserpine was the daughter of Jupiter, and
instigated the people to set up an image of her under the
name of Kore (First Apology). Through the 1st to 4th

ies, and at the same time adhere to a certain philosophical school.[5]:99 In contrast to the public rituals of civil
religion, participation in which was expected of every
member of society, initiation to a mystery was optional
within Graeco-Roman polytheism. Many of the aspects
of public religion are repeated within the mystery, sacri1

REFERENCES

ces, ritual meals, ritual purications, etc., just with the 6 References
additional aspect that they take place in secrecy, conned
to a closed set of initiates.[3]:86 This is important in the Notes
context of the early persecution of Christians. Christianity was seen as objectionable by the Roman establishment
[1] Crystal, David, ed. (1995), Mystery Religions, Camnot on grounds of its tenets or practices, but because early
bridge Encyclopedia of The English Language, CamChristians chose to consider their faith as precluding the
bridge: Cambridge UP.
participation in the imperial cult, which was seen as sub[2] Barnes, Ernest William (1947), The Rise of Christianity,
versive by the Roman establishment.
The mystery schools oered a niche for the preservation
of ancient religious ritual, and there is reason to assume
that they were very conservative. The Eleusian Mysteries
persisted for more than a millennium, more likely close
to two millennia, during which period the ritual of public
religion changed signicantly, from the religions of the
Bronze to Early Iron Age to the Hero cult of Hellenistic civilization and again to the imperial cult of the Roman era, while the ritual performances of the mysteries
for all we know remained unchanged. They had, more
often than not, come up from a barbarous underworld.
They were singularly persistent. The mysteries at Eleusis near Athens lasted for a thousand years; and there is
reason to believe that they changed little during that long
period.[2]:51

p. 50f.

[3] Klauck, Brian; McNeil (2003), The Religious Context of

Early Christianity, Continuum International Publishing
Group, ISBN 978-0-567-08943-4 . 81-152?
[4] Newberg, Andrew (2001), Why God Won't Go Away, New
York: Ballantine
[5] Iles Johnson, Sarah (2007), Mysteries, in Iles Johnson, Sarah, Ancient Religions, Cambridge: Belknap
Press/Harvard UP, ISBN 978-0-674-02548-6
[6] Janda, Michael (2000), Eleusis: das indogermanische Erbe
der Mysterien, (Habil. Thesis), Innsbruck.
[7] Hall, Manly P. (1928), The Secret Teachings of all ages,
San Francisco: s.p.

For this reason, what glimpses we do have of the older [8] Noll, Richard.Mysteria: Jung and the Ancient Mysteries
(unpublished page proofs, 1994)
Greek mysteries have been taken as reecting certain archaic aspects of common Indo-European religion, with [9] Noll, Richard. Jung the Leontocephalus (1999)
parallels in Indo-Iranian religion.[6] The mystery schools
of Greco-Roman antiquity include the Eleusinian Mys</references>
teries, the Dionysian Mysteries, and the Orphic Mysteries. Some of the many divinities that the Romans Further reading
nominally adopted from other cultures also came to be
worshipped in Mysteries, for instance, Egyptian Isis,
Aneziri, Sophia. Die Vereine der Dionysischen
Persian Mithraic Mysteries, Thracian/Phrygian Sabazius,
Techniten im Kontext der hellenistischen Gesellschaft
and Phrygian Cybele.[7]:21
(Stuttgart, 2003).

Later inuence

The ancient mystery schools were a subject of fascination

for 19th and early-20th century German and French classical scholars. This literature had an enormous inuence
on European culture in the late 19th century. Psychiatrist
and psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung borrowed metaphors
from this literature to reframe his theories and the charismatic movement based on them.[8][9]

List of mystery schools

See also
Navigium Isidis
Mysticism

Bowden, Hugh Bowden. Mystery Cults of the Ancient World (Princeton, Princeton UP, 2010).
Burkert, Walter (1987), Ancient Mystery Cults,
Cambridge, Mass.
Casadio, Giovanni Casadio and Johnston, Patricia
A. (eds), Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia (Austin,
TX, University of Texas Press, 2009).
Chisholm, Hugh, ed.
(1911), Mystery,
Encyclopdia Britannica, Cambridge: Cambridge
UP
Cosmopoulos, Michael B. (ed), Greek Mysteries: the
archaeology and ritual of ancient Greek secret cults
(London, Routledge, 2003).
Delneri, Francesca, I culti misterici stranieri nei
frammenti della commedia attica antica (Bologna,
Patron Editore, 2006) (Eikasmos, Studi, 13).
Dodds, Eric R. (1968), The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley: UC Press

3
Frazer, James G. (1957), The Golden Bough: A
Study in Magic and Religion, London: Macmillan
Kirk, Georey S. (1970), Myth: Its Meaning and
Function in Ancient and Other Cultures, Cambridge:
Cambridge UP
Le Guen, Brigitte. Les Associations de Technites
dionysiaques l'poque hellnistique, 2 vol. (Nancy,
2001).
Meyer, W. M. (1987), The Ancient Mysteries: A
Sourcebook. Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions
of the Ancient Mediterranean World, San Francisco
Virgili, Antonio, Culti misterici ed orientali a Pompei
(Roma, Gangemi, 2008).
Willoughby, H. R. (1929), Pagan Regeneration:
Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman
World, Chicago

External links
Media related to Mysteric religions in ancient world
at Wikimedia Commons

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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8.1

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File:Eleusinian_hydria_Antikensammlung_Berlin_1984.46.jpg Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/
Eleusinian_hydria_Antikensammlung_Berlin_1984.46.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2008
Original artist: Varrese Painter

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