Evolution of Mysteries - Lecture 3
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Transcript of Evolution of Mysteries - Lecture 3
Cult of the Great Mother
“The Demeter / Persephone cult preserved hope as its function but expanded from physical nourishment to a broader psychic hope.”Development of the Thesis: “After Athens adopted it (600 BC), the Eleusinian seasonal ritual of Isis was gradually translated into intellectual terms and became increasingly personal. The personal goal was to achieve a saving gnosis – a participatory insight into an abiding divinity.”
Demeter I – 575 BC (Homeric Hymn to Demeter)Demeter II – 450 BC (rise of Athenian philosophy)Plato’s Phaedrus, 365 BC (literary Mystery images)Gnostics in Alexandria 100 BC – 100 AD Clement of Alexandria, 150‐220 ADPlotinus, 205‐270 ADCouncil of Nicea, 325 ADPseudo‐Dionysius, 500 AD
Greek seasons: seed planted in ground – dark winter –spring grain harvestCult of life ‐ death – return to lifeDemeter Mother – Kore Daughter > Proserpina (Queen of Night, Wed to Pluto) – return to life as PersephoneShe bears divine child Iacchos (Bacchos, Dionysos)By embracing death, life rebounds ‐ hope, ecstasy, rebirthDemeter & Dionysos: bread and wine
Rebirth, palingenesia, re‐generationKore disappears in Underworld and then re‐appears (Orphism, Orphic), new growth (wine, bread)Identification with or joining the divinity Ritual process is “becoming one with” or henosis(Greek “hen” = “one”), sharing life of the godRitual components: catharsis (purification) through fasting, avoiding certain foods, baptism or washing, confession, darkness, disorientation, procession, discovery, splendor, brightness, dance, celebration
Gods of Greece and Rome belonged to political‐social realm, not personalMystery religions (from Egypt and Asia Minor) use feelings and extremes of emotionGuilt & salvation alien to RomansRoman sobriety and conservative piety (pius Aeneas)Oriental religions seemed to be about “magic”
One of the Socratic Dialogues (total: 36)Context of argumentation and dialectic (sifting and testing ideas)Theory of Forms, abstract patterns, stable IdeasIdeas as perfect divinities, above individual lifeMystery images appears in literary metaphors, at the edges of rational arguments
Topics: persuasion versus truth (contrast)Value of true ideas over emotional persuasionAttraction of absolute truth and beauty of pure ideasContrast: Aristotle who preferred physical sense dataText of Phaedrus uses images from the Mysteries
Knowledge not conveyed by wordsWords alone do not verify insight (gnosis)Participation in Mysteries results in revelation –unveiling (velare, to cover)Mystai (the initiated), the mystagogue (leads the mystai), the hierophant (shows holy things)Epoptai (eye‐witnesses) search for Kore with torches, then blindfolded they seek path to Telesterion of light
Salvation from a divinity was a new conceptGreek culture emphasized intellectMysteries fascinated all the Greek and Roman philosophersGreek philosophy translates Mysteries into the language of intellect Plato > Plotinus > Clement > St. Augustine > Pseudo‐Dionysius
Cosmic cycle of life > death > return to lifeFellowship with deity’s suffering and journey to UnderworldSelf‐punishment, self‐abnegation, self‐denialShare in ecstatic joy in later return to life
Preparation & Probation: voluntary exam, vow of secrecyPurification: baptism (bathing in sea), fasting (no wine or meat, 10 days), confession (private or public)Sacrifice of animal blood (birds, dog, pig)Sexual abstention, self‐flagellation
Under Alexander’s cosmopolitan rule, the goddess becomes “goddess of many names”Tribal gods / goddesses emerge as single unifying divinityIsis = Ceres = Aphrodite, Minerva, Athena; her priest is Mithras
Aka The Golden Ass, novel, circa 150 CE (known for Cupid & Psyche story)Lucius is a man who becomes first an ass, then after many confused adventures, becomes an Isis devotee, then finally a priest of OsirisEmphasizes strange, exotic, Egyptian symbols and animal shapesGoddess communicates in dreams
Describes Isis as “goddess of many names” Metamorphoses, XI: “dea multinominis” (5ff, 22)Describes details of initiationInitiation leaves him a radiant “sun statue” on a pedestal (group brings gifts)Describes initiation: “I went to the boundaries of life and death….”
The everyday world is lusterless and corrupt (creation is outsourced to a Demiurge, an inferior divinity)Demiurge = δημιουργός, dēmiourgos, literally "public worker“Institutional truths degrade their higher truthThe hope is to find path back to original divinity, understand true human potential (spark of divinity in a dull world)Religious teaching must be understood inspirationally, not literally in an everyday sense
Information we have about Gnostics (Nag HammadiLibrary)Attacks by heresy expert Clement of Alexandria (church father), 150‐220 ADAttacks by Platonic philosopher, PlotinusBoth Clement and Plotinus were initiates and contributed to monotheistic consolidation
To subvert literal reading of sacred textsTo undermine stereotypes and all‐too‐easy beliefsTo see the “bad guy” as the “good guy”To affirm insight (gnosis) over one‐size‐fits‐all dogmaTo shock the “obvious” understanding