MYSTERY RELIGION

any of various secret cults of the Greco-Roman world that offered to individual initiates a mode of religious experience not provided by the official public religions. The word mystery derives from the Greek verb myein (to shut, as the mouth or the eyes). The initiate was the mystes (plural: mystae), and the introducing person the mystagogos (leader of the mystes). The leaders of the cults included the hierophant (from Greek hierophantes, revealer of holy things) and the dadouchos (torchbearer). The constitutive features of the mystery societies, which reached their peak of popularity in the first three centuries of the Christian era, were common meals, dances, and ceremonies, especially initiation rites in which death and resurrection were symbolically represented. The cult of the grain goddess, Demeter, at Eleusis and later at Athens conducted the most famous of the Greek mysteries; evidence suggests that some type of religious dance or drama, accompanied by singing, retold the myth of Demeter. Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy, was worshiped in festivals that included wine-drinking, choral singing, sexual activity, and mime. The Orphic cult, based upon sacred writings attributed to Orpheus, was by contrast a characteristically ascetic one, requiring celibacy and abstinence from meat and wine. The Pythagoreans followed many of the Orphic creeds, combining their emphasis on an afterlife with esoteric beliefs regarding music, mathematics, and astronomy (see Pythagoreanism). The Greek philosopher Plato (4th century BC) assimilated many ideas from earlier Greek religion, especially from the Pythagorean brotherhood and the Eleusinian communities. Later mystery societies, in turn, borrowed freely from the rich imagery of Platonism such concepts as the soul's travels through the spheres of planets and fixed stars, its fall into the body, and its later reward or punishment; some societies also adopted his theories of planetary qualities and the music of the spheres. With Alexander's conquests in Asia and the growth of world trade, the mysteries began to adopt Oriental religious imagery and elements of sacred kingship. Their rituals spread into Egypt and combined with a belief in the divinity of the pharaonic line. The god Serapis exhibited aspects of both Zeus and Osiris and generated his own royal mysteries, which spread through the Greco-Roman world. Cults analogous to the Greek mysteries developed in imperial Rome around Dionysus (Bacchus), the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Great Mother in Asia Minor, the Persian god Mithra, the Syrian sun-god Sol, and others. See also Andania Mysteries; Cabeiri; Dionysus; Eleusinian Mysteries; Eumolpus; hierophant. any of various secret cults of the Greco-Roman world that offered to individuals religious experiences not provided by the official public religions. They originated in tribal ceremonies that were performed by primitive peoples in many parts of the world. Whereas in these tribal communities almost every member of the clan or the village was initiated, initiation in Greece became a matter of personal choice. The mystery religions reached their peak of popularity in the first three centuries AD. Their origin, however, goes back to the earlier centuries of Greek history. Etymologically, the word mystery is derived from the Greek verb myein (to close), referring to the lips and the eyes. Mysteries were always secret cults into which a person had to be initiated (taken in). The initiate was called mystes, the introducing person mystagogos (leader of the mystes). The leaders of the cults included the hierophantes (revealer of holy things) and the dadouchos (torchbearer). The constitutive features of a mystery society were common meals, dances, and ceremonies, especially initiation rites. These common experiences strengthened the bonds of each cult. Additional reading General texts include James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., 12 vol. (191115, reprinted 1990), also available in an abridged ed., The New Golden Bough (1959, reissued 1972), a famous and influential treatise on ancient religion, especially on Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, and Demeter; John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions (1976, reissued as Encyclopedia of Mysticism and Mystery Religions, 1982); Joscelyn Godwin, Mystery Religions in the Ancient World (1981), an illustrated, popular overview; and Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults (1987), with an extensive bibliography.The Greek mysteries are explored in Erwin Rohde, Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality Among the Greeks (1925, reprinted 1987; originally published in German, 8th ed., 1921), by the first author to understand the religion of Dionysus; Louis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, 5 vol. (18961909, reissued 1971), a careful and conscientious collection and interpretation of the sources for Demeter and Dionysus; Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 3rd ed. (1922, reprinted with a new introduction, 1991), containing original accounts about Demeter, Dionysus, and Orpheus; Martin P. Nilsson, A History of Greek Religion, 2nd ed., trans. from Swedish (1949, reprinted 1980), an excellent handbook; E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (1951, reissued 1973), relevant especially for Dionysiac and Orphic religion; and Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (1985), which includes a discussion of mysteries.Mysteries in the Roman Empire are considered by Franz Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (1911, reissued 1956; originally published in French, 2nd ed. rev., 1909), an excellent general account; A.D. Nock, Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo (1933, reprinted 1988), a well-written and original study of the relation of Oriental cults and Christianity, and Early Gentile Christianity and Its Hellenistic Background (1964), a learned collection of articles; Martin P. Nilsson, The Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic and Roman Age (1957, reprinted 1985), a clear and scholarly survey of the religion of Dionysus in later times; Reinhold Merkelbach, Roman und Mysterium in der Antike (1962), on the ancient romances as mystery texts, and Isisfeste in griechischrmischer Zeit (1963), on the Isis festivals and their relationship to Christian festivals; and Ramsay MacMullen, Paganism in the Roman Empire (1981). Reinhold Merkelbach The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica