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" 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 MYSTERIES OF ELEUSIS 
 
 BY 
 
 M. OUVAROFF, 
 
 COUNSELLOR OF STATE TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY THE 
 
 EMPEROR OF RUSSIA ; 
 
 CURATOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN THE DEPARTMENT OF 
 
 SAINT PETERSBURG; 
 
 HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 
 
 AND OF THE ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS IN THAT CITY; 
 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF 
 
 GOTTINGEN, &C. 
 
 Homer. Hymn, in Cer. v. 485. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, 
 
 By J. D. PRICE. 
 
 By J. CHRISTIE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR RODWELL AND MARTIN, 
 
 SUCCESSORS TO MR. FAULDER, 
 
 NEW-BOND-STREET. 
 1817. 
 
£T5 
 
 5" 
 
 PRINTED BY S. HAMILTON, 
 WEYBRIDGE, SURREY. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 OF M. Ouvaroff's " Essai sur les 
 Mysteres d'Eleusis," the third edition ap- 
 peared in June, 1816, at Paris, and has 
 been used by the English translator ; be- 
 cause some slight errors in the former edi- 
 tions are here corrected by M. De Sacy, 
 who, in a short advertisement, informs us, 
 that, conjointly with M. Boissonade, cele- 
 brated for his erudition in Greek literature, 
 he had revised the proof sheets, and added 
 two or three notes. We learn also, with 
 pleasure, from this advertisement, that 
 M. de Sacy, in compliance with the request 
 of his deceased friend M. de Sainte Croix, 
 was preparing to publish a second edition of 
 the admirable " Recherches sur les Mysteres 
 du Paganisme f occasionally quoted in M. 
 Ouvaroff's Essay. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 FIRST EDITION, 
 
 PUBLISHED IN 1812. 
 
 The honour of being associated, in 1811, 
 to the Royal Society of Gottingen, inspired 
 me with the design of writing on certain points 
 of antiquity, which had long engaged my at- 
 tention. There is, without doubt, some teme- 
 rity in thus choosing a difficult subject, which, 
 perhaps, has been supposed exhausted, and 
 which a person can now scarcely discuss with- 
 out endeavouring, as the celebrated Heyne has 
 observed, to establish some favourite hypo- 
 thesis. My object in this work is to show, 
 that not only were the ancient mysteries the 
 very life of polytheism ; but still more, that 
 they proceeded from the sole and true source 
 
VI 
 
 of all the light diffused over the globe. If 
 these conjectures should serve as materials to- 
 wards a history of polytheism, if they prove 
 the necessity of giving a new incitement to 
 the study of antiquities, I shall have attained 
 my object. 
 
 Men of letters have generally chosen for 
 the discussion of such subjects, one common 
 language ; and the Latin was for a long time 
 the interpreter of antiquity. But since it has 
 lost the ancient privilege of universality, the 
 French has appropriated a great portion of its 
 rights : the justness and clearness which cha- 
 racterise it, seem, in fact, to qualify this lan- 
 guage for becoming the habitual idiom of a 
 science in which a perspicuous arrangement 
 of ideas, and propriety of expression, are al- 
 most as necessary as a spirit of analysis and of 
 criticism. These considerations have influenced 
 me : but I feel the necessity of indulgence for 
 having undertaken to write in a foreign lan- 
 guage: one which presents, above all others, 
 so many difficulties to strangers employing it. 
 
 These are not the only obstacles that op- 
 
Vll 
 
 posed me. It is well known that, notwith- 
 standing the researches of Meursius, of War- 
 burton, Bougainville, Meiners, Stark, Bach, 
 Vogel, and Tiedemann ; that notwithstanding 
 the learned work of M. de Sainte Croix, the 
 great question respecting the Mysteries is still 
 far from being solved. Original testimonies 
 are very few : and they have not hitherto been 
 classed with the precaution indispensable to- 
 wards tracing the historical date, and in de- 
 termining the intrinsic value of each authority. 
 This confusion, which Meiners has already 
 noticed, contributes to darken a subject, emi- 
 nently obscure in itself. I only mention these 
 difficulties as an excuse for not having ap- 
 proached more near to my object. 
 
 I now gladly pay a tribute of acknowledge- 
 ment to the Privy Counsellor Olenin, who 
 kindly superintended for me the execution of 
 those vignettes which ornament this Essay, 
 To the State Counsellor Kcehler, I am indebt- 
 ed for the gem represented in the title page *. 
 
 * An explanation of the engravings will be found im- 
 mediately after the Notes, which follow this Essay. 
 
Vlll 
 
 The Greek verse which I have chosen as a 
 motto, has been adopted by Wolf, and re- 
 jected by Hermann, two great authorities of 
 equal weight* 
 
 Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites. 
 
 Besides, I am not here discussing the merits 
 or authenticity of this passage from the Hymn 
 to Ceres ; but merely its direct relation with 
 the subject of my work. 
 
 I shall add but one reflection : the study of 
 antiquities is not an isolated study ; whenever 
 it raises itself above the dead letter, this noble 
 science becomes the history of the human 
 mind. Not only does it adapt itself to all 
 ages, and all situations of life, but it opens so 
 wide a field, that thought willingly fixes on it, 
 and is for a moment abstracted from the cares 
 and disasters attending great political and mo- 
 ral commotions. Seneca*, has admirably de- 
 scribed the destination of a man of letters 
 during such stormy epochs, and thus con- 
 
 * Seneca, de Otio Sap. 31. 
 
IX 
 
 eludes : " Duas respublicas animo contempla- 
 mur : alteram magnam et vere publicam, qua dii 
 atque homines continentur ; in qua non ad hunc 
 angulum respicimus, aut ad ilium, sed terminos 
 civitatis nostrce cum sole metimur ; alteram, cut 
 
 nos adscripsit conditio nascendi Quidam eo- 
 
 dem tempore utrique reipublicce dant operam, 
 majori minorique ; quidam tantum minori, qui- 
 dam tantum majori. Huic majori reipublicce, et 
 in otio deservire possumus ; immo vero nescio an 
 in otio melius" 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Of this Essay, the first edition, which did 
 not extend beyond one hundred copies, ap- 
 peared early in the year 1812; at a moment 
 when the general attention was absorbed by 
 events of great public interest ; for on them 
 depended the fate of Europe. At an epoch 
 so unfavourable to literature, it seemed pro- 
 bable that a work of this nature, composed in 
 a region bordering on the pole, would have 
 continued long almost unknown. 
 
 Some copies, however, found their way 
 into distant countries, and I had the satisfac- 
 tion of learning from different journals the 
 opinions of many distinguished scholars re- 
 specting it. This encouraged me to retouch 
 
XI 
 
 my work ; and I resolved to collect all that 
 could extend and enrich it, without swelling it 
 beyond the limits originally prescribed. 
 
 An epoch has at length arrived favourable 
 to the publication of a new edition : after 
 twenty years of misfortunes and of faults, Eu- 
 rope has been liberated. The republic of let- 
 ters will speedily emerge from amidst ruins, 
 and flourish once more, in place of the most 
 odious tyranny that ever existed. She will re- 
 sume, undoubtedly, her ancient rights, of which 
 the most precious is that fraternity of senti- 
 ments attracting towards one central point 
 such a multiplicity of men scattered on the 
 surface of the globe. 
 
 I have not neglected any thing that could 
 improve this work. The quotations have been 
 carefully revised ; the style corrected in seve- 
 ral places ; and some important additions made 
 throughout the course of these pages. Two 
 new sections are annexed ; the fifth, in which 
 the system of Euhemerus, and its relation with 
 the doctrine of the Mysteries, are examined ; 
 and the sixth, of which the object is to recon- 
 
Xll 
 
 cile the secret worship of Ceres with that of 
 Bacchus. The manner in which I have treat- 
 ed this question seems to me perfectly new j 
 and whatever the learned world may pro- 
 nounce concerning it, I must bear alone the 
 whole responsibility. 
 
 I have frequently been reproached for the 
 adoption, with too ready faith, of the expla- 
 nation given by Wilford, of some sacred Eleu- 
 sinian words. I am perfectly aware of the 
 distrust inspired by the discoveries of this in- 
 genious but bold writer ; and far from regard- 
 ing his explanation as a basis indispensably 
 necessary to my hypothesis, I would have 
 abandoned it to the incredulity of European 
 readers, if I had found, against Wilford's con- 
 jecture, either critical arguments or gramma- 
 tical observations of any weight. No one has 
 opposed this conjecture with the arms of criti- 
 cism ; and in philology suspicions avail but 
 little. I thought also, that English men of 
 letters in general, and the Society of Calcutta 
 in particular, would not have allowed a mani- 
 fest imposture to subsist so long; and that 
 
Xlll 
 
 Wilford, who so frankly and publicly acknow- 
 ledged the cheat by which his Pandits had 
 deceived him, would himself have hastened to 
 disavow this remarkable explanation, if he had 
 any reason to doubt its proofs. On this sub- 
 ject I have consulted my illustrious friend, Sir 
 Gore Ouseley, ambassador extraordinary and 
 plenipotentiary from the King of England to 
 the court of Persia, and member of the Asia- 
 tic Society ; one to whom a long residence in 
 India and Persia has rendered familiar all the 
 treasures of the human mind. His judgment 
 has confirmed me in the opinion, that an affi- 
 nity more than accidental existed between the 
 Sanscrit words quoted by Wilford and the sa- 
 cred terms of Eleusis. With the assistance of 
 Sir Gore Ouseley, I have offered some illustra- 
 tive remarks on the words Konx and Pax, in 
 a note placed at the end of this work. As to 
 the monosyllable Om, or rather Oum, every 
 testimony conspires to prove it the most abs- 
 tract and most mystical of Indian symbols. 
 
 I am, however, willing to renounce any 
 advantage that might arise from this explana- 
 
XIV 
 
 tion, without any fear of thereby weakening 
 the basis of my hypothesis, respecting the 
 Mysteries of Eleusis : an hypothesis, which 
 rests, in all cases, less upon the exact know- 
 ledge of what was taught at the Mysteries, 
 than upon the certainty of that which was not 
 taught. If we can only succeed in ascertain- 
 ing satisfactorily the high destination of the 
 Mysteries, their religious and historical im- 
 portance, and the source from which they is- 
 sued, we may leave their Indian extraction a 
 doubtful point, and content ourselves with 
 having marked the direct relations between the 
 first glimmerings of the ancient mystagogy, 
 traced back to its true origin, and the last 
 systems of Grecian philosophy. M. Chardon 
 de la Rochette, whose literary career death 
 has lately terminated, informs us in his valuable 
 Miscellany *, that M. Silvestre de Sacy had 
 undertaken a new edition of M. de Sainte 
 Croix's Researches on the Mysteries. Every 
 friend of literature must anxiously wish to see 
 this work freed from the interpolations of an 
 
 * M61ang. de Critiq. et de Philol. t. iii. p. 44. 
 
XV 
 
 editor *, who at once abused the confidence of 
 friendship and the rights of an immense share 
 of erudition. M. Silvestre de Sacy, will better 
 fulfil the intentions of M. de Sainte Croix — he 
 will erect to the memory of his learned friend 
 a literary monument worthy of the one and of 
 the other. 
 
 Arcades ambo, 
 Et cantare pares, et respondere parati. 
 
 Saint-Petersburg, 
 January, 1815. OUVAROFF. 
 
 * M. de Villoison. See the Melanges of M. Chardon 
 de la Rochette, t. iii. p. 35. M. Dacier, in his Eloge on 
 M. de Sainte Croix, Moniteur, 1811, No. 188, and the 
 Mercure of May 18, 1805, p. 414?. 
 
ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 €ltminim Myxttxitx* 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The study of antiquity offers nothing 
 more interesting nor more obscure than 
 the mysteries in use among the ancients. 
 This subject has long exercised the saga- 
 city of various critics, and the ingenuity of 
 many learned men. It is, in fact, evident, 
 
2 ELEUSINIAN [.SECT. I. 
 
 that a profound knowledge, not of the 
 ceremonies, but of the source and spirit 
 of the mysteries, considered as the true 
 depository of religious ideas as they ex- 
 isted among the ancients, would cast a 
 light altogether new upon antiquity. From 
 Meursius to St e Croix and Meiners, 
 numerous men of letters have examined 
 the question under different aspects; some 
 endeavouring to ascertain the origin and 
 design of the mysteries ; others to fix the 
 epoch of their introduction into Greece, 
 and to collect jail the testimonies which 
 the ancients have left respecting the cere- 
 monies practised during their celebration. 
 We must allow that learned researches 
 have already been made ; all that could 
 illustrate the subject, whether in the writ- 
 ings of ancient authors or in the monu- 
 ments of art, has been brought together 
 and examined with considerable attention; 
 yet the most important of these researches, 
 that of the religious and philosophical re- 
 
SECT. I.] MYSTERIES. 3 
 
 lations subsisting between the mysteries 
 and polytheism, does not appear to have 
 been hitherto made with all the care of 
 which it is susceptible. By various writers 
 it has been totally neglected ; many have 
 only treated of it incidentally ; some have 
 regarded the mysteries as ceremonies 
 merely designed to deceive the vulgar; 
 others have exalted them into schools of 
 philosophy. Pluche transformed them 
 into a course of salutary influences*, and 
 Larcher believed that they inculcated 
 atheism -f-. 
 
 To embrace the Avhole extent of this 
 question, that tends to make known all 
 the elements of the ancient moral world, 
 a variety of materials which we now want, 
 and which we never shall possess, would 
 
 * Histoire du Ciel, torn. i. p. 371. 
 
 -j- Herodotus, in the translation of Larcher, 1. viii, 
 sect. 65. But in the second edition of his work, M. Lar- 
 cher declares, that the perusal of M. de St e Croix's Essay, 
 (entitled " Recherches sur les Mysteres du Pagan isme,") 
 had induced him to abandon this opinion. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. I. 
 
 be absolutely necessary. We do not, 
 therefore, flatter ourselves on having illus- 
 trated the subject ; but offer the ideas con- 
 tained in this Essay as simple conjectures, 
 proceeding rather from a desire of instruct- 
 ing ourselves, than from any presumptuous 
 notion of being able to instruct others. 
 
 Before we proceed further, it will be 
 expedient to determine the idea generally 
 formed of the mysteries. Under this name 
 has been comprehended a multiplicity of 
 religious institutions, very different one 
 from another, and not derived from any 
 common origin. Thus among the number 
 of mysteries we find reckoned the ceremo- 
 nies of the Dactyli, of the Curetes, the 
 Cory ban tes, the Telchines, &c. and the 
 more modern initiations of Mithras and of 
 Isis. A serious study of this branch of 
 antiquity seems, however, to prove, that 
 there was scarcely any relation between 
 these religious sects and the mysteries of 
 Ceres celebrated at Eleusis. Even the 
 
SECT. I.] MYSTERIES. 5 
 
 analogy which subsisted between the 
 mysteries of the Dii Cabiri in Samothrace 
 and those of Eleusis has not been deter- 
 mined \ 
 
 Amidst all the institutions which have 
 been denominated mysteries, those of 
 Eleusis hold the highest rank, equally 
 imposing from their origin and their re- 
 sults : they alone appear in relation with 
 the primitive source of religious ideas; 
 they alone formed the mysticism of poly- 
 theism. Never did the ancients by the 
 name of mysteries understand any other 
 than the Eleusinian. The rest, with a 
 few exceptions, were nothing more origi- 
 nally than the mysterious practices of 
 barbarian jugglers, the object of whose 
 mission was accomplished in the decep- 
 tion of a credulous people at that time in 
 a half savage state ; and afterwards they 
 were the tricks of expert mountebanks, 
 who believed it in their power, by the 
 help of obscure and foreign ceremonies, 
 
6 ELEUSINIAN [SECT, t. 
 
 to save from falling a religion which moul- 
 dered away on every side. It has also 
 been usual to class among the institu- 
 tions called mysteries, those of Bacchus, 
 which, though very interesting to deve- 
 lope, throw but little light on the question 
 now before us. The Bacchic or Orphic 
 mysteries bear a character wholly opposite 
 to the Eleusinian. For it may be affirmed, 
 that between the worship of Bacchus and 
 that of Ceres, the same difference existed 
 as between the unbridled force of savage 
 life, and the civilization of well regulated 
 society 2 . But the mysteries of Ceres 
 are principally distinguished from all 
 others, as having been the depositories of 
 certain traditions coeval with the world. 
 Besides, in discovering a point of media- 
 tion between man and the Divinity, those of 
 Eleusis had alone attained the object of 
 every great religious association. All 
 Greece hastened to be initiated ; and 
 Plato, who had penetrated into the secrets 
 
SECT. I.] MYSTERIES. 7 
 
 of the sanctuary, did not speak of them 
 without admiration. c The knowledge of 
 nature/ says St. Clemens of Alexandria, 
 6 is taught in the great mysteries */ If it 
 were possible to lift the veil which covers 
 the mysteries of Eleusis, we should pos- 
 sess a key to the mysteries of Egypt and 
 of the East ; a clue, which, having once 
 been found, would lead on to the last 
 moments of polytheism. 
 
 The time when the mysteries of Eleusis 
 were founded is equally uncertain as the 
 name of their founder. Tertullian attri- 
 butes them to M usaeus -j-. St Epiphany 
 to Cadmus and InachusJ; while Clemens 
 of Alexandria informs us, that the myste- 
 ries were traced to an Egyptian named 
 Melampus|. Some (as the scholiast of 
 Sophocles) declare that one Eumolpus was 
 
 * Stromat. v. cap. 11. p. 689. 
 
 f Apologet. cap. 21. 
 
 $ Adv. Haer. i. § 9. torn. i. ed. Petav. 
 
 § Coh. ad Gentes, p. 12. 
 
8 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. I. 
 
 the founder and first Hierophant of the 
 mysteries*; and others believe that Or- 
 pheus introduced them from Egypt into 
 Greece. The writers however most worthy 
 of credit ascribe to Ceres herself the foun- 
 dation of the Eleusinian mysteries 3 . 
 We shall not here repeat the different fa- 
 bles that have been told concerning the 
 manner in which Ceres established these 
 mysteries. By attributing them to the 
 goddess or to Earth, the epoch of their 
 foundation was removed beyond the 
 bounds of history, and the impossibility 
 of ascertaining it was acknowledged. 
 
 An uncertainty still more great hangs 
 over the year of their institution ; those 
 who have discussed this subject offering 
 various opinions, all equally deficient in 
 proofs and even in the appearance of pro- 
 bability. Meiners and Dupuis have al- 
 ready shown that this research is no less 
 frivolous than useless 4 . In support of 
 
 * Ad CEdip. Col. v. 1108. 
 
SECT. I.] MYSTERIES. 9 
 
 the assertion here made, we shall observe, 
 that the lesser mysteries having undoubt- 
 edly preceded the great, the epoch of their 
 true developement should be that of the 
 organization of the Grecian republics. It 
 is, therefore, infinitely more interesting to 
 study the mysteries in their maturity than 
 in their infancy*. We may remark also, 
 that however remote the date of their 
 transmigration from Egypt, however sym- 
 bolical the name of Ceres, the mysteries 
 must have been anterior to the epoch 
 which has been assigned for their founda- 
 tion, if we consent to place the germ of 
 them in the festivals and popular practices 
 of those who first inhabited Greece, and 
 who, like them, had issued from the East^f-. 
 The religion of the Greeks was not formed 
 without successive acquisitions ; and of 
 their worship and of their ceremonies 
 much had been transmitted to them by 
 
 * Meiners, Verm. Phil. Schrift. iii. p. 258. 
 
 f Meiners, Verm, Phil. Schrift. iii. p. 248—251. 
 
10 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. I. 
 
 the Egyptians*. The mysteries of Ceres, 
 according to Lactantius, very strongly re- 
 semble those of Isis-f-. The Attic Ceres 
 is the same as the Egyptian Ms}* who, 
 in the time of Herodotus, was the only 
 divinity in Egypt honoured by the cele- 
 bration of mysteries. From these, there- 
 fore, we may partly derive the mysteries 
 of Ceres§: but this depository of ideas 
 can have developed itself but slowly ; and 
 it was late in assuming those mystic forms 
 which always announce a certain maturity 
 of thought. In this we clearly see the 
 ordinary progress of the human mind, 
 that departs from the idea of infinitude, 
 and ranges through an immense space ere 
 it resumes its station before this same 
 idea, which seems to embrace the two ex- 
 tremities of its career. 
 
 * Herodot. 1. ii. cap. 49. 
 -j- Lactant. de Falsa Relig. p. 119, {21. 
 J Herodot. 1. ii. cap. 59. 
 
 § Meiners, Comment. Soc. Reg. Getting, torn. xvi. 
 p. 234, et seqq. 
 
SECT. l] MYSTERIES. 11 
 
 This consideration may serve also to 
 throw some light on a difficulty much 
 more considerable, and which presents it- 
 self on the first view. 
 
 We may consider it as an indisputable 
 circumstance, that the poems of Homer 
 are the most ancient documents of Gre- 
 cian history 5 ; but neither are the mys- 
 teries once mentioned in them, nor does 
 Homer any where indicate a vestige of 
 mystic ideas 6 . He never even rises to 
 that abstract notion of destiny which con- 
 stituted the soul of Grecian tragedy. His 
 theology is anterior to all metaphysical 
 combinations. Every thing in Homer 
 bears the true character of primitive poe- 
 try, the musical harmony of words, the 
 charm of first impressions. Never has 
 there been offered to the human mind a 
 more enchanting picture of its youth. We 
 discover throughout, in the simplicity of 
 Homeric ideas, the germ of a dormant 
 power; as we anticipate, while content 
 
12 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. I. 
 
 plating infantine grace, the vigorous pro- 
 portions of maturity. 
 
 These qualities, which at all times 
 have rendered Homer so dear to enlight- 
 ened nations, present an historic difficulty, 
 almost inexplicable, to him who discusses 
 the subject of ancient mysteries. We 
 have noticed how much uncertainty per- 
 vades those of Eleusis. The most au- 
 thentic testimonies agree in referring the 
 epoch of their foundation even to the 
 remote fabulous ages : yet by Homer, the 
 first historian of the Greeks, they are not 
 any where mentioned ; nay, his work be- 
 speaks an order of ideas wholly opposite. 
 It would be vain to suppose that taste in 
 his time was so delicate, and the rules of 
 composition so well determined, that the 
 poet might have purposely banished from 
 the Epopea every metaphysical idea or 
 allusion. And this supposition appears so 
 much the more frivolous, as a line of 
 demarcation drawn about the Epopea is 
 
SECT. I.] MYSTERIES. 13 
 
 neither in the genius of Homer, nor of 
 the period in which he flourished. What- 
 ever idea may have been attached in that 
 age to the Epopea, Homer did not ser- 
 vilely restrain himself within the bounda- 
 ries of one kind. He embraces his own 
 time; he embraces nature. 
 
 A representation of the ancient myste- 
 ries may not have belonged to his subject. 
 Still we could not fail to discover in his 
 works some traces of metaphysical ideas, 
 if such had existed in his time. One evi- 
 dence of great weight, (and which equally 
 proves that the mysteries of Greece, by 
 whomsoever founded, or at whatever 
 epoch, are truly posterior to the age of 
 Homer,) is afforded by Herodotus, who 
 declares that Homer and Hesiod first gave 
 to the Greeks their Theogonies, and that 
 these poets were the first who determined 
 the names, the worship, and the images 
 of the gods *. This assertion must not, 
 
 * Herodot. 1. ii. cap. 53. 
 
14 ELEUSINIAX [SECT. I, 
 
 however, be taken literally. It is manifest 
 that, in the actions assigned by Homer to 
 the gods, a system already known is pre- 
 supposed. But Homer and Hesiod have 
 regulated and combined a multiplicity of 
 scattered traditions, of isolated myths 
 (fAvOot) ; and in this respect have exercised 
 the functions ascribed to them by Hero- 
 dotus in that remarkable passage to which 
 a reference has been made above, and of 
 which the authority has been warmly dis- 
 puted, especially by those writers who 
 have endeavoured to demonstrate the ex- 
 istence of Orpheus, and to prove him the 
 founder of the mysteries. It is certain 
 that Orpheus in a considerable degree in- 
 fluenced the religious ideas of the Greeks ; 
 and this circumstance we must allow 
 would not be the less true, even were wc 
 to adopt the opinion of Aristotle, who, as 
 Cicero informs us, maintained that Or- 
 pheus never existed f. i For if the name 
 
 * Cic de Nat, Deor. i. cap. 38. 
 
SECT. I.] MYSTERIES. 15 
 
 of Orpheus be only a collective denomi- 
 nation of all those who founded or re- 
 formed the mysteries, the actions ascribed 
 to him, (such as the foundation of the 
 Samothracian or the Bacchic mysteries*,) 
 are nevertheless real and historic facts. 
 Orpheus was in other respects but little 
 known in antiquity. The most ingenious 
 critics have protested against the frag- 
 ments transmitted under his name 7 . 
 But between the mysteries of Samothrace 
 attributed to him, and some Egyptian 
 ceremonies, such conformity appears as 
 serves to confirm the general opinion re- 
 specting a journey made by Orpheus into 
 Eg}'pt. From the earliest times the 
 Egyptians exercised almost a monopoly 
 of eastern ideas ; to reconcile therefore the 
 transmigration of the Egyptian mysteries 
 with the silence of Homer and of Hesiod, 
 it is necessary to place the epoch of the 
 developement of those rites imported from 
 
 * Diod. 1. i. cap. 96— Apollod. i. cap. 38. 
 
16 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. T. 
 
 the East, after the age of Homer, or at 
 least of the Trojan war; for this event 
 had happened before Greece, from the 
 midst of civil dissensions, began to orga- 
 nise herself into regular governments. 
 The heroic age offers still that political 
 uncertainty which nature places between 
 the nomadic or erratic life and the rigor- 
 ous division of casts ; an uncertainty 
 whereby the dignity and energy of man 
 are unfolded, but by which he is not in- 
 spired with the necessity of re-entering 
 within himself. 
 
 It appears then, that we may date the 
 true increase or growth of the mysteries 
 at that period when the principal repub- 
 lics of Greece were founded. 
 
 The republican a?ra had succeeded to 
 the heroic age at the same time that lyric 
 and dramatic poetry replaced the Epopea ; 
 and since among the ancients all the ele- 
 ments of the moral and physical existence 
 of nations were intimately connected, He- 
 
SECT. I.] MYSTERIES. 17 
 
 siod may be considered as intermediate 
 between these two grand epochs. Reli- 
 gious notions had already advanced in a 
 manner more analogous to the deportment 
 of society ; and as it is impossible to be- 
 lieve that Grecian poetry could without 
 gradual improvement have attained Ho- 
 meric perfection, so it can scarcely be 
 proved that the mysteries acquired all 
 their extent in a spontaneous and arbi- 
 trary manner, at a time when nothing in- 
 dicates such a necessity. Transplanted 
 institutions cannot flourish, unless identi- 
 fied by a considerable lapse of time with 
 the soil which received them ; and before 
 we adopt the opinions of chronologers, 
 who undertake to ascertain the date of a 
 great event in antiquity ; let us consult the 
 philosopher, who calculates whether this 
 event be in accordance with the immuta- 
 ble laws of nature, which men can neither 
 modify nor destroy. 
 
38 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. II. 
 
 SECTION IL 
 
 It is probable that, of all the Euro- 
 pean countries, Greece was the first peo- 
 pled by Asiatic colonies. Its whole history 
 proves, that at various periods it was in- 
 habited by three different races. The first 
 colonists, not forming a national body, are 
 not designated under a generical name. 
 The second colony was Pelasgian, less 
 strangers to civilization. The Pelasgians 
 seem to have had an affinity with the 
 Thracians of Europe and the Phrygians 
 of Asia : yet it was implied by the tradi- 
 tion of Dodona, that they had a long 
 time sacrificed to the gods, although igno- 
 rant of their names *. 
 
 * Herod. 1. ii. cap. 52. 
 
SECT. II.] MYSTERIES. 19 
 
 A great change was produced by the 
 deluge of Deucalion, which happened 
 about the year 1514 before Christ. A 
 new race appeared ; the Hellenes, having 
 issued from Asia, spread themselves over 
 Greece, drove out the Pelasgians or form- 
 ed alliances with them, and bestowed 
 their name on the country which they ci- 
 vilized ft. About sixty years after Deuca- 
 lion's deluge, the Phoenician Cadmus es- 
 tablished himself at Thebes, and the 
 Egyptian Danaiis at Argos. 
 
 Such is the summary of facts, half 
 fabulous half historical, which are col- 
 lected with some difficulty in the works 
 of ancient writers, and which have given 
 rise to a multiplicity of different systems. 
 But, in the midst of contradictory hypo- 
 theses, it remains indisputable that Greece 
 was peopled by Asiatic colonies, more or 
 less civilized, and at different epochs. 
 
 Of the Eleusinian mysteries, we have 
 
 * Mem. de PAcad. des Inscrip. torn, xxiii. p. 115, &c. 
 
 C 2 
 
§0 eLeusinian [sect. II, 
 
 seen that the foundation was attributed 
 either to the goddess herself or to foreign 
 colonists, and that the Egyptian priests 
 claimed the honour of having transmitted 
 to the Greeks the first elements of poly- 
 theism. These positive facts would suffi- 
 ciently prove, even without the conformity 
 -of ideas, that the mysteries transplanted 
 into Greece, and there united with a cer- 
 tain number of local notions, never lost 
 the character of their origin derived from 
 the cradle of the moral and religious ideas 
 of the universe. 
 
 All those separate facts, all those scat- 
 tered testimonies, recur to that fruitful 
 principle which places in the East the 
 centre of science and of civilization. It is 
 not in our power to trace uninterruptedly 
 their progress, from the first revelations of 
 the Divinity to the most mysterious aber- 
 rations of human reason ; but it is possi- 
 ble to ascertain, by the analogy of ideas 
 rather than, by that of words, some prin- 
 
SECT. II.] MYSTERIES. 21 
 
 cipal epochs, leaving to reflection the task 
 of filling up the intervals. The history of 
 philosophical should always be connected 
 with that of religious ideas ; for philoso- 
 phy, left to itself, could only illustrate half 
 of the history of the human mind. 
 
 The ancient mysteries, in relation with 
 truths of a superior order, bear likewise 
 many luminous characters which we un- 
 dertake to expose. It is now generally 
 acknowledged, that subjects so important 
 should be discussed with particular atten- 
 tion. Philological researches will not suf- 
 fice : we must combine a criticism of ideas 
 with a criticism of words, and proceed by 
 the light of some important discoveries. 
 
 An hypothesis adopted by many writ- 
 ers of the eighteenth century, represents 
 Egypt as the parent of all religions, and 
 the source of all human knowledge. This 
 opinion is not new ; the Egyptians them- 
 selves were the first who established it*. 
 
 * Diod. i. c. 29. The same author (speaking of the 
 
22 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. II. 
 
 Among the numerous supporters of it in 
 modern times, it will be sufficient to name 
 two late historians of the mysteries, M. de 
 St e Croix and M. Dupuis. But some 
 others, such as Kaempfer, Huet, La Croze, 
 and Brucker, have even regarded India as 
 an Egyptian colony. If this system were 
 not at variance with our religious tradi- 
 tions, it would still contradict the most 
 authentic notions of history and philo- 
 sophy \ Under many points of view, 
 Egypt offers itself as an object unparal- 
 leled in the annals of the world ; but no- 
 thing appears that marks it as a central 
 country, neither its geographical position, 
 the natural character of its inhabitants, its 
 political destinies, nor the progress of its 
 government; nothing appears to demon- 
 strate why it should be the source of hu- 
 man culture. Some local applications, 
 some national symbols, cannot disprove 
 
 Egyptians) says in another place fiXoti^otsgov rfizg dXrfii- 
 yu!T£§ov (afc yk y.oi (paiysTCu)— (i. p. 17.) 
 
SECT. II.] MYSTERIES. 23 
 
 the Asiatic origin of the Egyptian reli- 
 gion ; whilst all the plan of this theocracy 
 serves to show the priests as a foreign 
 colony, zealous in preserving the charge 
 which they had brought with them, and 
 ingenious in discovering all the proper 
 means for fascinating the eye and bend- 
 ing the neck of the vulgar 2 . When a 
 multitude of symbols absorbs the funda- 
 mental ideas, when an impenetrable lan- 
 guage eternises that darkness which covers 
 the religious system, the thread of alle- 
 gory breaks in the hands of the theocrats, 
 uncertainty increases, the yoke becomes 
 heavier, and we are bewildered in a la- 
 byrinth of exterior practices, of which the 
 clue has long since been lost. 
 
 But if Egypt invented not any thing, 
 it preserved all. Even the severity of its 
 government and its high antiquity con- 
 tributed much to this ; and Egypt may 
 justly be regarded as the true link which 
 united Asia to Europe. 
 
24 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. II. 
 
 Egypt transmitted to the Greeks the 
 eastern traditions, after having altered 
 them. In the religious ideas of Greece, 
 all that differs from the Egyptian theology 
 serves precisely to characterise the two 
 nations. Traditions of a gloom}' and me- 
 lancholy aspect in Egypt, adapted them- 
 selves to the smiling climate and lively 
 imagination of the Greeks. 
 
 If ancient Egypt were better known, 
 if we possessed more exact notions of its 
 religious worship and historical traditions, 
 the mysteries might easily be traced to 
 their source ; but unfortunately a pro- 
 found obscurity still hangs over the lan- 
 guage, the history, and the monuments of 
 Egypt. Some successful attempts (espe- 
 cially the great enterprises of the French 
 government,) give us reason to expect new 
 and important information. The English, 
 by their labours in Bengal, have already 
 ascertained, in a very authentic manner, 
 various facts relative to the union and the 
 
SECT. II.] MYSTERIES. 25 
 
 points of relation which subsisted between 
 ancient India and Egypt. By what we 
 have learned of their mythological, histo- 
 rical, and geographical traditions, a con- 
 formity is so well attested, that we may 
 venture to adopt it with confidence 3 . 
 
 The ancients, who considered the In- 
 dians as Autochthones* thought, accord- 
 ing to Philostratus and Lucian, that the 
 Egyptians had borrowed their civilization 
 from the Indians -j-. "I know," says Pau- 
 sanias, " that the Chaldeans and the magi 
 of the Indians are the first who pro- 
 nounced the soul to be immortal ; from 
 them the Greeks learned their doctrine, 
 and above all Plato the son of Aristo J." 
 These notions respecting India were pre- 
 served during a long time. St. Clement of 
 
 * Diod. ii. cap. 38. TtuvtoL (jejvjj) hxstv vitpi^siv avto- 
 yhwcL. Konn. Dionys. 1. xxxiv. v. 182. 'IvSxv y^ysyscuv 
 [upYjffa.T'o rfdtgiov dXxrjv. 
 
 f Philostr. Vit. Apoll. iii. cap. 6.— vi. cap. 6. Lucian. 
 Fugit. 
 
 £ Messen, cap. 32. 
 
26 ELEUSINIAN [sECT. II. 
 
 Alexandria and St. Jerome make mention 
 of Boudha*. It is certain that oriental 
 pantheism, which represented the universe 
 as an emanation from the primary being, 
 penetrated into Egypt and Greece. 
 
 The Indian philosophers explained this 
 system by the image of a spider, which 
 draws from its own bosom the thread that 
 forms its web, sits in the midst of its work, 
 communicates movement to it, and at 
 pleasure draws back what it had sent 
 forth from its body*j\ They compared the 
 world to an egg; the Egyptians and 
 Greeks adopted this symbol. We shall 
 not enter further into this detail, which 
 would divert us from our subject, but 
 shall observe, that the recent discoveries 
 perfectly agree with the testimonies of the 
 ancients. It is proved that India was ac- 
 quainted with Misr and the Nile; that 
 the Egyptian trinity composed of Osiris, 
 
 * Stromat. i. p. 305. — Hieron. Adv. Jov. i. 
 
 f Mem. de TAcad. des Inscript. torn. xxxi. p. 234. 
 
SECT. II.] MYSTERIES. 27 
 
 Horus, and Typhon, has a common origin 
 with the Indian trinity, consisting of 
 Brahmah, Vishnou, and Mahadeva 4 ; that 
 the worship of the Phallus in Egypt, faith- 
 fully copied from the lingam of the In- 
 dians, was introduced into Greece by 
 Melampus*; finally, that the division of 
 casts, and the hereditary succession of the 
 priesthood, were not of Egyptian inven- 
 tion, as Dupuis asserts. Nor is it more 
 probable that the fabulous Sesostris car- 
 ried into Asia the religion of the Egyp- 
 tians -f-, nor that the persecution under 
 Cambyses forced the Egyptian priests to 
 civilize India J. But Egypt served inter- 
 mediately between Asia and Greece, and 
 was the principal channel of that intellec- 
 tual commerce which subsisted from the 
 earliest times between these two regions. 
 
 * Herodot. ii. 49. 
 
 f Recherches sur les Mysteres du Paganisme, p. 8. — 
 Herodot. (Larcher's translation) torn. ii. p. 40J, note 389, 
 first edition. 
 
 % Kaempfer Histoire du Japon, 1. i. chap. 2. p. 33. 
 
28 ELEUSINIAN" [SECT. II. 
 
 The most important however of all the 
 new discoveries, and that which has most 
 relation to the object of this essay, is con- 
 tained in the fifth volume of the Asiatic 
 Researches. " At the conclusion of the 
 Mysteries of Eleusis the congregation was 
 dismissed in these words, Ko'yf, *Q.ffi naf> 
 Conx, Om, Pax. These mysterious words 
 have been considered hitherto as inexpli- 
 cable ; but they are pure Sanscrit, and 
 used to this day by the Brahmens at the 
 conclusion of religious rites. They are 
 thus written in the language of the gods, 
 as the Hindus call the language of their 
 sacred books, Canscha, 0?n, Pacsha. 
 
 " Canscha, signifies the object of our 
 most ardent wishes. 
 
 " 0/?2, is the famous monosyllable used 
 both at the beginning and conclusion of a 
 prayer, or any religious rite, like amen. 
 
 " Pacsha, exactly answers to the obso- 
 lete Latin word vix, it signifies change, 
 course, stead, place, turn of work, duty, 
 
SECT.II.] MYSTERIES. 2<J 
 
 fortune. It is used particularly after 
 pouring water in honour of the gods and 
 Pitris. It appears also from Hesychius, 
 
 I. " That these words were pronounced 
 aloud at the conclusion of every momen- 
 tous transaction, religious or civil. 
 
 II. " That when judges, after hearing 
 a cause, gave their suffrages by dropping 
 pebbles of different colours into a boxj 
 the noise made by each pebble was called 
 by one of these three words (if not by all 
 three) but more probably by the word 
 pacsha, as the turn or pacsha of the voting 
 judge was over. 
 
 " When lawyers pleaded in a court of 
 justice, they were allowed to speak two or 
 three hours, according to the importance 
 of the cause ; and for this purpose there 
 was a clepsydra or water-clock ready, 
 w T hich making a certain noise at the end 
 of the expired pacsha, mx or turn, this 
 noise was called pacsha. This word pacsha 
 is pronounced vacsh and vact in the vulgar 
 
30 ELEUSINIAItf [SECT. II. 
 
 dialects, and from it the obsolete Latin 
 word vix is obviously derived." 
 
 This interesting discovery of Mr. Wil- 
 ford not only fixes the true origin of the 
 mysteries, but shows us the intimate and 
 numerous relations which had maintained 
 the influence of oriental ideas over the 
 civilization of antiquity. It is not neces- 
 sary to detail here all the results of the 
 explanation given by Wilford : every un- 
 prejudiced person will see in the East the 
 cradle of religious traditions and of phi- 
 losophical modes of discipline.- We are 
 still in want of several materials, yet may 
 cherish the hope of obtaining them; but 
 what light has not already been imparted 
 by the researches made within the last 
 twenty years; and who is there that would 
 not wish to direct the whole attention of 
 Europe towards Asiatic literature, the 
 source of all our knowledge ! 
 
 It appears then, from what has been 
 here noticed, that the religious mysteries 
 
SECT. II.] MYSTERIES. 31 
 
 of Greece were of foreign origin; that 
 Egypt did not give them birth; and fi- 
 nally, that we are enabled by a luminous 
 and singular fact to discover their true 
 country 6 . 
 
32 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. Ill, 
 
 SECTION III 
 
 The natural state of man is neither 
 the savage state nor that of corruption. 
 It is a simple state, better and more nearly 
 approaching to the Divinity. The savage 
 and the corrupt man are equally remote 
 from it ; but both serve as irrefragable 
 monuments, to attest that fall of man, 
 which contains in itself alone the key of 
 all his history. Hence that retrograde mo- 
 tion of the moral world, in opposition to 
 the constantly ascending force of the hu- 
 man mind ; hence the present state, in 
 which the wisdom of men is only an in- 
 tuition, a recollection of the past, and 
 in which virtue itself is but a return to- 
 wards God. 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 33 
 
 It seems that all religions have had a 
 glimpse of this great truth, the fall of 
 man. It is found in all the theological 
 systems of the globe, and serves as the 
 base of ancient philosophy. In the my- 
 thological traditions, it appears sometimes 
 as a principal idea, sometimes as an ac- 
 cessory notion. We often discover it un- 
 der the symbols of combat, of grief; at 
 other times under the image of a slain 
 god \ Sometimes it is spiritualized ; and 
 philosophy then proclaims the degeneracy 
 of the soul, and the necessity of its gra- 
 dual return to the place which it had oc- 
 cupied*. All moral truths of the first 
 order which connect themselves with that 
 of the fall of man, those first truths im- 
 mediately transmitted or developed by the 
 Divinity, could not fail to survive the 
 greatest wanderings of the human mind *j-. 
 
 * Plat, in Phaed., in Cratyl. Macrob. Somn. Scip. 
 1—9. Clem. Strom, iii. p. 433. 
 
 f Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript. torn. xxxv. p. 171 — 
 188. 
 
34 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. III. 
 
 The dispersion of nations, the abuse of 
 allegory, the personification of the divine 
 attributes, that of the powers of nature, 
 the confusion of ideas on incorporeal sub- 
 stances, all these principles combined, 
 whilst by degrees they produced poly- 
 theism, could not hinder some fragments 
 of the primordial truths from being pre- 
 served in the East ; and these by a won- 
 derful direction spread themselves afar, 
 traversed Egypt, and, however altered, 
 became in the centre of the ancient world 
 the mysterious doctrine of the Aporrhete, 
 and the object of the great mysteries of 
 Eleusis. 
 
 To facts so simple supported by his- 
 torical traditions, to results so satisfactory 
 connected with our sacred traditions, no 
 contradiction should be offered. Of all 
 hypotheses on the origin of civilization, 
 that is indubitably the most solid which 
 establishes a common centre, a focus of 
 information. To discover the solution of 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 35 
 
 a grand problem in history and philoso- 
 phy, without injuring the one or the other, 
 is the chief triumph of judicious criticism. 
 The union of philosophy with criticism, 
 is most particularly necessary in the vast 
 field of antiquity, where the most ingeni- 
 ous conjecture is rarely successful ; and 
 where those who adopt the most reason- 
 able hypotheses, still find every instant 
 that they must not hope to conquer all 
 difficulties by one explanation, nor reduce 
 every thing to one system 3 . In the study 
 of ancient religions let us be content to 
 seize the principal features : these consti- 
 tute the character ; the others have been 
 added successively, and often at random. 
 
 Guided by this principle, we shall not 
 hazard any further conjecture on the trans- 
 migration of primitive and fundamental 
 ideas. We have noticed their birth in the 
 East, and their residence in Egypt : let us 
 now proceed to view them established in 
 Greece. 
 
 d 2 
 
36 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. III. 
 
 The mysteries of Eleusis were divided, 
 like the philosophy of the ancients, into 
 two parts ; the one esoteric, the other exo- 
 teric; and these two parts were the greater 
 and the lesser mysteries. 
 
 It is generally allowed that the lesser 
 were the more ancient, and this progres- 
 sion is consistent with the nature of things. 
 M. de St e Croix, supported by Meursius, 
 regards the lesser mysteries as preparatory 
 ceremonies *. It is, however, more pro- 
 bable that the great and lesser mysteries 
 were absolutely distinct. 
 
 Undoubtedly, he who was initiated in 
 the great, knew all that the lesser myste- 
 ries contained ; but there is nothing to 
 prove that ever} 7 Mysta might become an 
 Epopt, or, in other words, that those who 
 were adepts in the lesser mysteries might 
 on that account claim initiation in the 
 great. Every Greek, without distinction 
 of age or of origin, might be admitted to 
 
 * Recherches sur les Mysteres du Paganisme, p. 182, &c. 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 37 
 
 the lesser mysteries : barbarians, in pro- 
 cess of time, enjoyed the same advantage. 
 If to obtain admission to the greater mys- 
 teries had been a matter of equal facility, 
 could they have exercised the same in- 
 fluence, would they never have been di- 
 vulged 4 ? 
 
 This double doctrine, which raised a 
 wall of partition between the philosopher 
 and the people, is a distinguishing feature 
 of antiquity, inherent in all its institu- 
 tions, in all its systems, and in all its ci- 
 vilization. Christianity, in destroying the 
 double doctrine, became a grand epoch, 
 even in the history of philosophy. The 
 division of the mysteries into greater and 
 lesser, belonged to the very nature of the 
 institution : the great mysteries were re- 
 served for an inconsiderable number of 
 initiated persons, because they contained 
 revelations which would have given a mor- 
 tal blow to the religion of the state ; the 
 lesser mysteries were within the reach of 
 
38 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. III. 
 
 all men. We are induced by every consi- 
 deration to believe, that the lesser mysteries 
 comprehended symbolical representations 
 of the history of Ceres and of Proserpine ; 
 still, however, not teaching any thing 
 directly contrary to polytheism : the doc- 
 trine of a future state, in which the guilty 
 should be punished and the good rewarded, 
 did not exceed the limits of the predomi- 
 nant religion. 
 
 The initiated might even learn that 
 some of their gods had been men, whose 
 meritorious actions had obtained for them 
 the apotheosis*, without any attack on poly- 
 theism, whidh having never formed a body 
 of doctrine, offered in this respect the 
 greatest latitude 5 . It is probable that the 
 lesser mysteries formed only a sort of ra- 
 tional polytheism. The great alone, the 
 rgXsra), possessed man} r sublime truths, and 
 some traditional monuments of the first 
 order. It is not possible to seize on the 
 
 * Cic. Tusc. l.i. cap. 12. See Section V. 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 39 
 
 whole of this mysterious doctrine, the 
 ancients having only left us some imper- 
 fect fragments, some obscure indications 
 and allusions. Modern discoveries con- 
 sist in a great number of hypotheses, and 
 in very few facts. 
 
 It is not necessary here to mention all 
 that relates to the structure of the temple 
 of Eleusis, which, according to Strabo*, 
 could contain from twenty thousand to 
 thirty thousand men 6 ; nor the order of 
 the ceremonies, nor the different functions 
 of the mystagogues, either in the great or 
 the lesser mysteries. On these subjects 
 antiquity has left us but little information, 
 and this has been already sufficiently ex- 
 amined by various accomplished men of 
 letters. 
 
 In their writings may be found all that 
 it is possible to collect concerning the 
 hierophant, (lego<pdvr9ig) 9 the torch-bearer, 
 (AotSoy^o?), the sacred herald, (le^o^yf,) 
 
 * Lib.ix. p. 272. ed. Casaub. 1587. 
 
40 ELEUSIISTIAN [sect. III. 
 
 the attendant at the altar, (© \k) B^f ), and 
 the other persons of inferior rank em- 
 ployed in the temple, their dresses, their 
 functions, the days appointed for proces- 
 sions, &c. Several of these notions are 
 obscure, others contradictory ; and if they 
 serve to give an idea of the exterior solem- 
 nities, they do not throw any light on the 
 mysteries concealed within the sanctuary. 
 We must again acknowledge the im- 
 possibility of determining, with precision, 
 the notions which the Epopts received ; 
 but that connection which we have as- 
 certained between the initiations and the 
 true source of all our knowledge, suf- 
 fices to prove that they not only acquired 
 from them just notions respecting the 
 Divinity, — the relations between man and 
 the Divinity, — the primitive dignity of hu- 
 man nature, — its fall, — the immortality of 
 the soul, — the means of its return towards 
 God, and finally, another order of things 
 after death, — but that traditions were im- 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 41 
 
 parted to them, oral and even written, 
 precious remains of the great shipwreck of 
 humanity. We know as a fact, that the 
 hierophant communicated to the Epopts, 
 certain sacred books, which none but the 
 initiated could read*. And it appears, 
 from what Pausanias relates of the Phe- 
 neatae, that some writings were preserved 
 between stones called petroma, (Tlsrgapa,,) 
 and that they were never read but during 
 the nighty. Perhaps, they united to these 
 historical monuments some notions re- 
 specting the general system of the uni- 
 verse, some theurgic doctrines, and per- 
 haps even some positive discoveries in 
 human sciences. The residence of eastern 
 traditions in Egypt may have connected 
 them with those great discoveries, this 
 wisdom of the Egyptians, to which Scrip- 
 ture itself bears witness in various places. 
 
 * Galen. ifs§) ?y$ I'm ditXwv <pa§(jt,dxtov hvd^suog. 1. viii. 
 init. 
 
 f Arcad. p. 249. (viii. 15. It is also the opinion of Meur- 
 sius, Eleus. cap. 10.) 
 
42 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. III. 
 
 It is not in fact probable, that the 
 superior initiation was limited to the de- 
 monstration of the unity of God, and the 
 immortality of the soul, by philosophical 
 arguments. Clemens of Alexandria ex- 
 pressly says, when speaking of the great 
 mysteries, " Here ends all instruction ; we 
 behold nature and things*/' Besides, moral 
 notions were so widely diffused, that the 
 mysteries could not, merely on account of 
 them, lay claim to the magnificent eulo- 
 giums bestowed by the most enlightened 
 personages of antiquity. For if we sup- 
 pose that the revelation of those truths 
 had been the only object of the mysteries, 
 would they not have ceased to exist from 
 the moment when those truths were pub- 
 licly taught ? Would Pindar, Plato, Cicero, 
 Epictetus, have spoken of them with such 
 admiration, if the hierophant had satisfied 
 himself with loudly proclaiming his own 
 opinions, or those of his order, on truths 
 
 * Strom. V. cap. 2. 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 43 
 
 with which they were themselves acquaint- 
 ed? Whence could the hierophant have 
 derived those ideas, of what sources could 
 he have availed himself which were not 
 equally accessible to philosophy ? Let us 
 then conclude, that not only great moral 
 truths were revealed to the initiated, but 
 likewise traditions both oral and written, 
 which ascended to the first ages of the 
 world. These remnants, placed in the 
 midst of polytheism, constituted the 
 essence, and the secret doctrine of the 
 mysteries. 
 
 This hypothesis not only reconciles the 
 apparent contradictions of the religious 
 system of the ancients, but perfectly agrees 
 with our sacred traditions 7 . It must be re- 
 marked, that the first fathers of the church, 
 who furnish such interesting notions on 
 the mysteries, alternately mention them 
 with much praise, or represent them in 
 odious colours. St. Clemens of Alex- 
 andria, who was himself supposed to bare 
 
44 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. III. 
 
 been initiated*, at one time ascribes to 
 the mysteries an object the most frivolous 
 and even shameful -j-, and transforms them 
 into schools of atheism Jj but, at another 
 time, asserts that the truths taught in the 
 mysteries had been stolen by the philoso- 
 phers from Moses and the prophets §, for 
 according to St. Clemens, the mysteries 
 were established by the philosophers ||. 
 
 Tertullian who imputes the invention 
 of them to the Devil ^f, Arnobius, Athena- 
 goras, and St. Justin, have all spoken 
 concerning them nearly in the same man- 
 ner. Their praises and their blame may be 
 equally well founded, without being equally 
 disinterested ; for it is necessary to distin- 
 guish epochs. At the time when the fathers 
 wrote, it is certain that great abuses had 
 
 * Euseb. Prseparat. Evan. l.ii. cap. 2. p. 61. itavfw 
 ph $ta ifei§as Ixflwv dvrfl. 
 
 \ Coh. ad Gentes, p. 14, &c. 
 
 % Ibid. p. 17. 
 
 § Strom. V. p. 650. 
 
 || Ibid. p. 681. 
 
 f De Praescrip. Haereticor. cap. 4?0. 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 45 
 
 crept into the mysteries, which were be- 
 come the support of polytheism. 
 
 And it may be easily supposed, that in 
 this respect the fathers, who considered 
 them as the sanctuaries of error, endea- 
 voured to discredit them by all the means 
 in their power. Besides this, the corrup- 
 tion of the mysteries had diffused some 
 notions of the ceremonies practised at the 
 celebration of them, and the symbols had 
 been divulged by indiscreet Mystce. Every 
 thing conspired to profane the mysteries, 
 already fallen from their primitive dignity. 
 But before we examine this epoch, let us 
 pause a moment at that during which the 
 mysteries flourished. Although it was then 
 impossible that what the mysteries taught 
 should be revealed 8 , we find among the 
 ancients some allusions to the great truths 
 which they comprehended. Cicero, ad- 
 dressing himself to Atticus, thus represents 
 them : " Amidst all of excellent or divine 
 that your Athens has produced and dif- 
 
46 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. III. 
 
 fused among men, nothing is more excel- 
 lent than the mysteries, which exalt us 
 from a rude and savage state to true 
 humanity. They initiate us into the true 
 principles of life*, for they teach us not 
 only to live pleasantly, but to die with 
 better hopes/' This fine eulogium does 
 not require any commentary; we are de- 
 lighted to hear it from the lips of a great 
 man, educated in the study of philosophy, 
 and familiar with every branch of human 
 knowledge. Several other passages which 
 have been already remarked in the works 
 of ancient writers, contain pompous enco- 
 miums on the mysteries, and indicate the 
 various moral and philosophical truths 
 which they inculcated. The ingenious 
 Warburton 9 has been more successful in 
 proving the importance of the mysteries on 
 this account, than in describing the sixth 
 
 * De Leg. ii. 14. Initiaque ut appellantur ita revera 
 principia vitse cognovimus. This phrase is not easily trans- 
 lated. 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 47 
 
 book of Virgil's iEneid, as an exact pic- 
 ture of the ceremonies, and even of the 
 secret doctrine of the initiations. The 
 conformity of a few rites, can only prove, 
 at most, that Virgil was acquainted with 
 some ceremonies practised in the mysteries: 
 besides, his philosophy was the Epicurean*, 
 and we know that those who professed it, 
 were regarded as hostile to the mysteries *f\ 
 It is probable also, that some of his pic- 
 tures derived their colouring from the 
 perusal of the works of Pythagorean phi- 
 losophers. 
 
 Let us here observe, that the Grecian 
 philosophers have been in constant opposi- 
 tion to the doctrine of the initiations: this 
 opposition has been sanctioned by the re- 
 fusal of Socrates to participate in the 
 mysteries of Eleusis 10 . Some modern 
 writers have availed themselves of this 
 circumstance to degrade the initiations 
 
 * Servius, ad ^n. VI. v. 376. 
 
 f Plut. T. Non pos6e suav. viv. Sec. Epic. torn. ii. p. 1 103. 
 
48 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. III. 
 
 into simple lustrations, to which, in pro- 
 cess of time, a secret doctrine was adapted, 
 relating merely to the services rendered by 
 legislators, such as agriculture, laws, &c*. 
 The opinion of the Grecian philosophers 
 on this subject will appear liable to strong 
 suspicions, when we recollect that philo- 
 sophy in Greece was a true power. Hav- 
 ing undertaken the bold task of tearing 
 the veil from nature, could philosophy re- 
 concile itself to the mystic obscurity which 
 the initiations spread over the most impor- 
 tant truths? The Grecian philosophy was 
 analytical in principle, the most opposite 
 opinions tended to the same object; and 
 as all the knowledge of the ancients, to be 
 admitted into the original system should 
 present a local application and acquire a 
 degree of life ; the union of philosophy 
 and of mysticism became impossible. The 
 Greeks, who understood in the highest de- 
 
 * St e Croix, Recherches sur les Mysteres du Pa- 
 ganisme, p. 369. 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 49 
 
 gree, the art of rendering science popular, 
 did not, like us, confine philosophy within 
 the narrow compass of a book, or the limits 
 of a closet. They discussed great moral 
 questions before a people, who felt a lively 
 interest in those debates ; and the rivalship 
 of system, did not, besides, allow to leave 
 in a respectful half-light, the great theo- 
 gonic and cosmogonic problems of which 
 the solution was required. This direc- 
 tion, not perhaps very suitable to the true 
 progress of philosophy, favoured in a 
 high degree poetry and eloquence. But 
 since the invention of printing has de- 
 throned speech, the course of human 
 knowledge has been inverted : philosophy 
 banished to the silence of the closet, is 
 become speculative; it may now acknow- 
 ledge the existence of truths which it can- 
 not demonstrate. A brilliant and en- 
 lightened people does not, any longer, 
 oblige it to descend into the arena, nor 
 does the general interest any longer follow 
 its researches. 
 
 E 
 
50 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. III. 
 
 Eloquence and poetry, banished also 
 from ordinary life, have not been able, like 
 philosophy, to profit by this exclusion; 
 and in proportion as the mass of our em- 
 pirical knowledge increases with time, the 
 further we remove ourselves from that age 
 when philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, 
 exercised in unison their influence on a 
 people so happily organised, that they 
 rendered divine honours to Beauty; and 
 followed Plato in crowds, whilst one verse 
 inaccurately or inelegantly pronounced on 
 the stage, would offend every ear and excite 
 a general commotion in their theatres 11 . 
 
 This digression seemed necessary to- 
 wards appreciating the true character of 
 ancient philosophy, and its relations with 
 the religious mysteries. We may trace the 
 refusal of Socrates, rather to his situation 
 than to his opinion; and Epaminondas and 
 Agesilaus, in refusing to be initiated, may 
 have been influenced by some personal 
 motives from which no argument can be 
 deduced against the mysteries. The sar- 
 
SECT. III.] MYSTERIES. 51 
 
 casms of Diogenes the Cynic, were pointed 
 at those abuses which had crept into the 
 lesser mysteries, and perhaps at the ex- 
 cessive credulity of a people who allowed 
 themselves to be governed by imagination. 
 We shall only add respecting Socrates 
 that philosophy was not always inflexible; 
 the initiations found a zealous apologist in 
 Plato ; and this authority is the more con- 
 siderable, as Plato indisputably raised him- 
 self to a greater height than any preceding 
 or subsequent philosopher. 
 
 The ancients have already written on 
 the subject of the mysteries. Melanthius 
 quoted by Atheneus, and by the Scholiast 
 of Aristophanes, Menander, named by the 
 same author, and Hicesius, noticed by Cle- 
 ment of Alexandria*, published works 
 concerning the mysteries. We cannot suf- 
 ficiently deplore the loss of those writings; 
 
 * Others might be mentioned. See the preface to 
 Meursius's " Eleusinia," and the " Recherches," &c. of 
 M. de St 8 Croix, p. 339, 340. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 ELEUSINIAN (SECT. III. 
 
 although it is probable that they related 
 merely to the details of exterior ceremo- 
 nies. We can scarcely indeed believe, that 
 they discussed the true point in question, 
 the object and origin of the greater myste- 
 ries, and their relations with polytheism. 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 53 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 We find, however, that the mysteries, 
 by a fatality attached to human affairs, even 
 the most sacred, did not long retain their 
 purity. The initiations soon degenerated 
 into a vain ceremony; abstinence was al- 
 most openly violated ; the governments 
 speculated on the piety of the initiated. 
 We learn from the testimonies of Xsseus 
 and Demosthenes*, that already in their 
 time, courtezans had been admitted to ini- 
 tiation: and, if we believe what the fathers 
 relate, a horrible corruption had seized on 
 the sanctuary of Eleusis 1 . It is probable, 
 however, that all these excesses occurred 
 only among the Mystoe. 
 
 * Is. Orat, de Haered. Philoctem. p. 61 Bemosth. in 
 
 Neser. p. 862. 
 
54 ELEUSINIAN [sECT. IV. 
 
 Every circumstance induces us to be- 
 lieve that the number of epopts was at 
 all times very limited ; and, if it increased 
 with the decline of the mysteries, it could 
 not have been much extended; for we do 
 not find that the secrecy of the sanctuary 
 w r as violated even at this epoch. In pro- 
 portion as corruption was introduced, the 
 spirit which animated the institution de- 
 creased, and empty forms still subsisted 
 long after the moving principle had ceased 
 to act. 
 
 The initiations were continued even 
 under the Christian emperors. St. Jerome 
 says, " Hierophantas quoque Atheniensium 
 (legant) usque hodie cicutcE sorbitione cas- 
 trare*. Valentinian,whodied in the year of 
 Christ, 374, was willing to destroy the mys- 
 teries after the reign of Julian ; but, at the 
 solicitations of Pretextatus, he relinquished 
 this project. This circumstance is related 
 as follows, in the fourth book of Zosimus's 
 
 * Adv. Jovin. 1. 1. Extr. 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 55 
 
 History — " Valentinian, desirous of intro- 
 ducing new laws, wished to begin by re- 
 forming the altars ; he forbade nocturnal 
 sacrifices, believing that such a prohibition 
 would put an end to the scandalous prac- 
 tices. But Pretextatus, who was at that 
 time proconsul in Greece, a man endowed 
 with every virtue, represented to him that 
 the Greeks would consider life as insup- 
 portable, were they not permitted to cele- 
 brate those most sacred mysteries which 
 bind together the human race (ra cvvi^ovru 
 to kv&gcofttiov yivog tkytarcira, [/sV(TT7igia,). Valen- 
 tinian did not insist on the execution of the 
 law which he had decreed ; and all was 
 continued according to ancient usage/' — ■ 
 It appears that the mysteries were com- 
 prehended in the general proscriptions of 
 Theodosius the Great, who, as some histo- 
 rians inform us, overthrew all the altars of 
 polytheism *; 
 
 The mysteries, however, before their fall, 
 
 * Anno Christi, 346—395. 
 
56 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. IV. 
 
 enjoyed a brilliant though absolutely unex- 
 pected epoch, and assumed a new aspect. 
 This is, without doubt, one of the most in- 
 teresting monuments of their history ; with 
 a rapid sketch of it, we shall terminate this 
 section. 
 
 The religious mysteries of the Greeks 
 formed, as we have seen, the true essence 
 of polytheism, without altering its exterior 
 forms. On the first view, it would seem 
 that moral truths of a superior order, the 
 multiplicity of symbolical and popular doc- 
 trines, inveterate abuses, and licentious 
 practices, could not very well agree. If, 
 however, we examine objects closely, we 
 shall find that nothing was more compat- 
 ible than the knowledge of some primordial 
 truths restricted to a chosen few, and the 
 ignorance of the multitude; the double doc- 
 trine, equally dividing the religion and the 
 philosophy of the ancients, formed the base 
 of this system, which united all contraries, 
 and combined into one solid mass of con- 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 57 
 
 sistency elements the most heterogeneous. 
 Besides, we must believe that natural ideas 
 on the unity of God and the immortality 
 of the soul, were more diffused than is ge- 
 nerally supposed ; but the people allowed 
 themselves to be seduced by the antiquity 
 of the practices of polytheism, and blindly 
 followed the road to which they were di- 
 rected by the illusions of authority and of 
 genius. 
 
 Polytheism, besieged on all sides, endea- 
 voured still to defend itself; and, before its 
 fall, attempted to combat Christianity with 
 its own weapons. As the new religion ad- 
 dressed itself at once to all the intellectual 
 faculties of man, the adherents of poly- 
 theism wished to ennoble their faith by a 
 moral dignity which it had never possessed, 
 and they gave it a supposititious object al- 
 together opposite to its character. For this 
 purpose, they collected every thing that 
 wore an appearance of mysticism, and then 
 formed a whole, which caused polytheism 
 
58 ELEUSINIA.N [SECT. IV. 
 
 to assume an aspect entirely new : philoso- 
 phy entered into the general combination, 
 or rather took the lead ; but all these efforts 
 were vain, and only served to enhance the 
 triumph of the Christian religion. 
 
 Those deceive themselves who discover 
 in the history of the eclectism of Alexan- 
 dria only a tissue of obscure manoeuvres 
 and unconnected doctrines. It was one 
 main-spring of a system conceived with 
 ability, embraced with ardour, transmitted 
 from sect to sect, from generation to gene- 
 ration. On the throne of the world, 
 Marcus Aurelius was the hero, Julian the 
 martyr of this system. In the schools of 
 the philosophers, its principal supporters 
 were Apollonius TyanBeus 2 , Ammonius 
 Saccas 3 , Jamblichus, Celsus 4 , Porphyry, 
 Proclus, and above all Plotinus, who made 
 so bad a use of his brilliant imagination. 
 
 In the vast plan concerted for opposing 
 the progress of Christianity, nothing had 
 been neglected which promised success. 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 59 
 
 The eclectics not only wished to re-esta- 
 blish the ancient authority of the temple 
 of Eleusis, but even introduced mysteries 
 unused before that time. Those of Mithras, 
 unknown in Greece, appeared at Rome 
 under Trajan, about the year 101 of Christ. 
 As all those efforts had but one object, 
 most of the Christian ceremonies were bor- 
 rowed; to these were added the most ter- 
 rible trials, and it is even said that blood 
 flowed in the cavern of Mithras. Adrian 
 forbade human sacrifices^, but Commodus 
 was accused of having sacrificed a man-f. 
 In these mysteries various symbolical cere- 
 monies were represented. A fragment of 
 Pallas, preserved by Porphyry J, informs 
 us, that these representations chiefly related 
 to the various transmigrations of the soul, 
 and its abode on earth. The worship of 
 Isis had penetrated into Greece, and the 
 Egyptian goddess was known there in the 
 
 * Porphyr. de Abstin, 1. 11. §56. 
 •j- Lamprid. in Comm. cap. 9. 
 % De Abst. 1. iv. § 16. 
 
60 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. IV. 
 
 time of Pausanias, by her true name*. 
 But the Isiac mysteries, which flourished at 
 Corinth and at Rome under the emperors, 
 were very different from the ancient mys- 
 teries of Sais. Apuleius affords the most 
 copious details concerning one of those fes- 
 tivals which the Romans called Isidis nam- 
 giam-f. The Eleusinian mysteries appear 
 to have served as a model for those of Isis, 
 at least with respect to exterior practices: 
 but it was principally the Orphic ceremo- 
 nies that received at this time considerable 
 extension. The Platonists did not disdain 
 to unite with the Orphics ; and this sect 
 made great progress in the first ages of 
 Christianity. Proclus,in his Commentary on 
 the Timaeus, and in his Platonic Theology, 
 undertook even to show that the doctrine 
 of Plato was the same with that of the Or- 
 phics. Still it would be difficult to com- 
 bine under one aspect the different desti- 
 nations given by the Platonics to the mys- 
 
 * Paus. Phoc. cap. 32. f Apul. Metamorph. xi. 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 6l 
 
 teries of Eleusis, at that time absolutely 
 degenerated. It appears that they caused 
 the EpoptSe to be regarded as a kind of 
 physicomystic theology, and that, like the 
 Stoics, they sought rather the nature of 
 things than the nature of the gods*. In 
 another point of view they also explained 
 the EpoptSe by theurgic means, making 
 use at one time of that hierarchy of Intelli- 
 gences, or genii, subordinate to each other, 
 which Plato mentions, and at other times, 
 of ideas altogether mystical. A passage of 
 Porphyry quoted by Eusebius *f*, will give 
 a sufficient idea of the manner in which 
 they sometimes explained the symbols — 
 " God being a luminous principle, residing 
 in the midst of the most subtile fire, he re- 
 mains for ever invisible to the eyes of those 
 who do not elevate themselves above mate- 
 rial life : on this account, the sight of 
 transparent bodies, such as crystal, Parian 
 
 * Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. i. cap. 42. 
 f Prap. Evang. 1. iii. cap. 7. 
 
62 ELEUSINIAff [SECT. IV. 
 
 marble, and even ivory, recalls the idea 
 of divine light ; as the sight of gold ex- 
 cites an idea of its purity, for gold cannot 
 be sullied. Some have thought by a black 
 stone was signified the invisibility of the di- 
 vine essence. To express supreme reason, 
 the Divinity was represented under the hu- 
 man form — and beautiful, for God is the 
 source of beauty ; of different ages, and in 
 various attitudes, sitting or upright ; of one 
 or the other sex, as a virgin or a young 
 man, a husband or a bride, that all the 
 shades and gradations might be marked. 
 Every thing luminous was subsequently at- 
 tributed to the gods; the sphere, and all 
 that is spherical, to the universe, to the 
 sun and the moon — sometimes to Fortune 
 and to Hope. The circle, and all circular 
 figures, to eternity — to the celestial move- 
 ments, to the circles and zones of the hea- 
 vens. The section of circles, to the phases 
 of the moon ; and pyramids and obelisks, to 
 the igneous principle, and through that to 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 63 
 
 the gods of Heaven. A cone expresses 
 the sun; a cylinder the earth; the phallus 
 and triangle (a symbol of the matrix), de- 
 s ignategenerationV 
 
 Most of these symbols, as we learn from 
 St. Clement of Alexandria, belonged to the 
 mysteries of Eleusis*. We see that the 
 foundation of the doctrine of the Platonists 
 was a system of theurgy, in which we must 
 not seek philosophic precision. This doc- 
 trine, not able to restrain itself within the 
 bounds of a regular system, presents, in 
 general, a great fluctuation of ideas. We 
 must consider all that is found in the writ- 
 ings of the principal eclectics concerning 
 the ancient mysteries, as individual opinions, 
 which may be varied and interpreted with- 
 out end, but which tend incessantly to the 
 same object. Let this suffice for our pre- 
 sent purpose. A detailed history of 
 polytheism can alone illustrate by de- 
 grees the filiation subsisting between the 
 
 * Coh. ad Gentes, p. 17. 
 
64 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. IV. 
 
 mysteries instituted at the birth of poly- 
 theism and the last philosophical systems 
 that preceded its fall, between the sanc- 
 tuary of Eleusis and the school of the 
 eclectics of Alexandria. In a philosophical 
 point of view, the new Platonism was but 
 a very imperfect image of the doctrine of 
 Plato : some of his ideas might still be dis- 
 covered in it, but corrupted and perverted 
 from their true signification *. The eclec- 
 tics, in bringing them back to Oriental ideas, 
 certainly restored them to their true source; 
 but this very return must have affected the 
 purity of Plato's philosophical conceptions. 
 A strange mixture was formed of them 
 with the worship of light, the sj^stem of 
 emanations, and the doctrine of the me- 
 tempsychosis. The abstractions of the 
 Grecian philosopher were personified : the 
 world was peopled with a multitude of 
 intermediate agents. That faculty attri- 
 
 * M. de Gerando, Hist. Comp. des Syst. de Phil. torn. i. 
 p. 193. 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 65 
 
 buted to the human understanding of 
 seizing on eternal truths without demon- 
 stration, and without the power of account- 
 ing for them, was erected into a principle; 
 and this principle, true in some respects, 
 was here a fruitful source of various errors. 
 The human mind, distracted by enthusiasm, 
 was less employed in the contemplation of 
 truth, than of the modes of relation with 
 God, as much as with his subaltern agents. 
 It might even be said, that the new eclec- 
 tics, who more frequently mentioned the 
 name of Plato than of Pythagoras, approxi- 
 mated rather to the latter and his school, 
 which, in fact, was adapted to please them. 
 For those at the head of the prevailing 
 system availed themselves of the austerity 
 of the Pythagorean precepts, and of the 
 mystery which covered them ; but they 
 employed the authority of Plato's name, 
 and never was this authority more imposing. 
 The Platonists, most unfaithful disciples of 
 the academy, wished also to appropriate 
 
66 ELEUSIlSriAN [sect. IV. 
 
 the severe empirism of Aristotle : and from 
 this mixture resulted a system, strange, 
 obscure, full of imagination and poetry; it 
 was the last form of polytheism, with which 
 it fell 7 . 
 
 It is certain, as we have remarked, that 
 the school of Alexandria deviated very 
 widely from the doctrine of Plato ; and 
 that, in overstepping the limits, it was be- 
 wildered in a labyrinth, of which we should 
 vainly endeavour to find the outlet : but, 
 though we blame the excesses into which 
 the eclectics of Alexandria fell, we must 
 still render that justice which is due to a 
 happy and rare combination of force, 
 imagination, sagacity, and genius. It is 
 evident, that placed amidst the treasures 
 accumulated by the Ptolemies, and become, 
 as we may say, inheritors of the ancient 
 civilization, and forerunners of the lights 
 which were to dawn, the Platonists have 
 formed a dazzling epoch in the annals of 
 the human mind. It is necessary above 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 67 
 
 all, to study them relatively to those Ori- 
 ental ideas, with which their works are 
 replete : fortunate would it have been, if 
 the spirit of system and the love of paradox 
 had not too often induced them to corrupt 
 the venerable sources from which they did 
 not cease to derive those ideas ! — An as- 
 siduous study of the mystic philosophy of 
 the Indians, Arabians, and Persians, com- 
 bined with modern researches on the 
 Platonic philosophy, would yield undoubt- 
 edly very great results, and perhaps enable 
 us to seize on that invisible but powerful 
 chain, which links together those strange 
 doctrines that we are accustomed to consi- 
 der separately, and which, on that very 
 account, appear to us almost incompre- 
 hensible 8 . 
 
 It would be equally unjust to imagine 
 that, in this great fermentation of ideas, 
 the Christian religion was always found 
 opposed to philosophy ; never, on the 
 contrary, was there an epoch more honour- 
 
 f 2 
 
68 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. IV. 
 
 able for philosophy than the history of 
 Christianity, until the council of Nice. The 
 impulse given by the Platonists had pro- 
 pagated a taste for philosophic studies. 
 Almost all the first fathers of the church 
 were accused of having platonised: most 
 of them believed that Plato had been 
 acquainted with the sacred books : but 
 without any examination of those opinions 
 generally received, we shall only consider 
 them as a positive proof that the Christian 
 religion never persecuted true philosophy; 
 with which, on the contrary, it has always 
 endeavoured to coalesce. We shall close 
 this section by a brief summary of the 
 principal idea contained in our preceding 
 pages. We have endeavoured to prove that 
 the religious mysteries of Greece, far from 
 being vain ceremonies, actually preserved 
 some remains of ancient traditions, and 
 formed the true esoteric doctrine of poly- 
 theism : when polytheism, near its fall, 
 still wished to contend with the Christian 
 
SECT. IV.] MYSTERIES. 69 
 
 religion, it awakened, faithful to its double 
 doctrine, on one side all that was striking 
 in the mysteries, and on the other all that 
 was most exalted in philosophy. Hence 
 that singular coincidence between the re- 
 establishment of the mysteries and the 
 birth of Platonism : but public worship 
 and philosophy had changed characters; 
 and it was found impossible to restore any 
 thing but empty forms and worn out ima- 
 gery, that had mere verbal authority for 
 their sanction, were degraded by the abuse 
 of ideas, and involved polytheism in their 
 fall. 
 
70 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. V, 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 It is not our intention to trace all that 
 has been attributed to the mysteries, nor to 
 discuss the various details connected with 
 them. The present essay, as we have 
 before said, does not offer itself as a com- 
 plete treatise on this interesting branch of 
 antiquities; nor can it even supersede any 
 of the works already published respecting 
 the same subject : designed to afford some 
 general views, this tract should be consi- 
 dered merely as the outline of a more 
 extensive performance, or as a supplement 
 to all those with which the learned world 
 has been successively enriched. 
 
 This declaration is here purposely re- 
 peated, lest we* should incur the reproach 
 
SECT. V.] MYSTERIES. 71 
 
 of having passed over with silent neglect a 
 great portion of that controversy which has 
 been excited on the important subject of 
 the mysteries. Among the number of dis- 
 puted questions, we shall state one which 
 seems to merit particular attention, and to 
 require some details — " Whether did the 
 ancients teach in their mysteries that the 
 gods had been only men? and whether, 
 in truth, the gods of polytheism had been 
 men?" Some illustrious writers have de- 
 clared their opinions in the affirmative. 
 Supported by Herodotus, Cicero, and Dio- 
 dorus Siculus, and the fathers of the church, 
 they have maintained at once these two 
 propositions; and, at first view, it must be 
 owned their arguments seem specious. 
 In later times, several persons of equal 
 learning and ability have opposed this 
 system. We should not unite our voice 
 with their objections, if, faithful to our 
 principles of literary criticism, we did not 
 hope to place the true subject of our re- 
 
72 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. V. 
 
 searches in some new points of view, from 
 which it may derive illustration. 
 
 We cannot too frequently repeat, that 
 the examination and discussion of ancient 
 authorities, and their chronological classifi- 
 cation, are the most certain means by which 
 we may discover the important truths in 
 the science of antiquity. This rational 
 process is equally distant from bold pa- 
 radoxology, and from blind and implicit 
 submission to any system whatever. How 
 many systems are propped merely by some 
 passages, badly interpreted, and ill under- 
 stood! systems which an exact analysis, or 
 a simple collation of dates, would cause to 
 disappear ! 
 
 Such, we venture to affirm, is the state 
 of our present question — one so intimately 
 connected with the mysteries, that it must 
 engage our attention ; and, in fact, if the 
 secret of the mysteries had been to teach 
 the human origin of the gods, all farther 
 researches would be useless, and fall of 
 
SECT. V.] MYSTERIES. 73 
 
 themselves. The true origin of the gods of 
 Greece, the moment of their translation 
 into that country, and their relations with 
 foreign divinities, are lost in the night of 
 time. The bases of the history of Greece 
 have remained, notwithstanding unheard 
 of efforts, inaccessible to the torch of cri- 
 ticism ; and, in this respect, the origin of 
 Grecian theology, of which the develope- 
 ment has been so luminous, is, still more 
 than all the rest, covered with darkness. 
 We know that Greece, peopled by Asiatic 
 colonies, was subjugated in turn, by races 
 of men different among themselves, but of 
 one common origin. These new colonies 
 brought with them the elements of their 
 religious worship ; these elements, con- 
 founded with the local notions already 
 subsisting, gave birth to the Grecian theo- 
 gony, which afterwards diffused itself over 
 a great portion of the known w r orld, and 
 which ended by invading even its own 
 cradle 1 . 
 
74 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. V. 
 
 The Egyptian and Phoenician colonists 
 imported into Greece, with their religious 
 modes of faith, their languages and their 
 traditions ; and the confused vestiges of 
 this transmigration may still be found. 
 As some remains of Oriental idioms* have 
 been discovered in the dialects of Greece, 
 so we are enabled to perceive, under the 
 varied forms of their mythology, those pri- 
 mitive features which announce its foreign 
 origin. 
 
 In this state of things, when the im- 
 ported ideas can scarcely be distinguished 
 from the local notions, any attempt to trace 
 back this immense mass to a single prin^ 
 ciple would be absurd ; and one might be 
 justly astonished at the boldness with 
 which later generations have followed er- 
 roneous hypotheses through this labyrinth, 
 if the strong inclination of the Greeks 
 towards a spirit of system were not well 
 known, and the obstinacy and bad faith 
 
 * Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript. torn. xxx. 
 
SECT. V.] MYSTERIES. 75 
 
 with which certain learned factions have 
 acted in regard to science itself. 
 
 When the rage for systems had seized 
 upon Greece, and attention was directed 
 towards national antiquities, two parties 
 divided the literature, and possessed in 
 turn the public credulity. The Epicureans 
 professed that they had found, by the help 
 of history, the solution of the theological 
 system. Euhemerus was the chief of this 
 doctrine, which bears his name, and which 
 some have styled the historic system, or 
 system of the apotheosis, because it sup- 
 poses that all the gods have been men 
 deified. On a different side, the Stoics 
 founded the allegorical system, which, by 
 means of abstract ideas, reduced all the 
 Grecian mythology to a tissue of moral 
 allegories and physical phenomena. This 
 physico-mystic system subsequently be- 
 came, in the hands of the new Platonists, 
 an abundant source of singular opinions ; 
 which we have noticed in some passages 
 of this essay. 
 
76 ELEUSINIATST [SECT. V. 
 
 The rapid progress of Epicurism, as 
 M. de St e Croix has well observed*, 
 gave a prompt circulation to the system 
 of Euhemerus. The most judicious writers 
 were not exempt from the general preju- 
 dice. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus adopted, without re- 
 striction, the ideas of the Philosopher of 
 Messene 2 . Cicero himself does not ap- 
 pear unfriendly to them, although he has 
 taken care not to speak in his own name-f-; 
 and the fathers of the church found these 
 opinions so favourable to their designs, that 
 they allowed them to subsist. 
 
 But of all the ancient authorities in fa- 
 vour of this system, the most important 
 seems that of Herodotus ; who tells us, in 
 the first book of his history, that the Per- 
 sians had not erected any statues in ho- 
 nour of their divinities, because they did 
 not believe, like the Greeks, that the gods 
 were bom of men % ; for thus has been gene- 
 
 * Recherches sur les Mysteres, p. 519, 
 f De Nat. Deor. passim. t Clio, cap. 131. 
 
SECT. V.] MYSTERIES. 77 
 
 rally understood the word m$%wr&<pu&fe m We 
 find, however, that Stanley, the learned 
 editor of iEschylus, had already, in the se- 
 venteenth century, seized the true meaning 
 of this compound, which he expresses by 
 " humand forma prceditos*" 
 
 M. Larcher was the first who admitted 
 this conjecture in his translation of Hero- 
 dotus, published at Paris in the year 1802. 
 The celebrated Warburton rejected this 
 interpretation ; and Wesseling has not ven- 
 tured to adopt it in his Latin version of 
 Herodotus. 
 
 To us this appears the only exact in- 
 terpretation ; since, if we translate, " The 
 Persians did not raise statues, for they did 
 not believe that the gods had been born of 
 men v' the sense becomes complicated and 
 obscure ; the two members of the phrase 
 cease to depend one upon the other; and a 
 forced signification is given to the root <pv)j 9 . 
 
 * Stanley, ad iEschyli Pers. 811. 
 
78 ELEUSINIAN [sECT. V. 
 
 which the dictionaries always explain by 
 Qvo-tg, statura, status (BAa<rr?7<r<$, &v%qift$ 
 fatxiug, Suidas.) 
 
 It is manifest, that if Herodotus had 
 wished to express the idea with which his 
 translators have so long supplied him, he 
 would have chosen some other word, one 
 that might have conveyed his meaning in 
 a positive and unequivocal manner. 
 
 If, on the contrary, we translate kviga- 
 koQvyis according to Stanley's explanation, 
 the sense becomes perfectly clear and 
 satisfactory ; and in fact, the same passage 
 of Herodotus informs us, that the Persians 
 adored on the summits of mountains, the 
 sun, the moon, and the elements. Now it 
 is evident, that as they did not attribute 
 the human form to the objects of their 
 adoration, these objects escaped the statu- 
 ary's art; and therefore, that Herodotus 
 only wished to say, that the Persians had 
 not any images of gods, because they 
 worshipped immaterial objects, which their 
 
SECT. V.] MYSTERIES. 79 
 
 imagination did not, as that of the Greeks, 
 embody under the human form. We shall 
 quote, in support of this interpretation, a 
 passage which Cicero supposes uttered by 
 the Epicurean Velleius, and against which 
 his adversary the Stoic does not remon- 
 strate. " Happiness," says he, " cannot 
 exist without virtue, nor virtue without 
 reason, nor reason out of the human form; 
 therefore the gods have a human form*." 
 We know that this idea adopted by the 
 Greeks, w r as common to their poets and 
 their philosophers. A passage from Por- 
 phyry, cited in the preceding section, shews 
 that the Platonists themselves had adopted 
 this principle in their mystic doctrine 3 . 
 
 It consequently appears, that Hero- 
 dotus only intended to place that anthro- 
 pomorphism so characteristic of the Greeks, 
 in opposition with the immateriality of 
 Eastern worship. 
 
 Far then from favouring Euhemeri$?n, 
 
 * De Nat. Deor. 1. i. 83. 
 
80 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. V. 
 
 this passage, properly understood, has no 
 relation to the historic system, designed to 
 undermine all the foundations of the reli- 
 gion of the Greeks, as Cicero himself 
 acknowledges*. Critics of the best judg- 
 ment, Freret, St e Croix, and others, have 
 marked the character and progress of 
 Euhemerism. If we agree to adopt ge- 
 nerally the interpretation proposed by 
 Stanley, and at last followed by Larcher, 
 there will only remain of ancient authori- 
 ties, the known and avowed partisans of 
 the historic system, and the fathers inte- 
 rested in allowing its existence. These 
 alone can be adduced by those who may 
 wish to maintain that apotheosis was the 
 grand secret of the mysteries : and hence- 
 forth, this doctrine will be classed among 
 systems made a posteriori; as being at 
 once too vulgar to require concealment 
 under so many veils, and so destructive of 
 every abstract idea, that it never could 
 
 * De Nat. Deor. 1. i. 42. 
 
SECT. V.] MYSTERIES. 81 
 
 have become the centre of any religious 
 faith. 
 
 It is certain, that the Greeks, in con- 
 founding their religious notions with those 
 transmitted from the East by the Phoeni- 
 cians, and above all by the Egyptians, 
 admitted into the body of their worship 
 some local divinities, and at the same time 
 some of those extraordinary mortals whom 
 they honoured with the title of demi-gods 4 . 
 Herodotus expressly declares, that the 
 greatest number of the gods came from 
 the Egyptian colonies, from Inachus, 
 Cecrops, and Danaus ; but that there were 
 several also which came from the Pelas- 
 gians, and some that the Pelasgians had 
 borrowed from other nations*. 
 
 The class of demi-gods was produced 
 by some national heroes in the number 
 of Pelasgian divinities ; and these, un- 
 doubtedly may be considered as belonging 
 to history. -And under this point of view, 
 
 * Herodot. 1. ii. 50—52. 
 G 
 
82 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. V. 
 
 we are authorised in saying that some of 
 the gods were men deified; but it is con- 
 trary to sound reason, as to all the notions of 
 antiquity, that we should suppose the Deas 
 optimus maximns, the Dii majorum gentium, 
 to have ever been in the class of deified 
 mortals. To seek in historical explanation 
 a clue which may lead through the maze 
 of the religious opinions of the ancients, 
 we have already pronounced an absurd 
 undertaking; for by saying that these 
 Grecian divinities, formed on the model of 
 Oriental gods, might represent personages 
 who had once existed either in the East or 
 in Egypt, we merely elude the question, 
 but do not solve it: besides, in attributing 
 such an origin to polytheism, we should 
 acknowledge ourselves wholly ignorant of 
 the elements which compose it. 
 
 The polytheism of the Greeks having 
 been formed by degrees, was of course the 
 most flexible and least determinate of all 
 the religious systems, and accordingly pre- 
 
SECT. V.] MYSTERIES. 83 
 
 sents many contradictory circumstances. 
 We strive in vain to reconcile the popular 
 traditions with those of the poets. The 
 inhabitants of Arcadia or of Crete, may 
 have boasted in turn that their respective 
 countries had given birth to Jupiter; yet 
 none of them could possibly prove that 
 Jupiter had been a person deified*. We 
 may account for a still greater increase of 
 the confusion by considering, that the 
 traditions concerning the gods of the an- 
 cients, being blended with the grossest 
 anthropomorphism, combined but badly in 
 the imagination of the people with the 
 supreme power attributed to them ; and 
 if, in their highest acceptation, the gods 
 of polytheism were actually regarded as 
 intermediate powers, the vulgar must ne- 
 cessarily have confounded them with those 
 personages, famous and little known, re- 
 corded in the annals of all nations. 
 
 Homer, to whom we must always recur 
 
 * De Nat. Deor. 1. Hi. cap. 21. 
 G 2 
 
84 ELEUSINIAN f SECT. V, 
 
 when Grecian antiquities are the subject ; 
 he, their very source, principium et fom, 
 offers no indication of the doctrine of 
 apotheosis. His gods are in their nature 
 totally different from his heroes : although 
 wearing the human form, they belong to 
 an order of things infinitely more exalted : 
 their power is unbounded 5 . In the father 
 of gods and of men, causing the universe 
 to tremble at one movement of his brow, 
 who could seriously recognise an obscure 
 king of Crete, whose tomb was visible in 
 that island 6 ? Who could, thus intention- 
 ally transform this immense and magic 
 world into a miserable genealogy of a few 
 unknown princes and fabulous heroes? 
 
 These considerations, with the researches 
 already made, will perhaps be sufficient to 
 prove, that the historic system is not an- 
 terior to Euhemerus 7 ; that it is abolutely 
 contrary to the nature of things; and 
 therefore that this doctrine has not been, 
 at any period, the secret of the Eleusinian 
 
SECT. V.] MYSTERIES. 85 
 
 mysteries. We may even add, that if, 
 against historical evidence and all pro- 
 babilities, we were able to prove that the 
 doctrine of the apotheosis had been taught 
 to the epopts of Eleusis ; yet it might on 
 good grounds be affirmed, that such doc- 
 trine was erroneous, and inculcated per- 
 haps, in the hope of concealing from their 
 knowledge, by this very revelation, the 
 true secret of the mysteries. 
 
86 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. VI. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 There yet remains for us to illustrate 
 one critical point in the picture of the 
 mysteries ; and perhaps we are enabled, by 
 a continued study of this branch of anti- 
 quities, to offer on the subject some new 
 results of observation which may prove 
 serviceable in more extensive researches. 
 
 We have already mentioned, that the 
 mysteries of Bacchus, most interesting to 
 develope, bear a character altogether dif- 
 ferent from that of the Eleusinian*. This 
 opposition strikes us at once; and what 
 conformity could in fact subsist between 
 the savage licentiousness of the Bacchic 
 
 * Sect. i. p. 6. 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 87 
 
 worship, and the severe character and the 
 high destination of the worship of Ceres ? 
 
 Yet, after a serious examination, we 
 find that this opposition consists rather in 
 the exterior than in the spirit of the two 
 worships ; nay, it entirely disappears when 
 we raise ourselves to the parent idea, the 
 true type of the two institutions. If we 
 do not obstinately persuade ourselves that 
 Ceres and Bacchus were historical per- 
 sonages, if we consider them as originally 
 two symbols of some power of the uni- 
 verse, we behold them so identified, that 
 no other difference exists but in the ex- 
 terior form ; that is, in the part depending 
 wholly on men, on local circumstances, 
 and the political destinies of nations. 
 
 * The worship of Ceres and the worship 
 of Bacchus must belong to one principle 
 alone ; and this principle is found in the 
 active force of nature, viewed in the im- 
 mense variety of its functions and its at- 
 tributes. v 
 
88 ELEUSINIAN [sECT.VI. 
 
 But the myth or story of Bacchus has 
 been, as all mythographers allow, the most 
 fruitful source of uncertainties, contradic- 
 tions, and obscurities. In this state of 
 things, the most incontestable point is that 
 of his origin. Herodotus formally assures 
 us that Bacchus came from Egypt, and 
 that he was the same as Osiris*. The 
 learned Freret has well observed, that in 
 passing from Egypt into Greece, Bacchus 
 lost the greater part of his importance^. 
 In Egypt Osiris was the Demiurgic power 
 of the universe : when Melampus had 
 given him the Greek name of Dionysus%, 
 and had carried him into Greece much 
 about the same time that the vine was 
 introduced there, the employment of the 
 new god was limited to the superintendence 
 of the vineyard. This circumstance tends 
 to prove the important truth, that we must 
 
 * Lib. ii. cap. 47, 48. 
 
 f Mem. de P Acad, des Inscript. torn, xxiii. p. 258, 
 
 X Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 47. 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 89 
 
 not seek to establish evident relations 
 between the different symbols of poly- 
 theism; they vary, and are divided in 
 proportion as they develope themselves, 
 whilst the more nearly we ascend towards 
 their origin, the more the masses become 
 grand and imposing. 
 
 We have before remarked, that no- 
 thing is more confused than the myths of 
 Bacchus. It is however allowed, that 
 three Bacchuses may be distinguished as 
 different among themselves; and who, in 
 our opinion, are nothing more than three 
 successive representations of the same idea, 
 that is, of Osiris. 
 
 The ancient and modern mythogra- 
 phers, are all at variance respecting even 
 the classification of their three Bacchuses. 
 
 The most ancient poets indicate no 
 more than one; later writers have divided 
 between three Bacchuses, the different 
 actions which by the ancient poets were 
 confusedly heaped on the same head. 
 
90 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. VI. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus acknowledges three ; but 
 he places in this number the Indian 
 Bacchus, very unjustly denominated 
 Bacchus ; and he omits the mystical 
 Iacchus*. Finally, Nonnus of Panopolis, 
 who had particularly and profoundly 
 studied the myths of Bacchus, recognises 
 three without the Indian 1 . An examina- 
 tion of all these varieties would divert us 
 too far from the present subject ; and we 
 may perhaps hereafter devote a separate 
 essay to the myths of Bacchus. Mean- 
 while we shall notice what concerns the 
 three Bacchuses, according to the classifi- 
 cation which may be made of them, from 
 the result of all the opinions and various 
 doctrines on the subject. 
 
 The first Bacchus is Zagreus, whom 
 Jupiter, when transformed into a dragon, 
 had by Proserpine. This is proved by the 
 scholiast of Pindarf, and the author of 
 
 * Lib. iii. cap. 41. 
 
 t Isthm. viii. 3. ed. Heynii, torn. ii. p. 847. 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 91 
 
 the great Etymologicon (in the word 
 Zagreus). Arrian describes Iacchus as the 
 son of Jupiter and Proserpine*; but he 
 evidently confounds him with Zagreus, 
 This first copy of Osiris approaches most 
 nearly to the original. The forms of the 
 myth still exhibit an Egyptian stiffness. 
 Torn by the Titans, Bacchus Zagreus per- 
 fectly corresponds to Osiris killed by 
 Typhon; but the traditions respecting 
 Zagreus are very obscure, and the confu- 
 sion extreme. He presided at the Diony- 
 siacs or mysteries of Bacchus, and even 
 appeared in the Sabasian festivals -f. This 
 employ the more particularly suited him 
 as being the most ancient and oriental of 
 the three Bacchuses. 
 
 The second Bacchus is well known as 
 the son of Jupiter and Semele : he is also 
 entitled the Theban, and the Conqueror. 
 Of this Bacchus, the forms are more hel- 
 
 * De Exped. Alex. 1. ii. cap. 16. 
 f Clem, Alexandr. Protrept. p. 24. 
 
92 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. VI. 
 
 lenised ; he completes, for the Greeks, the 
 representation of the primitive idea ; but 
 has no other relation with the preceding 
 than as his successor in the mythological 
 cycle. Nor had the second Bacchus any 
 direct relation with Ceres, which shows 
 that the union of the mysteries did not 
 take place until a late period 2 . 
 
 Finally, the third Bacchus is the 
 Iacchus of Eleusis; who seems to have 
 been imagined only that he might con- 
 secrate, in some degree, the alliance be- 
 tween the secret worship of Bacchus and 
 that of Ceres, - towards which all the mys- 
 teries tended. Iacchus is the symbol of 
 this association: his only destination having 
 been already fulfilled by his birth, the 
 myth has remained imperfect ; it is the 
 most vague of all. Nonnus represents 
 him as son of the second Bacchus by the 
 nymph Aura. Others describe him as the 
 son of Jupiter by Ceres or by Proserpine, 
 which confirms our hypothesis, but gives 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 93 
 
 occasion, in another point of view, to 
 confound him with Bacchus Zagreus. 
 He is the Iacchus who appeared on the 
 sixth day of the mysteries at Eleusis, he 
 is the Aiowtrog liri rZ fjuoctrrZ of Suidas (in 
 
 From all these premises we infer, that 
 the mysteries of Bacchus have been at an 
 unknown epoch united to the mysteries of 
 Ceres. And this hypothesis appears to us 
 well founded, as far as we can flatter 
 ourselves with the hopes of approaching 
 truth by a path absolutely conjectural. 
 
 Let us first consider how the young 
 Iacchus is employed in the Eleusinian 
 mysteries. " On the sixth day/' says St e 
 Croix, " the young Iacchus was carried in 
 ceremony from the Ceramicus to Eleusis: it 
 appears," adds he, "from the hymn which, 
 according to Aristophanes, was sung by 
 the initiated, that they invited Iacchus in 
 their songs, to join in their dances, and to 
 serve as interpreter between them and 
 
94 ELEUSINIAN [sect. VI. 
 
 Ceres*." The statue of the god was 
 afterwards carried back to Athens 3 . 
 
 This sixth day, consecrated to Iacchus 
 was the most celebrated of all. But it 
 requires very little reflection to perceive, 
 that this procession, subsequently so 
 famous, was at first only an addition, 
 foreign to the mysteries of Eleusis ; it had 
 not in fact any relation with the basis of 
 the mysteries, as may easily be ascertained: 
 but this procession reveals incontestably, 
 the association of the secret worship of 
 Bacchus to the mysteries of Ceres. 
 
 The writers who have hitherto dis- 
 cussed this subject have not considered 
 it in this point of view, solely because 
 they had not classed the three Bacchuses, 
 and obstinately refused to acknowledge 
 the three as so many copies of one and 
 the same type. Several mythographers 
 have endeavoured to distinguish between 
 Bacchus and Iacchus ; but this attempt 
 
 * Recherches sur les Mysteres, p. 200. 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 95 
 
 has been useless. It is manifest, that the 
 three Bacchuses are successive imitations 
 of the same model, imitations adapted to 
 the spirit of the times, and to the local 
 situation of Greece. 
 
 The identity of Bacchus and Iacchus 
 being once proved, a considerable light 
 diffuses itself over all the relations of the 
 ancient mystagogy. The mysteries i of 
 Greece, should, without doubt, all tend 
 towards Eleusis, considered as the true 
 depository and centre of all the polytheis- 
 tical mysticism : it is therefore clear that 
 intimate relations must subsist between 
 the secret modes of worship of the prin- 
 cipal divinities ; as that of Bacchus pro- 
 ceeded from the same origin, and ap- 
 parently from the same type, as that of 
 Eleusis, the Dionysian must have easily 
 connected themselves with the mysteries 
 of Ceres. There is in the employment of 
 Iacchus, so distinct from the basis of the 
 Eleusinian mysteries, something which 
 
.96 ELEUSINIAN [sEOT. Vi, 
 
 rather bespeaks a later association than a 
 perfect identity. 
 
 The idea of a mediator in Iacchus*, 
 bears every character of novelty ; the 
 ceremonies performed in honour of him, 
 seem merely an extension of the worship 
 of Ceres. Iacchus did not inhabit Eleusis, 
 which may indicate that he did not essen- 
 tially participate in the Eleusinian rites. 
 All these circumstances combined, prove 
 an union of the two worships at a given 
 time, an union in some degree symbolised 
 by the admission of Iacchus to the cere- 
 monies of Eleusis. 
 
 We have already shown, that of the 
 three Bacchuses, he alone who could have 
 been attached to Ceres without derogating 
 from his functions and physiognomy, was 
 Iacchus. So this union being once ef- 
 fected, Iacchus becomes useless in the 
 succession of the myths of Bacchus, and 
 altogether lost in the worship of Ceres. It 
 
 * Aristoph. Ran. v. 40. et seq. 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 97 
 
 is even probable, that this third Bacchus 
 was only imagined, because the two 
 former presented forms too determined to 
 allow their identification with the character 
 of another Divinity. The first, as we 
 have observed, was too Oriental or Egyp- 
 tian, the second too hellenised, to pass be- 
 yond the limits of their respective attri- 
 butes. 
 
 A great portion of ancient mythology 
 rests on a part of history unknown. Po- 
 lytheism, like the Corinthian metal, was 
 composed of various elements ; and among 
 these were historical traditions: it is evi- 
 dent that many theogonical combinations 
 represent nothing more than detached 
 facts, lost in the night of time. This 
 manner of symbolising memorable events, 
 is particularly applied to all that concerns 
 the secret worships of the different Divi- 
 nities. Most of the ceremonies in use, 
 had thus some reference either to histori- 
 cal epochs or certain symbols, or finally 
 
 H 
 
98 ELEUSINIAN [sECT. VI. 
 
 to events of which history has not pre- 
 served any memorial. 
 
 Polytheism being divided into two 
 great parts, the esoterick worship presented 
 a multiplicity of ramifications altogether 
 unknown to us : with the secret history of 
 polytheism we are only acquainted by 
 conjecture; and the religious annals of 
 the ancient world are covered, for the 
 greater part, with an impenetrable veil 4 . 
 Let us be satisfied if we can catch a 
 glimpse occasionally of some luminous 
 points, less fit, indeed, to assist us in our 
 researches, than to show the magnitude 
 and importance of those objects decidedly 
 inaccessible and beyond our reach. We 
 may even be assured, that the ancients 
 themselves were without information on 
 several matters relating to the different 
 characters of polytheism. 
 
 At the epoch from which history be- 
 gins, the various gradations of mystagogy 
 are so many indistinct shadows, only dis- 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 99 
 
 cernible under symbols, of which the vulgar 
 did not comprehend the meaning. It is 
 therefore very probable that, on this sub- 
 ject, such an association as we have esta- 
 blished between Ceres and Bacchus, may 
 hold the place of an historical demonstra- 
 tion. 
 
 Let us add to these inferences a strong 
 probability that from the beginning of the 
 Dionysiacks, the functions of the Hiero- 
 ceryx, were fulfilled by the pontiff of 
 Eleusis. It appears also that the Dadu- 
 chus, who assisted at the ceremonies of the 
 worship of Ceres, attended equally at the 
 Dionysiacks*: in their opinions respecting 
 this circumstance most of the learned 
 agree. And the proof of this fact is highly 
 important, since it marks a singular com- 
 munity between the worship of Ceres and 
 of Bacchus, from the origin of both. 
 
 "VVe shall close our researches on this 
 subject, and the present work, by quoting 
 
 * Recherches sur les Mysteres, § vii. art. 3, p. 430. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 ELEUSINIAN [SECT. VI. 
 
 a passage from Nonnus, which fully de- 
 monstrates the union of the Bacchic wor- 
 ship with that of Ceres. 
 
 Kal tuv 'EAgycrm'rcn SeoL ira^aycdr^sro BcHk^ocis. 
 'Aa<£; $z xovgov 'la.yt%ov sKvn\x<TCLvro X ^ 5 '^ 
 Ny/x<pa< x.ur<ro$6gQi Mafa9am£e£* dgTiroycty Ss 
 Aoiiuovi vvv.TiyJ^Evrov £xo6<pi<ra.v 'Arfi/Ja irsv/Lr/V. 
 Ka» Ssov l\cL<rxovTO ps¥ visa. Usgo-Ecpovslysy 
 Ka) SsaeAij^ para. ifalSar SvrfloKia.g 8s Avcclcv 
 'O'J/iyovuj CTr^avro yea) dgxsyovcy Alo>v(tcv } 
 Ka» TgiTctruj veov vpvov hitscr^a^dy^o-av 'Ia^cu 1 
 Kai rsXsralg Tficr<rf,<rfi/ Iba^syS^crav 'ASrjvai, 
 Ka< %0f ov o$>iT£\E<rrov dveytgovo-avro rfo\~Tai, 
 Zay^Ea yivSatvovTES dpa, B^CryJw, yta) Ia^a, *. 
 
 " i\nd the goddess (Pallas) consigned 
 the infant (the third Bacchus) to the 
 priestesses of Eleusis. The nymphs of 
 Marathon crowned with ivy danced around 
 the young Iacchus, — to celebrate his birth 
 they waved the Attick torch by night, and 
 propitiated the god, after the son of Proser- 
 pine (Zagreus), and after the son of Semele 
 (Bacchus, the Theban). Thej' instituted 
 
 * Dionys. 1. xlviii. v. 958. 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 101 
 
 sacrifices in honour of the old and of the 
 new Bacchus, and they addressed a new 
 hymn to the third Iacchus : Athens cele- 
 brated triple mysteries, and its citizens 
 formed a chorus in honour of Zagreus, of 
 Bromius, and of Iacchus/' 
 
 This passage combines all the charac- 
 teristics of authenticity, and alone suffices 
 to give a solid basis to our conjectures. 
 Those who have studied these subjects know 
 that Nonnus, besides his poetical talents, 
 possessed a vast fund of mythographical 
 erudition, which he chiefly employed on 
 the various shades of the myth of Bac- 
 chus. In removing from this picture the 
 colours laid on by imagination, we shall 
 recognise the historical fact, and local tra- 
 dition that served for its canvas. 
 
 We may here, also observe, that Mi- 
 nerva, who delivers Iacchus to the priest- 
 esses of Eleusis, would seem, according to 
 the poet's thought, a symbol of the city of 
 Athens, of which she was the tutelar Di- 
 
102! ELEUSINIAN [SECT. VI. 
 
 vinity. We have seen, in fact, that lac- 
 chus resided at Athens, and was thence 
 carried in ceremonious pomp to Eleusis, 
 on the sixth day of the initiations. No 
 hint, however slight, should be omitted, 
 when the subject of discussion is so subtile 
 and symbolical as the mystagogy of the 
 ancients. Monsieur de Villoison has made 
 use of the passage above quoted from the 
 Dionysiacks of Nonnus*; but that learned 
 Hellenist contented himself with explain- 
 ing it as bearing reference to the three 
 
 * The opinion of Monsieur de Villoison on this subject, 
 is expressed in one of the notes which he added to the 
 " Recherches sur les Mysteres du Paganisme " of M. de 
 St e Croix, and which he published under the name, but 
 without the knowledge, of that learned antiquary. It ap- 
 pears that, in this note, M. de Villoison adopted the re- 
 flections of another scholar, who had written, in the mar- 
 gin of a copy of the Dionysiacks, a commentary on the 
 passage of Nonnus above cited, in which he thus remarks: 
 " Nonnus certe accurate tres Bacchos distinguit ; Proser- 
 pina^ Semeles, et Aurae nlium. Alii Iacchum cum Semeles 
 filio confundunt. Optime Nonnus, qui tres Bacchos tribus 
 Atheniensium Dionysiacis applicuit, quot fuisse auctores 
 passim testantur, &c." (Recherches sur les Mysteres, § iii. 
 art. 5. p. 120. 
 
SECT. VI.] MYSTERIES. 103 
 
 Bacchuses. Neither has he, nor M. de 
 St e Croix, attended to that alliance between 
 the secret worship of Ceres and that of 
 Bacchus ; an alliance which diffuses new 
 light over all the history of the ancient 
 mystagogy. 
 

 NOTES. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 (1.) On the mysteries of Samothrace, it is necessary 
 to consult the ingenious dissertation of Doctor Mun- 
 ter, bishop of Seeland, published under the following 
 title, " Erklarung einer griechischen Inschrift, welche auf 
 die Samolhracischen Mysterien Beziehung hat," (Kopen- 
 hagen, 1 810.) We therein find that the learned Zoega, 
 in studying ancient monuments, began to direct all 
 his attention towards the mysteries. If death had 
 not interrupted his labours, the monuments relating 
 to Eleusinian antiquities would, undoubtedly, have 
 furnished him with an ample harvest of observations. 
 Zoega claims particular praise for having combined 
 all known opinions respecting the alphabetical writing 
 of the Egyptians. The dissertations of M. Silvestre 
 de Sacy and of M. Akerblad on the Rosetta Inscription, 
 induced us to expect that this important subject would 
 
106 NOTES TO SECTION I. 
 
 soon be completely illustrated. The new researches 
 of M. Etienne Quatremere seem to confirm this hope. 
 The application of the Coptick language to Egyptian 
 monuments is probably the process by means of 
 which we may finally discover the ancient alphabet 
 of Egypt. 
 
 (2.) If we analyse the character of the mystical 
 ideas which the ancients attached to Bacchus, and 
 the character of the worship of Ceres, we shall be- 
 hold, on one part, a state of rudeness and wild licen- 
 tiousness, and on the other, the elements of society 
 combining themselves with the principles of laws and 
 of order. I have endeavoured to show, however, in 
 the Sixth Section, that the secret worship of Bacchus 
 agrees in more than one respect with the mysteries of 
 Ceres. 
 
 (3.) This veneration for Ceres appears in the Thes- 
 mophorian rites, which were celebrated by the Athenian 
 women in the temple of Ceres — Thesmophora (or law- 
 giver). It seems that they were called Thesmophoria, 
 because, on the last day of this festival, the women 
 carried on their heads, in full ceremony, the books of 
 the laws. On this subject may be consulted a learned 
 memoir by M. du Theil (Mem. de VAcad. des Inscript. 
 torn, xxxix. p. 203). See also M. Clavier's " Histoire 
 des premiers Temps de la Grece," 1809, torn. i. p. 
 31, &c. 
 
 (4.) Ego quidem nunquam tantum mihi sumam, ut, 
 
NOTES TO SECTION I. 10? 
 
 non dico annum, sed saeculum quo res Graecorum an- 
 tiquissimse acciderunt, definire ausim. (Meiners, Com- 
 ment. Societ. reg. Scient. Gotting. vol. xvi. p. 217.) 
 "Je dirai seulement que Porigine des mysteres re- 
 monte aux temps les plus recules de la Grece, et se 
 confond avec celle de sa civilisation, et personne ne 
 doit etre assez hardi pour en fixer l'epoque. La 
 langue d'Homere n'est pas celle d'un peuple qui est 
 sorti recemment de la barbaric Defions nous des 
 gens qui savent tout, et qui fixent des epoques dans 
 les immenses deserts qui precede le cercle etroit des 
 temps bien connus : a l'ignorance seule appartient 
 une telle hardiesse." (Origine de tons les Cultes, torn. ii. 
 part ii. p. 280.) Dupuis, without doubt, has strangely- 
 abused his erudition ; but his opinion is, nevertheless, 
 of considerable weight, when the date of an historical 
 event is in question. 
 
 (5.) One of the Oxford marbles (Marmor. Oxon. 
 ed. Chandler, tom.ii. p. 21) places the foundation of 
 the mysteries under the reign of Erectheus. Lami, in 
 his notes on the first chapter of Meursius's Eleusin. 
 (Op. Meursii, torn. ii. p. 547) conjectures, that the 
 year, half effaced on the marble, may be about 1399 
 before Christ. Homer is supposed to have lived 990 
 or 1000 years before Christ. 
 
 (6.) In speaking here of Homer's writings, we do 
 not comprehend the hymns generally regarded as 
 falsely ascribed to him, and which are less the original 
 
108 NOTES TO SECTION I. 
 
 productions of the age of Homer than the tardy fruits 
 of his school. 
 
 (7.) This discussion, which has much engaged the 
 critics, is not yet, perhaps, terminated. In 1777, M. 
 Schneider, then young, attacked the authenticity of 
 the Orphick poetry with so much vigour, that the 
 celebrated Ruhnkenius thought himself obliged to 
 enter the lists. It appears, however, that he became 
 a champion less from conviction than from an appre- 
 hension of seeing shaken the authority of a philo- 
 logical system long since established. Hermann, in 
 an ingenious dissertation annexed to his edition of 
 the Orphick Poems (Orphica, Lipsiae, 1805, in 8vo« 
 p. 676), says, " Igitur neminem hac estate tarn in anti- 
 quis litteris rudem inveniri arbitror, qui cum Gesnero 
 hac scripta qua Orphei nomen pr& se ferunt, vel unius 
 omnia scriptoris esse, vel dictionem habere Homericam, 
 sibi persuadeat, Hymni quidem quin et Argonauticis et 
 Lithicis antiquiores sint, dubitari non potest ; quanquam 
 etiam et in hymnis sunt qui recentioris cetatis non dubia 
 contineant indicia." 
 
 The opinion of Hermann in this case is by so much 
 the more decisive, as he has particularly employed 
 himself on the Orphick fragments. Honour to the 
 country which still possesses Heyne*, Wolf, Hermann, 
 and Schneider ! 
 
 * This illustrious scholar died at Gottingen on the 11th of July, 
 1812. A few days before his death he wrote me a last letter, in 
 

 NOTES TO SECTION I. 109 
 
 It will excite a smile to consult, respecting Orpheus, 
 a work printed at Paris in 1808, and entitled " Histoire 
 d' Homer e et d'Orphed," by M. Delille de Sales. This 
 author, desirous of " instructing youth how to cultivate 
 the arid fields of antiquity " but who has not " divorced 
 himself from his heart" speaks of the " affability and 
 the graces of Orpheus which enchanted the Egyptian 
 priests." He conjectures that this hero of conjugal 
 love saved Eurydice from a disease pronounced mor- 
 tal by the empiricks of that time, and that he only 
 lost her " pour avoir voulu se montrer epoux, avant 
 d'avoir affermi sa convalescence." He also assures us 
 that Orpheus was the son of a king, " because he says 
 so himself in his Argonauticks :" and that he was the 
 father of Musaeus, "so well known on account of his fine 
 poem of Hero and Leander." Against the exactness 
 of this marvellous calculation, it can be proved that 
 the poem of Musaeus is not older, at most, than the 
 fourth century of the Christian era. If this manner 
 of studying the ancients should be imitated, we might 
 fear that, under a new form, would revive that spirit 
 which reigned in literature at the time when disputes 
 were agitated concerning the ancients and moderns ; 
 deplorable and ridiculous discussions, which Fonte- 
 nelle wished to terminate by a decision well worthy 
 
 which he acknowledged the receipt of this work in the most flattering 
 terms. Of the esteem of such a man as Heyne it is allowable to 
 be vain. 
 
110 NOTES TO SECTION I. 
 
 of the cause ; saying, that the whole question might 
 be reduced to an inquiry whether the trees which 
 grew formerly in our grounds were larger than those 
 of the present time. 
 
 (8.) The scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius (Argon, i. 
 917) relates, that Agamemnon, uneasy at the insub- 
 ordination of the Greeks before Troy, caused himself 
 to be initiated ; and that Ulysses had also been initiated 
 at Samothrace : but this evidence is of no weight, 
 and cannot counterpoise the silence of Homer. The 
 total absence of mystick ideas in Homer, appears to 
 me, besides, an additional proof of the scrupulous 
 fidelity with which the Rhapsodists and Diascevasts 
 (the compilers) have treated, in a historical point of 
 view, the primitive tradition. The imitators of Ho- 
 mer, as we see in the instance of Quintus Smyrnseus, 
 have taken the utmost pains to preserve the Homerick 
 colouring. 
 
NOTES TO SECTION II. Ill 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 (1.) On this subject see the five memoirs of Abbe 
 Mignot (Mem. de VAcad. des Inscript. torn, xxxi.), 
 wherein that learned academician combats with singu- 
 lar force the hypothesis, which makes Egypt the centre 
 of civilisation. He proves, that the Indians never 
 went to seek instruction or information in Egypt. 
 We cannot too much admire the sagacity with which 
 this author has divined, as it may be said, the new 
 discoveries : if he had understood the Sanscrit, and 
 possessed the materials of which we can now avail 
 ourselves, he would have completed his work by de- 
 monstrating, that the Egyptians have borrowed all 
 from Asia. Some trifling differences in religious wor- 
 ship or civil policy need not detain us : it is clear 
 that in every country local notions and customs be- 
 come blended with foreign ideas, and often pervert 
 or misrepresent them. 
 
 (2.) It is very remarkable, that the priest of Sai's, 
 who is introduced as a speaker in Plato's dialogue 
 entitled Timaus, begins the history of his country by 
 
112 NOTES TO SECTION II. 
 
 that of the Atlantis. Bailly had already made this 
 observation. This is a formal proof that the Egyptians 
 knew themselves to be not Autochthones : which, how- 
 ever, does not demonstrate that they were acquainted 
 with their true origin. The Egyptian priests were con- 
 sidered as an Asiatick colony even among the ancients. 
 Zonaras says, speaking of the science of the Egyptians, 
 'Ex, XaX#a*W ydg Xsysrou <poirr]<rou 'focuta, nt^og Alywirroy, 
 ytaksBrsv itfos "EXXYjvas — " It is said that these things 
 came from Chaldea into Egypt, and thence into 
 Greece." (Ed. du Cange, Venet. 1729, torn. i. p. 14.) 
 
 (3.) Eusebius preserves a fact which has not hitherto 
 been adduced, and which proves the ancient relations 
 between India and Egypt. (Praep. Evang. l.iii. p. 1 15.) 
 Toy AYffuovgyov, ov Kvxcp ol Alyvittioi rfgo<ra.yo§evou<riv, — rr]v 
 — p/fO<ay sx, xvocvov [xsXavo$ syoyrct, x^octovvta, £cuv>jv xou 
 cxyjirrgov (Xsyova-iv). That is, "The Egyptians repre- 
 sented the Demiourgos Kneph of a blue colour, in- 
 clining to black, with a girdle and a sceptre." It is 
 impossible not to recognise in this image the Indian 
 Vishnil. In the mythology of the Hindus, says Wil- 
 ford (Asiatick Researches, vol. hi. p. 571), Brahma's 
 complexion is red, Vishnu's dark blue, and Hara's 
 white. We know, besides, from the Pur anas, that 
 Egypt was under the special protection of Vishnu. 
 Wilford adds, " Osiris of a black complexion is Vish- 
 nu." (As. Res. vol. xi. p. 94.) It must be observed, 
 that the title of Kneph has been often confounded 
 
NOTES TO SECTION II. 113 
 
 with the name of Osiris ; that the title of Iswara has 
 heen confounded with the name of Brahma, Vishnu, 
 and Siva, as we shall see hereafter. Without attach- 
 ing much importance to etymological deductions, 
 may not some analogy be discovered between the 
 Greek word xvstpas, which signifies obscurity (whence 
 is derived the verb xvs<pd&, I make dark), and the 
 Egyptian name of Kneph, the dark or black god? 
 It is affirmed that Kneph signified in Egyptian the 
 good genius, the a,ya^o^ccl[j,ujv of the Greeks and Phoeni- 
 cians. See Gale, in Jamblich. p. 301. 
 
 (4.) " If we consider the Egyptian Osiris not as a 
 name but as a title of supremacy, which each sect, as 
 their doctrines became in turn the established religion 
 of the country, applied exclusively to the object of 
 their worship ; and if we consider it as the same with 
 the Sanscrit Iswara (the Supreme Lord), it will greatly 
 illustrate the identity of the religions of Egypt and 
 Hindustan, by a close coincidence of historical fact. 
 The three great attributes of the Deity had, in course 
 of time, been erected into distinct Deities, and man- 
 kind had divided into sects; some attaching them- 
 selves to Brahma, some to Vishnu, and others to Siva, 
 The contention of schismaticks from the same stock 
 is always more inveterate than where the difference 
 is total : the sect of Brahma claimed exclusive pre- 
 eminence for the object of their choice, as being the 
 creative power, the Iswara, or ( Supreme Lord.' The 
 
114 NOTES TO SECTION II. 
 
 two other sects joined against the followers of Brahma , 
 and obtained so complete a victory, as to abolish 
 totally that worship : the sect of Siva being the most 
 powerful, rendered theirs the established religion, and 
 claimed for Siva in his turn the exclusive title of 
 Isimra. The sect of Vishnu, or Heri, at length emerged 
 from its obscurity ; and, in concert with the followers 
 of the Sacti, or female power, destroyed and abolished 
 the sect and worship of Siva : thus Vishnu, or Heri, 
 became the Iszvara, and his worship the established 
 religion. This seems to have been the case in Egypt: 
 for, if ws substitute the name of Osiris for Brahma, 
 Horus for Vishnit, or Heri, Typhon for Siva, and Isis 
 for the female principle, the history agrees in all its 
 parts." (Paterson on the Origin of the Hindu Re- 
 ligion, As. Res. vol. viii. p. 44.) The ascertaining of 
 this affinity is by so much the more important, as it 
 accounts for all the variations discovered both in the 
 Indian and Egyptian myths. 
 
 (5.) The learned Le Clerc (Bibl. Univ. torn. vi. p. 87) 
 believed these words to be Phoenician, and explained 
 them as signifying " to watch and abstain from evil" 
 Court de Gebelin {Monde Prim. torn. iv. p. 323) inter- 
 prets them thus, " Assembled people, lend your ears, or 
 listen" — he derived them from the Hebrew. The 
 celebrated Barthelemy, when consulted by Larcher, 
 the translator of Herodotus, replied (in 1766), that 
 these words, foreign to the Greek language, appeared 
 
NOTES TO SECTION II. 115 
 
 to him Egyptian, because the mysteries of Eleusis 
 must have come from Egypt; and that, respecting 
 their signification, he was obliged to acknowledge his 
 ignorance. {Voyage d'Anacharsis, torn. v. notes, p. 538.) 
 (6.) The original passage of Hesychius, in the word 
 Ko'y£ ofwraf, is as follows : 'EitHpuvypa fereXeerpeyois* *a* 
 t'tjs Sixoto-'fixyjs tyy)<pov ^%0£, w$ 6 tv}$ kXs^/v3§oc$. Hafd $e 
 'ArnxSif, (3x6^. (Ed. Alberti, vol. ii. p. 290.) Under 
 the word ITdJ, Hesychius explains tfdg by ?s\o$ %x m > 
 where Tollius would read Xsysw. Funger, one of the 
 annotators, says, " Vox Ttag, quatenus silentium signi- 
 ficat, plane est Graeca (?) non Romana. Cum enim 
 silentium imponebant, aut quse dicta erant, indicta 
 vellent, tunc #d£ dicebant. Extant sane hsec Diphili : 
 (Athen. Deipnos. Ep. l.ii. c.26:) 
 
 "0%ov; §8 KorvKfjV. TLd%. Tlird^; 
 
 Falluntur qui admirationem eo signijicari volunt. Ac- 
 cording to Scaliger, this word was used to impose 
 silence, the finger being placed on the mouth ; and a 
 conversation was terminated by 7rd£. Cum ex sermone 
 prasentes dimitterent, turn itot% dicebant. (Auson. Tollii, 
 p. 499-) Many passages from the comick Latin writers 
 attest the sense of this exclamation, and the manner 
 of employing it. Thus a verse of Terence (Heauton. 
 Act. IV. Sc. in. v.39): 
 
 Unus est dies, dum argentum eripio : pax ! nihil amplius, 
 
 IS 
 
 i 
 
116 NOTES TO SECTION II. 
 
 See also verse 50 of the same play : and in Plautus, 
 Mil. Glor. Act. III. Sc.i.v. 213. Pseud. Act.V. Sc.i. 
 v. 33. Stick. Act. V. Sc. vn. in fin. Tritium. Act. IV. 
 Sc. n. v.94 ; where Saumaise very unnecessarily would 
 read tax, making, by a false analogy, pax proceed 
 from pago, and tax from tago. The word pax was pre- 
 served till the time of Ausonius. See the work en- 
 titled Grammaticamastix , at. the end (ed.Tollii, p. 495). 
 The Greek derivatives of this word are, 1°. I7u7ra£, 
 equivalent to the Latin papa;, expressing astonishment 
 or admiration, whence is formed the verb itvmtd^siv, 
 employed by Aristophanes (Equit. 677). — 2°. 'Eir'nta^, 
 or £Tfird%, which, according to some commentators, 
 signified successively, or in order, or, as Hesychius ex- 
 plains it, "on the left." — 3°. ' Kn?oTta% t which is rendered 
 by ^v^TtcLv and irccvfsXoo;. 
 
 Professor Morgenstern of Dorpat has quoted, in 
 the Journal which he publishes (Dorpatische Beytrage, 
 1814, p. 462), a passage of Cicero (Somn. Scip. c. 2), 
 thus expressed, according to the text of Ernesti : 
 " Hie cum exclamasset Lalius, ingemuissentque cceteri 
 vehement ius, leniter arridens Scipio, Qm&so, inquit, ne 
 me e somno excitetis et parum rebus: audite catera? 
 In this passage, which had escaped my notice when 
 I published the first two editions of this Essay, the 
 words parum rebus are evidently corrupted. Aldus 
 relates, that in two manuscripts they were replaced 
 by pax sit rebus, which words have been adopted in 
 
NOTES TO SECTION II. 117 
 
 some editions. Graevius proposed to read, " Queeso, 
 inquit, ne me e somno excitetis. Pax ! verum audite 
 cater a." Bouhier prefers parumper to verum. M. 
 Morgenstern conjectures, with much appearance of 
 truth, that the word pax, which the copyists believed 
 to be a corrupted reading, has been blended with the 
 first syllable of parumper ; and that the last, by a false 
 collocation of letters, has been transformed into rep, 
 or reb ; whence rebus. This passage of Cicero con- 
 firms the explanation which I have proposed of the 
 word pax.* It is desirable that those who have op- 
 portunities of consulting manuscripts should take the 
 trouble to examine such passages of different authors 
 as contain the word pax, which has almost always 
 been thrown out from the printed texts. The prose 
 writers would probably offer an abundant harvest, as 
 the measure of verse renders the exclusion of a word 
 difficult and bold, while prose easily suffers the most 
 capricious attempts. 
 
 The word konx has not passed the threshold of the 
 temple of Eleusis : but the destiny of the word pax is 
 very singular. While its origin and true mystical 
 signification were, perhaps, not known but in the 
 interior of the sanctuary of Ceres, this word, equally 
 
 * [Ramus has adopted the reading of Aldus's MSS. pax sit rebus, 
 and interprets it by tacete. Gronovius argues against it, but appa- 
 rently without reason. We must observe that Planudes found the 
 same reading in his copy; for he translates — 'ahh. eJ^rj ^Vw (read 
 Ixttw) ro7g irqiy uaviv, wg dxovtrou xal tsc A<W7ra.] — Paris Ed. 
 
118 NOTES TO SECTION II. 
 
 foreign to the language of Greece as of Rome, had 
 penetrated into the habitual life of the nations of 
 antiquity. Placed last in the famous formula, it 
 thence, apparently, contracted the signification of end, 
 connected with that of silence. Every thing, besides, 
 conspired to attach an idea of discretion and of mystery 
 to this exclamation. It was under these false ac- 
 ceptations that it circulated, and became established 
 in the ancient languages, and even in our modern 
 dialects : for the word pax is, in this sense, without 
 doubt, the origin of paix, used in French as an ex- 
 pression equivalent to silence / 
 
 Anquetil du Perron has observed, that the word 
 which Theodore of Mopsuesta (Photii BibL ed. of 
 Rouen, 1693, p. 199) translates by ru%7j, fortune, is 
 bakht, a Zend word, preserved in the Persian, and 
 signifying fortune, or destim/. As the Sanscrit and 
 the Zend have many roots in common, the word bakht 
 is seemingly the Sanscrit Pakscha, which in the vulgar 
 dialects is transformed, as Wilford says, into Vakht, or 
 Vakhs, bearing the same signification as the Zend word. 
 
 To prove still more clearly the identity of Canscha 
 and of Pakscha with the words noyg and #a£, it may 
 be observed, that the two Sanscrit words are com- 
 monly pronounced Cansch and Paksch. Every con- 
 sonant in the Devanagari alphabet is supposed to 
 contain an inherent vowel, which is expressed with 
 sufficient accuracy by a short, and which is neces- 
 
NOTES TO SECTION II. 119 
 
 sarily pronounced in reading Sanscrit, unless some 
 particular mark be added under the letter : thus Pa- 
 rama is pronounced Par am, when the sign or mark is 
 added to the final letter. 
 
 This rule is observed in the Bhakha, or Bhasha, the 
 Pracrit, and the Bengali ; only that, in the vulgar 
 dialects, the inherent vowel of a final consonant is 
 almost always omitted : so that, in Pracrit, one of the 
 gods is called Ram, and not Rama, as in Sanscrit ; 
 and Git Govind (a fine poem, by Jaya Deva, on the 
 loves of Crishna and Rhadi), as pronounced in Ben- 
 gali, must necessarily be Gila Govinda in Sanscrit. 
 
 We shall offer another observation. If, on the one 
 hand, it were desirable that, in Wilford's explanation, 
 the word opita% should correspond to a single Sanscrit 
 word ; on the other hand it may be objected, that a 
 formula of such high abstraction, composed of three 
 words, is much more in the spirit of the philosophy 
 of numbers, as we see that it retraces, in some degree, 
 the favourite and characteristick idea of the Trinity 
 in Unity. It is useless to add, that the Greeks might 
 easily have written in two words, what at first had 
 been divided into three. 
 
 These considerations, undoubtedly, give some ad- 
 ditional interest to Wilford's conjecture : but, however 
 ingenious may be his explanation, we do not under- 
 take to decide, by means of it, whether the mysteries 
 were originally Indian, or whether India borrowed 
 
120 NOTES TO SECTION II. 
 
 them from some other country of the East. Neither 
 do we undertake to determine whether the exterior 
 form of the mysteries, such as we know them, does 
 not belong exclusively to Greece; which may per- 
 fectly agree with our hypothesis respecting their true 
 origin. Similar researches would, in general, have 
 no other result than vain hypotheses. It would be a 
 more important object to seek traces of the mysteries 
 in the religious s}'stem of the Indians. Except the 
 formula explained by Wilford, we know not that any 
 vestiges of similar institutions have been discovered 
 among them. We may hope, it is true, that the 
 peace which now unites the whole world will give 
 fresh activity to the English Ltdianists. What had 
 been done, during the space of seven or eight years, 
 by the English, had been almost wholly unknown to 
 us. We see, with admiration and surprise, the con- 
 tinued developement of Oriental studies, both in 
 England and among the English in their Indian set- 
 tlements. This is sufficiently proved by a prodigious 
 number of dictionaries and grammars, the printing of 
 original texts, and, above all, the flourishing state of 
 the college founded in 1800 at Fort William, in Cal- 
 cutta. Let us hope that the learned men of every 
 European country will unite with those of England 
 in promoting the advancement of general knowledge : 
 it is the patrimony of all and of each. Germany, 
 which has deserved so well of the human mind, will not 
 
NOTES TO SECTION II. 121 
 
 withhold her contribution. In the midst of political 
 convulsions, she preserved unextinguished on the con- 
 tinent of Europe the torch of Grecian and Oriental 
 philology ; and will not relinquish the brightest orna- 
 ment of her literary crown. Louis the XVIIIth, who 
 has known the vaiue of literature in adversity, has 
 founded in the " College de France" two new profes- 
 sorships, one of Sanscrit, the other of Chinese ; which 
 nearly completes the course of study in the Special 
 School, established near the Bibliotheque du Roi in 
 Paris. This example will be speedily followed: a no- 
 ble emulation will be the result of such united efforts. 
 I had already ventured to form this wish at an epoch 
 when it might have appeared chimerical. The hopes 
 mentioned in my first Essay (published in 1810), under 
 the title of " Projet d'une Academie Asiatique" are, 
 perhaps, on the eve of being realised. I cannot close 
 this article without offering the homage of my public 
 thanks to M. Langles, so well known by his numerous 
 and extensive labours, and by the rare liberality of 
 his literary principles, for the honourable and flatter- 
 ing manner in which he has noticed my Projet d'une 
 Academie Asiatique, when he was enjoined by the third 
 class of the Institute of France to examine this work, 
 as he himself has declared in a number of the Mer- 
 cure Etranger. 
 
129 NOTES TO SECTION III. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 (1.) It is very remarkable, that most of the ancient 
 theologies commence with a fall which follows a 
 combat. The first event of Indian tradition is the 
 struggle between Brahma and Mahadeva, which ter- 
 minates with the fall of the former. Osiris was killed 
 by Typhon, in Egypt. Isis avenges the death of her 
 husband by an obstinate battle with the murderer of 
 Osiris. We know that Typhon was the evil principle 
 (Plut. de hide et Osiride, p. 113, et seq.), as Isis was 
 Nature personified, the universal goddess, <pv<ri; itay- 
 aiokos, ifdvfoov ^rr^. (Gruter, Inscript. p. xxvi. 10.) 
 I do not presume to establish a system on these cir- 
 cumstances : but let it be added, that the most ancient 
 religious ceremonies have been expressive of grief 
 and lamentation ; that Adonis was the subject of 
 mourning in Phoenicia, as Osiris in Egypt ; that 
 Adonis and Osiris are proved to have been the same 
 personage (Selden de Diis Syr. syntagma n. Eumdern 
 enim Osiridem et Adonin inteUigunt omnes) ; that their 
 festivals, exactly alike, were divided into three parts ; 
 
NOTES TO SECTION III. 123 
 
 the loss or disappearance, d<pavi<ry,b$ — the search, 
 tyjTuja-is — and the finding, sv^ea-ig : we shall then, per- 
 haps, discover in these myths and usages, the traces 
 of one of those great religious traditions which have 
 diffused themselves every where. It is evident that, 
 far from being preserved in their purity, these tra- 
 ditions were soon confounded with the doctrine of 
 two coexisting principles ; a doctrine which has been 
 the foundation of almost all the religious and philo- 
 sophical ideas of the ancients. The explanations 
 which have hitherto been given of these primitive 
 myths, are neither so unobjectionable nor so satisfac- 
 tory as to preclude new conjectures. 
 
 (2.) That which chiefly opposes the investigation of 
 the most simple mythological facts, is the multiplicity 
 of systems established by various writers on the reli- 
 gious system of the ancients. It may, without doubt, 
 be explained by means altogether opposite, and in a 
 manner sufficiently plausible : thus, some have re- 
 ferred it wholly to agriculture — others to astronomy — 
 some to history. We learn, from the example of 
 Euhemerus {Mem. de VAcad. des Inscript. torn. viii. 
 p. 107), that the ancients had already given themselves 
 up to commentaries of this kind. These different 
 modes of explaining the same mythological system 
 proceed, almost always, from the changes which the 
 symbols have undergone. Polytheism was essentially 
 figurative. A great number of religious practices 
 
124 NOTES TO SECTION III- 
 
 represented the same moral or historical notion ; and 
 this was often expressed in different places by dif- 
 ferent symbols. Thus, every where are found traces 
 of the solar worship ; and, in fact, many of the sym- 
 bols relate to the source of light and of fecundity : 
 but the sun itself was only the greatest and most 
 ancient symbol of the Divinity, received among all 
 nations. So that if these symbols and monuments 
 sometimes designated a worship rendered to the ma- 
 terial sun, still more frequently do they testify that 
 the idea of God's unity and immateriality was pre- 
 served in the midst of polytheism, perhaps without 
 the knowledge of the polytheists. We must not, 
 then, stop at the first explanation offered : we must 
 examine whether the idea explained may not itself 
 comprehend another idea. Without this precaution, 
 the most serious errors and most incoherent systems 
 are quickly multiplied. 
 
 (3.) There are many dangers to be avoided in the 
 study of antiquity. Next to the misapplication of 
 etymology, nothing is more deplorable than the abuse 
 of historical comparisons ; a rage for which has be- 
 wildered the most learned men. Thus, the famous 
 Bishop of Avranches discovered a perfect analogy 
 between Moses and Adonis — Fourmont, between the 
 patriarch Jacob and the Typhon of the Egyptians — 
 Fra. Paolino da San. Bartolomeo, between Menu, the 
 Indian legislator, and Noah. We must not here for- 
 
NOTES TO SECTION III. 125 
 
 get the protestant minister Croese, who, in a bulky 
 work entitled " Homerus Hebraus" has demonstrated 
 that Homer's heroes are all personages celebrated in 
 the Bible. According to him, it appears, from a 
 thousand circumstances, that Ulysses with the nymph 
 Calypso is Lot with his daughters. 
 
 (4.) Non semel qucedam sacra traduntur : Eleusis ser- 
 vat quod ostendat revisentibus. Rerum natura sacra sua 
 non simul tradit : initiatos nos credimus ; in vestibulo ejus 
 liar emus. Ilia arcana non promiscue nee omnibus pa- 
 tent ; reducta et in interiore sacrario clausa sunt. (Senec. 
 Qu&st. nat. vii. cap. 31.) Plato, to express how few 
 had penetrated the true sense of the initiations, thus 
 says, Ela-i yd§ &), <pa,<r\v oi tfsfi tag fsXsroig, va§&y}xo<p6f>oi 
 /xgv itoXXoi, Bobc%o< $s ts tfavgoi. (In Phaedon. § 13.) 
 
 (5.) The grand principle on which polytheism rest- 
 ed, was, as the learned Warburton has ably proved, 
 the admission of all religious ideas. "The Master of 
 the universe," says Themistius, " seems pleased with 
 this diversity in the forms of worship : he wishes that 
 the Egyptians should adore him in one manner, the 
 Greeks in another, the Syrians after a third fashion ; 
 and even all the Syrians do not observe the same 
 mode of worship." (Orat. xii. ed. Hardouin. p. 160, A.) 
 
 (6.) The temple of Ceres at Eleusis was held in 
 such respect, that even Xerxes, the declared enemy 
 of the gods of Greece, and the destroyer of their tem- 
 ples, spared it, if we may believe Aristides. (Orat. 
 
126 NOTES TO SECTION III. 
 
 Eleus. torn. i. p. 451, C.) Alaric completely overthrew 
 it in the year of Christ 396. The priests were dis- 
 persed : many fell beneath the sword of the barba- 
 rians — some died of grief: among these was the cele- 
 brated Priscus of Ephesus, then ninety years old, who 
 had once been a favourite of the Emperor Julian. (Le 
 Beau, Hist, du Bas-Empire, torn. vi. p. 48.) M. d'Ansse 
 de Villoison copied several inscriptions at Eleusis. 
 (Mem. de V Acad, des Inscript. torn, xlvii.p.283, et seq.) 
 M. de Chateaubriand explored the ruins of Eleusis 
 where at present is situate the place called Leptina. 
 It does not appear that the eloquent traveller was 
 much struck by the beauty of those ruins. (Itineraire 
 de Paris a Jerusalem, tom.i. p. 157 — 163.) 
 
 (7.) Count Stolberg, to whom, undoubtedly, all 
 must allow a high degree of piety and considerable 
 information, has adopted, in his excellent History of 
 the Christian Religion, that hypothesis which trans- 
 ports into the East the germ of Grecian mysteries ; 
 and deduces them from the first revealed notions. 
 (Erster Band, vierte Beylage; uber die Quellen morgen- 
 landischer Ueberlieferungen, 438—473.) 
 
 (8.) The secret of the mysteries was never revealed 
 but by some persons, who thereby became instantly 
 devoted to death and the public execration (Meurs. 
 in Eleus. cap. 20) ; for the loss of life and the confis- 
 cation of property did not satisfy the law : a column, 
 exposed to every eye, perpetuated the memory of 
 
NOTES TO SECTION III. 127 
 
 their crime and punishment. (Voyage d'Anach. torn. v. 
 chap. 58.) Opinion, more strong than law, repressed 
 the guilty. Horace, who was parens Deorum cultor et 
 infrequens, says, 
 
 — i — Vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum 
 
 Vulgarit arcance, sub isdem 
 
 Sit trabibus, fragilemve mecum 
 
 Solvat phaseium. 
 
 Lib. III. 2—26. 
 
 iEschylus, accused of having revealed some part of 
 the mysteries, only escaped from popular resentment 
 by proving that he had not been initiated. (Clem. 
 Strom, ii. 416.) A reward was offered for th head of 
 Diagoras. We find in Plutarch an account of all 
 that befel Alcibiades, in consequence of having imi- 
 tated the ceremonies of the mysteries. Aristotle was 
 accused of impiety by the Hierophant, under pretence 
 that he had profaned the mysteries of Ceres in sacri- 
 ficing, after the rites of Eleusis, to Pythias, adoptive 
 daughter of the eunuch Hermias, who governed Lydia 
 in the Persian monarch's name. In consequence of 
 this accusation, Aristotle retired to Chalcis in Eubcea, 
 where he died. (Diogen. Laert. in Aristot.) 
 
 (9.) Barthelemy agrees nearly with Warburton in 
 the explanation which he gives of the mysteries. 
 (Voyage d'Anach. torn. v. chap. 68.) In a note at the 
 
128 NOTES TO SECTION III. 
 
 end of that volume, after having proved the inter- 
 polation of the Palinody ascribed to Orpheus, he adds, 
 " En otant a Warburton ce moyen si victorieux, je 
 ne pretends pas attaquer son opinion sur le secret des 
 mysteres, qui me paroit fort vraisemblable. ,, 
 
 (10.) Stark (uber die Myst. cap. v. p. 76) conjectures, 
 that Socrates had refused to be initiated from an ap- 
 prehension that, in discovering the great truths of 
 philosophy, he might be accused of betraying the 
 doctrine of the mysteries. This ingenious hypothesis 
 establishes a great conformity between the secret ob- 
 ject of the mysteries and that of the philosophers. 
 But this conformity may be doubted. Philosophy 
 had also her esoterick doctrine, which must, however, 
 have consisted rather in bold speculations than in 
 religious traditions. Philosophy and the mysteries 
 coincided in their common contempt for the popular 
 worship : but the opposition of philosophy and mysta- 
 gogy on every other point was, nevertheless, a po- 
 sitive fact. The Socrates of Plato is generally re- 
 garded as a personage completely idealised. This 
 observation is confirmed by those praises of the 
 mysteries which Plato supposes his master so fre 
 quently to utter : witness two beautiful passages of 
 the Phcudo. (Plat. Opp. torn. i. ed. Bip. p. 140—157.) 
 
 (11.) " I have seen," says Dionysius of Halicar- 
 nassus, " all the persons assembled in theatres ex- 
 
NOTES TO SECTION III. 129 
 
 press at once their disapprobation at a false move- 
 ment, or an error in pronunciation." (De Compos. 
 Verb, inter opera Diony. Halic. torn. ii. p. 17, ed. Huds. 
 Oxon. 1704.) 
 
 
130 NOTES TO SECTION IV, 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 (1.) "For we can assign/' says Warburton, "no 
 surer cause of the horrid abuses and corruptions of 
 the mysteries (besides time, which naturally and fa- 
 tally depraves and vitiates all things), than the season 
 in which they were represented; and the profound 
 silence in which they were buried. For night gave 
 opportunity to wicked men to attempt evil actions; 
 and secresy, encouragement to repeat them : and the 
 inviolable nature of that secresy which encouraged 
 abuses, kept them from the magistrate's knowledge 
 so long, till it was too late to reform them." (Div. 
 Legat. of Moses, vol. i. book ii. sect. 4, p. 190, ed. 1755.) 
 
 (2.) Apollonius Tyanaeus, without belonging to any 
 particular school, was, nevertheless, a very active per- 
 sonage in the grand system of opposition. Respecting 
 Apollonius, it is said by Gibbon, that we cannot at 
 present determine whether he was a sage, an impostor, 
 or a fanatic. His life, written by Philostratus, is a 
 tissue of traditions and fables, yet a work not devoid 
 of interest. 
 
NOTES TO SECTION IV. 131 
 
 (3.) The Platonists, such as Plotinus and Porphyry, 
 have maintained, that Ammonius Saccas, born in the 
 Christian religion, became a convert to polytheism. 
 Eusebius and Saint Jerome affirm that he persevered 
 in the Christian faith. Among modern writers, Brucker 
 joins with the Platonists. The pious and learned Le 
 Nain de Tillemont adopts the sentiments of the Chris- 
 tian doctors. Mosheim thought that Ammonius had 
 blended the Christian religion with Eclectism. 
 
 (4.) There are two Celsuses — both Epicureans : one 
 flourished under Nero ; the other under Hadrian and 
 his successors. This latter Celsus wrote, against 
 Christianity, a work which Origen refuted. 
 
 (5.) This symbol is of the highest antiquity. The 
 Indians have always employed it. Fra. Paolino da 
 San. Bartolomeo has published (from the Borgian Mu- 
 seum), in his Systema Brahmanicum, a Yoni (matrix), 
 under the figure of a triangle in a lotos flower. See 
 on the Indian symbols a fragment of Porphyry, quoted 
 by Stobaeus, in Eclog. Phys. Li. cap. 4, §56, and in- 
 serted in the Porphyry of Holstenius, p. 182. 
 
 (6.) A protestant divine of the seventeenth century 
 accuses the Pythagoreans and Platonists, down to 
 Marsilius Ficinus inclusively, of having been able 
 sorcerers, and very familiar with the devil. (See Col- 
 berg's Platonisch-Hermetisches Christenthum, Frkf. und 
 Leipzig, 1690, torn. i. p. 168, et seqq.) It must be 
 
 observed, that the doctrine of the Platonists continued 
 
 k 2 
 
132 NOTES TO SECTION IV. 
 
 long in full vigour. Towards the middle of the fif- 
 teenth century, Gemistus Pletho, one of the last among 
 them, undertook to establish a new system of religion 
 in the taste of his masters. Gennadius, the patriarch 
 of Constantinople, having censured this work, con- 
 signed it to the flames. A manuscript preserved in 
 the Bibliotheque du Roi contains a letter, wherein the 
 patriarch exposes the doctrine of Pletho : nothing 
 more of it remains. See, respecting this manuscript, 
 a curious but too succinct dissertation, by M. Boivin. 
 (Mem. de VAcad. des Inscript. torn. ii. p. 715.) Gemistus 
 Pletho was placed at the head of the Platonick Aca- 
 demy founded at Florence by Cosmo de Medici. (See 
 Heeren's Gesch. der Class. Litt. torn. ii. p. 35, et seq. 
 and Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo di Medici, 1806, vol. i. 
 p. 49.) 
 
 (7.) A continued perusal of the new Platonists will 
 evince the truth of the picture which I here only pre- 
 sent under its principal features. Every thing con- 
 spires to render such a course of reading difficult : the 
 nature of the subject — the loftiness and the obscurity 
 of style — the scantiness of materials — the diversity of 
 opinions ; even the indifference of criticism respecting 
 the materials which we still possess. There is but one 
 Greek edition of Plotinus (that of Bale, 1580) ; one of 
 Proclus, printed in a style of mediocrity at Hamburg 
 (16 18) ; one of Jamblichus, with the notes of Th. Gale 
 (Oxford, 1678). Porphyry and Maximus Tyrius have 
 
NOTES TO SECTION IV. 133 
 
 been more frequently printed : one of the most com- 
 plete editions of the former is that by Lucas Holste- 
 nius (Cambridge, 1685). We have many editions of 
 Maximus Tyrius, from the first, by Henry Stephens 
 (1557), to the last, published by Reiske (1774). To 
 these we must necessarily add the Emperor Julian's 
 writings, which have not been wholly reprinted since 
 the appearance of Spanheim's edition (in 1696) ; and 
 a selection of fragments found in Libanius and The- 
 mis tius : of the former there have been several editors. 
 But all these works, as those of the other Platonists, 
 are rare and costly: the typographical execution is 
 not always handsome nor correct; and the reader is 
 generally disappointed in the criticism of the old 
 editors. In fact, we still want a Collection of the Pla- 
 tonists. Such a work, under the direction of distin- 
 guished scholars, and enriched by the helps which we 
 now possess, would constitute an epoch in the study 
 of literature and of philosophy. Exoriare aliquis.* 
 
 (8.) M. Gorres, author of the work entitled My then- 
 geschichte der Asiatischen Welt (Heidelberg, 1810), has 
 made some attempts in this way : but to me they seem 
 premature. We find, in the Memoires de I'Academie 
 des Inscriptions (torn, xlvii. p. 53) y that an academician, 
 
 * M. Creuzer, professor at Heidelberg, is engaged in preparing a 
 complete edition of Plotinus ; and the specimen which he has pub- 
 lished encourages us to expect much from his labours. A young 
 native of Strasburg, M. Heyler, is employed on Julian. 
 
134 NOTES TO SECTION IV. 
 
 named M. FAbbe Fenel, flattered himself with the 
 notion of having discovered, in the works of Plato 
 and of his reputed disciples, the new Platonists, the 
 secret of the ancient mysteries. He had read some 
 remarks on this subject to the academy ; but they 
 have never been printed. The principle adopted by 
 Abbe Fenel, must, necessarily, have led him into 
 eiTor. We might, perhaps, have obtained some 
 collateral researches of great value ; but the main 
 question would have been obscured by an additional 
 system. 
 
 The fourth volume of M.Creuzer's work {Symbolik 
 und Mythologie del alten Volkef) did not reach me 
 until long after the first edition of this Essay had 
 been published. Whatever may be the learning and 
 talents of that author, I have been able to make but 
 little use of his researches on the Eleusinian mysteries. 
 Not only is the object which he had in view totally 
 opposite to mine, but the very foundations of our con- 
 jectures are different. In the mysteries of Eleusis, 
 M. Creuzer thinks he can discern the contest of Spirit 
 and Matter. He discovers, also, many points of con- 
 tact between Ceres and Bacchus : but they are alto- 
 gether foreign to those which I have noticed in the 
 Sixth Section of this work. While I object, however, 
 to some of M. Creuzer's ideas, the novelty of his 
 opinions, and the singular sagacity which appears in 
 most of his combinations, must be acknowledged. 
 
NOTES TO SECTION IV. 135 
 
 See, among others, some very remarkable observa- 
 tions on the knowledge which the Platonists pos- 
 sessed of the mysteries, and of the notions respecting 
 them which they have been able to communicate (torn. 
 iv. p. 549—554) : but these observations I have not 
 found it possible to adopt without restriction. See 
 also (p. 536, et seqq.) what he says respecting the in- 
 fluence of the mysteries on some ceremonies and ex- 
 pressions adopted by Christianity. 
 
 
136 NOTES TO SECTION V* 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 (1.) Through a singular reaction, the Grecian 
 theology, sprung from Eastern ideas, ended by being 
 the type to which the Greeks willingly traced all fo- 
 reign notions. Thus, they who had received Bacchus 
 from Egypt, gave, in turn, the name of Bacchus to 
 all the divinities with which he had any analogy. 
 From the same principle resulted a multiplicity of 
 Jupiters, Mercuries, Venuses, &c. The Greeks even 
 went so far as to discover in foreign theogonies, those 
 divinities which belonged exclusively to Greece, such 
 as Hercules, &c. 
 
 (2.) Eusebius has preserved, in the second book of 
 his Praparatio Evangelica, a fragment of the sixth 
 book of Diodorus, in which an account is given of the 
 opinions of Euhemerus, and of his journey in the fa- 
 bulous island of Panchaia. Against the absurdities 
 of this story, Plutarch has protested. Speaking of 
 the Egyptian gods, he declares himself afraid to dis- 
 cuss certain particulars ; " for this," says he, " would 
 throw open the great folding-doors to an atheistical 
 
NOTES TO SECTION V. 137 
 
 multitude, who separate divine from human affairs ; 
 and would sanction the impostures of Euhemerus, the 
 Messenian. This man, having himself composed a 
 work replete with incredible fables, diffused every sort 
 of impiety throughout the world, abolishing all those 
 who have been esteemed gods, and transforming them 
 into the names of ancient generals, admirals, and 
 kings, as written in golden letters at Panchaea, or 
 Panchon, which no man, whether Greek or Barbarian, 
 ever happened to see, except Euhemerus himself; 
 having sailed to the country of the Panchonians and 
 Triphylians, people not existing in any part of this 
 earth." (Plut. de Isid. et Osir. § 23.) 
 
 (3.) An eloquent passage of Maximus Tyrius, closed 
 by a magnificent peroration, developes, on this point, 
 the doctrine of the Platonists (Dissert, viii. particu- 
 larly § 3) ; but the adoption of this principle does not 
 by any means prove that the gods have been men. 
 The idea of lending the form of man to the Divinity 
 is certainly one of the first assimilations of the human 
 mind, and the most natural error. The ancient uni- 
 verse was full of anthropomorphism. 
 
 (4.) We know, from the evidence of Herodotus, 
 that the Egyptians did not render divine honours to 
 heroes. (Lib.ii. cap. 50.) The class of demi-gods is 
 originally Grecian. 
 
 (5.). It would be very wrong to seek, in the meta- 
 physical ideas of Homer, a strict concatenation ; and 
 
138 NOTES TO SECTION V. 
 
 those are to be pitied who only read his immortal 
 master-pieces with the prejudices of men of letters. 
 All systems respecting Homer are false: he has, in 
 turn, been regarded as an historian, a theologian, an 
 alchymist, a geographer, a moralist — and Homer is a 
 poet! This point of criticism is applicable to the 
 manner in which we view the whole of antiquity. It 
 cannot be too frequently repeated, that, in the present 
 state of human knowledge, the only system which we 
 should follow, in history, in philology, in mythology, 
 and in criticism, is not to adopt any system. We do 
 not thence undertake to affirm, that a logical order 
 and rational process should be neglected : — we only 
 wish to say, that, far from submitting to any of the 
 theories which have hitherto prevailed, we should, in 
 order to seize upon the true genius of ancient times, 
 present ourselves, divested of all prejudices, in the 
 immense arena of antiquity, and study science in 
 every ramification ; not in its chimerical relation with 
 our own ideas, but as placing ourselves (if the ex- 
 pression may be allowed) in the centre of each of 
 those vast circumferences, which few men can, in 
 truth, wholly pervade, but of which every person can, 
 at least, appreciate the extent. 
 
 (6.) Kgyfss ds) tysveroci' koCi yoiq *oi<pov, cJ avoc, trsto 
 Kgrjres lisY.rqwv'tv <ru $' ov S&vs$, £<r<r) yoL% alsi. 
 
 Callim. in Jov. 8. 
 
 (7.) It is not improbable that some detached doc- 
 
NOTES TO SECTION V. 139 
 
 trines on this subject may have been current before 
 Euhemerus. We only mean to say, that he was the 
 first who fashioned them into a system. Euhemerus, 
 as we learn from Diodorus, was contemporary with 
 Cassander, king of Macedon. 
 
140 NOTES TO SECTION VI. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 (1.) The Memorial of Lucius Ampelius, first pub- 
 lished by Saumaise, and afterwards by Graevius, at 
 the end of Florus (Amst. 1702), enumerates five Bac- 
 chuses. The first is the son of Jupiter and Proser- 
 pine ; an agriculturist, and inventor of wine : Ceres 
 is his sister. The second Bacchus is son of Meros and 
 Flora : he gave his name to the river Granicus. The 
 third is son of Cabirus, who reigned in Asia. The 
 fourth is son of Saturn and Semele. The fifth is son 
 of Nisus and Hesione. {Ed. Grcev. cap. 8.) The in- 
 coherences accumulated together in this nomencla- 
 ture, may give us some idea of the chaos of mytho- 
 logical traditions respecting Bacchus. In mentioning 
 the great importance of Nonnus on this subject, we 
 hasten to announce, that his Dionysiacs, of which the 
 text has hitherto been so much disfigured (and which 
 has not been reprinted during two centuries), are on 
 the eve of publication, with comments, by Professor 
 Gr'afe, already well known from the success of his 
 
NOTES TO SECTION VI. 141 
 
 Meleager. (Lips. 1811.) The first volume of the Dio- 
 nysiacs is in the press at Leipsick. 
 
 (2.) The second Bacchus, it is true, had not any 
 direct relation with Ceres ; and yet we may affirm, 
 that he was educated by Rhea, Cybele, who is so 
 perfectly confounded with Toua, Ayd, rTjarJr^^ Arypjr^, 
 and, finally, Ceres. (Diod. 1. i. § 1. c. 7.) 'H 'A^u), 
 xcu Utt);, y.oti 'EA/Vq Tr^ug, yea) Trj, ytoc) Arj^yjtY^, 75 awry 
 (Hesychius, in the word 'A%&»?a/.) In general, the 
 myth of Cybele was so united with that of Rhea, 
 and the myth of the Earth with that of Demeter, 
 that it is not possible to determine the shades of 
 distinction. That the poets have differed extremely 
 on this subject, appears from iEschylus, when he 
 mentions Earth, 
 
 " Whose names are many, but her form the same. 7 ' 
 Toua, tfoWw oyo^aTaiv frogiprj y,lcx. 
 
 Prom. 210. 
 
 It seems that, in all this, we should distinguish that 
 which belongs to the different epochs of Grecian my- 
 thology. Tata Ga'ia, which the Romans called Tellus, 
 is among the divinities of the first dynasty; those 
 Titanian divinities which preceded the circle of the 
 Magni Dii : a circle, it must be owned, very vaguely 
 defined, from Homer to the latest mythographers. 
 Demeter appears only as the successor of Gaia in the 
 mythological cycle. It may be further conjectured, 
 that, while symbols of the same idea, Gai'a and De- 
 meter had this distinction between them : — that Gai'a 
 
142 NOTES TO SECTION VI. 
 
 rather designated the entire, the totality, the depths 
 of this terrestrial globe ; Demeter, its surface, the soil 
 fit for agriculture, the fruits and productions which 
 enrich or ornament it. In support of this observa- 
 tion, it may be remarked, that the primitive or Titanian 
 divinities possessed, in comparison with the succeed- 
 ing dynasty, something very colossal in their pro- 
 portions. This is proved by the Prometheus of jEschy- 
 lus. However it may be, we should not here expect, 
 as in the generality of theogonies, an historical, strict, 
 and exact deduction. See some excellent observa- 
 tions on this subject, in Creuzer's Symbolik, torn. iv. 
 p. 331, et seqq. 
 
 (3.) Pindar (Isthm. vii. 3) calls Bacchus xatotoKgofov 
 ledoefyov Aocpd,rego$ — aristrepa assessorem Cereris. A 
 passage from Sophocles is no less remarkable : 
 
 UoXucuvv^s, KatyMccs 
 
 Nvy,<pas dyak^oc, not) Aib$ 
 
 fiagvggspsfa, yevdS) 
 
 Kkvfoiy 05 dy.(peit£is 
 
 'IfocXiocv, pefcis §h ntay- 
 
 xolvov 'Etevrivlas 
 
 Ayovs h KoXitois, 
 
 » Bax%gy, x. f. A. 
 
 Antig. v. 1115—1121. 
 
 " O thou with many names, ornament of the daughter 
 of Cadmus, offspring of the thundering Jupiter ; thou 
 who presidest over powerful Italy, who reignest in 
 the bosom of the Eleusinian Ceres ; O Bacchus, &c." 
 
NOTES TO SECTION VI. ^ 143 
 
 These authorities are the more important, as being, 
 of this kind, perhaps the most ancient that can be 
 quoted in favour of the alliance between Ceres and 
 Bacchus; yet no person has before noticed them. 
 The Scholiast of Pindar says, that Bacchus, placed 
 near Ceres, was, according to some, Zagreus ; accord- 
 ing to others, Jacchus. Among several well-known 
 marbles, we shall here remark an inscription, given 
 by Gruter (p. 309), which exhibits, with other words, 
 deo. iaccho. cereri. et. coRffi. A medal of An- 
 tinous, struck by the inhabitants of Adramyttium, in 
 Mysia, joins to his name the title of IAKXOC, alluding 
 to his character as paredros, or assessor of the Eg}^p- 
 tian gods. When Hadrian wished to immortalise his 
 favourite, he bestowed on him the title of Assessor 
 of the gods honoured in Egypt, as appears from the 
 celebrated inscription, published also by Gruter, 
 'Avtivdiy, <rvvQ§ovu> tcvv hv Alyvirruj Seuov, x. r. a* The title 
 of paredros given to Antinous, procured for him that 
 of Iacchus from the people of Adramyttium, a colony 
 of Athens. (See Eckhel, Doctr. num. vet. t.vi. p. 528 
 — Rasche, Lexicon Numism. torn. i. p. 738.) An epi- 
 gram, in the Anthologia, exhibits Iacchus compared 
 to an infant of ten months, suckled by his mother. 
 (Branek. Anal. torn. iii. p. 292 — and Jacobs, Animadv. 
 in Anthol. torn. iii. part ii. p. 237 ; and part iii. p. 139.) 
 (4.) The more profoundly we study the ancient 
 religions, the more we may congratulate ourselves on 
 
144 NOTES TO SECTION VI. 
 
 living at an epoch when the human mind soars above 
 this labyrinth of popular modes of worship, without 
 morality, and without dignity. It is, perhaps, the 
 only point in which we enjoy any advantage over the 
 ancients : but this advantage is immense. The double 
 doctrine of the ancients condemned the world to an 
 eternal servitude. Whilst a few men, enlightened by 
 the most sublime knowledge, penetrated into the high- 
 est regions of thought ; the multitude languished in 
 a deplorable state of blindness, amidst shameful su- 
 perstitions, which were carefully cherished, and deco- 
 rated with all the deceptions of imagination. Every 
 thinking man should esteem himself fortunate in 
 having been born under the influence of a religion 
 purely intellectual, equally accessible to the peasant 
 as to Newton, and of which the character is as divine 
 as its origin. We feel, in giving ourselves up to these 
 considerations, that sort of satisfaction and honour- 
 able pride which an Englishman ought to feel when 
 he compares the constitution of his country to the 
 despotic governments of the East, which have this 
 point in common with the false religions, that they 
 degrade man whilst they corrupt him. 
 
 We find, in one of those religious chants which 
 the ancient Liturgy of the Greek church has pre- 
 served, some passages, sufficiently eloquent, respect- 
 ing the double doctrine, as placed in opposition with 
 the universal instruction of Christianity.—" Ye, Apo- 
 
NOTES TO SECTION VI. 145 
 
 sties of Christ, however homely in speech, have shown 
 yourselves profound in wisdom ; for ye have resolved 
 the intricate reasonings of philosophers, the subtilties 
 of rhetoricians, and the calculations of astronomers. 
 It is, therefore, evident that none but yourselves are 
 instructors of the world." This apostrophe is followed 
 by a very curious passage : " Peter speaks, and Plato 
 is mute; Paul teaches, Pythagoras disappears. Final- 
 ly, these lowly apostles, speaking from God, commit to 
 the tomb the dead eloquence of Greece, and awake the 
 universe to the service of Christ."— -Oi \6yw ISiwtai, 
 (ro<po) rf, yyuxrei £0<f>0^i'e, TiXoxd; tdov Xoyojv foov <pi\o<ro<pajv 
 Xv&ocvTss, pyjtopcvv ?£$ SiaitXoxds, xou tyfaws da'T'^ovo^ouv. 
 $io ' Arfoo-foXoi fov Xgictov fLOvoi ntoiovjs olxovpavys ayeSefajhftf 
 
 dibdcxocXoi 'O UsTgo; prfiogsvei, xa) Hxdtujv xa.tourly7)<rs. 
 
 8i$d<rxei UolvXos, UvQocyogas sfovs. Xontov, t'ujv 'AtfocroXcvv 
 SsoXoyojv o $yjy,o$ -rtjv t'ojV 'EXXfjVwv vsxgdv (pQoyyyv xoctol- 
 Qdrfrsi, xa) rov xoc^ov trvveyslgsi rf§b$ Xocrgsiav Xgurfov. 
 (Vetus Officium Quadragesimale, ed. Card. Quirini, 
 Venet. 1729, part i. p. 256.) 
 
146 ; 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 The gem (a fine root of emerald), which ornaments 
 the frontispiece, is taken from the Imperial collection of 
 the Hermitage. It represents Triptolemus on the car of 
 Ceres, and has not before been published. A detailed 
 account of it will be found in the learned work which the 
 counsellor of state, M. Koehler, is nozv preparing, and 
 which will lay before us all the treasures of the Imperial 
 cabinet. 
 
 The conformity of this gem with the painting which 
 has furnished a subject for the second engraving {see 
 page V), deserves the notice of antiquaries. This device is 
 borrowed from M. Millin's valuable work on Ancient 
 Vases (torn. ii. pi. xxxi), and represents Triptolemus, 
 Ceres, Hecate, and Rhea or Cybele. The upper part is 
 omitted. M. Viscontis's explanation of this picture may 
 be seen in M. Millin's work. It is derived from the Hymn 
 to Ceres, a composition attributed to Homer. 
 
147 
 
 At the end of the Sixth Section is represented Ceres, 
 sitting on a stone, which exhibits on one side the Indian 
 Triad, composed of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva or Ma- 
 hadeva, as it appears among the ruins of the famous 
 temple in Elephanta, near Bombay, described by Niebuhr. 
 (Voyage en Arabie, Amst. 1780, torn. ii. p. 25.) The 
 other side exhibits the head of Isis, as found on an 
 ancient Egyptian brick, of which Count Caylus has 
 given the figure in his Recueil d'Antiquites (torn. iv. 
 pi. xv. no. 4). 
 
 L2 
 
OBSERVATIONS 
 
 OCCASIONED BY 
 
 MR. OUVAROFF'S 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 €leu0tntan Jftpsteriesu 
 
 {Communicated to the Translator by Mr, Christie.") 
 
OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 The Author of the foregoing Essay has 
 contented himself with marking on his canvass 
 the general outlines of a very learned design, 
 intending perhaps at his future leisure, or leav- 
 ing it for other colourists, to supply the smaller 
 accessories, that may complete his view of the 
 Eleusinian mysteries. The observations here 
 subjoined may serve as further materials, or as 
 suggestions for an alteration in the drawing of 
 parts of his performance. They are offered, 
 by no means, in confidence of their being free 
 from error, with the highest esteem for Mr. 
 OuvarofPs learning, his philosophy, and the 
 firm conviction he displays of the most impor- 
 tant fundamental truths. 
 
152 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Of the Antiquity of the Mysteries* 
 
 A difficulty will perhaps have occurred to 
 the reader at the outset of this work, from 
 Mr. OuvarofF having too indiscriminately 
 treated the foundation and the growth of the 
 mysteries. His meaning may be collected to 
 be this : that the developement of the mysteries 
 at Eleusis was progressive, and that they arrived 
 at their full celebrity not earlier than the time 
 of Homer, or that of the establishment of the 
 Greek republicks. But Mr. OuvarofF has 
 evinced too ready a compliance with the notions 
 of Meiners and Dupuis; and he has involved 
 the origin of the mysteries in unnecessary 
 doubt. The names of several founders being 
 quoted in the preceding pages, upon the 
 authority of ancient writers, it could neither 
 be requisite to throw the question open into 
 " the vast deserts of uncertain times" with 
 Dupuis, nor to reduce it to so low an epoch 
 as the rise of the Greek republicks. Very few 
 of the festivals of Greece were known to its 
 first inhabitants. They were introduced from 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 153 
 
 the East by some of the very founders there 
 cited. On this principle, Melampus seems to 
 have a peculiar claim. It may be difficult to 
 state the very year, but the age of their institu- 
 tion need not be overclouded with uncertainty. 
 Mr. OuvarofT remarks, that neither are the 
 mysteries noticed, nor can mystic ideas be 
 traced in Homer ; a difficulty which the his- 
 torian of them may never surmount. He would 
 hence infer, that the foundation of them was of 
 later date. But the deities selected by Homer 
 for the machinery of his poems, were wholly 
 independent of the mysteries, and took their 
 rise from a very different, perhaps a later 
 source. I would seek the origin of the Eleusi- 
 nian shews in earlier times, and deduce the 
 imagery adopted by Homer, from causes con- 
 nected with the improvement of these shews 
 by foreign settlers in Greece. The mysteries 
 of Eleusis were in fact of Pelasgic origin, in 
 as much as they were derived from those in 
 Samothrace which the Pelasgi founded; and 
 although I apprehend that imagery was by no 
 means excluded from the latter, yet could they 
 have furnished no suitable materials for the 
 
I54f OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Iliad. The personifications of Grecian poly- 
 theism were subsequent to the practice of 
 Pelasgic rites in Thrace, and may have fol- 
 lowed very soon after the introduction of them 
 at Eleusis. The rites of the Pelasgi were al- 
 most peculiar to themselves. Had the Cabiric 
 worship been known in Phoenicia, says a learned 
 English antiquary,* Cadmus needed not to 
 have gone so far as Greece or Thrace to be 
 initiated. But Cadmus having learned this in 
 Samothrace, established it in Bceotiat ; and 
 after the introduction of these mysteries into 
 Attica, we may conclude that various Egyptian 
 strangers contributed greatly to their attrac- 
 tion, by employing in them the symbolical 
 paintings of Egypt which they brought with 
 them. The simple objects of the Pelasgic 
 worship were hence embodied ; a taste for 
 personifying became general. Poetry was 
 enriched by it, and painting and sculpture 
 were rapidly improved. When Homer after- 
 wards selected a superior order of personages, 
 
 * Wise, history and chronology of the fabulous ages, 
 p. 42. 
 
 f Upon the foundation of Thebes by him, 1494, A. C. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 155 
 
 (ready fashioned to his hand, and not devised 
 by him), to increase the interest of his poems, 
 forgetting the abstract properties which they 
 had originally represented, he described them 
 to the life, and engaged them in natural action. 
 The poet of nature would have little taste for 
 primitive traditions or metaphysical doctrine, 
 when other more promising materials were at 
 hand. Hence the earlier establishment of the 
 mysteries, and Homer's silence respecting 
 them, are perfectly consistent; nor does it 
 seem necessarily to follow, that the theology of 
 Homer was anterior to all metaphysical combi- 
 nations. 
 
 It is in the Eleventh Book of the Odyssey, 
 if in any part of Homer's poems, that mystic 
 allusions might have been expected; but none 
 such appear. We have there a display of 
 poetical necromancy, but not the smallest re- 
 ference to the Eleusinian shows. The punish- 
 ments in Tartarus are very briefly noticed at the 
 end, and a great part of the book consists of an 
 evocation of the Manes ingeniously and feel- 
 ingly introduced, to acquaint the reader with 
 the concluding events in the lives of several 
 
15b OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 great leaders, for whom an interest had been 
 excited in the Iliad. In one instance Homer 
 has been thought to have mysticised. The 
 northern and southern entrances to the cavern 
 of the Nymphs, in the Thirteenth Book of the 
 Odyssey, ver. 109, 110, 112, resemble much 
 a certain Rabbinical conceit, that very possibly 
 originated among the Mystagogues at Babylon, 
 from whom the Jews might have collected it 
 after the first captivity ; and Homer might 
 have heard of it long before. But we may 
 rather believe the coincidence to have been 
 purely accidental *. 
 
 The authorities adduced by Meursius and 
 Bishop Warburton, leave very little doubt that 
 the mysteries of Eleusis were founded in the 
 reign of Erectheus t, to whom the Athenians, 
 by a courtly compliment, ascribed them. But 
 other more probable inventors have been 
 named. Theodoret indeed places the intro- 
 duction of them one hundred years later, when 
 
 * This is explained at length in Windet's tract. — De 
 vita functorum statu, ex Hebraeorum et Graecorum compa- 
 ratis sententiis, p. 96. et seq. 
 
 f He reigned fifty years, from 1398, A.C. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 157 
 
 he affirms that they were brought to Eleusis by 
 Orpheus, who afterwards improved them on 
 his return from Egypt. Orpheus is styled by 
 Theodoret a native of Odrysa, a country near 
 mount Rhodope ; but for the share he had in 
 the improvement of them, it is quite enough to 
 know that Orpheus was a northern with regard 
 to Attica. According to Androtion, cited by 
 the scholiast upon Sophocles, Eumolpus, the 
 fifth in descent from a Thracian of the same 
 name, imparted them ; and this is more fully 
 recorded by Acesodorus in the following state- 
 ment. The aboriginal inhabitants of Eleusis 
 waging war against Erectheus, called in Thra- 
 cian auxiliaries, among whom was Eumolpus, 
 the fifth of his line, and he it was who founded 
 the mysteries. Thus the improvement of them 
 may be referred to Egypt, but they were of 
 Thracian origin. 
 
 Of the celebration of mysteries in Thrace, 
 several notices appear. Samothrace *, Im- 
 brost, and Lemnos, were Thracian islands, 
 
 * ©fr/wnj ts Y.a.^o; KogvgdvTiov dtrru. Dionys. Perieg. 
 f *H^£ "Ijj&gos, ©f axwij \lzv sari v^aos, Isgdi Katsfgwy ko) 
 av?y}. Eustath. in Dionys. 
 
1SS OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 famous for Cabiric and Corybantian rites ; and 
 these again were imparted to them by the 
 Pelasgi % The Pelasgi and the Thracians may 
 have been the same people ; at least we dis- 
 cover, that these mysterious doctrines and rites 
 were not first derived from Egypt, but were 
 established in Greece, by a people who came 
 north about, and brought with them their opi- 
 nions and ceremonies from the centre of Asia. 
 I mean not, from these deductions, to establish 
 the antiquity of one particular race of people, 
 in preference to another ; but I would correct 
 any unfair prejudice that may be entertained 
 in favour of Egypt. Both nations received 
 their learning from one central point, and at 
 the same early period. I would merely shew, 
 on these authorities, that the Pelasgi were the 
 first to communicate what they knew to the 
 Aborigines of Greece. 
 
 We may now therefore endeavour to meet 
 a complaint of Mr. OuvarofF, in an early part 
 of his Essay, that the analogy which subsisted 
 
 * "Oa-fig 8s foe Kafeifwv ogyiot pepvrjfca, toi %afbQQ$mef 
 sitifiXsoviri Xot&6vre$ hol^ol WzXcltjwv. x. 'ft A. Herodot. 
 See Meursii Graec. Feriat, v. KaSe/f ici. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. ] 59 
 
 between the mysteries in Samothrace and 
 those at Eleusis has never yet been satisfac- 
 torily determined. This analogy will best ap- 
 pear from considering the agents in both of 
 them. The priests at Eleusis were four in 
 number: the Hierophant, the Torch-bearer, 
 the Assistant at the Altar, and the Sacred 
 Herald. They severally bore the symbols of 
 the Demiurgus, the Sun, Moon, and Mercury. 
 It is probable, that at first they were actors in 
 a drama. In later times they contented them- 
 selves with shewing and explaining the ma- 
 chinery within the temple # . 
 
 The Cabiric priests in Samothrace were 
 four. The scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius 
 has named them Axieros, Axiocersos, Axio- 
 cersa, and Casmilus. The scholiast also 
 terms them Ceres, Proserpine, Hades, and 
 Mercury ; doubtless he meant to mark their 
 correspondence with these deities at Eleusis. 
 For the Pelasgian founders of the mysteries in 
 Samothrace had no names for the gods, ac- 
 
 SsiKvvujv. Hesych. — " The Hierophant is the mystagogue, 
 or priest, who sheweth the mysteries." 
 
160 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 cording to Herodotus, who expressed himself 
 as a polytheist ; and where no distinction of 
 names obtained, the unity of the Deity was 
 perhaps acknowledged. These Samothracian 
 cabirs therefore, (as the word cabir implies,) 
 were rather powers or attributes than deities. 
 With these may also be mentioned the Idaei 
 Dactyli of the Phrygians, who are said to have 
 received their mysteries from Samothrace 
 about the time of Dardanus. Among these 
 was a personage named Celmis, who, it may 
 be believed, was no other than Casmilus or 
 Camillus. Acmon and Damnameneus were 
 also of their number, if the latter be not two 
 appellations blended together, for Maneus and 
 Acmon were both names of Titanian kings. 
 Thus however it would appear, that Celmis, 
 Camillus, Mercury, and the Sacred Herald, 
 (and I will add Iacchus,) were relative cha- 
 racters. 
 
 From the want of better means of illustrat- 
 ing a subject on which ancient writers have 
 observed so profound a silence, the accompany- 
 ing engraving from a Sicilian painted Vase * is 
 
 * This Vase, (of which I have likewise elsewhere at- 
 tempted an explanation), may not have been of much earlier 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 161 
 
 offered ; as it exhibits something like the four 
 priests or agents in the Samothracian and 
 Eleusinian shows. In this the Hierophant ap- 
 pears as a workman at his forge, in which 
 capacity he properly personates the Demi- 
 urgus *, bearing a sledge hammer ; in the same 
 way as the Cabiric Vulcan is represented on 
 some ancient coins. Thus the character of the 
 Idaean Acmon may be determined, for his name 
 
 antiquity than the beginning of the Christian sera. Nor 
 may it have represented either the mysteries of Samothrace 
 or Eleusis. But we know that mysteries were celebrated in 
 many other parts of Greece, in imitation of the latter, and 
 that they were accompanied with similar rites. My reason 
 for supposing it related to these rites, results from my per- 
 suasion, that the paintings of the black and red Greek Vases 
 were copied from transparent scenes indifferent mysteries. 
 Since the late proprietor of this Vase permitted me to have 
 this engraving made from it, the vessel has been by an acci- 
 dent destroyed. 
 
 * This representation differs much from the habit of the 
 Demiurgus in the Egyptian mysteries, as noticed by Mr. 
 Ouvaroff. At Eleusis too, the Hierophant, and the Sacred 
 Herald, were only designated by their garment, hair, and 
 fillet. But this must have been after they had ceased to 
 personate characters in these dramas. 
 
 M 
 
162 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 implies an anvil*. The second personage in 
 this engraving is a female assistant, not indeed 
 at the altar, but at the furnace of Hephaestus. 
 The third in the attitude of a person proclaim 
 ing or commanding, may represent Camillus ; 
 or the Sacred Herald. The fourth is th( 
 Aadov%o$ with his Torch across his knee 
 These two last figures occur in more than one 
 plate of D'Hancarville's Etruscan Vases, wher< 
 their action is further shewn. 
 
 These four figures seem designed for th< 
 elementary principles alluded to by Varro 
 Hephaestus, fire ; Isis, water ; Mercury, air 
 and Pan, matter ; the vital part of which last 
 the Sun, is denoted by his Torch, and we have 
 already noticed that the Aadov^og, or Torch 
 bearer, carried a symbol of the Sun. The 
 torch is about to be ignited at the command o: 
 Hermes t, the spiritual agent in the workshop 
 of Creation. I apprehend it to be consisten 
 
 * "Aycfj.cov — an Anvil, Heaven. — Hesych. 
 
 •\ Hermes as a personification of Wind or Spirit, wa: 
 considered by the Pagans as the winged messenger of heaven 
 He was originally the same as the Orphic s§wg 9 and the 
 winged Iacchus became his substitute at Eleusis. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 163 
 
 with the principles of the mysteries, that the 
 primary Great Cause should not appear. His 
 representatives the Elements are produced, and 
 I have elsewhere attempted to shew*, that 
 these were selected as fit symbols of the essence 
 and the attributes of the Deity; and that they 
 denoted his presence, his commands, his judge- 
 ments, his mercies, and his promises, of all 
 which the ancient world were not without some 
 indistinct knowledge, preserved to them from 
 patriarchal traditions. 
 
 But these primary powers or Cabirs, were 
 not always proper to Pelasgia alone. In after 
 times, in the Erectheum in the Acropolis at 
 Athens, were four altars, erected to Jupiter, 
 Poseidon Erectheus, Butas, and Hephaestus ; 
 where, though the order be transposed, yet the 
 Demiurgic Hephaestus again appears, and a 
 stranger, (fiovrag) Butas. In Egypt were also 
 four primary Deities, Osiris, Isis, and Typhon ; 
 denoting the creating, preserving, and de- 
 stroying powers of the Deity, and a fourth 
 
 * Essay on that earliest species of idolatry, the worship 
 of the Elements, 1814. 
 
 M 2 
 
1 64 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 named Horns, who agreed with Iacchus at 
 least, in being represented of tender age. In 
 India we find Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, as 
 primary powers, figuring the creator, preserver* 
 and destroyer, by the symbols earth, water, 
 and fire; and a fourth, who now appears dis- 
 carded from the mystic college, and has long 
 been worshipped apart — the deity Boud, who 
 has occasioned Asiatick antiquaries much pain- 
 ful enquiry. This last I consider to be a per- 
 sonification of spirit j and if the four be classed 
 together, they present a very singular analogy 
 to the deities and the hero reverenced in 
 the Erectheum at Athens, and to the four 
 agents in the Samothracian and Eleusinian mys- 
 teries. 
 
 If all these nations had severally their Ca- 
 birs, their instructors in useful truths, we may 
 believe that each acquired them by separate in- 
 heritance. We need not wonder that the Pe- 
 lasgic founders of the sacred rites in Samothrace 
 enjoyed their portion even more pure than the 
 early Egyptian mystics, who, with a further 
 supply of traditions, imported many obscene 
 rites, of which the Pelasgi may be supposed to 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 165 
 
 have been ignorant*. Whether these Pelasgi 
 were Scythians or a Celtic race, has been 
 
 * What is here asserted, respecting the purer rites of the 
 Pelasgi, is apparently contrary to the report of Herodotus, 
 and requires explanation. The setting up of unhewn stones in 
 Greece for religious memorials was a Pelasgic custom ; but, 
 as these were rough and unsculptured, the obscene addi- 
 tions to them must have been erroneously ascribed to the 
 Pelasgi by Herodotus. Pausanias assures us, that the 
 forming these stones into representations of Hermes, the 
 lower parts being quadrangular, was an original device of 
 the Athenians, Att. p. 56, and Messen. p. 36], Ed. KuhniL 
 The additions above alluded to, were necessarily subsequent 
 to the introduction of sculpture, and of indecent processions 
 by the Egyptian Melampus. If, as the same historian ob- 
 serves, the Initiators in Samothrace, in his time, explained 
 to their Epoptce the meaning of the Phallic Termini, then 
 common in Greece, yet how many additions might not the 
 Cabiric mysteries have experienced between the times when 
 Cadmus and Herodotus were initiated? Diodorus Siculus 
 furnishes a credible tradition respecting the first use of 
 Termini in Samothrace. It is this *. " At the time of the 
 
 * Tou? 8e 7r£giXe«^0evT«fj TrpfxnxvaSpa/jLuv *\g rovg v^nKoTepovg rrjg vfiaov 
 ToVoup. rrjg Be Stxhtxtr try g avaGouv over rig «et /axAXov, etii-aaQtxt rotg ®eo7g rod? 
 iyywgfovg, xx) §i<xcrwQevTc*g xw'hy 7tsp\ oX^v T//V vijffov opovg Seo-Qou Trig crwrripfag, 
 x«j fiufxoug idpuatxs-Qoii, efi ouy /*%>* to5 vuv Stf«v. Vol. i. lib. 5. p. 369. Ed. 
 Wesseling. 
 
166 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 matter of dispute. Some of their institutions 
 in Greece seem to have been derived from 
 Colchis on the Euxine. But Wise has traced 
 the Cabirs through the north of Asia Minor, 
 to Bactria. Strabo gave credit to an asser- 
 
 deluge, occasioned by the waters forcing their way from the 
 Euxine through the Cyanean rocks and the Hellespont, the 
 low grounds of Samothrace were inundated, by which many 
 persons were destroyed. Those of the natives who survived 
 betook themselves in haste to the higher places of the 
 island. But the sea ever gaining upon them, they prayed 
 to the gods, and being saved by them, they set up stones in 
 a circle (or round) about the island, to mark the limits 
 within which they they had found safety, and built altars, 
 on which they even now sacrifice. ,, Whoever may be cu- 
 rious in Celtic antiquities, and be disposed to attach im- 
 portance to the report of Strabo from Artemidorus alluded 
 to above, may consider, whether the Druidical circles of 
 stones in our island may not have been devised to imitate 
 this act of commemoration by the Pelasgi. The Samothra- 
 cian deluge was, perhaps, nothing more than a local tradition 
 of a much more general and important catastrophe. But 
 the setting up of boundary stones may be still more reason- 
 ably referred to the first establishment of the sons of Noah, 
 soon after the deluge (those at least who partook not in the 
 faction at Babel), when the Almighty set out the bounds of 
 their habitations. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 167 
 
 tion of Artemidorus, that similar mysteries to 
 those of Samothrace were celebrated in an island 
 near Britain, which has been supposed to be 
 Anglesea. 
 
 These circumstances give some colour to a 
 supposition, that they might have been a Go- 
 merian race. The very name of Gomer* im- 
 plies profoundly learned ; and his learning, we 
 may be very sure, consisted in a knowledge of 
 the pure Patriarchal worship, and of the tradi- 
 tions and expectations of the Noachidae. 
 
 Before I dismiss the subject of the antiquity 
 of the mysteries, Mr. OuvarorPs reference to 
 our Indian antiquaries must not be overlooked. 
 Like many others, Mr. OuvarofT has been daz- 
 zled by the discovery of Mr. Wilford, that 
 certain Sanscrit words were used in the mys- 
 teries. The admission however of foreign 
 terms does not necessarily imply the adoption 
 of foreign rites ; and, from a note in Davies's 
 edition of the Tusculan Disputations of Cicero 
 (lib. i. p. 53) it appears, that a superstitious re- 
 spect was anciently paid to words adopted 
 
 * *P».3 Chald. consomme, tres-s$avant; — Houbigant. 
 
168 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 from foreign languages, by which probably the 
 Oriental are implied. Hence these lines of 
 the pseudo-Zoroaster, quoted by the learned 
 critick — 
 
 'E<rr) y&g ov6y,otrcx, iea,§ ktiOLcrrois SeooSotol, 
 Avvafuv ev rsXsTals dLpprpov l^ovta." 
 
 " Change not foreign names, for every foreign nation has 
 some peculiar to it, imparted by the Deity, and these are of 
 unspeakable efficacy in Initiatory rites." 
 
 Hence the words Konx — om — pax might 
 have been introduced into the mysteries from 
 their being supposed . to possess some secret 
 virtue, even though the Initiators had not a 
 precise knowledge of their meaning. — It is 
 far from improbable, that these words may 
 hereafter be found to be of Sclavonian original, 
 since that language is said to be very closely 
 allied to the Sanscrit. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 169 
 
 Whether the Dii majorum Gentium were deified 
 
 Men. 
 
 An opinion of Mr. OuvarofPs illustrious 
 predecessor in these enquiries, Bishop Warbur- 
 ton, on a doctrine supposed to have been en- 
 forced in the mysteries, forms the subject of 
 Section V. in the foregoing Essay. But be- 
 fore I proceed to consider this point, I must 
 beg leave to differ from Mr. Ouvaroff on an- 
 other. He observes, that the supposition of 
 the Heathen gods having been merely deified 
 mortals, chiefly rests on the meaning that may 
 be attached to a word in Herodotus, who stated 
 that the Persians neither allowed the erecting 
 statues, temples, nor altars, as it appeared to 
 him, because they did not (as the Greeks) be- 
 lieve the gods to be a,v0gairo$viug 9 of human 
 origin. Mr. Ouvaroff rejects this sense of the 
 word a,v0goMro(pvtuSi and adopts our countryman 
 Stanley's interpretation humand forma prceditos. 
 But the true meaning of the word is, partaking 
 of human natures, which evidences the absur- 
 
170 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 dity alleged by the Persians, as including the 
 notion of form represented by statues, and of 
 dwelling in temples made with hands : and this 
 sense of the word is maintained by Bishop 
 Warburton in an excellent note in his Div. 
 Leg. vol. i. p. 150-1. 
 
 That all the Dii mqjorum Gentium were 
 declared in the mysteries to have been deified 
 mortals, can scarcely be credited. What has 
 been adduced to this effect from Cicero by 
 Warburton (two particular passages excepted) 
 from the declaration of Scaevola, as reported by 
 Augustine, and from Plutarch, relate only to 
 heroes, such as Hercules, Bacchus, iEscula- 
 pius, Castor and Pollux, or to Daemons. The 
 authorities that really countenance the opinion 
 are these : a passage from Cicero de Naturd 
 Deorum, another from the Tusculan Disputa- 
 tions, and a third from Augustine. This last, 
 however, is not so important. It is the story 
 of Alexander's communicating to his mother 
 by letter the information he had collected from 
 an Egyptian Hierophant, that the Dii mqjorum 
 Gentium had also been only men : but, allowing 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 171 
 
 this story to be true, it may have been no more 
 than a very keen satire ; and if we accept it in 
 too literal a sense, the fine point of it is lost. 
 
 If the great gods of Egypt were merely 
 parts of the universe, (and there may be reason 
 to suspect they were so considered,) the Egyp- 
 tian Hierophant might have withheld this in- 
 formation from Alexander; he would not scruple 
 however to own that the heroes had been dei- 
 fied men. But when he proceeded a step fur- 
 ther, to acquaint him that all the great gods (of 
 the chief of whom Olympias had persuaded her 
 son he was the offspring) were originally mere 
 mortals, this was a home stroke artfully levelled 
 at the great conqueror's pride ; and it was only 
 upon Alexander's proposing to report this to 
 his mother, that the priest betrayed alarm, ex- 
 pecting to feel the weight of his displeasure. 
 
 There remain, then, to be considered the two 
 passages of Cicero. In one of these, in the 
 Tusculan Disputations, lib. i. c. 13. (p. 26, ed. 
 Davisii) — " What," says he, " is not almost 
 all heaven, not to carry on this detail further, 
 filled with the human race ? But if I should 
 search and examine antiquity, and bring for- 
 
172 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 ward from it those things which the Grecian 
 writers have delivered, it would be found that 
 even those very gods themselves who are 
 deemed the Dii mqjorum Gentium, had their 
 original here below, and ascended from hence 
 into heaven. Enquire to whom those sepul- 
 chres belong, which are so commonly shewn 
 in Greece, — remember, for you are initiated, 
 what you have been taught in the mysteries ; 
 you will at length understand, how far this 
 matter can be carried *." 
 
 In this, which is the strongest authority, the 
 Grecian writers and local traditions are ad- 
 duced, both of which favor the opinion that the 
 greater gods were deified mortals. But this 
 opinion we shall find corrected in his Treatise 
 de Naturd Deorum, and there stigmatised by 
 him as highly irreligious. But the matter, he 
 adds, may be carried still further, for you 
 know what doctrines are revealed in the mys- 
 teries. He does not proceed to declare what 
 was precisely taught in them, but we may con- 
 
 * This is nearly Bishop Warburton's translation of the 
 passage, vol. i. Div. Leg. p. 213. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 173 
 
 elude they went still further than the Grecian 
 writers and local traditions ; and it must be 
 remembered that the argument here respects 
 not the nature of the gods, but the immortality 
 of the soul, w r hich the person whom Cicero ad- 
 dresses professed to disbelieve. 
 
 Indeed it is most surprising (if it were not 
 from an oversight,) that Cicero should thus 
 accost his auditor — " Meminiscere, quoniam es 
 Znitiatus, quae traduntur Mysteriis" — when the 
 latter denied a point of doctrine, which of all 
 others we may be sure was taught in the mys- 
 teries. To such a disputant Cicero, no doubt, 
 preferred adopting the most popular arguments, 
 and the system of Euhemerus, with regard 
 even to the greater gods, answered very well 
 this end. But he treats the matter much more 
 seriously in his Tract de Nat. Deor. 1. i. c. 42. 
 There he complains, that those who would as- 
 sert that religion had been invented for poli- 
 tical purposes, subverted it from its very 
 foundation : that Prodicus the Cean, who 
 deified things beneficial to man, had left not a 
 vestige of religion. Were not those devoid of 
 it, he adds, who deified the dead? As Euhe- 
 
174 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 merus; for Euhemerus proved their deaths and 
 burials. Did he establish religion by this, or 
 did he not rather annul it altogether ? He for- 
 bears to speak of Eleusis. He passes by Samo- 
 thrace (where perhaps a different account of 
 these things was given), and the mysteries of 
 Lemnos, in which mysteries, when explained, 
 and brought back to their true meaning, it is 
 found that not so much the nature of the gods 
 is taught in them, as the nature of things, where 
 the words " quibus explicatis" are immediately 
 connected with " eaque quce Lemni*. From 
 this supposition then of Bishop Warburton, the 
 mysteries of Lemnos undoubtedly, and proba- 
 bly both those of Samothrace and Eleusis, stand 
 clear. 
 
 We may believe therefore with Cicero in the 
 passage last adduced, and with the learned 
 Varro, that the great gods, when explained, 
 were no more than the elements or parts of the 
 universe. Even these authorities then, how- 
 
 * As I apprehend, they were rightly interpreted by the 
 Abbe Pluches, although his translation was not approved 
 by Bishop Warburton. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 175 
 
 ever apparently or partially favorable to Bishop 
 Warburton's supposition, may not be sufficiently 
 conclusive ; and the opinion of Mr. Ouvaroff 
 may be well founded, that the doctrine of the 
 Apotheosis, as referring to the greater gods, 
 was not set forth in the mysteries, although he 
 seems not to have rested his opinion to that 
 effect on the strongest arguments that might 
 have been selected. 
 
 On the Doctrine of the Mysteries. 
 
 Bishop Warburton has concluded, that the 
 Unity of the Godhead and the doctrine of a 
 Providence were taught in the mysteries. If 
 polytheism was explained away, I would fain 
 believe, that the first great truth was taught in 
 lieu of it. But that providence which consists 
 in God's holy, wise, and powerful support and 
 management of his creatures, is not implied in 
 any quotation that I remember to be adduced 
 by Warburton, much less in the scheme set 
 forth, and supported by many authorities, in 
 
116 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 the dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic 
 mysteries of Mr. Taylor, with which Mr. 
 Ouvaroff is apparently unacquainted. The 
 Essay of Mr. Taylor is curious, as it shews how 
 firmly a belief in the consequences of the Fall, 
 the deterioration of man's nature, was im- 
 pressed on the minds of the contemplative part 
 of the ancient world, and what wild specula- 
 tions resulted from engrafting on this belief, 
 the notion of a Metempsychosis. But whether 
 we must term this scheme comparatively late, 
 and not less than 790 years after the foundation 
 of the mysteries at Eleusis by Eumolpus, since 
 the doctrine of the Metempsychosis is said to 
 have been unknown in Greece before the time 
 of Pherecydes (who was the master of Pytha- 
 goras) about 560 years A. C. ; or whether the 
 Metempsychosis was that particular secret, 
 which Orpheus brought from Egypt, when the 
 mysteries were improved by him, I leave for 
 others to determine. It is fair however to 
 state, that even this view of the mysteries had 
 been in part anticipated by Warburton ; but, 
 like many other valuable, and well authenti- 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 177 
 
 cated points, it was thrown by him into 
 shadow, that his legislative system might ap- 
 pear more prominent. He had noticed from 
 Plato, that the end and design of initiation was, 
 to restore the soul to that state from whence it 
 fell, as from its native seat of perfection. Vol. 
 I. p. 195. This is completely in unison with 
 the suggestions of Mr. Ouvaroff, so very philo- 
 sophically and beautifully expressed in his 
 Third Section, where he apprehends that man's 
 relation to the Deity, the original dignity of 
 his nature, his fall, and the (supposed) mean 
 of his return to God, preserved from ancient 
 traditions, composed the doctrines of the knop- 
 prira. 
 
 By Mr. OuvarofPs method of resolving 
 polytheism into its first principles, many fables 
 in the popular religion of Greece will derive a 
 satisfactory elucidation. The descent of Pro- 
 serpine, who, instead of gathering fruit in Eden, 
 was hurried to the Inferi when culling flowers 
 in Enna ; the wanderings of Ceres, and the 
 partial recovery of her daughter, probably ef- 
 fected at Eleusis through the spiritual lacchus, 
 the parallel story of Eurydice wounded in the 
 
 N 
 
178 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 ankle * by a serpent, (applying still more closely 
 to the fate of our first parent,) and her resto- 
 ration by Orpheus, a reputed founder of the 
 mysteries, and the relapse of nature thus im- 
 perfectly restored, with other fables that might 
 be cited, all become intelligible from Mr. Ouva- 
 rofFs hypothesis. 
 
 On the Eleusinian lacchus. 
 
 In the last section of his Essay, the author 
 agitates a question, to which he may be thought 
 to have attached unnecessary importance; 
 whether the rites of Bacchus and Ceres were 
 not ultimately blended, and which Bacchus, of 
 the many celebrated by poets, was the lacchus 
 of the Eleusinian mysteries. No doubt, the 
 mysteries of Eleusis were enlarged and im- 
 proved by the addition of every species of 
 foreign fable, that could give variety and in- 
 terest to the shows, and many strange person- 
 ages, real or fictitious, would in time be ad- 
 
 * " Occidit, in talum serpentis dente recepto." 
 
 Ovid. Metam. 1. 10. v. 10. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 179 
 
 initted. Such may have been lacchus, of whose 
 origin so little is known. Of the three deities 
 named Bacchus, Mr. Ouvaroff observes, the 
 first is oriental or Egyptian, the second a pure 
 Hellenist ; but he is altogether at a loss to ac- 
 count for the third. He adds, that a consi- 
 derable part of ancient mythology rests upon 
 unknown portions of history. It represents 
 isolated facts that are lost in the night of time. 
 But if antiquaries will resort to Egypt for the 
 primary ideas of Greek mythology, let the 
 following be taken as a specimen of the his- 
 tories they bring away with them ; nor must 
 they object, if we suggest the possibility of 
 another true history, in a country adjoining to 
 Egypt, having been made to furnish a religious 
 allegory for the dramas at Eleusis. 
 
 Mr. Wise has observed, that Bacchus was 
 twice born, (which Diodorus refers to the 
 fruits of the earth being destroyed in the flood 
 of Deucalion, and springing up after it,) that 
 he planted the vine, made wine, and was over- 
 taken by the power of it ; where we have evi- 
 dent traces of the patriarch Noah. Again, he 
 has noticed, after Vossius, that Bacchus was 
 
 n 2 
 
1 80 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 born in Egypt, that he had two mothers, was 
 exposed upon the waters in an ark or chest, 
 was pictured horned, and was called the legis- 
 lator ; that he passed through the Red Sea, and 
 that one of the Bacchae of Euripides, by strik- 
 ing a rock with her Thyrsus, brought out water ; 
 in which some leading transactions in the life 
 of Moses are clearly alluded to. — Again he 
 observes, that Bacchus was termed Nebrodes, 
 and Zctygevg, Nimrod the mighty hunter. 
 {Hist, and Chron. of the fabulous Ages, p. 82. 
 3. 4.) With all these traditions and titles 
 Iacchus had no concern ; but we recognize in 
 them a course of ancient history, and a col- 
 lection of traditions borrowed from the Jewish 
 Scriptures. Let the following be added, as a 
 possible foundation for the story of Iacchus*. 
 
 * There is a very pleasing group of Ceres and Proser- 
 pine, with a figure of the young winged Iacchus alighting 
 near the shoulder of the latter, in the library of Christ- 
 church, Oxford. This interesting piece of antique sculp- 
 ture, was brought from Pella, in Macedonia, in the year 
 1806, by the late Alexander Mackenzie, Esq. then a student 
 of Christ-church, a learned young man of great worth and 
 promise. He died soon after presenting the marble to his 
 college. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 181 
 
 Ceres, after she had quitted heaven, griev- 
 ing for the loss of her daughter, accompanied 
 by her young son Iacchus, sat down upon the 
 stone of sorrow near the well Callichorus, 
 where her thirst was allayed. I will omit the 
 absurdity and indecency with which the fable 
 is further disfigured*, and enquire how this 
 could be applied at Eleusis, to illustrate the 
 noble doctrines which Mr. OuvarorT, with much 
 probability, has concluded were taught there. 
 
 * And for which Iamblichus has furnished a very sen- 
 sual apology. But the following extract from the Prae- 
 lectio of the worthy Dr. Cook, prefixed to his edition of 
 Aristotle, de Poetica, will shew the true cause of the intro- 
 duction of them. 
 
 " Atqui his sordibus atque immunditatibus inerat reli- 
 gio — manca ilia quidem ac depravata, ut ex pura castaque 
 quae fuerat virgine, ad impudicitiam omnemque turpitudinem 
 abjecta. Hsec autem fceda et probrosa facinora, lusus, las- 
 civiaeque, et promiscui marium cum fceminis congressus, 
 quid aliud spectant, aut ad quam originem repeti atque ar- 
 cessi possunt, nisi ad notam illam ac praeclaram itotkiy- 
 ysvEcriavt expectatam videlicet per tot saecula totius generis 
 humani instaurationem, cujus instaurator atque perfector 
 ipse homo factus futurus esset Deus." P. xxi. 
 
182 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The story may perhaps be traced to Gerara or 
 Idumsea, and therefore the Egyptians must 
 have been aware of it. It occurs in the 
 wanderings of the outcast Hagar with her son 
 Ishmael ; who, when exhausted with fatigue 
 and thirst, was comforted by an angel, who 
 shewed her, not indeed the well Callichorus, 
 but a spring of living water, vtiurog £avro$ 9 as it 
 is perhaps significantly expressed by the Sep- 
 tuagint: (Gen. c. xxi. v. 19.) evidently as an 
 assurance to Ishmael, that however, as the son 
 of the bondwoman, he was not chosen for the 
 line of succession, he was by no means ex- 
 cluded from partaking of that well of life, 
 which was to spring up in God's appointed 
 time # . 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that a temporal encourage- 
 ment was added, Gen. c. xxi. v, 18, that Ishmael should be 
 a great people ; and Gen. c. xxv. v. 16, his children are 
 designated twelve princes, the same in number as the heads 
 of the favoured tribes. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 18; 
 
 On the "words rihtrq and r'sXetog. 
 
 Mr. OuvarofF has suggested, that one of 
 the great objects of the mysteries was, the pre- 
 senting to fallen man the means of his return 
 to God. These means were the cathartic 
 virtues # , by the exercise of which a corporeal 
 life was to be vanquished. Accordingly the 
 mysteries were termed rsAsra), perfections, be- 
 cause they were supposed to induce a perfect- 
 ness of life. Those who were purified by them 
 were styled riXovptvoi and rersXscr^svoi, that is, 
 brought slg fo riXeiov, to perfection ; which 
 depended on the exertions of the individual. 
 In an attempt that I formerly made to eluci- 
 date the nature of the Eleusinian shows, I 
 ventured to conclude, that the doctrines of 
 them were explained by means of transparent 
 scenes^, and that these had been faithfully 
 
 * Dissertation of Mr. Taylor. 
 
 f Somewhat like the dramatic representations in the 
 island of Java, consisting of " scenic shadows, in which the 
 
184 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 copied upon the painted Greek vases; which 
 were accordingly deposited in tombs, to evi- 
 dence the faith of the deceased. It gave me 
 occasion to notice from Plutarch, that the vo- 
 taries of Isis professed to think of the deity, 
 as of their sacred veils ; that his nature was 
 partly dark and partly light and brilliant, in 
 other words, that it could only be imperfectly 
 comprehended. In a very remarkable passage 
 in the Epistle of St. James, it is said, that God 
 is the Father of Lights, and that in him is 
 neither variableness nor shadow of turning : 
 where the words lights and shadow seem to 
 allude to those heathen means of religious 
 improvement. But the words of the apostle 
 appear directed to the doctrines, as well as to 
 
 several heroes of the drama, represented in diminutive size, 
 are made to perform their entrances and exits behind a 
 transparent curtain." The subjects of these, it is said, are 
 taken from the ancient religious poems, the B'rata Yud'ha, 
 or Holy War, and the Romo or Rama. 
 
 See a discourse delivered to the Literary and Scientific 
 Society at Java, Sept. 10, 1815, by the Hon. T. S. Raffles, 
 president, published in Valpy's Pamphleteer, No. 15. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 1 85 
 
 the mysterious shows of the Pagans. For, as 
 in them, perfection was to be obtained by the 
 efforts of the individual exercising himself in 
 the cathartic virtues ; the inspired teacher 
 shews, that such advancement was only really 
 attainable by the gift of God. 
 
 " IIa<ra 86<ri$ dyaQy, na) irocv Sajpypa. te\siov ocvouQsv strfi, 
 xafagcuvov dito tov ntatfQQs tuv (poofouv, ita§ cu ovk svi ##$>- 
 aKXay^, ^ T^oit^g ditoa-yiloca-^a,. 99 c. i. v. 17. 
 
 " Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, 
 and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is 
 no variableness, neither shadow of turning." 
 
 Where rshuov 9 perfect, is the very word used 
 by the Pagans to express the object of their 
 mysteries. Hence I would infer, that iotrig 
 wyu$hi good gift, must denote temporal bless- 
 ings, and dcogripcx, ri"kziov, spiritual graces*; and 
 with these I should presume to accept the 
 
 * See Locke on 1 Cor. c. ii. v. 6. h Tot; fsteloif, amongst 
 them that are perfect. " Perfect,'' says Locke, " here is the 
 
 same with spiritual." The words sv ?o7$ rsXeiois h 
 
 fjt,v<ri'y}§lu) — rr t v diroKsx.§u^evrjv used, by St. Paul, seem all 
 to be applied to the initiated Pagans. 
 
 o 
 
186 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 word (poorav, lights, in a much more exalted 
 sense than Schleussner in his Lexicon has as- 
 signed to the word, with reference to this 
 passage. 
 
 The books of the Old and the New Covenant 
 best interpret each other: accordingly, this 
 passage of St. James elucidates the nature of 
 the Urim and Thummim, in the prophetical 
 breast-plate of the Jewish high priest, (in 
 Levit.), which Dean Prideaux properly de- 
 termined to be the divine power given to the 
 breast-plate in its consecration ; " for Urim 
 signifieth light, and Thummim perfection*." 
 Thus, when the Almighty directed in what 
 manner the vestments of the high priest should 
 be made, he commanded Moses to place in 
 the breast-plate the Urim and Thummim, 
 Exod. c. xxviii. v. 30.: when the workmen how- 
 ever executed their work, no mention of these 
 occurs; Exod. c. xxxix. v. 21., for they were 
 not to be inserted by human hands. But when 
 Moses consecrates Aaron and invests him, he 
 adds the Urim and Thummim, by virtue of 
 
 * Connection, vol. i. p. 215. 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 187 
 
 his commission from the Almighty. Levit. 
 c. viii. v. 8. 
 
 These Urim and Thummim, then, were 
 spiritual gifts imparted from the Father of 
 lights. They implied, that whenever the high 
 priest fastened on the sacred breast-plate, he 
 was spiritually and divinely illuminated, and 
 permitted to look into futurity, as far as re- 
 garded the immediate purpose of enquiry into 
 the Divine Will. To this I will lastly add, 
 that the Urim and Thummim of Christians is 
 the Gospel. And I cannot better conclude 
 my remarks on the subject of Mr. OuvarofFs 
 speculations, than by illustrating what I have 
 recently adduced, in the words of the excellent 
 Stanhope : — 
 
 " The great ends which God seems to have intended 
 the doctrine of his Gospel should serve, are the enlightening 
 our minds, and purifying our natures ; letting us into a 
 nearer view of a future state, and the incommunicable 
 perfections of the Divine Nature; and bringing us to a 
 better likeness of those that are communicable." 
 
 and again : — 
 
 " The exalting^ I mean, and purifying our nature, and 
 
 o 2 
 
£Z%J>&4^A 
 
 188 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 so rendering us more like God, in those of his perfections 
 which may and ought to be imitated by us *.*' 
 
 * Paraphrase and Comment on the Epistles and Gospels, 
 Vol. l. p. 181. 
 
 J. CHRISTIE. 
 
 THE END, 
 
 Printed by S. Hamilton, Weybridge, Surrey, 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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