Mystery religions, sacred Mysteries or simply Mysteries, were religious cults In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings , its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. Cult in this primary sense is literally the "care" (Latin cultus) owed to the of the Greco-Roman world The Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman culture, or the term Greco-Roman , when used as an adjective, as understood by modern scholars and writers, refers to those geographical regions and countries who culturally (and so historically) were directly, protractedly and intimately influenced by the language, culture, government and religion of the ancient, participation in which was reserved to initiates A rite of passage is a ritual that marks a change in a person's social status. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures. Rites of passage are often ceremonies surrounding events such as childbirth, menarche or other milestones within puberty, coming.[1] The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy associated with the particulars of the initiation and the cult practice, which may not be revealed to outsiders. The most famous Mysteries of Greco-Roman antiquity were the Eleusinian Mysteries The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries, begun in the Mycenean period (c. 1600 BC) and lasting two thousand years,, which were of considerable antiquity and predated the Greek Dark Ages The Greek Dark Age or Ages are terms which have regularly been used to refer to the period of Greek history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean Palatial civilization around 1200 BC, to the first signs of the Greek city-states in the 9th century BC. These terms are gradually going out of use, since the former lack of. The popularity of mystery cults flourished in Late Antiquity Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed a period between the second and eighth centuries; Julian the Apostate Flavius Claudius Iulianus, known also as Julianus, Julian, Julian the Apostate or Julian the Philosopher , was Roman Emperor (Caesar, November 355 to February 360; Augustus, February 360 to June 363), last of the Constantinian dynasty. Julian was a man of "unusually complex character": he was "the military commander, the theosophist, in the mid 4th century is known to have been initiated into three distinct mystery cults. Notable among these late cults was the Mithraic Mysteries The Mithraic Mysteries or Mysteries of Mithras was a mystery religion centered on the god Mithras, became popular among the military in the Roman Empire, from the 1st to 4th centuries AD. Information on the cult is based mainly on interpretations of the many surviving monuments. The most characteristic of these are depictions of Mithras as being.
Due to the secret nature of the cult, and because the mystery religions of Late Antiquity Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed a period between the second and eighth centuries disappeared after the 4th century (Theodosius I Flavius Theodosius , commonly known as Theodosius I or Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War - establishing their homeland south of the Danube within the empire's borders. He is closed the Eleusian sanctuaries by decree in 392 AD), the details of these religious practices are unknown to scholarship, although there are educated guesses as to their general content.[2]:50f
Although Early Christianity Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the roughly three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus (c. 30) and the First Council of Nicaea (325). At first, the Christian church was centered in Jerusalem, and its leaders included James, Peter, and John. The first Christians were all Jewish or Jewish Proselytes, either by was not a mystery religion, its central theology and ritual The Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, Sacrament of the Table, the Blessed Sacrament, or The Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance, generally considered to be a re-enactment of the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion, during which he gave them being available, and indeed actively preached, to the uninitiated, it had many parallels to the popular mystery cults in terms of terminology (salvation The theological study of salvation is called soteriology. It covers the means by which salvation is effected or achieved, and its results. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or "redemption" from sin and its effects, resurrection The resurrection of dead humans is a central doctrine of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. It may refer to the literal resurrection of biologically dead corpses by divine power, or to a purely spiritual resurrection where the 'dead' come to Life (in Christianity referred to as eternal Life) by means of spiritual awakening and subsequent, eternal life Immortality is the concept of living in a physical or spiritual form for an infinite length of time) and in the particulars of the performance of initiation and ritual (the sacraments A sacrament, as defined in Hexam's Concise Dictionary of Religion is what Roman Catholics believe to be "a rite in which God is uniquely active." Augustine of Hippo defined a Christian sacrament as "a visible sign of an invisible reality." The Anglican Book of Common Prayer speaks of them as "an outward and visible sign of). Justin Martyr Justin Martyr (103–165) was an early Christian apologist and saint. His works represent the earliest surviving Christian "apologies" of notable size explicitly noted these parallels and identified them as "demonic imitations" of the true faith, and that "the devils, in imitation of what was said by Moses, asserted that Proserpine was the daughter of Jupiter, and instigated the people to set up an image of her under the name of Kore" (First Apology The First Apology was an early work of Christian apologetics addressed by Justin Martyr to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. It is dated to the period 150-155). Through the 1st to 4th century, it stood in direct competition for adherents with the mystery cults, insofar as "[t]he mystery cults too [were] an intrinsic element of the non-Jewish horizon of the reception of the Christian message." They too were "embraced by the process of the inculturation of Christianity in its initial phase," and they made "their own contribution to this process."[3]:152 In Klauck & McNeil's opinion, "the Christian doctrine of the sacraments, in the form in which we know it, would not have arisen without this interaction; and Christology Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature and person of God. As such, Christology is generally less concerned with the details of Jesus' life (what he did) or too understood how to 'take up' the mythical inheritance, purifying it and elevating it."[3]:152
Contents |
Definition
The term "Mystery" derives from Latin mysterium, from Greek musterion (usually as the plural musteria μυστήρια), in this context meaning "secret rite or doctrine." An individual who followed such a "Mystery" was a mystes (a mystic) "one who has been initiated," from myein "to close, shut," a reference to secrecy (closure of "the eyes and mouth"[4]:56) or that only initiates were allowed to observe and participate in rituals. The Mysteries were thus cults in which all religious functions were closed to the uninitiated and for which the inner-working of the cult were kept secret from the general public.
Characteristics
Mystery religions form one of three types of Hellenistic religion Hellenistic religion is any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of the peoples who lived under the influence of ancient Greek culture during the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire . There was much continuity in Hellenistic religion: the Greek gods continued to be worshipped, and the same rites were practiced as before. Change came, the others being the imperial cult An Imperial cult is a form of state religion in which an emperor, or a dynasty of emperors , are worshiped as messiahs, demigods or deities. "Cult" here is used to mean "worship," not in the modern pejorative sense. The cult may be one of personality in the case of a newly arisen Euhemerus figure or one of national identity (e or ethnic religion An ethnic religion is a religion that is closely tied to a particular ethnic group. Some scholars classify religions as either universal religions that seek worldwide acceptance and actively look for new converts, or ethnic religions that are identified with a particular ethnic group and do not seek converts particular to a nation or state, and the philosophic religions Hellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy that was developed in the Hellenistic civilization following Aristotle and ending with the beginning of Neoplatonism such as Neoplatonism Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists. Neoplatonists would have considered themselves simply "Platonists", and the modern distinction is due to the perception that their. This is also reflected in the tripartite division of "theology Theology is the study of a god or, more generally, the study of religious faith, practice, and experience, or of spirituality" by Varro Marcus Terentius Varro , also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Roman scholar and writer, in civil theology Political theology is a branch of both political philosophy and theology that investigates the ways in which theological concepts or ways of thinking underlie political, social, economic and cultural discourses. The same term has been used in a wide variety of ways by writers exploring different aspects of the subject, with tension developing (concerning the state cult and its stabilizing effect on society), natural theology Natural theology is a branch of theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus it is distinguished from revealed theology which is based on scripture and religious experiences of various kinds; and also from transcendental theology, theology from a priori reasoning (philosophical speculation about the nature of the divine) and mythical theology Marcus Terentius Varro in his (lost) Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum established a distinction of three kinds of theology: civil (political) (theologia civilis), natural (physical) (theologia naturalis) and mythical (theologia mythica). The theologians of civil theology are "the people", asking how the gods relate to daily life (concerning myth and ritual In traditional societies, myth and ritual are two central components of religious practice. Although myth and ritual are commonly united as parts of religion, the exact relationship between them has been a matter of controversy among scholars. One of the approaches to this problem is "the myth and ritual, or myth-ritualist, theory",).
Mysteries thus supplements rather than competes with civil religion The intended meaning of the term civil religion often varies according to whether one is a sociologist of religion or a professional political commentator. The following discussion includes both perspectives followed by a brief history of the concept. An individual could easily observe the rites of the state cult, be an initiate in one or several mysteries, and at the same time adhere to a certain philosophical school.[5]:99 In contrast to the public rituals of civil religion, participation in which was expected of every member of society, initiation to a mystery was optional within Graeco-Roman polytheism. Many of the cultic aspects of public religion are repeated within the mystery, sacrifices, ritual meals, ritual purifications etc., just with the additional aspect that they take place in secrecy, confined to a closed set of initiates.[3]:86
This is important in the context of the early persecution of Christians Early Christians were persecuted for their faith, at the hands of both Jews from whose religion Christianity was an offshoot, and the Roman Empire which controlled much of the land early Christianity was distributed across. This continued from the first century until the early fourth, when the religion was legalised by Constantine I. There is also: Christianity was seen as objectionable by the Roman establishment not on grounds of being its religious tenets or cultic practice, but because early Christians chose to consider their new faith as precluding the participation in the imperial cult, which was seen as subversive by the Roman establishment.
The mystery cults offered a niche for the preservation of archaic religious ritual, and there is reason to assume that they were very conservative. The Eleusian Mysteries persisted for more than a millennium, more likely close to two millennia, during which period the ritual of public religion changed significantly, from the archaic cult of the Bronze to Early Iron Age to the Hero cult Hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, "hero" refers to a man who was fighting on either side during the Trojan War. By the historical period, however, the word came to mean specifically a dead man, venerated and propitiated at his tomb or at a designated shrine, because his fame of Hellenistic civilization and again to the imperial cult The Roman Imperial cult identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned, charismatic authority of the Roman State. The framework for Imperial cult was formulated during the early Principate of Augustus, and was rapidly established throughout the Empire and its provinces, with marked local variations in its of the Roman era, while the ritual performances of the mysteries for all we know remained unchanged. "They had, more often than not, come up from a barbarous underworld. They were singularly persistent. The mysteries at Eleusis near Athens lasted for a thousand years; and there is reason to believe that they changed little during that long period."[2]:51 For this reason, what glimpses we do have of the older Greek mysteries have been taken as reflecting certain archaic aspects of common Indo-European religion, with parallels in Indo-Iranian religion in particular, by Janda (2000).[6]
The mystery cults of Greco-Roman antiquity include the Eleusinian Mysteries The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries, begun in the Mycenean period (c. 1600 BC) and lasting two thousand years,, the Dionysian Mysteries The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of ancient Greece and Rome which used intoxicants and other trance-inducing techniques, such as dance and music, to remove inhibitions and artificial societal constraints, liberating the individual to return to a more natural and primal state. It also afforded a degree of liberation for the marginals of Greek, the Orphic Mysteries and the Mithraic Mysteries The Mithraic Mysteries or Mysteries of Mithras was a mystery religion centered on the god Mithras, became popular among the military in the Roman Empire, from the 1st to 4th centuries AD. Information on the cult is based mainly on interpretations of the many surviving monuments. The most characteristic of these are depictions of Mithras as being. Some of the many divinities that the Romans nominally adopted from other cultures also came to be worshipped in Mysteries, so for instance Egyptian Isis Isis or in original more likely Aset was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshiped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the, Thracian/Phrygian Sabazius Sabazios is the nomadic horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians. In Indo-European languages, such as Phrygian, the -zios element in his name derives from dyeus, the common precursor of Latin deus ('god') and Greek Zeus. Though the Greeks interpreted Phrygian Sabazios with both Zeus and Dionysus, representations of him, even into and Phrygian Cybele Cybele , was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother. As with Greek Gaia (the "Earth"), or her Minoan equivalent Rhea, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth, a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals (especially lions and bees). Phrygian Cybele is often identified with the Hittite-Hurrian goddess.[7]:21
References
- ^ Crystal, David, ed. (1995), "Mystery Religions", Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/Cambridge/entries/059/mystery-religions.html .
- ^ a b Barnes, Ernest William (1947), The Rise of Christianity .
- ^ a b c Klauck, Brian; McNeil (2003), The Religious Context of Early Christianity, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 9780567089434 .
- ^ Newberg, Andrew (2001), Why God Won't Go Away, New York: Ballantine
- ^ Iles Johnson, Sarah (2007), "Mysteries", in Iles Johnson, Sarah, Ancient Religions, Cambridge: Belknap Press/Harvard UP, ISBN 978-0-674-02548-6
- ^ Janda, Michael (2000), Eleusis: das indogermanische Erbe der Mysterien, (Habil. Thesis), Innsbruck .
- ^ Hall, Manly P. (1928), The Secret Teachings of all ages, San Francisco: s.p., http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/
Further reading
- Burkert, Walter Walter Burkert , a scholar of Greek mythology and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and also has taught in the United Kingdom and the United States. He has influenced generations of students of religion since the 1960s, combining in the modern way the findings of archaeology and epigraphy with the (1987), Ancient Mystery Cults, Cambridge, Mass.
- Kirk, Geoffrey S. (1970), Myth: Its Meaning and Function in Ancient and Other Cultures, Cambridge: Cambridge UP
- Meyer, W. M. (1987), The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook. Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World, San Francisco
- Willoughby, H. R. (1929), Pagan Regeneration: Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World, Chicago
Categories: Greco-Roman mysteries
Ra-El
Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:30:00 GM
They understood who they were and their place in the universe. As time went on, man created . religion. and took creation stories literally. So, came the . mystery. gods, their powers, religious practices, dogma, rituals, etc. ...
