(c) Th^ mysteries of Anclania. — The Andanian mysteries were celebrated at Andania in Messenia, th* south-western part of Greece (Peloponnesus). Originally they were consecrated to Demeter and to Kore, who was called Hague, 'the Holy One.' But at a later period Hermes, the Kabeiroi, and Apollo were added to these deities. The Andanian inscription of 91 B.C. gives us some information concerning their external rites. The manner in which the priests take the oath, the various crowns or head-dresses which the priests and the mystics should wear, the dress of linen in which they should be clothed, are described. Women are directed to be present with hair unbound and feet unshod, and tlie animals to be offered to the dif- ferent deities are designated. Married women figure as priestesses, and grades of initiation ap- pear here as in the Eleusinian mysteries. While evidences of required baptisms and anointings are apparent, there is no indication of a sacra- mental meal ; but as such meals were customary in
the secret cults, it is possible that it had a place in the Andanian mysteries. Of the purpose of these mysteries we know nothing, but we can conjecture that they were related to the harvest, and that they gave to the initiate a happy lot in the future world.
(d) The Egjiptian mysteries. — As early as the XlXth dynasty the Egyptian cults had already begun to spread into other lands. They were founded on the legend of Osiris, who, like Demeter, was originally a deity of vegetation. The myth that centres about him is gathered from various sources, among which Plutarch's account may be regarded as the chief. He is usually represented as the son of the earth-god Keb and the sky- goddess Nut, which is the reverse of the cus- tomary relationship of the parental deities. On reaching manhood he ruled his country for twenty-eight years, and proved to be a beneficent monarch. He taught his subjects how to culti- vate their fields, to train their vines, and to woik with tools. He even left his country and carried everywhere his knowledge of the arts of a helpful life. On his return his evil-minded brother. Set, persuaded him to test the capacity of a chest to receive his body, and, as soon as he had stretched himself in it, Set shut the lid, fastened it down, and threw the chest into the Nile. Isis, the sister- wife of Osiris, in an agony of grief went every- where seeking him, and, finally recovering the body, returned with it to Egypt and hid it among the reeds by the river. But Set, while hunting at night, discovered it under the moonlight, and, dis- membering it, scattered the several parts through- out the country. Isis renewed her search, and on finding the fragments gave them a fitting burial. Another version of the story tells us that Anubis, sent by Ra, came to her aid, and with the help of Thot and of Horus (in Greek times Harpocrates) fitted the parts together, enveloped them in a linen winding-sheet, and then by his magical power restored him to life. From this moment Osiris presided over the under world as its king and judge. All disembodied souls had to appear before him, make their confession to him, and receive at his hands the award of their deeds. In this capacity Osiris was viewed as the representative and giver of immortal life. In order to receive it, one must have become even identified with him and be called by his name. His great festival be- gan on 2Sth October and ended on 1st November.
It was not until the time of Ptolemy I. (306-2S5 B.C.) that the Egyptian mysteries made rapid pro- gress. He seems to have given the first impulse to the syncretism, or amalgamation of cults and divinities, which for six or seven centuries was to direct the religious life and practice of men, and which is supposed by some scholars to have deeply influenced even the beginnings of Christianity. The first step in this syncretistic movement was the adoption of the name Serapis for that of Osiris. The origin of the name is still doubtful. Some find its source in the Chaldfe.an Sar-apsi. But more probably it is simply the reduced form of Osiris-apis (Oser-hapi). The union of the god with the sacred bull. Apis, which was regarded as his incarnation, would suit Egyptian prejudices, and the name Serapis itself would ajjpeal to the Greek mind. Thus Serapis, Isis, and Horus or Harpocrates were the leading deities in the Egj'ptian cults, Anubis, Jupiter Hammon, and the S|ihinx ranking after them. They were invoked sometimes together, and sometimes separately. Usually the name Serapis leads the rest, and when alone is identified with Zeus and Helios, giving rise to the formula, inscribed on amulets, ' Zeus, Helios, and Serapis are one.' More frequently two names, Serapis and Isis, are united in one
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MYSTERY, MYSTERIES
invocation, but Isis also often stands alone, as in Spain and Gaul, and receives the exclusive worship.
Under the Ptolemys the cults spread through the ^^ean islands and found numerous adherents along the shores of Asia Minor. In the same period they had reached Greece, and they arrived in Sicily about the year 'jys B.C. The later pro- gress of Cliri.stianity was hardly more rapid. The abilitj'of the cult of Serapis bj' itself to arouse the emotions and fancies, its capacity to answer the ascetic longings, its power to amalgamate itself with other cults, and to meet the monotheistic tendency, combined to give it a victorious career. However, it was Isis, the queen deity, that became the more celebrated of the two. The charm of her personality attracted tlie attections of many peoples. Her gracious attitude toward women, especially young women, enlisted in her following one of the most potential aids to the dissemination of a religious cult. Her dark temples, solemn and mysterious, drew, rather than repelled, the re- ligiously inclined. About 150 B.C. her cult reached Italy, but did not enter Rome until the middle of the 1st cent. B.C. There it encountered a deter- mined opposition, its altars and images being destroyed four times in the course of one decade. But the cult was tenacious. The emperor Tiberius dealt it another blow in A.D. 19. Soon after this resistance gave way, for the cult of Isis did what the State-religions were not doing — gave to the worshipper the consciousness of direct and personal communion with the deity. In A.D. 38 Caligula built the great temple of Isis on the Campus Martins, which figures in the story of Apuleius. In A.D. 215 Caracalla placed the cult on a level with the State-cults and built for the worship of Isis one of her finest temples. The goddess of countless names, Isis Myrionyma, had conquered. She is rightly called Domina, Victri.\, Invicta, Mater, Panthea ; and, had her worship finally pre- vailed, the Creator of all things visible and invisible would have been conceived as the feminine rather than as the masculine principle of the univer.se. But her reign ceased, although years after every other mystery-religion had vanished. Her cult lingered on in southern Egypt, where probably, in pre-historic times, the goddess began her career, and in A.D. 560 Justinian closed her only remain- ing temple on the little island of Philoe.