Our chief source of information concerning the mysteries of Isis is Metamorphoses, or Golden Ass, written by Lucius Apuleius (born A.D. 125). At the close of the work the author describes the experiences of one undergoing initiation into the Egyptian cult. We may accept the information with confidence, for the account is marked by too much sincerity to pass, like the story which pre- cedes it, as a product of the imagination. Un- fortunately, the information bears on the rites of preparation, not on the transactions in the sanctu- ary itself. We learn from it that the candidate for initiation had to await the summons of Isis, even after he had been assured by her that he was destined for her ministry. During this period of waiting he must carefully perform bis religious duties and preserve a digniHed silence. At the proper time Isis makes her will known to him in a vision, and the priest, to whom she has addressed herself at the same moment, in the 'darksome night' and by no 'obscure mandate,' informs him that Isis is ready to communicate to him her secrets. After certain ceremonies, whose signiti- cance is not disclosed, the priest ' washed and sprinkled him with the purest water,' and, after giving him further secret instructions, enjoined upon liim abstinence for ten days from all but the simplest food. At the close of the fast he was
led, clothed in new linen garments, to the innet recesses of the sanctuarj% where the mysteries of the cult were revealed to him. Of course the revelations were inviolably secret, but no doubt they centred about the cruel treatment of Serapis, the search of Isis for his dead body, and the resur- rection of the god. We should be glad to know what was said and done in the sanctuary.
' I would tell you,' answers Apuleius, ' were it lawful for me to tell you ; you should know it, if it were lawful for you to hear. liut both the ears that heard these thiiit.'8, and tlie tongue that told them, would reap the evil results of their rashness ' (xi. '.iy).
The final initiation was consummated at night, as it was in all the mystery-religions ; for it is in the midnight hours that mind and heart are the most deeply impressed.
In those hours, Apuleius goes on, ' I approached the confines of death, and having trod on the threshold of Proserpine, I returned tlicrefrom, being borne through the elements. At midnight I saw the sun shining with its biilliant light, and I approached the presence of the gods beneath, and the gods of heaven, and stood near and worshipped them ' (xi. 2a).
In the morning he appeared crowned with palm leaves and dressed in a many-coloured robe, and was received by the people with joy and adoration. Apparently they regarded him as identihed with the deity and worthy of divine honours. Christi- anity escaped this partial idolatry prevalent in all mystery-religions, for at no time in its history was the worshipper of Christ identified in like manner with the Christ Himself. No sacramental meal is mentioned as a part of the ceremony by Apuleius. He speaks of a ' religious breakfast ' as a feature of the ceremonies of the third day ; but this formed no element in the initiation itself. Since the Egyptian cults had become syncretistic they may have adopted the sacramental meal, for, as in the Semitic, so in the Egyptian religion, it was not emphasized in earlier times. The fact that it occurs in the Eleusinian mysteries is no proof of its presence in the mysteries of Isis ; for, while the resemblances between the two cults are sufficiently striking, the ditl'erences are equally impressive. De Jong sums them up briefly : the respective tasks of Isis and Demeter are wholly unlike : the one sought her brother and husband, who is dismembered ; the other sought her daughter, who remains physically sound. The initiation into the mysteries of Isis involved unreserved consecra- tion to her service ; initiation into the mysteries of Demeter did not make this extreme demand. In the one case the individual was initiated by him- self ; in the other the initiation embraced many individuals at once. The cult of Isis received the candidate at any moment, as her will decided, the cult of Demeter at a stated moment. The one was open to astrological ideas, the other was proof against them. These difterences reveal a mutually independent development, although somewhere in pre-historic times they perhaps sprang from a common source.
The extent of the influence of the Egyptian cults can be more satisfactorily determined than the extent of the Eleusinian influence. Cumont regards it as very great. 'At the beginning of our ei'a,' he says, ' there set in that great movement of conversion that soon established the worship of Isis and Serapis from the outskirts of the Sahara to the vallum of Britain, and from the mountains of Asturias to the mouths of the Danube' {Oriental lieligions, p. 8.'i). Again, he informs us that the priests of the Egyptian religion ' made proselytes in every province' of the Roman world (ib. p. 86). But Toutain disputes this conclusion and restricts the influence of the Egyptian mysteries. They did not take root in the provincial .soil, did not modify sensibly the ideas and practices of the