MYSTERY, MYSTERIES
MYSTERY, MYSTERIES
immense majority of the people, and remained always exotie cults in the Western world (Les Cultcs paifn.i, ii. 34). This eonehision is based largely on the absence of monuments and inscrip- tions in certain parts of the Roman Empire, and is, therefore, an inference from silence. But, as we determine the extent of the influence of a mystery-religion by the indications of its presence, the absence of such indications forms a reasonable basis for judgment. The Egyjitian cults, however, were sulhciently extensive to make their inlluence felt in wide areas. Yet that inHuence cannot be said to have reached with any degree of potency the writings of the NT. Schweitzer seems to admit that St. Paul may have known of the cult of Serapis and Isis (Gcschichtc der paulinischen Forschung, p. 150, tr. W. Montgomery, Paul and his Interpreters, London, 1912, pp. 191-192). But, if he did, his knowledge must have been extremely limited, for it exercised no perceptible moulding power over his thought. The eliects of the cult on the ceremonial of the Cliurch are more apparent ; but even here the resemblances take the form of analogy rather than of genealogy. The division of the followers of Isis into believer and initiate corresponds with the Christian division into cat- echumen and faithful. But the Christian parallel would be more striking had the Christian division been into layman and priest, as in the Egyptian cult. The Egyptian fasts, processions, morning and evening worship, have their answering Chris- tian ceremonies, but are not causally related to them to the exclusion of all other sources. The tonsure, it is possible, came directly from the Egyptian cults into the Christian Church. From the earliest times it was practised by the priest of Isis and Serapis for the purpose of cleanliness at the sacrifice. It was peculiar to him, for the Attis priest wore his hair long, like the modern dervish. From the Egyptian cult it passed into the Chris- tian communities of Egyptian ascetics, and thence, by the end of the 5th cent., to the Christian clergy. Again, the derivation of the adoration of Mary, the mother of Christ, from the worship of Isis is not wholly convincing, for the Christological con- troversies of the 4th and 5th centuries may have been the sole factor in bringing about this fateful result. All this took place at a comparatively late period. At any rate, as Clemen intimates (Der Einjlitss der Mysterienreligionen, p. 9), the influence of the Egyptian mysteries in the 1st cent, must not be assumed to be extensive in the sphere of the Christian Church.
(e) The mysteries of Asia Minor. — The mysteries of Attis and Cybele were the most famous and influential in the early religious life of Asia Minor. Nowhere and at no time does Attis appear to be worshipped apart from Cybele. He is related to her now as her lover, now as her child. The story of this double relation, like other mythological tales of leading deities, is various. One, the Lydian story, represents Attis as killed, like Adonis, by a wild boar. The other, the Phrygian story, represents him as driven to frenzy by the jealousy of Cybele, and as dying from the ett'ects of self-mutilation under a pine or fir tree, which thereby became sacred to him. Cybele herself was the greatest of the deities of Asia Minor. She bore many names, and the seat of her worship was in the Galatian city of Pessinus. Here in very early times the stone of meteoric character, ' a black aerolite ' (Cumont, Oriental Religioiis, p. 47), which was to play an important part in the religious life of Rome, was to be found. And here was the grave of Attis, over whose death the Phrygians mournel in their annual festival.
The primitive history of tlie cult is unknown. The supremacy of Cybele seems to point back to a
matriarchal order of social life. And the name of Attis, for which no exi>liination has been reached, appears to h;ive bclongid to some remote and for- gotten speech. A few scholars suggest the Uittile tongue. But possibly it may yet prove to be a relic of the old i^igean civilization which had its seat in Crete and who.se ruler bore the title of ' Minos,' as the ruler of the Egyptians bore that of ' Pharaoh.' Farnell thinks that ' In following back to its fountain-head the origins of this cult, we are led inevitably to Minoan Crete' (Greece and Bnbylim, Edinburgh, 1911, p. 92). It was Attis, not Cybele, who was the prominent figure in the mj'steries. What Osiiis was among the Egyptians, or Adonis among the Phoenicians, Attis was among the Phrygians. He bore the character of a chthonic deity, a god of vegetation, for he had his death and his resurrection, like the grain. His priests were called Galli, or Galloi, and the chief priest claimed the name of Attis himself. In honour of the god, and in a moment of extreme ecstasy, they unmanned themselves^an act which distinguishes the cult of Attis from all othi^rs, and whose source and explanation still baflle the investigator. In the year 204 B.C. the sacred stone of Cybele w^as taken from Pessinus and carried to Rome. This was done in obedience to a Sibylline oracle, which declared that the conquests of Hannibal in Italy would not cease until a sanctuary was established for the worship of Cybele in Rome. The stone was received with much ceremony and was placed in the temple of the goddess of victory on the Palatine. This inauguration of the worship of Attis and Cybele in Rome is regarded as the first step toward the conquest of the West by the Oriental cults. But at the outset the Phrygi.an cult gained no perceptible control over the Roman mind. Romans were forbidden by legislative acts to take part in its ceremonies. It was placed ex- clusively in the hands of Phrygian priests, who alone were permitted to perform its rites and to receive alms from the citizens for its support. This rigorous exclusion of Romans from the cult con- tinued until the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54), who placed the Plirygian festival among the publicly recognized festivals of the city. The cause of this act is attributed by Cumont to the desire of Claudius to establish a rival of Isis, whose worship had already been favoured by Caligula, and whose processions were attaining a constantly increasing popularity. This early date is disputed, but both Hepding (Attis, seine Mythen und scin Ktilt, p. 145) and Cumont (Oriental Religions, p. 55) agree on its correctness.