imparting to himself the vigour of health, increased prosperity, illumination of mind, power to cope successfully with evil spirits, and finally a blessed immortality. De Jong ajipcars to regard the com- munion as the culuiinaliim of the initiation. Others view the taurubuiiuiii, which was a rite in the Persian cult also, as the culmination, when the candidate emerged from his rejuilsive bath and received the homage of the people as one who had become identilied with the god. Of the two opinions the latter may be viewed as the more correct.
The relation of the Persian to the Egyptian cult was close. There were Mithras-fathers who at the same time were priests of Serapis and Isis. It is significant that the priest who conducted Apuleius through the mysteries of Isis bore the name of Mithras. The idea of the service of the god as a lifelong warfare was common to both ; and the moral requirements received in them stronger emphasis than in the other mystery- religions. Further, the followers of Mithras, inas- much as women with few exceptions were excluded from their cult, sought and received the admission of their wives and daughters into the Isis cult, where they were sometimes advanced to high official position. The relations of the Mithraic cult to the Attis mysteries were hardly less cordial. The Mithrreum in Rome adjoined the temple of the Phrj'gian mother, and the possession of the taurobolium by both formed a bond of sympathy. The attitude of Mithraism to the growing Christian Church also was kindly until the rivalry between them became intense, when goodwill gave way to animosity, and the Mithraic priesthood early in the 4th cent, inaugurated through the emperor a determined persecution of the Christians.
It has been affirmed that this rivalry was deep- ened by the similarity between the tenets and practices of the two religions. The similarity is striking. The Fathers of the Church — Justin and TertuUian, for example — were impressed by the likeness, and attributed it to the effort of Satan to imitate the Christian teachings and rites. Each religion had a revelation, a mediator, who was both creator and redeemer ; the story of his birth into the world, of his adoration by shepherds ; an atoning sacrifice for the salvation of men, a last supper, and an ascent into heaven ; a baptism, a communion, a confirmation, a belief in the immor- tality of the soul, in a final judgment, in the resur- rection of the dead, in the end of the world by fire, in a heaven for saints and in a hell for the reprobate. This parallelism of teachings and practices has sug- gested to some students a borrowing on the part of Christianity from Mithraism, or the absorption of Mithraism into it. But with the similarities there are equally impressive difl'erences. Mithra- ism presents a pantheon, a personification of ab- stractions and forces ; Christianity, the one living God who is Spirit and Holy Love ; the one an eternal dualism of good and evil, the other a crea- tion suljject to the will of an unrivalled Creator ; the one the controlling and inexorable power of fate, the other the government of a wise and bene- ficent Providence ; the one a mythological saviour, the other a historic person, who lived a real yet sinless life and died a heroic death to rescue the world from sin. Mithraism saved exclusively by sacramentalism, Christianity by faith with sacra- mentalism subordinate to it. These distinctions colour the two religions through and through, im- parting their distinctiveness to the minor features which help to characterize them. Further than this, Mithraism was established in the Western world only after the Christian doctrines had been wrought out in the Church. Christianity becomes more wonderful in our eyes if it could have ab-
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Borlietl a religion so disparate from itself and so powerful witliout becoming itself radieiillj' altected by the act. De Jong is (|uite riglit in rejecting utterly the plea tlwit Cliristianity borrowed any of its tenets from the Mithraic cult {Das antike Mt/s- terienive-icn, \>. 60).
It was only at the end of the 2nd cent, that this mystery-religion began to assume importance in the life of the Empire, but it always remained local in its inrtuenee. It was a .soldier's religion, and natu- rally followed the Koman army from encampment to encampment. One can trace the movements of the army on the soil of Europe by the surviving Mithraic monuments. Outside of the army posts it got a footing along the great routes of travel, frequented hy the Oriental, who would naturally carry his religion with him. As a military religion it was confined socially to a limited fiocial life — from the officers of legions, governors of provinces, to their captives and slaves. Under such con- ditions extensive territories would lie beyond its influence (Toutain, Les Cultes pniens, ii. 150-159). And from these territories, which were not domin- ated by Mithraism, the religion of Christ drew in great measure its converts. Throughout its career, therefore, the Persian cult could have had but slight direct influence on the Christian faith.
ig) The Orphic imj.slcries. — Orphisni is the specu- lative element in the Tliracian worship of Dionysus. Tlie oldest witness to Orphism is Herodotus (ii. 81 ), who emphasizes the agreement of some Bacchic and Orphic customs with the Egyptian (Kohde, Psyche, ii. 103). Orpheus was its founder, and from him it received its name. There are two main conceptions of him, the one laying the stress on his humanity, the other on his divinity. The first presents him as a historic figure, an immigrant from the South, perhaps Crete, into Thrace and Thessaly (Miss Harrison, Prolegomena, p. 45611'.). The second presents him as a god, either chthonic or celestial. His assumed chthonic character is based on the derivation of his name from Sp^ri;, the darkness of the nether world. If he was a god, he was originally identified with Dionysus. Seeck believes that the two were nearly related forms of the sun-god, wliose cult was strongly influenced by that of Sabazius, who was Thracian as well as Phrygian, an unmistakable chthonic deity, his symbol being the serpent. But the problem of the original inter- relationship of Orpheus and Dionysus remains still unsolved. Miss Harrison confesses that ' mythology has left us no tangle more intri- cate and assuredly no problem half so interesting as the relation between the ritual and mythology of Orpheus and Dionysos ' (Prolegomena, p. 455). Orpheus, however, failed to keep the position which his supposed identification with Dionysus gave him ; for later he appears merely as a priest of Dionysus and a promoter of the DionJ'siac mysteries. In spite of his close relationship to him there are distinctions which separate them and give to Orpheus an individuality of his own. Two distinguishing features charactei'ize the cult, which often bears his name rather than that of Dionysus. The first was its capacity to embody the finer as- pirations of the soul in fitting melody. This cap- acity was presumably due to Orpheus, whose soft and gentle music, varied in its expression, could easily be contrasted with the uniformly wild and strident strains, more customary among his actual or adopted countrymen. The second feature was its possession of an abundant sacred literature, such as was wanting in the other mystery -religions, with the exception, perhaps, of that of Isis. In its form it was poetical, and continued to increase in volume from the 6th cent. B.C. to the 4tli cent. A.D. (Lobeck, Aglaophamus, pp. 341-347). In character it was dogmatic, presenting authorita-