tively its peculiar view of the world and of man. Time was the original generative power. Thence came .'Ether or the heavenly world, and Chaos, the mighty void (ireXio/iiov x^'Mi). Time ])roduced a silver egg which -Ether fructified and over w Inch Chaos brooded. I'rom the ei'g Phanes, the my.stic principle of the world, was born. The new deity was two-fold in gender, male and fenuile at once, and from its co-ordinated activities a universe emerged, wliich it reduced to harmonious arrange- menti. Then follows a succession of deities, among wbicli are the Titans, and the solo ruler, Kronos, who swallows his own cliildren aiul is finally con- quered and supplanted by Zeus. Each succession of rulers introduces a new ordering of the worlds a new epoch. At the end of the succession Dio- nysus appears, with the added name of Zagreus, possibly a chthonic deity. While he was still a child his father, Zeus, entrusted to him the govern- ment of the world. The evil Titans, the enemies of Zeus, approached him in disgviise at the insti- gation of the jealous Hera, and gained his good- will by gifts. While he was intent on one of the gifts they fell upon him, but Zagreus escaped from them by repeated transformations of himself. At last they caught him when he was in the form of a bull and tore him into pieces, all of which except the heart they swallowed. Zeus, hearing of his death, avenged it by smiting the Titans with a thunder-bolt, and out of their ashes the race of man arose, possessing according to its origin good qualities (dionysiac) and evil qualities (titanic). The legend which recounts the restoration of Dionysus to his former life and glory is varied. But he, as restored, introduced a new era in which mankind is now living. The story, thus briefiy recounted, is very old. Onomacritus of Athens (53U-485 B.C.) evidently had it under his hands. The Orphic theology begins with it and continues in it. For man by nature is dominated by an evil principle, from which he must seek to free himself. It is bis original sin, which holds him down morally, and his hope of victory lies in Dionysus Zagreus, to whom the government of the world has again fallen. But in the effort to attain victory certain ritualistic practices are enjoined, such as abstin- ence from certain foods, meat, eggs, and beans, and wearing of white garments, and the oflering of unbloody sacrifices.
The Orphic theology dealt with the soul not merely as it exists in this world, but with its fate in the future world. On the one hand, the Orphic doctrine of the state of the blessed dead was the re- verse of the dreary conception which, ap|)lied to all but a few persons, was prevalent in the time of Homer. On the other hand, its doctrine of final re- tribution was almost as sombre as that of Chinese Buddhism. The idea of transmigration formed the central point of its view of the future. This idea, with others, seems to point to a close connexion at some early period between the cult and the Egyptian mysteries, and to sustain the theory that Orphism was derived mainly from Egypt. But the con- nexion of Orphism with Thracian beliefs and trends is too deep-seated and unmistakable to give room to this theory. The doctrine of transmigration, which we find alike in India and Egypt, must have been an extensive belief in remote times. No one knows whence it came, and it is likely to have been as native to Thrace and Thessaly or to lower Italy, where the cult early made its home, as to India or to Egypt. At a primitive period it made its way, as a religious conviction, into Orphic teaching, and so came, not from the philosophers to the priests, but rather from the priests to the philosophers (R. Falke, 'Die Seelenwanderung,' in Biblische Zeit- und Streitfragen, Berlin, 1913, p. 5).
About the year 600 B.C. the Orphic influence
62
MYSTERY, MYSTERIES
MYSTICISM
be-ian its march soutlnvaid tlirou<;li Greece, inau<;u- rating one of the greatest conversions the world lias experienceil. ft enihoilieJ itself in the form of the Uionysiae religion, and reinforced the waning worship of Dionysus which had estaljlished itself in Greece as early as the days of Homer. But its advent was not graciouslj' received (Plato, licp. 364 E). Nevertheless, its missionary sjiirit was ardent and persistent. It not only continued to found its own sanctuaries, but is supjjosed to have exercised a profound moulding power over other cults. Thus far the precise degree of its influence on them has not been determined. Much discus- sion has been centred on its influence upon the Eleusinian mysteries in particular. But the ver- dicts of individual judges ditt'er widely. Miss Harrison (Prolegomena, p. 540 f.), Seeck (Gesch. iii. 19), and B. I. Wheeler {Dionysos and Im- mortality, Boston, 1899, p. 35) give it great weight ; while Rohde (Psyche, i. 285), one of our most dis- tinguished authorities, gives it no weight at all. De Jong (Das antike Mystcrienwesen, p. 28) justly feels that the utter denial of it would be rash. But its influence in other directions is undoubted. If it failed to touch the Eleusinian cult, it cer- tainly helped to mould the thought of Pindar and Plato ; it evidently contributed to the Pytha- gorean philosophy (Rohde, Psyche, ii. 109) ; and its teachings were prized by the Stoics, the neo- Platonists, and the Gnostic sects. Its influence on the Scriptures of the NT is quite problematical. The witness for the origin in Orphism of the custom, mentioned in 1 Co 15-", is too late to be important ; and the story of the descent of Orpheus into Hades bears no close resemblance to that of Christ's descent into hell. And it is more than doubtful whether the passages Mt 11" 17" 16", Jn 9--' imply the Orphic view of the hereafter. Its degree of influence on the Christianity of later times is too elusive to be estimated. The painters of the Catacombs seem to have used Orpheus, ' charming the wild beasts,' as a symbol of Christ. But when one recalls the pantheistic trend of the Orphic con- ception of God, and the superficial character of its idea of redemption, one becomes sensible of the radical distinctions separating the Orphic and the Christian theologies.