Mys'ia {y\vula, according to some, from the abun- dance of the beech-tree, ^ujjof, in the neighborhood ; according to others, from the Celtic moese, a marsh, showing a connection with the Danubian marshy dis- trict of Moesia; comp. Eustath. Ad Dion. Per. 809; Schol. Ad Apoleon. Rhod. i, 145), a province occupying
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785 MYSTAGOGUE
the north-west angle of Asia Minor, and separated from Europe only by the Propontis and Hellespont; on the south it joined /Eolis, and was separated on the east from Bithynia by the river ^Esopus. Latterly ,Eolis was included in Mysia, which was then separated from Lydia and Ionia by the river Hermus, now Sarabad or Jedis (Strabo, xii, 562 ; xiii, 628 ; Pliny, Hist. Nat. v, 32 ; Ptol. Geog. v, 2). It was usually divided into five parts: INlysia Minor, Mysia Major, Troas, ^olis, and Tenthrania. The greater part of Mysia was unproduc- tive, being covered with mountains and marshes; but it was celebrated for the fine wheat of Assus, for quarries of the lapis Assius (which had the power of decompos- ing dead bodies), and for its oyster beds. It was in- habited by various tribes, mostly barbarous, until, as a part of the kingdom of Pergamus, it was ceded to the Romans, by whom it was eventually formed into a province. Paul passed through this province, and em- barked at its chief port, Troas, on his first voyage to Europe (Acts xvi, 7, 8). "They had then come Kara Ti]v Mvaiav, and they were directed to Troas, vaptk- ^ovTtQ rr)v Mvaiav; which means either that they skirted its border, or that they passed through the dis- trict without staying there. In fact, the best descrip- tion that can be given of Mysia at this time is that it was the region about the frontier of the provinces of Asia and Bithynia. The term is evidently used in an ethnological, not a political sense" (Smith). See gen- erally Kosenmtiller, Bihl, Geog. iii, 32 ; Smith's Diet, of Class. Geogr. s. v. ; Mannert, Geogr. VI, iii, 403 ; For- biger, Handb. ii, 110; Richter, Wallfahrten, p. 460; Cramer, Asia Minor, i, 30. See Asia Minor.
Mysia, a surname of the ancient Grecian goddess Demeter, or Ceres, under which she was worshipped near Sparta. The term Mysia is also applied to a festival celebrated by the inhabitants of Pellene in honor of De- meter. This feast lasted for seven days. During the first two days the solemnities were observed by both men and women ; on the third day the women alone per- formed certain mysterious rites throughout the night ; and on the last two days the men returned to the festi- val, and the remainder of the time was passed in raillery and merriment. See Gardner, Faiths of the World, p. 504, 505,
Mysore. See Indi.v.
Mystae, those who were initiated into the lesser Eleusinian mysteries (q. v.).
Mystagogue (Gr. MvaTaywyoQ, from fivcrrrjc, an initiated person, and ri'yw, to lead), the name in the Greek religious system of the priest whose duty it was to di- rect the preparations of the candidates for initiation in the several mysteries, as well as to conduct the cere- monial of initiation. It was sometimes applied by a sort of analogy to the class of professional ciceroni, who in ancient as in modern times undertook to show to strangers newly arrived in a city the noteworthy ob- jects which it contained (Cicero, act, ii, InVerrem, liv, c. 59); but the former meaning is its primitive one, and formed the ground of the application of the same name in the Christian Church to the catechists or other cler- gy who prepared candidates for the Christian mysteries, or sacraments, of baptism, confirmation, and the eucha- rist, especially the last. In this sense the word is con- stantly used by the fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries ; and in the well-known lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusa- lem, although they were addressed to candidates for the mysteries, some for baptism, and some for the eucharist, it is only to the lectures addressed to the latter that the name mystagogic is applied. This distinction was connected with the well-known Discipline of the Se- cret ; and it appears to have ceased with the abolition or gradual disuse of that discipline. See Du Cange, Glossarium ad scriptores meditB et infmce Grcscitatis, s. V. ; Suicer, Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus, s. v. ; see also Mtstagogy.
MYSTAGOGY
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MYSTERIES
MystagOgy (^fivarayinyla, introduction to the mys- teries) is a term used in the early Christian churches of tlie Orient to designate either the Lord's Supper or baptism. To desifcnate the former it is frequently found in the writings of Cyril of Jerusalem and of Theodoret. It was intimately connected with the secret discipline, but fell into disuse with the termination of that sys- tem. See liiddle, Christian Antiquities, p. 485, 547; Bingham, Antiq. of the Christian Church (see Index). See also Mystagogue.
Mysteries, Ciikistiak, otherwise called Miuaci-es AM> !M(jKALrriKS, or simply •^Miracle I'lai/s," were sliows in the Middle Ages representing in rude dra- matic form scenes from the Scriptures and from the apocryphal gospels. They were performed first in churches, and afterwards in the streets on fixed or mov- able stages. The actors were in the earliest times to which we can trace these shows generally monks, friars, and other ecclesiastics, and the aim was the religious instruction of the people by means of amusement. An examination of the inanimate fragments that remain to us of these plays is prolitable only to those who can enter into the spirit of the age that called them forth, for it must be borne in mind by the intelligent in(iuirer that the coarse details in which they abound, and whicli shock our literary taste, were necessary to bring home to the people of those times the objects of their most seri- ous and constant meditations — judgment, heaven, hell, the miracles and passion of their Lord, and the future of the soul of man. Nor must it be forgotten that the Church of the Middle Ages was not the first religious body to plant and promote religious sentiments by these means. The theatre, though the fact be singular, has taken its rise, wherever we can trace its origin, in re- ligious sentimentalism. In Greece, from the very earli- est ages to the days of Solon, religious feasts were ac- companied by dances and performances. In the early Christian Church there was no doubt a strong tendency to perpetuate the levity of the heathen practices; and to prevent the introduction of the pagan theatre in its entirety the Church may have felt itself forced to abol- ish these relics of an abhorred practice by providing dramatic entertainment in which subjects derived from the Old or New Testament took the place of those of mythology — means less apparent than outspoken op- position, but then believed, no doubt, equally sure to elTeci the jjurpose. This accounts for the custom which prevailed at an early date of the reading to tlie congre- gation in the time of Easter the narrative of Christ's pas- sion, the various parts distributed among different parties. Later these readings cime to be accompanied by dia- logue and gestures, and probably the readers ofticiated in a suitable costume. Other festal days were gradually taken up with representations of these mysteries. In- deed, some curious proofs of the transition from the nar- rative form of the Bible to the dramatic form of the mysteries are still extant. They consist of dialogues in verse between several speakers, bound together l)y a narration, also in verse, which formed a part analogous to the Greek chorus. They were evidently accompanied in some degree by music, for in most ancient manuscripts each line is surmounted by its musical notation.