FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191  
192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   >>   >|  
9 ff. 23 In Greece the Oriental cults expanded much less than in any other religion, because the Hellenic mysteries, especially those of Eleusis, taught similar doctrines and satisfied the religious needs. 24 The development of the "ritual of purification" has been broadly expounded in its entirety, by Farnell in _The Evolution of Religion_, 1905, pp. 88 ff. 25 We shall mention this subject again when speaking of the taurobolium in ch. III, pp. 67 ff. 26 We cannot dwell here upon the various forms assumed by that purifying rite of the Oriental mysteries. Often these forms remained quite primitive, and the idea that inspired them is still clear, as where Juvenal (VI, 521 f.) pictures the {222} worshiper of the _Magna Mater_ divesting himself of his beautiful garments and giving them to the _archigallus_ to wipe out all the misdeeds of the year (_ut totum semel expiet annum_). The idea of a mechanical transfer of the pollution by relinquishing the clothes is frequent among savages; see Farnell, _op. cit._, p. 117; also Frazer, _Golden Bough_, I^2, p. 60. 27 Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 157 ff.; Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 194 ff.--Cf. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, III^2 pp. 424 ff. 28 Cf. Augustine _Civit. Dei_, X, 28: "Confiteris tamen (sc. Porphyrius) etiam spiritalem animam sine theurgicis artibus et sine teletis quibus frustra discendis elaborasti, posse continentiae virtute purgari," cf. _ibid._, X, 23 and _infra_, ch. VIII, n. 24. 29 Here we can only touch upon a subject of very great interest. Porphyry's treatise _De abstinentia_ offers a fuller treatment than is often possible in this kind of studies.--See Farnell, _op. cit._, pp. 154 ff. 30 On [Greek: exomologesis] in the religions of Asia Minor, cf. Ramsay, _Cities_, I, p. 134, p. 152, and Chapot, _La province romaine d'Asie_, 1904, pp. 509 ff. See also Crusius, "Paroemiographica," _Sitzungsb. Bayr. Akad._, 1910, p. 111. 31 Menander in Porphyry _De abstin._, II, 15; cf. Plutarch, _De Superstit._, 7, p. 168 D.; Tertullian, _De Paenit._, c. 9.--Regarding the sacred fishes of Atargatis, see _infra_, ch. V.--In Apuleius (Met. VIII, 28) the _gallus_ of the goddess loudly accuses himself of his crime and punishes himself by flagellation. See Gruppe, _Griech. Myth._, p. 1545; Farnell, _Evol. of Religion_, p. 55.--As a matter of fact, the confession of sin is an old religious tradition dating back to the Babylonians; cf. Lagrange, _Religions semit._, p.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191  
192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Farnell

 

subject

 

Porphyry

 

Golden

 

Frazer

 

Religion

 
Oriental
 

mysteries

 

religious

 

treatise


matter
 

abstinentia

 

confession

 

quibus

 

offers

 

interest

 

fuller

 

studies

 
teletis
 

treatment


frustra

 
Religions
 

Lagrange

 

discendis

 

continentiae

 
virtute
 

elaborasti

 
purgari
 

dating

 

tradition


Babylonians

 

Superstit

 

punishes

 

Plutarch

 

flagellation

 

Griech

 

abstin

 
Gruppe
 

Tertullian

 

Atargatis


goddess
 
gallus
 

Apuleius

 
fishes
 
sacred
 
Paenit
 

Regarding

 

accuses

 

loudly

 

Menander