gion of intellect and of art is apt
to be confronted, even when it appears to have overcome all
obstacles, by a religion of feeling, in which all the fair progress
that was made appears to be entirely set at naught. When the worship
of Zeus, Apollo, and Athene was coming to its highest splendour,
these cults began to spread rapidly. They were originally peasant
rites of unknown antiquity in Attica and Boeotia, in which, after the
manner of rustic festivals, the coming of spring or the dying of the
year were celebrated amid jest and song, and with certain prescribed
actions in which the fortune of the god, corresponding to the season,
was dramatically set forth. In spring Demeter, the mother goddess,
received her daughter Persephone, who had left her for the winter; or
in autumn Dionysus, the god of vegetation, was defeated by his
enemies and driven away or torn in pieces. These worships, when
developed and forming a prominent part of Greek religion, were called
"mysteries," not because the knowledge of them was confined to few,
but because some parts of them were transacted in deep silence, and
were the objects of such awe and reverence that they were not spoken
of. No one, moreover, could assist at these rites without being
solemnly initiated after a period of probation and purification. Of
the Eleusinian mysteries at least, which were the most widely
diffused and which formed part of the state religion of Athens,
ancient writers agree in their report that the course of training
before admission was powerfully elevating and solemnising, so that
the period of initiation was the highest point of the religious life.
It was a condition that the candidate should be pure in heart and not
conscious of any crime. There was apparently no doctrinal
instruction; everything was to be inferred from the spectacle. The
mind was kept in a state of intense and devout expectation, knowledge
and insight growing, it was held, as the time of admission came near.
Before the final act there came a period of fasting, then a march
from Athens to Eleusis along the sacred way, which was studded with
shrines; then a search for the lost goddess in the dark of a moonless
night on the plains of Eleusis, and then at last admission to the
brightly-lighted building. Here all the arts were enlisted to furnish
a spectacle of unparalleled magnificence, during which the candidate
was allowed to touch and kiss certain sacred objects of a simple
nature, and