that the rites of birth, marriage, and death, which
seem to us so different, are to primitive man oddly similar. This is
explained if we see that in intent they _are_ all the same, all a
passing from one social state to another. There are but two factors in
every rite, the putting off of the old, the putting on of the new; you
carry out Winter or Death, you bring in Summer or Life. Between them is
a midway state when you are neither here nor there, you are secluded,
under a _taboo_.

* * * * *

To the Greeks and to many primitive peoples the rites of birth,
marriage, and death were for the most part family rites needing little
or no social emphasis. But _the_ rite which concerned the whole tribe,
the essence of which was entrance into the tribe, was the rite of
initiation at puberty. This all-important fact is oddly and
significantly enshrined in the Greek language. The general Greek word
for rite was _t{)e}l{)e}t{-e}_. It was applied to all mysteries, and
sometimes to marriages and funerals. But it has nothing to do with
death. It comes from a root meaning "to grow up." The word
_t{)e}l{)e}t{-e}_ means _rite of growing up_, becoming complete. It
meant at first maturity, then rite of maturity, then by a natural
extension any rite of initiation that was mysterious. The rites of
puberty were in their essence mysterious, because they consisted in
initiation into the sanctities of the tribe, the things which society
sanctioned and protected, excluding the uninitiated, whether they were
young boys, women, or members of other tribes. Then, by contagion, the
mystery notion spread to other rites.

* * * * *

We understand now who and what was the god who arose out of the rite,
the _dromenon_ of tribal initiation, the rite of the new, the second
birth. He was Dionysos. His name, according to recent philology, tells
us--Dio_nysos_, "Divine Young Man."

When once we see that out of the emotion of the rite and the facts of
the rite arises that remembrance and shadow of the rite, that _image_
which is the god, we realize instantly that the god of the spring rite
_must_ be a young god, and in primitive societies, where young women are
but of secondary account, he will necessarily be a young _man_. Where
emotion centres round tribal initiation he will be a young man just
initiated, what the Greeks called a _kouros_, or _ephebos_, a youth of
quite different social sta