The Ancient Mysteries.

says Aristides , " a single barbarian so ignorant , so impious , as not to consider Eleusis as the common temple of the world ? " That temple was built at a town in the neighbourhood of Athens , on the ground that had first yielded the bounties of Ceres . It was remarkable for the magnificence of its architecture , as well as for its immense extent ; aud Strabo observes that it would contain as many people as the largest amphitheatre . We are inclined to adopt

the ingenious etymology of the word Eleusis given by the learned author of " Antiquity Unveiled . " He supposes that this word , by which the mysteries of Athens were denominated , is not derived from the place where they were celebrated , but from their object ; which was to obtain pardon of God : this is what Eleusis properly signifies ; so that the city seems to have obtained its name from these solemn festivals . The same thing may be saidhe addsof

, , the word Ilyssus , a little river in which the purifications were performed , ancl of the Elysium , or place of the blessed , names which seemed to have originated in the same way . Nothing could equal the pomp or the majesty of the ceremonies of Eleusis . The great mysteries lasted nine days ; each of which was destined to particular rites , a circumstantial detail of which is to be found in Meursius , or in the

words of St . Croix ancl Gebelin , who have followed him . During that time no person could be arrested ; the courts were shut , ancl business was suspended . These festivals , consecrated to the worship of Ceres , were the most solemn part of the religion of the Greeks . They had still other festivities in honour of that goddess , all equall y mysterious . Such as those of the Thesmophoriafor instancewhich-. had a

, , considerable resemblance to the Eleusinian ceremonies , ancl in which the Priestesses alone performed the functions of the Hierophanta , of the Dadnchus , and of the other assistants ; probably , because it was before the statue of Ceres Thesmophoros that the women were initiated .

The Bacchanalia , or mysteries of Bacchus , are not less celebrated . They too were divided into greater and less . We know the violent agitations of the initiated at these feasts , their transports , ancl the kind of fury that animated them , when , with the Thyrsus in their hands , they made the . woods ancl the mountains resound with the cries of lo Bacche , Evoe Sabasi Evoe Bacche . Bui in the midst of their inebriation , and of that noisy ancl tumultuous joy , they were instructed in the most sublime dogmasancl from them arose the Orp ' hicsa

, , sect which , among the ancients , were attached both to reli gion ancl philosophy . These Bacchanalia form an ever-memorable epoch in the history of the art ' s . They were originally accompanied with dancing , ancl with numerous bands of musicians , who , pretending to imitate the petulant gaiety of the Satyrs , of the Sileni , and Mamades , celebrated in their rude songs the God of the Vintage .

This gross spectacle gave birth to regular ancl more decent representations . Thespis had led his actors , sullied with dirt , through , the towns . Inspired by Bacchus himself , iEschylus was the first who found the art of movin ° - the spectators by representing only eminent characters ; and tragedy soon acquired , in the hands of Sophocles ancl Euripides , the last degree of perfection . But it still retained somewhat of its mystic originaland though alreadpossessed of

, y the power of exciting the strongest passions , it presented , for the most part , to the Greeks , only the adventures of gods or of the heroes of fabulous antiquity . Everything then concurred to recall to the mind of the Greeks the reli gion they had been taught to revere . The mysteries were the most important part of itthe only part indeed worthy of the nameas they inspired the deepest

, , veneration . These are the first ancl the most august of all ceremonies , says Aristotle . Prastextat calls them the preservers , of the human race ; and , according to Plato , they could not have been invented but b y men of superior genius . This philosopher even adds , that in order to attain the abode of the