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Article THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.—If. (Continued f ... ← Page 7 of 8 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Ancient Mysteries.—If. (Continued F ...
Avas an ineffable indication of a sublime religion , and one to be concealed Avith the most reverential silence , The priest or hierophant ofthe rites , leads up the train of the initiated , bearing a garland of roses in his hand ; Lucius approaches , devours the roses , and is , according to the promise of the goddess , restored to his natural forni , by which is indicated , a change of manners from vice to virtue . And this the author plainly intimates , by making the goddess thus address him under his brutal form : — cs Pessimal mihiqtie cletestabilis , j &
mdudum belluce istius corio te protemis exue . ( Put on forthwith the skin of that most degraded of beasts , which has uoav for a time been by me so abhorred )—for the ass was so far from being in itself , detestable , that it was always employed in the celebration of her rites , and was also found in the processions of Bacchus and Osiris . The garland plainly represents that with which aspirants Avere crowned at their initiation , just as the virtue of the roses designates the mysteries . At his transformation , he . was told that roses were to restore him to humanity , so . that ' amid all his misadventures and distresses he had always this
hope before linn . In a circumstance of great distress- lie met with a species of them called rosa laurea ; but on examination he found that , instead of a restorative , it Avas a deadly poison to all kinds of cattle . Who can doubt then , but that by this rose-laurel was meant all debauched , magical , and corrupt mysteries , such as those of the Syrian goddess , Avhose ministers he represents in so disgraceful a light , in opposition to what he calls sobrice religionis observatio ; and in those rites , initiation was so far from promoting a life of virtue , that it plunged the deluded Avretches into still greater miseries . These
emblematic roses were not the invention of Apuleius , for the rose among the ancients was the symbol of silence *—one of the requisite qualifications for initiation . And therefore , the statues of Isis or Diana Multimammea ( a name given to her as the universal parent ) ¦ —images consecrated to the use ofthe mysteries—were crowned with chaplets of roses . And now , as Faber , Warburton , and other writers on the mysteries and kindred subjects have been alloAved to indulge in their theories
and speculations , why should not the same privilege be accorded to us ? They and others have opined that the narration of Apuleius was a fable . It may indeed be , that the original story of Lucius was invented as a > n allegory for the same purpose for Avhich allegories are written iioat , viz ., to inculcate lessons of virtue—and that a man was turned into an asB , is undoubtedly a fable , a myth ; but who shall say that some portion of some of the ancient mysteries Avere not absolutely based on this same fable as a foundation , and that the
adventures here recorded ot the youth Lucius were not imitated , or at least figuratively gone through by the aspirants ? It has been clearly proved by former writers that an affinity does exist betAveen * Is it not so in the present day also ? What else is the meaning of ( C under tho rose , " a motto which appropriately adorns tho lamp glass in the commercial room in a well known north of England hotel .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Ancient Mysteries.—If. (Continued F ...
Avas an ineffable indication of a sublime religion , and one to be concealed Avith the most reverential silence , The priest or hierophant ofthe rites , leads up the train of the initiated , bearing a garland of roses in his hand ; Lucius approaches , devours the roses , and is , according to the promise of the goddess , restored to his natural forni , by which is indicated , a change of manners from vice to virtue . And this the author plainly intimates , by making the goddess thus address him under his brutal form : — cs Pessimal mihiqtie cletestabilis , j &
mdudum belluce istius corio te protemis exue . ( Put on forthwith the skin of that most degraded of beasts , which has uoav for a time been by me so abhorred )—for the ass was so far from being in itself , detestable , that it was always employed in the celebration of her rites , and was also found in the processions of Bacchus and Osiris . The garland plainly represents that with which aspirants Avere crowned at their initiation , just as the virtue of the roses designates the mysteries . At his transformation , he . was told that roses were to restore him to humanity , so . that ' amid all his misadventures and distresses he had always this
hope before linn . In a circumstance of great distress- lie met with a species of them called rosa laurea ; but on examination he found that , instead of a restorative , it Avas a deadly poison to all kinds of cattle . Who can doubt then , but that by this rose-laurel was meant all debauched , magical , and corrupt mysteries , such as those of the Syrian goddess , Avhose ministers he represents in so disgraceful a light , in opposition to what he calls sobrice religionis observatio ; and in those rites , initiation was so far from promoting a life of virtue , that it plunged the deluded Avretches into still greater miseries . These
emblematic roses were not the invention of Apuleius , for the rose among the ancients was the symbol of silence *—one of the requisite qualifications for initiation . And therefore , the statues of Isis or Diana Multimammea ( a name given to her as the universal parent ) ¦ —images consecrated to the use ofthe mysteries—were crowned with chaplets of roses . And now , as Faber , Warburton , and other writers on the mysteries and kindred subjects have been alloAved to indulge in their theories
and speculations , why should not the same privilege be accorded to us ? They and others have opined that the narration of Apuleius was a fable . It may indeed be , that the original story of Lucius was invented as a > n allegory for the same purpose for Avhich allegories are written iioat , viz ., to inculcate lessons of virtue—and that a man was turned into an asB , is undoubtedly a fable , a myth ; but who shall say that some portion of some of the ancient mysteries Avere not absolutely based on this same fable as a foundation , and that the
adventures here recorded ot the youth Lucius were not imitated , or at least figuratively gone through by the aspirants ? It has been clearly proved by former writers that an affinity does exist betAveen * Is it not so in the present day also ? What else is the meaning of ( C under tho rose , " a motto which appropriately adorns tho lamp glass in the commercial room in a well known north of England hotel .