The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

100 HISTORY OF INITIATION.
for a considerable period. The initiated, whether males
or females, some habited in splendid attire, with crowns
28
or mitres on their heads some ; bearing the thyrsis ;
some the sacred vessels, 29 while others, covered with very
30
little clothing, mixed promiscuously, and danced to the
31
sound of musical instruments played by the Corybarites ;
keeper of swine ; and Eumolpus, a shepherd, from whom the race of
the Eumolpidse descended, and the illustrious name of Cecropidae was
derived, and who afterwards flourished as bearers of the Caduceus,
Hierophants, and Cryers belonging to the sacred rites. Baubo,
therefore, who was of the female sex, received Ceres, wearied with
complicated evils, as her guest, and endeavoured to soothe her sorrows
by obsequious and flattering attendance. For this purpose she
entreated her to pay attention to the refreshment of her body, and
placed before her a miscellaneous potion to assuage the vehemence
of her thirst. But the sorrowful goddess was averse to her
solicitations, and rejected the friendly officiousness of the hospitable
dame. The matron, however, who was not easily still repulsed, continued
her entreaties, which were as obstinately resisted by Ceres,
who persevered in her refusal with unshaken constancy and invincible
rigour. But when Baubo had thus often exerted her endeavours to
appease the sorrows of Ceres, but without any effect, she at length
changed her arts, and determined to try if she could not exhilarate
by prodigies a mind which she was not able to allure by serious attempts."
And in this she succeeded by an expedient too obscene to
be detailed here, which was imitated in the initiations, (Pamphleteer,
vol. viii.)
28 The Thyrsis was a long pole adorned with garlands and ribbons,
intermixed with sprigs of the vine and leaves of ivy (Eurip. Bacch.,
v. 176, et passim,) and having at the end a conrcal fruit like a pomegranate
or pine. It represented the phallus. Vid. Bishop Cumberland's
Treatise on Sanchoniatho's Phenician History, p. 68. The
phallus amongst the Egyptians was the symbol of fertility. (Savary's
Letters on Egypt, vol. ii., p. 40.) Athenseus (1., i.,) states distinctly
that Priapus and Dionysus were one and same person ; which accounts
for the gross obscenity of these rites.
29 Plut. de. Isid. et Osir., p. 336.
30 Ovid (Metam., 1. iv., v. 6,) says that they had the skins of beasts
thrown over their naked bodies. The bacchantes are generally de-
picted on gems, either naked, or merely covered with a thin transparent
garment. Sometimes the sexes exchanged clothes, an abomination
expressly forbidden to the Israelites in the law of Moses, which points
out the very early date of a custom which was the source of many
licentious pollutions. (Deut. xxii., 5.) " The woman shall not wear
that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a
woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord
thy God."
31 Wait. Orient. Ant., p. 218. Sophocles
the
" Immortal leader of the maddening choir,
Whose torches blaze with unextinguish'd fire ;
addresses Bacchus as