The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

THE MYSTERIES OF BACCHUS. 109
deteriorated mysteries, which were under the protection
74
of the civil magistrate. They were places of assignation
75
to the lustful, and consequently fatal to the rause of
76
virtue and morality. And yet, strange to tell, no
woman was qualified for the honour of officiating at the
celebration of this miserable apology for religion, except
she were able to testify on oath that she was free from all
77
manner of pollution. Several eminent men in different
ages endeavoured to purge these orgies of their indecency,
but without success. Orpheus and Pentheus 78 are mythological
ly 79 said to have been torn in pieces by the Bac-
chantes, for their exertions to stem the torrent of depravity
and licentiousness which pervaded every rank and
description of people who were engaged in these celebra-
74 "An assembly of the senate shall convene in the Eleusinian
temple on the day after the festival," say the laws of Solon, "to
inquire whether every thing has been done decently and according to
order."
75 Vid. Eph. iv., 19. 76 Clem. Alex. Cohort, ad Gentes, p. 19.
77 The idea which these worthies entertained of personal purity
may be correctly deduced from the following custom, preserved by
Herodotus. This writer tells us, (1. i.,) that all the female votaries
of Mylitta, who was the same with Ceres and Isis, without excepting
the most dignified virgins, were obliged to prostitute themselves, at
least once in their lives, in the porch of the temple, as an indispensable
act of devotion ! without which they were accounted polluted or
unclean. "Amongst the Egyptians it is honourable for women , to
and those who have lain with many men used
prostitute themselves ;
to wear a bracelet about their ankles as a badge of honour ! Moreover,
amongst them virgins before marriage used to gain a dower by
prostituting themselves." (Stanley's Lives, vol. iii., p. 94.) It was
in allusion to these and still more unnatural practices that induced
St. Paul to exclaim with indignation : "It is a shame even to speak
of those things which are done of them in secret!" (Eph. v., 12.)
And the same intrepid Apostle enumerates these abominable siiis in
his Epistle to the Romans, (i., 26 to end).
78 Yirg. J llM 1. iv. Ov. Metam., 1. xi. The most outrageous excesses
were frequently committed by the female Bacchantes when
inflamed with wine, lust, and enthusiastic fury, (Eurip. in Bacch.,)
which they mistook for the inspiration of the jolly god. It is recorded
that the daughters of Minya, under the furious impetus of this
diabolical fervour, slew a young man named Hippasus, and served
up his body as a banquet to the company. (Auton. Metam., 1. x.)
79 I say my Biologically, for the fact appears doubtful respecting the
violent death of Orpheus, notwithstanding the above authorities. It
rather appears that he was killed by lightning ; a death, esteemed by
the ancients, as being fraught with a peculiar felicity. (Diog. Laert.
Prooem.)