Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

126 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK the Hellenic tribes were not substantially identical with
._ IL _, those of other Aryan and Semitic tribes ? Bishop Thirlwall
is contented to express a donbt whether the Greek mysteries
were ever used ' for the exposition of theological doctrines
differing from the popular creed.' Mr. Grote's conclusion
is more definite. In his judgment it is to the last degree
improbable that < any recondite doctrine, religious or philo-
sophical, was attached to the mysteries, or contained in the
holy stories
' of any priesthood of the ancient world. If by
this recondite teaching be meant doctrines relating to the
nature of God and the Divine government of the world, their
judgments may perhaps be in accordance with fact ; but it
can scarcely be denied that the thoughts aroused lay the
recognition of the difference between man and woman are
among the most mysterious stirrings of the human heart,
and that a philosophy which professed to reconcile the natural
impulses of the worshippers with the sense of right and
duty would carry with it a strange and almost irresistible fas-
cination. The Corinthian Aphrodite had her Hierodouloi,
the pure Gerairai ministered to the goddess of the Parthenon,
and the altar of the Latin Yesta was tended by her chosen
viro-ins. A system which could justify these inconsistencies
in the eyes of the initiated, and lead them to discern different
forms of the same sacrifice in the purity of the one and the
abandonment of the other, might well be said to be based on
a recondite, though not a wholesome, doctrine. Nor, indeed,
is it supposed that the character of the Hellenic mysteries
was less dramatic than those of Egypt or Hindustan. Every
act of the great Eleusinian festival reproduced the incidents
of the myth of Demeter, and the processions of Athene and
Dionysos exhibited precisely the same symbols which marked
the worship of Vishnu and Sacti, of the Egyptian Isis and
the Teutonic Hertha. The substantial identity of the rites
justifies the inference of a substantial identity of doctrines. 1
1 ' In den Eleusinischen Mystericn Dies lasst voraussetzen, class desgleichen
wurde ein Phallus entblosst und den in den Elcusinien wirklicli geschah, was
Eingeweihten gezeigt (Tert. ad Valent. mann also ra lepa SeiiewaOai nannte.
p. 289): und Demeter wird dadurch, Vgl. Lobek. Aglaoph. p. 49.'— Nork,
dass Banbo ihre wrcb entblosst, zur iv. 53. The form of dismissal at the
Heiterkeit gestimmt. Clem. Al. Protr. Eleusinian mysteries, icbyt fywraf, has
p. 16; Arnob. adv. Gent. v. p. 218. been identified by some with the