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GNOSTIC ALTERED STATES
Figure 6.3 Stone relief from Eleusis, Greece, depicting initiates carrying torches as they participate
in the Eleusinian mystery drama. Photo courtesy of April D. DeConick.
Refutation 1.pref.2–5, 5.6.34, 39–45). Demeter’s mysteries were known for
their dramas, when the initiates took up torches and wandered around
in the dark, crying like Demeter as they sought her kidnapped daughter
(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation 2; Tertullian, Ad Nat . 2.7; Lactantius,
Epitome 23; Mylonas 1962, 261–72). Stone reliefs at Demeter’s sanctuary
in Eleusis show initiates robed and carrying torches as they walk
in line (figure 6.3). Other finds, like the Lovatelli urn, the Torre Nova
sarcophagus, and the Niinnion tablet, show the initiate actively involved
in all aspects of the Eleusinian drama. Plutarch describes Greek initiations
similarly: initiates were dragged around in the dark and in deep mud,
walking in endless circles along frightening paths, shivering, trembling,
sweating, terrified, until they were shown a holy vision of light (Plutarch,
Fragment 178).
It is clear from descriptions in the ancient literature and from archaeological
data that the Greco-Roman and Egyptian mystery religions focused
on the dramatic performance of the particular mythology associated
with a particular god (see Schnusenberg 2010). The closest example to