DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0014
4
cation of a Druid sometimes required twenty years.1 From the
specimens above mentioned, we may, nevertheless, easily console
ourselves for the loss of all of them, as poetical compositions;
whatever might have been their value in other respects.
6. But besides this vulgar religion, or popular mythology, there
/ existed, in the more civilized countries of Greece, Asia, and Egypt,
ft a secret or mystic system, preserved, generally by an hereditary
priesthood, in temples of long-established sanctity; and only re-
vealed, under the most solemn vows of secresy, to persons who
had previously proved themselves to be worthy of the important
trust. Such were the mysteries of Eleusis, in Attica ; which being
(so near to the most polished, powerful, and learned city of Greece,
became more celebrated and more known than any others ; and are,
therefore, the most proper for a particular investigation, which may
lead to a general knowledge of all.
7. These mysteries were under the guardianship of Ceres and
Proserpine; and were called TsAe-rai, endings or finishes; because
no person could be perfect that had not been initiated, either info
them, or some others. They were divided into two stages or de-
grees; the first or lesser of which was a kind of holy purification,
to prepare the mind for the divine truths, which were to be revealed
i to it in the second or greater.1 From one to five years of probation
were required between them ; and at the end of it, the initiate, on
I being found worthy, was admitted into the inmost recesses of the
temple, and made acquainted with the first principles of religion ;3
j the knowledge of the God of natuic; the first, the supreme, the
I intellectual;* by which men had been reclaimed from rudeness and
1 Magnum ibi numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur: itaque nonnulli
annos vicenos in disciplina permanent; neque fas esse existimant ea litteris
mandare. Gaesl de B. G. lil). vi.
1 Wlvarqpia. 5e Svo rekeirai rov cviavrov, A^ijTpi km Kopjj, to fllKpa km to. jxeyaXa,
km tori to p-ncpa axnrep irpoicaOapcns km TTpoayvevtris twv piyaAwv. Scholiast, in
Aristoph.
3 Salinas, not. in EX. Spartan. Hist. p. no. Meurs. E'.eusin. c. viii. &c.
•vavrs\os etrriy r) tov irpairov, km Kvpiw, km votjtov yvuiaxs. Plutarch de Is. et
Osir.
cation of a Druid sometimes required twenty years.1 From the
specimens above mentioned, we may, nevertheless, easily console
ourselves for the loss of all of them, as poetical compositions;
whatever might have been their value in other respects.
6. But besides this vulgar religion, or popular mythology, there
/ existed, in the more civilized countries of Greece, Asia, and Egypt,
ft a secret or mystic system, preserved, generally by an hereditary
priesthood, in temples of long-established sanctity; and only re-
vealed, under the most solemn vows of secresy, to persons who
had previously proved themselves to be worthy of the important
trust. Such were the mysteries of Eleusis, in Attica ; which being
(so near to the most polished, powerful, and learned city of Greece,
became more celebrated and more known than any others ; and are,
therefore, the most proper for a particular investigation, which may
lead to a general knowledge of all.
7. These mysteries were under the guardianship of Ceres and
Proserpine; and were called TsAe-rai, endings or finishes; because
no person could be perfect that had not been initiated, either info
them, or some others. They were divided into two stages or de-
grees; the first or lesser of which was a kind of holy purification,
to prepare the mind for the divine truths, which were to be revealed
i to it in the second or greater.1 From one to five years of probation
were required between them ; and at the end of it, the initiate, on
I being found worthy, was admitted into the inmost recesses of the
temple, and made acquainted with the first principles of religion ;3
j the knowledge of the God of natuic; the first, the supreme, the
I intellectual;* by which men had been reclaimed from rudeness and
1 Magnum ibi numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur: itaque nonnulli
annos vicenos in disciplina permanent; neque fas esse existimant ea litteris
mandare. Gaesl de B. G. lil). vi.
1 Wlvarqpia. 5e Svo rekeirai rov cviavrov, A^ijTpi km Kopjj, to fllKpa km to. jxeyaXa,
km tori to p-ncpa axnrep irpoicaOapcns km TTpoayvevtris twv piyaAwv. Scholiast, in
Aristoph.
3 Salinas, not. in EX. Spartan. Hist. p. no. Meurs. E'.eusin. c. viii. &c.
•vavrs\os etrriy r) tov irpairov, km Kvpiw, km votjtov yvuiaxs. Plutarch de Is. et
Osir.