To Live in Joy and Die with Hope: Experiential Aspects of Ancient Greek Mystery Rites (original) (raw)
Related papers
New Classicists , 2021
Mystery cults were secret cults, which promised their initiates blessedness, in this life or/and after death. Ancient sources describe mystic initiation as a life-altering event, but provide very limited information as to the content of the initiatory experience. While current research often tends to focus on the prominence of the secret doctrinal knowledge transmitted in the initiatory rites, ancient sources, from the Classical to Imperial Roman period, seems to suggest that the essence of this process was manifested in the eye-opening experiences of the initiates. These experiences involved various sensorial elements and physical factors that have strong effects on the human psycho-physiological functioning, such as fasts and lack of sleep, sensory deprivation by means of darkness, silence and stillness, alteration between darkness and light, ecstatic music and dances, strong smells and fragrances, visual and physical interaction with sacred objects, etc. The objective of my paper is twofold: 1) To offer a brief survey of the wide-ranging functions of the senses in the initiatory experience, and 2) To integrate ancient evidence with methods and results provided by other disciplines, especially cognitive neuroscience. This interdisciplinary approach may illuminate significant aspects of the initiatory experience and allows a construal of the mechanism behind the impact of corporal sensations of the initiates on their mental states, beliefs and memories during and after the experience.
Unveiling the Hidden Face of Antiquity: Mysteries and Cryptic Cults (2023)
Vienna: Phoibos Verlag, 2023
This volume contains twenty-two studies focusing on a variety of topics related to mysteries, initiation rituals, and mystic cults in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. To better display this rich material, the twenty-two chapters of the volume have been classified under five thematic parts: • Eleusinian Mysteries • Other Gods and Heroes • Ritual and Initiation • Poetry and Philosophy • Mysteries and Theater
There is a basic traditional pattern that underlies transculturally almost all the rites of initiation in the history of human civilisation. Scholars use the terms “initiatory scenario” or “initiatory structure” for this standard outline of ritual steps. The basic initiatory scenario is divided into three main phases: preparation, voyage, and rebirth. The first stage, the preparation, is the preliminary phase in which the main frame and parameters of the initiation are set. The novice or initiand is detached from his everyday milieu and undergoes various rites of purification and spiritual reinforcement. The second stage, the voyage, forms the core of the experience of the initiation and determines its outcome. The initiand is given the mission to travel to a faraway location, an otherworld which lies beyond the ordinary sphere of profane society and emblematises the space of the Sacred. The initiand’s mission is a katabasis to the netherworld, a passage into the spiritual dimension of the beyond, and represents a virtual death. This long stage is interspersed with numerous ordeals. The third stage of the initiatory scenario is identified with rebirth and represents the subject’s come-back to the ordinary world as a new being. The scenario of initiation was already exploited as a literary framework in the ancient world. The age-old epics of ancient Mesopotamia ("Descent of Inanna", "Gilgamesh") develop a storyline following the typical phases of the initiatory experience. In ancient Greek literature, Odysseus, the emblematic protagonist of the voyage myth and distant descendant of Gilgamesh, may be viewed as an initiatory hero. The Odyssey can be read as a vast mystic narrative, revolving around the central experience of the hero’s descent to the netherworld, the Nekyia, significantly placed at the very middle of the epic. Two other literary genres exploit the initiatory scenario as a basis for their plots and narratives. Aristophanic Old Comedy often involves voyages into otherworlds and superhuman ordeals for the acquisition of a hidden power or knowledge. The most mystical work of the Aristophanic oeuvre is undoubtedly the "Frogs"; its protagonist, the god Dionysus, undergoes a multi-levelled initiation, which combines the standard transcultural scheme with specific elements of the Eleusinian rituals. Other Aristophanic comedies ("Birds", "Peace", "Knights") also involve extensive scenarios of initiation. Graeco-Roman novels make extensive use of the initiatory structure as a basis for their plots. They organise the adventures of the characters according to the typical tripartite scheme of the initiatory scenario, and incorporate many incidents and plot elements which reflect the traditional ordeals of the initiand in mystic rituals. The underlying pattern of initiation gives greater spiritual depth to the story of the heroes’ life and resonates on a profound psychological level of the audience, affording more excitement and satisfaction in the process of reading. In Apuleius' "Metamorphoses", the protagonist, Lucius, has the yearning for the transcendent, the desire to infiltrate into the numinous beyond, but his craving has assumed an erroneous and misleading form. Instead of trying to connect with the spiritual world through mystic initiation and the respected Isiac religion, Lucius turns towards magic and the occult. As a result, he is identified with the animal of Seth, the symbol of evil, and suffers many hardships. In the end, he becomes an adherent of Isis and is fully metamorphosed through his initiation into divine gnosis. Similarly, in the "Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri", Apollonius is spiritually gifted but cannot properly handle his inclination to secret knowledge. Because of his errors and transgressions, he is submitted to a long and painful process of initiatory ordeals, at the end of which he attains the true spirituality and gnosis.
Mysteries, Mysticism, Cults, and Cultism in Antiquity (2022)
2022
Within the matrix of ancient Greek and Roman religion, mystery cults constitute an intricate set of esoteric spiritual beliefs, which had strong reverberations on all aspects of human societies (politics, economy, culture), as they ardently sought to catch a fleeting glimpse of the secret eternal truth that would guarantee eternal bliss in the afterlife. For remote participation, use the following Zoom link: https://upatras-gr.zoom.us/j/92348267269?pwd=ZGFNdnp3aFhxZVl6Q3R0NnA3K0tTQT09 Meeting ID: 923 4826 7269 Passcode: 204540