Katabasis, The Eleusinian Mysteries And the Early Christian Church

Katabasis of Ancient Greek Myth as a Parable of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the Effect of these Mysteries on the Early Christian Church

By: Billah Muhammad

In ancient Greek myth, there are instances where the heroes Orpheus, Dionysus, Persephone, Heracles, Odysseus, Psyche, and Aeneas are required or impelled into situations that require them to make descents into the underworld and then return back to the surface. In the ancient Greek language, the name for these descents into the underworld (the underworld was called by the Greeks, Hades, which means “the unseen”) is katabasis; the corresponding word for the ascent back to the surface is anabasis. Further analysis of these instances of katabasis and anabasis from the ancient sources suggests that in all cases the tales told in the mythologies were quite obviously representative of the initiation rites of the secret Mystery Cults, in particular those ones that were celebrated for nearly two thousand years at Eleusis, near Athens. This is something that would have been obvious to any ancient who was reading the myths that involve such journeys, but it is something that is seldom known or understood in modern times. In addition, it can be shown that these Eleusinian Mysteries instilled in their initiates a doctrine of death, rebirth, and the immortality of the soul with a maxim demonstrating a system of rewards and punishments after death that critically influenced the earliest church fathers of Christianity, through the effective and persuasive vocabulary and ideas used in their sermons to sway adherents to the burgeoning Christian religion, most of whom would have been very familiar with the rites of the Mystery Cults and the corresponding vocabulary used by the first apostles. In order to show the truth of these assertions, it will be necessary to analyze a wide variety of mythological, philosophical, theological, and archaeological resources spanning a period of almost three thousand years. Archaeological evidence for a possible cult at the site of the later Mysteries begins in the Mycenaen Period (fifteenth century B.C.E.) (Foley 65). The Eleusinian mysteries began at the village of Eleusis, which is about ten miles from Athens. According to Apollodorus, the shrine and rites were instituted by the goddess Demeter (the goddess of the harvest, grains, and seasons) during the search for her daughter Persephone. The mythology says that Demeter‟s daughter, Persephone was carried off by the god of the underworld, Hades, and that when she found this out, Demeter became distraught, quitted heaven, and searched all over the world for her. She eventually came to Eleusis where the king of the gods, Zeus, ordered Hades to return Persephone to the surface. Before Persephone was released by Hades,

he seduced her into eating a few seeds of a pomegranate with the consequence being, unbeknownst to her, that because of the pomegranate seeds eaten in the underworld, she would be required to spend a part of every year with him there in Hades. Persephone then becomes the consort of Hades and the goddess of the underworld. The time that Persephone has to spend in the underworld is the time when plants do not grow, i.e. winter (Frazer 35-41). It is difficult to find information on exactly what happened during the presentation of the ceremonies of the Eleusinian Mysteries because the acolytes were all required to take a very strict vow of silence, the breaking of which was punishable by death. No exact description of the rites comes down to us, but there are bits and pieces explained in various literature by many authors from the ancient world that can be pieced into a somewhat comprehensive view of the nature and forms of the rites. From what can be gleaned of the proceedings, the first three days of the festival of the mysteries involved purification rites with holy water, and at the sea side, fasting, and the sacrifices of pigs. At the breaking of the fast on the third day, sacred foods were partaken of: seed cakes, wheat, salt, pomegranates, and wine mixed with milk and honey. On the fourth to seventh days, there was a procession to and from Athens that involved the adoration of statues of Demeter and Dionysus, the god of wine, and the carrying of holy baskets which held secret and sacred objects inside. Sesame, wool, salt, wheat, pomegranates, plaited reeds, ivy, and serpents were carried in the procession to the music of kettle drums and wild songs. On the eighth day were sacrifices of sheep and cows to Demeter and Persephone. The ninth day involved a fertility ceremony involving a katabasis into a cave, and the anabasis to the surface where the initiates adored a golden sheaf of wheat. This ceremony was representative of a seed descending into the underworld and then ascending as a grown plant and an allegory of the soul descending to Hades and sprouting, being reborn as something superior and more pure than what it was before. On the tenth day, the initiates returned home (Wright 48-63). Prior to the start of the celebration of the Mysteries in the Fall, there was an initiation ceremony for the first degree of the Mysteries at the start of the Spring. The hereditary priests who conducted and led the ceremonies for all parts of the ceremonies of the Mysteries were called Hierophantes (feminine,

Hierophantide). Prior to the initiation for the first degree, the initiate was required to pray, fast, and be chaste for nine days. There were prayers and sacrifices and the initiate was made familiar with the myth of Demeter and her search for Persephone. There were secret night time ceremonies, and the neophyte was taught certain mystic symbols. The initiate was then smeared with earth and there was a baptism and purification with holy water. At the end of these ceremonies, the neophyte was deemed an initiate of the first degree, or Lesser Mysteries. Later on, in the Fall, during the nine days and nine nights of the Eleusinian Mysteries, there was on the night between the sixth and seventh days an initiation into the second degree of the Mysteries, called the Greater Mysteries. During the night between the seventh and eighth days of the festival were the initiations into the third degree of the Greater Mysteries. The second degree was reached in the Fall, and it was required that the initiate be already admitted into the first degree. For the two days prior to the initiation for the second degree, the neophyte was required to fast and had to abstain from certain foods. Objects used at this stage of the initiation were Myrtle wreaths (representative of Dionysus), salt, laurel boughs, barley, and the skins of young does. The initiates were then blindfolded and led into the temple, where they washed their hands with holy water. (Wright 78-82) Within a few minutes the apartment in which they were was plunged in total darkness. Lamentations and strange noises were heard; terrific peals of thunder resounded, seemingly shaking the very foundations of the temple; vivid flashes of lightning lit up the darkness, rendering it more terrible, while a more persistent light from a fire displayed fearful forms. Sighs, groans, and cries of pain resounded on all sides, like the shrieks of the condemned in Tartarus. The novitiates were taken hold of by invisible hands, their hair was torn, and they were beaten and thrown to the ground…The gates of Tartarus were opened and the abode of the condemned lay before them. They could hear the cries of anguish and the vain regrets of those to whom Paradise was lost forever…they saw, as well as heard, all the tortures of the condemned...Howling dogs and even material demons are said actually to have appeared to the initiates…At length, the gates of Tartarus were closed, the scene was suddenly changed, and the innermost sanctuary of

the temple lay open before the initiates in dazzling light…heavenly music entranced the souls; a cloudless sky overshadowed them; fragrant perfumes arose; and in the distance the privileged spectators beheld flowering meads, where the blessed danced and amused themselves with innocent games and pastimes (Wright 81-83). At the culmination of these rights for the second degree of the Mysteries, the initiate was called a mystes. The word mystery (mysterion in Greek) derives from the Greek verb myein, “to close,” referring to the closing of the lips of the eyes. This “closed” character of the mysteries may be interpreted in two ways. First of all, an initiate, or mystes (plural, mystai) into the mysterion was required to keep his or her lips closed and not divulge the secret that was revealed at the private ceremony (Meyer 4). To be initiated into the third degree of the Greater Mysteries, the mystes had to have spent at least one year at that level. The initiation for the third degree took place during the night between the seventh and eight days of the ceremonies. During this ritual, the hierophant and hierophantide descended into a cave while the mystai waited outside with extinguished torches. After a time, they would ascend back to the surface holding a golden sheaf of wheat, which was then adored by the waiting initiates. There was then drunk by all a brew of barley meal and pennyroyal called kykeon, and the initiates recited, “I have fasted, I have drank kykeon. I have taken from the kystos, and after having tasted of it, I placed it in the kalathos. I then took it from the kalathos and put it back in the kystos” (Wright 89). The meaning of the word kalathos and kystos are unknown to the present observer, but they had something to do with a woven basket that contained some unknown object that was eaten. The meaning of these words is to this day hidden because of the aforementioned very strict vows of secrecy taken by all initiates regarding the mysteries. This recitation was the “password” to enter the third degree, which bestowed on the mystes the new title, epoptes. The highest stage of initiation in the Eleusinian mysteries is that of epopteia, “beholding,” and an initiate into the third degree of the Greater Mysteries was called an epoptes, “beholder” (Meyers 5). Thus, an initiate of the highest degree became someone who could behold the unseen (Hades) and had, in allegorical terms, had their eyes open (they went from mystes, closed, to epoptes, beholder), this being much akin to the Eastern ideas of an enlightened one being “awakened”. The cave that the hierophante and

hierophantide descended into is said to be the most ancient area of the temple site of Eleusis, “Indeed, Noack has suggested that the site of the original cult of the mysteries was in the area around the Ploutonion (Plouto, also Pluto was another name for Hades)” (Mylonas 41) and, “the Ploutonion, with its entrance to the lower world” (Mylonas 86). Thus, in the process of the initiations for the various degrees to the Greater mysteries at Eleusis, the acolyte was shown a simulated view of the underworld, then a view of a simulated paradise that could only be reached if they became more pure during their life. At the initiation of the last and highest stage, the initiate was shown an allegory of a seed descending into a cave to the underworld and ascending back into the light as a golden sheaf of wheat, this being a veiled parable of the katabasis and anabasis of the soul. The select people who were privy to this sacred knowledge being called epoptes, which can be translated as “those who can see.” Many of the most illustrious of the ancients of Greece and Rome were initiates of these mysteries, including Roman Emperors Augustus, Claudius, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. Mythological figures said to be initiated into the mysteries were Heracles, Dionysus, Ausclepius, and Orpheus. John the Baptist may well have taken the ritual of baptism from what he knew of these rites, which were widespread and well known during his time. Hades in Greek myth, besides being the name of the god, was the place where all souls proceeded to after death. The geography of the place was solidified in much the same form in all of the mythologies of the Greek and Roman world. Entrances to the underworld were located in certain caves, the most famous of which was one called Taenarum, near Sparta. The approach and routine used to enter Hades and bypass the inherent obstacles there were much the same in all of the ancient Greek myths. After passing through the entrance of the cave, it was required to journey downwards in a katabasis, passing amongst the shades of the dead until you came to the river Styx where you had to pay a toll of an obol coin to the boatman Charon, whose duty it was to ferry you across to the entrance proper of Hades, which was guarded by the dog, Cerberus. Cerberus would sometimes allow people to enter Hades, but did not allow anyone to leave the domain of the god of the underworld, so usually. He is variously reported to have had two, three, fifty, or one hundred heads, with the figure in later antiquity crystallizing at three. Some scholars have traced the origination of the myth of the dog of the underworld to ancient Hindu lore,

“Yama, the regent of hell, has two dogs, according to the Puranas, one of them named Cerbura, or varied (as in a spotted coat); the other Syama, or black” (Bloomfield 33). The similarity between the name of Yama‟s dog and Hades‟ dog is apparent, as is the fact that both dieties were mythological kings of the underworld. After passing Cerberus, one was into Hades proper; the path to the right led to the Elysian fields, a place of bliss for the souls of fallen heroes and the path to the left led to Tartarus, a pit of darkness and infinite suffering and torture. There were said to be in the underworld six rivers; Acheron (Sorrow), Cocytus (Lamentation), Phlegethon (Fire), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Styx (Hate), and Mnemosyne (Memory). Only initiates of the Mysteries could drink from the spring of Mnemosyne after death, every other soul forgetting everything of the loftier life of the world above. The meaning of the word Hades is nearly identical to the word Sheol used many times in the Hebrew Old Testament, both words meaning “the underworld” and being used in the same sense (OED). The dreariness of the underworld can be summed up with Achilles‟ quotation to Odysseus, “Say not a word in death‟s favor; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man‟s house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead” (Butler 142). As a very warlike hero of the Trojan War, and “a great prince among the dead” (Butler 142), Achilles would have had the best fate in the underworld possible for any dead human, but he reviled even that lot. Now that we have become familiar with the terminology of the Eleusinian Mysteries and with the geography and trials present in the Greek underworld we can turn to the separate myths of Orpheus, Odysseus, Heracles, Psyche, and Aeneas, and examine them and their connection to each other and to the secret rites of the Mysteries of Eleusis in detail. The tale of Orpheus and Eurydice is well known. Eurydice died on her wedding day to the bite of a snake, and Orpheus, her husband, who was the best musician in the world, became grief stricken at her death, and entered Hades to try to win back her life: When the bard…had mourned her to the full in the upper world, that he might try the shades as well, he dared to go down to the Stygian world through the gate of Taenarus (a cave)…He came to Persephone and him who rules those unlovely realms, lord of the shades (Miller 65).

His skill on the lyre made everyone in the underworld weep, and neither Persephone nor Hades were able to deny him his request. The instructions given him were that he could ascend to the surface with her in tow, but he must not look back at her shade, or Eurydice will have to return to the underworld, never to live again: And now they were nearing the margin of the upper earth, when he, afraid that she might fail him, eager for sight of her, turned back his longing eyes; and instantly she slipped into the depths (Miller 69). The poet Virgil in his Georgics gives her last words as: Who, Woe‟s me! She cries, hath destroyed me, and thee with me, Orpheus? What frenzy is this? Lo, again the cruel fates call me backward, and sleep hides my swimming eyes (Mackhail 350). The theme of the underworld being connected to sleep is repeated many times in mythology, and this is why the initiate of the highest degree at the Eleusinian mysteries was called epoptes. Orpheus was said to have started a mystery cult that would have most likely been the same as those celebrated at Eleusis, “Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus” (Frazer 19). Diodorus Siculus seems to suggest that Orpheus learned of the rites of the mysteries in Egypt: He journeyed to Egypt, where he further increased his knowledge and so became the greatest man among the Greeks, both for his knowledge of the gods and for their rites (Oldfather 425) The Orphic Hymn to Pluto mentions the kidnapping of Persephone, and Eleusis as well: With captive Proserpine (Persephone), thro‟ grassy plains Drawn in a four-yok‟d car with loosen‟d reins Rapt o‟er the deep, impell‟d by love, you flew „till Eleusina‟s city rose to view There in a wondrous cave obscure and deep The sacred maid secure from search you keep

The cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display The entrance to the kingdoms void of day (Taylor 143) Here is Eleusis shown clearly by Orpheus to be one of the entrances to the underworld. A difference between the tale of Orpheus and other katabasis instances is that Orpheus has no person acting as a hierophante to give him instructions and to guide him as how to enter and return to the surface. Orpheus was his own hierophante, which explains why he was able to start his own Mystery rites. Odysseus‟ voyage to the underworld in Book XI of the Odyssey was known to the people of the ancient world as Nekyia, which in Greek means “a questioning of the dead”. This is another motif that crops up in most mythical journeys to the underworld, a tête-à-tête between the living and the dead. The method that Odysseus uses to contact the shades echoes many of the rites that were involved in the Eleusinian mysteries. At the end of Book X of the Odyssey, Circe, the sorceress acts as hierophantide and gives Odysseus his instructions of the rites to use to successfully contact the dead and the method for returning safely to the land of the living. The instructions are that Odysseus must sail to the Western edge of the Ocean, where he will find an entrance to Hades‟ kingdom. When he reaches the correct spot at the convergence of several rivers of the underworld, he is to dig a trench: Dig a trench a cubit or so in length, breadth, and depth, and pour into it a drink offering to all the dead, first, honey mixed with milk, then wine, and in the third place watersprinkling white barley meal over the whole (Butler 129). This drink that he pours into the trench is the same that was drunk by the initiates of the Eleusinian mysteries when they broke their fast on the third day of the festival – wine, milk, honey and barley, mixed. His instructions are then to sacrifice a cow and sheep, again these being the same sacrifices required on the eighth day of the Eleusinian mysteries on the morning after the epoptes are initiated into the third degree. Odysseus then speaks with the prophet Tiresias, who tells him everything that is to befall him in the future, how he is to take back his kingdom when he returns to Ithaca, and how to avoid the pitfalls along the way. After Tiresias foretells his future, Odysseus speaks with his deceased mother, who explains to him the nature of the soul after death when he tries to embrace her but embraces only air:

My son, most ill-fated of mankind, it is not Persephone that is beguiling you, but all people are like this when they are dead. The sinews no longer hold the flesh and bones together; these perish in the fierceness of the consuming fire as soon as life has left the body, and the soul flits away as though it were a dream (Butler 136). After speaking to various dead comrades, Odysseus becomes afraid, and abruptly sets sail back to Circe‟s isle. Book XI of the Odyssey shows that at the time when Homer’s Odyssey first went down onto paper (and it is probable, long before), the rites of the Eleusinian mysteries that had to do with the descent into the underworld were most likely already quite well established. Heracles had as one of his last labors, the task of capturing the dog Cerberus that guards Hades‟ lair in the underworld. Apollodorus says that it was his 12th labor, and Diodorus says that it was his 11th. As it was one of the last labors, it was deemed to be one of the, if not the most difficult. Both Diodorus and Apollodorus agree in saying that in preparation for the labor and katabasis, Heracles first became an initiate into the Eleusinian mysteries: He received a Command from Eurystheus to bring Cerberus up from Hades to the light of day. And assuming that it would be to his advantage for accomplishment of this Labour, he went to Athens and took part in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Musaeus, the son of Orpheus, being at that time in charge of the initiatory rites (Oldfather 425) And also: A twelfth labour imposed on Hercules was to bring Cerberus from Hades. Now this Cerberus had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus at Eleusis, wishing to be initiated (Frazer 233). Heracles was successful in his task, which he completed by wrestling the hound into submission and chaining it. After showing Cerberus in the upper world, Heracles returned him to Hades. These two mythographers show that to speed Heracles in his difficult task of entering and exiting the underworld, he found it most expedient to learn the proper method for the katabasis and anabasis by being initiated into

the Eleusinian mysteries. It also must be noticed that Diodorus states that at the time of this labor, the son of Orpheus was in charge of the initiatory rites at Eleusis. In the timeline of Greek legend, these events preceded the Trojan War, which would set them sometime around 1300 BC. Thus are connected Orpheus, the Eleusinian Mysteries, Heracles, and a mystical descent into the underworld. The story of Psyche and Eros is a parable of the Mysteries, and the myth shows the ancient Greek idea of the body being the sepulcher of the soul. The word psyche in fact means “soul.” Plato has Socrates state in the Cratylus: Some say that the body (Greek: soma) is the grave (Greek: sema) of the soul (Greek: psyche), which may be thought to be buried in our present life…probably the Orphic poets were the inventor of the name, and they were under the impression that the soul is suffering the punishment of sin and that the body is an enclosure or prison in which the soul is incarcerated (Jowett 672) The words grave and body (sema and soma, respectively) are very similar in the ancient Greek language, and according to Plato this was because the words had in a philosophical sense, a very similar meaning. In the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, Psyche, “hated in herself that beauty of hers which the world found so pleasing” (Hanson 245).Consequently, the soul does not delight in its physical appearance or corporeal form. As Psyche is going to the top of a mountain to fulfill the prophecy to meet her husband, “a tearful Psyche marched along, not in her wedding procession, but in her own funeral cortege” (Hanson 249). Marriage is bodily act, and as you can see, Psyche, as a parable of the soul, is not excited to engage in the corporeal act. Psyche though, eventually finds out that her husband is in fact Eros, whose name in English signifies the word “love,” but at the moment of this realization, Eros flees. Looking at this as a parable, the soul (psyche) is only happy when she finds that she is wedded to love (eros), i.e., the soul finds harmony when with love. After Eros fled from Psyche, Psyche is hunted by Venus who is very angry with her. Psyche “wandered this way and that, restlessly tracking her husband day and night” (Hanson 313). Eventually, she came to Demeter‟s shrine at Eleusis, where she tried to win Demeter‟s favor, and asked for Demeter to hide her there at the shrine at Eleusis. Demeter denies her sanctuary, declaring:

Your tearful prayers move me deeply and I long to come to your aid, but Venus is my relative and we have old ties of friendship. Besides, she is a good woman, and I cannot risk causing bad feelings between us. So depart from this house (the shrine at Eleusis) at once, and count yourself lucky that I did not detain you as my prisoner (Hanson 317). Eventually, Venus catches up to Psyche and makes her a slave, forcing her to perform laborious tasks the last of which is a katabasis to Hades to retrieve a jar of beauty from Persephone, the Queen of the underworld. Psyche thinking the task impossible, makes to fling herself off of a tower so that she can die and get to Hades that way, but at the last moment, the tower speaks and and after calming her down and filling her with hope for the completion of her task, acts as her hierophant, explaining to her the way to enter and exit Hades safely. The tower instructs her to enter the underworld at Taenarus, which is the same entrance to the underworld that was used by Hercules in his labor to capture Cerberus and also by Orpheus when he endeavored to bring Eurydice back to the surface. Psyche‟s instructions are: You must not go forward into that shadowy region empty handed. In each hand you must carry a barley cake soaked in mead, and hold two coins in your mouth… Very soon you will come to the river of the dead, where the administrator Charon immediately demands the toll… For your fare you will give that filthy old man one of the coins you are carrying… There is a huge dog with a triple head of vast size… If you restrain him with one cake for prey, you will easily get by him (Hanson 343-347) Furthermore, when Psyche reaches Persephone‟s presence, she is not by any means to sit at the table and partake of the sumptuous banquet, but must sit on the floor and eat only common bread. She is then to retrieve the jar of beauty from Persephone, and then to use the remaining drugged barley cake and coin to get again past Cerberus and Charon to make her anabasis to the surface. Just after returning to the surface, curiosity seizes Psyche, and she opens the bottle of beauty, which was full of, “just sleepdeathlike and truly Stygian sleep” (Hanson 349) which makes her sleep like a corpse. Eros flies to her aid, and awakens her, and then chides her, “See, you almost destroyed yourself again, poor girl, by your incurable curiosity” (Hanson 349). The analogy here being that psyche (the soul) is defeated by sleep,

sleep which is analogous to the underworld, and also to the corporeal body (soma) and grave (sema). The sleeping soul can only be saved by eros, love. After Psyche awakens, she returns to Venus with the jar of beauty, completing her tasks, and then Eros by the will of Zeus takes Psyche as his wife. The tale of Psyche and Cupid is thus analogous to the ritual performed during the mysteries when the initiates reach the highest degree, the soul descending to the underworld, and coming back to the surface where it is reborn as something higher. In the case of the Eleusinian mysteries this was represented by the hierophante and hierophantide emerging after much suspense from the darkness of the cave of the Ploutonion with a golden sheaf of wheat. As Plato has rightly written teleitan teleisthai, „to die is to be initiated‟, we might reverse the order and say, „to be initiated is to die‟ (Hastings 318). To Plato and other ancient philosophers, it was self evident that the mysteries had to do with the immortality of the soul, and most likely also an early belief in monotheism. It seems that the ancient mystery cults showed to their initiates an idea of the universe that involved a unity of godhead that disregarded the common polytheism of the time. Eusebius‟ Preparation for the Gospel, Book XII gives a very long list of Plato quotes that echo later Christian ideals. An 18th century writer states: The mysteries inculcated the unity of God and explained the fables of mythology (de Septchenes 141). And he also says: Having explained what was necessary to understand by that multiplicity of the gods, the objects of public veneration, they arose to the supreme intelligence (monotheism) who comprehends them all, and from whom they are but an emanation (de Septchenes 141). Aristotle‟s On the Soul says, “When mind is set free from its present conditions it appears as just what it is and nothing more: this alone is immortal and eternal” (Smith 83). Plato in his Phaedrus declares, “The soul through all her being is immortal, for that which is ever in motion is immortal” (Jowett 250). Other authors have also commented on these ideas:

It is generally supposed that the mysteries were the fountain from which Greek philosophy derived the two great ideas of monotheism and immortality (of the soul)… If the idea of monotheism was naturally developed into a distinct form by Greek thought, and that only in comparatively late times, it was therefore adopted into the mysteries, and especially some of the Orphic ones, and doubtless taught in them to those who had gone through the various stages (Smith, Wayte, and Marindin 204). Plutarch says in his Moralia that at the time of death, the soul, “has an experience like that of men who are undergoing initiation into great mysteries” (Babbitt 317). These sources thus show that it is commonly thought, and has been commonly thought that the ancient mysteries were strongly related to the immortality of the soul and also showed an early belief in monotheism. These ideas carried over into early Christianity and were a boon to the first church fathers who used the ideals of the mystery religions to gain adherents to the fledgeling church. Paul of Tarsus wrote in the first book of Corinthians a parable of the soul as a seed growing into a stalk of grain in terms that are almost exactly the same as those that were first taught in the Eleusinian Mysteries 1500 years before his time: But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a

natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Cor. 15. 35-44 New International Version) One of the earliest church fathers, Clement of Alexandria, in his Exhortation to the Greeks states, “Then shalt thou see my God, and be initiated into the sacred mysteries” (Wilson 108). He again compares the Christian religion to the much more ancient mystery religions of Greece: Thus the lord did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath; but allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries and of that holy light, to those who are able to perceive them (Wilson 356). The earliest Christians would have recited the Apostles Creed, one of the first Christian liturgies, a part of which mentions a katabasis and anabasis of Jesus Christ after his death on the cross: He descended into Hell; the third day, he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven (Apostles Creed). From the point of view of an initiate into Christianity 1800 or 1900 years ago, there would have been many ideas of the religion that would have been readily apparent and familiar to the early neophytes of the religion. These ideals were used by the first Church fathers to widen the appeal of their religion to the general populace of the Mediterranean world, which at that time was for the most part Latin and Greek speaking, and so the new adherents would all have been familiar with all of the mythologies mentioned above. Without so many references to the Greater Mysteries of Eleusis, which at the start of Christianity were already hoary with old age, it is very possible that the Christian religion would not have grown nearly as rapidly as it did, and this would have been obvious to the first Christian proselytizers, thus their methods and vocabulary. It has been shown that the katabasis of the mythological heroes of the Greeks were veiled references to the Eleusinian mysteries celebrated for almost two thousand years near Athens. These rites predated Christianity by many centuries, but had a similar doctrine of the immortality of the soul, monotheism, and the system of rewards and punishments after death. Like Christianity, these rites were

said to make an initiate a better person, and Christianity acquired the ideas from the mystery religions. The point of the ancient mystery religion was in its basest sense to give the initiates a happy death where they looked forward to a brighter tomorrow, by teaching them virtue through a display of the sufferings due to the sinner after death. By putting ourselves into the shoes of an initiate of the Greater Mysteries, we can come to a much better understanding of ancient Greek myth and of the foundations of the Christian religion. Cicero‟s words about the Eleusinian Mysteries could also be used by a modern Christian when speaking of the purgative effect of religion on human life: For among the many excellent and indeed divine institutions which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries. For by their means we have been brought out of our barbarous and savage mode of life and educated and refined to a state of civilization; and as the rites are called "initiations," so in very truth we have learned from them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live happily, but also to die with a better hope. (Keyes 415)

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