musteria
(μυστηρια)
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| (Language: Greek) |
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| Short Description: |
the proceedings of initiation and sacred rites are called mysteries |
| Long Description: |
the proceedings of initiation and sacred rites are called mysteries; the Eleusinian festival is known simply as ta musteria or arrhetos teletai; the initiates – mustai and bacchoi – walk a sacred way, the goal of which is inner transformation and eternal bliss: ‘happy and blessed one, god will you be instead of a mortal’; the Orphic mysteries have striking parallels in the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Coffin Texts; the mysteries are characterized as an esoteric, secret, forbidden ( aporrheton) and unspeakable ( arrheton); the special states, attained through initiation ( telete), are claimed to be valid even beyond death; the mystery-language is adopted by Plato and used by his followers; even the Stoic Seneca speaks of the initiatory rites of philosophy, ‘which open not some local shrine, but wast temple of all the gods, the universe itself, whose true images and true likeness philosophy has brought before the mind’s eye’ (Ep.90.28). |
| Example(s): |
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| Source(s): |
The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Platonic and Pythagorean Philosophy, by Dr. Algis Uždavinys |
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