Myth, Religion, and Mystery Cults

CC 303 Intro to Classical Mythology - Fall 2009
Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin, Prof. Lawrence Kim

Eleusis, Pythia, Sybil, Sybilline Oracles, Augury, Asclepius, "Do ut des", Mysteries

Characteristics of Greek/Roman Religion

    •    Lack of sacred text
    •    Continual presence of the gods in everyday life
    •    No separation of church and state
                •    Desecration of the herms in Athens
                •    On the eve of the Sicilian expedition: 415 BCE

    Sacrifice
    Libations
    Dedications
          •    Example: Asclepius (see also under Apollo lecture)

Curse Tablets/Voodoo Dolls

         (1) the doll’s arms or legs are twisted behind its back as if bound
         (2) the doll is transfixed with nails
         (3) the head or feet or upper torso of the doll has been twisted back to front
         (4) the doll is tightly shut in a container
         (5) the doll has been inscribed with a victim’s name
         (6) the doll has been discovered in a grave, sanctuary or in (what was) water

Telling the Future

1. Augury- examination of birds
2. Extispicy- examination of entrails of sacrificed animals
3. Oracles
• Delphi
• Priestess: Pythia
• Sat on tripod
• Perhaps influenced by noxious gasses from fissure in Earth
• Delphi= navel of the Earth
• Sybilline Oracles
• Greek hexameter, given by the Sybils
• Sybil at Cumae
• Sybilline books
• Tarquinius Superbus, king of Rome, ca. 535-500 BCE
• Originally nine, he purchased three
• Kept in vault beneath temple of Jupiter on Capitoline hill
• *Michaelangelo “Delphic Sybil”

Mystery Cults

• Not much know . . . mysteries
• Supplements religion
• Involved beliefs about the afterlife
• Example: The Eleusinian Mysteries (see also II.C in the Demeter lecture outline)
• At Eleusis, suburb of Athens
• Cult of Demeter and Persephone
• Began around 1600 BC
• Lesser mysteries, ever year.  Greater mysteries, every five years.
• Only requirement- not having committed murder, and not a barbarian (non-Greek speaker)
• Participants
• Priests, hierophant (the one who shows holy things)
• Initiates- first time
• Those who had participated in the Greater Mysteries
• Lesser Mysteries
• Sacrifice of pig and ritual bathing
• Greater Mysteries
• Taking sacred objects from Eleusis to Eleusterion
• At Eleusis- feasting, entering the Telesterion (building)
• In Telesterion is the Anaktoron
• only the hierophants could enter
• the sacred objects are stored here
• Rites may have included
• Δρωμενα (things done) reenactment of Demeter/Persephone myth
• Δεικνυμενα (things shown) displaying sacred objects
• Λεγομενα (things said)
• Penalty for repeating any of the rites was death
• Initiates drink the "kykeon"
• A barley-based drink that may have contained hallucinogens, similar to LSD
• Then feast and bull sacrifice

Return to Syllabus

1. Michaelangelo “Delphic Sybil”