Chapter II: Why the Oriental Religions Spread

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Boissier, _La religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins_, especially Bk. II, ch. II.--Jean Réville, _La religion à Rome sous les Sévères_, Paris, 1886.--Wissowa, _Religion und Cultus der Römer_, Munich, 1902, pp. 71 ff., 289 ff.--Samuel Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, London, 1905.--Bigg, _The Church's Task Under the Roman Empire_, {219} Oxford, 1905.--Cf. also Gruppe, _Griech. Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_, 1906, pp. 1519 ff.--Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zum Judentum und zum Christentum_, Tübingen, 1907, pp. 54 f.--The monographs will be cited in connection with the different cults which they treat.

1. _Mélanges Fredericq_, Brussels, 1904, pp. 63 ff. (_Pourquoi le latin fut la seule langue liturgique de l'Occident_); cf. the observations of Lejay, _Rev. d'hist. et litt. relig._, XI, 1906, p. 370.

2. Holl, _Volkssprache in Kleinasien_ (_Hermes_, 1908, pp. 250 ff.).

3. The volume of Hahn, _Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-römischen Osten bis auf die Zeit Hadrians_ (Leipsic, 1906) discusses a period for the most part prior to the one that interests us. On the period following we have nothing but a provisional sketch by the same author, _Romanismus und Hellenismus bis auf die Zeit Justinians_ (_Philologus_, Suppl. X), 1907.

4. Cf. Tacitus, Annales, XIV, 44: "_Nationes in familiis habemus quibus diversi ritus, externa sacra aut nulla sunt._"

5. S. Reinach, _Epona_ (Extr. _Rev. archéol._). 1895.

6. The theory of the degeneration of races has been set forth in particular by Stewart Chamberlain, _Die Grundlagen des XIX. Jahrhunderts_, 3d. ed., Munich, 1901, pp. 296 ff.--The idea of selection by retrogression, of the _Ausrottung der Besten_, has been defended, as is well known, by Seeck in his _Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt_, which outlines the religious consequence (II, p. 344). His system is developed in the third volume which appeared in 1909.

7. Apuleius, _Metam._, XI, 14 ff. See Preface. Manilius said of the divine stars (IV, 910; cf. II, 125),

"_Ipse vocat nostros animos ad sidera mundus_."

8. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 178 ff., 187.

9. The intimate connection between the juridical and religious ideas of the Romans has left numerous traces even in their language. One of the most curious is the double meaning of the term _supplicium_, which stands at the same time for a supplication addressed to the gods and a punishment {220} demanded by custom, and later by law. In regard to the development of this twofold meaning, see the recent note by Richard Heinze, _Archiv für lateinische Lexicographie_, XV, pp. 90 ff. Sematology is often synonymous with the study of customs.

10 Réville, _op. cit._, p. 144.

11 On ecstasy in the mysteries in general, cf. Rohde, _Psyche_, 2d ed., pp. 315-319; in the Oriental religions cf. De Jong, _De Apuleio Isiacorum mysteriorum teste_, 1900, p. 100; De Jong, _Das antike Mysterienwesen_, Leyden, 1909. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 323.

12 Firmicus Maternus mentioned this in _De errore prof. relig._, c. 8.

13 For Babylonia, cf. Strab., XVI, 1, § 6, and _infra_, ch. V, n. 51; for Egypt, _id._, XVII, 21, § 46. From the very interesting account Otto has written of the science of the Egyptian priests during the Hellenistic period (_Priester und Tempel_, II, pp. 211 ff.; 234), it appears that it remained quite worthy of consideration although progress had ceased.

14 Strabo, _loc. cit._: [Greek: Anatitheasi de tôi Hermêi pasan tên toiautên sophian]; Pliny, _Hist. nat._, VI, 26, § 121: "(Belus) _inventor fuit sideralis scientiae_"; cf. Solinus, 56, § 3; Achilles, _Isag._, 1 (Maass, _Comm. in Arat._, p. 27): [Greek: Bêlôi tên heuresin anathentes]. Let us remember that Hammurabi's code was represented as the work of Marduk.--In a general way, the gods are the authors of all inventions useful to humanity; cf. Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, 1904, p. 123; Deissmann, _Licht von Osten_, 91 ff. Likewise in the Occident: _CIL_, VII, 759 = Bücheler, _Carm. epigr._, 24: "(Dea Syria) ex quis muneribus nosse contigit deos," etc., cf. Plut., _Crass._, 17.--"Religion im Sinne des Orients ist die Erklärung alles dessen was ist, also eine Weltauffassung" (Winckler, _Himmelsbild der Babylonier_, 1903, p. 9).

15 _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 312.--Manicheism likewise brought a complete cosmological system from Babylonia. Saint Augustine criticizes the book of that sect for containing long dissertations and absurd stories about matters that have nothing at all to do with salvation; see my _Recherches sur le manichéisme_, 1908, p. 53.

16 Cf. Porphyry, _Epist. Aneb._, 11; Jambl., _De myst._, II, 11. {221}

17 This upright character of the Roman religion has been thoroughly expounded by G. Boissier (_op. cit._, I, 30 ff, 373 ff). See also the remarks by Bailey, _Religion of Ancient Rome_, London, 1907, pp. 103 ff.

18 Varro in Augustine _De civ. Dei_, IV, 27; VI, 5; cf. Varro, _Antiq. rerum divin._, ed. Aghad, pp. 145 ff. The same distinction between the religion of the poets, of the legislators and of the philosophers has been made by Plutarch, _Amatorius_, 18, p. 763 C. The author of this division is Posidonius of Apamea. See Diels, _Doxographi Graeci_, p. 295, 10, and Wendland, _Archiv für Gesch. der Philos._, I, pp. 200 ff.

19 Luterbacher, _Der Prodigienglaube der Römer_, Burgdorf, 1904.

20 Juvenal, II, 149; cf. Diodorus, I, 93, § 3. Cf. Plutarch also in speaking of future punishment (_Non posse suaviter vivi_, c. 26, p. 1104 C-E: _Quo modo poetas aud._, c. 2, p. 17 C-E; _Consol. ad Apollon._, c. 10, p. 106 F), "nous laisse entendre que pour la plupart de ses contemporains ce sont là des contes de nourrice qui ne peuvent effrayer que des enfants" (Decharme, _Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs_, 1904, p. 442).

21 Aug., _Civ. Dei_, VI, 2; Varro, _Antiqu._, ed. Aghad, 141; "Se timere ne (dii) pereant non incursu hostili sed civium neglegentia."

22 I have developed this point in my _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 279 ff.

23 In Greece the Oriental cults expanded much less than in any other religion, because the Hellenic mysteries, especially those of Eleusis, taught similar doctrines and satisfied the religious needs.

24 The development of the "ritual of purification" has been broadly expounded in its entirety, by Farnell in _The Evolution of Religion_, 1905, pp. 88 ff.

25 We shall mention this subject again when speaking of the taurobolium in ch. III, pp. 67 ff.

26 We cannot dwell here upon the various forms assumed by that purifying rite of the Oriental mysteries. Often these forms remained quite primitive, and the idea that inspired them is still clear, as where Juvenal (VI, 521 f.) pictures the {222} worshiper of the _Magna Mater_ divesting himself of his beautiful garments and giving them to the _archigallus_ to wipe out all the misdeeds of the year (_ut totum semel expiet annum_). The idea of a mechanical transfer of the pollution by relinquishing the clothes is frequent among savages; see Farnell, _op. cit._, p. 117; also Frazer, _Golden Bough_, I^2, p. 60.

27 Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 157 ff.; Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 194 ff.--Cf. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, III^2 pp. 424 ff.

28 Cf. Augustine _Civit. Dei_, X, 28: "Confiteris tamen (sc. Porphyrius) etiam spiritalem animam sine theurgicis artibus et sine teletis quibus frustra discendis elaborasti, posse continentiae virtute purgari," cf. _ibid._, X, 23 and _infra_, ch. VIII, n. 24.

29 Here we can only touch upon a subject of very great interest. Porphyry's treatise _De abstinentia_ offers a fuller treatment than is often possible in this kind of studies.--See Farnell, _op. cit._, pp. 154 ff.

30 On [Greek: exomologêsis] in the religions of Asia Minor, cf. Ramsay, _Cities_, I, p. 134, p. 152, and Chapot, _La province romaine d'Asie_, 1904, pp. 509 ff. See also Crusius, "Paroemiographica," _Sitzungsb. Bayr. Akad._, 1910, p. 111.

31 Menander in Porphyry _De abstin._, II, 15; cf. Plutarch, _De Superstit._, 7, p. 168 D.; Tertullian, _De Paenit._, c. 9.--Regarding the sacred fishes of Atargatis, see _infra_, ch. V.--In Apuleius (Met. VIII, 28) the _gallus_ of the goddess loudly accuses himself of his crime and punishes himself by flagellation. See Gruppe, _Griech. Myth._, p. 1545; Farnell, _Evol. of Religion_, p. 55.--As a matter of fact, the confession of sin is an old religious tradition dating back to the Babylonians; cf. Lagrange, _Religions sémit._, p. 225 ff. Schrank, _Babylonische Sühnriten_, 1909, p. 46.

32 Juvenal, VI, 523 ff., 537 ff.; cf. Seneca, _Vit. beat._, XXVI, 8.

33 On liturgic feasts in the religion of Cybele: _infra_, ch. II; in the mysteries of Mithra: _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I. p. 320; in the Syrian cults: ch. V, n. 37. See in general, Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 185 ff.

34 We know according to Herbert Spencer that the {223} progressive differentiation of the ecclesiastic and lay functions is one of the characteristics of religious evolution. In this regard Rome was far behind the Orient.

35 An essential result of the researches of Otto (_op. cit._) is the proof of the opposition existing in Egypt since the Ptolemies between the hierarchic organization of the Egyptian clergy and the almost anarchical autonomy of the Greek priests. See our remarks on the clergy of Isis and the Galli. On the Mithraic hierarchy see our _Mysteries of Mithra_, Chicago, 1903, p. 165.

36 The development of the conceptions of "salvation" and "saviour" after the Hellenistic period has been studied by Wendland, [Greek: Sôtêr] (_Zeitschrift für neutestam. Wissensch._, V, 1904, pp. 335 ff.). See also Lietzmann, _Der Weltheiland_, Bonn, 1909. W. Otto, "Augustus [Greek: Sôtêr]," _Hermes_, XLV, 1910, pp. 448 ff.

37 Later on we shall expound the two principal doctrines, that of the Egyptian religions (identification with Osiris, god of the dead), and that of the Syrian and Persian religions (ascension into heaven).

38 At that time man's fate after death was the one great interest. An interesting example of the power of this idea is furnished by Arnobius. He became converted to Christianity because, according to his peculiar psychology, he feared that his soul might die, and believed that Christ alone could protect him against final annihilation (cf. Bardenhewer, _Gesch. der altkirchlichen Literatur_, II, 1903, p. 470.)

39 Lucretius had expressed this conviction (II, 1170 ff.). It spread to the end of the empire as disasters multiplied; cf. _Rev. de philologie_, 1897, p. 152.

40 Boissier, _Rel. rom._, I^3, p. 359; Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, I^6, pp. 500 ff.