Chapter VI: Persia

BIBLIOGRAPHY: We shall not attempt here to give a bibliography of the works devoted to Mazdaism. We shall merely refer the reader to that of Lehmann in Chantepie de la Saussaye, _Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte_, II, p. 150. We should mention, in the first place, Darmesteter, _Le Zend Avesta_, 1892 ff., with introductions and commentary.--In my _Textes et monuments relatifs aux mystères de Mithra_ (2 vols., 1894-1900), I, pp. xx ff., I have furnished a list of the earlier works on this subject; the conclusions of the book have been published separately without the notes, under the title: _Les Mystères de Mithra_, (2d ed., Paris and Brussels, 1902; English translation, Chicago, 1903). See also the article "Mithra" in the _Dictionnaire des antiquités_ of Daremberg and Saglio, 1904.--General outlines of certain phases of this religion have been since given by Grill, _Die persische Mysterienreligion und das Christentum_, 1903; Roeses, _Ueber Mithrasdienst_, Stralsund, 1905; G. Wolff, _Ueber Mithrasdienst und Mithreen_, Frankfort, 1909; Reinach, _La morale du mithraïsme_ in _Cultes, mythes_, II, 1906, pp. 220 ff.; Dill, _op. cit._, pp. 594-626; cf. also Bigg, _op. cit._ [p. 321], 1905, p. 46 ff.; Harnack, _Ausbreitung des Christent._, II, p. 270. Among the learned researches which we cannot enumerate here, the most important is that of Albrecht Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, 1903. He has endeavored with some ingenuity to show that a mystical passage inserted in a magic papyrus preserved at Paris is in reality a fragment of a Mithraic liturgy, but here I share the skepticism of Reitzenstein (_Neue Jahrb. f. das class. Altertum_, 1904, p. 192) and I have given my reasons in _Rev. de l'Instr. publ. en Belg._, XLVII, 1904, pp. 1 ff. Dieterich answered briefly in _Archiv f. Religionswis._, VIII, 1905, p. 502, but without convincing me. The author of the passage in question may have been more or less accurate in giving his god the external appearance of Mithra, but he certainly did not know the eschatology of the Persian mysteries. We know, for {261} instance, through positive testimony that they taught the dogma of the passage of the soul through the seven planetary spheres, and that Mithra acted as a guide to his votaries in their ascension to the realm of the blessed. Neither the former nor the latter doctrine, however, is found in the fantastic uranography of the magician. The name of Mithra, as elsewhere that of the magi Zoroaster and Hostanes, helped to circulate an Egyptian forgery., cf. Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur_, 1907, p. 168, n. 1. See on this controversy Wünsch's notes in the 2d ed. of the _Mithrasliturgie_, 1910, pp. 225 ff.--A considerable number of new monuments have been published of late years (the mithreum of Saalburg by Jacobi, etc.). The most important ones are those of the temple of Sidon preserved in the collection of Clercq (De Ridder, _Marbres de la collection de C._, 1906, pp. 52 ff.) and those of Stockstadt published by Drexel (_Der obergerm. Limes_, XXXIII, Heidelberg, 1910). In the following notes I shall only mention the works or texts which could not be utilized in my earlier researches.

1. Cf. Petr. Patricius, _Excerpta de leg._, 12 (II, p. 393, de Boor ed.).

2. Cf. Chapot, _Les destinées de l'hellénisme au delà l'Euphrate_ (_Mém. soc. antiq. de France_), 1902, pp. 207 ff.

3. Humbert in Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire_, s. v. "Amici," I, p. 228 (cf. 160). Cf. Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, I, pp. 202 ff.

4. Cf. _L'Eternité des empereurs romains_ (_Rev. d'hist. et de litt. relig._, I), 1896, p. 442.

5. Friedländer (_loc. cit._, p. 204) has pointed out several instances where Augustus borrowed from his distant predecessors the custom of keeping a journal of the palace, of educating the children of noble families at court, etc. Certain public institutions were undoubtedly modeled on them; for instance, the organization of the mails (Otto Hirschfeld, _Verwaltungsbeamten_, p. 190, n. 2; Rostovtzev, _Klio_, VI, p. 249 (on angariae)); cf. Preisigke, _Die Ptolemäische Staatspost_ (_Klio_, VII, p. 241), that of the secret police (Friedländer, I, p. 427).--On the Mazdean _Hvareno_ who became [Greek: Tuchê basileôs], then _Fortuna Augusti_, cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 284 ff.--Even Mommsen (_Röm. Gesch._, V, p. 343), although {262} predisposed to look for the continuity of the Roman tradition, adds, after setting forth the rules that obtained at the court of the Parthians: "Alle Ordnungen die mit wenigen Abminderungen bei den römischen Caesaren wiederkehren und vielleicht zum Teil von diesen der älteren Grossherrschaft entlehnt sind."--Cf. also _infra_, ch. VIII, n. 19.

6. Friedländer, _loc. cit._, p. 204; cf. p. 160.

7. Bousset, _Die Religion des Judentums im neutestam. Zeitalter_, 1903 (2d ed. 1906), pp. 453 ff., _passim_.

8. Cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 21 ff.

9. Cf. _infra_, ch. VII, pp. 188 ff.

10. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 9 ff., pp. 231 ff.

11. Lactantius, _De mort. persec._, 21, 2; cf. Seeck, _Gesch. des Untergangs der antiken Welt_, II, pp. 7 ff.

12. Cf. Strzygowski, _Mschatta_ (_Jahrb. preuss. Kunstsammlungen_, XXV), Berlin, 1904, pp. 324 ff., 371 ff.--From a communication made to the Congress of Orientalists at Copenhagen (1908) by Father Lammens, it would appear that the façade of Mschatta is the work of an Omaiyad kalif of Damascus, and Strzygowski's conclusions would, therefore, have to be modified considerably; but the influence of Sassanid art in Syria is nevertheless certain; see Dussaud, _Les Arabes en Syrie avant l'Islam_, 1907, pp. 33, 51 ff.

13. Cf. _infra_, n. 32.

14. Plutarch, _V. Pompei_, 24:

[Greek: Xenas de thusias ethuon autoi tas en Olumpôi kai teletas tinas aporrêtous eteloun, ôn hê tou Mithrou kai mechri deuro diasôzetai katadeichtheisa prôton hup' ekeinôn].

15. Lactantius Placidus ad Stat., _Theb._ IV, 717: "Quae sacra primum Persae habuerunt, a Persis Phryges, a Phrygibus Romani."

16. In the _Studio Pontica_, p. 368, I have described a grotto located near Trapezus and formerly dedicated to Mithra, but now transformed into a church. We know of no other Mithreum. A bilingual dedication to Mithra, in Greek and Aramaic, is engraved upon a rock in a wild pass near Farasha (Rhodandos) in Cappadocia. Recently it has been republished {263} with excellent notes by Henri Grégoire (_Comptes Rendus Acad. des Inscr._, 1908, pp. 434 ff.), but the commentator has mentioned no trace of a temple. The text says that a strategus from Ariaramneia [Greek: emageuse Mithrêi]. Perhaps these words must be translated according to a frequent meaning of the aorist, by "became a magus of Mithra" or "began to serve Mithra as a magus." This would lead to the conclusion that the inscription was made on the occasion of an initiation. The magus dignity was originally hereditary in the sacred caste; strangers could acquire it after the cult had assumed the form of mysteries. If the interpretation offered by us is correct the Cappadocian inscription would furnish interesting evidence of that transformation in the Orient. Moreover, we know that Tiridates of Armenia initiated Nero; see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 239.

17. Strabo, XI, 14, § 9. On the studs of Cappadocia, cf. Grégoire, _Saints jumeaux et dieux cavaliers_, 1905, pp. 56 ff.

18. Cf. _C. R. Acad. des Inscr._, 1905, pp. 99 ff. (note on the bilingual inscription of Aghatcha-Kalé); cf. Daremberg-Saglio-Pottier, _Dict. Antiqu._, s. v. "Satrapa."

19. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 10, n. 1. The argument undoubtedly dates back to Carneades, see Boll, _Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus_, 1894, pp. 181 ff.

20. Louis H. Gray (_Archiv für Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, p. 345) has shown how these six Amshaspands passed from being divinities of the material world to the rank of moral abstractions. From an important text of Plutarch it appears that they already had this quality in Cappadocia; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, II, p. 33, and Philo, _Quod omn. prob. lib._, 11 (II, 456 M).--On Persian gods worshiped in Cappadocia, see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 132.

21. See _supra_, n. 16 and 18.--According to Grégoire, the bilingual inscription of Farasha dates back to the first century, before or after Christ (_loc. cit._, p. 445).

22. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 9, n. 5.

23. Comparison of the type of Jupiter Dolichenus with the bas-reliefs of Boghaz-Keui led Kan (_De Iovis Dolicheni cultu_, Groningen, 1901, pp. 3 ff.) to see an Anatolian god in him. {264} The comparison of the formula _ubi ferrum nascitur_ with the expression [Greek: hopou ho sidêros tiktetai], used in connection with the Chalybians, leads to the same conclusion, see _Revue de philologie_, XXVI, 1902, p. 281.--Still, the representations of Jupiter Dolichnus also possess a remarkable resemblance to those of the Babylonian god Ramman; cf. Jeremias in Roscher, _Lexikon der Myth._, s. v. "Ramman," IV, col. 50 ff.

24. _Rev. archéol._ 1905, I, p. 189. Cf. _supra_, p. 127, n. 68.

25. Herod., I, 131.--On the assimilation of Baalsamin to Ahura-Mazda, cf. _supra_, p. 127, and _infra_, n. 29. At Rome, Jupiter Dolichenus was _conservator totius poli et numen praestantissimum_ (_CIL_, VI, 406 = 30758).

26. Inscription of King Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, _Recueil_, No. 735), l. 43:

[Greek: Pros ouranious Dios Ôromasdou thronous theophilê psuchên propempsan]; cf. l. 33: [Greek: Ouraniôn anchista thronôn].

27. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 87.

28. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 333.--An inscription discovered in a mithreum at Dorstadt (Sacidava in Dacia, _CIL_, III, 7728, cf. 7729), furnishes, if I rightly understand, another proof of the relation existing between the Semitic cults and that of the Persian gods. It speaks of a "de[orum?] sacerdos creatus a Pal[myr]enis, do[mo] Macedonia, et adven[tor] huius templi." This rather obscure text becomes clear when compared with Apul., _Metam._, XI, 26. After the hero had been initiated into the mysteries of Isis in Greece, he was received at Rome in the great temple of the Campus Martius, "fani quidem advena, religionis autem indigena." It appears also that this Macedonian, who was made a priest of their national gods (Bel, Malakbel, etc.) by a colony of Palmyrenians, was received in Dacia by the mystics of Mithra as a member of their religion.

29. At Venasa in Cappadocia, for instance, the people, even during the Christian period, celebrated a panegyric on a mountain, where the celestial Zeus, representing Baalsamin and Ahura-Mazda, was formerly worshiped (Ramsay, _Church in the Roman Empire_, 1894, pp. 142, 457). The identification of Bel with Ahura-Mazda in Cappadocia results from the Aramaic inscription of Jarpuz (Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil_, III, {265} p. 59; Lidzbarski, _Ephemeris für semit. Epigraphik_, I, pp. 59 ff.). The Zeus Stratios worshiped upon a high summit near Amasia was in reality Ahura-Mazda, who in turn probably supplanted some local god (_Studia Pontica_, pp. 173 ff.).--Similarly the equation Anahita = Ishtar = Ma or Cybele for the great female divinity is accepted everywhere (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 333), and Ma takes the epithet [Greek: anikêtos] like Mithra (_Athen. Mitt._, XVIII, 1893, p. 415, and XXIX, 1904, p. 169). A temple of this goddess was called [Greek: hieron Astartês] in a decree of Anisa (Michel, _Recueil_, No. 536, l. 32).

30. The Mithra "mysteries" are not of Hellenic origin (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 239), but their resemblance to those of Greece, which Gruppe insists upon (_Griech. Mythologie_, pp. 1596 ff.) was such that the two were bound to become confused in the Alexandrian period.

31. Harnack (_Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, p. 271) sees in this exclusion of the Hellenic world a prime cause of the weakness of the Mithra worship in its struggle against Christianity. The mysteries of Mithra met the Greek culture with the culture of Persia, superior in some respects. But if it was capable of attracting the Roman mind by its moral qualities, it was too Asiatic, on the whole, to be accepted without repugnance by the Occidentals. The same was true of Manicheism.

32. _CIL_, III, 4413; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 281.

33. Cf. the bibliography at the head of the notes for this chapter.

34. As Plato grew older he believed that he could not explain the evils of this world without admitting the existence of an "evil soul of the world" (Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, II, p. 973, p. 981, n. 1). But this late conception, opposed as it is to his entire system, is probably due to the influence of Oriental dualism. It is found in the Epinomis (Zeller, _ibid._, p. 1042, n. 4), where the influence of "Chaldean" theories is undeniable; cf. Bidez, _Revue de Philologie_, XXIX, 1905, p. 319.

35. Plutarch, _De Iside_, 46 ff.; cf. Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, V, p. 188; Eisele, _Zur Demonologie des Plutarch_ (_Archiv für Gesch. der Philos._, XVII), 1903, p. 283 f.--Cf. _infra_, n. 40. {266}

36. Arnobius, who was indebted to Cornelius Labeo for some exact information on the doctrines of the magi, says (IV, 12, p. 150, 12, Reifferscheid): "Magi suis in accitionibus memorant antitheos saepius obrepere pro accitis, esse autem hos quosdam materiis ex crassioribus spiritus qui deos se fingant, nesciosque mendaciis et simulationibus ludant." Lactantius, the pupil of Arnobius, used the same word in speaking of Satan that a Mazdean would have used in referring to Ahriman (_Inst. divin._, II, 9, 13, p. 144, 13, Brandt): "Nox quam pravo illi antitheo dicimus attributam"; he is the _aemulus Dei_.--Heliodorus who has made use in his _Aethiopica_ of data taken from the Mazdean beliefs (see _Monuments relatifs aux mystères de Mithra_, volume I, p. 336, n. 2) uses the Greek word in the same sense, (IV, 7, p. 105, 27, Bekker ed.): [Greek: Antitheos tis eoiken empodizein tên praxin].--The Ps.-Iamblichus, _De myster._, III, 31, § 15, likewise speaks of [Greek: daimones ponêrous hous dê kai kalousin antitheous]. Finally the magical papyri also knew of the existence of these deceiving spirits (Wessely, _Denksch. Akad. Wien_, XLII, p. 42, v. 702: [Greek: Pempson moi ton alêthinon Asklêpion dicha tinos antitheou planodaimonos]).

37. In a passage to which we shall return in note 39, Porphyry (_De Abstin._, II, 42), speaks of the demons in almost the same terms as Arnobius: [Greek: To gar pseudos toutois hoikeion; Boulontai gar einai theoi kai hê proestôsa autôn dunamis dokein theos einai ho megistos] (cf. c. 41: [Greek: Toutous kai ton proestôta autôn]); likewise Ps.-Iamblichus, _De myst._, III, 30, 6: [Greek: Ton megan hêgemona tôn daimonôn].--In the _De philos. ex orac. haur._ (pp. 147 ff. Wolff), an early work in which he followed other sources than those in _De Abstinentia_, Porphyry made Serapis (= Pluto) the chief of the malevolent demons. There was bound to be a connection between the Egyptian god of the underworld and the Ahriman of the Persians at an early date.--A veiled allusion to this chief of demons may be contained in Lucan, VI, 742 ff., and Plutarch who, in _De Iside_, 46, called Ahriman Hades (_supra_, p. 190; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, II, p. 131, No. 3), says elsewhere (_De latenter viv._, 6, p. 1130): [Greek: Ton de tês enantias kurion moiras, eite theos eite daimôn estin, Aidên onomazousin]. Cf. Decharme, _Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs_, 1904, p. 431, n. 1.

38. The dedication _Diis angelis_ recently found at {267} Viminacium (_Jahresh. Instituts in Wien_, 1905, Beiblatt, p. 6), in a country where the Mithra worship had spread considerably seems to me to refer to this. See Minuc. Felix, _Octav._, 26: "Magorum et eloquio et negotio primus Hostanes angelos, id est ministros et nuntios Dei, eius venerationi novit assistere." St. Cypr., "Quod idola dii n. s.," c. 6 (p. 24, 2, Hartel): "Ostanes et formam Dei veri negat conspici posse et angelos veros sedi eius dicit adsistere." Cf. Tertullian, _Apol._, XXIII: "Magi habentes invitatorum angelorum et daemonum adsistentem sibi potestatem;" Arnobius, II, 35 (p. 76, 15, Reifferscheid); Aug., _Civ. Dei_, X, 9, and the texts collected by Wolff, _Porphyrii de philos. ex orac. haurienda_, 1856, pp. 223 ff.; Kroll, _De orac. Chaldaïcis_, 1894, pp. 53; Roscher, _Die Hebdomadenlehre der griech. Philosophen_, Leipsic, 1906, p. 145; Abt, _Apuleius und die Zauberei_, Giessen, 1909, p. 256.

39. Porphyry, _De Abstin._, II, 37-43, expounds a theory about the demons, which, he says, he took from "certain Platonists" ([Greek: Platônikoi tines], Numenius and Cronius?). That these authors, whoever they were, helped themselves freely to the doctrines of the magi, seems to appear immediately from the whole of Porphyry's exposition (one could almost give an endless commentary on it with the help of the Mazdean books) and in particular from the mention that is made of a power commanding the spirits of evil (see _supra_, n. 37). This conclusion is confirmed by a comparison with the passage of Arnobius cited above (n. 36), who attributes similar theories to the "magi," and with a chapter of the Ps.-Iamblichus (_De mysteriis_, III, 31) which develops analogous beliefs as being those of "Chaldean prophets."--Porphyry also cites a "Chaldean" theologian in connection with the influence of the demons, _De regressu animae_ (Aug., _Civ. Dei_, X, 9).

I conjecture that the source of all this demonology is the book attributed to Hostanes which we find mentioned in the second century of our era by Minucius Felix, St. Cyprian (_supra_, n. 38), etc.; cf. Wolff, op. cit., p. 138; _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 33. As a matter of fact it would be false logic to try to explain the evolution of demonology, which is above everything else religious, by the development of the philosophic theories of the Greeks (see for instance the communications of Messrs. Stock and Glover: _Transactions of the Congress of {268} History of Rel._, Oxford, 1908, II, pp. 164 ff.). The influence of the popular Hellenic or foreign ideas has always been preponderant here; and the Epinomis, which contains one of the oldest accounts of the theory of demons, as proved _supra_, n. 34, was influenced by the Semitic notions about genii, the ancestors of the _djinns_ and the _wélys_ of Islam.

If, as we believe, the text of Porphyry really sets forth the theology of the magi, slightly modified by Platonic ideas based on popular beliefs of the Greeks and perhaps of the barbarians, we shall be able to draw interesting conclusions in regard to the mysteries of Mithra. For instance, one of the principles developed is that the gods must not be honored by the sacrifice of animated beings ([Greek: empsucha]), and that immolation of victims should be reserved for the demons. The same idea is found in Cornelius Labeo, (Aug., _Civ. Dei_, VIII, 13; see Arnobius, VII, 24), and possibly it was the practice of the Mithra cult. Porphyry (II, 36) speaks in this connection of rites and mysteries, but without divulging them, and it is known that in the course of its history Mazdaism passed from the bloody to the bloodless sacrifice (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 6).

40. Cf. Plutarch, _De defectu orac._, 10, p. 415 A:

[Greek: Emoi de dokousi pleionas lusai aporias hoi to tôn daimonôn genos en mesôi thentes theôn kai anthrôpôn kai tropon tina tên koinônian hêmôn sunagon eis tauto kai sunapton exeurontes; eite magôn tôn peri Zôroastrên ho logos outos esti, eite Thraikios]....

41. Cf. Minucius Felix, 26, § 11: "Hostanes daemonas prodidit terrenos vagos humanitatis inimicos." The pagan idea, that the air was peopled with evil spirits against whom man had to struggle perpetually, persisted among the Christians; cf. Ephes., ii. 2, vi. 12, see also Prudentius, _Hamartigenia_, 514 ff.

42. Cf. Minucius Felix, _loc. cit._: "Magi non solum sciunt daemonas, sed quidquid miraculi ludunt, per daemonas faciunt," etc. Cf. Aug., _Civ. Dei_, X, 9 and _infra_, ch. VII, n. 76.

43. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 139 ff.

44. Theod. Mopsuest. ap. Photius, _Bibl._ 81. Cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 8. {269}

45. Cf. Bousset, _Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter_, 1903, pp. 483 ff.

46. Julian, _Caesares_, p. 336 C. The term [Greek: entolai] is the one also used in the Greek Church for the commandments of the Lord.

47. Cf. _supra_, p. 36.

48. The remark is from Darmesteter, _Zend-Avesta_, II, p. 441.

49. Cf. Reinach, _op. cit._, [260], pp. 230 ff.

50. Farnell, _Evolution of Religion_, p. 127.

51. Mithra is _sanctus_ (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, II, p. 533), like the Syrian gods; cf. _supra_, ch. V, n. 47.

52. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 309 ff. The eschatology of orthodox Mazdaism has been expounded recently by Söderblom, _La vie future d'après le mazdéisme_, Paris, 1901.

53. Cf. _supra_, ch. IV, p. 100, ch. V, p. 126.

54. We have explained this theory above, p. 125. It was foreign to the religion of Zoroaster and was introduced into the mysteries of Mithra with the Chaldean astrology. Moreover, ancient mythological ideas were always mixed with this learned theology. For instance, it was an old Oriental belief that souls, being regarded as material, wore clothing (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 15, n. 5; Bousset, _Archiv für Religionswiss._, IV, 1901, p. 233, n. 2; _Rev. hist. des relig._, 1899, p. 243, and especially Böklen, _Die Verwandtschaft der jüdisch-christlichen und der parsischen Eschatologie_, Göttingen, 1902, pp. 61 ff.) Thence arose the notion prevalent to the end of paganism, that the soul in passing through the planetary spheres, took on the qualities of the stars "like successive tunics." Porphyry, _De abstin._, I, 31: [Greek: Apoduteon ara tous pollous hêmin chitônas k. t. l.]; Macrobius, _Somnium Sc._, I, 11, § 12: "In singulis sphaeris aetherea obvolutione vestitur"; I, 12, § 13: "Luminosi corporis amicitur accessu"; Proclus, _In Tim._, I, 113, 8, Diehl ed.: [Greek: Periballesthai chitônas], Procl., _Opera_, Cousin ed., p. 222: "Exuendum autem nobis et tunicas quas descendentes induti sumus"; Kroll, _De orac. Chaldaïcis_, p. 51, n. 2: [Greek: Psuchê hessamenê noun]; Julian, Or., II, p. 123, 22, (Hertlein). Cf. Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur_, p. 168 n. 1. Compare what {270} Hippolytus, _Philos._, V, I, says of Isis (Ishtar?) in connection with the Naasenians. She is [Greek: heptastolos], because nature also is covered with seven ethereal garments, the seven heavens of the planets; see Ps.-Apul., _Asclepius_, 34 (p. 75, 2 Thomas): "Mundum sensibilem et, quae in eo sunt, omnia a superiore illo mundo quasi ex vestimento esse contecta." I have insisted upon the persistence of this idea, because it may help us to grasp the significance attributed to a detail of the Mithra ritual in connection with which Porphyry relates nothing but contradictory interpretations. The persons initiated into the seven degrees were obliged to put on different costumes. The seven degrees of initiation successively conferred upon the mystic were symbols of the seven planetary spheres, through which the soul ascended after death (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 316), the garments assumed by the initiates were probably considered as emblems of those "tunics" which the soul put on when descending into the lower realms and discarded on returning to heaven.

55. Renan, _Marc-Aurèle_, p. 579.

56. Anatole France, _Le mannequin d'osier_, p. 318. Cf. Reinach, _op. cit._ [p. 260], p. 232.