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Mystery Cults

Mystery Cults. Dionysus. 10. Religion. Example of mystery religion: Cult of Dionysus Orpheus was the founder of the cult of Dionysus Dionysus: god of the grapevine. Like the grapevine the god dies and revives every spring.

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Mystery Cults

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  1. Mystery Cults

  2. Dionysus

  3. 10. Religion • Example of mystery religion: Cult of Dionysus • Orpheus was the founder of the cult of Dionysus • Dionysus: god of the grapevine. • Like the grapevine the god dies and revives every spring. • Death of the god: He was dismembered by the Titans. Titans: origin of the human race (original sin) • Wine is produced from the dismembered body of the god (grapes) and therefore it contains the essence of the god. • Son of Persephone (Queen of the Underworld) and therefore can intercede for his followers in the final judgment of their souls.

  4. Mithras

  5. Mithraeum

  6. Mithraeum

  7. Isis Egyptian Isis Roman Isis

  8. Isis, Queen of Heaven, and Mary

  9. Florence: Madonna del Latte

  10. Saint Augustine, Florida NuestraSeñora de la Leche y el BuenParto (Our Lady of the Milk and Good Delivery)

  11. Myth of Orpheus

  12. Review: Religion in the Classical World • Are the gods civic deities? • Are their cults individual (sectarian) or collective (public) cults? • Is traditional Greco-Roman religion dogmatic or ritualistic? • Is there an afterlife (salvation, immortality, paradise)? • What did the ancient Greeks and Romans beliefs about soul?

  13. Religion In the Classical period: • Gods behave like humans (immoral) • Fear of the gods (forces of nature): need of prosperity • Religion of the poleis: collective (Athena=Athens). • Myths of foundation: ancestors • Civic rituals bringing the citizens together

  14. Mystery cults (Hellenistic times to Christian Era) • “Mystery”: secrets revealed only to the initiates. • Initiation was mandatory (requiring a ritual). • A dogma to be believed and directions to be followed. • Belief in the immortality of the human soul. • Purity/ immortality of the soul contrasts with sin/degradation of the mortal body. • Sense of virtue and sin and reward and punishment in an afterlife. • Various concepts of immortality: transmigration of souls, rebirth, reincarnation, resurrection, and redemption.

  15. Crime/ sin: the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans (of whose ashes the human race was born). • Humans have to suffer punishment until they pay what is due (original sin) • Lifelong purity can expiate the guilt: sexual abstinence, dietary taboos.

  16. 4. Christianity and Mystery Religions • A dying and reborn god. • Promise of immortality through sacrifice of a savior: Osiris, Dionysus, Orpheus, Mithras (Sunday, Dec, 25th) • Dichotomies: body/ soul, sin/reward, good/evil • Rituals of initiation: baptism, communal meal • Isis, Cybele (mother goddesses): Virgin Mary • Worship of an intercessor in the final judgment: Dionysus, Isis, Mithras.

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