GREEK ORGIES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 128, 26 November 1929, Page 16

GREEK ORGIES

SEVENTH CENTURY LIFE

MYSTERIES SOLVED

XBy Clifton Harry.)

(Copyright.)

Are the mysteries of the Greek orgies about to be solved? Shall we know at last all about the mystic rites which were practiced in the Eleusinian mysteries, and what the initiates were called upon to do before- they were fully accepted and became the wonder workers of their age?

Dr. Ferri, leader of the latest expedition to Cyrenaica, in Northern Africa, has made some startling discoveries as he digs down to the remains of seventh century life before the Christian era. He is tracing the direct connection between the "mysteries" as practiced in Greece and those which had developed in this great Greel? colony of 2600 years ago. It is not a surprise to learn that he sees on African soil, hard by the soil of Egypt, a transfer of the mysteries of Isis and Osiris to this colony, explaining in this way the probable origin of much of what was afterward developed at Eleusis in the mystic ceremonials of those mysteries.

EGYPT'S MYSTICISM.

The Cyrenes were striving toward the higher mystic knowledge, and as they worked and thought, it was no wonder that the older wisdom of Egypt itself was taken over bodily, offering as it did much that attracted the mind and spirit of the Greek genius. The charm of Egypt was easily appreciable by such gifted souls as the poet Callimachus, or Aristippus, pupil of Socrates himself, and the rest of the illuminati of the great new capital in Africa With her 100,000 people the city felt the thrill of Egypt's mysticism through its leaders in thought, and Isis and Osiris became as well known there as they had been in Egypt, though the greater mysteries were reserved for the chosen few.

According to Dr. Ferri, who has found many evidences of the Osirian cult at Cyrene, notably a statuette of Isis, Grecisea but still Egyptian in character, the Cyrenes accepted the "mystery" with all-of its implications and dramatic settings. It was a strange tale around -which the mystical ceremonies were woven. Running back to the_ very beginning of the prehistoric period, we hear of the original pair, Isis and Osris, the Adam and Eve of -kgj'pt, and their tragic experiences in founding the religion of Egypt, as well as the people. It is a tale of treachery, of murder, and of the faith of woman —all leading up to the glorious resurrection of body and soul.. Far back in the earliest Egyptian religion we find the origin of the first Egyptian mystery play, showing the details of the tale of Isis and Osiris, leading up to the attainment of the "name." As the myth was taken over by the Greek colony and transmitted to Greece itself, many of the Greek myths were adapted to this tale, or the underlying idea was taken over and applied to Greek mythology. In the Eleusinian mysteries here was the sacred play with all the steps of mystification and the requirement of numerous tests of the candidates before they could advance to the highest and last mystery, that of the great name.

SACKED FEASTS AND DANCES.

It was at this point that the orgies began. These were sacred feasts and dances, sometimes, especially in later times, running to terrific excesses, I which has brought about our modern

idea of the word "orgies." But originally this was the high spot in the initiation, when the high priest himself, and he alone, presented the gods in all their verity and communicated the real or sacred name by which the mystic power was to be invoked for the initiate.

Thus among the Cyrenes grew up the Grecised Isis-Osiris mystery, to be made over at Eleusis, as they had been first modified in the temples of Apollo, Venus, and Bacchus at Cyrene. In Egypt only the Pharoahs and the priests were admitted to these mysteries, making up the esoteric or secret knowledge of the Egyptians. In Cyrene and at Eleusis the chosen ones alone might make their way into the circle of mysticism, for they were the performers, the wonder workers, and physicians of that time, as their predecessors had been in Egypt. Purified by the fasjs and ablutions, or lustrations, the trembling candidates made their way advancing step by step from the lower to the higher mysticism, until at last the magic name was en-, trusted to them, under seal of secrecy, on pain of death.