Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

Appendix. 237discourses, and those marriages which arecalled in the Mysteries Sacred Marriages"Thus far the divine Proclus ;from the firstof which passages the reader may perceivehow adultery and rapes, as represented in themachinery of the Mysteries, are to be understood when applied to the gods; and thatthey mean nothing more than a communication of divine energies, either between a superior and subordinate, or subordinate andsuperior, divinity.I only add that the apparent indecency of these exhibitions was, as Ihave already observed, exclusive of its mysticmeaning, designed as a remedy for the passionsof the soul: and hence mystic ceremonieswere very properly called cotea, akea, medicines,bythe obscure and noble Heracleitus.** IAMBLICHUS : De Mysteriis.Sacrifice of a Pig.