Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

Nymphs and Centaurs.GLOSSARY.Aporrheta, Greek aTcop^ta The instructions given by thehierophant or interpreter in the Eleusinian Mysteries, not tobe disclosed on pain of death. There was said to be a synopsis of them in the petroma or two stone tablets,is said, were bound together in the form of a book.Apostatisewhich, itTo fall or descend, as the spiritual part of the soul issaid to descend from its divine home to the world of nature.Cathartic Purifying. The term was used by the Platonists andothers in connection with the ceremonies of purification before initiation, also to the corresponding performance of ritesand duties which renewed the moral life. The catharticvirtues were the duties and mode of living,which conducedto that end. The phrase is used but once or twice in thisedition.Cause The agent by which things are generated or produced.Circulation The peculiar spiral motion or progress by which thespiritualnature or"intellect" descended from the divineregion of the universe into the world of sense.Cogitative Eelating to the understanding: dianoetic.Conjecture, or Opinion A mental conception that can be changedby argument.A name of Ceres or Demeter, applied by the Orphic andlater writers to her daughter Persephon6 or Proserpina.was supposed to typify the spiritual241Shenature which was ab-