Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

250 List of Illustrations.PAGE.11. ETRUSCAN VASE. Millingen 7See drawings on page 106.12. MERCURY PRESENTING A SOUL TO PLUTO 8Pict. Ant. Sep. Nasonum, pi. I, 8.13. MYSTIC RITES. Admiranda, tav. 17 814. ELEUSINIAN CEREMONY. Oest. Denk. Alt. Kunst, II., 8 815. BACCHIC FESTIVAL. Bartoli, Admiranda, 43 9Probably a stage scene. The characters are the king, who wasan archon of Athens; a thyrsus bearer, musician, wine andbearers, dancers, and Pluto and Proserpina. A boy removes the king s sandal. (See page 35.)16. APOLLO AND THE Mus^S. Florentine Museum 10The muses were the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne ;that is, of the god of the present instant, and of memory.Their office was, in part, to give information to any inquiringsoul, and to preside over the various arts and sciences. Theywere called by various names derived from the places wherethey were worshiped:Aganippides, Aonides, Castalides,Heliconiades, Lebetheides, Pierides, and others. Apollo wascalled Musagetes, as their leader and conductor. The palmtree, laurel, fountains on Helicon, Parnassus, Pindus, andother sacred mountains, were sacred to the muses.17. PROMETHEUS FORMS A WOMAN 11Visconti, Mm. Pio. Clem., IV v 34.Mercury, the messenger of the gods, brings a soul fromJupiter for the body made by Prometheus, and the three Fatesattend. The Athenians built an altar for the worship of Prometheus in the grove of the Academy.18. PROCESSION OF IACCHUS AND PHALLUS 16Montfaucon.From Athens to Eleusis, on the sixth day of the Eleusinia.The statue is made to play its part in a mystic ceremony, typifying the union of the sexes in generation. Attendant priestesses bear a basket of dried figs and a phallus, baskets of fruit,vases of wine, with clematis, and musical and sacrificial instruments. None but women and children were permitted to takepart in this ceremony. The wooden emblem of fecundity wasan object of supreme veneration, and the ceremony of placingand hooding it was assigned to the most highly respectedwoman in Athens, as a mark of honor. Lucian and Plutarch