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Greek Mysteries

Related:

  • Asclepian Healing Mysteries / Incubation Cult - 6th c BC – 5th c AD, >300 of them in total. Epidaurus was the original and most prestigious sanctuary of Asclepius, but existed across the Greek world. Kos is where Hippocrates (rational medicine) coexisted alongside Asclepius (temple healing).
    • The Asclepian healing cult (incubation temples such as Epidaurus) involved initiation-like purification and dream revelation, but it is usually classified as a healing cult rather than a mystery cult.

Musterion in the Lexicon

μυστήρι-ον , τό, (μύστης, μυέω)
A.mystery or secret rite: mostly in pl., τὰ μ. the mysteries, first in Heraclit.14, cf. Hdt.2.51 (of the mysteries of the Cabiri in Samothrace), etc.; esp. those of Demeter at Eleusis, A.Fr.479, S. Fr.804, E.Supp.173, Ar.Ra.887, etc.; μυστηρίοις τοῖς μείζοσιν, τοῖς ὀλείζοσιν μ., IG12.6.93,96; but usu., τὰ μεγάλα, τὰ μικρὰ μ., Sch.Ar. Pl.846, cf. IG12.313.144, 22.1672.4, Pl.Grg.497c, etc.; “πρὸ τῶν μεγάλων μ. τὰ μικρὰ παραδοτέον” Iamb.Protr.2; ἀπιέναι πρὸ τῶν μ., i.e. before you have reached the heart of the matter, Pl.Men.76e; τὰ τῆς θεοῦ (sc. Μεγάλης Μητρὸς)“ μ.” OGI540.21 (Pessinus, i A.D.); “οἱ θεοὶ οἷς τὰ μ. ἐπιτελεῖται” IG5(1).1390.2 (Andania, i B.C.); “τὰ μ. ποιεῖν” And.1.11, Lys.14.42, cf. Th.6.28 (Pass.); μ. ἐρεῖν And.l.c.: later in sg., PMag.Leid.W.3.42 (ii/iii A.D.).
2. mystic implements and ornaments, “σεμνὰ στεμμάτων μυστήρια” E.Supp.470; esp. properties, such as were carried to Eleusis at the celebration of the mysteries, ὄνος ἄγω μυστήρια, prov. of an over-loaded beast, Ar.Ra. 159.
b. later, object used in magical rites, talisman, “δότε πνεῦμα τῷ ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ κατεσκευασμένῳ μ.” PMag.Leid.V.10.19 (iii/iv A.D.).
3. metaph., “ὕπνος, τὰ μικρὰ τοῦ θανάτου μ.” Mnesim.11; τῆς Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῆς σεμνὸν μ., of the military sacramentum, Hdn.8.7.4: generally, mystery, secret, Pl.Tht.156a; “μυστήριόν σου μὴ κατείπῃς τῷ φίλῳ” Men.695, cf. LXX Si.27.16, To.12.7; προσήγγειλε τὰ μ. τοῖς πολεμίοις ib.2 Ma.13.21; “μυστήρια βίου” Sor.1.3; τοὐμὸν τὸ μ. [the remedy] is my secret, Aret.CD2.7: hence, of a medicine, Gal.13.96, Alex.Trall. 5.4.
4. secret revealed by God, i.e. religious or mystical truth, Corp. Herm.1.16, etc.; “τὰ μ. τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν” Ev.Matt.13.11; “πνεύματι λαλεῖν μυστήρια” 1 Ep.Cor.14.2; τὸ μ. τῆς ἀνομίας the mystery of iniquity, 2 Ep.Thess.2.7; “τὸν Ἀντιπάτρου βίον οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοιτις εἰπὼν κακίας μ.” J.BJ1.24.1; esp. of the Gospel or parts of it, “τὸ μ. τοῦ εὐαγγελίου” Ep.Eph.6.19, cf. 3.9, Ep.Col.1.26, al.; symbol, “τὸ μ. τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀστέρων” Apoc.1.20, cf. 17.7.
5. σύνηθές τι μ. some vulgar superstition, Sor.1.4.
II. Dionysius the tyrant called mouse-holes μυστήρια (μῦς, τηρεῖν), Ath.3.98d.

Go Back To the Enthusiastic Mycenaean Mystery

From Dr Hillman in
[link]

You can see as old as the Mycenaean interest in Dionysus with his digamma that he's got and the fact that this is a real Mycenaean concept. Dionysus is all about the enthusiasmos, right? That state of elevated thinking, the state that you enter when you leave this plane, when you leave this reality and enter the visionary state where you go to the third heaven with Paul the Apostle, right? This is the tech that they are using and the Greek vocabulary that describes that tech is all very specific and very straightforward. So I think it helps us to take a look at the Mycenaean enthusiastic mystery. Right? It's why we always go back to that oldest form that we have in the linear B. Right? That's our earliest evidence for the practice of this mystery. It's completely contemporary with Medea and it is fits in perfectly with the literature that we get through the Kitherodes and the Epodes and the Homers and the and all of the Archiloy right Archilicus. It's these people that are passing on this knowledge and this learning and this capacity in the Greek. The world that you need to consider is a world where music and medicine and religion are the same thing.

See Also

  • The Mystery - what is "the mystery", in terms of consciousness, across religions?