Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/582

 world, but gave to all men a share in that she had received .' Of this passage Lobeck was disposed to make light, and that for the reason that Isocrates in another passage, with less orthodoxy perhaps and more charity, in speaking of the pious and upright in general, employs part of the same phrase which in the passage before us he applies to the initiated only. All good men, he says, have happier hopes 'concerning their whole existence'; virtue, that is, may expect a reward, vice a punishment, either here or hereafter. Are these fair grounds on which to condemn his reference to the mysteries as a meaningless common-place? If any comment is to be made upon this repetition of a well-known phrase, would it not be fairer to note that in reference to the mysteries he speaks of men's happier hopes not only generally—'concerning their whole existence' ([Greek: peri tou sympantos aiônos]) but also specifically—'concerning the end of life' ([Greek: peri tês tou biou teleutês]), and thus echoes the words of Pindar above quoted, 'he knoweth the consummation of life' ([Greek: oiden men biotou teleutan])? Nor is there any dearth of other authorities to prove that it was after death that the hopes of the initiated should 'be emptied in delight.' Let us hear Aristides. 'Nay, but the benefit of the (Eleusinian) festival is not merely the cheerfulness of the moment and the freedom and respite from all previous troubles, but also the possession of happier hopes concerning the end, hopes that our life hereafter will be the better, and that we shall not lie in darkness and in filth—the fate that is believed to await the uninitiated .' Such seem to have been the general terms in which the benefits of the mysteries might be recommended to the profane. The same ideas, almost the same phrases, occur again and again. Witness the well-known story of Diogenes the Cynic, who, when urged by a young man to get himself initiated, answered, 'It is strange, my young friend, if you fancy that by virtue of this rite the publicans will share with the gods the good things of Hades' house, While Agesilaus and Epaminondas lie in filth .' Or again let us read the advice of Crinagoras to his friend: 'Set thy foot on Cecropian soil, that thou may'st behold those nights of Demeter's great mysteries, which shall free thee, p. 166.]