Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/614

 been fully discussed by Miss Jane Harrison, and have been shown to be of Orphic origin. They were buried with the dead, and for this reason were more outspoken in their references to the mystic doctrines than was permissible in epitaphs exposed to the vulgar gaze. The most complete of these tablets is one which was found near Sybaris, and, with the exception of the last sentence of all, the inscription is in hexameter verse. Miss Harrison, to whose work I am wholly indebted for this valuable evidence, translates as follows :

'Out of the pure I come, Pure Queen of Them Below, Eukles and Eubouleus and the other Gods immortal. For I also avow me that I am of your blessed race, But Fate laid me low and the other Gods immortal starflung thunderbolt. I have flown out of the sorrowful weary Wheel. I have passed with eager feet to the Circle desired. I have sunk beneath the bosom of Despoina, Queen of the Underworld. I have passed with eager feet from the Circle desired. Happy and Blessed One, thou shalt be God instead of mortal. A kid I have fallen into milk.'

The gist of the document which the dead man takes with him is then briefly this. He claims to have been pure originally and of the same race as his gods; but as a man he was mortal and exposed to death, and in this respect differed from his gods. He states however that he has performed certain ritual acts which entitle him to be re-admitted to the pure fellowship of the gods now that death is passed. And the answer comes, 'Thou shalt be God instead of mortal.'

Now here I wish to consider one only of these ritual acts—that one of which the meaning is clearest—[Greek: Despoinas d' hypo kolpon edyn chthonias basileias], which means, if I may give my own rendering, 'I was admitted to the embrace of Despoina, Queen of the under-world.' The phrase is one which repeats the idea which we have already seen expressed in the formulary of Cybele's rites, [Greek: hypo ton paston hypedyn], 'I was privily admitted to the bridal chamber,' and in the token of the Sabazian mysteries, [Greek: ho dia kolpou theos], 'the god pressed to the bosom'; and Lucian's final phrase in his account of Alexander's mock-mysteries shows