Ante-Nicene Christian Library; Translations Of The Writings Of The Fathers Down To A.D. 325, Volume 4: The Writings Of Clement Of Alexandria, Volume 1

발행: 1867년

분량: 502페이지

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tho miserabis chain os superstition whomsoever he cin dramis his sido iram thela birth, in stones, and si is, and images,

iadresses mith the Volce of song, just as a good physicianuinis some of his patients With cataplasms, somo Mith ru, bium some missi fomentations; in ons case cura open miththe lancet, in another cauteriges, in another amputates, inordis ii possibis to cum the patienes diseased pari or member. Tho Saviour has many tones of voice, and many methods for

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the fire; but, since humanity is nobier than the pillar or thebush, aster them the propheis ultored their voice, the Lord

this Word wo fhould reap, as the fruit of this productionem,oternal liso. Tho Scripture mines ali this clear, is referring both the voices to the samo thing: μ Let her hear who has

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banen woman and the desert-is one and the fame. Forbecause many mero the children os the mollier os nobie race,

ngainst the coming of tho Christ os God.' And it was this Which was significd by the dumbraess of Zacharias, whichwaited for fruit in the person os the harbinger os Christ, that

broah the mystic silencs of tho prophetic enigmas. But it thou destrest truly to seo God, talio to thyseis means os purification morthy of Him, not leavos of laurei filleis intomoven

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THE ABSURDIN AND IMPIETY OF ΤΗΕ ΗΕΑTΗΕΝ ΗYSTERIES AND FABI ES ABOUT THE BIRTH AND DΕΑTΗ OF ΤΗΕIRGODS. not thon ino curiousty the stirines of impie , or the mouilis os caveras fuit os monstro- si , or the Thesprotian caldron, or the Cirrhaean tripod, or the Dodonian copper. The Geran- dryon,' Once regardod sacred in the midst os desert sands, and tho oracle there gono to decay With the oah iraeli, consign to the region os antiquated sabies. The fountain os Castalia is silent, and the other fountain os Colophon; and, in lihemanner, ali the rest of the springs os divination ara dead, and strippod of their vainglor' although at a late date, areshown with thoir sabulous legends to have run dry. Recountio us also the uselessy oracles os that oster Lind os divination, or rather madnos' tho Clarian, the Pythian, the Didymaean,

that os Amphiaraus, of Apollo, of Amphilochus; and ii youwill, couplo' With them the expounders of prodigies, the augura, and the interpreters of dreams. And bring and place beside the Pythian thoso that divine is fio , and thoso that divine by barley, and the ventriloquisis stili held in hono many.

Lot the secret shrines of tho Egyptians and the necromancies λ What this is, is not known; but it is si ely that the vord is a cor

ruption of Ιερὰν ορυν, the sacria min. Ο i' ἀχρηστα χρηστηρια-

η Tho texi haa ἀνιέρου, tho imperative of ἀνιεροω, Which in classical Grein meana to hallo. but the verb here must be derived iram the adjectivo ἀν ιερος, and be tinen in tho aenae deprivo of their holinem,'' no longer count holy. Eusebius retas ἀνιέρου-: uisoly interpretera.

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ol tho Etruscans bo consigned to darkness. lasane devices truly are they ali os unbelleving men. Goat' too, have been consederates in this art of Mothsaying, trained to divination ;

them; and those s called gods of yours, Whose are thomystic rites, I shali display, as it mere, on the stage of lite, to the spectatore os truth. The bacchanais hold their orgies in honone os the frenetied Dionysus, celebrating their sacred

tribution of tho paris of butchered victims, crowned Mithmahes, stiriehing out the namo of that Eva by Whom error me into the worid. The symbol of tho Bacchic ories is a

Consecrated serpent. Moreover, according to tho strict interpretation of the Hebre term, the name Hevia, aspirated, signifies a semale serpent. Demeter and Proserpino have become tho heroines of amystic drama; and their Wanderings, and seleture, and grie Eleusis celebrates by torchlight processions. I thinh that the dorivation os orgies and mysteries ought to be traced, theformer to the wrath omn) os Demeter against Zeus, tholatior to the nefarious Wichednem Ῥυσoo relating to Dion sus ; but it fram Myus of Attica, Who Pollodorus says Waskillod in huntin no matter, I don't grudge Four mysteries the glory of sunerat honoura. u may understand mysteria

in another Way, as mytheria hunting fabies), tho letters of the two morta Ming interclianged; for certainly fabies of thissori hunt after tho most barbarous of the Thracians, the most senseleas of the Phrygians, and the superstitious among thsGreeis. Perish, then, the man who mas sto auctor of this imposturoam g men, be he Dardanus, Who taught tho mysteries of themother of the νει, or Eetion, who instituted the orgies and mysteries of the Samothracians, or that Phrygian Midas Who, haring learned the cunning imponum hom Odrysus, communicated it in his subjecta. For I mili never bo persuaded

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28 EXHORTATION TO THE HEATHEN. by that Cyprian Istander Cinyras, Who dared to bring sortiisrom ni t to the light of day the lewd orgies of Aphrodito in

his eagerness to deisy a strumpet of his oWn country. Othors say that Melampus the soli of Amythaon imported the festi-vals os Ceres from Egypt into Greece, celebrating her gries

Τhoso Ι would instanco as the prime authors os evit, thoparents of implous fabies and of deadly superstition, Whosowod in human liso that seed of Ovil and ruin-the mysterius.

And nom for it is time, I Will prove their orgies to be fullos impost ure and quackery. And is you have been initiatod,

Thoro is then the soam-born and Cyprus-born, the darlingos Cinyras, mean Aphrodite, lover of the virilia, bccausesprung froin them, even froin those of Uranus, that were cui of -those lusisul members, that, aster being cui os ossored violonce to the waves. Oi members so lewd a Worthyfruit Aphrodite is hora. In the rites whicli celebrato thisenjoyment of the sea, as a symbol of her birth a lump of saltand the phallus aro han ded to those who are initiated intotho ari os uncidanness. And those initiated bring a plece of

money to her, as a courtesan's paramours do to her. Then there are the mysterios os Demeter, and Zeus'swanton embraeos of his mollier, and the wrath of Demeter;

I know not what for tho futuro I shali cali her, mothor orwise, on Which account it is that Elie is called Brimo, as issaid; also the entreaties of Zeus, and the drink of gali, thopluching out of the hearis os sacrifices, and deeds that me dare not namo. Such rites tho Phrygians persorm in honouros Attis and Cybele and the Corybantes. And the storygoes, that Zeus, haVing torn aWay the testicles os a ram, brought them oui and cast them at tho bre is os Demeter,paying thus a fraudulent penalty for his violent embrace, pretending to have cui out his o n. The symbols os initiation into theso rites, when set betore Fou in a Vapant hour,

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30 EXHORTA NON TO THE HEA THEM these very Titans toro him limb Dom limb when but a child, as tho bard of this mystery, the Thracian Orpheus, SVS:

cotved the savour of the pieces os flesti that were being cooked, -that favour Which your gods agree to have assigned to themas their perquisite,-assalis the Titans mitti his thunderboli, and consigna the members of Dionysus to his son Apollo tobo interrod. And he or lio did not disobey Zeus-bore thedismembered corpse to Parnassus, and there deposited it.

car ing it on the potnt of a spear, buriod it under tho mota os Olympus. These mysteries are, in inori, murders and funerias. And the priesis of these rites, who are called hings of the sacred rites by thoso whoso business it is to name them, ove additional strangeness to tho tragic occurrence, by sorbidding

floWed forth; just as the women, in celebrating the Thesm phoria, abstain irom eating the seeds of the pomegranate which have fallen on the ground, from the idea that pom granates sprang from the drops os tho blood of Dionysus. Thoso Corybantes also they cali Cabiri; and the ceremonyitseli they announce as the Cabiric mystery.

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For inoso tWo identicia fratricides, having abstracted tho x in Whicli tho penis of Bacchus mas deposited, took it to Etruria inters in hono ablo Wares truly. They lived thereas exiles, emptosng themselves in communicating the precio inaching of their superstition, and presenting the genitali and tho box for tho Tyrrhenians in morship. And wme mill have it, not improbabin that for this reason Dionysus Was called Attis, Minuso he was castrared. And What is surprising at the Tyrrhenians, Who mere barbarians, Ming thus initiatod into these foui indignities, when among the Athenians, and in thewholo os Graeco Uush to say it - the inamosul legenda ut Demeter holia iis groundi For Demeter, Wandering in quest of her dau ter Core, brohe dom missi fatigue near Eleusis, a place in Attica, and sat doWn on a meti overWhelmed with grief. This is even noW prohibited to those Who are initiatia, test they should appear to mimic the weeping νει

dem. Tho indigenous inhabitanis then occupied Eleusis :their names mere Baubo, and Dusaules, and Triptolemus; and besides, Eumolpus and Eubouleus. Triptolemus Was alteriaman, Eumolpus a stepherd, and Eubouleus a sWinehord; from Whom came the race of tho Eumolpidae and that of tho Horalds-a raco os Hierophandi ho flourished at Athens.

deli ted at the figlit, and taes, though With dissices , thedrauot leased, I repeat, at the spectacle. These are theseeret mysteries of the Athenians; these orpheus recorda. Istiali produco tho very motas os orpheus, that you may haVethe great authori on the mysteries himself, as evidence forthis piece of turpitude:

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32 EXHORTATION TO THE MATHEM

flame, and the magnanimous or rather silly people of the Erechthidae, and the other Greelis besides, Whom a fato they hope not sor aWalis aster death. And in truth against theso Heraclitus the Ephesian prophesies, tho night-Walhers, the magi, the bacchanais, the Lenaean revellers, the initiated. These ho threatens mith what will sollow death,

and predicis for them fire. For What are regarded among men as mysteries, they celebrate sacrilegiously. La , then, and opinion, are nugato . And the mysteries of the dragonare an impostum, Whicli celebrates religiousty mysteries thatare no mysteries at all, and observes With a spurious pietyprofane rites. What are these mystic chesis Τ-for I must expose their sacred things, and divulgo things not fit forspeech. Are they not sesame calies, and pyramidat calies, and globular and flat calies, embossed ali over, and lumps of sali, and a serpent the symbol os Dionysus Bassareus ' Andbesides theso, are there not pomegranates, and branches, and

seodsi And furthor, there are the unmentionable symbolsos Themis, madoram, a lamp, a SWord, a WOman'S COmb, Whicli is a euphemism and mrstic expression for a Woman's secret paris.

O unbiushing shamolessnessi once on a time night Wassilent, a veil for the pleraure os temperato men; but no for the initialed, tho holy ni t is tho toll-tale of the rites of licentio ness; and the glare os torches reveais Victous indulgences. Quench the flame, o Hierophant; reverence, o Torch-bearer, the torches. That light exposes Iacchus; lut thy mysteries be honoured, and command the orgies to behiddon in night and dari ness.

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