The mystery religions flourished in the Hellenic era, the same era that saw the
birth of Christianity. Even the name “mystery religions” is an intriguing one. Why were
they a mystery? What was a mystery religion? And what of Christianity in this same
era; was it a mystery religion?
Christianity and mystery religions or cults have certain aspects in common. Many
of the mystery religions predate Christianity and for a time they co-existed. Eventually
Christianity became the sole religion in Europe, triumphing over the many mystery
religions. How much did the mystery religions influence and contribute to Christianity
and was Christianity a mystery religion are questions to be analysed in this essay by a
brief examination of some of the rites and tenets of some of the mystery religions.
The word “mystery” derives from “classical Latin mysterium secret, (plural)
secret rites, in post-classical Latin also mystical or religious truth (Vetus Latina)…in
Hellenistic Greek also secret revealed by God, mystical truth” and “the Ancient Greek the
base of myein to close (the eyes or lips), probably imitative in origin.”1
In ancient Greece the Mysteria was a major annual festival and the name denotes
“certain religions ceremonies (the most famous being those of Demeter at Eleusis) which
were allowed to be witnessed only by the initiated, who were sworn never to disclose
their nature.”2
The word mystery also came to have meaning in Christianity so that the Ancient
Greek mysteria is “found in the New Testament, where the word also means either a
religious truth long kept secret, but now revealed through Christ to his Church, or
something of symbolic significance.”3 Mystery came to have several other meanings in
Christianity, specifically “the Eucharist, the consecrated elements used in the Eucharist,”
and “mystical presence or nature.”4 Interestingly the word “mystery” which originally
was the key to the Mysteria and other mystery religions, also came to have significance in
Christianity.
The mystery religions were known for secret rites that initiates took part in to
become part of the cult or religion. Some of the mystery religions such as Eleusis, with
roots in agrarian festivals, “is known to have flourished without interruption from the
sixth century B.C. onward.”5 The Hellenistic period, however, marks the rise and
popularity of mystery religions.
It was Alexander who, conquering beyond Afghanistan brought back a wealth of
Eastern culture to mingle with the current Greek culture. This mixture of culture, ideas
and religions flourished and gave rise to the Hellenic era. The Greek world had expanded
and “the kosmos, or “world”, was the polis.”6
This expansion brought new outlooks and new ways of thinking. The classical
Greek pantheon was tied to the polis and the polis, as the centre of Greek culture,
changed radically after Alexander’s conquests. Even before Alexander, people were
beginning to reject the Greek gods; “the philosophical criticism of religion that took place
before and during the Hellenistic period challenged Greek beliefs and exposed the gods
as unworthy of the worship and devotion of thoughtful Greek people.”7
People began to look at their world as individuals, rather than in relation to the
state, and they began to search for new religious meanings. The mystery religions which
“are a form of personal religion, depending on a private decision and aiming at some
form of salvation through closeness to the divine,”8 began to fill the gaps left by the old
Olympian gods. Unlike Christianity, the mystery religions were not exclusive in their
worship, so the festivals of the old gods could be officially celebrated. However, the
ceremonies of the mystery religions were secretive by nature and decree.
Through Socrates and Plato, Greek thought turned to questioning and to selfexamination. As these ideas developed and were reinterpreted by later philosophers, the
ground was laid for mystery religions which “emphasized the inwardness and privacy of
worship”9 and the initiate “joined an association of people united in their quests for
personal salvation.”10
Within this historical background, the mystery religions became very
popular and widespread. Mystery religions were adaptable in changing to suit different
conditions and in adopting different practices from other religions as it suited their
circumstances.11 The following reasons give further clues to the rapid rise and spread of
mystery religions “1) the Mysteries possessed the authority of a venerable and
immemorial antiquity…; 2) their symbolism and vagueness, in which votaries might
apprehend the deepest religious truths ; 3) they satisfied the yearning for union with the
deity ; 4) their response to the sense of sin and their sacramental cathartic ; 5) promise of
a blessed immortality.” 12
Although many of the rites of initiation and rituals of the mystery religions are
unknown because of their inherent secrecy, there are certain defining features which are
noted in inscriptions in temples and tablets, in some of their more public ceremonies, and
through the writings of disgruntled ex-initiates.
One recurrent feature is the sacred meal or agape. In Eleusia, where the Mysteria
was celebrated in September at the time of the grain planting, a sacred meal followed
fasting and a sacred litany was recited “I fasted, I drank the cykeon, I took out of the
chest; having done the act I put again into the basket, and from the basket again into the
chest.”13 The sacred meal and litany reaffirmed the participants’ union with the god and
the unity of the religious congregation as a whole.
The sacred bull hunt and slaying in Mithraism are followed by a ritual feast of
meat and bread and of wine or water. The Mithraic feast depicted in the Aventine shrine
was destroyed by the Christians while other scenes at the same shrine were untouched.
The Mithraic feast was seen by Tertullian as a “devilish imitation of the Eucharist.”14
He also adds that “the initiates of Mithras enacted the resurrection as well.”15
Another example shows one of the many parallels between mystery religions and
Christianity, as in “the Samothracian mysteries an inscription…relates that the priest shall
break and offer the food and pour out the cup to the Mystae.”16
Many of the other mystery religions including Isis-Serapis, Dionysius and the
Great Mother celebrated sacred meals. The sacred meal formed a pivotal ritual and was
“not merely the symbol but the outward means or sacrament of union with the patron
god.”17
Whether Christianity actually borrowed the sacred feast from Mithraism or other
mystery religions and transformed it into the Eucharist is unknown. The sacred feast was
a popular idea and, therefore, a good one to “borrow”. As Tarnas says “the pagan
mysteries were not so much an impediment to the growth of Christianity as they were the
soil from which it could more readily spring.”18
Certainly Christianity appears to have borrowed some aspects from Mithraism.
Both Mithras and Christ were “divinities of the light and Sun.”19 From Mithraism,
Christianity appropriated Sunday as its day of worship and December 25 as the birth of
Christ.20
Salvation, the idea of invoking the god’s name for personal aid, was popular in
the mystery religions. In the Isis-Serapis religion, Serapis is “the protector and saviour of
all men, the most loving of the gods towards men, the one god who is ready to assist man
in his need when man invokes him.”21 Note that Serapis was a “loving god” and a
“saviour”, two words frequently used by Christianity to describe Christ.
In the soldier religion of Mithras, the god could be invoked to “assure his soldiers
of victory both against earthly and unearthly foes, salvation, and deliverance, redemption,
both in this world and in the world to come.”22
Initiation comes from “the Latin initiare, to begin.”23 The initiation ceremony
was the heart of every mystery religion. It symbolized death and rebirth, darkness and
light, good and evil and “satisfied the yearning for union with the deity.”24 Baptism was
part of the initiation into the mysteries “says Tertullian, In certain Mysteries, e.g. Of Isis
and Mithras, it is by baptism (per lavacrum) that members are initiated…in the
Apolloninarian and Eleusian rites they are baptized, and they imagine that the result of
this baptism is regeneration and the remission of the penalties of their sins.”25
The taurobolium, the initiation of the Great Mother religion, is one of the most
unusual sacred rites. In this ritual the initiate stood in a pit underneath a framework upon
which a bull was slaughtered. The blood from the bull showered down and drenched the
initiate who “then moistened his tongue with the blood, which he then drank as a
sacramental act.”26 When the initiate emerged they were born again “cleansed from the
past and endowed with the principle of immortality.”27 The taurobolium initiates were so
inspired by their experience that they sometimes recorded on their tombstones their
“having been renati in aeternum.”28 As with the sacred meals, Christians were appalled
by the comparison with the “redemptive conception with the sacrifice of Calvary, of
which it was viewed as a travesty.”29
An account of the initiation into the Isis-Serapis religion tells of the symbolic
death, rebirth and salvation of the initiate, “the initiation itself is solemnized as the
symbol of a voluntary death and a salvation given in answer to prayer, for the goddess is
wont to choose such as, having fulfilled a course of life, stand at the very threshold of the
departing light, to whom nevertheless the great mysteries of religion can be safely
entrusted; and after they have been by her providence, in a sense born again, she places
them again on the course of a new life in salvation.”30
The promise of immortality was a strong attraction to the mystery religions. The
initiation into the mysteries was a guarantee of a better afterlife, “It was the common
belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the Mysteries would, when he died, be
deemed worthy of divine glory. Hence all were eager for initiation.”31 The initiates of
the Great Mother believed “happy is he of men on earth who has seen those Mysteries:
but the uninitiate, who has no part in these holy things, cannot, when dead and down in
the murky gloom, have like portion of such blessings.”32 In Mithraism the hope of an
afterlife is expressed, “as for thee, I have given thee to come to the knowledge of the
father, Mithra. Keep thou his commandments, and so procure for thyself during life a
cable and sure anchorage; and when it is necessary for thee to depart hence, thou shalt go
with a good hope, having rendered thy tutelary god gracious to thee.”33
One of the most inspirational tributes to the mystery religions and to their
expectation of a better afterlife is Cicero’s writing on the Eleusian mysteries:
For it appears to me that among the many exceptional and divine things your
Athens has produced and contributed to human life, nothing is better than
those mysteries. For by means of them we have been transformed from a
rough and savage way of life to the state of humanity, and have been civilized.
Just as they are called initiations, so in actual fact we have learned from the
Fundamentals of life, and have grasped the basis not only for living with joy
but also for dying with a better hope.34
Hope of a blessed afterlife, the kingdom of heaven, was one of
Christianity’s most important features. It was this hope that enabled its followers to
endure life’s tribulations and to expect a joyous afterlife as a fitting reward.
While Christianity shared some theological aspects and rituals with the mystery
religions it also differed in fundamental principles. Christianity’s saviour was a living
person, not a god. In this “the death-rebirth mystery - had in Christ become concrete
historical reality, enacted for all humanity to witness and openly participate in.”35
Christianity further reinforced its base by adding to, and using, the already existing Bible.
Finally, Christianity introduced something new and inspiring into its teachings, the
miracle.
Christianity was not a mystery religion in that its rituals and initiations were not
secret and acceptance into it was easy and inexpensive (unlike the taurobolium). The
main appeal of Christianity was its universality – anyone could become a Christian,
unlike Mithraism, which was only for men.
Finally Christianity was exclusive, so that unlike the mystery religions in which
initiates could also worship other deities and take part in other deities’ festivals,
Christianity demanded the worship of one God with Christ as his son and intermediary.
When the Roman emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome,
Christianity began its ascendency and in the subsequent centuries ruthlessly rooted out
the mystery religions, ridiculed their followers, and destroyed their sacred sites.
The mystery religions were a spiritual answer to the needs of an era of awakening
individualism. That Christianity offered all this to everyone freely, and without shrouded
secrecy must have made it immensely appealing. As a religion in the Hellenic period,
Christianity certainly shared and may have borrowed from the mystery religions. These
parallels must have helped Christianity to gain popularity and, together with its
universality, have helped establish Christianity as the dominant religion.
1. Oxford English Dictionary, McPherson Library, University of Victoria, online.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Burkert, Walter, Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1987, p.2.
6. Meyer, Marvin W., ed., The Ancient Mysteries, Harper & Row, San Francisco,
1987, p.2.
7. Ibid. p.3.
8. Burkert, Walter, Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1987, p. 12.
9. Meyer, Marvin W., ed., The Ancient Mysteries, Harper & Row, San Francisco,
1987, p.4.
10. Ibid. p.4.
11. Angus, S., The Mystery-Religions and Christianity, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New
York, 1925, p. 175.
12. Ibid. p.175.
13. Ibid. p.130.
14. Vermaseren, M.J., Mithras, the Secret God, Chatto & Windus, London, 1963, p.
109.
15. Ibid. p. 109.
16. Angus, S., The Mystery-Religions and Christianity, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New
York, 1925, p.129.
17. Ibid. p. 131.
18. Tarnas, Richard, The Passion of the Western Mind, Ballantine Books, New York,
1993, p. 110.
19. Clauss, Manfred, The Roman Cult of Mithras, Edinburgh University Press,
Edinburgh, 2000, p. 169.
20. Ibid. p. 169.
21. Box, G.H., Early Christianity and Its Rivals, Ernest Benn Limited, London, 1929,
p. 59.
22. Ibid. p. 71.
23. Oxford English Dictionary, McPherson Library, University of Victoria, online.
24. Angus, S., The Mystery-Religions and Christianity, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New
York, 1925, p. 175.
25. Ibid. p. 81.
26. Ibid. p. 94.
27. Ibid. p. 94.
28. Ibid. p. 95.
29. Ibid. p. 94.
30. Box, G.H., Early Christianity and Its Rivals, Ernest Benn Limited, London, 1929,
p. 44.
31. Angus, S., The Mystery-Religions and Christianity, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New
York, 1925, p. 140.
32. Ibid. p. 140.
33. Ibid. p. 141.
34. Meyer, Marvin W., The Ancient Mysteries, Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1987,
p 1.
35. Tarnas, Richard, The Passion of the Western Mind, Ballantine Books, New York,
1993, p. 109.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Angus, S., Mystery-Religions and Christianity, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York,
1925.
Box, G. H., Early Christianity and Its Rivals, Ernest Benn Limited, London, 1929.
Burkert, Walter, Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1987.
Clauss, Manfred, The Roman Cult of Mithras, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh,
2000.
Meyer, Marvin W., ed., The Ancient Mysteries, Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1987.
Oxford English Dictionary, McPherson Library, University of Victoria, online.
Tarnas, Richard, The Passion of the Western Mind, Ballantine Books, Ne York, 1993.
Vermaseren, M. J., Mithras The Secret God, Chatto & Windus, London, 1963.
IS CHRISTIANITY A MYSTERY RELIGION?
Shelley Rowe