Once more the chart and compass offered by the direct extant sources are the best guides through the cross currents of the literature in our possession. Representative pagan poetry must be examined, at least of a few general types, in order to establish what influence, if any, was exerted upon contemporary Christian hymns. Regarding the classical influence, _per se_, a large number of Greek hymns were in existence when Christianity was founded,[38] and Roman lyrics were appearing in that very century. Paul was obviously acquainted with the Hymn of Cleanthes, a Stoic writer of the third century, B.C., for he quoted his words on the Areopagus. The original passage to which Paul refers has been translated as follows: Thee it is meet that mortals should invoke, For we Thine offspring are and sole of all Created things that live and move on earth Receive from Thee the image of the One.[39] It is evident that the Christian hymns embedded in the books of the New Testament were not constructed after a classical model of this type. The influence of Old Testament poetry was too strong, the associations of paganism repellant and, moreover, the Greek poetry, familiar to the average man of that day, quite different. The older Greek hymns, such as the _Homeric Hymns_, the _Odes_ of Pindar, the choruses of Greek tragedy, were produced in the Hellenic or pre-Hellenic ages which had been followed by more than two centuries of Hellenistic culture. Dr. Edward Delavan Perry, writing of Hellenistic poetry, said, "Other forms of poetry, particularly the lyric, both the choral and the 'individual,' died out almost completely."[40] There remain, then, only the extant hymns of the mystery cults. In spite of many references to the use of singing in connection with these religions, very few specimens of their hymns actually survive. The mystery religion was a sacramental religion "which stressed the approach to Deity through rite and liturgy after a severe probation and an oath pledging to secrecy."[41] The leading cults were those associated with Orpheus, the Magna Mater (Cybele) and Attis, Mithra, Serapis, Isis, Adonis, and especially the Eleusinian Mysteries, which flourished for twelve centuries, ending with their extinction by the Christians in 397.[42] During the period under consideration in this study Isis was honored in all parts of the Graeco-Roman world. An authentic hymn to Isis appears in the writings of Apuleius (b. 125), who describes a procession in honor of the goddess and gives the words of the chorus, closing, Thy divine countenance and most holy deity I shall guard and keep forever in the secret place of my heart. Variants of the Isis cult hymn or hymns have been preserved in inscriptions; for example, a hymn of some fifty lines from Cyme in Aeolia, I am Isis the sovereign of the whole land.[43]