[597] The successive stages or acts of initiation are variously described and enumerated, but there were at least four: κάθαρσις—the preparatory purification; σύστασις—the initiatory rites and sacrifices; τελετὴ or μύησις—the prior initiation; and ἐποπτεία, the higher or greater initiation, which admitted to the παράδοσις τῶν ἱερῶν, or holiest act of the ritual. Cf. Lobeck, _Aglaoph._ pp. 39 ff. [598] An interesting inscription has recently come to light, which shows that the public slaves of the city were initiated at the public expense. Foucart, l.c. p. 394. [599] Cf. Origen, _c. Cels._ 3. 59. [600] Philostratus, _Vita Apoll._ 4. 18, p. 138. [601] _Alex._ 38. [602] Cf. Lobeck, _Aglaoph._ pp. 39 ff. and 89 ff.; Welcker, _Griech. Götterl._ ii. 530-532. “The first and most important condition required of those who would enter the temple at Lindus is that they be pure in heart and not conscious of any crime.”—Professor W. M. Ramsay in _Ency. Brit._ s. v. “Mysteries.” For purification before admission to the worship of a temple, see, in _C.I.A._ iii. Pt. i. 73. 74, instances of regulation prescribed at the temple of Mên Tyrannus at Laurium in Attica, e.g. μηθένα ἀκάθαρτον προσάγειν, various periods of purification being specified. Cf. Reinach, _Traité d’Épigr. Grecque_, p. 133, on the inscr. of Andania in Messenia, B.C. 91; the mysteries of the Cabiri in Le Bas and Foucart, _Inscr. du Peloponnèse_, ii. § 5, p. 161; and Sauppe, _die Mysterieninschr. von Andania_. [603] Tertullian, _de Baptismo_, 5, “Nam et sacris quibusdam per lavacrum initiantur ... ipsos etiam deos suos lavationibus efferunt;” Clem. Alex. _Strom._ Bk. 5. 4: “The mysteries are not exhibited incontinently to all, but only after certain purifications and previous instructions.” _Ibid._ 5. 11: “It is not without reason that in the mysteries that obtain among the Greeks, _lustrations hold the first place_, as also the laver among the Barbarians. After these are the minor mysteries, which have some foundation of instruction and of preliminary preparation for what is to come after; and the great mysteries, in which nothing remains to be learned of the universe, but only to contemplate and comprehend nature and things.” We have thus a sort of baptism and catechumenate. [604] The fast lasted nine days, and during it certain kinds of food were wholly forbidden. Cf. Lobeck, _Aglaoph._ pp. 189-197. [605] There was a lesser and a greater initiation: “It is a regulation of law that those who have been admitted to the lesser should again be initiated into the greater mysteries.” Hippol. 5, 8: see the whole chapter, as also cc. 9, 20.