That there were "tables" in the cults of many Gods is quite certain: temple-meals for devotees seem to have been normal in Greek religion; [161] and in the cults of the Saviour-Gods there were special collocations of sacramental meals with "mysteries." In particular, apart from the famous Eleusinian mysteries there were customary dramatic representations of the sufferings and death of the God in the cults of Osiris, Adonis, Attis, and Dionysos: in addition to a scenic representation of the death of Herakles; and a special system of symbolic presentation of the life of the God in the rites of initiation of the worship of Mithra. [162] It is not to be supposed that these religious representations amounted to anything like a complete drama, such as those of the great Attic theatre. Rather they represented early stages in the evolution which ended in Greek drama as we know it. Nearer analogues are to be found in the religious plays of various savage races in our own time. [163] What the mystery-plays in general seem to have amounted to was a simple representation of the life and death of the God, with a sacramental meal. The common objection to the hypothesis even of an elementary mystery-play in the pre-gospel stages of Jesuism is that Hebrew literature shows no dramatic element, the Jews being averse from this as from other artistic developments of religious instinct. To this we reply, first, that the mystery-play, as distinguished from the primary sacrament, may or may not have been definitely Jewish at the outset; and that the drama as seen developed in the supplement to the gospels is certainly manipulated by Gentile hands. But the objection is in any case invalid, overlooking as it does: 1. The essentially dramatic character of the Song of Solomon. 2. The partly dramatic character of the Book of Job. 3. The dramatic form of the celebration of Purim. 4. The existence in the Hellenistic period of theatres at Damascus, Cæsarea, Gadara, Jericho and Scythopolis, the first two being, as we learn from Josephus, built by Herod the Great. 5. The chronic pressure of Hellenistic culture influence upon Jewish culture for centuries. 6. The prevalence of Greek culture influence at the city of Samaria, Damascus, Gaza, Scythopolis, Gadara, Panias (Cæsarea Philippi). 7. The "half-heathen" character of the districts of Trachonitis, Batanea, and Auranitis, east of the Lake of Gennesareth. [164] Galilee, be it remembered, was late conquered "heathen" territory. 8. The long and deeply hostile sunderance, after the Return, between the priestly and rabbinical classes and the common people of the provinces. [165] 9. The "resuscitation of obsolete mysteries" among the Jews, and the known survival of private sacraments and symbolic sacrifices of atonement. [166] 10. The actual production of dramatic Greek poetry on Biblical subjects by the Jewish poet Ezechiel (2nd c. B.C.). [167]