Cf. Iamblichus, _De myster._, VI, 5-7.--On the "mysteries" of Isis in Egypt, cf. Foucart, _loc. cit._, p. 19 f.; De Jong, _De Apuleio Isiacorum mysteriorum teste_, Leyden, 1900, pp. 79 f., and _Das antike Mysterienwesen_, Leyden, 1909. 79. Cf. _supra_.--De Jong, op. cit., pp. 40 ff.; Gruppe, _Griech. Mythol._, p. 1574. 80. _La Cite antique_, I, ch. II, end. 81. Cf. Erman, _op. cit._, pp. 96-97. 82. Sufficient proof is contained in the bas-reliefs cited above (n. 20), where apotheosized death assumes the shape of {238} Serapis. Compare Kaibel, _Inscr. gr._, XIV, 2098: [Greek: Eupsuchi meta tou Oseiridos]. This material conception of immortality could be easily reconciled with the old Italian ideas, which had persisted in a dormant state in the minds of the people, see Friedlaender, _Sittengeschichte_, III^6, p. 758. 83. Reitzenstein, _Archiv fuer Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, 406 ff. These are perhaps the most striking pages written on the meaning of the ceremony; it is an [Greek: apathanatismos]. Cf. also Reitzenstein, _Hellenistische Wundererzaehlungen_, p. 116. 84. Apul., _Metam._, 23.--De Jong, the latest commentator on this passage, seems inclined to take it as a mere ecstatic vision, but the vision was certainly caused by a dramatic scene in the course of which hell and heaven were shown in the dark.--The Egyptians represented them even on the stage; see Suetonius, _Calig._, 8: "Parabatur et in mortem spectaculum quo argumenta inferorum per Aegyptios et Aethiopas explicarentur." 85. Apul., _Met._, XI, 6 end. 86. _Ibid._, c. 24: "Inexplicabili voluptate < aspectu > divini simulacri perfruebar." 87. Plut., _De Isid._, 78, p. 383 A: [Greek: Hos an exertemenais (tais psuchais ap' autou (tou Osiridos kai theomenais aplestos kai pothousais to me phaton mede rheton anthropois kallos]. 88. Cf., _supra_, n. 22.