The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Religion
The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
“Having thus spoken, she drew aside her garments,
And showed all that shape of the body which it is improper to name,
the growth of puberty;
And with her own hand Baubo stripped herself under the breasts.
Blandly then the goddess laughed and laughed in her mind,
And received the glancing cup in which was the draught.”
And the following is the token of the Eleusinian mysteries: _I have
fasted, I have drunk the cup; I have received from the box; having
done, I put it into the basket, and out of the basket into the chest._
Fine sights truly, and becoming a goddess; mysteries worthy of the
night, and flame, and the magnanimous or rather silly people of the
Erechthidæ, and the other Greeks besides, “whom a fate they hope not
for awaits after death.” And in truth against these Heraclitus the
Ephesian prophesies, as “the nightwalkers, the magi, the bacchanals,
the Lenæan revellers, the initiated.” These he threatens with what
will follow death, and predicts for them fire. For what are regarded
among men as mysteries, they celebrate sacrilegiously. Law, then,
and opinion, are nugatory. And the mysteries of the dragon are an
imposture, which celebrates religiously mysteries that are no mysteries
at all, and observes with a spurious piety profane rites. What are
these mystic chests?--for I must expose their sacred things, and
divulge things not fit for speech. Are they not sesame cakes, and
pyramidal cakes, and globular and flat cakes, embossed all over, and
lumps of salt, and a serpent the symbol of Dionysus Bassareus? And
besides these, are there not pomegranates, and branches, and rods, and
ivy leaves? and besides, round cakes and poppy seeds? And further,
there are the unmentionable symbols of Themis, marjoram, a lamp, a
sword, a woman’s comb, which is a euphemism and mystic expression for a
woman’s secret parts.
O unblushing shamelessness! Once on a time night was silent, a veil
for the pleasure of temperate men; but now for the initiated, the holy
night is the tell-tale of the rites of licentiousness; and the glare of
torches reveals vicious indulgences. Quench the flame, O Hierophant;
reverence, O Torch-bearer, the torches. That light exposes Iacchus; let
thy mysteries be honoured, and command the orgies to be hidden in night
and darkness.[32]
The fire dissembles not; it exposes and punishes what it is bidden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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