THE ANCIENT MYSTERY Instructor: David Ulansey

Preliminary Syllabus:

1. The Phenomenon of

The Greco-Roman Mystery religions were characterized by their possession of carefully guarded secrets, and by their practice of elaborate of initiation in which the secrets were revealed to new members. In this first class we will explore initiation rituals in general as a nearly universal human practice, whose structure and symbolism are remarkably similar across diverse cultures and historical periods. This examination of initiation as a broadly cross-cultural phenomenon will provide a crucial context for understanding the nature and significance of the specific initiation rituals and symbols found in the Mysteries.

2. The

In this class we will investigate the earliest of the Mystery religions-- the Eleusinian Mysteries-- whose central was an annual 10-day festival that culminated in secret rites of initiation in the temple of at , 14 miles from . The Eleusinian Mysteries, practiced continuously from 1500 BCE to 400 CE, served as the model for all subsequent Mystery traditions, and numbered among its initiates many of the most famous figures of the Greek and Roman world, from Plato and Aristotle to and Cicero. Revealing the secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries was punishable by death, and the secrets were in fact so well-kept that they remain unknown even today. However, we do know enough to show that the Eleusinian movement sparked the emergence of radically new patterns of thought and experience that subsequently came to play central roles in Western culture and psychology.

3. The Orphic Mysteries

The Orphic Mysteries constituted an esoteric "counter-cultural" tradition in ancient beginning in the 6th century BCE. As with the Eleusinian Mysteries, secret rites of initiation were central to the Orphic movement. Unlike the Eleusinian cult, however, the Orphic tradition produced a significant amount of literature, of which a number of fragments have been preserved. These fragments, along with numerous statements about the Orphics by ancient authors, allow us to see the Orphic movement as the birthplace of a remarkable complex of new ideas and symbols centering on the novel concept of the "" ("psyche" in Greek) as a non-material and immortal component of each human being, and on teachings about practices by which the soul could be freed from its imprisonment in the material world.

4. The Pythagorean Movement

The Pythagorean movement was a secret tradition deeply connected with , but with more sophisticated theory of the nature of the immortal soul which the Pythagoreans developed by linking the idea of the soul with their own extraordinary new concept of the "Cosmos" as the unified totality of being. The Pythagoreans' own far-reaching speculations and discoveries in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, and music led them to believe that the path to the liberation of the immortal soul lay in the study of-- and ultimately in the complete mirroring of-- the complex but integrated order of the divine Cosmos.

5. Plato and the Mysteries

The Eleusinian, Orphic, and Pythagorean movements-- as remarkable as they were-- were nevertheless peripheral phenomena in Greek culture, until their ideas were passionately taken up and energetically publicized by the greatest thinker of the ancient Western world: Plato. Plato's profound indebtedness to the Mysteries is well known to scholars, but is rarely even mentioned in more popular discussions of his philosophy and writing. In this class we will examine in detail the deep influence of the Mysteries on Plato's thought, and the way in which, as a result of his work, the teachings of the Mysteries were drawn from the boundaries of Western culture to its very center.

6. The Hellenistic Revolution

Immediately after the death of Plato, the Mediterranean world underwent a dramatic transformation as a result of the spectacular conquests of Alexander the Great, and the unprecedented cultural unification that those conquests in motion. This class will explore the ways in which the sudden emergence of the unified Hellenistic empire, along with related intellectual developments, created cultural and psychological circumstances unexpectedly favorable for the rapid spread of the teachings and practices of the Mysteries, and for the birth of new Mystery religions modelled on the Eleusinian, Orphic, and Pythagorean traditions.

7. The Mysteries of

In the period following Alexander's conquests, the Egyptian Isis became the focus of a new, empire-wide Mystery . This class will investigate the ways in which the Mysteries of Isis reveal with startling clarity and coherence the inner dynamics of the entire Mystery tradition, and of the new structures of Hellenistic culture that were so amenable to the transmission and expansion of the Mystery tradition.

8. The Mithraic Mysteries

Mithraism was the only one of the Mysteries that was consciously created as a secret Mystery cult, as opposed to evolving gradually out of a larger, more diffuse religious context. The cult of the Mithras appeared suddenly at around the same time as the origins of , and the fomulaic regularity of the iconography found in its underground temples suggests that that iconography is some kind of secret code. This class will explore how recent scholarship has succeeeded in deciphering that code: making the only one of the ancient Mysteries whose central secret is now known.

9. The Apocalyptic Movement

The Jewish Apocalyptic movement was in many ways a parallel within to the Greco-Roman Mysteries. Although the Apocalyptic tradition did not involve rites of initiation, it was intensely focused on secrecy: specifically, on the revelation of secrets (the Greek word "apocalypse" means "out of secrecy" or "revelation"). In this class we will investigate the deep similarities between the symbolism of the Jewish Apocalyptic texts and the imagery of the Mysteries, as well as the significance of those similarities in light of the cultural context that the Apocalyptic movement had in common with the Greco-Roman Mysteries.

10. and Christianity

Both Gnosticism and Christianity emerged out of the Apocalyptic movement, and they share with Apocalyptic an emphasis on secrecy in the sense that they present themselves as being powerful revelations of what were formerly closely guarded secrets. In addition, both Gnosticism and Christianity emphasize their possession of rites of initiation (the ritual of in Christianity, and a variety of initiation rituals in different Gnostic groups). Indeed, both Gnostics and early often refer to their teachings and practices as "Mysteries." This final class will examine the extent to which, as many scholars have suggested, Gnosticism and Christianity need to be included in the category of "ancient Mystery religions."

NOTE ON GRADING

There are three grading options, as follows:

(1) No Grade Requested: This is the default, just show up for class.

(2) Credit/NC: You must provide evidence that you have attended class (to the best of your ability) and read the assigned material. My suggestion is that you submit a one-page response to the readings and class discussions on a weekly basis, either via email or handed to me in class.

(3) Letter Grade: A 5-7 page paper on a topic of your choosing related to the course material.