was a real spiritual disinfection with the water driving out the evil
spirits that had caused pollution. The votary, again, might drink or
besprinkle himself with the blood of a slaughtered victim or of the priests
themselves, in which case the prevailing idea was that the liquid
circulating in the veins was a vivifying principle capable of imparting a
new existence.[25] These and similar rites[26] used in the mysteries were
supposed to regenerate the initiated person and to restore him to an
immaculate and incorruptible life.[27]

Purgation of the soul was not effected solely by liturgic acts but also by
self-denial and suffering.[28] The meaning of the term _expiatio_ changed.
Expiation, or atonement, was no longer accomplished by the exact
performance of certain ceremonies pleasing to the gods and required by a
sacred code like a penalty for damages, but by privation and personal
suffering. Abstinence, which prevented the introduction of deadly elements
into the system, and chastity, which preserved man from pollution and
debility, became means of getting rid of the domination of the evil powers
and of regaining heavenly favor.[29] Macerations, laborious pilgrimages,
public confessions, sometimes flagellations and mutilations, in fact all
forms of penance and mortifications uplifted the fallen man and brought him
nearer to the gods. In Phrygia a sinner would write his sin and the
punishment he suffered upon a stela for every one to see and would return
thanks to heaven that his prayer of repentance had been heard.[30] The
Syrian, who had offended his goddess by eating her sacred fish, dressed in
sordid rags, covered himself with a sack and sat in the public highway
humbly to proclaim his misdeed in order to obtain forgiveness.[31] {41}
"Three times, in the depths of winter," says Juvenal, "the devotee of Isis
will dive into the chilly waters of the Tiber, and shivering with cold,
will drag herself around the temple upon her bleeding knees; if the goddess
commands, she will go to the outskirts of Egypt to take water from the Nile
and empty it within the sanctuary."[32] This shows the introduction into
Europe of Oriental asceticism.

But there were impious acts and impure passions that contaminated and
defiled the soul. Since this infection could be destroyed only by
expiations prescribed by the gods, the extent of the sin and the character
of the necessary penance had to be estimated. It was the priest's
prerogative