would be
fruitless. In the Spring, when they indulged themselves in all sorts of
orgies and extravagances, Adonis was found.

An underlying motive appears to have been to enact a drama in which the
deity was supposed to exercise his procreative function by sexual union
with the women. This was an ideal which they wished to express
dramatically. In order to realize this ideal obstacles were introduced
that they might be overcome; in the old myth, Adonis was emasculated
under a pine tree, and in Egypt Osiris was similarly mutilated, his sex
organs being lost. But at the festivals it was portrayed that Adonis was
found, and in the myth, Osiris was restored to Isis in the form of
Horus (the morning sun). In a number of myths, the god is said to have
visited the earth to cohabitate with the women, an occurrence which was
doubtless desired, in order that the deistic attributes might be
continued in the race. Thus, judging from what we have been able to
learn of this subject, the worship expressed in the mysteries revolved
about sexual union, the desire being to dramatize the continued activity
of deistic qualities.

This character of many of the festivals and mysteries is very evident.
In the Eleusinian mysteries the rape of Persephone by Pluto, the winter
god, is portrayed. The mother, Demeter, mourns for her daughter. Her
mourning is dramatically carried out by a large procession, and this
enactment requires several days. Finally Persephone is restored. The
earlier part of the festival was for dramatic interest, and the real
object was the union of Persephone with Bacchus. "The union of
Persephone with Bacchus, _i. e._, with the sun god, whose work is to
promote fruitfulness, is an idea special to the mysteries and means the
union of humanity with the godhead, the consummation aimed at in the
mystic rites. Hence, in all probability the central teaching of the
mysteries was Personal Immortality, analogue of the return of the bloom
to plants in Spring."[16]

The mysteries of Samothrace were probably simpler. Here the phallus was
carried in procession as the emblem of Hermes. In the Dionysian
mysteries which were held in mid-winter, the quest of the women was
unsuccessful and the festival was repeated in the Spring. The Roman
mysteries of Bacchus were of much later development, and consequently
became very debased. Men as well as women eventually came to take part
in the ceremony, and the whole affair degenerated into the g