I've been slowly making my way through Walter Burkert's Greek Religion for the first time. I just finished the section on mysteries, about which I knew little. I have no idea why, but I left the section feeling a little creeped out. Something about how he described some mindsets of the mystery (as distinct from polis) cults reminded me of today, and not in a good way. One of the paragraphs even made me think of incels. 😳 Definitely need to do some more reading to wash that away.
Anyone have favorite recommendations to learn about Greek (Roman, Egyptian too, but definitely closer to antiquity than medieval and later) mystery cults?
I have Hugh Bowden's Thames & Hudson text and Michael Cosmopoulos' work on the archaeology in my own collection. Should I next try Burkert's dedicated work on the mysteries? Anything else? Journal articles? Scholar specialists?
🪷 On September 9th we honor #Asclepigenia a 5th Century follower of #Aesculapius in Athens who trained both men and women in the medical arts despite virulent Christian opposition. She was one of the last priestesses of the #Eleusinian Mysteries into which #Hadrian and #Antinous had been initiated. 🪷
For those of you who are curious about the Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries and would like to learn more, I've compiled a list of free resources to kickstart your research!
I also periodically update the list to add new resources that I come across in my studies.