Religions in the Hellenistic Age

The Hellenistic age brings local god and goddess together throughout the Near East. It is an era of ¡°Syncretism¡±, when different religions co-existed and influenced each other. Among them, several Mystery cults provided something traditional Greek Gods couldn¡¯t: promise of eternal life through the highly personal, emotional experience of initiation rituals.

Chronological timeline:

 338BC: Philips II conquers Greece, setting the foundation for the Hellenistic World.
 336-323BC: Reign of Alexander the Great. The aggressive expansion of Greek territory by Alexander helped mixing the religions from all then-known western world.
 272-208BC: Mithra¡¯s life on Earth.
 203BC: Magna Mater, was formally initiated in Rome under the belief that if the Mater Magna were brought from Pessinos [in Phrygia] to Rome, Roman can win the Second Punic War.
 200BC: Cult of Dionysus introduced to Rome.
 86BC: The tripartite cult of Isis, Horus, and Serapis was introduced into Rome.
 30BC: Egype fell to the Romans. Hellenistic era ends but mystery cults and polytheistic religions continue to survive in Roman Republic and early Roman Empire.
 313AD: Constantine legalizes Christianity.
 378-395AF: Christianity was made the official religion of Roman Empire. Other religious practices were outlawed.

Art image:

An Egyptian sculpture depicts the goddess Isis suckling her infant son, Horus. It is believed by History of Religion that these cults have been central in forming the Christian image of Jesus mother Mary.

Fast facts:

*Cult of Isis (Origin: Egypt)

Isis, in Egyptian mythology, is the goddess of fertility and motherhood. According to the Egyptian belief, she was the daughter of the god Keb ("Earth") and the goddess Nut ("Sky"), the sister-wife of Osiris (Anubis), judge of the dead, and mother of Horus, god of day. Ancient stories described Isis as having great magical skill, and she was represented as human in form though she was frequently described as wearing the horns of a cow.

Isis worship was in its greatest peak in the New Kindom. A great temple was built to her during the 30th Dynasty on Philae, an island in the Nile. The cult of Isis spread from Alexandria throughout the Hellenistic world after the 4th century BC. It appeared in Greece in combination with the cults of Horus, her son, and Serapis, the Greek name for Osiris. The Greek historian Herodotus identified Isis with Demeter, the Greek goddess of earth, agriculture, and fertility.

The tripartite cult of Isis, Horus, and Serapis was later introduced (86 BC) into Rome in the consulship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and became one of the most popular branches of Roman religion. In the Roman Empire, the cult of Isis was very popular throughout the Mediterranean area. It focused on the celebration of the mysteries of the death and the resurrection of Osiris. Isis, had been the consort of Osiris, and after his murder she recovered the scattered parts of his body and restored them to life. Osiris then became king of the dead and his son Horus became king of the living. The story of Isis, Osiris and Horus parallels the Christian mysteries of the virgin birth and the resurrection. It is also the origin of certain the Christian symbol of the Madonna and Child.

In the Roman fable Metamorphoses (also known as ¡°Golden Ass¡±), Lucius was turned into an ass by a magical ointment. He went through different adventures to find the antidote of his misfortune: the common rose. Eventually he was restored back to human form by the goddess no other than our celebrated Isis.

The cult of Isis continued to be practiced throughout the former Roman Empire right up to the sixth century AD when it was finally driven underground by Christianity.

* Cult of Dionysos (Origin: Minoan Crete by the import of wine)
Dionysos the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficent influences. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace ¡ª as well as the patron deity of both agriculture and the theater.

The original Rite of Dionysos is almost universally held to have been a "wine cult", concerned with the cultivation of the grapevine, and a practical, understanding of its life cycle - embodying the living god - the creation and fermentation of wine - the dead god in the underworld - and the intoxicating and disinhibiting effects of the drink itself, believed to be a possession by the god¡¯s spirit. Sounds like a pretty fun club!

The Hellenistic world, after Alexander¡¯s conquest, spread the cult of Dionysos internationally, to Egyptian Alexandria, where he was associated with Osiris. He was also associated with Jewish and Hindu deities. These various connections all fed back to the Aegean, where the cult became increasingly complex and cosmopolitan. This would also led to a breakaway mystical form of Dionysianism that would become part of the more philosophical Mysteries, a move in sharp contrast with the earthy and irrational primitive rite of Dionysos, that in some places still existed alongside it.

The basic principle beneath the original initiations, other than the seasonal death-rebirth theme supposedly common to all vegetation cults, was one of spirit possession and atavism (that is the participant was possessed by animal spirits and bestial entities, rather than intelligible divinities,). This in turn was closely associated with the hallucinogenic effects of the Greek wine which contained exotic ingredients later regarded by Roman authorities as ¡°poisons¡±.

The cult is considered ¡°the most secretive of all¡±, maybe even more secretive than Alchoholic Anonymous I believe.

* The Cult of Cybele (Origin: Phrygia, the modern Turkey)
Cybele is also referred to as Magna Mater in Latin meaning ¡°The great mother¡± or sometimes ¡°The mother of God¡±. The worship of the Earth Mother goddess in Anatolia (Asian Minor) can be traced back to 6000BC.

The goddess appears alone, from 8th to 6th centuries BC. Later she is joined by her son Attis, who incurred her jealousy. He, in an ecstasy, castrated himself, and subsequently died. Grieving, Cybele resurrected him.

The Cult of Cybele extended from Asia Minor to mainland Greese in the Hellenistic age and was especially welcomed in Athens. In Alexandria the seaport city in Epypt, Cybele was worshipped by the Greek population as "The Mother of the Gods, the Savior who Hears our Prayers" and as "The Mother of the Gods, the Accessible One." Ephesus, one of the major trading centers of the area, was devoted to Cybele as early the 10th century BC, and the city's ecstatic celebration, the Ephesia, honored her. In Rome the worship of Cybele, as Magna Mater, was formally initiated in 203 BC,

Cybele's most ecstatic followers were males who ritually castrated themselves, after which they were given womens clothing and assumed female identities, who other contemporary commetators in ancient Greece and Rome reffered to as Gallos or Galli. Her Priestesses led the people in orgiastic ceremonies with wild music, drumming and dancing and drink. Other followers of Cybele, Phrygian kurbantes or Corybantes expressed her ecstatic and orgiastic cult in music especially drumming, clashing of shields and spears, dancing, singing, shouts, all at night.

Cybele's cult in Greece was closely associated with, and apparently resembled, the cult of Dionysus, whom Cybele is said to have initiated.

* Mithraism (Origin: Persia)

The veneration of this God began about 4000 years ago in Persia, where it was soon imbedded with Babylonian doctrines.

In Persia Mithra was the protector God of the tribal society until the Zoroaster's reformation of Persian polytheism (628-55BC). One theory is that Mithras gained the title of 'Judger of Souls' in Zoroastrianism, becaming the divine representative of Ahura-Mazda on earth, and was directed to protect the righteous from the demonic forces of Ahriman. Mithras was called omniscient, undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting.

In the Avesta, the holy book of the religion of Zoroastrianism, Ahura-Mazda was said to have created Mithras in order to guarantee the authority of contracts and the keeping of promises. The name Mithras was the Persian word for 'contract'. According to Persian traditions, the god Mithras was actually incarnated into the human form of the Saviour expected by Zarathustra.

Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother once worshipped as a fertility goddess before the hierarchical reformation. Anahita was said to have conceived the Saviour from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. Mithra's ascension to heaven was said to have occurred in 208 B.C., 64 years after his birth. Parthian coins and documents bear a double date with this 64 year interval.

Other theories dispute the connection between Zoroastrianism and Mithraism, pointing out that the bull killing ritual was never practiced in Zoroastrianism. An image of Mithras killing the bull holds pride of place in each Mithras cave temple.

As a result of the solar and astronomical associations of the Babylonians, Mithras later was referred to by Roman worshippers as 'Sol invictus', or the invincible sun. The sun itself was considered to be "the eye of Mithras". The Persian crown, from which all present day crowns are derived, was designed to represent the golden sun-disc sacred to Mithras.

Remains of Mithraic temples can be found throughout the Roman Empire, from Palestine across north of Africa, and across central Europe to northern England. The faith spread east through India to China, and reached west throughout the entire length of the Roman frontier. Although I¡¯ve read articles about Mithras being represented as a Military General in Chinese statues, I¡¯ve yet to make any connection between he and any Chinese deity I am aware of.

For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire worshipped the god Mithras. In Rome, more than a hundred inscriptions dedicated to Mithras have been found, in addition to 75 sculpture fragments, and a series of Mithraic temples situated in all parts of the city. One of the largest Mithraic temples built in Italy now lies under the present site of the Church of St. Clemente, near the Colosseum in Rome.

Mithraism was most popular among legionaries (of all ranks), and the members of the more marginal social groups who were not Roman citizens: freedmen, slaves, and merchants from various provinces. No women were allowed.

Sources:
 Hellenistic Religions: An Introduction by Luther H.Martin
 Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age by Antonia Tripolitis
 Temple of Isis: http://sangha.net/messengers/isis.htmhttp://www.mithraism.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybele
Cause/Effect:

Besides fulfilling the spiritual needs of people in Hellenistic age, the Syncretism of multiple religions eventually paved the way for Christianity. Many elements of Christianity can be traced back in these ancient religions.

Cult of Isis:
Isis gave birth to Horus, who is really the earthly incarnation of the All-Father Osiris, on the 23rd of December. It is believed by History of Religion that cult of Isis have been central in forming the Christian image of Jesus mother Mary.

Cult of Dionysos:
There are many parallels between the legends of Dionysus and Jesus; both were said to have been born from a mortal woman but fathered by a god, to have returned from the dead, and to have transformed water into wine. The modern scholar Barry Powell also argues that Christian notions of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus in order for individual followers to feel Jesus within them was influenced by the cult of Dionysus. In a less benign example of influence on Christianity, Dionysus' followers, as well as another god, Pan, are said to have had the most influence on the modern view of Satan as animal-like and horned.

Cult of Cybele:
Roman devotion to Cybele ran deep. Not coincidentally, when a Basilica was built over the site of a temple to Cybele to occupy the site, it was dedicated as Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, which is the largest church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and used for Christian liturgy.

Mithraism:
Mithra was born by of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother.