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A comprehensive, comparative study of a little-known aspect of ancient religious beliefs and practices. Secret mystery cults flourished within the larger culture of the public religion of Greece and Rome for roughly a thousand years. This book is neither a history nor a survey but a comparative phenomenlogy, concentrating on five major cults: the mysteries of Eleusis, the Dionysiac or Bacchic mysteries, the mysteries of Meter, those of Isis, and those of Mithras. In defining the mysteries and describing their rituals, membership, organization, and dissemination, Burkert shows great erudition.
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