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[Angrboda]

Epistemotautology?


It occurs to me that the Eleusinian mystery cults make a powerful and useful counter-point to his argument from longevity.
By most accounts, the mystery cults were popular for a roughly comparable length of time, and consisted, among other things,
of getting together and taking powerful psychotropic drugs.

Hunh. Imagine that.

During the early imperial period some very famous non-Greeks showed their deep interest in the mysteries at Eleusis, among them the Emperor Augustus himself. Though normally not attracted by foreign religions, he was initiated at Eleusis in 21 B.C. Later, according to Suetonius, he gave signal proof of his reverence for the mysteries.

"He was hearing a case at Rome which involved the privileges of the priests of the Attic Ceres. When some of the mysteries of their sacred rites were to be introduced into the pleadings, he dismissed those who sat upon the bench with him as judges, as well as the bystanders, and heard the arguments upon these points himself."