Ancient Mystery Cults (Carl Newell Jackson Lectures)

While not as excellent as 'Homo Necans' (though few books are). An invaluable addition to the library of anyone studying Ancient Greeks and/or mystery cults. Well written, easy to read.

Walter Burkert is a reputable scholar and provides a great deal of information regarding early mystery cults. I found the information useful even when I disagreed with him about his conclusions; specifically he aims to lead readers away from the conclusion that Christianity had too much in common, or was based upon, early mystery cult traditions - although based on the text this would be an easy assumption to make. The main difference it seems is that Burkert treats these cults as dead religions with a certain amount of condescension, while not concealing his higher evaluation of Christianity. He claims that "there is no evidence" for the resurrection of Attis or Osiris (as opposed to the presumed evidence that Jesus actually rose from the dead) and that Persephone's followers are not resurrected (as opposed to Christians, who will be). Read the book yourselves, but focus on the information provided rather than the beliefs of the author.

I find the subject of ancient religions extremely interesting and Burkert gave me a point of view I've not read before. He obviously knows his subject and has an opinion on it. I would have given it a five stars but I found it sometimes difficult to follow all of his ideas. Anyone new to the subject might have a difficult time with this book. Question: why are so many of the books on ancient religions so over priced?

I recommend this book as an introduction for everybody who is interested in this daunting subject. Daunting, because it was forbidden for the initiated to speak about the mystery. Nearly everything we know (besides artwork - Athens - architectural sites) came to us indirectly (e.g. the formidable play 'Bakchai' by Euripides). Furthermore, all sanctuaries were destroyed after the imperial decrees (391/392) of Theodosius the Great prohibiting all pagan cults. The author analyses 5 mystery cults : Eleusis, Meter, Isis, Mithras, and the Dionysian and Bacchian mysteries. As we can learn from the work of Karl Kerenyi, the influence of Eleusis on Christianity should not be underestimated. Apparently, through the myth of Demeter/Persephone, the initiated were 'shown' that there was life after death. Plato was initiated (as nearly all Roman emperors) and as Hannah Ahrendt tells us in her book 'The origins of Totalitarianism', Plato must be considered as one of the fathers of the Christian creed. For the mysteries of Mithras, I recommend the work of J. Vermaseren. As Burkert states, most of the mysteries were expensive clubs and the experience was purely individual. That is the reason why they disappeared so rapidly: they lacked any lasting organization as the Christian Church. Another reason for Burkert was the inclusion of the family as the basic unit of piety in Christianity. The Church got the upper hand for demographic reasons. Contrary to Burkert, we know from the work of Kerenyi on Eleusis that the taking of drugs (the kykeon) was important (it was taken after a longer period of fasting). Burkert gives us a very good summary indeed.

Walter Burkert is one of the greatest scholars of the twentieth century in the field of ancient Greek religion, and this contribution is an excellent book which, for the most part, lives up to such a standard. I recommend it to any and all students of Greek religion who are looking to expand their knowledge of the particulars of mystery cults and what they were all about. I do, however, have reservations about recommending it as an overview or introductory work for laymen or students just getting interested in the subject. Burkert's methodology, while a great improvement over the "myth and ritual" debates which dominated earlier scholarship, is very much oriented in a psychological viewpoint which sees ancient mystery religion as somehow fundamentally less psychologically satisfying than religions like Christianity ("confessional" religions). In every chapter he tries to make the point that these cults were nothing like early confessional religions like Christianity because he is responding to another faction of scholars who tried to assimilate the two, but, unfortunately, in doing so Burkert makes a number of misleading (and, some would say, wrong) arguments about the nature of mystery religion and the mentality of its devotees. It is for these reasons that I recommend this book highly to someone who already knows enough to recognize when Burkert is making controversial statements and would not take him at face value.

While Burkett is recognized as one of the leading scholars of classical Greece, I found his suppositions about the ancient mystery cults somewhat stretched, and must be rooted in Burkett's own agenda in speaking with/against previous scholars. Burkett spends the first half of this work questioning long held assumptions about the nature of afterlife belief within the cults, as he examines votive offerings and other miscellaneous archeological data asking what really do such things tell us? But of course such things tell us very little, for which archeology is a soft science filled with supposition. This work is useful as a pause to historical critique and supposition, but ultimately those who speak of the mystery cults in the past (Plato, Pindar, and even Virgil) all make it clear that the cults consisted of rituals and initiations preparing one for the journey in the aftrlife. While we actually know very little about what they actally entailed (actually, we know very little about most of ancient history) the truth is Burkett's approach is not exceptional, but informative.

The four chapters of this book are taken from a series of lectures that Burkert gave in 1982. They all examine aspects of mystery cults in general rather than each cult individually. The introduction, which describes the Eleusinian mysteries and those dedicated to Dionysus, Magna Mater, Isis, and Mithras, gives the reader the basic background for understanding what follows. The four lectures discuss: how the mysteries satisfied worshippers' personal religious needs; the communities of initiates in each cult, and how they were organized; mystery cults' theology, or lack thereof; and what the mystery rites actually consisted of. This structure means that the reader doesn't get a complete description of any of the individual cults. Instead, Burkert looks at each of them while discussing the main topic in each essay. Burkert challenges many old assumptions about the mystery cults. He expresses skepticism about the use of hallucinogens or other drugs during the mystery rites, saying the circumstances of most rites really weren't well suited for a drug trip. He shows that the mysteries had no systematic theology and their religious communities were fairly loosely organized. He especially challenges the notion that the mysteries guaranteed a better afterlife for their initiates. A lot of this criticism is justified. Hallucinogen-based mystery rites seemed plausible amid the drug-centered mysticism of the 1960s counterculture, but by 1982 the effects of hallucinogens were well understood, and Burkert was able to point out the dissimilarity between them and the mystery cults. More fundamentally, scholars for generations before Burkert were working with the unspoken assumption that Christianity is the model for what a real religion should be like. To them, the mysteries seemed like half-formed precursors to this type of religion, and they often assumed that the mysteries were more Christian-like than they really were. Scholars in the 1970s and 1980s reacted against these faulty assumptions, and their skeptical views held sway when these lectures were given. Nevertheless, I think Burkert downplayed afterlife beliefs too much, and more recent studies of the mystery cults tend to agree with me. Burkert is often insightful, especially about the psychological phenomena underlying the mystery cults. But this really isn't a complete examination of the mysteries. A reader looking for one should turn to Mystery Cults of the Ancient World by Hugh Bowden, which describes the historical context extensively, or Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World by Jan Bremmer, which gives straightforward descriptions of the rites and examines them just as thoughtfully as Burkert does. This book works best as a supplement to those two.

I've been researching and studying mythology and rites for years, and I was eager to buy this book. It was somewhat of a disappointment. It falls short in information, I found it too superficial. It does cling to one single view of the mystery cults, which also doesn't help - specially when you're versed in comparative mythology, or any comparative schools at all. Had I known it would be so poor on details, I wouldn't have bought it. (And the review is just as short as are the information on the book)