The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries

he reads to us from a book of stone [petroma], things which we must not divulge on pain of death. Let it suffice that they fit the place and the occasion; and though you might laugh at them if they were spoken outside, you seem very far from that mood now as you hear the words of the old man (for he was always old) and look upon the revealed symbols. And you are very far indeed from ridicule when Demeter seals, by her own peculiar utterance and signals—by vivid flashes of light and cloud piled upon cloud—all that we have seen and heard from her sacred priest. Then, finally, the light of a serene wonder fills the temple, and we see the pure fields of Elysium and hear the chorus of the Blessed. Then, not merely by external appearance or philosophical interpretation, but in actual fact, the Hierophant becomes the Creator [demiourgos] and revealer of all things. The Sun is but his torch-bearer, the Moon his attendant at the altar, and Hermes his mystic herald [kerux]. But the final word has been uttered: 'Conx Om pax.' The rite is consummated, and we are epoptæ forever!”

Those who are curious to know the myth on which the petroma consisted—notably enough, two tablets of stone—will find it in any Classical Dictionary, as well as in these pages. There is in these facts a reminder of the peculiar circumstances of the Mosaic Law, which was similarly preserved, and also of the claim of the Pope to be the successor of Peter, the hierophant or interpreter of the Christian religion.

Source: Porphyry.