of the Sabazios mysteries is [Greek: o( dia\ ko/lpôn theo/s, dra/kôn de\ e)sti kai\ ou(~tos dielko/menos tou~ ko/lpou tô~n teloume/nôn].[1]
Through Arnobius we learn:
"Aureus coluber in sinum demittitur consecratis et eximitur
rursus ab inferioribus partibus atque imis."[2]
In the Orphic Hymn 52, Bacchus is invoked by
[Greek: y(poko/lpie],[3] which indicates that the god enters into
man as if through the female genitals.[43] According to
the testimony of Hippolytus, the hierophant in the mystery
exclaimed [Greek: i(eron e)/teke po/tnia kou~ron, Brimô\ brimo/n]
(the revered one has brought forth a holy boy, Brimos
from Brimo). This Christmas gospel, "Unto us a son
is born," is illustrated especially through the tradition[44]
that the Athenians "secretly show to the partakers in
the Epoptia, the great and wonderful and most perfect
Epoptic mystery, a mown stalk of wheat."[45]
The parallel for the motive of death and resurrection is the motive of losing and finding. The motive appears in religious rites in exactly the same connection, namely, in spring festivities similar to the Hierosgamos, where the image of the god was hidden and found again. It is an uncanonical tradition that Moses left his father's house when twelve years old to teach mankind. In a similar manner Christ is lost by his parents, and they find him again as a teacher of wisdom, just as in the Mo-*
