We have then a passage of great interest for our investigation, in which the Mysteries are sharply divided into two classes, and their separate content clearly defined.  There are—­“the little Mysteries, those of the Fleshly Generation, and after men have been initiated into them they should cease for a while and become initiated in the Great, Heavenly, Mysteries—­for this is the Gate of Heaven, and this is the House of God, where the Good God dwells alone, into which House no impure man shall come."[10] Hippolytus remarks that “these Naassenes say that the performers in theatres, they too, neither say nor do anything without design—­for example, when the people assemble in the theatre, and a man comes on the stage clad in a robe different from all others, with lute in hand on which he plays, and thus chants the Great Mysteries, not knowing what he says: 

   ’Whether blest Child of Kronos, or of Zeus, or of Great Rhea,
   Hail Attis, thou mournful song of Rhea! 
   Assyrians call thee thrice-longed-for Adonis;
   All Egypt calls thee Osiris;
   The Wisdom of Hellas names thee Men’s Heavenly Horn;
   The Samothracians call thee august Adama;
   The Haemonians, Korybas;
   The Phrygians name thee Papa sometimes;
   At times again Dead, or God, or Unfruitful, or Aipolos;
   Or Green Reaped Wheat-ear;
   Or the Fruitful that Amygdalas brought forth,
   Man, Piper—­Attis!’

This is the Attis of many forms, of whom they sing as follows: 

   ’Of Attis will I sing, of Rhea’s Beloved,
   Not with the booming of bells,
   Nor with the deep-toned pipe of Idaean Kuretes;
   But I will blend my song with Phoebus’ music of the lyre;
   Evoi, Evan,—­for thou art Pan, thou Bacchus art, and Shepherd of
      bright stars!’"[11]

On this Hippolytus comments:  “For these and suchlike reasons these Naassenes frequent what are called the Mysteries of the Great Mother, believing that they obtain the clearest view of the universal Mystery from the things done in them.”

And after all this evidence of elaborate syncretism, this practical identification of all the Mystery-gods with the Vegetation deity Adonis-Attis, we are confronted in the concluding paragraph, after stating that “the True Gate is Jesus the Blessed,” with this astounding claim, from the pen of the latest redactor, “And of all men we alone are Christians, accomplishing the Mystery at the Third Gate."[12]

Now what conclusions are to be drawn from this document which, in its entirety, Mr Mead regards as “the most important source we have for the higher side (regeneration) of the Hellenistic Mysteries”?

First of all, does it not provide a complete and overwhelming justification of those scholars who have insisted upon the importance of these Vegetation cults—­a justification of which, from the very nature of their studies, they could not have been aware?