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Article A MASONIC MASTYR—HYPPOLITO JOSE DA COSTA... ← Page 4 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Masonic Mastyr—Hyppolito Jose Da Costa...
Da Costal theories do not materially differ from those of other mysteriologists . * He begins with the Eleusinian mysteries , assuming that Dionysus , Bacchus , Adonis , Thamuz , Apollo , were all various names for the divinity of the sun , whose apparent movements are represented by the death and resurrection referred to in the
ceremonies . Da Costa does not , however , consider that this worship originated with the Mithraic rites ; but that as the sun is typified as being dead or hidden for three days under the horizon , it must have originated in a cold climate as far north as latitude 66 ° , or from a people living near the polar circle . Our author is , therefore , quite
willing to believe that the ancient Scythians or Massaget ^ , of whom , he says , we know nothing , were the originators of this symbolic worship . He then gives the history of the Dionysian or Orphic mysteries of Eleusis , and he attempts a parallel between initiation in these and Masonic initiations , in which , as he has a preconceived idea to carry out , he is tolerably successful .
In common with other writers of his type , Da Costa teaches that these mysteries were concealed from the vulgar , because it would be a ridiculous prostitution of such sublime theories to disclose them to the multitude , incapable of understanding them , when even many of the initiates , for want of study and application , did not comprehend the whole meaning of the symbols . The multitude were told only in the abstract the doctrine of a future state of rewards and
punishments , and were made acquainted with the calendar , the result of astronomical observations , the knowledge of which was connected with their festivities and agricultural pursuits . Da Costa is obliged to acknowledge that as these assemblies were protected by secrecy , so obloquy was brought upon them by the depravity of their votaries , and the perversion of those assemblies into convivial meetings first , and then into the most debauched associations .
The Ionians , according to Da Costa ' s theory , were those who gave the architectural form to the mysteries , as being the inventors of the Ionian order , —on such flimsy grounds are such theories put together . The sect or society was now called the Dionysian artificers , and passed to Judea . The mode in which he connects his artificers with the
builders of the Temple is amusing and ingenious . He says the word Gellim in 1 Kings , v . 18 , means inhabitants of Gebbel , that Gebbel was Gabbel or Byblos , the city of the Ionians in Asia Minor , where stood the temple of Apollo , wherein the Eleusinian or Dionysian mysteries were celebrated . As Da Costa gets to later times , he can no longer piece his thread , and he ends his sketch suddenly with
" Camera desunt . Da Costa's style is remarkable for one whose native language is so dissimilar from our own , and it is fluent and even idiomatic , not a trace of the foreigner being recognizable . About the time of Da Costa's death Masonry began to rise very rapidly in Portugal ; and as in the teeth of the priestly interdicts it required a man of liberal and advanced mind to become a Mason , so
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Masonic Mastyr—Hyppolito Jose Da Costa...
Da Costal theories do not materially differ from those of other mysteriologists . * He begins with the Eleusinian mysteries , assuming that Dionysus , Bacchus , Adonis , Thamuz , Apollo , were all various names for the divinity of the sun , whose apparent movements are represented by the death and resurrection referred to in the
ceremonies . Da Costa does not , however , consider that this worship originated with the Mithraic rites ; but that as the sun is typified as being dead or hidden for three days under the horizon , it must have originated in a cold climate as far north as latitude 66 ° , or from a people living near the polar circle . Our author is , therefore , quite
willing to believe that the ancient Scythians or Massaget ^ , of whom , he says , we know nothing , were the originators of this symbolic worship . He then gives the history of the Dionysian or Orphic mysteries of Eleusis , and he attempts a parallel between initiation in these and Masonic initiations , in which , as he has a preconceived idea to carry out , he is tolerably successful .
In common with other writers of his type , Da Costa teaches that these mysteries were concealed from the vulgar , because it would be a ridiculous prostitution of such sublime theories to disclose them to the multitude , incapable of understanding them , when even many of the initiates , for want of study and application , did not comprehend the whole meaning of the symbols . The multitude were told only in the abstract the doctrine of a future state of rewards and
punishments , and were made acquainted with the calendar , the result of astronomical observations , the knowledge of which was connected with their festivities and agricultural pursuits . Da Costa is obliged to acknowledge that as these assemblies were protected by secrecy , so obloquy was brought upon them by the depravity of their votaries , and the perversion of those assemblies into convivial meetings first , and then into the most debauched associations .
The Ionians , according to Da Costa ' s theory , were those who gave the architectural form to the mysteries , as being the inventors of the Ionian order , —on such flimsy grounds are such theories put together . The sect or society was now called the Dionysian artificers , and passed to Judea . The mode in which he connects his artificers with the
builders of the Temple is amusing and ingenious . He says the word Gellim in 1 Kings , v . 18 , means inhabitants of Gebbel , that Gebbel was Gabbel or Byblos , the city of the Ionians in Asia Minor , where stood the temple of Apollo , wherein the Eleusinian or Dionysian mysteries were celebrated . As Da Costa gets to later times , he can no longer piece his thread , and he ends his sketch suddenly with
" Camera desunt . Da Costa's style is remarkable for one whose native language is so dissimilar from our own , and it is fluent and even idiomatic , not a trace of the foreigner being recognizable . About the time of Da Costa's death Masonry began to rise very rapidly in Portugal ; and as in the teeth of the priestly interdicts it required a man of liberal and advanced mind to become a Mason , so