THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL^ D.D., ON MITHRAISM. 263 



from India, or, much more probably, from Egypt,* and it had 

 spread very extensively, commending itself to Platof and many 

 later philosophers, including the Neo-Platonists. It was one 

 of the leading doctrines of the Mithraism of the West. This 

 very fact itself seems to confute the assertion that Western 

 Mithraists believed in a Resurrection to be brought about by 

 Mithra himself. Even in Persia, where in very late times 

 belief in the Kesurrection was i'ound, Mitkm took no part 

 in it. 



In early Christian times the widespread belief in Trans- 

 migration on the part of the heathen world was dependent 

 on the doctrine that the human spirit had come into this lower 

 world from a higher and more ethereal J one. Even in the 

 Eig-Veda we discover a trace of the same idea, for, to the 

 departing spirit, these words are addressed: "Having aban- 

 doned imperfection, go thou home again." § Just in the same 

 way the setting sun is said to be " going home." Much later, 

 when belief in transmigration had become almost universal 

 among Hindus,|l the terms clehin and saririn, " the embodied," 



* Herodotus, ii, 123. Diodorus Siculus (Bibl., i, p. 62) thinks 

 Pythagoras learnt it in Egypt. C^f. Diogenes Laertius (lib. vii, cap. i) 

 and Frooemium, § 7, Lactantius and Augustine (c/. Cicero, Tusc. Qicaestt., 

 i, 16) ascribe the introduction of belief in metempsychosis to Pherecydes, 

 who learnt it in Egypt, according to Josephus {Oorit. Apw7iem, lib. 1). 

 Sayce {Religion of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia^ pp. 102, 108) denies tliat 

 the Egyptians held the doctrine. Yet in the popular Tale of Two 

 Brothers there is something very similar. In the rubrics to caps. 72 and 86 

 of the " Book of the Dead," and also in capp. 77, 78, 81, a and 83, 84, 

 86, 87, 88, the ha can in the Underworld transform itself into a hawk 

 lotus, phoenix, heron, swallow, serpent, crocodile, etc. 



t Cf. Phaedo^ capp. xxx, xxxi : Republic, x, capp. 11-16 : Meno, capp. 

 14, 15, etc. Pindar {Olymp. ii, 68, cf Thren., fr. 4), Enipedocles, 

 Porphyry, Carpocrates, etc., also held the doctrine. 



% Enipedocles (444 B.C.) taught this clearly, so also, it is thought, did 

 both th^ Orphic and the Pythagorean mysteries. Hence Apuleius 

 (AsclepmSy cap. 12) says that to those who have lived wickedly, " Et 

 reditus denegatur in caelum et constituitur in corpora alia indigna animo 

 sancto et foeda migratio." Of the teaching of the Hermetic l^ooks, J. L., 

 in Buchberger's Kirchliches Handlexicon, vol. i, says : Nach dieser 

 Lehre, die aber die volkstiiml. Gotter duldet, schafft Gott den vov'i und 

 dieser die Seele, die der Wanderung durch verschiedene Korper unter- 

 worfen ist." 



§ Eig-Veda, Mandala x, hymn 14, si. 8 : " Hitvayavadyam punar astam 

 ehi, sam gacchasva tanva suvarcah." 



II It does not occur in the Eig-Veda, though traces of it are found in 

 the Yajur-Veda. The dead go to Yama's realm {Rig-Veda, x, 14, § 1, 2. 

 7-13, etc. : ^atapatha-Brdhmanct, i, 9, 3, 10 : cf Mahdbhdrata, iii, sU. 



S 



