[48]. The remark is from Darmesteter, Zend-Avesta, II, p. 441.
[49]. Cf. Reinach, op. cit., [260], pp. 230 ff.
[50]. Farnell, Evolution of Religion, p. 127.
[51]. Mithra is sanctus (Mon. myst. Mithra, II, p. 533), like the Syrian gods; cf. supra, ch. V, n. [47].
[52]. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 309 ff. The eschatology of orthodox Mazdaism has been expounded recently by Söderblom, La vie future d'après le mazdéisme, Paris, 1901.
[53]. Cf. supra, ch. IV, p. [100], ch. V, p. [126].
[54]. We have explained this theory above, p. [125]. It was foreign to the religion of Zoroaster and was introduced into the mysteries of Mithra with the Chaldean astrology. Moreover, ancient mythological ideas were always mixed with this learned theology. For instance, it was an old Oriental belief that souls, being regarded as material, wore clothing (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 15, n. 5; Bousset, Archiv für Religionswiss., IV, 1901, p. 233, n. 2; Rev. hist. des relig., 1899, p. 243, and especially Böklen, Die Verwandtschaft der jüdisch-christlichen und der parsischen Eschatologie, Göttingen, 1902, pp. 61 ff.) Thence arose the notion prevalent to the end of paganism, that the soul in passing through the planetary spheres, took on the qualities of the stars "like successive tunics." Porphyry, De abstin., I, 31: Ἀποδυτέον ἄρα τοὺς πολλοὺς ἡμῖν χιτῶνας κ. τ. λ.; Macrobius, Somnium Sc., I, 11, § 12: "In singulis sphaeris aetherea obvolutione vestitur"; I, 12, § 13: "Luminosi corporis amicitur accessu"; Proclus, In Tim., I, 113, 8, Diehl ed.: Περιβάλλεσθαι χιτῶνας, Procl., Opera, Cousin ed., p. 222: "Exuendum autem nobis et tunicas quas descendentes induti sumus"; Kroll, De orac. Chaldaïcis, p. 51, n. 2: Ψυχὴ ἑσσαμένη νοῦν; Julian, Or., II, p. 123, 22, (Hertlein). Cf. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur, p. 168 n. 1. Compare what
Hippolytus, Philos., V, I, says of Isis (Ishtar?) in connection with the Naasenians. She is ἑπτάστολος, because nature also is covered with seven ethereal garments, the seven heavens of the planets; see Ps.-Apul., Asclepius, 34 (p. 75, 2 Thomas): "Mundum sensibilem et, quae in eo sunt, omnia a superiore illo mundo quasi ex vestimento esse contecta." I have insisted upon the persistence of this idea, because it may help us to grasp the significance attributed to a detail of the Mithra ritual in connection with which Porphyry relates nothing but contradictory interpretations. The persons initiated into the seven degrees were obliged to put on different costumes. The seven degrees of initiation successively conferred upon the mystic were symbols of the seven planetary spheres, through which the soul ascended after death (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 316), the garments assumed by the initiates were probably considered as emblems of those "tunics" which the soul put on when descending into the lower realms and discarded on returning to heaven.
[55]. Renan, Marc-Aurèle, p. 579.
[56]. Anatole France, Le mannequin d'osier, p. 318. Cf. Reinach, op. cit. [p. [260]], p. 232.