Bibliography: p. 130-133 Includes index

Contents:

Abbreviations of classical sources cited--Introduction --The Hellenistic age --The Hellenistic world --Religion in the Hellenistic world--Syncretism or system --Piety, mystery, gnosis --1. The golden ass in a labryrinthian world --The fictive world of Apuleius --The cosmic world of Apuleius--The mythic world of Apuleius --Fortune --Wandering --Salvation --The social world of apuleius --Home --Magic --The world of Lucius --2. Hellenistic piety --Traditional piety --Hellenistic philosophy and the rational order of things --Philosophy in the Hellenistic world --The epicureans --The stoics --Philosophy and piety --Divination and the cosmic order of things --Artificial divination --Astrology --Alchemy --Natural divination --The delphic oracle --Dreaming--Asclepius and healing --Specialization and senility. 3. The mysteries and the sovereignty of the feminine --Mystery deities --The mysteries--The Eleusinian mysteries --The myth of Demeter --The rights of Demeter --The mystery initiation --Eleusis and Athens --The Mysteries of Isis --The myth of Isis and Osiris --The rites of Isis --

The mysteries of Isis --The universal goddess --The Syrian goddess --The great mother of the gods. 4. Reformation and innovations --Reformations --Dionysus --The myth of Dionysus --The mysteries of Dionysus --The orgies of the Roman Bacchanalia --Orpheus --The Orphic myth of Dionysus --Orphic Mysteries --Judaism --Hellenistic Judaism --Yahweh and the Feminine --Innovations --Alexander of Abonoteichus --Mithraism --The origin of Mithraism --The myth of Mithras --Mithraic initiation --Mithraic initiation --Christianity --They Christ myth --Appeal and reaction --5. Late Hellenistic gnosis --Cosmic revaluation --Gnosticism --Christian and non-christian gnosis --Gnostic seeking --Gnostic cult --Manichaeism --The hermetic tradition --The patria.