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Socrates & the Mysteries



I’m doing a little reading about Socrates, who for whatever stupid reason I’ve never given more than a cursory glance to (sometimes things just slip through the cracks). Anyway, I came across a source which says that Socrates refused initiation into the mysteries. I’m not sure if they are talking about the Orphic or Eleusinian Mysteries or both. Another source said he wasn’t initiated officially because he already knew all their secrets, by whatever means. Yet another source claims that not only did he know their secrets, but he was put to death because he taught them openly. Can anybody point me to further historical background on this? Has anybody ever heard about this?







8 Reader Responses

  1. Chiggles Says:
    July 19th, 2005 at 1:17 am

    I want to say Manly P. Hall wrote of this in his Secret Teachings of All Ages, but it’s been ages (heh) since I’ve read that, and it is not on my body, so it cannot be confirmed.

  2. Avi Solomon Says:
    July 19th, 2005 at 6:25 am

    You could start here:
    http://www.jnani.org/mrking/writings/essays/essaysukc/socmysc.html

  3. Jason Bradfield Says:
    July 19th, 2005 at 8:55 am

    Fascinating stuff. I hope you post more on this.

  4. prunesquallor Says:
    July 19th, 2005 at 10:26 am

    I don’t know anything about the historical Socrates, but I can tell you Plato’s fictionalized Socrates had partaken in the Mysteries, and was attempting to bring his friend along in the Meno. Also, in the Last Days of Socrates IIRC, he was put to death for denying the supremacy of the gods, which could be interpreted as “revealing the mysteries.”

    It’s all about the Penguin Classics, baby!

  5. J. Puma Says:
    July 19th, 2005 at 11:50 am

    yeah, i think the manly hall has it. i have it at home; i’ll check this evening if i think about it. for a satirical view of ol’ socrates as related to the sophists & the mysteries, etc., read ‘the clouds,’ by aristophanes:

    http://duke.usask.ca/~porterj/CourseNotes/CloudsNotes.html#soc

    there’s also the question of how much of ’socrates’ is socrates, and how much is plato. plato would more likely have been initiated into the mysteries, so evidence of socrates having been so initiated might be reflections of plato’s bias.

  6. Avi Solomon Says:
    July 19th, 2005 at 4:14 pm

    IMHO the best access to the historical Socrates is via Xenophon’s Socratic writings:
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0801429633/
    Plato was a ‘liar’ as Socrates himself is reported to have commented upon reading Plato’s ‘Lysis’

  7. james Says:
    July 19th, 2005 at 10:43 pm

    Socrates, like Jesus, never wrote anything down. And, like JC, there’s a lot of speculation on what he actually did, what he really meant, and whether he even existed at all.

    In my mind, Socrates is Jesus. Maybe even wiser than Christ himself.

    And, the Socratic Method still works.

  8. Jack Says:
    July 20th, 2005 at 3:42 pm

    Here’s a good read along this topic… Not exactly what you ask, but pretty usefull nonetheless, as a stepping stone to other studies and a few solid insights thrown in:
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN.../ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-3843218-3996654



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