to attend upon the god, the satyrs, nymphs, and fauns who formed his
train--all this points to an attempt to escape from the bounds of
ordinary consciousness and pass into some condition conceived, however
confusedly, as one of union with the divine power. And though the
basis, clearly enough, is physical and even bestial, yet the whole
ritual does undoubtedly express, and that with a plastic grace and
beauty that redeems its frank sensuality, that passion to transcend
the limitations of human existence which is at the bottom of the
mystic element in all religions.

But this orgy of the senses was not the only form which the worship of
Dionysus took in Greece. In connection with one of his legends, the myth
of Dionysus Zagreus, we find traces of an esoteric doctrine, taught by
what were known as the orphic sects, very curiously opposed, one would
have said, to the general trend of Greek conceptions. According to the
story, Zagreus was the son of Zeus and Persephone. Hera, in her
jealousy, sent the Titans to destroy him; after a struggle, they managed
to kill him, cut him up and devoured all but the heart, which was saved
by Athene and carried to Zeus. Zeus swallowed it, and produced therefrom
a second Dionysus. The Titans he destroyed by lightning, and from their
ashes created Man. Man is thus composed of two elements, one bad, the
Titanic, the other good, the Dionysiac; the latter being derived from
the body of Dionysus, which the Titans had devoured. This fundamental
dualism, according to the doctrine founded on the myth, is the perpetual
tragedy of man's existence; and his perpetual struggle is to purify
himself of the Titanic element. The process extends over many
incarnations, but an ultimate deliverance is promised by the aid of the
redeemer Dionysus Lysius.

The belief thus briefly described was not part of the popular religion