What is Mystery religion?
{{no source|date=March 2024}} [[File:Eleusinian_hydria_Antikensammlung_Berlin_1984.46.jpg|thumb|287x287px|[[Hydria]] by the [[Varrese Painter]] (c.&nbsp;340&nbsp;BC) depicting Eleusinian scenes]] '''Mystery religions''' or '''mystery cults''' were [[Religion|religions]] or [[Cult|cults]] where the teachings were only known to a small group of people. These people were called ''mystai''. Such groups were common in [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome]]. Mystery religions have the following properties: * Exclusive spiritual experience: Those that are initiated gain speciual (secret) knowledge, and are the only ones that are able to make certain spiritual experiences * The cult or religion coexists with other (official) cults or religions for the same deity * [[Religious syncretism]]; there are other secret teachings that are added to the official teachings about the cult of a given deity. Today, analyzing these mystery religions is difficult, because most of them kept their mysteries. Common motives in such cults are a dying goddess that is resurrected and becomes immortal, venerating the ancestors, venerating the mother. Well-known mystery religiions are the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], [[Samothracean mysteries]], [[Dionysian Mysteries]], the cult of Liber pater, Mithraism, the cult of Kybele and Attis, and the [[Mysteries of Isis]] Such cults laso played an important role in [[Gnosticism]]. [[Category:Ancient Greece]] [[Category:Religion in ancient Rome]]