Answer by Hugh Bowden
Herodotus refers to a number of what we call mystery cults in his history. The term ‘mystery cult’ is generally used to refer to cults which involved initiation, and by extension certain ecstatic cults (like ‘bacchic’ worship of Dionysos), which often took place away from public view. Because secrecy was a significant element in their performance, we often have very limited information about what they involved. The best known festival was the Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated at Eleusis in Attika every year. At 8.65, in his account of the events leading up to the Battle of Salamis, Herodotus describes how two exiles who are travelling with the Persian court, Dikaios, an Athenian, and Demaratos, ex-king of Sparta, see a great swirl of dust rising up from the plain near Eleusis, and hear the sound of 30,000 people shouting. Dikaios says that this was the sound of the procession to Eleusis for the Mysteries, and explains some of the public aspects of the festival to Demaratos. He says that it foretells defeat for the Persians, presumably thanks to intervention of the goddesses of Eleusis, Demeter and Kore. Herodotus elsewhere offers evidence that those who violated the sanctuary at Eleusis were punished (Kleomenes, 6.75, the Persians at Plataia 9.65). Herodotus however gives no indication about whether he was himself an initiate at Eleusis.
The names of the gods honoured in mystery cults were often not directly referred to. So, at Eleusis Demeter’s daughter is always referred to as Kore (‘the maid’), and in the Peloponnese there are mysteries to a daughter of Demeter who is referred to as Despoina (‘the mistress’). A number of mysteries are in honour of ‘the Great Gods’ (known in Samothrace, and in Andania in Messenia and elsewhere) or of named groups like the Korybantes (known in Athens) or the Kabeiroi (known from Boeotia and Lemnos). We cannot assume that the identity of these nameless gods was actually known to anyone. It does seem likely that Herodotus was initiated into the mysteries of the Great Gods of Samothrake (2.51). He refers to these mysteries as belonging to the Kabeiroi, which was not the case (there is no reference to the Kabeiroi on any Samothrakian inscriptions). This would appear to be an example of Herodotus putting his own interpretation on an experience in which a lot was left unexplained. Herodotus also mentions the mysteries of Achaian Demeter, which he says are practised by an Athenian family, the Gephyraioi (the family of the Tyrannicides, Harmodios and Aristogeiton), and no other Athenians (5.61). Frustratingly, we know nothing more about this cult.
When scholars talk about ‘mystery cults’ they usually include ecstatic cult of gods like Dionysos and the Mother of the Gods. Herodotus tells the story of the initiation of two Skythians into such cults: the traveller Anacharsis took part in the festival of the Mother of the Gods at Kyzikos (4.76) and king Skyles was initiated into the cult of Dionysos in Borysthenes (4.79). Both these events took place in Greek settlements, and as Herodotus presents it, other Skythians took against Anacharsis and Skyles because they were considered to have adopted Greek habits in taking part in these cults.
All these cults or festivals were a formal part of the religious calendars of the cities where they took place. For this reason, it is probably misleading to refer to them as ‘occult’, even if they did involve secret ritual activity that only initiates were allowed to see.
I wrote about how cults associated with Eleusis spread in the Greek world, and the influence of Herodotus on that transmission here. I wrote about nameless gods here. There are references to some other episodes in Herodotus, indirectly related to Herodotus, as well as more information about the rituals themselves, starting with the Eleusinian Mysteries in my book, Mystery Cults in the Ancient World (revised edition, London 2023). See also Jan Bremmer’s Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World (Berlin 2014), which is freely available online.
Herodotus Helpline 