a rude and fearful march through night and darkness. (Stobaeus, Anthology, Book IV, Chapter 52, Section 49, in the edition by Curt Wachsmuth and Otto Hense.)
Thus death and initiation closely correspond; even the words (teleutan and teleisthai) correspond, And so do the things. At first there are wanderings, and toilsome running about in circles and journeys through the dark over uncertain roads and culs de sac; then, just before the end, there are all kinds of terrors, with shivering, trembling, sweating, and utter amazement. After this, a strange and wonderful light meets the wanderer; he is admitted into clean and verdant meadows, where he discerns gentle voices, and choric dances, and the majesty of holy sounds and sacred visions. Here the now fully initiated is free, and walks at liberty like a crowned and dedicated victim, joining in the revelry; he is the companion of pure and holy men, and looks down upon the uninitiated and unpurified crowd here below in the mud and fog, trampling itself down and crowded together, though of death remaining still sunk in its evils, unable to believe in the blessings that lie beyond. That the wedding and close union of the soul with the body is a thing really contrary to nature may clearly be seen from all this. (The following passage from Plutarch’s essay On the Soul survives today only because it was quoted by Stobaeus (Florigelium 120).
