The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries

Thomas Taylor (1758-1835) was the very first to translate the complete works of Plato and Aristotle into English. But it is because he was not merely a scholar-concerned exclusively with linguistic matters-but primarily a Neo-Platonic philosopher, who devoted his whole life to sifting the esoteric spirit out of the dead letter, that his translations are often favoured in occult circles instead of others, whose greater linguistic precision may often be achieved at the expense of the esoteric baggage and philosophical heritage. So deep was the love and passion that Taylor professed for the philosophy of the ancients that he only communicated with his wife in classical Greek. And so honest was his understanding that-despite the enmity and ridicule to which he was often exposed-he never doubted to publicly denounce the superficiality and corruption into which Christianity had fallen. In this beautifully illustrated dissertation-which in the present edition we offer with additional annotations by Sonchis Triacorda-Thomas Taylor approaches the mystical secrets surrounding those hierophantic Sacred Mysteries that the most venerable ancient philosophers often praised.