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Melampus, the son of Amytheon, cannot (I think) have been
ignorant of this ceremony - nay, he must, I should conceive, have
been well acquainted with it. He it was who introduced into Greece
the name of Bacchus, the ceremonial of his worship, and the
procession of the phallus. He did not, however, so completely
apprehend the whole doctrine as to be able to communicate it entirely,
but various sages since his time have carried out his teaching to
greater perfection. Still it is certain that Melampus introduced the
phallus, and that the Greeks learnt from him the ceremonies which they
now practise. I therefore maintain that Melampus, who was a wise
man, and had acquired the art of divination, having become acquainted
with the worship of Bacchus through knowledge derived from Egypt,
introduced it into Greece, with a few slight changes, at the same
time that he brought in various other practices. For I can by no
means allow that it is by mere coincidence that the Bacchic ceremonies
in Greece are so nearly the same as the Egyptian - they would then
have been more Greek in their character, and less recent in their
origin. Much less can I admit that the Egyptians borrowed these
customs, or any other, from the Greeks. My belief is that Melampus
got his knowledge of them from Cadmus the Tyrian, and the followers
whom he brought from Phoenicia into the country which is now called Boeotia.
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