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On this lake it is that the Egyptians represent by night his
sufferings whose name I refrain from mentioning, and this
representation they call their Mysteries. I know well the whole
course of the proceedings in these ceremonies, but they shall not pass
my lips. So too, with regard to the mysteries of Ceres, which the
Greeks term "the Thesmophoria," I know them, but I shall not
mention them, except so far as may be done without impiety. The
daughters of Danaus brought these rites from Egypt, and taught them
to the Pelasgic women of the Peloponnese. Afterwards, when the
inhabitants of the peninsula were driven from their homes by the
Dorians, the rites perished. Only in Arcadia, where the natives
remained and were not compelled to migrate, their observance continued.
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