I am displeased with the bulk of mankind and am enamoured with one particular lady. Tis for her that I am free in servitude, content in pain, rich in necessity, and alive in death, Tis for the love of true Wisdom and by the studious admiration of this Mistress that I fatigue, that I disquiet, that I torment myself. – Giordano Bruno
Apuleius’ Testimony on Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries
I approached the confines of death: and having trodden on the threshold of Proserpina returned, having been carried through all the elements. In the depths of midnight I saw the sun glittering with a splendid light, together with the infernal and supernal gods: and to these divinities approaching near, I paid the tribute of devout adoration.
Generation of the Soul
The soul descends Corically [or after the manner of Proserpine] into generation, but is distributed into generation Dionysiacally, and she is bound in body Prometheiacally and Titanically: she frees herself therefore from its bonds by exercising the strength of Hercules; but she is collected into one through the assistance of Apollo and the savior Minerva, by philosophical discipline of mind and heart purifying the nature. – Olympiodorus
Orphic Mysteries
What Orpheus delivered in hidden allegories, Pythagoras learned when he was initiated into the Orphic Mysteries; and Plato next received a perfect knowledge of them from the Orphean and Pythagorean writings. – Proclus