We shall see that the union of the Mithra-Attis cults becomes of distinct importance when we examine, (a) the spiritual significance of these rituals, and their elements of affinity with Christianity, (b) their possible diffusion in the British Isles.

But now what do we know of the actual details of the Attis mysteries?  The first and most important point was a Mystic Meal, at which the food partaken of was served in the sacred vessels, the tympanum, and the cymbals.  The formula of an Attis initiate was “I have eaten from the tympanum, I have drunk from the cymbals.”  As I have remarked above, the food thus partaken of was a Food of Life—­“Die Attis-Diener in der Tat eine magische Speise des Lebens aus ihren Kult-Geräten zu essen meinten."[16]

Dieterich in his interesting study entitled Eine Mithrasliturgie refers to this meal as the centre of the whole religious action.

Further, in some mysterious manner, the fate of the initiate was connected with, and dependent upon, the death and resurrection of the god.  The Christian writer Firmicius Maternus, at one time himself an initiate, has left an account of the ceremony, without, however, specifying whether the deity in question was Attis or Adonis—­as Dieterich remarks “Was er erzählt kann sich auf Attis-gemeinden, und auf Adonis-gemeinden beziehen.”

This is what he says:  “Nocte quadam simulacrum in lectica supinum ponitur, et per numeros digestis fletibus plangitur:  deinde cum se ficta lamentatione satiaverint lumen infertur:  tunc a sacerdote omnium qui flebant fauces unguentur, quibus perunctis sacerdos hoc lento murmure susurrit: 

’Have courage, O initiates of the saviour-god,
For there will be salvation for us from our toils—­’

on which Dieterich remarks:  “Das Heil der Mysten hängt an der Rettung des Gottes."[17] [*** Note:  The above has an English translation of Weston’s Greek ***]

Hepding holds that in some cases there was an actual burial, and awakening with the god to a new life.[18] In any case it is clear that the successful issue of the test of initiation was dependent upon the resurrection and revival of the god.

Now is it not clear that we have here a close parallel with the Grail romances?  In each case we have a common, and mystic, meal, in which the food partaken of stands in close connection with the holy vessels.  In the Attis feast the initiates actually ate and drank from these vessels; in the romances the Grail community never actually eat from the Grail itself, but the food is, in some mysterious and unexplained manner, supplied by it.  In both cases it is a Lebens-Speise, a Food of Life.  This point is especially insisted upon in the Parzival, where the Grail community never become any older than they were on the day they first beheld the Talisman.[19] In the Attis initiation the proof that the candidate has successfully passed the test is afforded by the revival of the god—­in the Grail romances the proof lies in the healing of the Fisher King.