Mystères in situ: Inscriptions et usages langagiers à Samothrace et dans l'affaire des Bacchanales.

A bilingual Latin-Greek boundary-inscription from the sanctuary of Samothrace (2nd c. AD) and the Senatus consultum de bacchanalibus (186 BC) provide the basis for an analysis of the Latin formulas and language use concerning the expression of mysteries and initiation. At Samothrace, the use of a purely Latin formulation (sacra accipere) to express initiation coexists with transcriptions and translation of Greek words. Inside the case of the Bacchanalia, as referred to by the senatus consulta and reported by Livy, the distinctions of vocabulary use between the two ways of report lead to a diachronic analysis of the rise and development of the Latin vocabulary of the mysteries. This analytic path results in interrogations on the methodological way to approach mysteries without falling into the trap of reductive key words and on the plurality of the rituality of initiation hidden behind the uniformity and the generalisation of the vocabulary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]