Initiation (muvhsh) was the first stage of the ancient mysteries celebrating Demeter, the earth-goddess, and her daughter Kore, soon identified with Persephone or Persephasa, a pre-Greek deity of the underworld. Next came the stage of contemplation (ejpopteiva), at which worshippers were shown a vision of the goddess of Hades. This led them to identify themselves with her, thus reaching the highest form of happiness. The Eleusinian Mysteries were inseparably linked to the Orphic doctrine, which in its turn influenced the thought of Plato. Plato sees love as an object of initiation and as one of the greatest mysteries of human existence. Plato’s dialogues, Phaedrus and Symposium, contain expressions borrowed directly from the vocabulary of the Mysteries. Although neither Socrates in Phaedrus nor Diotima in Symposium make any explicit reference to the mystic ceremonies, it is certain that both allude to them in expounding the mysteries of spiritual life. The latter has to start at the stage of physical love in order to end up in the contemplation of Ideas. The mystery into which Socrates is initiated by Diotima is the following there is a mystic stairway leading from the earth to the sky, from man to God. It is made visible by Love, and its steps are represented by different kinds of beauty. The ascent is a gradual one, with a long stop at each of the stages. In this way Love, disciplined by philosophy and spiritualised by increasing de-personalisation, ends up in the Intellectual, conceiving the latter with an intuitive insight. By this spiritual process, one is purified, led to the road of salvation and enabled to participate in the Divine.