The study of mystery cults has shown a significant vitality in recent years, generating a number of conferences and excellent publications. This welcome volume adds to the steadily growing body of scholarship on the visual representation of mystery cults. This conceptual framework has been applied to the Eleusinian Mysteries (e.g. K. Clinton, Myth and Cult. The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries [1992]) and to the study of Mithras (e.g. R. Gordon, Image and Value in the Graeco-Roman World. Studies in Mithraism and Religious Art [1996] and, most recently, P. Adrych et al., Images of Mithra [2017]).

This book provides a synthetic discussion of the visual language of some of the most distinctive mystery cults. Many chapters discuss new material evidence and offer valuable new takes on the application of visual methodology in mystery cults by questioning traditional viewpoints and past scholarly assumptions. The editors, Belayche and Massa, dedicate a long introduction to the subject, which is full of insights concerning the importance of visual language in the experience of the ancient mysteries. The editors start with a discussion of the methodological problems, explaining the structure adopted in the organisation of the volume. The book is divided into three parts. Each part is preceded by an introduction in which the editors provide a brief description of each chapter's main arguments.

Part 1, ‘Do Images Depict Mystery Cults, and If So, How?’, contains three chapters that direct readers to consider the visual representation of Dionysiac mysteries in different media and periods. The theme of this part is uniform, and the chapters follow a diachronic sequence (i.e. the first chapter begins in the archaic and classical periods while the third chapter focuses on the transition from the Neronian period to late antiquity). C. Isler-Kerényi's chapter, ‘Comment figurer l'ineffable, comment lire les images?’, can be seen as a continuation of her previous contextual studies of the images of Dionysus (e.g. Dionysos in Archaic Greece: an Understanding through Images [2007] and Dionysos in Classical Athens: an Understanding through Images [2015]). She begins by examining Bacchic images on fourth-century Apulian vases as well as on Attic vases (archaic and classical periods) in order to help viewers to reimagine the Dionysiac experience. Moving to the Roman period, in an exploratory and well-illustrated chapter, ‘Le phallus qui cache le mystère? Les images dionysiaques dans les décors romains: à propos d'une fresque de la Domus Transitoria’, S. Wyler studies a fragmentary painted frieze from the Neronian Domus Transitoria in Rome, addressing questions such as to what extent many semiotic markers, such as the linen, the torches etc., can be seen either as metaphorical and ideal images or as real objects referring to ritual objects and gestures. An interesting contribution, ‘Échos de la Télétè dionysiaque dans la mosaïque romaine tardive’, by J. Balty concludes the first part. Her discussion focuses on domestic decoration, and in particular on Dionysiac images in late antique Syrian mosaics. Especially interesting is the first section of the chapter, which carefully examines the visual representation of Eros with the personification of Telete on mosaics mostly discovered in Zeugma (fig. 4.3) and Sheikh-Zuweid (fig. 4.4). Balty underscores the problem of ambivalence in the interpretation of Eros-Telete as a symbolic referent to a wedding scene or the feast that follows the initiation. One of the points raised in this chapter that could spark further discussion are the concepts of ‘performativity’ and ‘evolution’ of the Dionysiac ‘mystical imagery’. For instance, given the late date of the mosaics, the author wonders whether the particularly strong image of ‘a crater full of wine’ could be explained as a retrograde artistic influence on the artist who lived in a society that had been Christianised several decades ago.

Part 2, ‘Historiography and Images of Mystery Cults’, is centred on two prominent mysteries of the Roman imperial period. P. Adrych, in ‘“The Seven Grades of Mithraism”, or How to Build a Religion’, emphasises that the visual representation of the ‘seven degrees’ in certain images is not uniform in all the communities worshipping Mithras. Adrych urges us to reframe ‘Mithraism’, which she claims should not be regarded as a uniform system. It should be noted, however, that the inherent flexibility and adaptability of the Mithraic language of symbols and of the Mithraic communities have been pointed out by J. Bjørnebye (‘Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus’. The cult of Mithras in fourth-century Rome, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Bergen [2007]). A broader concern is evident in the second and richly illustrated chapter by R. Veymiers on ‘Les mystères isiaques et leurs expressions figurées. Des exégèses modernes aux allusions antiques’. An interesting part of this chapter is devoted to an analysis of the sculpted dedications of worshippers as visual testimonies of their identity as initiates of Isis. The final section argues that the worshippers of Isis used the cista mystica as a way to integrate their cults more closely within their societies. Veymiers also remarks that at present the sacred cista is only documented outside Egypt on diverse monuments dated to the imperial period.

The concluding third part, ‘Depicting Objects to Signify Mystery Cults’, contains two chapters. The first contribution by A.-F. Jaccottet is a masterful study on how certain objects (i.e. the bundle, the liknon and the cista) can express the mysteries semiotically. Particularly fascinating is the section on the use of liknon, an object of daily life (i.e. a winnowing basket), as a visual signifier for either the initiation or the mysteries. The book concludes with a fascinating study by F. Van Haeperen on the visual association of the cista with the cult of Mater Magna in contexts derived from the Western Roman world. On the basis of a catalogue she compiled, she convincingly demonstrates that the majority of the visual representations of the cista are associated with the goddess’ sacred officials (priests and priestesses, archigallus and dendrophori). Van Haeperen explains matters clearly and is careful to signpost the scholarly debates concerning the real or symbolic use of the visual representation of the cista. Finally, she highlights that the cista did not appear in written documents relating to Mater Magna and Attis, except for the recent discovery of defixiones at Mainz. According to Van Haeperen, this discovery in the most secluded part of the sanctuary points to the use of these containers in processions and ‘more intimate ceremonies, reserved to “happy few”’ (pp. 216–17).

This well-edited volume is a welcome scholarly contribution that advances the study of ancient mystery cults. The thoughtful arrangement of the chapters allows readers to navigate through the valuable scholarly discussions, which are conceptually linked and form a cohesive unit. The volume presupposes readers familiar with the mystery cults, and as such it seems more appropriate for graduate students and scholars interested in the history of ancient religions, classical art and archaeology and Classics more broadly. The selection of material evidence and the associated research questions provide a wealth of starting points for future studies.