You should probably be paying more attention.

Common threads in Grecco-roman mystery cults: initiation, some amount of social status, music, sealed baskets, iconography that outlasts the mysteries. Votive. Superiors to organize. Initiates aren't expected to dedicate themselves to the cult.

God. Sometimes I forget how bad most academic writers are when I'm only reading articles and getting varying levels of quality but reading a book about grecco-roman mystery cults and I want to shake the author. Stop using 3 or 4 sentences to say information you could convey much better in 1. Cut all this fluff omg

And putting human morality and understanding of the world upon things that are not human is understood to be weird and misguided, right? We don't expect animals to understand the trolly problem. Their concerns are inherently different from ours. I dont understand why people are unable to think of deities as more encompassing than just the myths that were popular enough or just happened to stand the test of time. It's short sighted at best.

Personally I do think that trying to identify specific deities/presences and give them concrete personalities is kind of missing the point of spiritual and divine experiences. The fluidity and unknowability is part of the experience if you let it