51
For this man donned a ceremonial robe, and in imitation of the rites he revealed the sacred things to the uninitiated, and spoke with his lips the forbidden words: those deities whom we worship, and to whom with our devotions and purifications we sacrifice and pray, he mutilated. And for such a deed priestesses and priests stood up and cursed him, facing the west,Cf. the solemn cursing of Alcibiades described by Plut. Alc. 22. In prayers and vows addressed to the celestial gods the speaker faced the east, but in those addressed to the infernal gods, the west. and shook out their purple vestments according to the ancient and time-honored custom. He has admitted this action.
52
Moreover, transgressing the law that you made, whereby he was debarred from the temples as a reprobate, he has violated all these restrictions and has entered into our city; he has sacrificed on the altars which were forbidden him, and come into the presence of the sacred things on which he committed his impiety; he has entered into the Eleusinium, and baptized his hands in the holy water.
