Metamorphoses 11.22 - Holy books

Apparently all the presently available holy scrolls are of Eastern religions. That does make sense - the cult of Isis herself was an Eastern religion.

Thoughts about this passage:

• Running out of time. These are twice as long as normal - it's taking me an hour apiece. 
• My dictionary doesn't know what a teleta is. Which means I don't. UPDATE: It means an initiation. It's a Greek word, which I should have known. This is an Eastern religion.
• I skipped the paragraph describing the books. I really don't like ekphrases.

[22] Dixerat sacerdos, nec inpatientia corrumpebatur obsequium meum, sed intentus miti quiete et probabili taciturnitate sedulum quot dies obibam culturae sacrorum ministerium. Nec me fefellit vel longi temporis prolatione cruciavit deae potentis benignitas salutaris, sed noctis obscurae non obscuris imperiis evidenter monuit advenisse diem mihi semper optabilem, quo me maximi voti compotiret, quantoque sumptu deberem procurare supplicamentis, ipsumque Mithram illum suum sacerdotem praecipuum divino quodam stellarum consortio, ut aiebat, mihi coniunctum sacrorum ministrum decernit. Quis et ceteris benivolis praeceptis summatis deae recreatus animi necdum satis luce lucida, discussa quiete, protinus ad receptaculum sacerdotis contendo atque eum cubiculo suo commodum prodeuntem prodeuntem continatus saluto. Solito constantius destinaveram iam velut debitum sacris obsequium flagitare. At ille statim ut me conspexit, prior: "O" inquit "Luci, te felicem, te beatum, quem propitia voluntate numen augustum tantopere dignatur"; et "Quid" inquit "iam nunc stas otiosus teque ipsum demoraris? Adest tibi dies votis adsiduis exoptatus, quo deae multinominis divinis imperiis per istas meas manus piissimis sacrorum arcanis insinueris." Et iniecta dextera senex comissimus ducit me protinus ad ipsas fores aedis amplissimae rituque sollemni apertionis celebrato ministerio ac matutino peracto sacrificio de opertis adyti profert quosdam libros litteris ignorabilibus praenotatos, partim figuris cuiusce modi animalium concepti sermonis compendiosa verba suggerentes, partim nodosis et in modum rotae tortuosis capreolatimque condensis apicibus a curiositate profanorum lectione munita. Indidem mihi praedicat, quae forent ad usum teletae necessario praeparanda.

The priest had spoken, and impatience was not ruining my obedience, but intent on a gentle quiet and a commendable lack of speaking, I carefully attended to the duty of sacred worship as many times as there were days. The saving grace of the powerful goddess did not deceive me nor did she torture me with a prolongation of time, but she clearly reminded me with bright commands in the dark night that the day had arrived that I had always wished for myself, on which she would make me a partaker of the highest vow, and by how much of a cost I ought to attend to prayers, and she decided that Mithras himself, her own priest, connected to me by a certain divine conjunction of our stars, as she said, was the servant of these sacraments. Refreshed in my mind by these and the rest of the kind lessons of the highest goddess and with the light not yet bright, with my rest shattered, I travel immediately to the meeting place of the priest and I greet him in his cubicle promptly, encountering him as he was going out. I had firmly determined to demand urgently my ceremony of sacredness immediately just as it was owed. But he immediately looked at me as before and he said, "Oh Lucius, happy you, blessed you, whom by a favorable wish is deemed so worthy of the august goddess," and he said, "Why now do you stand idle and delay yourself here? For you this longed for day for the highest vows arrives, in which by the divine commands of the goddess with many names your are pushed into the tender mysteries of sacred things with her own hands." And with my right hand pulled in, the nice old man leads me immediately to the very doors of the biggest temple and by with a solemn right opening he advances to the popular duty and from the inner sanctum of the temple, finishing the sacrifice from that morning, he brings certain notable books with unfamiliar writing. [description of the texts] He reads to me from them, which needed to be prepared unavoidably for the use of the teleta.