Subject Index Eleusis Notes: P - Z
Persephone
“This also raises the question of the “theology” of the pairs Kore-
Plouton and Thea-Theos. Did the worshippers at eleusis think of them
as co-existing, one pair on earth, the other below? So it would seem.
The Lakrateides Relief shows both pairs simultaneously. The
Lysimachides Relied, Kore and Thea simultaneously: but the artist in
each case may have intended a temporal procession form the
Underworld in the scene on the right to the upper world on the left. IGI
79 on the other hand, permits no ambiguity: it calls for separate
sacrifices to Kore, Thea and Theos. In this case, Kore and Thea were
believed to co-exist…It seems that we should conclude from this
coexistence that the Return of Kore, in the context of the Mysteries, may
not have been perceived as a seasonal event in the agrarian year, as it
was at the end of the Homeric Hymn. The Mysteries re-enact,
recelebrate the Return that took place in mythic time. But now, in real
time, outside the dram in the cult, Kore and Thea, Plouton and Thos,
somehow coexist, each pair in their separate realm.
An interesting feature of the cult of the Mysteries is that the God (Theos)
and the Goddess (Thea) are really the gods known elsewhere as Hades
and Persephone, but in the context of the Mysteries the names of hades
and Persephone do not occur. The only divine couples that occur at
Eleusis are (1) Plouton and Kore and (2) Theos and Thea.
This Mistress the Arcadians worship more than any other god, declaring
that she is a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Mistress is her
surname among the many, just as they surname Demeter=s daughter by
Zeus Athe Maid.@ But whereas the real name of the Maid is
Persephone, as Homer and Pamphos before him say in their poems, the
real name of the Mistress I am afraid to write to the uninitiated.
In fact, men assert that Pluto is none other than Serapis and that
Persephone is Isis, even as Archemachus of Euboea has said, and also
Heracleides Ponticus who holds the oracle in Canopus to be an oracle
of Pluto.
In Arcadia, the oldest center of her worship, Artemis was closely
associated in cult with Demeter and Persephone. Herodotus says that
Aeschylus actually called Artemis the daughter of Demeter, thus
identifying her with Persephone, the corn-goddess.
This is the story that the Egyptians tell to explain why the island moves:
that on this island that did not move before, Leto, one of the eight gods
who first came to be, who was living at Buto where this oracle of hers is,
taking charge of Apollo from Isis, hid him for safety in this island which
is now said to float, when Typhon came hunting through the world, keen
to find the son of Osiris. Apollo and Artemis were (they say) children of
Dionysus and Isis, and Leto was made their nurse and preserver; in
Egyptian, Apollo is Horus, Demeter Isis, Artemis Bubastis. It was from
this legend and no other that Aeschylus son of Euphorion took a notion
which is in no poet before him: that Artemis was the daughter of
Demeter. For this reason the island was made to float. So they say.
Now Zeus wedded Hera...but he had intercourse with many women,
both mortals and immortals...by Styx he had Persephone.
...and the goddesses of twofold name, Persephone and the kindly
goddess Demeter the queen of all...
Of the Great Goddesses, Demeter is of stone throughout, but the Savior
has drapery of wood. The height of each is about fifteen feet. The
images. . . and before them he made small maids in tunics reaching to
the ankles, each of whom carries on her head a basket full of flowers.
They are said to be daughters of Damophon, but those inclining to a
more religious interpretation hold that they are Athena and Artemis
gathering the flowers with Persephone.
It is also said that on reaching old age a vision came to him in a dream.
As he slept Persephone stood by him and declared that she alone of the
deities had not been honored by Pindar with a hymn, but that Pindar
would compose an ode to her also when he had come to her.
Pindar died at once, before ten days had passed since the dream. But
there was in Thebes an old woman related by birth to Pindar who had
practiced singing most of his odes. By her side in a dream stood Pindar,
and sang a hymn to Persephone. Immediately on waking out of her
sleep she wrote down all she had heard him singing in her dream. In
this song, among the epithets he applies to Hades is Agolden-reined@ -
a clear reference to the rape of Persephone.
Socrates: And APherephatta@! How many people fear this name,
and also AApollo!@ I imagine it is because they do not know about
correctness of names. You see they change the name to Phersephone
and its aspect frightens them. But really the name indicates that the
goddess is wise;
At a relatively early date, when substances were designated in poetic
diction by the names of the gods under whose protection they stood,
ground wheat was called AKore@ and wine ADionysus.@
As a nature myth, Persephone is the seed that splits off from the body of
the ripened grain, the mother, when, sinking beneath the earth, she
returns in spring as the new shoot. The etymology of her name - Ashe
who shines in the dark@ suggests that the seed doesn=t actually die,
but continues to live in the underworld, even though it cannot be seen
above.
Persephone (from phero and phonos Ashe who brings destruction@)
also called Persephatta at Athens (from pteris and ephapto Ashe who
fixes destruction@) and Proserpine (Athe fearful one@) at Rome, was, it
seems, a title of the Nymph when she sacrificed the sacred king.
Semele was, in fact, another name for Persephone...Core, of course, did
not ascend to heaven; she wandered about on earth with Demeter until
the time came for her to return to the Underworld. But soon after the
award of Olympic status to Dionysus the Assumption of his virgin-
mother became dogmatic and, once a goddess, she was differentiated
from Core, who continued heroine like to ascend and descend.
The ancients gave the name of Melissae (bees) to the priestess of
Demeter who were initiates of the chthonian goddess; the name
Melitodes to Kore herself; the moon (Artemis) too, whose province it
was to bring to the birth, they called Melissa, because the moon being a
bull and its ascension the bull, bees are begotten of bulls. And souls
that pass to the earth are bull begotten.
Again, the fact that the Rape of Kore took place in Sicily is, men say,
proof most evident that the goddesses made this island their favorite
retreat because it was cherished by them before all others. And the Rape
of Kore, the myth relates, took place in the meadows in the territory of
Enna. The spot is near the city, a place of striking beauty for its violets
and every other kind of flower and worthy of the goddess. And the story
is told that, because of the sweet odor of the flowers growing there,
trained hunting dogs are unable to hold the trail, because their natural
sense of smell is balked. And the meadow we have mentioned is level in
the center and well watered throughout, but on its periphery it rises high
and falls off with precipitous cliffs on every side. And it is conceived of
as lying in the very center of the island, which is the reason why certain
writers call it the navel in Sicily. Near to it also are sacred groves,
surrounded by marshy flats, to the north, and through it, the myth
relates, Pluton, coming out with his chariot, effected the rape of Kore.
And the violets, we are told, and the rest of the flowers which supply the
sweet odor continue to bloom, to one's amazement, throughout the
entire year, and so the whole aspect of the place is one of flowers and
delight.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 3)
Demeter's daughter, her whom none may name,
By secret schemings Pluton, men say, stole,
And then he dropped into earth's depths, whose light
Is darkness. Longing for the vanished girl
Her mother searched and visited all lands
In turn. And Sicily's land by Aetna's crags
Was filled with streams of fire which no man could
Approach, and groaned throughout its length; in grief
Over the maiden now the folk, beloved
Of Zeus, was perishing without the corn.
Hence honor they these goddesses e'en now.
But we should not omit to mention the very great benefaction which
Demeter conferred upon mankind; for beside the fact that she was the
discoverer of corn, she also taught mankind how to prepare it for food
and introduced laws by obedience to which men became accustomed to
the practice of justice, this being the reason, we are told, why she has
been given the epithet Thesmophoros or Lawgiver. Surely a benefaction
greater than these discoveries of hers one could not find; for they
embrace both living and living honorably.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 5)
Plutos
Greatly prosperous is he whom of mortal men these goddesses love:
immediately they send him Plutos.
The woman in the center, presumably Ge, who is emerging from the
earth holding a horn of plenty with the infant Ploutos sitting on it, looks
like another such touch. This surely cannot depict the birth of Ploutos,
for Ge, after all, is not his mother. Ge here seems to assume the role of
Kourotrophos. The scene may in part be a very personal allusion by the
artist to what took place in the cult drama, with the emphasis of the
dramatic quality of the appearance of Ploutos.
Discussing St. Petersburg Vase: “Here no temporal dimensions are
articulated but a general reference to the cult is given in the figure of
Eumolpos, symbolizing the celebration of the rites: in the appearance of
Ploutos at the reunion of Demeter and Kore we have an image of the
telos of the cult.
Chremylus: If Plutus recovers his sight and ceases from wandering
about unseeing and at random, he will go to seek the just men and never
leave them again; he will shun the perverse and ungodly; so, thanks to
him, all men will become honest, rich and pious. Can anything better be
conceived for the public weal?
To Iasion and Demeter, according to the story the myths relate, was
born Ploutos, but the reference is, as a matter of fact, to the wealth of the
grain, which was presented to Iasion because of Demeter=s association
with him at the time of the wedding of Harmonia. Now the details of the
initiatory rite are guarded among the matters not to be divulged and are
communicated to the initiates alone; but the fame has traveled wide of
how these gods appear to mankind and bring unexpected aid to those
initiates of theirs who call upon them in the midst of peril.
“In red figured painting Eleusinian Plutos is always naked and always a
boy of varying age, from infancy to early adolescence.) In seven of eight
extant red figure scenes he appears with a cornucopia and in at least
one he wears a wreath of grain-stalks in his hair. A fragment of a lekanis
cover found in Athens, now stored in the roman Agora is especially
important. There he stands with Demeter on his right and Kore on his
left; between him and Demeter several stalks of grain are rising from the
earth; and grain is emerging from the cornucopia which he holds. The
grain rising from the ground between Demeter and the boy is the focus
of their attention. Although the boy is naked, a himation is draped over
his shoulder. The himation makes a perfect parallel to the one in the
Great Eleusinian Relief. Indeed all the significant elements of the
Eleusinian Relief are contained in this scene: Demeter, Kore, the naked
boy between them, and the grain between the boy and Demeter. The
close similarity suggests that the boy in the relief is indeed Ploutus,
though in the relief he does not have a horn of plenty. The horn,
however, as we shall soon see, is not an essential attribute of Eleusinian
Ploutos. The crucial element is the display of grain.”
Plutus, we are told, was born in Cretan Tripolus to Demeter and Iasion,
and there is a double account of his origin. For some men say that the
earth, when it was sowed once by Iasion and given proper cultivation,
brought forth such an abundance of fruits that those who saw this
bestowed a special name upon the abundance of fruits when they
appear and called it plutus (wealth); consequently it has become
traditional among later generations to say that men who have acquired
more than they actually need have Plutus. But there are some who
recount the myth that a son was born to Demeter and Iasion whom they
named Plutus, and that he was the first to introduce diligence into the
life of man and the acquisition and safeguarding of property, all men up
to that time having been neglectful of amassing and guarding diligently
any store of property.
(V, 77)
Primary and Secondary Sources
Eleusis PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
The Phrygians, however, assert, he says, that he is likewise "a green ear
of corn reaped." And after the Phrygians, the Athenians, while initiating
people into the Eleusinian rites, likewise display to those who are being
admitted to the highest grade at these mysteries, the mighty, and
marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the
highest mystic truths: (I allude to) an ear of corn in silence reaped. But
this ear of corn is also (considered) among the Athenians to constitute
the perfect enormous illumination (that has descended) from the
unportrayable one, just as the Hierophant himself (declares); not,
indeed, emasculated like Attis, but made a eunuch by means of hemlock,
and despising116 all carnal generation. (Now) by night in Eleusis,
beneath a huge fire, (the Celebrant) enacting the great and secret
mysteries, vociferates and cries aloud, saying, "August Brimo has
brought forth a consecrated son, Brimus; "that is, a potent (mother has
been delivered of) a potent child. But revered, he says, is the generation
that is spiritual, heavenly, from above, and potent is he that is so born.
For the mystery is called "Eleusin" and "Anactorium." "Eleusin,"
because, he says, we who are spiritual come flowing down from Adam
above; for the word "eleusesthai" is, he says, of the same import with
the expression "to come." But "Anactorium" is of the same import with
the expression "to ascend upwards." This, he says, is what they affirm
who have been initiated in the mysteries of the Eleusinians. It is,
however, a regulation of law, that those who have been admitted into the
lesser should again be initiated into the Great Mysteries. For greater
destinies obtain greater portions. But the inferior mysteries, he says, are
those of Proserpine below; in regard of which mysteries, and the path
which leads thither, which is wide and spacious, and conducts those
that are perishing to Proserpine, the poet likewise says:-
"But under her a fearful path extends,
Hollow miry, yet best guide to
Highly-honoured Aphrodite's lovely grove."
These, he says, are the inferior mysteries, those appertaining to carnal
generation. Now, those men who are initiated into these inferior
(mysteries) ought to pause, and (then) be admitted into the great (and)
heavenly (ones). For they, he says, who obtain their shares (in this
mystery), receive greater portions. For this, he says, is the gate of
heaven; and this a house of God, where the Good Deity dwells alone.
And into this (gate), he says, no unclean person shall enter, nor one that
is natural or carnal; but it is reserved for the spiritual only. And those
who come hither ought to cast off their garments, and become all of
them bridegrooms, emasculated through the virginal spirit. For this is
the virgin who carries in her womb and conceives and brings forth a
son, not animal, not corporeal, but blessed for evermore. Concerning
these, it is said, the Saviour has expressly declared that "straight and
narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there are that enter
upon it; whereas broad and spacious is the way that leadeth unto
destruction, and many there are that pass through it."
From Refutation of All Heresies: Chapter III.-Further Exposition of the
Heresy of the Naasseni; Profess to Follow Homer; Acknowledge a Triad
of Principles; Their Technical Names of the Triad; Support These on the
Authority of Greek Poets; Allegorize Our Saviour's Miracles; The
Mystery of the Samothracians; Why the Lord Chose Twelve Disciples;
The Name Corybas, Used by Thracians and Phrygians, Explained;
Naasseni Profess to Find Their System in Scripture; Their Interpretation
of Jacob's Vision; Their Idea of the "Perfect Man; "The "Perfect Man"
Called "Papa" By the Phrygians; The Naasseni and Phrygians on the
Resurrection; The Ecstasis of St. Paul; The Mysteries of Religion as
Alluded to by Christ; Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower; Allegory
of the Promised Land; Comparison of the System of the Phrygians with
the Statements of Scripture; Exposition of the Meaning of the Higher
and Lower Eleusinian Mysteries; The Incarnation Discoverable Here
According to the Naasseni.
But no man sails from a port without having sacrificed to the Gods and
invoked their help; nor do men sow without having called on Demeter;
and shall a man who has undertaken so great a work undertake it safely
without the Gods? and shall they who undertake this work come to it
with success? What else are you doing, man, than divulging the
mysteries? You say, "There is a temple at Eleusis, and one here also.
There is an Hierophant at Eleusis, and I also will make an Hierophant:
there is a herald, and I will establish a herald; there is a torch-bearer at
Eleusis, and I also will establish a torch-bearer; there are torches at
Eleusis, and I will have torches here. The words are the same: how do
the things done here differ from those done there?" Most impious man,
is there no difference? these things are done both in due place and in
due time; and when accompanied with sacrifice and prayers, when a
man is first purified, and when he is disposed in his mind to the thought
that he is going to approach sacred rites and ancient rites. In this way
the mysteries are useful, in this way we come to the notion that all these
things were established by the ancients for the instruction and
correction of life. But you publish and divulge them out of time, out of
place, without sacrifices, without purity; you have not the garments
which the hierophant ought to have, nor the hair, nor the head-dress,
nor the voice, nor the age; nor have you purified yourself as he has: but
you have committed to memory the words only, and you say: "Sacred
are the words by themselves."
You ought to approach these matters in another way; the thing is great,
it is mystical, not a common thing, nor is it given to every man. But not
even wisdom perhaps is enough to enable a man to take care of youths:
a man must have also a certain readiness and fitness for this purpose,
and a certain quality of body, and above all things he must have God to
advise him to occupy this office, as God advised Socrates to occupy the
place of one who confutes error, Diogenes the office of royalty and
reproof, and the office of teaching precepts. But you open a doctor's
shop, though you have nothing except physic: but where and how they
should be applied, you know not nor have you taken any trouble about
it. "See," that man says, "I too have salves for the eyes." Have you also
the power of using them? Do you know both when and how they will do
good, and to whom they will do good? Why then do you act at hazard in
things of the greatest importance? why are you careless? why do you
undertake a thing that is in no way fit for you? Leave it to those who are
able to do it, and to do it well. Do not yourself bring disgrace on
philosophy through your own acts, and be not one of those who load it
with a bad reputation. But if theorems please you, sit still and turn them
over by yourself; but never say that you are a philosopher, nor allow
another to say it; but say: "He is mistaken, for neither are my desires
different from what they were before, nor is my activity directed to other
objects, nor do I assent to other things, nor in the use of appearances
have I altered at all from my former condition." This you must think and
say about yourself, if you would think as you ought: if not, act at hazard,
and do what you are doing; for it becomes you.
Epictetus, The Discourses, Book 3, Chapter 21, “Against those who
readily come to the profession of sophists”
It was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the
Mysteries would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine glory.
Hence, all were eager for initiation.
Scholiast on Aristophanes’ The Frogs.
It looks as if those also who established rites of initiation for us were no
fools, but that there is a hidden meaning in their teaching when it says
that whoever arrives uninitiated in Hades will lie in mud, but the purified
and initiated when he arrives there will dwell with gods. For there are in
truth, as those who understand the mysteries say, “Many who bear the
wand, but few who become Bakchoi.” Now these latter are in my
opinion no others than those who have given their lives to true
philosophy.”
Plato Phaedo
Origins of Eleusis
When Erichthonius died and was buried in the same precinct of Athens,
Pandion became king, in whose time Demeter and Dionysus came to
Attica. But Demeter was welcomed by Celeus at Eleusis, and Dionysus
by Icarius, who received from him a branch of a vine and learned the
process of making wine.
(Apollodorus III, xiv, 7)
There is a fair and fruitful island in mid-ocean called Crete; it is thickly
people and there are ninety cities in it; the people speak many different
languages which overlap one another, for there are Achaeans, brave
Eteocretans, Dorians of three-fold race, and noble Pelasgi. There is a
great town there, Knossos, where Minos reigned who every nine years
had a conference with Zeus himself.
(Homer Odyssey XIX, 172-178)
Such, then are the myths which the Cretans recount of the gods who
they claim were born in their land. They also assert that the honors
accorded to the gods and their sacrifices and the initiatory rites
observed in connection with the mysteries were handed down from
Crete to the rest of men, and to support this they advance the following
most weighty argument, as they conceive it: the initiatory rite which is
celebrated by the Athenians in Eleusis, the most famous, one may
venture, of them all, and that of Samothrace, and the one practiced in
Thrace among the Cicones, whence Orpheus came who introduced
them---these are all handed down in the form of a mystery, whereas at
Knossos in Crete it has been the custom from ancient times that these
initiatory rites should be handed down to all openly, and what is handed
down among other people as not to be divulged, this the Cretans
conceal from no one who may wish to inform himself upon such
matters. Indeed, the majority of the gods, the Cretans say, had their
beginning in Crete and set out from there to visit many regions of the
inhabited world, conferring benefactions upon the races of men and
distributing among each of them the advantage which resulted from the
discoveries they had made. Demeter, for example, crossed over into
Attica and then removed from there to Sicily and afterwards to Egypt;
and in these lands her choicest gift was that of the corn and instructions
in the sowing of it, whereupon she received great honors at the hands of
these whom she had benefited.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 77)
Moreover, I fed the men who were with him with barley meal from the
public store, and got subscriptions of wine and oxen for them to
sacrifice to their heart's content.
(Odyssey XIX, 196-198)
Hence it was in Crete that I saw Odysseus and showed him hospitality,
for the winds took him there as he was on his way to Troy, carrying him
off his course from cape Malea and leaving him in Amnisos off the cave
of Eileithyia, where the harbors are difficult to enter and he could hardly
find shelter from the winds that were then raging.
(Odyssey XIX, 185-190)
The snake of Cychreus: Hesiod says that it was brought up by
Cychreus, and was driven out by Eurylochus as defiling the island, but
that Demeter received it into Eleusis, and that it became her attendant.
(Hesiod Catalogues of Women and Eoiae 77)
But my father soon came to know, and cursed me bitterly, calling the
dread Erinyes to witness. He prayed that no son of mine might ever sit
upon my knees---and the gods, Zeus of the world below and awful
Persephone, fulfilled his curse.
(Iliad IX 454-457)
Persephone:
Maiden (Kore) and Queen of the Underworld
A Hymn to Proserpine by Orpheus:
Daughter of Jove, Persephone divine,
Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline:
Only-begotten, Pluto's honored wife,
O venerable Goddess, source of life:
'Tis thine in earth's profundities to dwell
Past by the wide and dismal gates of hell.
Jove's holy offspring, of a beauteous mien,
Avenging Goddess, subterranean queen.
The Furies' source, fair-hair'd, whose frame proceeds
from Jove's ineffable and secret seeds.
Mother of Bacchus, sonorous, divine,
And many-form'd, the parent of the vine.
Associate of the Seasons, essence bright,
All-ruling virgin, bearing heav'nly light.
With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind,
Horn'd, and alone desir'd by those of mortal kind.
O vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight,
Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight:
Whose holy form in budding fruits we view,
Earth's vig'rous offspring of a various hue:
Espous'd in autumn, life and death alone
To wretched mortals from thy pow'r is known:
For thine the task, according to thy will,
Life to produce, and all that lives to kill.
Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase
Of various fruits from earth, with lovely peace:
Send Health with gentle hand, and crown my life
With blest abundance, free from noisy strife;
Last in extreme old age the prey of Death,
Dismiss me willing to the realms beneath,
To thy fair palace and the blissful plains
Where happy spirits dwell, and Pluto reigns.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
The subject requires that I should narrate the rape of the Virgin.
(Ovid Fasti IV, 417-418)
Not the Father alone felt desire; but all that dwelt in Olympus had the
same, struck by one bolt, and wooed for a union with Deo's divine
daughter. Then Deo lost the brightness of her rosy face, her swelling
heart was lashed by sorrows. She untied the fruitful frontlet from her
head, and shook loose the long locks of hair over her neck, trembling for
her girl; the cheeks of the goddess were moistened with self-running
tears, in her sorrow that so many voters had been stung with one fiery
shot for a struggle of rival wooing, by maddening Eros, all contending
together for their loves.
(Nonnus Dionysiaca VI, 3-12)
Homeric Hymn to Demeter of the seventh century BC.
I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess - of her and her
trim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus rapt away, given to him by all-
seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer.
Apart from Demeter lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits, she
was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus and
gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful
violets, irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus, which Earth made
to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the Host of Many, to be a snare
for the bloom-like girl - a marvelous, radiant flower. It was a thing of awe
whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a
hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven
above and the whole earth and the sea's salt swell laughed for joy. And
the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to take the lovely
toy; but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nysa, and the
lord, Host of Many, with his immortal horses sprang out upon her - the
Son of Cronos, He who has many names.
He caught her up reluctant on his golden car and bare her away
lamenting. Then she cried out shrilly with her voice, calling upon her
father, the Son of Cronos, who is most high and excellent.
(Homeric Hymn To Demeter 1-21)
Also I will tell how he rapt me away by the deep plan of my father the Son
of Cronos and carried me off beneath the depths of the earth, and will
relate the whole matter as you ask. All we were playing in a lovely
meadow, Leucippe and Phaeno and Electra and Ianthe, Melito also and
Iache with Rhodea and Callirhoe and Melobosis and Tyche and
Ocyrhoe, fair as a flower, Chryseis, Ianeira, Acaste and Admete and
Rhodope and Pluto and charming Calypso; Styx too was there and
Urania and lovely Galaxaura with Pallas who rouses battles and Artemis
delighting in arrows: we were playing and gathering sweet flowers in
our hands, soft crocuses mingled with irises and hyacinths, and rose-
blooms and lilies, marvelous to see, and the narcissus which the wide
earth caused to grow yellow as a crocus. That I plucked in my joy; but
the earth parted beneath, and there the strong lord, the Host of Many,
sprang forth and in his golden chariot he bore me away, all unwilling,
beneath the earth: then I cried with a shrill cry.
(Homeric Hymn To Demeter 411-432)
Again, the fact that the Rape of Kore took place in Sicily is, men say,
proof most evident that the goddesses made this island their favorite
retreat because it was cherished by them before all others. And the Rape
of Kore, the myth relates, took place in the meadows in the territory of
Enna. The spot is near the city, a place of striking beauty for its violets
and every other kind of flower and worthy of the goddess. And the story
is told that, because of the sweet odor of the flowers growing there,
trained hunting dogs are unable to hold the trail, because their natural
sense of smell is balked. And the meadow we have mentioned is level in
the center and well watered throughout, but on its periphery it rises high
and falls off with precipitous cliffs on every side. And it is conceived of
as lying in the very center of the island, which is the reason why certain
writers call it the navel in Sicily. Near to it also are sacred groves,
surrounded by marshy flats, to the north, and through it, the myth
relates, Pluton, coming out with his chariot, effected the rape of Kore.
And the violets, we are told, and the rest of the flowers which supply the
sweet odor continue to bloom, to one's amazement, throughout the
entire year, and so the whole aspect of the place is one of flowers and
delight.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 3)
Sow then some seed of fame athwart the isle, that Zeus, the lord of
Olympus, gave to Persephone, and shook his locks in token unto her
that, as queen of the teeming earth, the fertile island of Sicily would be
raised to renown by the wealth of her glorious cities.
(Pindar The Nemean Odes I, 14)
Within this grove Proserpina was playing, and gathering violets or white
lilies. And while with girlish eagerness she was filling her basket and her
bosom, and striving to surpass her mates in gathering, almost in one act
did Pluto see and love and carry her away: so precipitate was his love.
The terrified girl called plaintively on her mother and her companions,
but more often upon her mother.
(Ovid Metamorphoses V, 391-398)
To Pluto
O mighty daemon, whose decision dread,
The future fate determines of the dead,
With captive Proserpina, through grassy plains,
Drawn in a four-yoked car with loosened reins,
Rapt o'er the deep, impelled by love, you flew
Till Eleusina's city rose to view:
There, in a wondrous cave obscure and deep,
The sacred maid secure from search you keep,
The cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display
An entrance to the kingdoms void of day.
Of works unseen and seen thy power alone
To be the great dispensing source is known.
All-ruling, holy God, with glory bright,
Thee sacred poets and their hymns delight,
Propitious to thy mystics' works incline,
Rejoicing come, for holy rites are thine.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
At Eleusis flows the Cephisus, a more impetuous stream than the
Cephisus mentioned before. Beside it is a place which they call Erineus.
They say that Pluto, when he carried off the Maid, descended here.
(Pausanias Description of Greece I, 38:5)
Having returned to the direct road, you will cross the Erasinus and come
to the Chimarrhus river. Near it is an enclosure of stones: they say that
when Pluto, as the story goes, ravished Demeter's daughter, the Maid,
he here descended to his supposed subterranean realm. Lerna is, as I
said before, beside the sea, and they celebrate mysteries here in honor
of Lernaean Demeter.
(Pausanias II, 36:7)
That the rape of Kore took place in the manner we have described is
attested by many ancient historians and poets. Carcinus the tragic poet,
for instance, who often visited in Syracuse and witnessed the zeal
which the inhabitants displayed in the sacrifices and festive gatherings
for both Demeter and Kore, has the following verses in his writings:
Demeter's daughter, her whom none may name,
By secret schemings Pluton, men say, stole,
And then he dropped into earth's depths, whose light
Is darkness. Longing for the vanished girl
Her mother searched and visited all lands
In turn. And Sicily's land by Aetna's crags
Was filled with streams of fire which no man could
Approach, and groaned throughout its length; in grief
Over the maiden now the folk, beloved
Of Zeus, was perishing without the corn.
Hence honor they these goddesses e'en now.
But we should not omit to mention the very great benefaction which
Demeter conferred upon mankind; for beside the fact that she was the
discoverer of corn, she also taught mankind how to prepare it for food
and introduced laws by obedience to which men became accustomed to
the practice of justice, this being the reason, we are told, why she has
been given the epithet Thesmophoros or Lawgiver. Surely a benefaction
greater than these discoveries of hers one could not find; for they
embrace both living and living honorably.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 5)
Demeter:
Mother of the Mysteries and the Grain
Teiresias: ... Two things there are, young prince, that
hold first rank among men, the goddess Demeter, that is,
the earth, call her which name you please; she it is that feeds men with
solid food....
(Euripides The Bacchantes 274)
Ceres was the first to turn the glebe with the hooked plow-
share; she first gave laws. All things are the gift of Ceres; she must be
the subject of my song.
(Ovid Metamorphoses V, 341-344)
To Ceres
O universal mother, Ceres fam'd,
August, the source of wealth, and various nam'd:
Great nurse, all-bounteous, blessed and divine,
Who joy'st in peace; to nourish corn is thine.
Goddess of seed, of fruits abundant, fair,
Harvest and threshing are thy constant care.
Lovely delightful queen, by all desir'd,
Who dwell'st in Eleusina's holy vales retired.
Nurse of all mortals, whose benignant mind
First ploughing oxen to the yoke confin'd;
And gave to men what nature's wants require,
With plenteous means of bliss, which all desire.
In verdure flourishing, in glory bright,
Assessor of great Bacchus, bearing light:
Rejoicing in the reapers' sickles, kind,
Whose nature lucid, earthly, pure, we find.
Prolific, venerable, nurse divine,
Thy daughter loving, holy Proserpine.
A car with dragons yok'd 'tis thine to guide,
And, orgies singing, round thy throne to ride.
only-begotten, much-producing queen,
All flowers are thine, and fruits of lovely green.
Bright Goddess, come, with summer's rich increase
Swelling and pregnant , leading smiling Peace;
Come with fair Concord and imperial Health,
And join with these a needful store of wealth.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus)
And Demeter since the corn still grew wild together with the other plants
and was still unknown to men, was the first to gather it in, to devise how
to prepare and preserve it, and to instruct mankind how to sow it. Now
she had discovered the corn before she gave birth to her daughter
Persephone, but after the birth of her daughter and the rape of her by
Pluton, she burned all the fruit of the corn, both because of her anger at
Zeus and because of her grief over her daughter. After she had found
Persephone, however, she became reconciled with Zeus and gave
Triptolemus the corn to sow, instructing him both to share the gift with
men everywhere and to teach them everything concerned with the labor
of sowing. And some men say that it was she also who introduced laws,
by obedience to which men have become accustomed to deal justly one
with another, and that mankind has called this goddess Thesmophoros
after the laws which she gave them. And since Demeter has been
responsible for the greatest blessing to mankind, she has been
accorded the most notable honors and sacrifices, and magnificent
feasts and festivals as well, not only by the Greeks, but also by almost all
barbarians who have partaken of this kind of food.
There is dispute about the discovery of the fruit of the corn on the part of
many peoples, who claim that they were the first among whom the
goddess was seen and to whom she made known both the nature and
use of the corn. The Egyptians, for example, say that Demeter and Isis
are the same, and that she was first to bring the seed to Egypt, since the
river Nile waters the fields at the proper time and that land enjoys the
most temperate seasons. Also the Athenians, though they assert that
the discovery of this fruit took place in their country, are nevertheless
witnesses to its having been brought to Attica from some other region;
for the place which originally received this gift they call Eleusis, from the
fact that the seed of the corn came from others and was conveyed to
them. But the inhabitants of Sicily, dwelling as they do on an island
which is sacred to Demeter and Kore, say that it is reasonable to believe
that the gift of which we are speaking was made to them first, since the
land they cultivate is the one the goddess holds most dear; for it would
be strange indeed, they maintain, for the goddess to take for her on, so
to speak, a land which is the most fertile known and yet to give it, the last
of all, a share in her benefaction, as though it were nothing to her,
especially since she has her dwelling there, all men agreeing that the
Rape of Kore took place on this island. Moreover, this land is the best
adapted for these fruit, even as the poet also says:
But all these things grow there for them unsown
And e'en untilled, both wheat and barley.
(Odyssey IX, 1O9)
This, then, is what the myths have to say about Demeter.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 68-69)
Zeus entered also into the bed of fruitful Demeter, who bore him
Persephone of the white arms, she that Aidoneus ravished away from
her mother and Zeus of the counsels granted it.
(Hesiod, Theogony 912-914)
Demeter, shining among goddesses, after the embraces of the hero
Iasion in the sweetness of love, brought forth Ploutos in a thrice-plowed
field there in the fertile countryside of Crete, a good son, who walks over
earth and the sea's wide ridges everywhere, and he who meets him with
the giving of hands between them is made a prosperous man, to whom
great wealth is granted.
(Hesiod, Theogony 969-974)
So again when Demeter fell in love with Iasion, and yielded to him in a
thrice-ploughed fallow field, Zeus came to hear of it before so very long
and killed Iasion with his thunderbolts.
(Homer's Odyssey V, 125)
But Zeus desired that the other of his two sons might also attain to
honor, and so he instructed him in the initiatory rite of the mysteries,
which had existed on the island since ancient times but was at that time,
so to speak, put in his hands; it is not lawful, however, or any but the
initiated to hear about the mysteries. And Iasion is reputed to have been
the first to initiate strangers into them and by this means to bring the
initiatory rite to high esteem.... And Demeter, becoming enamored of
Iasion, presented him with the fruit of the corn.... To Iasion and Demeter,
according to the story the myths relate, was born Plutus or Wealth, but
the reference is, as a matter of fact, to the wealth of the corn, which was
presented to Iasion because of Demeter's association with him at the
time of the wedding of Harmonia. Now the details of the initiatory rite are
guarded among the matters not to be divulged and are communicated to
the initiates alone; but the fame has traveled wide of how these gods
appear to mankind and bring unexpected aid to those initiates of theirs
who call upon them in the midst of perils. The claim is also made that
men who have taken part in the mysteries become both more pious and
more just and better in every respect than they were before. And this is
the reason, we are told, why the most famous both of the ancient heroes
and of the demi-gods were eagerly desirous of taking part in the
initiatory rite; and in fact Jason and the Dioscuri, and Heracles and
Orpheus as well, after their initiation attained success in all the
campaigns they undertook, because these gods appeared to them.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 48, 49)
Plutus, we are told, was born in Cretan Tripolus to Demeter and Iasion,
and there is a double account of his origin. For some men say that the
earth, when it was sowed once by Iasion and given proper cultivation,
brought forth such an abundance of fruits that those who saw this
bestowed a special name upon the abundance of fruits when they
appear and called it plutus (wealth); consequently it has become
traditional among later generations to say that men who have acquired
more than they actually need have Plutus. But there are some who
recount the myth that a son was born to Demeter and Iasion whom they
named Plutus, and that he was the first to introduce diligence into the
life of man and the acquisition and safeguarding of property, all men up
to that time having been neglectful of amassing and guarding diligently
any store of property.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 77)
But no one, either of the deathless gods or of mortal men, heard her
voice, nor yet the olive-trees bearing rich fruit: only tender-hearted
Hecate, bright-coifed, the daughter of Persaeus, heard the girl from her
care, and the lord Helios, Hyperion's bright son, as she cried to her
father, the Son of Cronos. But he was sitting aloof, apart from the gods,
in his temple where many pray, and receiving sweet offerings from
mortal men. So he, that Son of Cronos, of many names, who is Ruler of
Many and Host of Many, was bearing her away by leave of Zeus on his
immortal chariot - his own brother's child and all unwilling.
And so long as she, the goddess, yet beheld earth and starry heaven
and the strong-flowing sea where fishes shoal and the rays of the sun,
and still hoped to see her dear mother and the tribes of the eternal gods,
so long hope calmed her great heart for all her trouble.... and the heights
of the mountains and the depths of the sea rang with her immortal voice:
and her queenly mother heard her.
Bitter pain seized her heart, and she rent the covering upon her divine
hair with her dear hand: her dark cloak she cast down from both her
shoulders and sped, like a wild bird, over the firm land and yielding sea,
seeking her child. But no one would tell her the truth, neither god nor
mortal man; and of the birds of omen none came with true news for her.
Then for nine days queenly Deo wandered over the earth with flaming
torches in her hands, so grieved that she never tasted ambrosia and the
sweet draught of nectar, nor sprinkled her body with water.
(Homeric Hymn, To Demeter 22-50)
As the basket comes, greet it, you women, saying "Demeter, greatly hail!
Lady of much bounty, of many measures of corn." As the basket comes,
from the ground you shall see it, you uninitiated, and gaze not from the
roof or from aloft - child nor wife nor maid that has shed her hair - neither
then nor when we spit from parched mouths fasting. Hesperus from the
clouds marks the time of its coming: Hesperus, who alone persuaded
Demeter to drink, that time she pursued the unknown tracks of her
stolen daughter.
Lady, how were your feet able to carry you to the West, to the black men
and where the golden apples are? You did not drink nor did you eat
during that time nor did you wash. Thrice did you cross Achelous with
his silver eddies and as often did you pass over each of the ever-flowing
rivers, and thrice did you seat yourself on the ground beside the
fountain Callichorus, parched and without drinking, and did not eat nor
wash.
Nay, nay, let us not speak of that which brought the tear to Deo! Better to
tell how she gave to cities pleasing ordinances; better to tell how she
was the first to cut straw and holy sheaves of corn-ears and put in oxen
to tread them, that time Triptolemus was taught the good craft.
(Callimachus To Demeter 1-24)
But when the tenth enlightening dawn had come, Hecate, with a torch in
her hands met her, and spoke to her and told her news:
Queenly Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of good gifts, what god
of heaven or what mortal man has rapt away Persephone and pierced
with sorrow your dear heart? For I heard her voice, yet saw not with my
eyes who it was. But I tell you truly and shortly all I know.
So, then, said Hecate. And the daughter of rich-haired Rhea answered
her not but sped swiftly with her, holding flaming torches in her hands.
So they came to Helios, who is watchman of both gods and men, and
stood in front of his horses: and the bright goddess inquired of him:
"Helios, do you at least regard me, goddess as I am, if ever by word or
deed of mine I have cheered your heart and spirit. Through the fruitless
air I heard the thrilling cry of my daughter whom I bare, sweet scion of
my body and lovely in form, as of one seized violently; though with my
eyes I saw nothing. But you---for with your beams you look down fro the
bright upper air over all the earth and sea--- tell me truly of my dear child,
if you have seen her anywhere, what god or mortal man has violently
seied her against her will and mine, and so made off."
So said she. And the Son of Hyperion answered her:
Queen Demeter, daughter of rich-haired Rhea, I will tell you the truth; for
I greatly reverence and pity you in your grief for your trim-ankled
daughter. None other of the deathless gods is to blame, but only cloud-
gathering Zeus who gave her to Hades, her father's brother, to be called
his buxom wife, And Hades seized her and took her loudly crying in his
chariot down to his realm of mist and gloom. Yet, goddess, cease your
loud lament and keep not vain anger unrelentingly: Aidoneus, the Ruler
of Many, is no unfitting husband among the deathless gods for your
child, being your own brother and born of the same stock: also, for
honor, he has that third share which he received when division was
made at the first, and is appointed lord of those among whom he dwells.
So he spoke, and called to his horses: and at his chiding they quickly
whirled the swift chariot along, like long winged-birds.
But grief yet more terrible and savage came into the heart of Demeter,
and thereafter she was so angered with the dark-clouded Son of Cronos
that she avoided the gathering of the gods and high Olympus, and went
to the towns and rich fields of men, disfiguring her form a long while.
And no one of men or deep-bosomed women knew her when they saw
her, until she came to the house of wise Celeus who then was lord of
fragrant Eleusis. Vexed in her dear heart, she sat near the wayside by
the Maiden Well, from which the women of the place were used to draw
water, in a shady place over which grew an olive shrub.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 51-100)
You sat at the well Callichoron, without news of your child.
(Callimachus: Fragment 611)
Another road leads from Eleusis to Megara, Following this road we come
to a well called the Flowery Well. The poet Pamphos says that Demeter
sat on this well in the likeness of an old woman after the rape of her
daughter; and that thence she was conducted, in the character of an old
woman, by the daughter of Celeus to their mother Metanira, who
entrusted her with the upbringing of the boy. A little way from the well is
a sanctuary of Metanira.
(Pausanias I, 39, 1-2)
And she was like an ancient woman who is cut off from child bearing
and the gifts of garland-loving Aphrodite, like the nurses of king's
children who deal justice, or like the house-keepers in their echoing
halls. There the daughters of Celeus, son of Eleusis, saw her, as they
were coming for easy-drawn water, to carry it in pitchers of bronze to
their dear father's house: four were they and like goddesses in the
flower of their girlhood, Callidice and Cleisidice and lovely Demo and
Callithoe who was the eldest of them all. They knew her not, - for the
gods are not easily discerned by mortals -, but standing near by her
spoke winged words:
"Old mother, whence and who are you of folk born long ago? Why are
you gone away from the city and do not draw near the houses? For
there in the shady halls are women of just such age as you, and others
younger; and they would welcome you both by word and by deed."
Thus they said. And she, that queen among goddesses answered them
saying: "Hail, dear children, whosoever you are of womankind. I will tell
you my story; for it is not unseemly that I should tell you truly what you
ask. Doso is my name, for my stately mother gave it me. And now I am
come from Crete over the sea's wide back, - not willingly; but pirates
brought me thence by force of strength against my liking. Afterwards
they put in with their swift craft to Thoricus, and there the women landed
on the shore in full throng and the men likewise, and they began to make
ready a meal by the stern cables of the ship. But my heart craved not
pleasant food, and I fled secretly across the dark country and escaped
my master, that they should not take me unpurchased across the sea,
there to win a price for me. And so I wandered and am come here: and I
know not at all what land this is or what people are in it. But may all
those who dwell on Olympus give you husbands and birth of children as
parents desire, so you take pity on me, maidens, and show me this
clearly that I may learn, dear children, to the house of what man and
woman I may go, to work for them cheerfully at such tasks as belong to
a woman of my age. Well could I nurse a new-born child, holding him in
my arms, or keep house, or spread my master' bed in a recess of the
well-built chamber, or teach the women their work."
So said the goddess. And straightway the unwed maiden Callidice,
goodliest in form of the dauhters of Celeus, answered her and said:
Mother, what the gods send us, we mortals bear perforce, although we
suffer; for they are much stronger than we. But now I will teach you
clearly, telling you the name of men who have great power and honor
here and are chief among the people, guarding our city's coif of towers
by their wisdom and true judgments: there is wise Triptolemus and
Dioclus and Polyxeinus and blameless Eumolpus and Dolichus and our
own brave father. All these have wives who manage in the house and no
one of them? so soon as she had seen you, would dishonor you and
turn you from the house, but they will welcome you; for indeed you are
godlike, But if you will, stay here; and we will go to our father's house
and tell Metaneira, our deep-bosomed mother, all this matter fully, that
she may bid you rather come to our home than search after the houses
of others. She has an only son, late-born, who is being nursed in our
well-built house, a child of many prayers and welcome: if you could
bring him up until he reached the full measure of youth, any one of
womankind who should see you would straightway envy you, such gifts
would our mother give for his upbringing.
So she spoke: and the goddess bowed her head in assent. And they
filled their shining vessels with water and carried them off rejoicing.
Quickly they came to their father's great house and straightway told their
mother according as they had heard and seen. Then she bade them go
with all speed and invite the stranger to come for a measureless hire. As
hinds or heifers in spring time, when sated with pasture, bound about a
meadow, so they, holding up the folds of their lovely garments, darted
down the hollow path, and their hair like a crocus flower streamed about
their shoulders. And they found the good goddess near the wayside
where they had left her before and led her to the house of their dear
father. And she walked behind, distressed in her dear heart, with her
head veiled and wearing a dark cloak which waved about the slender
feet of the goddess.
Soon they came to the house of heaven-nurtured Celeus and went
through the portico to where their queenly mother sat by a pillar of the
close-fitted roof, holding her son, a tender scion, in her bosom. And the
girls ran to her. But the goddess walked to the threshold: and her head
reached the roof and she filled the doorway with a heavenly radiance.
Then awe and reverence and pale fear took hold of Metaneira, and she
rose up from her couch before Demeter, and bade her be seated. But
Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of perfect gifts, would not sit
upon the bright couch, but stayed silent with lovely eyes cast down until
careful Iambe placed a jointed seat for her and threw over it a silvery
fleece. Then she sat down and held her veil in her hands before her face.
A long time she sat upon the stool without speaking because of her
sorrow, and greeted no one by word or by sign, but rested, never
smiling and tasting neither food nor drink, because she pined with
longing for her deep-bosomed daughter, until careful Iambe - who
pleased her moods in aftertime also - moved the holy lady with many a
quip and jest to smile and laugh and cheer her heart. Then Metaneira
filled a cup with sweet wine and offered it to her; but she refused it, for
she said it was not lawful for her to drink red wine, but bade them mix
meal and water with soft mint and give her to drink. And Metaneira mixed
the draught and gave it to the goddess as she bade. So the great queen
Deo received it to observe the sacrament.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 101-212)
But Deo refused to drink, being tipsy with Persephone's trouble:
parents of an only child ever tremble for their beloved children.
(Nonnus, Dionysiaca VI, 30-32)
Meanwhile all in vain the affrighted mother seeks her daughter in every
land, on every deep. Not Aurora rising with dewy tresses, not Hesperus
sees her pausing in the search. She kindles two pine torches in the fires
of Aetna, and wanders without rest through the frosty shades of night;
again, when the genial day had dimmed the stars, she was still seeking
her daughter from the setting to the rising of the sun. Faint with toil and
athirst, she had moistened her lips in no fountain, when she chanced to
see a hut thatched with straw, and knocked at its lowly door. Then out
came an old woman and beheld the goddess, and when she asked for
water gave her a sweet drink with parched barley floating upon it. While
she drank, a coarse, saucy boy stood watching her, and mocked her
and called her greedy. She was offended, and threw what she had not
yet drunk, with the barley grain, full in his face.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 438-452)
After the Rape of Kore, the myth goes on to recount, Demeter, being
unable to find her daughter, kindled torches in the craters of Mt. Aetna
and visited many parts of the inhabited world, and upon the men who
received her with the greatest favor she conferred benefactions,
rewarding them with the gift of the fruit of the wheat. And since a more
kindly welcome was extended the goddess by the Athenians than by
any other people, they were the first after the Siceliotae to be given the
fruit of the wheat; and in return for this gift the citizens of that city in
assembly honored the goddess above all others with the establishment
both of most notable sacrifices and of the mysteries of Eleusis, which,
by reason of their very great antiquity and sanctity, have come to be
famous among all mankind. From the Athenians many peoples received
a portion of the gracious gift of the corn, and they in turn, sharing the gift
of the seed with their neighbors, in this way caused all the inhabited
world to abound with it. And the inhabitants of Sicily, since by reason of
the intimate relationship of Demeter and Kore with them they were the
first to share in the corn after its discovery, instituted to each one of the
goddesses sacrifices and festive gatherings, which they name after
them, and by the time chosen for these made acknowledgment of the
gifts which had been conferred upon them. In the case of Kore, for
instance, they established the celebration of her return at about the time
when the fruit of the corn was found to come to maturity, and they
celebrate this sacrifice and festive gathering with such strictness of
observance and such zeal as we should reasonably expect those men
to show who are returning thanks for having been selected before all
mankind for the greatest possible gift; but in the case of Demeter they
preferred that time for the sacrifice when the sowing of the corn is first
begun, and for a period of ten days they hold a festive gathering which
bears the name of this goddess and is most magnificent by reason of
the brilliance of their preparation for it, while in the observance of it they
imitate the ancient manner of life. And it is their custom during these
days to indulge in coarse language as they associate one with another,
the reason being that by such coarseness the goddess, grieved though
she was of the Rape of Kore, burst into laughter.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 4)
And of them all, well-girded Metaneira first began to speak: "Hail, lady!
For I think you are not meanly but nobly born; truly dignity and grace are
conspicuous upon your eyes as in the eyes of kings that deal justice.
Yet we mortals bear perforce what the gods send us, though we be
grieved; for a yoke is set upon our necks. But now since you are come
here, you shall have what I can bestow: and nurse me this child whom
the gods gave me in my old age and beyond my hope, a son much
prayed for. If you should bring him up until he reach the full measure of
youth, any one of womankind that sees you will straightway envy you,
so great reward would I give for his upbringing."
Then rich-haired Demeter answered her:
And to you, also, lady, all hail, and may the gods give you good! Gladly
will I take the boy to my breast, as you bid me, and will nurse him. Never,
I ween, through any heedlessness of his nurse shall witchcraft hurt him
nor yet the Undercutter: for I know a charm far stronger than the
Woodcutter, and I know an excellent safeguard against woeful
witchcraft.
When she had so spoken, she took the child in her fragrant bosom with
her divine hands: and his mother was glad in her heart. So the goddess
nursed in the palace Demophoön, wise Celeus' goodly son whom well-
girded Metaneira bare. And the child grew like some immortal being, not
fed with food nor nourished at the breast: for by day rich-crowned
Demeter would anoint him with ambrosia as if he were the offspring of a
god and breathe sweetly upon him as she held him in her bosom, but at
night she would hide him like a brand in the heart of the fire unknown to
his dear parents. And it wrought great wonder in these that he grew
beyond his age; for he was like the gods face to face. And she would
have made him deathless and unageing, had not well-girded Metaneira
in her heedlessness kept watch by night from her sweet-smelling
chamber and spied. But she wailed and smote her two hips, because
she feared for her son and was greatly distraught in her heart, so she
lamented and uttered winged words:
"Demophoön, my son, the strange woman buries you deep in fire and
works grief and bitter sorrow for me."
Thus she spoke, mourning. And the bright goddess, lovely crowned
Demeter, heard her, and was wroth with her. So with her divine hands
she snatched from the fire the dear son whom Metaneira had born
unhoped-for in the palace, and cast him from her to the ground; for she
was terribly angry in her heart. Forthwith she said to well-girded
Metaneira:
Witless are you mortals and dull to foresee your lot, whether of good or
evil, that comes upon you. For now in your heedlessness you have
wrought folly past healing; for - be witness the oath of the gods, the
relentless water of Styx - I would have made your dear son deathless
and unaging all his day and would have bestowed on him everlasting
honor, but now he can in no way escape death and the fates. Yet shall
unfailing honor always rest upon him, because he lay upon my knees
and slept in my arms. But, as the years move round and when he is in
his prime, the sons of the Eleusinian shall ever wage war and dread
strife with one another continually. Lo! I am that Demeter who has share
of honor and is the greatest help and cause of joy to the undying gods
and mortal men. But now, let all the people build me a great temple and
an altar below it and beneath the city and its sheer wall upon a rising
hillock above Callichorus. And I myself will teach my rites, that hereafter
you may reverently perform them and so win the favor of my heart.
When she had so said, the goddess changed her stature and her looks,
thrusting old age away from her: beauty spread round about her and a
lovely fragrance was wafted from her sweet-smelling robes, and from
the divine body of the goddess a light shone afar, while golden tresses
spread down over her shoulders, so that the strong house was filled
with brightness as with lightning. And so she went out from the palace.
And straightway Metaneira's knees were loosed and she remained
speechless for a long while and did not remember to take up her late-
born son from the ground. But his sisters heard his pitiful wailing and
sprang down from their well-spread bed: one of them took up the child
in her arms and laid him in her bosom while another revived the fire, and
a third rushed with soft feet to bring their mother from her fragrant
chamber. And they gathered about the struggling child and washed him,
embracing him lovingly; but he was not comforted, because nurse and
handmaids much less skillful were holding him now.
All night long they sought to appease the glorious goddess, quaking
with fear. But, as soon as dawn began to show they told powerful
Celeus all things without fail, as the lovely-crowned goddess Demeter
charged them. So Celeus called the countless people to an assembly
and bade them make a goodly temple for rich-haired Demeter and an
altar upon the rising hillock. And they obeyed him right speedily and
harkened to his voice, doing as he commanded. As for the child, he
grew like an immortal being.
Now when they had finished building and had drawn back from their toil,
they went every man to his house. But golden-haired Demeter sat there
apart from all the blessed gods and stayed, wasting with yearning for
her deep-bosomed daughter. Then she caused a most dreadful and
cruel year for mankind over the all-nourishing earth: the ground would
not make the seed sprout, for rich-crowned Demeter kept it hid. In the
fields the oxen drew many a curved plough in vain, and much white
barley was cast upon the land without avail.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 310-411)
She did not know as yet where her child was; still she reproached all
lands, calling them ungrateful and unworthy of the gift of corn; but Sicily
above all other lands, where she had found traces of her loss. So there
with angry hand she broke in pieces the plows that turn the glebe, and
in her rage she gave to destruction farmers and cattle alike, and bade
the plowed fields to betray their trust, and blighted the seed. The fertility
of this land, famous throughout the world, lay false to its good name: the
crops died in early blade, now too much heat, now too much rain
destroying them, Stars and winds were baleful, and greedy birds ate up
the seed as soon as it was sown; tares and thorns and stubborn
grasses choked the wheat.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 474-486)
Through wooded glen, o'er torrent's flood, and ocean's booming waves
rushed the mountain goddess, mother of the gods, in frantic hate, once
long ago, yearning for her daughter lost, whose name men dare not
utter; loudly rattled the Bacchic castanets in shrill accord, what time
those maidens, swift as whirlwinds, sped forth with the goddess on her
chariot yoked to wild creatures in quest of her that was ravished from
the circling choir of virgins; here was Artemis with her bow, and there
the grim-eyed goddess, sheathed in mail, and spear in hand. But Zeus
looked down from his throne in heaven, and turned the issue
overwhither. Soon as the mother ceased from her wild wandering toil, in
seeking her daughter stolen so subtly as to baffle all pursuit, she
crossed the snow-capped heights of Ida's nymphs; and in anguish cast
her down amongst the rock and brushwood deep in snow; and, denying
to man all increase to his tillage from those barren fields, she wasted the
human race; nor would she let the leafy tendrils yield luxuriant fodder
for the cattle wherefore many a beast lay dying; no sacrifice was offered
to the gods and on the altars were no cake to burn; yea, and she made
the dew-fed founts of crystal water to cease their flow, in her insatiate
sorrow for her child. But when for god and tribes of men alike she made
an end to festal cheer, Zeus spoke out, seeking to smooth the mother's
moody soul, "Ye stately Graces, go banish from Demeter's angry heart
the grief her wanderings bring upon her for her child, and go, ye Muses
too, with tuneful choir." Thereon did Cypris, fairest of the blessed gods,
first catch up the crashing cymbals, native to that land, and the drum
with tight-stretched skin and then Demeter smiled, and in her hand did
take the deep-toned flute, well pleased with its loud note.
(Euripides, Helen 1303-1361)
So she would have destroyed the whole race of man with cruel famine
and have robbed them who dwell on Olympus of their glorious right of
gifts and sacrifices, had not Zeus perceived and marked this in his heart.
First he sent olden-winged Iris to call rich-haired Demeter, lovely in form.
So he commanded. And she obeyed the dark-clouded Son of Cronos,
and sped with swift feet across the space between. She came to the
stronghold of fragrant Eleusis, and there finding dark-cloaked Demeter
in her temple, spake to her and uttered winged words:
Demeter, father Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, calls you to come
join the tribes of the eternal gods: come therefore, and let not the
message I bring from Zeus pass unobeyed.
Thus said Iris imploring her. But Demeter's heart was not moved. Then
again the father sent forth all the blessed and eternal gods besides: and
they came, one after the other, and kept calling her and offering many
very beautiful gifts and whatever rights she might be pleased to choose
among the deathless gods. Yet no one was able to persuade her mind
and will, so wrath was he in her heart; but she stubbornly rejected all
their words: for she vowed that she would never set foot on fragrant
Olympus nor let fruit spring out of the ground, until she beheld with her
eyes her own fair-faced daughter.
Now when all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer heard this, he sent the
Slayer of Argus whose wand is of gold to Erebus, so that having won
over Hades with soft words, he might lead forth chaste Persephone to
the light from the misty gloom to join the gods, and that her mother
might see her with her eyes and cease from her anger. And Hermes
obeyed, and leaving the house of Olympus, straightway sprang down
with speed to the hidden places of the earth. And he found the lord
Hades in his house seated upon a couch, and his shy mate with him,
much reluctant, because she yearned for her mother. But she was afar
off, brooding on her fell design because of the deed of the blessed god.
And the strong Slayer of Argus drew near and said:
Dark-haired Hades, ruler over the departed, father Zeus bids me bring
noble Persephone forth from Erebus unto the gods, that her mother may
see her with her eyes and cease from her dread anger with the
immortals; for now she plans an awful deed, to destroy the weakly tribes
of earth-born men by keeping seed hidden beneath the earth, and so
she makes an end of the honors of the undying gods. For she keeps
fearful anger and does not consort with the gods, but sits aloof in her
fragrant temple, dwelling in the rocky hold of Eleusis.
So he said. And Aidoneus, ruler over the dead, smiled grimly and
obeyed the behest of Zeus the king. For he straightway urged wise
Persephone, saying:
Go now, Persephone, to your dark-robed mother, go, and feel kindly in
your heart towards me: be not so exceedingly cast down; for I shall be
no unfitting husband for you among the deathless gods, that am own
brother to father Zeus. And while you are here, you shall rule all that lives
and moves and shall have the greatest rights among the deathless
gods: those who defraud you and do not appease your power with
offerings, reverently performing rites and paying fit gifts, shall be
punished for evermore.
When he said this, wise Persephone was filled with joy and hastily
sprang up for gladness. But he on his part secretly gave her sweet
pomegranate seed to eat, taking care for himself that he might not
remain continually with grave, dark-robed Demeter. Then Aidoneus the
Ruler of Many openly got ready his deathless horse beneath the olden
chariot. And she mounted on the chariot, and the strong Slayer of Argus
took reins and whip in his dear hands and drove forth from the hall, the
horses speeding readily. Swiftly they traversed their long course, and
neither the sea nor river waters nor grassy glens nor mountain-peaks
checked the career of the immortal horses, but they clave the deep air
above them as they went. And Hermes brought them to the place where
rich-crowned Demeter was staying and checked them before her
fragrant temple.
And when Demeter saw them, she rushed forth as does a Maenad down
some thick-wooded mountain, while Persephone on the other side,
when she saw her mother's sweet eyes, left the chariot and horses, and
leaped down to run to her and falling upon her neck, embraced her. But
while Demeter was still holding her dear child in her arms, her heart
suddenly misgave her for some snare, so that she feared greatly and
ceased fondling her daughter and asked of her at once:
My child, tell me, surely you have not tasted any food while you were
below? Speak out and hide nothing, but let us both know. For if you
have not, you shall come back from loathly Hades and live with me and
your father the dark-clouded Son of Cronos and be honored by all the
deathless gods; but if you have tasted food, you must go back again
beneath the secret place of the earth, there to dwell a third part of the
seasons every year: yet for the two parts you shall be with me and the
other deathless gods But when the earth shall bloom with the fragrant
flowers of spring in every kind, then from the realm of darkness and
gloom thou shalt come up once more to be a wonder for gods and
mortal men. And now tell me how he rapt you away to the realm of
darkness and gloom, and by what trick did the strong Host of Many
beguile you?
Then beautiful Persephone answered her thus:
Mother , I will tell you all without error. When luck-bringing Hermes came,
swift messenger from my father the Son of Cronos and the other Sons
of Heaven, bidding me come back from Erebus that you might see me
with your eyes and so cease from your anger and fearful wrath against
the gods, I sprang up at once for joy; but he secretly put in my mouth
sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 31-411)
"Proserpina shall return to heaven, but on one condition only: if in the
lower-world no food has as yet touched her lips. For so have the fates
decreed."
He spoke; but Ceres was resolved to have her daughter back. Not so
the fates; for the girl had already broken her fast, and while, simple child
that she was she wandered in the trim garden, she had plucked a purple
pomegranate hanging from a bending bough, and peeling off the hard
rind, she had eaten seven of the seeds...
But now Jove, holding the balance between his brother and his grieving
sister, divides the revolving year into two equal parts. Now the goddess,
the common divinity of two realms, spends half the months with her
mother and with her husband, half.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses 530-538, 564-567)
"All this is true, sore though it grieves me to tell the tale." So did they
then, with hearts at one, greatly cheer each the other's soul and spirit
with many an embrace: their heart had relief from their griefs while each
took and gave back joyousness.
Then bright-coifed Hecate came near to them, and often did she
embrace the daughter of holy Demeter: and from that time the lady
Hecate was minister and companion to Persephone.
And all-seeing Zeus sent a messenger to them, rich-haired Rhea, to
bring dark-cloaked Demeter to join the families of the gods: and he
promised to give her what rights she should choose among the
deathless gods and agreed that her daughter should go down for the
third part of the circling year to darkness and gloom, but for the two
parts should live with her mother and the other deathless gods. Thus he
commanded. And the goddess did not disobey the message of Zeus;
swiftly she rushed down from the peaks of Olympus and came to the
plain of Rharus rich, fertile corn-land once, but then in nowise fruitful, for
it lay idle and utterly leafless, because the white grain was hidden by
design of trim-ankled Demeter. But afterwards, as springtime waxed, it
was soon to be waving with long ears of corn, and its rich furrows to be
loaded with grain upon the ground, while others would already be
bound in sheaves. There first he landed from the fruitless upper air: and
glad were the goddesses to see each other and cheered in heart. Then
bright-coifed Rhea said to Demeter:
Come, my daughter; for far-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer calls you to
join the families of the gods, and has promised to give you what rights
you please among the deathless gods, and has agreed that for a third
part of the circling year your daughter shall go down to darkness and
gloom, but for the two parts shall be with you and the other deathless
gods: so has he declared it shall be and has bowed his head in token.
But come, my child, obey, and be not too angry unrelentingly with the
dark-clouded son of Cronos; but rather increase forthwith for men the
fruit that give them life.
So spoke Rhea. And rich-crowned Demeter did not refuse but
straightway made fruit to spring up from the rich lands, so that the whole
wide earth was laden with leaves and flowers. Then she went, and to the
kings who deal justice, Triptolemus and Diocles, the horse-driver, and to
doughty Eumolpus and Celeus, leader of the people, she showed the
conduct of her rites and taught them all her mysteries, to Triptolemus
and Polyxeinus and Diocles also, - awful mysteries which no one may in
any way transgress or pry into or utter, for deep awe of the gods checks
the voice. Happy is he among men upon earth who has seen these
mysteries; but he who is uninitiated and who has no part in them, never
has lot of like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and
gloom.
But when the bright goddess had taught them all, they went to Olympus
to the gathering of the other gods. And there they dwell beside Zeus
who delights in thunder, awful and reverend goddesses. Right blessed
is he among men on earth whom they freely love: soon they do send
Plutus as guest to his great house, Plutus who gives wealth to mortal
men.
And now, queen of the land of sweet Eleusis and sea-girt Paros and
rocky Antron, lady, giver of good gifts, bringer of seasons, queen Deo,
be gracious, you and your daughter all beauteous Persephone, and for
my song grant me heart-cheering substance. And now I will remember
you and another song also.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 433-495)
Agricultural Background and History
Triptolemus and the Spread of Agriculture
What I say is supported by the testimony of Sophocles, the tragic poet,
in his drama entitled Triptolemus ; for he there represents Demeter as
informing Triptolemus how large a tract of land he would have to travel
over while sowing it with the seeds he had given him.
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities I, 12)
Here she gave her fleet car to Triptolemus, and bade him scatter the
seed of grain she gave, part in the untilled earth and part in fields that
had long lain fallow.... "My country is far-famed Athens; Triptolemus, my
name. I came neither by ship over the sea, nor on foot by land; the air
opened a path for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, if you sprinkle
them over your wide field, will give a fruitful harvest and food not wild."
(Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 645-647, 652-656)
The right course, indeed, would have been for us not to take up arms
against one another in the beginning, since the tradition is that the first
strangers to whom Triptolemus, our ancestor, revealed the mystic rites
of Demeter and Kore were Heracles, your state's founder, and the
Dioscuri, your citizens; and further, that it was upon Peloponnesus that
he first bestowed the seed of Demeter's fruit.
(Xenophon, Hellenica VI, 3)
Above the fountain are temples: one of them is a temple of Demeter and
the Maid (Kore), in the other there is an image of Triptolemus. I will tell
the story of Triptolemus, omitting what relates to Deiope, Of all the
Greeks it is the Argives who must dispute the claim of the Athenians to
antiquity and to the possession of gifts of the gods, just as among the
barbarians it is the Egyptians who dispute the claims of the Phrygians.
The story runs that when Demeter came to Argos, Pelasgus received her
in his house, and that Chrysanthis, knowing the rape of the Maid told it
to her. They say that afterwards Trochilus, a priest of the mysteries, fled
from Argos on account of the enmity of Agenor, and came to Attica,
where he married an Eleusinian wife, and there were born to him two
sons, Eubuleus and Triptolemus. This is the Argive story. But the
Athenians and those who take their side know that Triptolemus the son
of Celeus was the first who sowed cultivated grain. However, some
verses of Musaeus (if his they are) declare Triptolemus to be a child of
Ocean and Earth; while other verses, which are attributed, in my
opinion, with just as little reason, to Orpheus, assert that Eubuleus and
Triptolemus were sons of Dysaules, and that, as a reward for the
information they gave her about her daughter, Demeter allowed them to
sow the grain. Choerilus the Athenian, in a drama called Alope says that
Cercyon and Triptolemus were brothers, that their mother was a
daughter of Amphictyon, but that the father of Triptolemus was Rarus,
and that the father of Cercyon was Poseidon. I purposed to pursue the
subject, and describe all the objects that admit of description in the
sanctuary at Athens called the Eleusinium, but I was prevented from so
doing by a vision in a dream. I will therefore turn to what may be lawfully
told to everybody, In front of this temple, in which is the image of
Triptolemus, stands a bronze ox as in the act of being led to sacrifice;
and Epimenides the Cnosian is portrayed sitting, of whom they say that
going into the country he entered a cave and slept, and did not awake
until forty years had come and gone, and afterwards he made verses
and purified cities, Athens among the rest.
(Pausanias I, 14:1-3)
Pausanias' Descriptions of Other Demeter Cults
After Thelpusa the Ladon descends to the sanctuary of Demeter in
Onceum. The Thelpusians call the goddess Fury, and with them agrees
Antimachus, the poet who celebrated the expedition of the Argives
against Thebes. His verse runs thus: -
They say that there is a seat of Demeter Fury in that place. Oncius,
according to common fame, was a son of Apollo, and he reigned at
Onceum in the land of Thelpusa. The goddess received the surname of
Fury on this wise. When Demeter was seeking her daughter, they say
that in her wanderings she was followed by Poseidon, who desired to
gain her favors. So she turned herself into a mare, and grazed with the
mares of Oncius; but Poseidon, detecting the deception, likewise took
the form of a horse, and so enjoyed Demeter. They say that at first
Demeter was wroth, but that in time she relented, and was fain to bathe
in the Ladon. Hence the goddess received two surnames: that of fury
(Erinus) on account of her wrath, because the Arcadians call a fit of
anger erinuein ; and that of Lusia, because she bathed (lousasthai) in
the Ladon. The images in the temple are of wood, but the faces, hands,
feet, are of Parian marble. The image of the Fury holds the so-called cista
(sacred basket), and in her right hand a torch: the height of the image we
guessed to be nine feet. The Lusia appeared to be six feet high. Some
think that the image represents Themis, and not Demeter Lusia; but this
is an idle fancy, and so I would have them know. They say that Demeter
had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not wont to divulge
to uninitiated persons, and that he also gave birth to the horse Arion; it
was for this reason, they say, that they gave Poseidon the surname of
Hippius ('of horses'), and they were first of the Arcadians who did so.
(Pausanias VIII, 25:4-7)
... and with befitting counsel, while he tends, not only the worship of
Demeter with the ruddy feet, and the festival of her daughter with her
white horses,
(Pindar, Olympian Odes VI, 95)
The Arcadians bring into the sanctuary the fruits of all cultivated trees
except the pomegranate. On the right as you leave the temple there is a
mirror fitted into the wall. Anyone who looks into this mirror will see
himself either very dimly or not at all, but the images of the gods and the
throne are clearly visible. Beside the temple of the mistress a little higher
up on the right is what is called the Hall. Here the Arcadians perform
mysteries, and sacrifice victims to the Mistress in great abundance.
Each man sacrifices what he has got. They do not cut the throats of the
victims as in the other sacrifices, but each man lops off a limb of the
victim, it matters not which. This Mistress is worshipped by the
Arcadians above all the gods and they say she is a daughter of
Poseidon and Demeter. Mistress is her popular surname, just as the
daughter of Demeter by Zeus is surnamed the Maid. The real name of the
Maid is Proserpine, as it occurs in the poetry of Homer and of Pamphos
before him; but the true name of the Mistress I fear to communicate to
the uninitiated.
(Pausanias VIII, 37:7-9)
In front of the temple is an altar to Demeter, and another to the Mistress,
and after it one to the Great Mother. The images of the goddesses,
namely, the mistress and Demeter, as well as the throne on which they
sit and the footstool under their feet, are all made of a single block of
stone. None of the drapery or work about the throne is made of a
different stone, attached with iron clamps or cement: all is of one block,
This block was not fetched from outside: they say that, following
directions given in a dream, they found it by digging within the
enclosure. The size of each of the two images is about that of the image
of the Mother at Athens. They are also works of Damophon. Demeter
carries a torch in her right hand, the other hand is laid on the Mistress.
The Mistress has a scepter, and the basket, as it is called, on her knees:
she holds the basket with her right hand.
(Pausanias VIII, 37:2-4)
The other mountain, Mount Elaius, is about thirty furlongs from Phigalia:
there is a cave there sacred to Demeter surnamed the Black. All that the
people of Thelpusa say touching the loves of Poseidon and Demeter is
believed by the Phigalians; but the Phigalians say that Demeter gave
birth not to a horse, but to her whom the Arcadians name the Mistress,
and they say that afterwards Demeter, wroth with Poseidon, and
mourning the rape of Proserpine, put on black raiment, and entering this
grotto tarried there in seclusion a long while. But when all the fruits of
the earth were wasting away, and the race of man was perishing still
more of hunger, none of the other gods, it would seem, knew where
Demeter was hid; but Pan, roving over Arcadia, and hunting now on one
mountain, now on another, came at last to Mount Elaius, and spied
Demeter, and saw the plight she was in, and the garb she wore. So Zeus
learnt of his from Pan, and sent the Fates to Demeter, and she
hearkened to the Fates, and swallowed her wrath, and abated even from
her grief.
For that reason the Phigalians say that they accounted the grotto sacred
to Demeter, and set up in it an image of wood. The image, they say, was
made thus: it was seated on a rock, and was in the likeness of a woman,
all but the head; the head and the hair were those of a horse, and
attached to the head were figures of serpents and other wild beasts; she
was clad in a tunic that reached even to her feet; on one of her hands
was a dolphin, and on the other a dove. Why they made the image thus
is plain to any man of ordinary sagacity who is versed in legendary lore.
They say they surnamed her Black, because the garb the goddess wore
was black. They do not remember who made this wooden image, nor
how it caught fire. When the old image disappeared the Phigalians did
not give the goddess another in its stead, and as to the festivals and
sacrifices, why they neglected most of them, until a dearth came upon
the land; then they besought the god, and the Pythian priestess
answered them as follows: -
Arcadians, Azanians, acorn-eaters, who inhabit Phigalia, the cave where
the Horse-mother Deo lay hid,
You come to learn a riddance of grievous famine,
You who alone have been nomads twice, and twice tasted the berries
wild.
'Twas Deo stopped your pasturing, and 'twas Deo caused you again
To go without the cakes of herdsmen who drag the ripe ears home,
Because she was robbed of privileges that men of old bestowed on her
and of her ancient honors,
And soon shall she make you to eat each other, and to feast on your
children,
If you appease not her wrath with libations offered of the whole people,
And if you adorn not the nook of the tunnel with honors divine.
When the oracle was reported to them, the Phigalians held Demeter in
higher honor than before, and in particular they induced Onatas, the
Aeginetan, son of Micon, to make them an image of Demeter for so
much. There is a bronze Apollo at Pergamus by this Onatus, which is
one of the greatest marvels both for size and workmanship. So he made
a bronze image for the Phigalians guided by a painting or a copy which
he discovered of the ancient wooden image; but he relied mainly, it is
said, on directions received in dreams.
(Pausanias VIII, 42:1-7, 11)
However that may be, the first who reigned in this country were
Polycaon, son of Lelex, and his wife Messene. It was to this Messene
that Caucon, son of Celaenus, son of Phylus, brought the orgies of the
Great Goddesses from Eleusis. The Athenians say that Phylus himself
was a son of Earth, and they are supported by the hymn which Musaeus
composed on Demeter for Lycomids. But many years after the time of
Caucon the mysteries of the Great Goddesses were raised to higher
honor by Lycus, son of Pandion; and the place where he purified the
initiated is still named the oak-coppice of Lycus.... And that this Lycus
was the son of Pandion is shown by the verses inscribed on the statue
of Methapus. For Methapus also made some changes in the mode of
celebrating the mysteries. Methapus was an Athenian by descent, and
he was a devisor of Mysteries and all sorts of orgies It was he who
instituted the mysteries of the Cabiri for the Thebans; and he also set up
in the chapel of the Lycomids a statue inscribed with an epigram, which
contains a passage confirming what I have said: -
And I purified houses of Hermes ... and paths
Of Demeter and of the first-born Maid, where they say
That Messene instituted for the Great Goddesses a rite
Which she learned from Caucon, illustrious scion of Phylus.
And I marveled how Lycus, son of Pandion,
Established all the sacred rites of Attis in dear Andania.
(Pausanias IV, 1:5-8)
At the other or western end of the colonnade there is an enclosure
sacred to the Great Goddesses. The Great Goddesses are Demeter and
the Maid, as I have already shown in my account of Messenia. The Maid
is called Savior by the Arcadians.... With regard to the image of the Great
Goddesses, that of Demeter is of stone throughout, but the drapery of
the Savior is of wood. The height of each is about fifteen feet. The
images ... and before them he made small images of girls in tunics
reaching to their ankles: each of the two girls bears on her head a
basket full of flowers: they are said to be the daughters of Damophon.
But those who put a religious interpretation on them think that they are
Athena and Artemis gathering flowers with Proserpine.
(Pausanias VIII, 31:1-2)
Five-and-twenty furlongs from here you come to a grove of Cabirian
Demeter and the Maid: the initiated are allowed to enter it. About seven
furlongs from this grove is the sanctuary of the Cabiri. I must crave
pardon of the curious if I preserve silence as to who the Cabiri are, and
what rites are performed in honor of them and their mother. There is,
however, nothing to prevent me disclosing the account which the
Thebans give of the origin of the rites. They say that in this place there
was once a city, the men of which were named Cabiri; and that Demeter
made the acquaintance of Prometheus, one of the Cabiri, and of his son
Aetnaeus, and entrusted something to their care; but what it was he
entrusted to them and what happened to it, I thought it wrong to set
down. At all events, the mysteries are a gift of Demeter to the Cabiri.
(Pausanias IX, 25:5-6)
Once more, when Alexander after his victory gave Thebes and all the
land of Thebes to the flames, some Macedonians who entered the
sanctuary of the Cabiri because it was in the enemy's country, were
destroyed by thunderbolts and lightening from heaven. So holy has this
sanctuary been from the beginning.
(Pausanias IX, 25:10)
But the most remarkable object of all is a sanctuary of Demeter on
Mount Pron. The Hermionians say that the founders of this sanctuary
were Clymenus, son of Phoroneus, and his sister Chthonia. But the
Argive story is this. When Demeter came to Argolis she was hospitably
received by Athera and Mysius. However, Colontas neither opened his
house to the goddess nor paid her any other mark of respect. But this
churlish behavior was not to the mind of his daughter Chthonia. They
each had their reward: the house of Colontas was burnt down and he in
it; but Chthonia was brought by Demeter to Hermion and founded the
sanctuary. However that may have been, the goddess herself is certainly
called Chthonia ('subterranean'), and they celebrate a festival called
Chthonia every year in summer-time.
(Pausanias II, 35:4-5)
The Pheneatians have also a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed
Eleusinian, and they celebrate mysteries in her honor, alleging that rites
identical with those performed at Eleusis were instituted in their land; for
Naus, they say, a grandson of Eumolpus, came to their country in
obedience to an oracle from Delphi. Beside the sanctuary of the
Eleusinian goddess is what is called the Petroma, two great stones fitted
to each other. Every second year, when they are celebrating what they
call the Greater Mysteries they open these stones, and taking out of
them certain writings which bear on the mysteries, they read them in the
hearing of the initiated, and put them back in their place that same night.
I know, too, that on the weightiest matters most of the Pheneatians
swear by the Petroma. There is a round top on it, which contains a mask
of Demeter Cidaria: this mask the priest puts on his face at the Greater
Mysteries, and smites the Underground Folk with rods. I suppose there
is some legend to account for the custom. The Pheneatians have a
legend that Demeter came hither on her wanderings even before Naus;
and that to those of the Pheneatians who welcomed her hospitably she
gave all the different kinds of pulse except beans. They have a sacred
story about the bean to show why they think it an unclean kind of pulse.
The men who received the goddess, according to the Pheneatian
legend, were Trisaules and Damithales: They built a temple of Demeter
Thesmia ('goddess of laws') under Mount Cyllene, and instituted in her
honor the mysteries which they still celebrate.
(Pausanias VIII, 15:1-4)
Dionysus and Iacchos at Eleusis
Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysus, Apollo, Hecate, the
Muses, and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bacchic
or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations; and they
give the name "Iacchus" not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-
chief of the mysteries, who is the genius of Demeter. And branch-
bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common elements in the
worship of these gods. As for the Muses and Apollo, the Muses preside
over the choruses, whereas Apollo presides both over these and the
rites of divination. But all educated men, and especially the musician, are
ministers of the Muses; and both these and those who have to do with
divination are ministers of Apollo; and the initiated and torch-bearers
and hierophants, of Demeter; and the Sileni and Satyri and Bacchae,
and also the Lenae and Thyiae and Mimallones and Naides and
Nymphae and the beings called Tityri, of Dionysus.
(Strabo Geography X, 3:10)
Was it haply, when you did bring into being Dionysus of the flowing
locks, who is enthroned beside Demeter of the clashing cymbals?
(Pindar, Isthmian VII, 3-5)
O you of many names, glory of the Cadmeian bride, offspring of loud-
thundering Zeus! you who watches over famed Italia, and reigns, where
all guests are welcomed, in the sheltered plain of Eleusinian Deo! O
Bacchus,
(Sophocles' Antigone 1115-1120)
Hard by is a temple of Demeter with images of the goddess, her
daughter, and Iacchus, who is holding a torch. An inscription in Attic
letters on the wall declares that they are works of Praxiteles.
(Pausanias, I, 2:4)
This god (Dionysus) was born in Crete, men say, of Zeus and
Persephone, and Orpheus has handed down the tradition in the
initiatory rites that he was torn in pieces by the Titans.
(Diodorus Siculus, V, 75)
Orpheus the Classic Mystic
.
In my opinion Orpheus was a man who surpassed his predecessors in
the beauty of his poetry, and attained great power because he was
believed to have discovered mystic rites, purifications for wicked deeds,
remedies for diseases, and modes of averting the wrath of the gods....
But some say that Orpheus was struck dead by the god with a
thunderbolt on account of certain revelations which he had made to
men at the mysteries.
(Pausanias, IX, 30:4-5)
To Amphietus Bacchus
Terrestrial Dionysus, hear my pray'r,
Rise vigilant with Nymphs of lovely hair:
Great Amphietus Bacchus, annual God,
Who laid asleep in Proserpine's abode,
Her sacred seat, didst lull to drowsy rest
The rites triennial and the sacred feast;
Which rous'd again by thee, in graceful ring,
Thy nurses round thee mystic anthems sing;
When briskly dancing with rejoicing pow'rs,
Thou mov'st in concert with the circling hours,
Come blessed, fruitful, horned, and divine,
And on this sacred Telete propitious shine;
Accept the pious incense and the pray'r,
And make prolific holy fruits thy care.
To Bacchus
Of Jove and Proserpine occultly born
In beds ineffable; all-bless'd pow'r,
Whom with triennial off'rings men adore.
Immortal daemon, hear my suppliant voice,
Give me in blameless plenty to rejoice;
And listen gracious to my mystic pray'r,
Surrounded with thy choir of nurses fair,
To the Nereids
Give plenteous wealth, and bless our mystic rites;
For you at first disclosed the rites divine,
Of holy Bacchus and of Proserpine,
To the Nymphs
With Bacchus and with Ceres hear my pray'r,
And to mankind abundant favor bear;
Propitious listen to your suppliant's voice,
Come, and benignant in these rites rejoice;
Give plenteous seasons and sufficient wealth,
And pour in lasting streams, continued health.
To Semele
Whom Proserpine permits to view the light,
And visit mortals from the realms of night.
Constant attending on the sacred rites,
And feast triennial, which thy soul delights;
When thy son's wondrous birth mankind relate
And secrets pure and holy celebrate.
Now I invoke thee, great Cadmean queen,
To bless thy mystics, lenient and serene.
To Adonis
Descended from the secret bed divine
Of Pluto's queen, the fair-hair'd Proserpine.
'Tis thine to sink in Tartarus profound,
And shine again thro' heav'ns illustrious round
Come, timely pow'r, with providential care,
And to thy mystics earth's productions bear.
To the Curetes
Fam'd deities the guards of Proserpine,
Preserving rites mysterious and divine:
To the Seasons
Invested with a veil of shining dew,
A flow'ry veil delightful to the view:
Attending Proserpine, when back from night
The Fates and Graces lead her up to light;
When in a band harmonious they advance,
And joyful round her form the solemn dance.
With Ceres triumphing, and Jove divine,
Propitious come, and on our incense shine;
Give earth a store of blameless fruits to bear,
And make these novel mystics' life your care.
To Nereus
Great daemon, source of all, whose pow'r can make
The sacred basis of blest Ceres shake,...
Send to thy mystics necessary wealth,
With gentle peace, and ever tranquil health.
To Love
Of all that Ceres' fertile realms contains,
By which th'all parent Goddess life sustains,
Or dismal Tartarus is doom'd to keep,
Widely extended, or the sounding deep;
For thee all Nature's various realms obey,
Who rul'st alone, with universal sway.
Come, blessed pow'r, regard these mystic fires,
And far avert unlawful mad desires.
To Corybas
By thee transmuted, Ceres' body pure
Became a dragon's savage and obscure.
Avert thy anger, hear me when I pray,
And, by fix'd fate, drive fancy's fears away.
To the Sun
Propitious on these mystic labors shine,
And bless thy suppliants with a life divine.
To the Moon
Shine on these sacred rites with prosp'rous rays,
And pleas'd accept thy suppliants' mystic praise.
To the Stars
These sacred rites regard with conscious rays,
And end our works devoted to your praise.
To Latona
Hear me, O queen, and fav'rbly attend,
And to this Telete divine afford a pleasing end.
To the Daemon
O holy blessed father, hear my pray'r,
Disperse the seed of life-consuming care,
With fav'ring mind the sacred rites attend,
And grant to life a glorious blessed end.
To the Muse
Commanding queens, who lead to sacred light
The intellect refin'd from Error's night;
And to mankind each holy rite disclose,
For mystic knowledge from your nature flows....
Come, venerable, various pow'rs divine,
With fav'ring aspect on your mystics shine;
Bring glorious, ardent, lovely, fam'd desire,
And warm my bosom with your sacred fire .
To Aurora
For all the culture of our life is thine.
Come, blessed pow'r and to these rites incline:
Thy holy light increase, and unconfin'd
Diffuse its radiance on thy mystics' mind
To Themis
Honor'd by all, of form divinely bright,
Majestic virgin, wand'ring in the night.
Mankind from thee first learnt perfective rites,
And Bacchus' nightly choirs thy soul delights;
For the God's honors to disclose is thine,
And holy mysteries and rites divine.
Be present Goddess, to my pray'r inclin'd,
And bless thy Telete with fav'ring mind.
To Death
Hear me, O Death, whose empire unconfin'd
Extends to mortal tribes of ev'ry kind.
On thee the portion of our time depends,
Whose absence lengthens life, whose presence ends.
Thy sleep perpetual bursts the vivid folds
By which the soul attracting body holds:
To Mnemosyne or the Goddess of Memory
The consort I invoke of Jove divine,
Source of the holy, sweetly speaking Nine;
Free from th'oblivion of the fallen mind,
By whom the soul with intellect is join'd.
Reason's increase and thought to thee belong,
All-powerful, pleasant, vigilant and strong.
'Tis thine to waken from lethargic rest
All thoughts deposited within the breast;
And naught neglecting, vig'rous to excite
The mental eye from dark oblivion's night
Come, blessed pow'r, thy mystics' mem'ry wake
To holy rites, and Lethe's fetters break.
To Heaven
Propitious on a novel mystic shine,
And crown his wishes with a life divine.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
The Goddesses' Blessings of Nature
The earth, again, they looked upon as a kind of vessel which holds all
growing things and so gave it the name "mother;" and in like manner
the Greeks also call it Demeter, the word having been slightly changed
in the course of time; for in olden time they called her Ge Meter (Earth
Mother), to which Orpheus bears witness when he speaks of "Earth the
Mother of all, Demeter giver of wealth."
(Diodorus, I, 12)
Demeter is who gives food like a mother;
(Plato Cratylus 404c)
"The chaste heaven loves to violate the earth, and love lays hold on
earth to join in wedlock. The rain from the streaming heaven falls down
and impregnates the earth; and she brings forth her mortals the
pasturage of sheep and Demeter's sustenance; and the ripe season for
the trees is perfected by the watery union. Of all this I am the cause."
(Aeschylus, The Deipnosophists XIII, 600b)
Furthermore, the early men have given Dionysus the name of "Dimetor"
("twice-born"), reckoning it as a single and first birth when the plant is
set in the ground and begins to grow, and as a second birth when it
becomes laden with fruit and ripens its clusters, the god, therefore,
being considered as having been born once from the earth and again
from the vine. And though the writers of myths have handed down the
account of a third birth as well, at which as they say the sons of Gaia
tore to pieces the god, who was a son of Zeus and Demeter, and boiled
him, but his members were brought together again by Demeter and he
experienced a new birth as if for the first time, such accounts as this
they trace back to certain causes found in nature. For he is considered
to be the son of Zeus and Demeter, they hold, by reason of the fact that
the vine gets its growth both from the earth and from rain and so bears
as its fruit the wine which is pressed out from the clusters of grapes;
and the statement that he was torn to pieces, while yet a youth, by the
"earth-born" signifies the harvesting of the fruit by the laborers, and the
boiling of his members has been worked into a myth by reason of the
fact that most men boil the wine and then mix it, thereby improving its
natural aroma and quality. Again, the account of his members, which the
"earth-born" treated with despite, being brought together again and
restored to their former natural state, shows forth that the vine, which
has been stripped of its fruit and pruned at the yearly seasons, is
restored by the earth to the high level of fruitfulness which it had before.
For, in general, the ancient poets and writers of myths spoke of Demeter
as Ge Meter (Earth Mother). And with these stories the teachings agree
which are set forth in the Orphic poems and are introduced into their
rites, but it is not lawful to recount them in detail to the uninitiated.
(Diodorus III, 62:5-8)
And in general, the myths relate that the gods who receive the greatest
approval at the hands of human beings are those who excelled in their
benefactions by reason of their discovery of good things, namely,
Dionysus and Demeter, the former because he was the discoverer of the
most pleasing drink, the latter because she gave to the race of men the
most excellent of the dry foods.
Some writers of myths, however, relate that there was a second
Dionysus who was much earlier in time than the one we have just
mentioned. For according to them there was born of Zeus and
Persephone a Dionysus who is called by some Sabazius and whose
birth and sacrifices and honors are celebrated at night and in secret,
because of the disgrace resulting from the intercourse of the sexes.
They state also that he excelled in sagacity and was the first to attempt
the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed, this
being the reason why they also represent him as wearing a horn.
(Diodorus, Library of History IV, 3-4)
The second Dionysus, the writers of myth relate, was born to Zeus by
Persephone, though some say it was Demeter. He is represented by
them as the first man to have yoked oxen to the plough, human beings
before that time having prepared the ground by hand. Many other things
also, which are useful for agriculture, were skillfully devised by him,
whereby the masses were relieved of their great distress; and in return
for this those whom he had benefited accorded to him honors and
sacrifices like those offered to the gods, since all men were eager,
because of the magnitude of his service to them, to accord to him
immortality. And as a special symbol and token the painters and
sculptors represented him with horns, at the same time making manifest
thereby the other nature of Dionysus and also showing forth the
magnitude of the service which he had devised for the farmers by his
invention of the plough.
(Diodorus Library of History. III, 64)
The season of the year also gives us a suspicion that this gloominess is
brought about because of the disappearance from our sight of the crops
and fruits that people in days of old did not regard as gods, but as
necessary and important contributions of the gods toward the
avoidance of a savage and a bestial life. At the time of year when they
saw some of the fruit vanishing and disappearing completely from the
tree, while they themselves were sowing others in a mean and poverty-
stricken fashion still, scraping away the earth with their hands and again
replacing it, committing the seed to the ground with uncertain
expectation of their ever appearing again or coming to fruition they did
many things like persons at a funeral in mourning for their dead.
(Plutarch, Isis and Osiris 70)
Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year's
victuals laid up betimes, even that which the earth bears, Demeter's
grain.
(Hesiod Works and Days 31)
But do you at any rate, always remembering my charge, work, high-born
Perses, that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter richly
crowned may love you and fill your barn with food.
(Hesiod, Works and Days, 328-331)
Pray to Zeus of the Earth and to pure Demeter to make Demeter's holy
grain sound and heavy, when first you begin ploughing, when you hold
in your hand the end of the plough-tail and bring down your stock on
the backs of the oxen as they draw on the pole-bar by the yoke-straps.
(Hesiod, Works and Day, 465-469)
When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising, begin your harvest,
and your ploughing when they are going to set. Forty nights and days
they are hidden and appear again as the year moves round, when first
you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the plains, and of those who
live near the sea, and who inhabit rich country, the glens and dingles far
from the tossing sea,---strip to sow and strip to plough and strip to reap,
if you wish to get in all Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each
kind may grow in its season.
(Hesiod, Works and Days, 383-393)
Set your slaves to winnow Demeter's holy grain, when strong Orion first
appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy place.
(Hesiod, Works and Days,. 597-599)
But when the Pleiades and Hyades and strong Orion begin to set, then
remember to plough in season: and so the completed year will fitly pass
beneath the earth.
(Hesiod, Works and Days, 614-617)
O Demeter, guardian of this Eleusinian land, and you servants of the
goddess who attend her sanctuary, grant happiness to me and my son
Theseus, to the city of Athens and the country of Pittheus.... Now it
chanced, that I had left my house and come to offer sacrifice on behalf of
the earth's crop at this shrine, where first the fruitful corn showed its
bristling shocks above the soil. And here at the holy altar of the twain
goddesses, Demeter and her daughter, I wait, holding these sprays of
foliage, a bond that binds not, in compassion for these childless
mothers, hoary with age, and from reverence for the sacred fillets.
(Euripides, The Suppliants 1-4, 30-35)
You attendants, with tucked up robes, take the knives away from the ox;
let the ox plough; sacrifice the lazy sow. The ax should never smite the
neck that fits the yoke; let him live and often labor in the hard soil.
(Ovid, Fasti IV, 409-416)
Good Ceres is content with little, if that little be but pure.
(Ovid, Fasti IV 407-408)
Now among the rites of Ceres, those Eleusinian rites are much famed
which were in the high highest repute among the Athenians, of which
Varro offers no interpretation except with respect to corn, which Ceres
discovered, and with respect to Proserpine, whom Ceres lost, Orcus
having carried her away. And this Proserpine herself, he says, signifies
the fecundity of seeds. But as this fecundity departed at a certain
season, whilst the earth wore an aspect of sorrow through the
consequent sterility, there arose an opinion that the daughter of Ceres,
that is, fecundity itself, who was called Proserpine, from proserpere (to
creep forth, to spring), had been carried away by Orcus, and detained
among the inhabitants of the nether world; which circumstance was
celebrated with public mourning. But since the same fecundity again
returned, there arose joy because Proserpine had been given back by
Orcus, and thus these rites were instituted. Then Varro adds, that many
things are taught in the mysteries of Ceres which only refer to the
discovery of fruits.
Augustine of Hippo, City of God, Book VII, Chapter 20: Concerning the
Rites of the Eleusinian Ceres.
The Thesmophoria
On this lake it is that the Egyptians represent by night his sufferings
whose name I refrain from mentioning, and this representation they call
their Mysteries. I know well the whole course of the proceedings in these
ceremonies, but they shall not pass my lips. So too, with regard to the
mysteries of Demeter, which the Greek term "the Thesmophoria," I know
them, but I shall not mention them, except so far as may be done without
impiety. The daughters of Danaus brought these rites from Egypt, and
taught them to the Pelasgic women of the Peloponnese. Afterward,
when the inhabitants of the peninsula were driven from their homes by
the Dorians, the rites perished. Only in Arcadia, where the natives
remained and were not compelled to migrate, their observance
continued.
(Herodotus, The History II, 171)
Look about you very carefully and throw out Demeter's holy grain upon
the well-rolled threshing floor on the seventh of the mid-month.
(Hesiod Works and Days 805-807)
As the breezes sport with the chaff upon some goodly threshing floor,
when men are winnowing - while yellow Demeter blows with the wind to
sift the chaff from the grain, and the chaff-heaps grow whiter and whiter -
(Homer Iliad V, 499-502)
Heracleides of Syracuse in his work On Institutions says that in
Syracuse, on the Day of Consummation at the Thesmophoria, cakes of
sesame and honey were molded in the shape of the female pudenda,
and called throughout the whole of Sicily mylloi and carried about in
honor of the goddesses.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XIV, 646f)
When you have crossed the Asopus and are just ten furlongs from the
city you come to the ruins of Potniae. Amongst them is a grove of
Demeter and the Maid, The images at the river which flows past Potniae
... they name the goddesses. At a stated time they perform certain
customary ceremonies: in particular they throw sucking pigs into what
they call the hallsy and they say that at the same time next year those
pigs appear at Dodona.
(Pausanias IX, 8:1)
Eleusis and History
Tisamenus, the Elean, had prophesied to Pausanias and all the Greeks,
and foretold them victory if they made no attempt upon the enemy, but
stood on their defense. But Aristides sending to Delphi, the god
answered that the Athenians should overcome their enemies in case
they made supplication to Zeus and Hera of Cithaeron, Pan and the
nymphs Shragitides, and sacrificed to the heroes Androcrates, Leucon,
Pisander, Damocrates, Hypsion, Actaeon, and Polyidus; and if they
fought within their own territories in the plain of Demeter Eleusinia and
Persephone....
But the plain of Demeter Eleusinia, and the offer of victory to the
Athenians, if they fought on their own territories, recalled them again,
and transferred the war into the country of Attica. In this juncture,
Arimnestus, who commanded the Plataeans, dreamed that Zeus, the
Savior, asked him what the Greeks had resolved upon; and that he
answered, "Tomorrow, my Lord, we march our army to Eleusis, and
there give the barbarians battle according to the directions of the oracle
of Apollo."
(Plutarch Aristides 12)
The following is a tale which was told by Dicaeus, the son of Theocydes,
an Athenian, who was at this time in exile and had gained a good report
among the Medes. He declared that after the army of Xerxes had, in the
absence of the Athenians, wasted Attica, he chanced to be with
Demaratus, the Lacedaemonian in the Thriasian plain, and that while
there, he saw a cloud of dust advancing from Eleusis, such as a host of
thirty thousand men might raise. As he and his companion were
wondering who the men, from whom the dust arose, could possibly be,
a sound of voices reached his ear, and he thought that he recognized
the mystic hymn to Bacchus, Now Demaratus was unacquainted with
the rites of Eleusis, and so he inquired of Dicaeus what the voices were
saying. Dicaeus made answer -
O Demaratus! beyond a doubt some mighty calamity is about to befall
the king's army! For it is manifest, inasmuch as Attica is deserted by its
inhabitants, that the sound which we have heard is an unearthly one
and is now upon its way from Eleusis to aid the Athenians and their
confederates. If it descends upon the Peloponnese, danger will threaten
the king himself and his land army - if it moves towards the ships at
Salamis, 'twill go hard but the king's fleet there suffers destruction.
Every year the Athenians celebrate this feast to the Mother and the
Daughter; and all who wish, whether they be Athenians or any other
Greeks, are initiated. The sound thou hearest is the Bacchic song, which
is wont to be sung at that festival.
"Hush now," rejoined the other; "and see thou tell no man of this matter.
For if thy words be brought to the king's ear, thou wilt assuredly lose thy
head because of them; neither I nor any man living can save thee. Hold
thy peace therefore. The gods will see to the king's army." Thus
Demaratus counseled him; and they looked, and saw the dust, from
which the sound arose, become a cloud, and the cloud rise up into the
air and sail away to Salamis, making for the station of the Grecian fleet.
Then they knew it was the fleet of Xerxes which would suffer
destruction. Such was the tale told by Dicaeus the son of Theocydes;
and he appealed for its truth to Demaratus and other eye-witnesses.
(Herodotus VIII, 65)
The Persians, as soon as they were put to flight by the Lacedaemonians,
ran hastily away, without preserving any order, and took refuge in their
own camp, within the wooden defense which they had raised in the
Theban territory. It is a marvel to me how it came to pass, that although
the battle was fought quite close to the grove of Demeter, yet not a
single Persian appears to have died on the sacred soil, nor even to have
set foot upon it, while round about the precinct, in the unconsecrated
ground, great numbers perished. I imagine - if it is lawful, in matters
which concern the gods, to imagine anything - that the goddess herself
kept them out, because they had burnt her dwelling at Eleusis. Such,
then, was the issue of this battle.
(Herodotus IX, 65)
It is reported that, in the middle of the fight, a great flame rose into the air
above the city of Eleusis, and that sounds and voices were heard
through all the Thriasian plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number
of men accompanying and escorting the mystic Iacchus, and that a mist
seemed to form and rise from the place from whence the sounds came,
and, passing forward, fell upon the galleys. Others believed that they
saw apparitions, in the shape of armed men, reaching out their hands
from the island of Aegina before Grecian galleys; and supposed they
were the Aeacidae, whom they had invoked to their aid before the battle.
The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain of
the galley, who cut down its ensign, and dedicated it to Apollo the Laurel-
crowned. And as the Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and
could bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one another, the
Greeks thus equaled them in strength and fought with them till the
evening forced them back, and obtained, as says Simonides, that noble
and famous victory, than which neither amongst the Greek nor
barbarians was ever known more glorious exploit on the seas; by the
joint valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom and
sagacity of Themistocles.
(Plutarch Themistocles 15)
The resentment felt upon it was heightened by the time it happened in,
for the garrison was brought in on the twentieth of the month of
Boedromion just at the time of the great festival, when they carry forth
Iacchus with solemn pomp from the city to Eleusis; so that the solemnity
being disturbed, many began to call to mind instances, both ancient and
modern, of divine interventions and intimations. For in old time, upon the
occasions of their happiest successes, the presence of the shapes and
voices of the mystic ceremonies had been vouchsafed to them, striking
terror and amazement into their enemies; but now, at the very season of
their celebration, the gods themselves stood witnesses of the saddest
oppressions of Greece, the most holy time being profaned, and their
greatest jubilee made the unlucky date of their most extreme calamity....
While a candidate for initiation was washing a young pig in the haven of
Cantharus, a shark seized him, bit off all his lower parts up to the belly
and devoured them, by which the god gave them manifestly to
understand, that having lost the lower town and seacoast, they should
keep only the upper city.
(Plutarch, Life of Phocion 28)
For most of the Hellenic cities, in memory of our ancient services, send
us each year the first-fruits of the harvest, and those who neglect to do
so have often been admonished by the Pythian priestess to pay us our
due portion of their crops and to observe in relation to our city the
customs of their fathers.
(Panegyricus 31)
For the highest and dearest of the gods are come to our city. Hither,
indeed, the time has brought together Demeter and Demetrius. She
comes to celebrate the solemn mysteries of the Daughter.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists VI, 253d)
Violators
And since they knew that in matters pertaining to the gods the city
would be most enraged if any man should be shown to be violating the
Mysteries
(Isocrates The Team of Horses 6)
If I see some initiate of the Mysteries giving away the secret ritual and
going through the dances in public, and I get angry and show him up,
are you going to consider me the wrongdoer?
(Lucian The Fisherman 33)
It is a great blessing for you that you have not seen the rites of the dread
goddess, or else you would have spewed up their story too.
(Callimachus, Aetia 75)
But of what he is doing a man might be ignorant, as for instance people
say, 'It slipped out of their mouths as they were speaking,' or 'They did
not know it was a secret,' as Aeschylus said of the mysteries.
(Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics III, I, 17)
The Assembly had met to give audience to Nicias, Lamachus, and
Alcibiades, the generals about to leave with the Sicilian expedition - in
fact, Lamachus' flag-ship was already lying off-shore - when suddenly
Pythonicus rose before the people and cried: 'Countrymen, you are
sending forth this mighty host in all its array upon a perilous enterprise.
Yet your commander, Alcibiades, has been holding celebrations of the
mysteries in a private house, and others with him; I will prove it, Grant
immunity to him whom I indicate, and a non-initiate, a slave belonging to
someone here present, shall describe the Mysteries to you. You can
punish me as you will, if that is not the truth.'
(Andocides On the Mysteries 11-12)
"Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia, lays information
that Alcibiades, the son of Clinias of the township of the Scambonidae,
has committed a crime against the goddess Demeter and Persephone,
by representing in derision the holy mysteries, and showing them to his
companions in his own house. Where, being habited in such robes as
are used by the chief priest, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Theodorus,
of the township of Phegaea, the herald; and saluted the rest of his
company as Initiates and Novices, all which was done contrary to the
laws and institutions of the Eulmolpidae, and the heralds and priests of
the temple at Eleusis."
He was condemned as contumacious upon his not appearing, his
property confiscated, and it was decreed that all the priests and
priestesses should solemnly curse him. But one of them, Theano, the
daughter of Menon, of the township of Agraule, is said to have opposed
that part of the decree, saying that her holy office obliged her to make
prayers, but not execrations.
(Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades 34)
It is worth your while, men of Athens, to consider this also - that you
punished Archias, who had been hierophant, when he was convicted in
court of impiety and of offering sacrifice contrary to the rites handed
down by our fathers. Among the charges brought against him was, that
at the feast of the harvest he sacrificed on the altar in the court at Eleusis
a victim brought by the courtesan Sinope, although it was not lawful to
offer victims on that day, and the sacrifice was not his to perform, but
the priestess'! It is, then, a monstrous thing that a man who was of the
race of the Eumolpidae, born of honorable ancestors and a citizen of
Athens, should be punished for having transgressed one of your
established customs; and the pleadings of his relatives and friends did
not save him, nor the public services which he and his ancestors had
rendered to the city; no, nor yet his office of hierophant; but you
punished him, because he was judged to be guilty.
(Demosthenes Against Neaera 116-117)
And at the celebration of the Mysteries, the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes,
because of our hatred of the Persians, give solemn warning to the other
barbarians also, even as to men guilty of murder, that they are forever
banned from the sacred rites.
(Isocrates, Panegyricus 157)
On the road from Athens to Eleusis, which the Athenians called the
Sacred Way, there is the tomb of Anthemocritus. He was the victim of a
most foul crime perpetuated by the Megarians; for when he came as a
herald to forbid them to encroach on the sacred land, they slew him. And
the wrath of the two goddesses abides upon them for that deed to this
day; for they were the only Greek people whom even the Emperor
Hadrian could not make to thrive.
(Pausanias I, 36:3)
Now the Athenians had undertaken the war against Philip for no
sufficient reason, since they retained nothing of their ancient greatness
except their spirit. Two young men from Acarnania, during the
celebration of the mysteries at Eleusis, though not initiated, had entered
the temple of Ceres, ignorant that they were committing sacrilege, and
merely following the crowd. Their words easily betrayed them, since
they asked foolish questions, and though it was clear that they had
come in openly and by mistake they were put to death as if they had
committed some heinous crime. The Acarnanians reported this revolting
and unfriendly act to Philip, and prevailed upon him to send them
Macedonian aid and permit them to attack Athens.
(Livy XXI, xiv, 6-10)
There is a sure reward for trusty silence, too. I will forbid the man who
has divulged the sacred rites of mystic Ceres, to abide beneath the same
roof or to unmoor with me the fragile bark.
(Horace Odes III, ii)
Heracles and the Lesser Mysteries
Demeter instituted the Lesser Mysteries in honor of Heracles, that she
might purify him of the guilt he had incurred in the slaughter of the
Centaurs.
(Diodorus Siculus, IV, 14)
And assuming that it would be to his advantage for the accomplishment
of this labor, he went to Athens and took part in the Eleusinian
Mysteries, Musaeus, the son of Orpheus, being at that time in charge of
the initiatory rite.
(Diodorus Siculus IV, 25)
Kerenyi translates the fragments on a papyrus from an oration of the
time of Hadrian
"I was initiated long ago (or: elsewhere). Lock up Eleusis, (Hierophant,)
and put the fire out, Dadouchos. Deny me the holy night! I have already
been initiated into more authentic mysteries.... (I have beheld) the fire,
whence (...and) I have seen the Kore.
(Kerenyi Eleusis p. 83-84)
Yet it is more credible, as others write, that there were, before, frequent
interviews between them, and that it was by the means of Theseus that
Hercules was initiated at Eleusis, and purified before initiation, upon
account of several rash actions of his former life.
(Plutarch, Theseus 30)
When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus
at Eleusis, wishing to be initiated. However it was not then lawful for
foreigners to be initiated: since he proposed to be initiated as the
adoptive son of Pylius. But not being able to see the mysteries because
he had not been cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs, he was
cleansed by Eumolpus and then initiated.
(Apollodorus, The Library II, v, 12)
Heracles: ... After my return at length from the soulless den of Hades and
the maiden queen of hell, I will not neglect to greet first of all the gods
beneath my roof.
Amphitryon: Why, did you in very deed go to the house of Hades, my
son?
Heracles: Aye, and brought to the light that three-headed monster.
Amphitryon: Did you worst him fight, or receive him from the goddess?
Heracles: In fair fight; for I had been lucky enough to witness the rites of
the initiated.
Amphitryon: Is the monster really lodged in the house of Eurystheus?
Heracles: The grove of Demeter and the city of Hermione are his prison.
(Euripides, Herakles Mad, 602-614)
I envy you, Callicles, for having been initiated into the great mysteries
before you were initiated into the lesser. I thought that this was not
allowable.
(Plato Gorgias 497)
The Greater Mysteries were Demeter's and the Lesser Persephone's.
(The scholiast of Aristophanes :Mylonas Eleusis p. 240)
The goddess Demeter is coming to celebrate her daughter's Mysteries.
(A fragment of Douris, the Samian Mylonas Eleusis p. 239-240)
The Greater Mysteries:
Announcement and Meeting at Athens
And when your heralds carried the proclamation of the sacred truce of
the Mysteries, the Phocians alone in all Hellas refused to recognize the
truce.
(Aeschines On the Embassy 133)
There is also an altar of Zephyr, and a sanctuary of Demeter and her
daughter: along with them are worshipped Athena and Poseidon. They
say that in this place Phytalus received Demeter in his house, and that
for so doing the goddess gave him the figtree. This story is attested by
the inscription on the grave of Phytalus: - Here the lordly hero Phytalus
once received the august Demeter, when she first revealed the autumnal
fruit which the race of mortals names the sacred fig; since when the race
of Phytalus hath received honors that wax not old.
(Pausanias I, 37:1-2)
The King in the first place superintends the Mysteries, in conjunction
with the Superintendents of Mysteries. The latter are elected in the
assembly by open vote, two from the general body of Athenians, one
from the Eumolpidae, and one from the Ceryces.
(Artistotle, The Athenian Constitution, 57:1)
And Cleocritus, the herald of the initiated, a man with a very fine voice,
obtained silence and said:
(Xenophon, Hellenica II, iv, 20)
All evil thoughts and profane be still: far hence, far hence from our
choirs depart,
Who knows not well what the Mystics tell, or is not holy and pure of
heart.
I charge them once, I charge them twice, charge them thrice, that they
draw not nigh To the sacred dance of the Mystic choir.
(Aristophanes The Frogs 346-347, 361-362)
When he was in Greece, he durst not attend the celebration of the
Eleusinian Mysteries, at the initiation of which, impious and wicked
persons are warned by the voice of the herald from approaching the
rites.
(Suetonius Nero XXXIV)
Ocean's unpolluted tide
(Aeschylus, The Persians, 577)
Iphigenia: My purpose is to cleanse them first by purification.
Thoas: In fresh spring water or salt sea-spray?
Iphigenia: The sea washes away from man all that is ill.
Thoas: True, they would then be holier victims for the goddess.
(Euripides, Iphigenia Among the Tauri 1191-1194)
Trygaeus: And is it so? And must I die indeed?
Hermes: You must indeed.
Trygaeus: O then, I prithee, lend me half a crown. I'll buy a pig, and get
initiated first.
(Aristophanes' The Peace 372-374)
But if there is an absolute necessity for their mention, a chosen few
might hear them in a mystery, and they should sacrifice not a common
(Eleusinian) pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim; and then the
number of the hearers will be very few indeed.
(Plato, Republic II, 378)
For instance, the Athenians professedly assign to Aesculapius a share
in the mysteries, and give to the day on which they do so the name of
Epidauria; and they date their worship of Aesculapius as a god from the
time when this practice was instituted.
(Pausanias, II, 26:8)
He (Archon) also superintends sacred processions, both that in honor
of Asclepius, when the initiated keep house, and that of the great
Dionysia.
(Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 56:4)
Arriving at Pireaus about the season of the Mysteries, when Athens is
more crowded than any place in Greece, he lost no time in going up to
the city from his ship. As he went he met many of the learned making
their way down to Piraeus. Some were basking naked---the autumn is
fine and sunny at Athens---others were deep in discussions upon a text,
some practicing recitations, some disputing. None of them passed him
by, but all guessing that this was Apollonius, turned back with him and
hailed him with enthusiasm. A party of ten youths fell in with him, who
stretched out their hands towards the Acropolis and swore 'by yonder
Athena, they were just setting out for Piraeus to take ship for Ionia and
find him there.' He welcomed them, and said he congratulated them on
their desire for learning.
It was the day of the Epidauria; and at the Epidauria the Athenian usage,
after the Preface and the sacrifice, is to initiate aspirants for a second
sacrifice. This tradition represents Asclepius' experience, because he
came from Epidaurus, late in the Mysteries, and they initiated him.
Heedless of the initiation service, the multitude hung round Apollonius,
more concerned with this than to secure admission to the Elect. He said
he would be with them anon, and encouraged them to attend the service
for the meanwhile, as he himself intended to be initiated. But the
hierophant refused him access to the holy things, saying that he would
never admit a charlatan, nor open Eleusis to a man of impure theology.
Apollonius was equal to himself on this occasion, and said, 'You have
not yet mentioned the greatest charge that might be brought against me,
which is that I know more than you about this rite, although I came to
you as to a man better skilled than myself.' The bystanders applauded
this vigorous and characteristic rebuke; and the hierophant, seeing that
the excommunication was unpopular, changed his tune and said, 'You
shall be admitted, for you seem to be a person of doctrine.' Apollonius
answered, 'I will be admitted at another time; the ceremony will be
performed by So-and-so'---prophetically naming the next occupant of
the hierophancy, who succeeded to his sacred office four years later.
(Philostratus In Honor of Apollonius of Tyana IV, 17-18)
The Procession to Eleusis and Dancing
Chorus: O Iacchus! O Iacchus! O Iacchus!
Xanthias: I have it, master: 'tis those blessed Mystics,...
Chorus: O Iacchus! power excelling, here in stately temples dwelling.
O Iacchus! O Iacchus!
Come to tread this verdant level,
Come to dance in mystic revel,
Come whilst round thy forehead hurtles
Many a wreath of fruitful myrtles,
Come with wild and saucy paces
Mingling in our joyous dance,
Pure and holy, which embraces all the charms of all the Graces,
When the mystic choirs advance.
Xanthias: Holy and sacred queen, Demeter' s daughter,
O, what a jolly whiff of pork breathed o'er me!
Dionysus: Hist! and perchance you'll get some tripe yourself.
Chorus: Come, arise, from sleep waking, come the fiery torches shaking,
O Iacchus! 0 Iacchus!
Morning Star that shinest nightly.
Lo, the mead is blazing brightly,
Age forgets its years and sadness,
Aged knees curvet for gladness,
Lift thy flashing torches o'er us,
Marshall all thy blameless train,
Lead, O lead the way before us; lead the lovely youthful Chorus
To thy marshy flowery plain.
All evil thoughts and profane be still: far hence, far hence from our
choirs depart,
Who knows not well what the Mystics tell, or is not holy and pure of
heart;
Who ne'er has the noble revelry learned, or danced the dance of the
Muses high;
Or shared in the Bacchic rites which old bull-eating Cratinus's words
supply;
Who vulgar coarse buffoonery loves, though all untimely the jests they
make;
Or lives not easy and kind with all, or kindling faction forbears to slake,
But fan the fire, from a base desire some pitiful gain for himself to reap;
Or takes, in office, his gifts and bribes, while the city is tossed on the
stormy deep;
Who foe or fleet to the foe betrays; or, a vile Thorycion, ships away
Forbidden stores from Aegina's shores, to Epidaurus across the Bay
Transmitting oar-pads and sails and tar, that curst collector of five per
cents;
The knave who tries to procure supplies for the enemy's armaments;
The cyclian singer who dares befoul the Lady Hecate's wayside shrine;
The public speaker who once lampooned in our Bacchic feasts would,
with heart malign,
Keep nibbling away the Comedian's pay; - to these I utter my warning
cry,
I charge them once, I charge them twice, I charge them thrice, that they
draw not nigh
To the sacred dance of the Mystic choir. But you, my comrades, awake
the song,
The night-long revels of joy and mirth which ever of right to our feast
belong.
Advance, true hearts, advance!
On to the gladsome powers,
On to the sward, with flowers
Embosomed bright!
March on with jest, and jeer, and dance,
Full well ye've supped tonight.
March, chanting loud your lays,
Your hearts and voices raising,
The Savior goddess praising
Who vows she'll still
Our city save to endless days,
Whate'er Thorycion's will.
Break off the measure, and change the time; and now with chanting and
hymns adorn
Demeter, goddess mighty and high, the harvest-queen, the giver of corn.
O Lady, over our rites presiding,
Preserve and succor thy coral throng,
And grant us all, in thy help confiding,
To dance and revel the whole day long;
And much in earnest, and much in jest,
Worthy thy feast, may we speak therein.
And when we have bantered and laughed our best,
The victor's wreath be it ours to win.
Call we now the youthful god, call him hither without delay,
Him who travels amongst his chorus, dancing along on the Sacred Way.
O, come with the joy of thy festival song,
O, come to the goddess, O, mix with our throng
Untired, though the journey be never so long.
O Lord of the frolic and dance, :
Iacchus, beside me advance!
For fun, and for cheapness, our dress thou hast rent,
Through thee we may dance to the top of our bent,
Reviling, and jeering, and none will resent.
O Lord of the frolic and dance,
Iacchus, beside me advance!
A sweet pretty girl I observed in the show,
Her robe had been torn in the scuffle, and lo,
There peeped through the tatters a bosom of snow.
O Lord of the frolic and dance,
Iacchus, beside me advance!...
Chorus: Now wheel your sacred dance through the glade with flowers
bedight,
All ye who are partakers of the holy festal rite;
And I will with the women and the holy maidens go
Where they keep the nightly vigil, an auspicious light to show.
Now haste we to the roses,
And the meadows full of posies,
Now haste we to the meadow
In our own old way,
In choral dances blending,
In dances never ending,
Which only for the holy
The Destinies array.
O, happy mystic chorus,
The blessed sunshine o'er us
On us alone is smiling,
In its soft sweet light:
On us who strove forever
With holy, pure endeavor
Alike by friend and stranger
To guide our steps aright.
(Aristophanes The Frogs 317-318, 323-413, 440-459)
What are called the Rhiti only resemble rivers in that they flow, for their
water is salt. One might suppose that they flow under ground from the
Chalcidian Euripus, falling into a lower sea. The Rhiti are said to be
sacred to the Maid and Demeter; and the priests alone are allowed to
catch the fish in them. The Rhiti were of old, as I am apprised, the
boundary between the Eleusinians and the rest of the Athenians.
(Pausanias, I, 38:1)
At the great assembly of the Eleusinia and at the festival of Poseidon, in
full sight of the whole Greek world, she removed only her cloak and let
down her long hair before stepping into the water. (Athenaeus, The
Deipnosophists XIII, 591a)
Nor did the son of Mene, Musaeus, master of the Graces, cause Antiope
to go without her meed of honor. And she, beside Eleusis's strand,
expounded to the initiates the loud, sacred voice of mystic oracles, as
she duly escorted the priest through the Rarian plain to honor Demeter.
And she is known even in Hades.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, 597d)
Chorus: Daughter of Demeter, goddess of highways, queen as thou art
of haunting powers of darkness,... I blush for that god of song, if this
stranger is to witness the torch-dance, that heralds in the twentieth
dawn, around Callichorus' fair springs, a sleepless rotary in midnight
revels, what time the star-lit firmament of Zeus, the moon, and Nereus'
fifty daughters, that trip it lightly o'er the sea and the eternal rivers' tides,
join the dance in honor of the maiden with the crown of gold and her
majestic mother;
(Euripides, Ion, 1048-1049, 1079-1086)
)
Situation at Eleusis
Kerenyi analyzes the etymology of Eleusis. The place had been called
Saisari, meaning "the grinning one" after an Eleusinian heroine
probably connected to the underworld goddess. Eleusis means the
"place of happy arrival" and is related to Elysion, the realm of the
blessed. (Kerenyi Eleusis p. 23)
Celeae is distant just about five furlongs from the city. They celebrate
the mysteries of Demeter there every third year, not annually. The high-
priest of the mysteries is not appointed for life, but at each celebration a
new priest is elected, who may, if he chooses, take a wife . In these
respects their practice differs from that observed at Eleusis; but the
actual mysteries are an imitation of the Eleusinian mysteries, indeed the
Phliasians themselves admit that they imitate the rites of Eleusis.
(Pausanias, II, 14:1)
The temple at Eleusis ... should be under the superintendence of the
Ceryces and the Eumolpidae, according to primitive custom.
(Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 39:2)
They say that this Eumolpus came from Thrace, and that he was a son
of Poseidon and Chione, who is said to have been a daughter of the
North Wind and Orithyia. Homer says nothing of the lineage of
Eumolpus, but in his verses calls him 'manly.' In a battle between the
Eleusinians and the Athenians, there fell Erechtheus, king of Athens,
and Immaradus, son of Eumolpus; and peace was made on these terms:
the Eleusinians were to perform the mysteries by themselves, but were
in all other respects to be subject to the Athenians. The sacred rites of
the two goddesses were celebrated by Eumolpus and he daughters of
Celeus: Pamphos and Homer agree in calling these damsels Diogenia,
Pammerope, and Saesara. On Eumolpus' death, Ceryx, the younger of
his sons, was left. But the Ceryces themselves say that Ceryx was a son
of Hermes by Aglaurus, daughter of Cecrops, and not a son of
Eumolpus.
(Pausanias, I, 38:3)
What glory remains to Eleusis, if we are to be ashamed of Eumolpus,
who, a migrant from Thrace, initiated and still initiates the Greeks into the
mysteries?
(Plutarch, On Exile 607b)
In Thebes, for example, a certain Alcaeus has a statue which they say is
a Heracles and was formerly so called; and among the Athenians there
is an image of a boy who was an initiate in the mysteries at Eleusis and it
bears no inscription; he, too, they say, is a Heracles.
(Dio Chrysostom XXXI, 92)
Calliades opposed his admission; but the Ceryces voted in favor of the
law which they have, whereby a father can introduce his son, if he
swears that it is his own son whom he is introducing.
(Andocides, On the Mysteries 127)
Aeschylus, too, besides inventing that comeliness and dignity of dress
which Hierophants and Dadouchoi emulate, when they put on their
vestments
(Athenaeus 21e)
The Council and the People have decreed: Democrates, son of Sunieus
of Colonus, proposed the motion: Whereas, the chosen stewards of the
mysteries for the year of the archon Diocles have offered to Demeter and
Kore and the other gods, as is customary, for the Council and the
People and the children and wives, all the offerings which are
appropriately to be made during the year, and also the preliminary
offering...; and have further provided, at their own cost, the conveyance
for the use of the sanctuaries, and have voluntarily turned over to the
Council the amount set aside for their use as the expense of the
conveyances, and have also provided for the procession to the sea and
for the reception of Iacchos in Eleusis, and similarly for the mysteries
before Agra, which took place twice in this year, during the celebration
of the Eleusinian games; and have moreover sent a steer as sacrifice for
the Eleusinian games, giving the six hundred and fifty members of the
Council their share of the flesh; and beyond all this have delivered the
accounts to the office of the treasury and the metroion (the Athenian
state archives in the temple of Cybele), and have rendered their account
before the court, in accordance with the laws; and out of their own
funds have provided for everything else connected with the sacrifice, in
order to show themselves agreeably disposed toward the Council and
the People, thus setting an example for those who are ready to sacrifice
themselves for the public welfare and showing that they can count upon
the proper gratitude, by good fortune.
Let the Council decree that the presiding offices who are to preside at
the next assembly of the people shall place this matter on the agenda
and present the decree of the Council to the People, that the Council has
agreed to honor the stewards of the mysteries in the year of the archon
Diocles, Thrasykles (son of ...) of Auridae, and Nicetes, son of Nicetes of
Pergase, and to crown them both with myrtle because of their piety
toward the gods and their unselfishness toward the council and the
People; and to set before them other popular honors in the future, if they
show themselves to be worthy of them; finally, that the secretary for the
Prytany is to have this decree inscribed upon two columns of stone and
set them up, one in the court of the sanctuary at Eleusis, the other on the
Acropolis. For the (cost of) inscribing ...
(Grant, F. C. Hellenistic Religions p. 15-16)
The Eleusinians have a temple of Triptolemus, and another of Artemis of
the Portal and of Father Poseidon, and a well called Callichorum, where
the Eleusinian women first danced and sang in honor of the goddess.
They say that the Rarian plain was the first to be sown and the first to
bear crops, and therefore it is their custom to take the sacrificial barley
and to make the cakes for the sacrifices out of its produce. Here is
shown what is called the threshing floor of Triptolemus and the altar.
But my dream forbade me to describe what is within the wall of the
sanctuary; and surely it is clear that the uninitiated may not lawfully hear
of that from the sight of which they are debarred. The hero Eleusis, after
whom they name the city, is said by some to be a son of Hermes and of
Daira, daughter of Ocean; but others have made him the son of Ogygus.
(Pausanias I, 40:5)
Here, too, is what is called the hall (megaron) of Demeter: they say it was
made by King Car.
(Pausanias I, 40:15)
The chapel at Eleusis, where the mysteries were celebrated, was begun
by Coroebus, who erected the pillars that stand upon the floor or
pavement, and joined them to the architraves; and after his death
Metagenes of Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of columns;
(Plutarch, Life of Pericles 13)
Fasting and Drinking the Kykeon
So, to those that approach the Holy Celebrations of the Mysteries, there
are appointed purifications and the laying aside of the garments worn
before,
(Plotinus, First Ennead VI, 7)
fasting on the sacred days of the Rarian Demeter.
(Callimachus, Aetia 10)
But most theologians say that the name of Persephone is derived from
nourishing a ringdove; for the ringdove is sacred to this Goddess.
Hence, also the priests of Maia dedicate to her a ringdove. And Maia is
the same with Persephone, as being obstetric, and a nurse. For this
Goddess is terrestrial, and so likewise is Demeter. To this Goddess, also
a cock is consecrated; and on this account those that are initiated in her
mysteries abstain from domestic birds. In the Eleusinian mysteries,
likewise, the initiated are ordered to abstain from domestic birds, from
fishes and beans, pomegranates and apples, which fruits are as equally
defiling to the touch, as a woman recently delivered, and a dead body
But whoever is acquainted with the nature of divinely-luminous
appearances knows also on what account it is requisite to abstain from
all birds, and especially for him who hastens to be liberated from
terrestrial concerns, and to be established with the celestial Gods.
(Porphyry On Abstinence From Animal Food IV, 16)
As she was about to pass within the lowly dwelling, she plucked a
smooth, a slumberous poppy that grew on the waste ground; and as
she plucked, 'tis said she tasted it forgetfully, and so unwitting stayed
her long hunger. Hence, because she broke her fast at nightfall, the
initiates time their meal by the appearance of the stars.
(Ovid, Fasti IV ca. 530)
the slow rivers of dark night,
the sluggish gift of sleep
Pindar
Initiation: Dromena (Things Acted)
to those entering the temenos (sacred precinct) of Eleusis the program
was stated, not to advance inside the adytum.
(Proclus, Mylonas Eleusis p. 261)
Why is the priestess of Demeter carried off, unless Demeter herself had
suffered the same sort of thing?
(Tertullian, To the Nations 30)
In the Mysteries of Demeter all night long with torches kindled they seek
for Persephone and when she is found, the whole ritual closes with
thanksgiving and the tossing of torches.
(Lactantius, Mylonas Eleusis p. 215)
There the goddess kindled two pine-trees to serve her as a light; hence
to this day a torch is given out at the rites of Ceres.
(Ovid, Fasti IV, 492-494)
The Hierophant is in the habit of sounding the so-called gong when
Kore is being invoked by name.
(Apollodorus, Fragment 36)
Just as persons who are being initiated into the Mysteries throng
together at the outset amid tumult and shouting, and jostle against one
another but when the holy rites are being performed and disclosed the
people are immediately attentive in awe and silence, so too at the
beginning of philosophy: about its portals also you will see great tumult
and talking and boldness, as some boorishly and violently try to jostle
their way towards the repute it bestows; but he who has succeeded in
getting inside, and has seen a great light, as though a shrine were
opened, adopts another bearing of silence and amazement, and
"humble and orderly attends upon" reason as upon a god.
(Plutarch, Progress in Virtue 81e)
Aristeides describes the range of emotions experienced.
Within this hall, the mystics were made to experience the most
bloodcurdling sensations of horror and the most enthusiastic ecstasy of
joy.
But their procedure is like Bacchic frenzy - like the leap of a man mad, or
possessed - the attainment of a goal without running the race, a passing
beyond reason without the previous exercise of reasoning. For the
sacred matter (contemplation) is not like attention belonging to
knowledge, or an outlet of mind, nor is it like one thing in one place and
another in another. On the contrary - to compare small and greater - it is
like Aristotle's view that men being initiated have not a lesson to learn,
but an experience to undergo and a condition into which they must be
brought, while they are becoming fit (for revelation).
(Synesius Dio 1133)
Entering now into the secret dome, he is filled with horror and
astonishment. He is seized with loneliness and total perplexity; he is
unable to move a step forward, and at a loss to find the entrance to the
way that leads to where he aspires to, till the prophet or conductor lays
open the anteroom of the Temple.
(Themistius Orat. in Patrem. 50)
a rude and fearful march through night and darkness.
(Stobaeus, Casavis The Greek Origins of Freemasonry p. 111)
In the most sacred Mysteries before the scene of the mystic visions,
there is terror infused over the minds of the initiated.
(Proclus, Casavis The Greek Origins of Freemasonryp. 111)
For, in your mysteries, what the boy who attends the altar accomplishes,
by performing accurately what he is commanded to do, in order to
render the gods propitious to all those who have been initiated, as far as
to muesis, that, in nations and cities, priests are able to effect, by
sacrificing for all the people, and through piety inducing the Gods to be
attentive to the welfare of those that belong to them.
(Porphyry, On Abstinence From Animal Food )
Thus death and initiation closely correspond; even the words (teleutan
and teleisthai) correspond, and so do the things. At first there are
wanderings, and toilsome running about in circles and journeys through
the dark over uncertain roads and culs de sac ; then, just before the end,
there are all kinds of terrors, with shivering, trembling, sweating, and
utter amazement. After this, a strange and wonderful light meets the
wanderer; he is admitted into clean and verdant meadows, where he
discerns gentle voices, and choric dances, and the majesty of holy
sounds and sacred visions. Here the now fully initiated is free, and
walks at liberty like a crowned and dedicated victim, joining in the
revelry; he is the companion of pure and holy men, and looks down
upon the uninitiated and unpurified crowd here below in the mud and
fog, trampling itself down and crowded together, though of death
remaining still sunk in its evils, unable to believe in the blessings that lie
beyond. That the wedding and close union of the soul with the body is a
thing really contrary to nature may clearly be seen from all this.
(The following passage from Plutarch's essay On the Soul survives
today only because it was quoted by Stobaeus (Florigelium 120). Grant,
F. C. Hellenistic Religions p. 148)
Revelation of the Mystic Grain
And the formula of the Eleusinian mysteries is as follows: "I fasted, I
drank the draught (kykeon ); I took from the chest; having done my task,
I placed in the basket, and from the basket into the chest.
(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks II, 18)
As the basket comes, greet it, you women, saying "Demeter, greatly hail!
Lady of much bounty, of many measures of corn." As the basket comes,
from the ground you shall see it, you uninitiated, and gaze not from the
roof or from aloft - child nor wife nor maid that has shed her hair - neither
then nor when we spit from parched mouths fasting.
(Callimachus, To Demeter 1-5)
Moreover Polemon, in the treatise On the Sacred Fleece, says: "After
these preliminaries (the priest) proceeds to the celebration of the mystic
rites; he takes out the contents of the shrine and distributes them to all
who have brought round their tray (kernos ). The latter is an earthenware
vessel, holding within it a large number of small cups cemented
together, and in them are sage, white poppy-seeds, grains of wheat and
barley, peas, vetches, okra-seeds, lentils, beans, rice-wheat, oats,
compressed fruit, honey, oil, wine, milk, and sheep's wool unwashed
The man who carries it, resembling the bearer of the sacred winnowing-
fan, tastes these articles."
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XI, 478d)
I cannot say with certainty whether he was the first who sowed beans
(kuamoi ), or whether they made up the name of a bean-hero because
the discovery of beans cannot be attributed to Demeter. Any one who
has seen the mysteries at Eleusis, or has read what are called the works
of Orpheus, knows what I mean.
(Pausanias, I, 37:3)
In regard to the dance in which kerna were carried, I know that they
carried lights or small hearths on their heads.
(Pollux IV, 103)
The Phrygians, however assert, he says, that he is likewise "a green ear
of corn reaped." And after the Phrygians, the Athenians, while initiating
people into the Eleusinian rites, likewise display to those who are being
admitted to the highest grade at these mysteries, the might, and
marvelous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the
highest mystic truths: (I allude to) an ear of corn in silence reaped. But
this ear of corn is also (considered) among the Athenians to constitute
the perfect enormous illumination (that has descended) from the
unportrayable one, just as the Hierophant himself (declares); not,
indeed, emasculated like Attis, but made a eunuch by means of hemlock,
and despising all carnal generation. (Now) by night in Eleusis, beneath a
huge fire, (the Celebrant,) enacting the great and secret mysteries,
vociferates and cries aloud, saying, "August Brimo has brought forth a
consecrated son, Brimus;" that is, a potent (mother has been delivered
of) a potent child. But revered, he says, is the generation that is spiritual,
heavenly, from above, and potent is he that is so born. For the mystery
is called "Eleusin" and "Anactorium." "Eleusin," because, he says, we
who are spiritual come flowing down from Adam above; for the word
"eleusesthai" is, he says, of the same import with the expression "to
come." But "Anactorium" is of the same import with the expression "to
ascend upward." This, he says, is what they affirm who have been
initiated in the mysteries of the Eleusinians. It is, however, a regulation of
law, that those who have been admitted into the lesser should again be
initiated into the Great Mysteries. For greater destinies obtain greater
portions. But the inferior mysteries, he says are those of Proserpine
below; in regard of which mysteries, and the path which leads there,
which is wide and spacious, and conducts those that are perishing to
Proserpine, the poet likewise says: -
"But under her a fearful path extends,
Hollow, miry, yet best guide to
Highly-honored Aphrodite's lovely grove."
These, he says, are the inferior mysteries those appertaining to carnal
generation. Now, those men who are initiated into these inferior
(mysteries) ought to pause, and (then) be admitted into the great (and)
heavenly (ones). For they, he says, who obtain their shares (in this
mystery), receive greater portions. For this, he says, is the gate of
heaven; and this a house of God, where the Good Deity dwells alone.
And into this (gate), he says, no unclean person shall enter, nor one that
is natural or carnal; but it is reserved for the spiritual only.
(Hippolytus The Refutation of All Heresies V, 3)
According to Himerios, a sophist who lived in Athens when Julian was
Emperor of Rome (361-363):
an old law ordered the initiates to take with them landfuls of agricultural
produce which were the badges of a civilized life.
Now Semus of Delos in his work On Paeans says: "The handfuls of
barley, taken separately, they called amalai; but when these are
gathered together and many are made into a single bundle people called
them ouloi or iouloi; hence also they called Demeter sometimes Chloe,
sometimes Ioulo. Hence from Demeter's gifts they call not only the fruit,
but also the hymns sung in honor of the goddess, ouloi or iouloi. There
are also Demetrouloi and kalliouloi ; and the refrain: 'Send forth a sheaf,
a plenteous sheaf, a sheaf send forth.'"
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XIV, 618d)
In Proclus' commentary on the Timaios 293c, he offers another recitation.
In the Eleusinian rites they gazed up to the heaven and cried aloud
"rain," they gazed down upon the earth and cried "conceive."
On the edge of a well by the Dipylon gate of Athens where the
procession to Eleusis began, an inscription reads:
O Pan, O Men, be of good cheer, beautiful Nymphs, rain, conceive,
overflow.
(Mylonas Eleusis p. 270)
Legomena (Things Said)
Porphyrus gives us a description of initiation which includes legomena
and seems to indicate also much of the content and feeling of the
Epopteia.
Crowned with myrtle, along with the other initiates we enter the entrance
hall of the temple, still blind, but the hierophant who is within will soon
open our eyes. But first, for nothing is to be done in haste, let us wash in
the holy water. We are led before the hierophant. From a book of stone,
he reads to us things which we must not divulge, under penalty of
death. Let us say only that they are in harmony with the place and
circumstance. You would laugh, perhaps, if you heard them outside the
temple, but here you have no desire to laugh as you listen to the words
of the elder (for he is always old) and as you look at the exposed
symbols. And you are far from laughing when, by her special language
and signs, by vivid sparkling of light and clouds piled upon clouds,
Demeter confirms everything that we have seen and heard from her holy
priest. Then, finally, the light of a serene wonder fills the temple; we see
the pure Elysian fields; we hear the chorus of the blessed ones. Now it
is not merely through an external appearance or through a philosophical
interpretation, but in fact and in reality that the hierophant becomes the
creator and the revelator of all things; the sun is but his torchbearer, the
moon, his helper of the altar, and Hermes, his mystical messenger. But
the last word has been uttered: Knox Om Pax.
The ritual has been consummated, and we are seers forever.
(Schuré, Edouard The Great Initiates p. 406)
Epopteia: The Holy Light of the Holy Night
And I will with the women and the holy maidens go
Where they keep the nightly vigil, an auspicious light to show.
(Aristophanes, The Frogs 442-443)
I was initiated long ago. Lock up Eleusis, and put the fire out,
Dadouchos. Deny me the holy night! I have already been initiated into
more authentic mysteries.... (I have beheld) the fire, whence (... and) I
have seen the Kore.
(Kerenyi Eleusis p. 84)
Schuré quotes Proclus and interprets the word "gods" in this instance
as "all orders of spirits."
In all the initiations and Mysteries the gods manifest themselves in many
forms, assuming a great variety of guises; sometimes they appear in a
formless light, again in quite different form.
(The Great Initiates p. 407)
Ericapaeus, celebrated pow'r,
Ineffable, occult, all-shining flow'r.
'Tis thine from darksome mists to purge the sight,
All-spreading splendor, pure and holy light;
Hence, Phanes, call'd the glory of the sky,
On waving pinions thro' the world you fly.
Priapus, dark-ey'd splendor, thee I sing,
Genial, all-prudent, ever blessed king.
With joyful aspect on these rites divine
And holy Telite propitious shine.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
When, under Pluto's semblance, Jove divine
Deceiv'd with guileful arts dark Proserpine.
Hence, partly black thy limbs and partly white,
From Pluto dark, from Jove ethereal bright
Thy color'd member, men by night inspire
When seen in spectred forms, with terrors dire;
Now darkly visible involved in night,
Perspicuous now they meet the fearful sight.
Terrestrial queen, expel wherever found
The soul's mad fears to earth's remotest bound;
With holy aspect on our incense shine,
And bless thy mystics, and rites divine.
(Taylor, Mystical Hymns of Orpheus.)
There was a time when with the rest of the happy band they saw beauty
shining in brightness, - we philosophers following in the train of Zeus,
others in company with other gods; and then we beheld the beatific
vision and were initiated into a mystery which may be truly called most
bleed, celebrated by us in our state of innocence before we had any
experience of evils to come, when we were admitted to the sight of
apparitions innocent and simple and calm and happy, which we beheld
shining in pure light.
(Plato, Phaedrus, 250)
Plemochoe is an earthen dish shaped like a top, but tolerably firm on its
base; some call it a kotyliskos, according to Pamphilus. They use it at
Eleusis on the last day of the Mysteries, a day which they call from it
Plemochoai; on that day they fill two plemochoai, and they invert them
(standing up and facing the east in the one case, the west in the other),
reciting a mystical formula over them.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XI, 496a)
Different Interpretations
On the tomb of Menoeceus there grows a pomegranate-tree: if you
break the outer husk of the ripe fruit, you will find the inside like blood.
This pomegranate-tree is living.
(Pausanias, IX, 25:1)
Asterios (c. 390 CE), the bishop of Amaseia in Asia Minor in his
Engomion to the Saintly Martyrs.
The Eleusinian Mysteries, are they not the main part of your religion and
the demos of Athens, yea the whole of Greece gathers to celebrate that
vanity? I not there (in the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis) the
katabasion and the solemn meeting of the Hierophant and the priestess,
each with the other alone; are not the torches then extinguished and the
vast crowd believes that its salvation depends on what those two act in
the darkness?
(. 311-312)
The next is by Epiphanios who was a bishop of Eleutheroupolis of
Palestine and Konstantia of Kypros and lived 367-403 CE.
In Alexandria there is the so-called Korion, and it is a very large temple,
that is the temenos of Kore. (The worshippers) having passed the night
in vigilance with songs and flute playing, singing to the idol... After the
call of the roosters they descend with torches in hand to an
underground chamber and from it they bring up on a litter a wooden
xoanon, seated, nude, bearing on its forehead some seal of a cross,
covered with gold ... and they carry this xoanon around seven times,
making a circle around the most central temple with flutes and drums
and hymns, and having sang and danced they take it down again to the
underground place ... and they say that at this hour, today the Kore, that
is the Virgin, gave birth to the Aion. (Ibid. p. 302)
Demeter and Persephone have come to be the subject of a mystic
drama, and Eleusis celebrates with torches the rape of the daughter and
the sorrowful wandering of the mother. Now it seems to me that the
terms "orgy" and "mystery" must be derived, the former from the wrath
(orge) of Demeter against Zeus, and the latter from the pollution (mysos)
that took place in connection with Dionysus.
(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks II, 12)
It tells how Demeter, wandering through Eleusis, which is a part of
Attica, in search of her daughter the Maiden, becomes exhausted and
sits down at a well in deep distress. This display of grief is forbidden, up
to the present day, to those who are initiated, lest the worshippers
should seem to imitate the goddess in her sorrow. At that time Eleusis
was inhabited by aborigines, whose names were Baubo, Dysaules,
Triptolemus, and also Eumolpus and Eubouleus. Triptolemus was a
herdsman, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubouleus a swineherd. These
were progenitors of the Eumolpidae and of the Heralds, who form the
priestly clan at Athens. But to continue; for I will not forbear to tell the
rest of the story. Baubo, having received Demeter as a guest, offers her
a draught of wine and meal. She declines to take it, being unwilling to
drink on account of her mourning. Baubo is deeply hurt, thinking she
has been slighted, and thereupon uncovers her secret parts and
exhibits them to the goddess. Demeter is pleased at the sight, and now
at last receives the draught, - delighted with the spectacle! These are the
secret mysteries of the Athenians! These are also the subjects of
Orpheus' poems. I will quote you the very lines of Orpheus, in order that
you may have the originator of the mysteries as witness of their
shamelessness:
This said, she drew aside her robes and showed
A sight of shame; child Iacchus was there,
And laughing, plunged his hand below her breasts.
Then smiled the goddess, in her heart she smiled,
And drank the draught from out the glancing cup.
(Clement of Alexandria, II, 16-18)
The mysteries, then, are mere custom and vain opinion, and it is a deceit
of the serpent that men worship when, with spurious piety, they turn
towards these sacred initiations that are really profanities, and solemn
rites that are without sanctity. Consider, too, the contents of the mystic
chests; for I must strip bare their holy things and utter the unspeakable.
Are they not sesame cakes, pyramid and spherical cakes, cakes with
many navels, also balls of salt and a serpent, the mystic sign of
Dionysus Basareus? Are they not also pomegranates, fig branches,
fennel stalks, ivy leaves, round cakes and poppies? These are their holy
things! In addition, there are the unutterable symbols of Ge Themis,
marjoram, a lamp, a sword, and a woman's comb, which is euphemistic
expression used in the mysteries for a woman's secret parts.
(Clement of Alexandria, II, 19)
But no man sails from a port without having sacrificed to the Gods and
invoked their help; nor do men sow without having called on Demeter;
and shall a man who has undertaken so great a work undertake it safely
without the Gods? and shall they who undertake this work come to it
with success? What else are you doing, man, than divulging the
mysteries? You say, "There is a temple at Eleusis, and one here also.
There is an Hierophant at Eleusis, and I also will make an Hierophant:
there is a herald, and I will establish a herald; there is a torch-bearer at
Eleusis, and I also will establish a torch-bearer; there are torches at
Eleusis, and I will have torches here. The words are the same; how do
the things done here differ from those done there?" Most impious man,
is there no difference? these things are done both in due place and in
due time; and when accompanied with sacrifice and prayers, when a
man is first purified, and when he is disposed in his mind to the thought
that he is going to approach sacred rites and ancient rites. In this way
the mysteries are useful, in this way we come to the notion that all these
things were established by the ancients for the instruction and
correction of life. But you publish and divulge them out of time, out of
place, without sacrifices, without purity; you have not the garments
which the hierophant ought to have, nor the hair, nor the head-dress,
nor the voice nor the age; nor have you purified yourself as he has: but
you have committed to memory the words only, and you say: "Sacred
are the words by themselves."
You ought to approach these matters in another way; the thing is great,
it is mystical, not common thing, nor is it given to every man.
(Epictetus Discourses III, 21)
Now, in the case of those Eleusinian mysteries, which are the very
heresy of Athenian superstition, it is their secrecy that is their disgrace.
Accordingly, they previously beset all access to their body with
tormenting conditions; and they require a long initiation before they
enroll (their members), even instruction during five years for their perfect
disciples, in order that they may mold their opinions by this suspension
of full knowledge, and apparently raise the dignity of their mysteries in
proportion to the craving for them which they have previously created.
Then follow the duty of silence. Carefully is that guarded, which is so
long in finding. All the divinity, however, lies in their secret recesses:
there are revealed at last all the aspirations of the fully initiated, the entire
mystery of the sealed tongue, the symbol of virility. But this allegorical
representation, under the pretext of nature's reverend name, obscures a
real sacrilege by help of an arbitrary symbol and by empty images
obviates the reproach of falsehood!
(Tertullian Against the Valentinians I)
He learned the details of the day when her only child was new born, and
the exact time and veritable course of the season which gave her birth:
then he bent the turning fingers of his hands and measured the moving
circle of the ever-recurring number counting from hand to hand in
double exchange He called to a servant, and Asterion lifted a round
revolving sphere, the shape of the sky, the image of the universe, and
laid it upon the lid of a chest. Here the ancient got to work. He turned it
upon its pivot, and directed his gaze round the circle of the Zodiac,
scanning in this place and that planets and fixed stars. He rolled the pole
about with a push, and the counterfeit sky went rapidly round and round
in mobile course with a perpetual movement, carrying the artificial stars
about the axle set through the middle. Observing the sphere with a
glance all round, the deity found that the Moon at the full was crossing
the curved line of her conjunction, and the Sun was half through his
course opposite the Moon moving at his central point under the earth; a
pointed cone of darkness creeping from the earth into the air opposite to
the Sun hid the whole Moon. Then when he heard the rivals for wedded
love, he looked especially for Ares, and espied the wife-robber over the
sunset house along with the evening star of the Cyprian. He found the
portion called the Portion of the Parents under the Virgin's starry corn-
ear; and round the Ear ran the light-bearing star of Cronides, father of
rain.
When he had noticed everything and reckoned the circuit of the stars,
he put away the ever-revolving sphere in its roomy box, the sphere with
its curious surface; and in answer to the goddess he mouthed a triple
oracle of prophetic sound:
Fond mother Demeter, when the rays of the Moon are stolen under a
shady cone and her light is gone, guard against a robber-bridegroom for
Persephoneia, a secret ravisher of your unsmirched girl, if the threads of
the Fates can be persuaded. You will see before marriage a false and
secret bedfellow come unforeseen, a half-monster cunning-minded:
since I perceive by the western point Ares the wife-stealer walking with
the Paphian, and I notice the Dragon rising beside them both. But I
proclaim you most happy: for you will be known for glorious fruits in the
four quarters of the universe, because you shall bestow fruit on the
barren soil; since the Virgin Astraia holds out her hand full of corn for
the destined lot of your girl's parents.
(Nonnus Dionysiaca VI, 58-102)
When Demeter came to our land, in her wandering after the rape of Kore,
and, being moved to kindness towards our ancestors by services which
may not be told save to her initiates, gave these two gifts, the greatest in
the world - the fruits of the earth, which have enabled us to rise above
the life of the beasts, and the holy rite which inspires in those who
partake of it sweeter hopes regarding both the end of life and all eternity,
- our city was not only so beloved of the gods but also so devoted to
mankind that, having been endowed with these great blessings, she did
not begrudge them to the rest of the world, but shared with all men what
she had received. The mystic rite we continue even now, each year, to
reveal to the initiates; and as for the fruits of the earth, our city has, in a
word, instructed the world, in their uses, their cultivation, and the
benefits derived from them.
(Isocrates, Panegyricus 28-29)
M: Then what will become of our Iacchus and Eumolpidae and their
impressive mysteries, if we abolish nocturnal rites? For we are
composing laws not for the Roman people in particular, but for all
virtuous and stable nations.
A: I take it for granted that you make an exception of those rites into
which we ourselves have been initiated.
M: I will do so indeed. For among the many excellent and indeed divine
institutions which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to
human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries. For by
their means we have been brought out of our barbarous and savage
mode of life and educated and refined to a state of civilization; and as
the rites are called "initiations," so in very truth we have learned from
them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live
happily, but also to die with a better hope.
(Cicero Laws II, xiv, 36)
Psyche cast herself before the goddess, wetting the holy feet with tears
and sweeping the ground with her tresses. Amid a thicket of
supplications she asked for the favor of Ceres:
'By your right hand of Plenty, I implore you. By your joyous Ceremonies
of Harvest; by your Mystery enclosed in Osier-baskets; by the winged
Gig of your familiar Dragons; by the Furrows of the Sicilian Glebe, the
Rape of the Chariot, the Earth that yields not up its own, the Descent
into the Night of the Nuptials of Proserpine, and the Ascent into the light
of the Maiden's Restoration; by all the other Symbols which the
Sanctuary of Eleusis in Attica preserves in Silences - stand by your
suppliant Psyche in the hour of her deep need. Permit me, at least for a
few days, to shelter myself among the layers of wheat until the passage
of time mitigates the raging rancor of the mighty goddess, or until an
interval of rest refreshes the body that daily stress has now exhausted.'
(Apuleius Metamorphoses VI, 2)
I say nothing of the holy and awe-inspiring sanctuary of Eleusis, "where
tribes from earth's remotest confines seek Initiation," and I pass over
Samothrace and those "occult mysteries which throngs of worshippers
at dead of night in forest covert deep do celebrate" Lemnos, since such
mysteries when interpreted and rationalized prove to have more to do
with natural science than with theology.
(Cicero De Natura Deorum I, 52)
If the earth transmits the generative soul to growing things - or retains it
while allowing a vestige of it to constitute the vegetal principle in them -
at once the earth is ensouled, as our flesh is, and any generative power
possessed by the plant world is of its bestowing: this phase of the soul
is immanent in the body of the growing thing, and transmits to it that
better element by which it differs from the broken off part no longer a
thing of growth but a mere lump of material.
But does the entire body of the earth similarly receive anything from the
soul?
Yes: for we must recognize that earthly material broken of from the main
body differs from the same remaining continuously attached; thus
stones increase as long as they are embedded, and from the moment
they are separated, stop at the size attained.
We must conclude, then, that every part and member of the earth carries
its vestige of this principle of growth, an under-phase of that entire
principle which belongs not to this or that member but to the earth as a
whole: next in order is the nature (the soul-phase), concerned with
sensation, this not interfused (like the vegetal principle) but in contact
from above: then the higher soul and the Intellectual Principle,
constituting together the being known as Hestia (Earth-Mind) and
Demeter (Earth-Soul) - a nomenclature indicating the human intuition of
these truths, asserted in the attribution of a divine name and nature.
(Plotinus, Fourth Ennead IV, 27)
The result of soul and body commingled is the irrational or the affective
factor, whereas of mind and soul the conjunction produces reason; and
of these the former is source of pleasure and pain, the latter of virtue and
vice. In the composition of these three factors earth furnishes the body,
the moon the soul, and the sun furnishes mind to man for the purpose of
his generation even as it furnishes light to the moon herself. As to the
death we die, one death reduces man from three factors to two and
another reduces him from two to one; and the former takes place in the
earth that belongs to Demeter (wherefore "to make an end" is called "to
render one's life to her" and Athenians used in olden times to call the
dead "Demetrians"), the latter in the moon that belongs to Persephone,
and associated with the former is Hermes the terrestrial, with the latter
Hermes the celestial. While the goddess here dissociates the soul from
the body swiftly and violently, Persephone gently and by slow degrees
detaches the mind from the soul and has therefore been called "single-
born" because the best part of man is "born single" when separated off
by her. Each of the two separations naturally occurs in this fashion: All
soul, whether without mind or with it, when it has issued from the body
is destined to wander in the region between earth and moon but not for
an equal time. Unjust and licentious souls pay penalties for their
offenses; but the good soul must in the gentlest part of the air, which
they call "the meads of Hades," pass a certain set time sufficient to
purge and blow away the pollution contracted from the body as from an
evil odor. Then, as if brought home from banishment abroad, they savor
joy most like that of initiates, which attended by glad expectation is
mingled with confusion and excitement. For many, even as they are in
the act of clinging to the moon, she thrusts off and sweeps away; and
some of those souls too that are on the moon they see turning upside
down as if sinking again into the deep. Those that have got up, however,
and have found a firm footing first go about like victors crowned with
wreaths of feathers called wreathes of steadfastness, because in life
they had made the irrational or affective element of the soul orderly and
tolerably tractable to reason; secondly, in appearance resembling a ray
of light but in respect of their nature, which in the upper region is
buoyant as it is here in ours, resembling the ether about the moon, they
get from it both tension and strength as edged instruments get a temper,
for what laxness and diffuseness they still have is strengthened and
becomes firm and translucent. In consequence they are nourished by
any exhalation that reaches them, and Heraclitus was right in saying:
"Souls employ the sense of smell in Hades."
(Plutarch The Face of the Moon 28)
To the Terrestrial Hermes
O Bacchic Hermes, progeny divine
Of Dionysus, parent of the vine,
And of celestial Venus, Paphian queen,
Dark-eyelash'd Goddess of a lovely mien:
Who constant wand'rest thro' the sacred seats
Where Hell's dread empress, Proserpine, retreats;
To wretched souls the leader of the way,
When Fate decrees, to regions void of day.
Thine is the wand which causes sleep to fly,
Or lulls to slumb'rous rest the weary eye;
For Proserpine, thro' Tart'rus dark and wide,
Gave the for ever flowing souls to guide,
Come, blessed pow'r, the sacrifice attend,
And grant thy mystics' works a happy end.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
Taylor quotes Proclus who also makes the distinction between
terrestrial and celestial gods.
Hence, there is a terrestrial Ceres, Vesta, and Isis, as likewise a terrestrial
Jupiter and a terrestrial Hermes, established about the one divinity of the
earth, just as a multitude of celestial Gods proceeds about the one
divinity of the heavens. For there are progressions of all the celestial
Gods into the Earth: and Earth contains all things, in an earthly manner,
which Heaven comprehends celestially. Hence we speak of a terrestrial
Bacchus and a terrestrial Apollo, who bestows the all-various streams of
water with which the earth abounds, and openings prophetic of futurity.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus p. xxxiii)
... having, by happy fortune, culled the fruit of the rite that releases from
toil. And, while the body of all men is subject to over-mastering death, an
image of life remains alive, for it alone comes from the gods. But it
sleeps, while the limbs are active; yet, to them that sleep in many a
dream it gives presage of a decision of things delightful or doleful.
(Pindar Fragment 96)
When his fame was spread abroad from one end of Greece to the other,
the Pythian priestess set him on a still higher pinnacle of renown by
bidding the Delphians give to Pindar an equal share of all the first-fruits
they offered to Apollo. It is said, too, that in his old age there was
vouchsafed to him a vision in a dream. As he slept Proserpine stood by
him and said that of all the deities she alone had not been hymned by
him, but that, nevertheless, he should make a song on her also when he
was come to her. Before ten days were out Pindar had paid the debt of
nature. But there was in Thebes an old woman, a relation of Pindar's,
who had practiced singing, most of his songs. To her Pindar appeared
in a dream and sang to her a hymn on Proserpine; and she, as soon as
she was awake, wrote down all the song she had heard him singing in
her dream. In this song, amongst the epithets applied to Hades is that of
'golden-reined,' obviously in reference to the rape of Proserpine.
(Pausanias IX, 23:3-4)
A man in the night kindles a light for himself when his vision is
extinguished; living, he is in contact with the dead, when asleep, and
with the sleeper, when awake.
(Herakleitos, Diels 236)
To the Divinity of Dreams
Thee I invoke, blest pow'r of dreams divine,
Angel of future fates, swift wings are thine.
Great source of oracles to human kind,
When stealing soft, and whisp'ring to the mind,
Thro' sleep's sweet silence, and the gloom of night,
Thy pow'r awakes th'intellectual sight;
To silent souls the will of heaven relates,
And silently reveals their future fates.
Forever friendly to the upright mind,
Sacred and pure, to holy rites inclin'd;
For these with pleasing hope thy dreams inspire:
Bliss to anticipate, which all desire.
Thy visions manifest of fate disclose,
What methods best may mitigate our woes;
Reveal what rites the Gods immortal please,
And what the means their anger to appease;
For ever tranquil is the good man's end,
Whose life thy dreams admonish and defend,
But from the wicked turned averse to bless,
Thy form unseen, the angel of distress;
No means to check approaching ill they find,
Pensive with fears, and to the future blind.
Come blessed pow'r, the signatures reveal
Which heav'n's decrees mysteriously conceal,
Signs only present to the worthy mind,
Nor omens ill disclose of monstrous kind.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
There are holy things that are not communicated all at once: Eleusis
always keeps something back to show those who come again.
(Seneca, Quaestiones Naturalis VII, 30:6)
Haply by the shores loved of Apollo, haply by that torch-lit strand where
the Great Goddess cherish dread rites for mortals, on whose lips the
ministrant Eumolpidae have laid the precious seal of silence;
(Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 1048-1053)
But for your mysteries which speech may not profane, you shall mark
them for yourself, when you come to that place alone; and when you are
coming to the end of life, disclose them to your heir alone; let him teach
his heir; and so thenceforth.
(Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1526-1534)
This way - hither, this way! - for this way does Guiding Hermes lead me,
and the goddess of the dead.
(Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus 2556-1558)
And then he called his daughters, and bade them fetch water from some
fount, that he should wash, and make a drink-offering. And they went to
the hill which was in view, Demeter's hill who guards the tender plants,
and in short space brought that which their father had enjoined; then
they ministered to him with washing, and dressed him, as use ordains.
(Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus 1595-1602)
Weep no more maidens; for where the kindness of the Dark Powers is
an abiding grace to the quick and to the dead, there is no room for
mourning; divine anger would follow.
(Sophocles,Oedipus at Colonus 1750-1753)
Thrice happy are those of mortals, who having seen those rites depart
for Hades; for to them alone is it granted to have true life there; to the
rest all there is evil.
(Sophocles Fragment 719)
Beautiful indeed is the Mystery given us by the blessed gods: death is
for mortals no longer an evil, but a blessing.
(Inscription at Eleusis, S. Angus tr. The Mystery Religions and
Christianity p. 140)
It was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the
Mysteries would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine glory.
Hence all were eager for initiation.
(Scholiast on Aristophanes The Frogs 158)
Blessed is he who has seen these things before he goes beneath the
earth; for he understands the end of mortal life, and the beginning (of a
new life) given of god.
(Pindar, Fragment 102)
They are taking off his chains, and giving orders that he is to die today.
(Plato Phaedo 60)
I had singular feeling at being in his company. For I could hardly believe
that I was present at the death of a friend, and therefore I did not pity
him, Echecrates; he died so fearlessly, and his words and bearing were
so noble and gracious, that to me he appeared blessed. I thought that in
going to the other world he could not be without a divine call, and that
he would be happy, if any man ever was, when he arrived there; and
therefore I did not pity him as might have seemed natural at such an
hour.
(Plato Phaedo 58-59)
There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which affirms that they
go from hence into the other world, and returning here, are born again
from the dead. Now if it be true that the living come from the dead, then
our souls must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they have
been born again?...
Then let us consider the whole question, not in relation to man only, but
in relation to animals generally, and to plants, and to everything of which
there is generation, and the proof will be easier.
(Plato Phaedo . 70)
For if the soul exists before birth, and in coming to life and being born
can be born only from death and dying, must she not after death
continue to exist, since she has to be born again?
(Plato Phaedo,77)
Why, because each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and
rivets the souls to the body, until she becomes like the body, and
believes that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from
agreeing with the body and having the same delights she is obliged to
have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever to be pure at her
departure to the world below, but is always infected by the body; and so
she sinks into another body and there germinates and grows, and has
therefore no part in the communion of the divine and pure and simple.
(Plato Phaedo, 83)
We arrive at the conclusion that the living come from the dead, just as
the dead come from the living; and this, if true, affords a most certain
proof that the souls of the dead exist in some place out of which they
come again.... But I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living
again, and that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the
dead are in existence, and that the good souls have a better portion than
the evil.
(Plato Phaedo, 72)
The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and out of sleeping
waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping; and the process of
generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the other waking up.
(Plato Phaedo, 71)
Then may we not say,... there is an absolute beauty, and goodness, and
an absolute essence of all things;... which is now discovered to have
existed in our former state, we refer all our sensations, and with this
compare them, finding these ideas to be pre-existent and our inborn
possession - then our souls must have had a prior existence.
(Plato Phaedo, 76)
Your favorite doctrine, Socrates, that knowledge is simply recollection, if
true, also necessarily implies a previous time in which we have learned
that which we now recollect. But this would be impossible unless our
soul had been in some place before existing in the form of man; here
then is another proof of the soul's immortality.
(Plato Phaedo,72-73)
And were we not saying long ago that the soul when using the body as
an instrument of perception, that is to say, when using the sense of
sight or hearing or some other sense (for the meaning of perceiving
through the body is perceiving through the senses) - were we not
saying that the soul too is then dragged by the body into the region of
the changeable, and wanders and is confused; the world spins round
her, and she is like a drunkard, when she touches change.
Very true.
But when returning into herself she reflects, then she passes into the
other world, the region of purity, and eternity, and immortality, and
unchangeableness, which are her kindred, and with them she ever lives,
when she is by herself and is not let or hindered; then she ceases from
her erring ways, and being in communion with the unchanging is
unchanging. And this state of the soul is called wisdom?
That is well and truly said, Socrates, he replied.
(Plato Phaedo 79)
Then reflect,... - that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and
immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and
unchangeable; and that the body is in the very likeness of the human
and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform and dissoluble, and
changeable....
But if it be true, then is not the body liable to speedy dissolution? and is
not the soul almost or altogether indissoluble?
(Plato Phaedo, 80)
Yet all men will agree that God, and the essential form of life, and the
immortal in general, will never perish.
Yes, all men, he said - that is true; and what is more, gods, if I am not
mistaken, as well as men.
Seeing then that the immortal is indestructible, must not the soul, if she
is immortal, be also imperishable?
Most certainly.
Then when death attacks a man, the mortal portion of him may be
supposed to die, but the immortal retires at the approach of death and is
preserved safe and sound?
True.
Then, Cebes, beyond question, the soul is immortal and imperishable,
and our souls will truly exist in another world!
(Plato Phaedo,106-107)
And now, 0 my judges, I desire to prove to you that the real philosopher
has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after
death he may hope to obtain the greatest good in the other world.... For I
deem that the true votary of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by
other men; they do not perceive that he is always pursuing death and
dying; and if this be so, and he has had the desire of death all his life
long, why when his time comes should he repine at that which he has
been always pursuing and desiring?...
For they have not found out either what is the nature of that death which
the true philosopher deserves, or how he deserves or desires death....
Is it not the separation of soul and body? And to be dead is the
completion of this; when the soul exists in herself, and is released from
the body and the body is released from the soul, what is this but death?...
Would you not say that he is entirely concerned with the soul and not
with the body? He would like, as far as he can, to get away from the
body and to turn to the soul.
Quite true.
In matters of this sort philosophers, above all other men, may be
observed in every sort of way to dissever the soul from the communion
of the body.
Very true.
Whereas, Simmias, the rest of the world are of opinion that to him who
has sense of pleasure and no part in bodily pleasure, life is not worth
having; and that he who is indifferent about them is as good as dead.
That is also true.
(Plato Phaedo, 63-64)
Then when does the soul attain truth? - for in attempting to consider
anything in company with the body she is obviously deceived.
True.
Then must not true existence be revealed to her in thought, if at all?
Yes.
And thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself and none of
these things trouble her - neither sound nor sights nor pain nor any
pleasure, - when she takes leave of the body, and has as little as
possible to do with it, when she has no bodily sense or desire, but is
aspiring after true being?
Certainly.
(Plato Phaedo, 65)
And he attains to the purest knowledge of them who goes to each with
the mind alone, not introducing or intruding in the act of thought sight or
any other sense together with reason, but with the very light of the mind
in her own clearness searches into the very truth of each; he who has
got rid, as far as he can, of eyesores and, so to speak, of the whole
body, these being in his opinion distracting elements which when they
infect the soul hinder her from acquiring truth and knowledge - who, if
not he, is likely to attain to the knowledge of true being?
(Plato Phaedo 65-66)
'It has been proved to us by experience that if we would have pure
knowledge of anything we must be quit of the body - the soul in herself
must behold things in themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom
which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers; not while we
live, but after death; for if while in company with the body, the soul
cannot have pure knowledge, one of two things follows - either
knowledge is not to be attained at all, or, if at all, after death. or then, and
not till then, the soul will be parted from the body and exist in herself
alone. In this present life, I reckon that we make the nearest approach to
knowledge when we have the least possible intercourse or communion
with the body, and are not surfeited with the bodily nature, but keep
ourselves pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us.
And thus having got rid of the foolishness of the body we shall be pure
and hold converse with the pure, and know of ourselves the clear light
everywhere, which is no other than the light of truth.' For the impure are
not permitted to approach the pure.
(Plato Phaedo, 65-66)
But, 0 my friend, if this be true, there is great reason to hope that, going
where I go, when I have come to the end of my journey, I shall attain that
which has been the pursuit of my life. And therefore I go on my way
rejoicing, and not I only, but every other man who believes that his mind
has been made ready and that he is in a manner purified.
Certainly, replied Simmias.
And what is purification but the separation of the soul from the body, as I
was saying before; the habit of the soul gathering and collecting herself
into herself from all sides out of the body; the dwelling in her own place
alone, as in another life, so also in this, as far as she can; - the release of
the soul from the chains of the body?
Very true, he said.
And this separation and release of the soul from the body is termed
death?
To be sure, he said.
And the true philosophers, and they only, are ever seeking to release the
soul. Is not the separation and release of the soul from the body their
special study?
That is true.
(Plato Phaedo, 67)
The founders of the mysteries would appear to have had a real meaning,
and were not talking nonsense when they intimated in a figure long ago
that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below
will lie in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation and
purification will dwell with the gods. For 'many,' as they say in the
mysteries, 'are the thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics,' - meaning,
as I interpret the words, 'the true philosophers.'
(Plato Phaedo, 69)
But she will calm passion, and follow reason, and dwell in the
contemplation of her, beholding the true and divine (which is not matter
of opinion), and thence deriving nourishment. Thus she seeks to live
while she lives, and after death she hopes to go to her own kindred and
to that which is like her, and to be freed from human ills.
(Plato Phaedo 84)
But then, 0 my friends, he said, if the soul is really immortal, what care
should be taken of her, not only in respect of the portion of time which is
called life, but of eternity! And the danger of neglecting her from this
point of view does indeed appear to be awful. If death had only been the
end of all, the wicked would have had a good bargain in dying, for they
would have been happily quit not only of their body, but of their own evil
together with their souls. But now, inasmuch as the soul is manifestly
immortal, there is no release or salvation from evil except the attainment
of the highest virtue and wisdom. For the soul when on her progress to
the world below takes nothing with her but nurture and education; and
these are said greatly to benefit or greatly to injure the departed, at the
very beginning of his journey there.
For after death, as they say, the genius of each individual, to whom he
belonged in life, leads him to a certain place in which the dead are
gathered together, whence after judgment has been given they pass into
the world below, following the guide, who is appointed to conduct them
from this world to the other: and when they have there received their
due and remained their time, another guide brings them back again after
many revolutions of ages.
(Plato Phaedo,107)
And is it likely that the soul, which is invisible, in passing to the place of
the true Hades, which like her is invisible, and pure, and noble, and on
her way to the good and wise God, whither, if God will, my soul is also
soon to go, - that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature and origin, will be
blown away and destroyed immediately on quitting the body as the
many say? That can never be, my dear Simmias and Cebes. The truth
rather is, that the soul which is pure at departing and draws after her no
bodily taint, having never voluntarily during life had connection with the
body, which she is ever avoiding, herself gathered into herself; - and
making such abstraction her perpetual study - which means that she
has been a true disciple of philosophy; and therefore has in fact been
always engaged in the practice of dying? For is not philosophy the
study of death?
(Plato Phaedo, 80-81)
That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world - to the
divine and immortal and rational: there arriving, she is secure of bliss
and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild
passions and all other human ills, and forever dwells, as they say of the
initiated, in company with the gods.
(Plato Phaedo, 81)
But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world; they may
have seen them for a short time only, or they may have been unfortunate
in their earthly lot, and, having had their hearts turned to injustice
through some corrupting influence, they may have lost the memory of
the holy things which once they saw. Few only retain an adequate
remembrance of them; and they when they see here any image of that
other world, are rapt in amazement; but they are ignorant of what this
rapture means, because they do not clearly perceive. For there is no
light of justice or temperance or any of the higher ideas which are
precious to souls in the earthly copies of them: they are seen through a
glass dimly; and there are few who, going to the images, behold in them
the realities, and these only with difficulty. There was a time when with
the rest of the happy band they saw beauty shining in brightness, - we
philosophers following in the train of Zeus, others in company with other
gods; and then we saw the beatific vision and were initiated into a
mystery which may be truly called most blessed, celebrated by us in our
state of innocence, before we had any experience of evils to come, when
we were admitted to the sight of apparitions innocent and simple and
calm and happy, which we saw shining in pure light, pure ourselves and
not yet enshrined in that living tomb which we carry about, now that we
are imprisoned in the body like an oyster in his shell.
(Plato Phaedrus 250)
Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every
Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows what I intend when I say it is
beautiful. Even the desire of it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is
for those that will take the upward path, who will set all their forces
towards it, who will divest themselves of all that we have put on in our
descent: - so, to those that approach the Holy Celebrations of the
Mysteries, there are appointed purifications and the laying aside of the
garments worn before, and the entry in nakedness - until, passing on the
upward way, all that is other than the God, each in the solitude of himself
shall see that solitary-dwelling Existence, the Apart, the Unmingled, the
Pure, that from which all things depend for Which all look and live and
act and know, the Source of Life and of Intellection and of Being.
(Plotinus First Ennead VI, 7)
For whoever is able, by purifications conjurations, to drive away such an
affection, will be able, by other practices, to excite it; and, according to
this view, its divine nature is entirely done away with. By such sayings
and doings, they profess to be possessed of superior knowledge, and
deceive mankind by enjoining lustrations and purifications upon them,
while their discourse turns upon the divinity and the godhead. And yet it
would appear to me that their discourse savors not of piety, as they
suppose, but rather of impiety, and as if there were no gods, and that
what they hold to be holy and divine, were impious and unholy. This I
will now explain. For, if they profess to know how to bring down the
moon, darken the sun, induce storms and fine weather, and rains and
droughts, and make the sea and land unproductive, and so forth,
whether they arrogate this power as being derived from mysteries or
any other knowledge or consideration, they appear to me to practice
impiety, and either to fancy that there are no gods, or, if there are, that
they have no ability to ward off any of the greatest evils. How, then, are
they not enemies to the gods? For if a man by magical arts and
sacrifices will bring down the moon, and darken the sun, and induce
storms, or fine weather, I should not believe that there was anything
divine, but human, in these things, provided the power of the divine
were overpowered by human knowledge and subjected to it. But
perhaps it will be said, these things are not so, but, not withstanding,
men being in want of the means of life, invent many and various things,
and devise many contrivances for all other things, and for this disease,
in every phase of the disease, assigning the cause to a god. Nor do they
remember the same things once, but frequently. For, if they imitate a
goat, or grind their teeth, or if their right side be convulsed, they say that
the mother of the gods is the cause. But if they speak in a sharper and
more intense tone, they resemble this state to a horse, and say that
Poseidon is the cause. Or if any excrement be passed, which is often the
case, owing to the violence of the disease, the appellation of Enodia is
adhibited; or, if it be passed in smaller and denser masses, like bird's, it
is said to be from Apollo Nomius. But if foam be emitted by the mouth,
and the patient kick with his feet, Ares then gets the blame. But terrors
which happen during the night, and fevers, and delirium, and jumpings
out of bed, and frightful apparitions, and fleeing away,-all these they
hold to be the plots of Hecate, and the invasions the and use
purifications and incantations, and, as appears to me, make the divinity
to be most wicked and most impious. For they purify those laboring
under this disease, with the same sorts of blood and the other means
that are used in the case of those who are stained with crimes, and of
malefactors, or who have been enchanted by men, or who have done
any wicked act; who ought to do the very reverse, namely, sacrifice and
pray, and, bringing gifts to the temples, supplicate the gods. But now
they do none of these things, but purify; and some of the purifications
they conceal in the earth, and some they throw into the sea, and some
they carry to the mountains where no one can touch or tread upon them.
But these they ought to take to the temples and present to the god, if a
god be the cause of the disease. Neither truly do I count it a worthy
opinion to hold that the body of man is polluted by god, the most impure
by the most holy; for were it defiled, or did it suffer from any other thing,
it would be like to be purified and sanctified rather than polluted by god.
For it is the divinity which purifies and sanctifies the greatest of offenses
and the most wicked, and which proves our protection from them. And
we mark out the boundaries of the temples and the groves of the gods,
so that no one may pass them unless he be pure, and when we enter
them we are sprinkled with holy water, not as being polluted, but as
laying aside any other pollution which we formerly had. And thus it
appears to me to hold, with regard to purifications. But this disease
seems to me to be no more divine than others; but it has its nature such
as other diseases have, and a cause whence it originates, and its nature
and cause are divine only just as much as all others are, and it is curable
no less than the others, unless when, the from of time, it is confirmed,
and has became stronger than the remedies applied. Its origin is
hereditary, like that of other diseases.
Hippocrates: On the Sacred Disease
The Mysteries of Eleusis
Bibliography
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254.
Profanation of the Mysteries
Violators
Whenever light descends to form and color, shadows appear. So the
sacred must protect itself from profanation here below. The Greeks
recognizing exceptional value guarded it carefully. Silence preserved
the spiritual that speech might offend. The Eleusinian Mysteries are one
of the most widely spread, best kept secrets in history.
And since they knew that in matters pertaining to the gods the city
would be most enraged if any man should be shown to be violating the
Mysteries
(Isocrates The Team of Horses 6)
Isocrates has expressed a common sentiment, also employed by one of
Lucian's characters.
If I see some initiate of the Mysteries giving away the secret ritual and
going through the dances in public, and I get angry and show him up,
are you going to consider me the wrongdoer?
(Lucian The Fisherman 33)
Callimachus hints that the ability to hold one's tongue is prerequisite to
initiation.
It is a great blessing for you that you have not seen the rites of the dread
goddess, or else you would have spewed up their story too.
(Aetia 75)
Aristotle touches on the same theme and also mentions the case of
Aeschylus who was born at Eleusis and might have lost his life for the
information he gave out in one of his lost plays, except that they could
not prove that he had ever been initiated.
But of what he is doing a man might be ignorant, as for instance people
say, 'It slipped out of their mouths as they were speaking,' or 'They did
not know it was a secret,' as Aeschylus said of the mysteries.
(Nicomachaean Ethics III, I, 17)
Alcibiades, whose rowdy behavior is depicted in Plato's Symposium, is
the most famous, or infamous, profaner of the mysteries. He actually
mocked them through vulgar initiation. Andocides tells how he was
brought to trial on the eve of a major military expedition.
The Assembly had met to give audience to Nicias, Lamachus, and
Alcibiades, the generals about to leave with the Sicilian expedition - in
fact, Lamachus' flag-ship was already lying off-shore - when suddenly
Pythonicus rose before the people and cried: 'Countrymen, you are
sending forth this mighty host in all its array upon a perilous enterprise.
Yet your commander, Alcibiades, has been holding celebrations of the
mysteries in a private house, and others with him; I will prove it, Grant
immunity to him whom I indicate, and a non-initiate, a slave belonging to
someone here present, shall describe the Mysteries to you. You can
punish me as you will, if that is not the truth.'
(Andocides On the Mysteries 11-12)
Plutarch in his Life of Alcibiades gives the results of the case, adding an
interesting anecdote showing the spirituality of one of the priestesses.
"Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia, lays information
that Alcibiades, the son of Clinias of the township of the Scambonidae,
has committed a crime against the goddess Demeter and Persephone,
by representing in derision the holy mysteries, and showing them to his
companions in his own house. Where, being habited in such robes as
are used by the chief priest, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Theodorus,
of the township of Phegaea, the herald; and saluted the rest of his
company as Initiates and Novices, all which was done contrary to the
laws and institutions of the Eulmolpidae, and the heralds and priests of
the temple at Eleusis."
He was condemned as contumacious upon his not appearing, his
property confiscated, and it was decreed that all the priests and
priestesses should solemnly curse him. But one of them, Theano, the
daughter of Menon, of the township of Agraule, is said to have opposed
that part of the decree, saying that her holy office obliged her to make
prayers, but not execrations.
(Plutarch Alcibiades 34)
Demosthenes in his oration Against Neaera uses the case of a
hierophant who favored a certain woman, as an example of the
strictness of Athenian law.
It is worth your while, men of Athens, to consider this also - that you
punished Archias, who had been hierophant, when he was convicted in
court of impiety and of offering sacrifice contrary to the rites handed
down by our fathers. Among the charges brought against him was, that
at the feast of the harvest he sacrificed on the altar in the court at Eleusis
a victim brought by the courtesan Sinope, although it was not lawful to
offer victims on that day, and the sacrifice was not his to perform, but
the priestess'! It is, then, a monstrous thing that a man who was of the
race of the Eumolpidae, born of honorable ancestors and a citizen of
Athens, should be punished for having transgressed one of your
established customs; and the pleadings of his relatives and friends did
not save him, nor the public services which he and his ancestors had
rendered to the city; no, nor yet his office of hierophant; but you
punished him, because he was judged to be guilty.
(Demosthenes Against Neaera 116-117)
Isocrates is not correct in condemning foreigners outright as knowledge
of Greek was the only requirement for initiation; murderers were
prohibited unless purified by the priests.
And at the celebration of the Mysteries, the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes,
because of our hatred of the Persians, give solemn warning to the other
barbarians also, even as to men guilty of murder, that they are forever
banned from the sacred rites.
(Panegyricus 157)
Pausanias tells the story of an Eleusinian martyr.
On the road from Athens to Eleusis, which the Athenians called the
Sacred Way, there is the tomb of Anthemocritus. He was the victim of a
most foul crime perpetuated by the Megarians; for when he came as a
herald to forbid them to encroach on the sacred land, they slew him. And
the wrath of the two goddesses abides upon them for that deed to this
day; for they were the only Greek people whom even the Emperor
Hadrian could not make to thrive.
(Pausanias I, 36:3)
Livy relates an unfortunate accident of the year 201 BC which led to war.
Now the Athenians had undertaken the war against Philip for no
sufficient reason, since they retained nothing of their ancient greatness
except their spirit. Two young men from Acarnania, during the
celebration of the mysteries at Eleusis, though not initiated, had entered
the temple of Ceres, ignorant that they were committing sacrilege, and
merely following the crowd. Their words easily betrayed them, since
they asked foolish questions, and though it was clear that they had
come in openly and by mistake they were put to death as if they had
committed some heinous crime. The Acarnanians reported this revolting
and unfriendly act to Philip, and prevailed upon him to send them
Macedonian aid and permit them to attack Athens.
(Livy XXI, xiv, 6-10)
Horace even feared the company of a violator of the sacred mysteries.
There is a sure reward for trusty silence, too. I will forbid the man who
has divulged the sacred rites of mystic Ceres, to abide beneath the same
roof or to unmoor with me the fragile bark.
(Horace Odes III, ii)
Libanius Decl 12.28 and frg. 50.3. Both passages, slightly corrupt, in the
context of Alcibiades’ profanation of the Mysteries, refer to torches from
the Anaktoron used by Alcibiades and his fellow revelers…This seems
to suggest that initiates took home torches from the Mysteries, perhaps
as a sacred momento, just as Christians do with palm leaves on Palm
Sunday. These torches Alcibiades was thought to have used in his
revels.
When all things were fitted for the voyage, many unlucky omens
appeared. At that very time the feast of Adonis happened in which the
women were used to expose, in all parts of the city, images resembling
dead men carried out to their burial, and to represent funeral solemnities
by lamentations and mournful songs. The mutation, however, of the
images of Mercury, most of which, in one night, had their faces all
disfigured, terrified many persons who were wont to despise most
things of that nature...But the report gained no credit with the people,
nor yet the opinion of those who would not believe that there was
anything ominous in the matter, but that it was only an extravagant
action, committed, in that sort of sport which runs into license, by wild
young men coming from a debauch...During the examination, Androcles,
one of the demagogues, produced certain slaves and strangers before
them who accused Alcibiades and some of his friends of defacing other
images in the same manner, and of having profanely acted the sacred
mysteries at a drunken meeting, where one Theodorus represented the
herald, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Alcibiades the chief priest, which
the rest of the party appeared as candidates for initiation, and received
the title of Initiates. These were the matters contained in the articled of
information which Thessalus, the son of Cimon, exhibited against
Alcibiades, formation which Thessalus, the son of Cimon, for his
impious mockery of the goddesses Ceres and Proserpine.
The information against him was conceived in this form:
Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia, lays information
that Alcibides, the son of Clinias of the township of the Scambonidae,
has committed a crime against the goddesses Ceres and Proserpine, by
representing in derision the holy mysteries, and showing them to
companions in his own house. Where, being habited in such robes as
are used by the chief pries, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Theodorius, of
the township of Phegea, the herald; and saluted the rest of his company
as Initiates and Novices, all which was done contrary to the laws and
institutions of the Eumolpidae, and the heralds and priests of the temple
at Eleusis.
During that time Androcles, the popular leader, produced sundry aliens
and slaves who accused Alcibiades and his friends of mutilating other
sacred images, and of making a parody of the mysteries of Eleusis in a
drunken revel. They said that one Theodorus played the part of the
Herald, Pulytion that of the Torch-bearer, and Alcibiades that of the High
Priest, and that the rest of his companions were there in the role of
initiates and were dubbed Mystae.
His impeachment is on record and runs as follows: AThessalus, son of
Cimon, of the deme Laciadae, impeaches Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, of
the deme Scambonidae, for committing crime against the goddesses of
Eleusis, Demeter and Core, by mimicking the mysteries and showing
them forth to his companions in his own house, wearing a robe such as
the High Priest wears when he shows forth the sacred secrets to the
initiates, and calling himself High Priest, Pulytion Torch-bearer, and
Theodorus, of the deme Phegaea, Herald, and hailing the rest of his
companions as Mystae and Epoptae, contrary to the laws and
institutions of the Eumolpidae, Heralds and Preisets of Eleusis.
Note the difference between Mystae and Epoptae, many are the thysus
bearers, but few the mystics.
Accordingly, it seemed to Alcibiades that it would be a fine thing,
enhancing his holiness in the eyes of the gods and his good repute in
the minds of men, to restore its traditional fashion to the sacred festival
by escorting the rite with his infantry along past the enemy by land. He
would thus either thwart and humble Agis, if the king kept entirely quiet,
or would fight a fight that was sacred and approved by the gods, in
behalf of the greatest and holiest interests, in full sight of his native city,
and with all his fellow citizens eye-witnesses of his valor.
When he had determined upon this course and made known his design
to the Eumolpidae and Heralds, he stationed sentries on the heights,
sent out an advance-guard at break of day, and then took the priests,
Mystae, and mystagogues, encompassed them with his men-at-arms,
and led them over the road to Eleusis in decorous and silent array. So
August and devout was the spectacle which, as general he thus
displayed, that he was hailed by those who were not unfriendly to him
as High Priest, rather, and Mystagogue.
AI therefore informed the Council that I knew the offenders, and showed
exactly what had occurred. The idea, I said, had been suggested by
Euphiletus at a drinking party; but I opposed it, and succeeded in
preventing its execution for the time being. Later, however, I was thrown
from a colt of mine in Cynosarges; I broke my collar-bone and fractured
my skull, and had to be taken home on a litter.
When Euphiletus saw my condition, he informed the others that I had
consented to join them and had promised to mutilate the Hermes next to
the shrine of Phorbuas as my share in the escapade.@
What is the connection here? Hermes is guide to the Underworld. Plot
hatched at a drinking party. Andocides says that by coming forward, AI
freed Athens from the panic which was working such havoc.@ Todd:
Mutilation of the Hermes might have prevented impregnation.
“Diocleides= tale was that he had to fetch the earnings of a slave of his
at Laurium. He arose at an early hour, mistaking the time, and started off
on his walk by the light of a full moon. As he was passing the gateway
of the theater of Dionysus, he noticed a large body of men coming down
into the orchestra from the Odeum. In alarm, he withdrew into the
shadow and crouched down between the column and the pedestal with
the bronze statue of the general upon it He then saw some three
hundred men standing about in groups of five and ten, and in some
cases, twenty. He recognized the faces of the majority as he could see
them in the moonlight....after seeing what he had, he went on to
Laurium; and when he learned next day of the mutilation of the Hermae,
he knew at once that it was the work of the men he had noticed.@
Diocleides was lying and then AAlcibiades and Amiantus fled from the
country in terror; and when you heard the facts yourselves, you handed
Dioclides over to the court and put him to death.@
The prosecution have also accused me in connection with the
suppliant=s bough. They allege that it was I who placed it in the
Eleusinium and that under ancient law the penalty for doing such a thing
during the Mysteries is death...It was on our return from Eleusis, after the
information had already been lodged against me. The Basileus
appeared before the Prytanes to give the usual report on all the had
occurred during the performance of the ceremonies there. The Prytanes
said that they would bring him before the Council and told him to give
Cephisius and myself notice to attend at the Eleusinium, as it was there
that the Council was to sit in conformity with a slaw of Solon=s, which
lays down that a sitting shall be held in the Eleusinium on the day after
the Mysteries. We duly attended.
And since they knew that in matters pertaining to the gods the city
would be most enraged if any man should be shown to be violating the
Mysteries, and that in other matters if any man should dare to attempt
the overthrow of the democracy, they combined both these charges and
tried to bring an action of impeachment before the senate. They
asserted that my father was holding meetings of his political club with a
view to revolution, and that these members of the club, when dining
together in the house of Pulytion, had given a performance of the
Mysteries.
One of the porticoes contains shrines of gods, and a gymnasium called
that of Hermes. In it is the house of Pulytion, at which it is said that a
mystic rite was performed by the most notable of Athenians, parodying
the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Not only were Socrates and his friends notorious Spartan sympathizers,
but even before the great scandal of the profanations, he was suspect of
profaning the Mysteries. In the Clouds, he had been shown teaching his
students to disdain conventional theology in a parody of a mystery
initiation, as they probed the lower world for the bulbous plants that in
the Eleusinian myth were associated with Persephone=s abduction to
Hades (188ff.) He had, in fact, even been labeled a Melian in that comedy
(830), on the model either of Diagoras of Melos or Aristagoras of the
same island, both of whom had profaned the Mysteries on some
occasion before the great scandal of 415 (scholia to Clouds 830 and
Birds 1072.) If one could accuse Socrates of profaning the Mysteries in
422, the date of the Clouds, certainly the proven guild of Alcibiades
seven years later would have implicated his unconventional and pro-
Spartan teacher as well, and, in fact, the infamy of Diagoras is recalled in
the Birds when the chorus of birds cites the reward that had been
posted for the capture and death of that earlier profanation of the Lesser
Mystery (1072-1073.) It would have been inevitable, in any case, that
suspicion would fall upon Socrates since it was apparently well known
that he was subject to mystical trances that were so similar to the
experience of the Eleusinian vision that Plato adapts the language of the
Mystery to describe them. (Plato Symposium 174dff, and 220bff.,
Phaedrus 250c.)
The most prominent atheist of the fifth century seems to have been
Diagoras of Melos, not a philosopher or theoretician but a poet; later it
was a philologist=s joke to quote pious hymns to the gods from his
oeuvre...Diagoras revealed the Eleusinian mysteries to everyone Aand
thus made them ordinary.@ In the light of day the nocturnal ceremonies
are nothing.
This sacred marriage had some relation to the so-called Lesser
Eleusinian Mystery, a ceremony that was a preliminary to the Greater
Mystery that would be performed in the autumn of the year at the
neighboring village of Eleusis. Socrates= rite of necromancy, therefore,
in this Swamp with a person like Peisander and at this particular date
would seem somehow involved in the great scandal of the day, the
profanation of the Mysteries. (See The Dramatic Festivals at Athens,
revised by J. Gould and D. Lewis. (Oxford, 1968.)
It also includes Poulytion=s house, where some distinguished
Athenians are supposed to have carried out a parody of an initiation at
Eleusis; in my time the place was consecrated to Dionysos.
Pig
...may not the pig, which was so closely associated with Demeter, be
nothing but the goddess herself in animal form? The pig was regularly
sacrificed in her mysteries, the reason assigned being that the pig
injures the corn and is therefore an enemy of the goddess.
A trace of the older conception survived in the legend that when
Demeter was looking for the lost Proserpine, the footprints of the latter
were obliterated by the footprints of a pig.
Ovid pleads for the bull which serves man well, giving over the useless
pig for sacrifice . As far as we know the trend at Eleusis was in this
direction.
You attendants, with tucked up robes, take the knives away from the ox;
let the ox plough; sacrifice the lazy sow. The ax should never smite the
neck that fits the yoke; let him live and often labor in the hard soil.
(Fasti IV, 409-416)
Purification
The skin of a victim sacrificed to Zeus was widely used by the Greeks in
various purificatory rites. Individuals, who wished to be purified, stood
upon it supporting themselves on their left foot only. When a multitude
or a locality was to be cleansed, it is more probable that the skin was
carried round in procession. Further, the skins of animals sacrificed to
Zeus…were kept and used by those who marshaled the procession…by
the torch bearers of Eleusis…
The last general trait which I want to stress - the universal fear of
pollution (miasma), and its correlate, the universal craving for ritual
purification (catharsis.) (Did Persephone need to be purified upon her
return from Hades?)
The need for purification, as we have seen, was bound up with dark
superstitions about the power of the dead to return and visit with
frightful plagues the guilty or neglected living. Katharmoi and telatai are
spoken of together by Plato as means of averting their curse, and teletai,
as we know from the nature of the Eleusinian and other mysteries, were
above all things a means of getting into touch with the spirits of the
other world. There were in the first of chthonian powers like Demeter,
Pluto, Dionysus and him of Crete. In this way therefore Apollo=s
connection with homicides points not to Olympus but to the Chthonian
depths, and he stands as a unique bridge between the two worlds.
In connection with Herakles, a second priest, the Dadouchos, also had
to appear and slaughter the ram on whose skin the greatest sinners sat
during the remaining rites of purification. (A vase scene depicting the
lesser mysteries.@)
There follows a purification ceremony for which the Homeric Hymn has
Demeter herself set the example. Without speaking a word she sits
down on a stool which is covered by a ram fleece, and she veils her
head. Thus reliefs show Herakles at his initiation, veiled and sitting on a
ram fleece, while either a winnowing fan is held over him or a torch is
brought up close to him from beneath. In ancient interpretation this
would be purification by air and by fire; for the blindfolded mystes these
must be disquieting, threatening experiences. On the reliefs there
follows the encounter with Demeter, Kore, and the kiste. This probably
points to the festival proper: >As long as you have not reached the
Anaktoron, you are not initiated.=
Ram
The image of the Ram was placed among the stars by Nubes (cloud) to
preside over the time of year when the grain is sowed because formerly
Ino sowed parched grain at that time – which was largely responsible for
the flight of Phrixus and Hellej….the Ram (Zeus) represented among the
stars such that when the sun is in its sign, all things that grow are
renewed; this comes to pass in the spring because of the fact that Liber’
s army was renewed by the ram’s flight.
Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy, 2.20 ff (When the king, Athamas, King of
Boetia, was about to sacrifice Phrixus, Zeus sent a golden ram to carry
the children to safety…this probably reflects an ancient custom of
sacrificing a king’s son in time of famine.)
Zeus, desiring to consort with his own mother Deo or Demeter, turned
himself into a bull and so compassed his end. Deo in fierce anger took
the title Brimo, ‘the wrathful’ and would not be appeased till Zeus came
before her in a mood of mock-repentance, pretended to have made a
eunuch of himself, and in proof of his words flung the severed parts into
her lap. In reality they were those of a fine ram which he had gelded.
The issue of his union with Deo was Kore or Pherephatta, with whom he
again had intercourse under the form of a monstrous snake. This time
the offspring was shaped like a bull. Hence the well-known line: Bull
began Snake, Snake begat Bull.
The Thebans and all other Egyptians who worshiped the Theban god
Ammon held rams to be sacred and would not sacrifice them. But once
a year at the festival of Ammon they killed a ram, skinned it, and clothed
the image of the god in the skin. Then they mourned over the ram and
buried it in a sacred tomb. The custom was explained by a story that
Zeus had once exhibited himself to Hercules clad in the fleece and
wearing the head of a ram. (Herodotus ii, 42) Of course the ram in this
case was simply the beast god of Thebes, as the wolf was the beast god
of Lycopolis, and the goat was the beast god of Mendes. In other words,
the ram was Ammon himself.
Here is Phrixos carried away to Kolchoi by the ram: he sacrifices the
ram to some god, perhaps the one called Laphystios at Orchomenos,
cuts up the thighs in the Greek traditional way, and watches them burn.
(In his footnote, Peter Levi says APhrixos rode on a golden ram that
Hermes gave his mother. He went to Kolchoi on it to escape from his
stepmother, married, and settled down there. This ram=s fleece was
Jason=s golden fleece. Laphystios is the Zeus of Mount Laphystion in
Boiotia; there are coins connecting Zeus Laphystios with this saga.)
In connection with Herakles, a second priest, the Dadouchos, also had
to appear and slaughter the ram on whose skin the greatest sinners sat
during the remaining rites of purification. (A vase scene depicting the
lesser mysteries.@)
As you go on along the straight road to Lechaion, you come to a seated
bronze Hermes, with a ram standing beside him, because Hermes is the
god who seems to have most interest in flocks and to increase them, as
Homer says in the Iliad:
Phorbas of the flocks of Troy whom Hermes loved and gave him wealth
As for the story about Hermes and the ram told during the mystery of the
Mother, I know it but will not tell it. (Fraser thought it was an obscene
story told by Clement of Alexandria which is not about Hermes, but
about Zeus.)
About the sanctuaries of HERMES WITH THE RAM and of the Champion,
the story told of the first title is that Hermes turned away a plague for
them by carrying a ram around the town wall, and so Kalamis made a
statue of Hermes carrying the ram over his shoulders. At Hermes=
festival, the most beautifully-shaped young man is chosen to go round
the circuit of the wall with a lamb on his shoulders.
There are statues of the gods, Karneian Apollo, the Pure One, and
Hermes carrying a ram. The Pure One is a title of Demeter=s daughter,
the Maid; water comes up from the spring right beside her statue. As for
the story of the Great Goddesses, whose mystery is also celebrated in
Karnasion, let me not speak of it: I judge them for their awful holiness to
be second only to the Eleusinians. But the dream has not forbidden me
to tell everybody that the bronze jar the Argive commander found and
the bones of Eurytos so of Melaneus were kept here.
There follows a purification ceremony for which the Homeric Hymn has
Demeter herself set the example. Without speaking a word she sits
down on a stool which is covered by a ram fleece, and she veils her
head. Thus reliefs show Herakles at his initiation, veiled and sitting on a
ram fleece, while either a winnowing fan is held over him or a torch is
brought up close to him from beneath. In ancient interpretation this
would be purification by air and by fire; for the blindfolded mystes these
must be disquieting, threatening experiences. On the reliefs there
follows the encounter with Demeter, Kore, and the kiste. This probably
points to the festival proper: >As long as you have not reached the
Anaktoron, you are not initiated.=
Hermes=s visit to Penelope in the form of a ram - the ram devil is as
common in the North-western witch cult as the goat - her impregnation
by all the suitors and the claim that Pan had coupled with everyone of
the Maenads refers to the promiscuous nature of the revels in honor of
the Fig-goddess Pitys or Elate.
At Hera=s orders the Titans seized Zeus= newly-born son Dionysus, a
horned child crowned with serpents and, despite his transformations,
tore him into shreds. These they boiled in a cauldron, while a
pomegranate-tree sprouted from the soil where his blood had fallen; but,
rescued and reconstituted by his grandmother Rhea, he came to life
again...Then, on Zeus= instructions, Hermes temporarily transformed
Dionysus into a kid or a ram, and presented him to the nymphs Macris,
Nysa, Erato, Bromie and Bacche, of heliconian Mount Nysa. They
tended Dionysus in a cave, cosseted him, and fed him on honey, for
which service Zeus subsequently placed their images among the stars,
naming them the Hyades.
Secrets
“A most important Athenian testimony concerning the myth and the cult
is offered by the brief synopsis which Isocrates gave in his Panegyricus
(28)
‘First of all, that which mankind first needed was provided by our city.
For even if the story is mythic, nevertheless, it is fitting for it to be told
even now. When Demeter, having wandered about after Kore was
abducted, arrived in our country, and was well disposed to our
ancestors because of their kindnesses which it is not possible for those
who are not initiated to hear, and gave them double gifts, which happen
to be the greatest – the fruits of the earth, which are responsible for the
fact that we do not live like animals, and the festival, the participants in
which have sweeter hopes concerning the end of life and all time, our
city was so reverent and generous, that when it possessed such great
good things it did not begrudge them to others but let all share in the
things which it received.’”…
…What is interesting is that the Hymn does not give us a solid clue that
there even existed a secret part of the myth itself.
AIs it not, perhaps, the secret of every true and great mystery that it is
simple?@ - Kerenyi
I wanted to go on with this story and describe the contents of the
Athenian sanctuary called the Eleusinion, but I was stopped by
something I saw in a dream.
But a man may be ignorant of (2) what he is doing, as for instance when
people say Ait slipped out while they were speaking@ or Athey were not
aware that the matter was a secret@ as Aeschylus said of the
Mysteries.
My dream forbade the description of the things within the wall of the
sanctuary, and the uninitiated are of course not permitted to learn that
which they are prevented from seeing. The hero Eleusis, after whom the
city is names, some assert to be a son of Hermes and of Daeira,
daughter of Ocean; there are poets, however, who have made Ogygus
father of Eleusis.
Proceeding on the direct road to Lechaeum we see a bronze image of a
seated Hermes. By him stands a ram, for Hermes is the god who is
thought most to care for and to increase flocks, as Homer puts in the
Iliad:
Son was he of Phorbas, the dearest of the Trojans to Hermes
Rich in flocks, for the god vouchsafed him wealth in abundance.
The story told at the Mysteries of the Mother about Hermes and the ram I
know but do not relate.
And so the envoys came with a request to Aeacus from each city. By
sacrifice and prayer to Zeus, God of all the Greeks, he caused rain to fall
upon the earth, and the Aeginetans made these likenesses of those who
came to him. Within the enclosure are olive trees that have grown there
from of old and there is an altar which is raised but a little from the
ground. That this altar is also the tomb of Aeacus is told as a holy
secret.
Advancing from here twenty-five stades you come to a grove of
Cabeirean Demeter and the Maid. The initiated are permitted to enter it.
The sanctuary of the Cabeiri is some seven stades distant from the
grove. I must ask the curious to forgive me if I keep silence as to who
the Cabeiri are, and what is the nature of the ritual performed in honor of
them and of the Mother.
“solemn rites which it is not possible to transgress or to learn about or
to utter. For a great reverence for the gods holds back one’s voice.”
(Note: what is the cause of the reverence – might it not be to reveal
something embarrassing to one or more of the gods?)
But there is nothing to prevent my declaring to all what the Thebans say
was the origin of the ritual. They say that once there was in this place a
city, with inhabitants called Cabeiri, and that Demeter came to know
Prometheus, once of the Cabeiri, and Aetnaelis his son, and entrusted
something to their keeping. What was entrusted to them, and what
happened to it, seemed to me a sin to put into writing, but at any rate the
rites are a gift of Demeter to the Cabeiri.
There are statues of the gods Apollo Carneius and Hagne, also Hermes
carrying a ram. Hagne (the holy one) is a title of Kore the daughter of
Demeter. Water rises from a spring close to the statue. I may not reveal
the rites of the Great Goddesses, for it is their mysteries which they
celebrate in the Canasian grove, and I regard them as second only to the
Eleusinian in sanctity. But my dream did not prevent me from making
known to all that the brazen urn, discovered by the Argive general, and
the bones of Eurytus the son of Melaneus were kept here.
Story of Hermes averting a plague from the city by carrying a ram on his
shoulders found in Pausanias IX, 22
ASecret@ must not necessarily be taken to mean Amystery.@
Underneath there may indeed be a true mystery in the sense adopted by
Romano Guardini, who defined a genuine mystery as one that is
experienced, venerated, lived - in other words, is not kept especially
secret - and yet remains forever a mystery. The secret itself may be less
important than the fact that it is kept secret.
It may be said at the outset that the obligation of secrecy applied only to
the final rite of Beholding (Epopteia), which formed the climax to a
procedure lasting a number of days.
We need not waste time in speculating on the nature of the final
spectacle in the actual Telesterion at Eleusis. This it was that admitted a
man to the highest grade of initiation, that of Epoptes, Beholder. Of
these last solemn rites it was not permitted to speak. Of these last
solemn rites it was not permitted to speak. AA great awe of the gods
holds back the voice@, as the Homeric Hymn puts it and a chorus of
Sophocles says that a golden key is laid upon the tongue of mortals by
the Eumolpid priests.
The image of Fury holds what is called the chest, and in her right hand a
torch. Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name
they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called
Areion. For this reason they say that they were the first Arcadians to call
Poseidon AHorse.@
In Arcadia, the oldest center of her worship, Artemis was closely
associated in cult with Demeter and Persephone. Herodotus says that
Aeschylus actually called Artemis the daughter of Demeter, thus
identifying her with Persephone, the corn-goddess.
This is the story that the Egyptians tell to explain why the island moves:
that on this island that did not move before, Leto, one of the eight gods
who first came to be, who was living at Buto where this oracle of hers is,
taking charge of Apollo form Isis, hid him for safety in this island which
is now said to float, when Typhon came hunting through the world, keen
to find the son of Osiris. Apollo and Artemis were (they say) children of
Dionysus and Isis, and Leto was made their nurse and preserver; in
Egyptian, Apollo is Horus, Demeter Isis, Artemis Bubastis. It was from
this legend and no other that Aeschylus son of Euphorion took a notion
which is in no poet before him: that Artemis was the daughter of
Demeter. For this reason the island was made to float. So they say.
Aeschylus was accused, says the Scholiast to Aristotle, or revealing the
mysteries in the Toxotides, the Priestess, Sisyphus Petrokylistes,
Iphigenia and Oedipus: that is, in five different plays. (The Toxotides, or
Archer Maidens, dealt with the sparagmos of the Dionysiac hero
Actaeon; of the Priestess nothing more is known; Sisyphus Rolling the
Stone is so called to distinguish it from Sisyphus the Runaway, which
was a satyr-play about the deceiving of death. We cannot tell whether it
was a satyr-play also or a tragedy. The Iphigenia and the Oedipus were
tragedies dealing with the well-known sagas.
Diodorus does not name his authority. It was probably a historian from
Crete. His proof of the Cretan origin of the Mysteries, cited in Diodorus
(V 77 3) is of interest: elsewhere, these are the exact words, - such rites
are communicated in secret, but in Crete, in Knossos, it has been the
custom since time immemorial to speak of these ceremonies quite
openly to all, and, if anyone wished to learn of them, to conceal none of
the things which elsewhere were imparted to the initiate under the vow
of silence.
On the road stands a small temple called that of Cyamites. I cannot state
for certain whether he was the first to sow beans, or whether they gave
this name to a hero because they may not attribute to Demeter the
discovery of beans. Whoever has been initiated at Eleusis or has read
what are called the Orphica knows what I mean.
The statue of Hera is seated on a throne; it is huge, made of gold and
ivory, and is a work of Polycleitus. She is wearing a crown with Graces
and Seasons worked upon it, and in one had she carries a pomegranate
and in the other a scepter. About the pomegranate I must say nothing,
for its story is somewhat of a holy mystery.
To those Pheneatians who received her with hospitality into their homes
the goddess gave all sorts of pulse save the bean only. There is a
sacred story to explain why the bean in their eyes is an impure kind of
pulse.
in the first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human
occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and
secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine
inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and thirdly, the
secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for
the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid
being perceived by our human senses; and, fourthly, music, which
includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the
delight it affords and by its artistic beauty, brings us in touch with the
divine, and for this for the following reason; for although it has been well
said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing
food to others, yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such
happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing
philosophy and engaging in music; for, if music is perverted when
musicians turn their art to sensual delights at symposiums and in
orchestric and scenic performances and the like, we would not lay the
blame upon music itself, but should rather examine the nature of our
system of education, since this is based on music.
On the road between the Tralleians and Nysa is a village of the Nysaens,
not far from the city Acharaca, where is the Plutonium, with a costly
sacred precinct and a shrine of Pluto and Core, and also the Charonium,
a cave that lies above the sacred precinct, by nature wonderful; for they
say that those who are diseased and give heed to the cures prescribed
by these gods resort thither and live in the village near the cave among
experienced priests, who on their behalf sleep in the cave and through
dreams prescribe the cures. These are also the men who invoke the
healing power of the gods. And they often bring the sick into the cave
and leave them there, to remain in quiet, like animals in their lurking-
holes, without food for many days. And sometimes the sick give heed
also to their own dreams, but still they use those other men, as priests,
to initiate them into the mysteries and counsel them. To all others the
place is forbidden and deadly.
This sacred marriage had some relation to the so-called Lesser
Eleusinian Mystery, a ceremony that was a preliminary to the Greater
Mystery that would be performed in the autumn of the year at the
neighboring village of Eleusis. Socrates= rite of necromancy, therefore,
in this Swamp with a person like Peisander and at this particular date
would seem somehow involved in the great scandal of the day, the
profanation of the Mysteries. (See The Dramatic Festivals at Athens,
revised by J. Gould and D. Lewis. (Oxford, 1968.)
What was carried about - whether in a cista mystica or in a liknon - could
not, however, be kept entirely secret. It was not a heart but a phallus.
This is evident from the Orphic books themselves. In a text about which
we shall have more to say later, the object that the goddess Hipta took
from Zeus and carried on her head in a liknon was called the AKradiaios
Dionysos.@ Kradiaios can have two meanings, and this is the key to
the secret. It can be derived either from Kradia (Aheart=) or from krade
(Afig tree@): in the latter case, it means an object made from a fig branch
or fig wood. According to one myth, Dionysos himself fashioned a
phallus from fig wood for use in a mystic rite connected with his return
from the underworld. The soft wood was suitable for the Dionysian
utensil, which was referred to by the euphemism Aheart.@ According to
the sources the object that was preserved by Pallas Athena was the
sacrificed he-goat=s male organ, which was neither boiled nor roasted
nor burned, but set aside and hidden. The action was symbolic and it is
very likely that in place of the dried members, or along with it, a phallus
of fig wood was used the following year in the ceremony serving to
Aawaken@ Liknites, the god lying in the liknon.
Sisyphus
And Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, founded Ephyra, which is now called
Corinth, and married Merope, daughter of Atlas. They had a son
Glaucus, who had by Eurymede a son Bellerophon, who slew the fire
breathing Chimera. But Sisyphus is punished in Hades by rolling a
stone with his hands and head in the effort to heave it over the top; but
push as he will, it rebounds backward. This punishment he endures for
the sake of Aegina, daughter of Asopus; for when Zeus had secretly
carried her off Sisyphus is said to have betrayed the secret to Asopus,
who was looking for her.
(Sisyphus the Runaway is named only in the Medicean Catalogue;
Sisyphus the Stone-Roller, is mentioned twice in grammarians;
elsewhere the form of citation is simply Sisyphus.
The first named drama was satyric; its them, the escape from Hades of
the craft Corinthian king. According to the fabulous story told by
Pherecydes (Fragment 78 in Muller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum)
Sisyphus made know to Asopus that it was Zeus who had carried off his
daughter Aegina; in punishment for which offence the god send Death
against the babbler; but Sisyphus bound Death fast, so that men ceased
to die, until Ares came to the rescue, released Death, and gave Sisyphus
into his power. Before he died, however, Sisyphus directed his wife
Merope to omit his funeral rites, so that Hades, being deprived of his
customary offerings, was persuaded by the cunning trickster to let him
go back to life in order to complain of his wife=s neglect. But, once in
the upper world, he refused to return, and had to be fetched back by
Hermes. The Satyrs forming the Chorus were probably represent as
initiates if the play was a parody of the Dionysiac-Orphic mysteries.
(Sisyphus the Stone-Roller is one of the six dramas mentioned by the
ancients in connection with the charge of impiety brought against the
poet.)
ANay, is it some field-mouse so monstrous large?@ From a description
of Sisyphus emerging from the earth.
ANow I come to bid farewell to Zagreus and to his sire, the hospitaler.@
(Sisyphus describes his departure from the lower world. Dionysus,
viewed by the Orphics as the child of Zeus and Persephone, received
the name Zagreus, the Agreat hunter.@ At times he was thus identified
with Hades, at times made the son of the Ahospitaler of the dead.@
(Suppliant Maidens 157.)
Soul
Souls therefore, all possessed of this power, which is innate but dim and
hardly manifest, nevertheless oftentimes disclose its flower and
radiance in dreams, and some in the hour of death, when the body
becomes cleansed of all impurities and attains a temperament adapted
to this end, a temperament through which the reasoning and thinking
faculty of the soul is relaxed and released from their present state as
they range amid the irrational and imaginative realms of the future. It is
not true, as Euripides says, that
the best of seers is he that guesses well
no, the best of seers is the intelligent man, following the guidance of that
in his soul which possess sense and which, with the help of reasonable
probability, leads him on his way. But that which foretells the future, like
a tablet without writing, is both irrational and indeterminate in itself, but
receptive of impressions and presentiments through what may be done
to it, and inconsequentially grasps at the future when it is farthest
withdrawn from the present. Its withdrawal is brought about by a
temperament and disposition of the body as it is subjected to a change
which we call inspiration. Often the body of itself alone attains this
disposition. Moreover the earth sends forth for men streams of many
other potencies, some of them producing derangements, diseases or
deaths; others helpful, benignant and beneficial; as is plan from the
experience of persons who have come upon them. But the prophetic
current and breath is most divine and holy, whether it issues by itself
through the air or come in the company of running waters; for when it is
instilled into the body, it creates in souls an unaccustomed and unusual
temperament, the peculiarity of which it is hard to describe with
exactness, but analogy offers many comparisons. It is likely that by
warmth and diffusion it opens up certain passages through which
impressions of the future are transmitted, just as wine when its fumes
rise to the head, reveals many unusual movements and also words
stored away and unperceived
for Bacchic rout and frenzied mind contain much prophecy
according to Euripides, when the soul becomes hot and fiery, and
throws aside the caution that human intelligence lays upon it, and thus
often diverts and extinguishes the inspiration.
The same persons are roused now to less, now to more, extravagant
conduct by the Bacchic revels or stimulated by the wine, as the
temperament within them becomes different. But especially does the
imaginative faculty of the soul seem to be swayed by the alterations in
the body, and to change as the body changes, a fact which is clearly
shown in dreams; for at one time we find ourselves beset in our dreams
by a multitude of visions of all sorts, and at another time again there
comes a complete calmness and rest free from all such fancies...
Whenever, then, the imaginative and prophetic faculty is in a state of
proper adjustment for attempting itself to the spirit as to a drug;
inspiration in those who foretell the future is bound to come; and
whenever the conditions are not thus, it is bound not to come, or when it
does come to be misleading, abnormal and confusing...
I know that the Chaldaeans and Indian sages were the first to say that
the soul of man is immortal, and have been followed by some of the
Greeks, particularly by Plato, the son of Ariston.
Socrates: They were certain priests and priestesses who have
studied so as to be able to give a reasoned account of their ministry;
and Pindar also and many another poet of heavenly gifts. As to their
words, they are these: mark now, if you judge them to be true. They say
that the soul of man is immortal, and at one time comes to an end, which
is called dying, and at another is born again, but never perishes.
Consequently one ought to live all one=s life in the utmost holiness.
For from whomsoever Persephone shall accept requital for ancient
wrong, the souls of these she restores in the ninth year to the upper sun
again; from them arise glorious kings and men of splendid might and
surpassing wisdom, and for all remaining time are they called holy
heroes amongst mankind.
Seeing then that the soul is immortal and has been born many times,
and has beheld all things both in this world and in the nether worlds,
she has acquired knowledge of all and everything, so that is no wonder
that she should be able to recollect all that she knew before about virtue
and other things. For as all nature is akin, and the soul has learned all
things, there is no reason why we should not, by remembering but one
single thing - an act which men call learning - discover everything else, if
we have courage and faint not in the search; since, it would seem,
research and learning are wholly recollection.
Soul, considered collectively, has the care of all that which is soulless,
and it traverses the whole heaven, appearing sometimes in one form
and sometimes in another; now when it is perfect and fully winged, it
mounts upward and governs the whole world; but the soul which has
lost its wings is borne along until it gets hold of something solid, when it
settles down; taking upon itself an earthly body, which seems to be self-
moving, because of the power of the souls within it; and the whole;
compounded of soul and body, is called a living being, and is further
designated as mortal.
But pregnancy of soul - for there are persons, she declared, who in their
souls still more than in their bodies conceive these things which are
proper for soul to conceive and bring forth...
We have seen how the Classical Age inherited a whole series of
inconsistent pictures of the Asoul@ or Aself@ - the living corpse in the
grave, the shadowy image in Hades, the perishable breath that is spilt in
the air or absorbed in the aether, the daemon that is reborn in other
bodies.
But we must be careful not to assume that this entity which is to be
saved is a spiritual soul. Wherever it has appeared, the notion of the
soul grew out of and did not precede the idea of salvation.
In Homeric language, a something, the psyche, leaves man at the
moment of death and enters the house of Ais, also known as Aides,
Aidoneus and in the Attic as Hades. Psyche means breath just as
psychein is the verb to breathe; arrested breathing is the simplest
outward sign of death...Yet from the moment it leaves the man it is also
termed an eidolon, a phantom image, like the image reflected in a mirror
which can be seen, though not always clearly, but cannot be grasped:
the dream image and the ghostly image, the forms in which the dead
man can still appear, are identified with the breath which has left the
body. Thus the psyche of a dead man can on appropriate occasions be
seen and at all events can be imagined.
Gimbutas suggests that the double blades of the axe evolved from the
neolithic butterfly, and that the double double-axe in particular precisely
imitates the double wings of the butterfly. The butterfly is still in many
lands the image of the soul, and in Greek the word for butterfly and the
soul were the same: psyche. Both the axe and the butterfly, Gimbutas
adds, are images of the Goddess.
To say gods and men, the Greek might use the words theoi and
anthropoi, but he might equally well use the words athanatoi and
thnetoi. Athanatos (immortal) is an adjective, and may therefore be used
in conjunction with theos. But it may equally well stand alone, and its
meaning then is unambiguous: it means god and nothing else, just as
theos does. It follows that to believe the soul to be immortal is to believe
it to be divine. If man is immortal, then he is a god. This is universal in
Greek.
(From the 11th book of the Iliad:) AHe was marvelously like himself to
look at,@ said Achilles afterward, and as the ghost, with a thin shriek,
vanished like smoke beneath the earth, eluding his attempts to embrace
it, he exclaimed with an ejaculation of astonishment: ATrue it is, then,
that even in the house of Hades there exists a soul and a wraith, but
there are no phrenes in it at all!@ Phrenes is a word which is sometimes
to be translated Aheart@, as when a man feels grief at his phrenes, and
sometimes mind, as when one is said to know something, or to conceive
an idea, in the phrenes.
Even for those who through the Eleusinian mysteries, or the Atales of
those told in Hades@, hoped for something better after death, it was
probably a new and astonishing thing to be told that the psyche was the
seat of the moral and intellectual faculties and of far greater importance
than the body.
Among existing forms of religion, the best hope of a solution seemed to
be offered by the Dionysiac, in which by means of ecstasy and frenzy
the puny, individual soul felt itself lifted out of its loneliness so that at the
height of its passionate experience it could call itself Bacchos, one with
the god by whom it was inspired.
"But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world;
they may have seen them for a short time only,
or they may have been unfortunate in their earthly lot,
and, having had their hearts turned to injustice
through some corrupting influence,
they may have lost the memory
of the holy things which once they saw.
Few only retain an adequate remembrance of them;
and they when they see here any image of that other world,
are rapt in amazement;
but they are ignorant of what this rapture means,
because they do not clearly perceive.
For there is no light of justice or temperance
or any of the higher ideas which are precious to souls
in the earthly copies of them:
they are seen through a glass dimly;
and there are few who, going to the images,
seen in them the realities, and these only with difficulty.
There was a time when with the rest of the happy band
they saw beauty shining in brightness,---
we philosophers following in the train of Zeus,
others in company with other gods;
and then we saw the beatific vision
and were initiated into a mystery
which may be truly called most blessed,
celebrated by us in our state of innocence,
before we had any experience of evils to come,
when we were admitted to the sight of apparitions
innocent and simple and calm and happy,
which we saw shining in pure light,
pure ourselves and not yet enshrined in that living tomb
which we carry about, now that we are imprisoned in the body,
like an oyster in his shell."
Socrates in Plato Phaedrus 250
"There we must ascend again towards the good,
desired of every soul.
Anyone who has seen this, knows what I intend
when I say it is beautiful.
Even the desire of it is to be desired as a good.
To attain it is for those who will take the upward path,
who will set all their forces towards it,
who will divest themselves of all
that we have put on in our descent:---
so, to those who approach the Holy Celebrations of the Mysteries,
there are appointed purifications
and the laying aside of the garments worn before,
and the entry in nakedness---
until, passing on the upward way,
all that is other than the God,
each in the solitude of oneself
shall see that solitary-dwelling existence,
the apart, the unmingled, the pure,
that from which all things depend,
for which all look and live and act and know,
the source of life and of intellection and of being."
Plotinus First Ennead VI, 7
"For we believe that there is nothing more important
for man to receive,
or more ennobling for God of his grace to grant,
than the truth." Plutarch Isis and Osiris
In Eckankar, Paul Twitchell informs us that all the ancient mysteries of
Dionysus, of Delphi, and of Eleusis taught out-of-the-body travel. (p. 134)
He describes the path to God from purgatorial virtues of purification,
theoretic or epoptic virtues bestowing clairvoyance and clairaudience,
exemplary virtues conferring magical powers, and theurgic virtues
which transform one into God. Twitchell calls the Eleusinian Mysteries
the supreme font of western occult lore that released the soul from
bodily bondage. (Twitchell Eckankar p. 18)
He quotes Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Glossary under "Soma
Drink" which refers to the initiates' drinking the Kykeon which enables
them to easily reach the place of splendor or heaven. (Ibid. p. 18)
Twitchell also saw Plato's Phaedo as symbolic of the Eleusinian
Mysteries.
They are taking off his chains, and giving orders that he is to die today.
(Plato Phaedo 60)
Socrates' execution has been delayed due to the holy season
proclaimed in honor of the ship sent to Delos to commemorate
Theseus's and fourteen youths' victory over Minos and Crete. Socrates
is advised not to talk too much so that the hemlock may take effect, and
before he drank it he bathed and changed his clothes as the initiates did
before the final vision at the celebration. Phaedo himself describes the
mood at this historic event.
I had singular feeling at being in his company. For I could hardly believe
that I was present at the death of a friend, and therefore I did not pity
him, Echecrates; he died so fearlessly, and his words and bearing were
so noble and gracious, that to me he appeared blessed. I thought that in
going to the other world he could not be without a divine call, and that
he would be happy, if any man ever was, when he arrived there; and
therefore I did not pity him as might have seemed natural at such an
hour.
(Plato Phaedo 58-59)
To lift the veil from death, two truths were to be learned and experienced
by the initiates. The first is reincarnation or the continual regeneration of
spiritual life symbolized by seeds and plants. The second is even a
greater mystery and has to do with initiation into divine life or the soul
realm achieved while alive on earth and practiced on the higher planes
of consciousness after the new birth. Let us look at Socrates' argument
for the first.
There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which affirms that they
go from hence into the other world, and returning here, are born again
from the dead. Now if it be true that the living come from the dead, then
our souls must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they have
been born again?...
Then let us consider the whole question, not in relation to man only, but
in relation to animals generally, and to plants, and to everything of which
there is generation, and the proof will be easier.
(Ibid. 70)
Thus we see the perpetual transformations of nature. The soul enters
the body at birth and departs at death.
For if the soul exists before birth, and in coming to life and being born
can be born only from death and dying, must she not after death
continue to exist, since she has to be born again?
(Ibid. 77)
What is the reason for the soul's coming to birth in a body over and over
again?
Why, because each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and
rivets the souls to the body, until she becomes like the body, and
believes that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from
agreeing with the body and having the same delights she is obliged to
have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever to be pure at her
departure to the world below, but is always infected by the body; and so
she sinks into another body and there germinates and grows, and has
therefore no part in the communion of the divine and pure and simple.
(Ibid. 83)
The ethical laws of the universe are just, though not necessarily
completed within a lifetime.
We arrive at the conclusion that the living come from the dead, just as
the dead come from the living; and this, if true, affords a most certain
proof that the souls of the dead exist in some place out of which they
come again.... But I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living
again, and that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the
dead are in existence, and that the good souls have a better portion than
the evil.
(Ibid. 72)
Sleep is analogous to death, because the soul and the subtler bodies
often leave the physical body to travel the inner realms of
consciousness.
The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and out of sleeping
waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping; and the process of
generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the other waking up.
(Ibid. 71)
The very existence of God or the absolute and the soul which
comprehends this absolute by being one with it, implies the previous
existence of the soul.
Then may we not say,... there is an absolute beauty, and goodness, and
an absolute essence of all things;... which is now discovered to have
existed in our former state, we refer all our sensations, and with this
compare them, finding these ideas to be pre-existent and our inborn
possession - then our souls must have had a prior existence.
(Ibid. 76)
Your favorite doctrine, Socrates, that knowledge is simply recollection, if
true, also necessarily implies a previous time in which we have learned
that which we now recollect. But this would be impossible unless our
soul had been in some place before existing in the form of man; here
then is another proof of the soul's immortality.
(Ibid. 72-73)
Socrates tells how the soul may be forgotten when a person is swayed
by the body and its senses.
And were we not saying long ago that the soul when using the body as
an instrument of perception, that is to say, when using the sense of
sight or hearing or some other sense (for the meaning of perceiving
through the body is perceiving through the senses) - were we not
saying that the soul too is then dragged by the body into the region of
the changeable, and wanders and is confused; the world spins round
her, and she is like a drunkard, when she touches change.
Very true.
But when returning into herself she reflects, then she passes into the
other world, the region of purity, and eternity, and immortality, and
unchangeableness, which are her kindred, and with them she ever lives,
when she is by herself and is not let or hindered; then she ceases from
her erring ways, and being in communion with the unchanging is
unchanging. And this state of the soul is called wisdom?
That is well and truly said, Socrates, he replied.
(Plato Phaedo 79)
Socrates points out that the body and the senses are visible and
changing while the soul is invisible and unchanging.
Then reflect,... - that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and
immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and
unchangeable; and that the body is in the very likeness of the human
and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform and dissoluble, and
changeable....
But if it be true, then is not the body liable to speedy dissolution? and is
not the soul almost or altogether indissoluble?
(Ibid. 80)
Yet all men will agree that God, and the essential form of life, and the
immortal in general, will never perish.
Yes, all men, he said - that is true; and what is more, gods, if I am not
mistaken, as well as men.
Seeing then that the immortal is indestructible, must not the soul, if she
is immortal, be also imperishable?
Most certainly.
Then when death attacks a man, the mortal portion of him may be
supposed to die, but the immortal retires at the approach of death and is
preserved safe and sound?
True.
Then, Cebes, beyond question, the soul is immortal and imperishable,
and our souls will truly exist in another world!
(Ibid. 106-107)
Now Socrates discuses how the true philosopher seeks death, by which
he means the purification of the soul from the body to reach the higher
life.
And now, 0 my judges, I desire to prove to you that the real philosopher
has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after
death he may hope to obtain the greatest good in the other world.... For I
deem that the true votary of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by
other men; they do not perceive that he is always pursuing death and
dying; and if this be so, and he has had the desire of death all his life
long, why when his time comes should he repine at that which he has
been always pursuing and desiring?...
For they have not found out either what is the nature of that death which
the true philosopher deserves, or how he deserves or desires death....
Is it not the separation of soul and body? And to be dead is the
completion of this; when the soul exists in herself, and is released from
the body and the body is released from the soul, what is this but death?...
Would you not say that he is entirely concerned with the soul and not
with the body? He would like, as far as he can, to get away from the
body and to turn to the soul.
Quite true.
In matters of this sort philosophers, above all other men, may be
observed in every sort of way to dissever the soul from the communion
of the body.
Very true.
Whereas, Simmias, the rest of the world are of opinion that to him who
has sense of pleasure and no part in bodily pleasure, life is not worth
having; and that he who is indifferent about them is as good as dead.
That is also true.
(Ibid. 63-64)
Socrates tells how the higher levels of consciousness are attained.
Then when does the soul attain truth? - for in attempting to consider
anything in company with the body she is obviously deceived.
True.
Then must not true existence be revealed to her in thought, if at all?
Yes.
And thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself and none of
these things trouble her - neither sound nor sights nor pain nor any
pleasure, - when she takes leave of the body, and has as little as
possible to do with it, when she has no bodily sense or desire, but is
aspiring after true being?
Certainly.
(Ibid. 65)
Absolute justice, absolute beauty and absolute good are not perceived
by bodily senses but by the intellectual vision of the soul.
And he attains to the purest knowledge of them who goes to each with
the mind alone, not introducing or intruding in the act of thought sight or
any other sense together with reason, but with the very light of the mind
in her own clearness searches into the very truth of each; he who has
got rid, as far as he can, of eyesores and, so to speak, of the whole
body, these being in his opinion distracting elements which when they
infect the soul hinder her from acquiring truth and knowledge - who, if
not he, is likely to attain to the knowledge of true being?
(Plato Phaedo 65-66)
Socrates explains how the soul attains the higher knowledge when it is
apart from the body which also may be achieved through soul travel.
'It has been proved to us by experience that if we would have pure
knowledge of anything we must be quit of the body - the soul in herself
must behold things in themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom
which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers; not while we
live, but after death; for if while in company with the body, the soul
cannot have pure knowledge, one of two things follows - either
knowledge is not to be attained at all, or, if at all, after death. or then, and
not till then, the soul will be parted from the body and exist in herself
alone. In this present life, I reckon that we make the nearest approach to
knowledge when we have the least possible intercourse or communion
with the body, and are not surfeited with the bodily nature, but keep
ourselves pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us.
And thus having got rid of the foolishness of the body we shall be pure
and hold converse with the pure, and know of ourselves the clear light
everywhere, which is no other than the light of truth.' For the impure are
not permitted to approach the pure.
(Ibid. 65-66)
He declares this purification of the soul from the body to be the aim of
the true philosopher.
But, 0 my friend, if this be true, there is great reason to hope that, going
where I go, when I have come to the end of my journey, I shall attain that
which has been the pursuit of my life. And therefore I go on my way
rejoicing, and not I only, but every other man who believes that his mind
has been made ready and that he is in a manner purified.
Certainly, replied Simmias.
And what is purification but the separation of the soul from the body, as I
was saying before; the habit of the soul gathering and collecting herself
into herself from all sides out of the body; the dwelling in her own place
alone, as in another life, so also in this, as far as she can; - the release of
the soul from the chains of the body?
Very true, he said.
And this separation and release of the soul from the body is termed
death?
To be sure, he said.
And the true philosophers, and they only, are ever seeking to release the
soul. Is not the separation and release of the soul from the body their
special study?
That is true.
(Ibid. 67)
Thus the initiates who are born anew into divine life in the mystery
celebration are called by Socrates "the true philosophers."
The founders of the mysteries would appear to have had a real meaning,
and were not talking nonsense when they intimated in a figure long ago
that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below
will lie in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation and
purification will dwell with the gods. For 'many,' as they say in the
mysteries, 'are the thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics,' - meaning,
as I interpret the words, 'the true philosophers.'
(Ibid. 69)
It is for the divine soul to rule and govern and the mortal body to obey
and serve. The soul must master the lower forces.
But she will calm passion, and follow reason, and dwell in the
contemplation of her, beholding the true and divine (which is not matter
of opinion), and thence deriving nourishment. Thus she seeks to live
while she lives, and after death she hopes to go to her own kindred and
to that which is like her, and to be freed from human ills.
(Plato Phaedo 84)
Socrates describes what happens to the soul when separated from the
body at death and how its immortality makes the action in life more
important as each gets its just reward or punishment.
But then, 0 my friends, he said, if the soul is really immortal, what care
should be taken of her, not only in respect of the portion of time which is
called life, but of eternity! And the danger of neglecting her from this
point of view does indeed appear to be awful. If death had only been the
end of all, the wicked would have had a good bargain in dying, for they
would have been happily quit not only of their body, but of their own evil
together with their souls. But now, inasmuch as the soul is manifestly
immortal, there is no release or salvation from evil except the attainment
of the highest virtue and wisdom. For the soul when on her progress to
the world below takes nothing with her but nurture and education; and
these are said greatly to benefit or greatly to injure the departed, at the
very beginning of his journey there.
For after death, as they say, the genius of each individual, to whom he
belonged in life, leads him to a certain place in which the dead are
gathered together, whence after judgment has been given they pass into
the world below, following the guide, who is appointed to conduct them
from this world to the other: and when they have there received their
due and remained their time, another guide brings them back again after
many revolutions of ages.
(Ibid. 107)
But the philosopher who is good and true has no fear of death.
And is it likely that the soul, which is invisible, in passing to the place of
the true Hades, which like her is invisible, and pure, and noble, and on
her way to the good and wise God, whither, if God will, my soul is also
soon to go, - that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature and origin, will be
blown away and destroyed immediately on quitting the body as the
many say? That can never be, my dear Simmias and Cebes. The truth
rather is, that the soul which is pure at departing and draws after her no
bodily taint, having never voluntarily during life had connection with the
body, which she is ever avoiding, herself gathered into herself; - and
making such abstraction her perpetual study - which means that she
has been a true disciple of philosophy; and therefore has in fact been
always engaged in the practice of dying? For is not philosophy the
study of death?
(Ibid. 80-81)
The reward of the good and pure soul is initiation into divine life.
That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world - to the
divine and immortal and rational: there arriving, she is secure of bliss
and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild
passions and all other human ills, and forever dwells, as they say of the
initiated, in company with the gods.
(Ibid. 81)
Then is the holy life remembered.
But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world; they may
have seen them for a short time only, or they may have been unfortunate
in their earthly lot, and, having had their hearts turned to injustice
through some corrupting influence, they may have lost the memory of
the holy things which once they saw. Few only retain an adequate
remembrance of them; and they when they see here any image of that
other world, are rapt in amazement; but they are ignorant of what this
rapture means, because they do not clearly perceive. For there is no
light of justice or temperance or any of the higher ideas which are
precious to souls in the earthly copies of them: they are seen through a
glass dimly; and there are few who, going to the images, behold in them
the realities, and these only with difficulty. There was a time when with
the rest of the happy band they saw beauty shining in brightness, - we
philosophers following in the train of Zeus, others in company with other
gods; and then we saw the beatific vision and were initiated into a
mystery which may be truly called most blessed, celebrated by us in our
state of innocence, before we had any experience of evils to come, when
we were admitted to the sight of apparitions innocent and simple and
calm and happy, which we saw shining in pure light, pure ourselves and
not yet enshrined in that living tomb which we carry about, now that we
are imprisoned in the body like an oyster in his shell.
(Plato Phaedrus 250)
The destiny of all souls is to return to God from where we came. Plotinus
inspires us in that direction.
Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every
Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows what I intend when I say it is
beautiful. Even the desire of it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is
for those that will take the upward path, who will set all their forces
towards it, who will divest themselves of all that we have put on in our
descent: - so, to those that approach the Holy Celebrations of the
Mysteries, there are appointed purifications and the laying aside of the
garments worn before, and the entry in nakedness - until, passing on the
upward way, all that is other than the God, each in the solitude of himself
shall see that solitary-dwelling Existence, the Apart, the Unmingled, the
Pure, that from which all things depend for Which all look and live and
act and know, the Source of Life and of Intellection and of Being.
(Plotinus First Ennead VI, 7) Copyright 1996 Sanderson Beck
The doctrine of the soul’shome in the heavens is at least as old as
Pythagoras, whom his biographer Iamblichus represnts as havingheld
that the sun and the moon were actually the Isles of the Blessed (De Vita
Pythagorica 18, 2.) For Pliny, the soul, being part of the heavens, wished
to return there (HN II, 24.95) Plutarch tells us how the sould of
Timarchus escaped the body and ascended through the spheres to the
realm of fire. There he learned that some souls who have escaped the
cycle of birth, decay and death go to the moon, where the immutable
realm begins. (De. Gen. 590-592.22)
Tantalus
Tantalus is punished in Hades by having a stone impending over him,
by being perpetually in a lake and seeing at his shoulders on either side
trees with fruit growing beside the lake. The water touches his jaws, but
when he would take a draught of it, the water dries up; and when he
would partake of the fruits, the trees with the fruits are lifted by winds as
high as the clouds. Some say that he is thus punished because he
blabbed to men the mysteries of the gods, and because he attempted to
share ambrosia with his fellows.
Telesterion
Eight tiers of seats on 4 sides divided by openings for 2 entrances each
on each of 3 sides. A total of 42 superimposed columns arranged in a
6x7 pattern supported the opaioned roof. Directly below the opaion was
a rectangular chamber.
Serving as the initiation Hall and Temple for the Eleusinian Mysteries,
the Telesterion was located on the same spot through many building
enlargements. The interior chamber housed the hiera (sacred objects)
and was known as the Anaktoron (Palace). In all renovations after the
Archaic period this area remained unaltered.
The appearance of the sanctuary at Eleusis went through many
changes at different periods in its history. In the sixth century the
sanctuary was distinguished from the city of Eleusis. The exterior
appearance with its solid unbroken wall of gray-blue stone must have
had an impressive effect on the Hellenes who would usually only see
such a color in sky or water. There was evidence also of statues having
been painted. There were many statues and friezes of the goddesses
and others, decorated with different art motifs such as a flower of eight
petals or grain. Near the Lesser Propylaia was the sacred precinct of
Plouton, the cave where, by legend, Persephone was carried off into the
underworld.
Warned in a dream not to divulge what was inside the sanctuary wall,
Pausanias finds this demand reasonable and in keeping with the silence
of these Mysteries.
The Eleusinians have a temple of Triptolemus, and another of Artemis of
the Portal and of Father Poseidon, and a well called Callichorum, where
the Eleusinian women first danced and sang in honor of the goddess.
They say that the Rarian plain was the first to be sown and the first to
bear crops, and therefore it is their custom to take the sacrificial barley
and to make the cakes for the sacrifices out of its produce. Here is
shown what is called the threshing floor of Triptolemus and the altar.
But my dream forbade me to describe what is within the wall of the
sanctuary; and surely it is clear that the uninitiated may not lawfully hear
of that from the sight of which they are debarred. The hero Eleusis, after
whom they name the city, is said by some to be a son of Hermes and of
Daira, daughter of Ocean; but others have made him the son of Ogygus.
(Pausanias I, 40:5)
Inside the main entrance of the Lesser Propylaia, serving as pillars are
huge (twice life-size) statues of goddesses, one on each side, standing
on eight-foot pedestals, and bearing the sacred baskets (kistai) which in
turn hold up the ceiling. These baskets are beautifully designed with the
three sheaves of grain and the mandala flowers predominant. Between
their breasts which show through their typically Grecian dress is a
ghost-like head of a child. This head with baby-face cheeks and
decoratively curled hair is at the focal point of the crossing straps of the
gown. (Kerenyi Eleusis p. 77) Here is concrete evidence of the child or
new birth in the Mysteries.
The final initiations took place in the Telesterion centering around the
Anaktoron. In the time of Solon this was still just a rectangular room
about seventy feet in length with an entrance at one end and the closed
off Anaktoron at the other. The Anaktoron is referred to by Homer and
here by Pausanias as the megaron.
Here, too, is what is called the hall (megaron) of Demeter: they say it was
made by King Car.
(Pausanias I, 40:15)
In the time of Peisistratos the telesterion was more than doubled in size
giving a more square-like shape. There was an outer porch with many
pillars on the perimeter and inside stairs on the perimeter of the other
three sides for standing, except for the west corner where the Anaktoron
was located.
The Anaktoron was about fifteen feet by forty-five feet with a small
entrance way for the Hierophant on the long side in its eastern corner.
There was an elaborate throne for the hierophant next to this door. This
holy of holies was to remain the same till the end though the telesterion
was to change and grow around it. The most significant new feature of
the Peisistratean telesterion was the forest of twenty-two pillars squarely
spaced in the building. The Persians destroyed this sanctuary around
480 BC. It was rebuilt in the time of Kimon lengthening the building into a
long rectangle so that the Anaktoron was in the middle of the long
southwest side . The enlarged plan of Iktinos under the rulership of
Pericles spaced out the pillars more and left the Anaktoron in the center
of a large square-shaped building with entrances on three sides and
stairs all the way around except across the doorways. A similar
structure lasted into Roman times. (Kerenyi Eleusis p. 86-87) Plutarch
gives credit to the rebuilders in his Life of Pericles.
The chapel at Eleusis, where the mysteries were celebrated, was begun
by Coroebus, who erected the pillars that stand upon the floor or
pavement, and joined them to the architraves; and after his death
Metagenes of Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of columns;
(Pericles 13)
Thesmophoria
"It is called Thesmophoria, because Demeter is called Thesmophoros in
respect of her establishing laws or thesmoi in accordance with which
men must provide nourishment and work the land."
From Notes on the Scholiast to Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans
Since the fall harvest must usually take an agricultural society through
winter, it is vitally important for survival. Whatever power provides that
bounty deserves praise. Basically, that's why we celebrate
Thanksgiving. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls in October; in the U.S., in
November. A similar festival was held in Ancient Greece, in honor of the
goddess who taught mankind to tend the soil, during a month known as
Pyanopsion (Puanepsion), according to the lunar calendar of the
Athenians. Since our calendar is solar, the month doesn't exactly match
but Pyanopsion would be, more or less, October into November.
On the 11-13 of Pyanopsion, Greek matrons took a break from their
usual homebound lives. They participated in the autumn sowing
(Sporetos) festival known as Thesmophoria. Although the practices are
a mystery, the matrons appear to have symbolically relived the anguish
of Demeter when her daughter Kore/Persephone was abducted by
Hades and to have asked for her help in obtaining a bountiful harvest.
Demeter (the Greek Ceres) was the goddess of grain who refused to eat
or feed the world until the other gods arranged a satisfactory resolution
to her conflict with Hades over Persephone. After her reunion with her
daughter, Demeter gave the gift of agriculture to mankind.
Before the festival itself, there was a preparatory nighttime festival, the
Stenia, in which women engaged in Aiskhrologia, insulting each other
and using foul language, to commemorate Iambe's successful attempts
to make the grieving mother laugh.
A long time she sat upon the stool without speaking because of her
sorrow, and greeted no one by word or by sign, but rested, never
smiling, and tasting neither food nor drink, because she pined with
longing for her deep-bosomed daughter, until careful Iambe -- who
pleased her moods in aftertime also -- moved the holy lady with many a
quip and jest to smile and laugh and cheer her heart.
Homeric Hymn to Demeter
At this time the women may also have placed the fertility objects, molded
bread, pine cones and piglets, in the snake-filled chamber called a
megaron. After the uneaten pig remains had begun to rot, the women
retrieved them and the other objects during the Thesmophoria proper.
Two days may not have been enough time for decomposition, so some
people think the fertility objects were thrown down during the Skira, a
midsummer fertility festival. However, four months may have been too
long for there to have been any remains.
The first day of the Thesmophoria itself was Anodos, the ascent. With all
the supplies they would need for two nights and three days, the women
ascended the hill, set up camp on the Thesmophorion (the hillside
sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros). They then slept on the ground
probably in two-person (Aristophanes* refers to sleeping partners) leafy
huts.
The second day of the Thesmophoria was the Nesteia (Fast) when
women fasted and mocked each other, again using the foul language
that may have been a deliberate imitation of Iambe and Demeter. They
may also have whipped each other with bark scourges.
The third day of the Thesmophoria was the Kalligeneia (Fair Offspring).
Commemorating Demeter's torchlight search for her daughter
Persephone, there was a night-time torch light ceremony. The Antletriai
(Bailers), ritually purified, descended to the megaron to remove the
decayed matter thrown down earlier: pigs, pine cones, and dough
formed in the shape of men's genitals. They clapped to scare the snakes
away and brought back the material to place on the altars for later use as
especially potent fertilizer in the sowing of seed.
*For a humorous picture of the religious festival, read Aristophanes'
comedy about a man who tries to infiltrate the women-only festival,
Thesmophoriazusae.
On this lake it is that the Egyptians represent by night his sufferings
whose name I refrain from mentioning, and this representation they call
their Mysteries. I know well the whole course of the proceedings in these
ceremonies, but they shall not pass my lips. So too, with regard to the
mysteries of Demeter, which the Greek term "the Thesmophoria," I know
them, but I shall not mention them, except so far as may be done without
impiety. The daughters of Danaus brought these rites from Egypt, and
taught them to the Pelasgic women of the Peloponnese. Afterward,
when the inhabitants of the peninsula were driven from their homes by
the Dorians, the rites perished. Only in Arcadia, where the natives
remained and were not compelled to migrate, their observance
continued.
(The History II, 171)
The Mysteries are probably not one of the oldest Demeter festival. The
main argument for the origin of the Mysteries in the Bronze Age is based
on remains of a Mycenaean building that lies under the Telesterion.
However, even if these remains served a cult, there is no guarantee that
the earlier cult was the same. In fact, a recent study of the evidence
concluded that these remains most likely did not belong to a proto-
Telesterion. At most, some of the remains may attest that a cult existed
on the site in the Bronze Age, perhaps a cult of Demeter, but they offer
no compelling evidence for a festival such as the Mysteria.
…Martin Nillsson called the Thesmophoria “by far the most widespread
of all Greek festivals.” It was also celebrated at Eleusis. Its early
universality and its nature suggest an institution of considerable
antiquity. The Eleusinian Mysteries, on the other hand, are unique in the
Greek world, especially down through the Classical period. Their
uniqueness, in contrast to widespread Demeter festivals like the
thesmophoria, urges us to consider seriously the questions whether
they are a more recent innovation.”
The Thesmophoria was an autumn festival, celebrated by women alone
in October, and appears to have represented with mourning rites the
descent of Proserpine (or Demeter) into the lower world, and with joy her
return from the dead. Hence the name Descent or Ascent variously
applied to the first, and the name Kalligeneia (fair-born) applied to the
third day of the festival...The Scholiast tells us that it was customary at
the Thesmophoria to throw pigs, cakes of dough, and branches of pine-
trees into Athe chasms of Demeter and Proserpine@ which appear to
have been sacred caverns or vaults. In these caverns or vaults there
were said to be serpents, which guarded the caverns and consumed
most of the flesh of the pigs and dough-cakes which were thrown in.
Afterwards - apparently at the next annual festival - the decayed remains
of the pigs, the cakes, and the pine-branches were fetched by women
called Adrawers@ who, after observing rules of ceremonial purity for
there days, descended into the caverns, and frightening away the
serpents by clapping their hands, brought up the remains and placed
them on the altar. Whoever got a piece of the decayed flesh and cakes,
and sowed it with the seed-corn in his field, was believed to be sure of a
good crop.
To explain this rude and ancient rite the following legend was told. At
the moment that Pluto carried off Proserpine, a swineherd called
Eubuleus was herding his swine on the spot, and his herd was engulfed
in the chasm down which Pluto vanished with Proserpine. Accordingly,
at the Thesmophoria, pigs were annually thrown into caverns in order to
commemorate the disappearance of the swine of Eubuleus. If follows
from this that the casting of the pigs into the vaults at the Thesmophoria
formed part of the dramatic representation of Proserpine=s descent into
the lower world;; and as no image of Proserpine appears to have been
thrown in, it follows that the descent of the pigs must have been, not an
accompaniment of her descent, but the descent itself; in short, the pigs
were Proserpine.
The Stemia on the 7th of Pyanepsion, the month after Boedromion, was
the last festival before the Thesmophoria when the women ate the
pomegranate seeds and probably was concerned with the mother's visit
to her daughter in the underworld. (Kerenyi Eleusis p. 149-150) The
sexual symbolism of the pomegranate finds elaboration in Athenaeus'
discussion of mylloi..
Heracleides of Syracuse in his work On Institutions says that in
Syracuse, on the Day of Consummation at the Thesmophoria, cakes of
sesame and honey were molded in the shape of the female pudenda,
and called throughout the whole of Sicily mylloi and carried about in
honor of the goddesses.
(The Deipnosophists XIV, 646f)
Nilsson recounts how in a fertility ritual connected to the Thesmophoria
during threshing pigs were thrown into subterranean hollows, and the
putrefied remains were brought back up at the autumn Thesmophoria
festival of sowing, laid on altars, and mixed with seed corn as a fertility
charm. The swine was the animal sacred to Demeter, and pigs were
sacrificed prior to initiation. Figures of swine are found at Eleusis. (Greek
Folk Religion p. 49) Pausanias also relates this ritual to Demeter and
Persephone.
When you have crossed the Asopus and are just ten furlongs from the
city you come to the ruins of Potniae. Amongst them is a grove of
Demeter and the Maid, The images at the river which flows past Potniae
... they name the goddesses. At a stated time they perform certain
customary ceremonies: in particular they throw sucking pigs into what
they call the hallsy and they say that at the same time next year those
pigs appear at Dodona.
(Pausanias IX, 8:1)
Throne
However, the discovery and restoration of the Hierophant=s throne,
which was of the utmost importance for the reconstruction of the most
secret ceremony was the work of Travlos and was not sufficiently taken
into account by Mylonas.
They are acting just like the celebrants of the Corybantic rites, when
they perform the enthronement of the person whom they are about to
initiate. There, as you know, if you have been through it, they have
dancing and merrymaking;
Also of Cretan origin was the act in Onomakritos= dramatic composition
that preceded the slaying and dismembering of the scarcely born Divine
Child. In this act, according to the Orphic conception, Dionysos
appeared whole for the last time as the ruler of our age of the world.
At the heart of this act is a scene corresponding to a rite of initiation
known to us in other contexts: the thronosis or thronismos, the
enthronement. In late antiquity Crete was still said to be threskeuousa
thronosin, practicing the rite of enthronement as a cult. Homer
characterizes Minos, in his function of judge of the dead, as seated and
holding his scepter in his hand while the others most
uncharacteristically sit or stand. The throne itself is not of particular
importance to the Greek poet, but in the centuries that had passed since
the Minoan culture no one had forgotten the motif of the king sitting on
his throne. The prominent part in the throne room where the ceremonial
sitting occurred is known to us from the palaces of Knossos and Pylos.
The worship of gods in the cult of thronosis mean more than the offering
of a chair or throne, which often occurred in Greek temples as a sign of
hospitality to the god. The thronosis was a special festive act in which
the god or his representative was paled on a chair standing by itself. If
one looks closely at the painting on a calyx krater of the Classical
period, one sees that precisely this is being done with a frail human
figure in the role of Dionysos. The thronosis is explicitly said to be the
first act of what happened to the myoumenoi, the participants in an
initiation. Todd: how would this relate to Aboy of the hearth.@?
Triptolemos
The attributes of Triptolemos: A vehicle is his most important attribute
in Attic art. It is like a wagon, but it frequently looks merely like a seat
with wheels; it is often winged, often accompanied by snakes, but in a
couple of instances Triptolemos sits simply in a winged chair.” (Note:
why would Triptolemos appear before the judges of the dead, to plead
Persephone’s case?)
“In five Apulian red-figure scenes Triptolemos has his familiar snake-
wagon (in one case winged.) Four other Apulian scenes show the
Judges of the Dean in the Underworld. Triptolemos appears at least
once and quite possibly in all four.”
It is said, then, that when Demeter came to Argos she was received by
Pelasgus into his home, and the Chrysanthis, knowing about the rape of
the Maid, related the story to her. Afterwards Trochilus, the priest of the
Mysteries, fled, they say, from Argos because of the enmity of Agenor,
came to Attica and married a woman of Eleusis, by whom he had two
children, Eubuleus and Triptolemos. That is the account given by the
Argives. But the Athenians and those who with them . . . know that
Triptolemos, son of Celeus, was the first to sow seed for cultivation.
Historians of the earliest period of Patrai say Eumelos, an aboriginal son
of the soil, was the first to settle in this country, where he was king of a
few people. But Triptolemos came here from Attica and Eumelos
obtained cultivated crops from him and learnt how to build; he called his
city Ploughland after the cultivation of the earth. But when Triptolemos
went to sleep, they say Eumelos= son Antheas yoked up Triptolemos=
flying serpents to the chariot and tried to sow on his own; he fell out and
was killed, and Triptolemos and Eumelos built the city of Antheia
together, named after Eumelos= son.
A consciousness of the intimate connection of the pig with the corn
lurks in the tradition that the swineherd Eubuleus was a brother of
Triptolemos, to whom Demeter first imparted the secret of the corn.
Indeed, according to one version of the story, Eubuleus himself
received, jointly with his brother Triptolemos, the gift of the corn from
Demeter as a reward for revealing to her the fate of Proserpine.
(Pausanias, I, 14, 3.)
What I say is supported by the testimony of Sophocles, the tragic poet,
in his drama entitled Triptolemus ; for he there represents Demeter as
informing Triptolemus how large a tract of land he would have to travel
over while sowing it with the seeds he had given him.
(Roman Antiquities I, 12)
Ovid says this:
Here she gave her fleet car to Triptolemus, and bade him scatter the
seed of grain she gave, part in the untilled earth and part in fields that
had long lain fallow.... "My country is far-famed Athens; Triptolemus, my
name. I came neither by ship over the sea, nor on foot by land; the air
opened a path for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, if you sprinkle
them over your wide field, will give a fruitful harvest and food not wild."
(Metamorphoses V, 645-647, 652-656)
Xenophon argues for peace between Athens and those to whom
Triptolemus first granted Demeter's two main gifts: the mystic rites and
the grain.
The right course, indeed, would have been for us not to take up arms
against one another in the beginning, since the tradition is that the first
strangers to whom Triptolemus, our ancestor, revealed the mystic rites
of Demeter and Kore were Heracles, your state's founder, and the
Dioscuri, your citizens; and further, that it was upon Peloponnesus that
he first bestowed the seed of Demeter's fruit.
(Hellenica VI, 3)
Pausanias is warned in a dream from describing the sanctuary at
Athens, though he does describe what pertains to Triptolemus, which
could indicate that his role was not part of the secret doctrine. He also
mentions Epimenides, a Cretan mystic of the sixth century BC.
Above the fountain are temples: one of them is a temple of Demeter and
the Maid (Kore), in the other there is an image of Triptolemus. I will tell
the story of Triptolemus, omitting what relates to Deiope, Of all the
Greeks it is the Argives who must dispute the claim of the Athenians to
antiquity and to the possession of gifts of the gods, just as among the
barbarians it is the Egyptians who dispute the claims of the Phrygians.
The story runs that when Demeter came to Argos, Pelasgus received her
in his house, and that Chrysanthis, knowing the rape of the Maid told it
to her. They say that afterwards Trochilus, a priest of the mysteries, fled
from Argos on account of the enmity of Agenor, and came to Attica,
where he married an Eleusinian wife, and there were born to him two
sons, Eubuleus and Triptolemus. This is the Argive story. But the
Athenians and those who take their side know that Triptolemus the son
of Celeus was the first who sowed cultivated grain. However, some
verses of Musaeus (if his they are) declare Triptolemus to be a child of
Ocean and Earth; while other verses, which are attributed, in my
opinion, with just as little reason, to Orpheus, assert that Eubuleus and
Triptolemus were sons of Dysaules, and that, as a reward for the
information they gave her about her daughter, Demeter allowed them to
sow the grain. Choerilus the Athenian, in a drama called Alope says that
Cercyon and Triptolemus were brothers, that their mother was a
daughter of Amphictyon, but that the father of Triptolemus was Rarus,
and that the father of Cercyon was Poseidon. I purposed to pursue the
subject, and describe all the objects that admit of description in the
sanctuary at Athens called the Eleusinium, but I was prevented from so
doing by a vision in a dream. I will therefore turn to what may be lawfully
told to everybody, In front of this temple, in which is the image of
Triptolemus, stands a bronze ox as in the act of being led to sacrifice;
and Epimenides the Cnosian is portrayed sitting, of whom they say that
going into the country he entered a cave and slept, and did not awake
until forty years had come and gone, and afterwards he made verses
and purified cities, Athens among the rest.
(Pausanias I, 14:1-3)
Underworld
At Eleusis flows the Cephisus, a more impetuous stream than the
Cephisus mentioned before. Beside it is a place which they call Erineus.
They say that Pluto, when he carried off the Maid, descended here.
(Pausanias Description of Greece I, 38:5)
Having returned to the direct road, you will cross the Erasinus and come
to the Chimarrhus river. Near it is an enclosure of stones: they say that
when Pluto, as the story goes, ravished Demeter's daughter, the Maid,
he here descended to his supposed subterranean realm. Lerna is, as I
said before, beside the sea, and they celebrate mysteries here in honor
of Lernaean Demeter.
(Pausanias II, 36:7)
The attributes of Triptolemos: A vehicle is his most important attribute
in Attic art. It is like a wagon, but it frequently looks merely like a seat
with wheels; it is often winged, often accompanied by snakes, but in a
couple of instances Triptolemos sits simply in a winged chair.” (Note:
why would Triptolemos appear before the judges of the dead, to plead
Persephone’s case?)
A scholion to Aristophanes’ Knights mentions the ( x Petra) just after
describing the (Eleusinian Petra) which seems to be a cliff (or a large
rock jutting out of the sea) on Salamis. The scholion describes it as
follows: “There is also the so-called (x Petra) among the Athenians,
where they say Theseus sat as he was about to descend to Hades:
from which the Rock got its name, or because Demeter sat there
weeping when she was searching for Kore.”
One of the cave’s important physical features tends to confirm what the
inscriptions and reliefs found there have suggested, that the cave was
believed to be an entrance to the Underworld. The French excavated a
narrow inner cave about 5 meters deep, which proved very difficult to
penetrate. At the far end they found sacrificial remains of oxen and
sheep along with traces of carbon. This inner cave, which is little
known, obviously had religious significance, and it is hard to imagine
what else this significance might be than that of an opening to the
Underworld.
The first region of Tartarus contains the cheerless Asphodel Fields,
where souls of heroes stay without purpose among the throngs of less
distinguished dead that twitter like bats, and where only Orion still has
the heart to hunt the ghostly deer. None of them but would rather live in
bondage to a landless peasant than rule over all Tartarus. Their one
delight is in libations of blood poured to them by the living: when they
drink they feel themselves almost men again; Beyond these meadows
lie Erebus and the palace of Hades and Persephone. To the left of the
palace, as one approaches it, a white cypress shades the pool of Lethe,
where the common ghosts flock down to drink Initiated souls avoid this
water, choosing to drink instead from a pool of Memory, shaded by a
white poplar which gives them a certain advantage over their fellows.
Close by, newly arrived ghosts are daily judged by Minos,
Rhadamanthys, and Aeacus at a place where three roads meet.
Rhadamanthys tries Asiatics and Aecus tries Europeans; but both refer
the difficult cases to Minos. As each verdict is given the ghosts are
directed along one of the three roads; that leading back the to Asphodel
Meadows, if they are neither virtuous nor evil; that leading to the
punishment field of Tartarus, if they are evil; that leaving to the orchards
of Elysium, if they are virtuous.
Elysium, ruled over by Cronus, lies near Hade=s dominions, its entrance
close to the pool of Memory, but forms no part of them; it is a happy land
of perpetual day, without cold or snow, where games, music and revels
never cease, and where the inhabitants may elect to be reborn on earth
whenever they please. Near by are the Fortunate Islands, reserved for
those who have been three times born, and three times attained
Elysium. Bust some say that there is another Fortunate Isle called
Leuce in the Black Sea, opposite the mouths of the Danube, wooded
and full of beasts, wild and tame, where the ghosts of Helen and Achilles
hold high revelry and declaim Homer=s verse to heroes who have taken
part in the events celebrated by him.
Elysium seems to mean Aapple land@ alisier is a pre-Gallic word for
sorb-apple.
Styx (Ahated@), a small stream in Arcadia, the waters of which were
supposed to be deadly poison, was located in Tartarus only by late
mythographers. Acheron (Astream of woe@) and Cocytus (Awailing@)
are fanciful names to describe the misery of death. Aornis (Abirdless@)
is a Greek mistranslation of the Italic AAvernus@. Lethe means
Aforgetfulness@; and Erebus Acovered.@ Phlegethon (Aburning@)
refers to the custom of cremation but also, perhaps, to the theory that
sinners were burned in streams of lava. Tartarus seems to be a
reduplication of the pre-Hellenic word tar which occurs in the names of
places lying to the West; its sense of infernality comes later.
Socrates: Liefer were I in the fields up above to be serf to another
Tiller of some poor plot which yields him a scanty subsistence,
Than to be ruler and king over all the dead who have perished.
Admetus: O noble son of mighty Zeus, may good fortune attend you,
and may the father who begot you preserve your life! For you alone
have raised up my fortunes. How did you bring her up form below to the
light of day?
Herakles: I fought the divinity who controlled her.
Admetus: Where, say you, did you join this battle with Death?
Herakles: Lying in wait hard by the tomb, I seized him with my arms.
Admetus: But why on earth does she stand silent?
Herakles: You are not allowed to hear her speak to you, not until she
becomes purified in the sight of the nether gods when the third day
comes. But take her in. Continue, Admetus, to show your guests the
piety of a righteous man. And now farewell.
His (Gelon=s) descendants in time became and continue to be priests of
the goddesses of the underworld; this office had been won, as I will
show, by Telines, one of their forefathers. There were certain Geloans
who had been worsted in party strife and had been banished to the town
of Mactorium, inland of Gela.
These men Telines brought to Gela with no force of men but only the
holy instruments of the goddesses worship to aid him. From where he
got these, and whether or not they were his own invention, I cannot say,
however that may be, it was in reliance upon them that he restored the
exiles, on the condition that his descendants should be ministering
priests of the goddesses.
(Circe speaks) Odysseus of many devices...you must first complete
another journey, and come to the house of Hades and dread
Persephone, to seek soothsaying of the spirit of Theban Teiresias, the
blind seer, whose mind abides steadfast. To him even in death
Persephone has granted reason, that he alone should have
understanding; but the others flit about as shadows.@
ASo I spoke, and the beautiful goddess straightaway made answer:
ASon of Laertes, sprung from Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, let there
be in thy mind no concern for a pilot to guide they ship, but set up thy
mast, and spread the white sail, and sit thee down; and the breath of the
North Wind well bear her onward. But when in thy ship thou has now
crossed the stream of Oceanus, where is a level shore and the groves of
Persephone - tall poplars, and willows that shed their fruit -- there do
thou beach they ship by the deep eddying Oceanus, but go thyself to
the dank house of Hades. There into Acheron flow Periphlegethon and
Cocytus, which is a branch of the water of the Styx; and there is a rock,
and the meeting place of the two roaring rivers. Thither, prince, do thou
draw nigh, as I bid thee, and dig a pit of a cubit=s length this way and
that, and around it pour a libation to all the dead, first with mild and
honey, thereafter with sweet wine, and in the third place with water, and
sprinkle thereon white barley meal. And do thou earnestly entreat the
powerless heads of the dead, vowing that when thou comest to Ithaca
thou will sacrifice in thy halls a barren heifer, the best thou hast, and wilt
fill the altar with rich gifts; and that to Teiresias alone thou wilt sacrifice
separately a ram, wholly black, the goodliest of they flock. But when
with prayers thou hast made supplication to the glorious tribes of the
dead, then sacrifice a ram and a black ewe, turning their heads toward
Erebus but thyself turning backward, and setting they face towards the
streams of the river. Then many ghosts of men that are dead will come
forth. But do thou thereafter call to thy comrades. And bid them flay and
burn the sheep that lie there, slain by the pitiless bronze, and make
prayer to the gods, to mighty Hades and to dread Persephone. And do
thou thyself draw thy sharp sword from beside thy thigh, and sit there,
not suffering the powerless heads of the dead to draw near to the blood,
til thou has enquired of Teiresias. Then the seer will presently come to
thee, leader of men, and he will tell thee thy way and the measures of thy
path, and thy return, how thou mayest go over the teeming deep.@
And if unto the dead thou art fain to do good, or if thou wouldst work
them ill - tis all one, since they feel not or joy or grief. Nevertheless our
righteous resentment is mightier than they, and Justice executeth the
dead man=s wrath. (Elsewhere Aeschylus declared that the dead
possess consciousness and are wroth with those who have done them
injury (Libation-Bearers 324, 41.) Here, where Hermes has in mind the
outrage done by Achilles to Hector=s corpse, his utterance is intended
to console Priam and rebuke Achilles with the though that, though, the
dead are insensible and cannot avenge themselves, their cause is in the
divine keeping. It is the gods alone who have the power to do that
which is commonly ascribed to the spirits of the dead.)
Among the sights of Thesprotia is Zeus= sanctuary at Dodona with the
sacred oak tree of the god. Near Kichyros lie an Acherosian lake and a
river Acheron, and the detestable stream Kokytos. I think Homer must
have seen the region and in his very daring poetry about Hades taken
the names of rivers from the rivers in Thesprotia.
On returning to the straight road, you will cross the Erasinus and reach
the river Cheimarrus (Winter-torrent). Near it is a circuit of stones, and
they say that Pluto, after carrying off, according to the story, Core, the
daughter of Demeter descended here to his fabled kingdom
underground. Lerna is, I have already stated, by the sea, and here they
celebrate mysteries in honor of Lernaean Demeter.
The other side of the course is not a bank of earth but a low hill. At the
foot of the hill has been built a sanctuary to Demeter surnamed
Chamyne. Some are of the opinion that the name is old, signifying that
here the earth gaped for the chariot of Hades and then closed up once
more.
The specific fancy of a hell of mud is usually called AOrphic@ on the not
very impressive authority of Olympiodorus. Aristides attributes is to
Eleusis. At some point in its development it was interpreted as the
appropriate punishment of the uninitiated or Aunclean@; this might be
the contribution of Eleusis or of the Orphics or of both.
So when the Athenians, and under their leadership the whole of Greece,
took over Eleusis, they fused the old idea of immortality, connected with
the cult of Demeter and her daughter, with Homer=s teaching about
Elysium. The thin, barely conscious existence of the Homeric shade
remained the lot of the ordinary man after death. Now however the
ordinary man was the uninitiated, and Elysium was removed from the
surface of the earth, and made into a part of the realm of the dead, and
its privileges reserved, not for the relatives-by-marriage of Zeus, but for
the initiated.
The original belief of the Eleusinian religion, as of its Cretan forebears
and its Thracian relations, must have been in an immortality dependent
on some form of union as son of the divinity. The two ideas are not
separate, for in human families in Greece the solemn adoption of a child
was represent as rebirth from the womb of his new mother. Later writers
speak of those initiated in certain mysteries (not the Eleusinian) as
Areborn,@ and this phrase was also applied to adopted children. Some
have held that the final ceremony at Eleusis actually contained a rite
symbolically enacting the rebirth of the initiate from the womb of
Demeter. This, though possible, must be held to be not proven.
Judging from these various sources, the Orphic beliefs seem to have
been somewhat as follows. At death our souls go to Hades, the road to
which, as Socrates says in the myths of the Phaedo and Gorgias, is not
simple but forked. Similarly in the Republic we learn that the just are
allowed to take the road to the right whereas the unjust are sent to the
left. This is strikingly matched by the verses on the gold plates in which
the soul is greeted the words: AHail, hail to thee journeying the right-
hand road, to holy meadows and groves of Persephone.@ It is also
given the following instructions: AThou shall find to the left of the
house of Hades a spring, and by the side of it standing a white cypress.
To this spring approach not near. But thou shalt find another, form the
lake of Memory cold water flowing forth, and there are guardians before
it. Say, AI am a child of Earth and starry Heaven. This ye know
yourselves. But I am parched with thirst and I perish. Give me quickly
the cold water flowing forth from the Lake of Memory.@ And of
themselves they will give thee to drink of the holy spring, and thereafter
among the other heroes thou shalt have lordship.@ In Plato=s Myth of
Er, all souls destined for reincarnation are made to drink a certain
amount of the water of Lethe to make them forget their experiences in
the other world. Those who are wise avoid drinking too much, but this
is difficult, since they have just come through the stifling heat of the
barren plain of Lethe. Naturally the soul of the Orphic is considered to
have achieved its final incarnation, and will return no more to a body.
Consequently it must avoid drinking of Lethe altogether. As it is made to
say, AI have flown out of the sorrowful wary circle.@ (Todd, if the
initiates saw a great fire, felt heat, had fasted, had only the kykeon -
which would be a refreshment - ran through a maze, couldn=t they have
as part of their initiation, a way of refusing the refreshment of the waters
and that this would then tie into the final pouring of wine, as a reminder
of its importance?)
The whole process of the wary circle was something like this. A soul
dies and is judged, and according to its deserts is assigned a place of
punishment or happiness. Whichever it is, the sojourn there is
temporary. After a lapse of time which together with its previously
earthly life completes a period of a thousand years, it is prepared for
another life on earth.
There is also in the painting a jar, and an old man, with a boy and two
women. One of these, who is young, is under the rock; the other is
beside the old man and of a like age to his. The others are carrying
water, but you will guess that the old woman=s water-jar is broken. All
that remains of the water in the sherd she is pouring out again into the
jar. We inferred that these people too were of those who had held of no
account the rites at Eleusis. For the Greeks of an earlier period looked
upon the Eleusinian mysteries as being as much higher than all other
religious acts as gods are higher than heroes.
Beyond Kallisto and the women with her is the shape of a cliff, with
Sisyphos son of Aiolos struggling to heave his rock up to the top. There
is also a great jar in the painting, an old man, a boy, and some women, a
young one under the rock and an old one beside the old man. Most of
them are carrying water, but you can see that the old woman=s pot is
broken, and whatever water was left in it is pouring back into the great
jar. I concluded that these people as well despised the rites at Eleusis;
in earlier times the Greeks paid more honor to the Eleusinian mystery
than to any other kind of piety whatever, in just the same way as they
put gods before heros.
VIRGO
There are numerous other stories concerning this constellation. Some
say it id Demeter because of the sheaf of grain that she holds.
Pseudo-Eratosthenes, The Constellations, 9.
Others say she is Fortuna, others Ceres; between the two, the latter is
less likely because her head is very obscure. Many say she is Erigone,
the daughter of Icarius, about who we spoke earlier (2.4) Others say is is
Apollo’s daughter by Chrysothemis, who as an infant was called
parthenos and who, because she died young, was placed by Apollo
among the stars.
Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy, 2.25.
The spherical device for measuring the revolutions of the sun, moon,
and planets round the zodiac is certainly a product of later times, but the
interpretation of the horoscope is cosmic and the same in all ages. The
eclipse of the moon caused by the earth blocking the sun's light is
portentous for the mother, the feminine principle and domestic life. Its
darkness when it should be full is symbolic of Persephone's prominent
and sudden venture to the underworld and the shadowing over the
mother. The "sunset house" is the twelfth portion of the sky over the
western horizon and is called the seventh house, indicating marriage
and partnership. Naturally Asterion found Mars there, the planet of sex,
boldness, heat, force, and strong action. Its conjunction with Venus, the
planet of love and harmony, can mean a rash, intense, adventurous,
harmonious marriage. Jupiter, the benevolent and expansive planet, in
Virgo in the "Portion of the Parents" (fourth house) means great benefit
to the parents through the products of the earth. Apparently Jupiter was
very close to the star symbolizing the ear of corn, indicating Demeter's
gift of the grain.
War Games
When the Eleusinians fought with the Athenians, Erechtheus, king of the
Athenians, was killed, as was also Immaradus, son of Eumolpus. These
were the terms on which they concluded the war: the Eleusinians were
to have independent control of the mysteries, but in all things else were
to be subject to the Athenians. The ministers of the Two Goddesses
were Eumolpus and the daughters of Celeus whom Pamphos and
Homer agree in naming Diogenia, Pammerope, and the third Saesara.
Eumolpus was survived by Ceryx, the younger of his sons whom the
Ceryces themselves say was a son of Aglaurus, daughter of Cecrops,
and of Hermes, not of Eumolpus.
In order that his first cries might not be heard by his father, certain
daimones of Crete called Kuretes danced around him their war dance,
clashing their shields and spears together. This is clearly referred to by
the maenads of Euripides Bacchae, who in the wildly mingled strains of
one of their choruses sing (lines 119-125)
O lair of the Kuretes, holy haunts of Crete that saw the birth of Zeus,
where in they caves the triple-crested Korybantes invented this my
circle of stretched hide.
Tisamenus, the Elean, had prophesied to Pausanias and all the Greeks,
and foretold them victory if they made no attempt upon the enemy, but
stood on their defense. But Aristides sending to Delphi, the god
answered that the Athenians should overcome their enemies in case
they made supplication to Zeus and Hera of Cithaeron, Pan and the
nymphs Shragitides, and sacrificed to the heroes Androcrates, Leucon,
Pisander, Damocrates, Hypsion, Actaeon, and Polyidus; and if they
fought within their own territories in the plain of Demeter Eleusinia and
Persephone....
But the plain of Demeter Eleusinia, and the offer of victory to the
Athenians, if they fought on their own territories, recalled them again,
and transferred the war into the country of Attica. In this juncture,
Arimnestus, who commanded the Plataeans, dreamed that Zeus, the
Savior, asked him what the Greeks had resolved upon; and that he
answered, "Tomorrow, my Lord, we march our army to Eleusis, and
there give the barbarians battle according to the directions of the oracle
of Apollo."
(Plutarch Aristides 12)
Herodotus gives two accounts of the mystical events before and during
the battle which took place on the same day as the Mysteries were due
to be celebrated (around September 23 on our calendar) in the year 480
BC.
The following is a tale which was told by Dicaeus, the son of Theocydes,
an Athenian, who was at this time in exile and had gained a good report
among the Medes. He declared that after the army of Xerxes had, in the
absence of the Athenians, wasted Attica, he chanced to be with
Demaratus, the Lacedaemonian in the Thriasian plain, and that while
there, he saw a cloud of dust advancing from Eleusis, such as a host of
thirty thousand men might raise. As he and his companion were
wondering who the men, from whom the dust arose, could possibly be,
a sound of voices reached his ear, and he thought that he recognized
the mystic hymn to Bacchus, Now Demaratus was unacquainted with
the rites of Eleusis, and so he inquired of Dicaeus what the voices were
saying. Dicaeus made answer -
O Demaratus! beyond a doubt some mighty calamity is about to befall
the king's army! For it is manifest, inasmuch as Attica is deserted by its
inhabitants, that the sound which we have heard is an unearthly one
and is now upon its way from Eleusis to aid the Athenians and their
confederates. If it descends upon the Peloponnese, danger will threaten
the king himself and his land army - if it moves towards the ships at
Salamis, 'twill go hard but the king's fleet there suffers destruction.
Every year the Athenians celebrate this feast to the Mother and the
Daughter; and all who wish, whether they be Athenians or any other
Greeks, are initiated. The sound thou hearest is the Bacchic song, which
is wont to be sung at that festival.
"Hush now," rejoined the other; "and see thou tell no man of this matter.
For if thy words be brought to the king's ear, thou wilt assuredly lose thy
head because of them; neither I nor any man living can save thee. Hold
thy peace therefore. The gods will see to the king's army." Thus
Demaratus counseled him; and they looked, and saw the dust, from
which the sound arose, become a cloud, and the cloud rise up into the
air and sail away to Salamis, making for the station of the Grecian fleet.
Then they knew it was the fleet of Xerxes which would suffer
destruction. Such was the tale told by Dicaeus the son of Theocydes;
and he appealed for its truth to Demaratus and other eye-witnesses.
(Herodotus VIII, 65)
The Persians, as soon as they were put to flight by the Lacedaemonians,
ran hastily away, without preserving any order, and took refuge in their
own camp, within the wooden defense which they had raised in the
Theban territory. It is a marvel to me how it came to pass, that although
the battle was fought quite close to the grove of Demeter, yet not a
single Persian appears to have died on the sacred soil, nor even to have
set foot upon it, while round about the precinct, in the unconsecrated
ground, great numbers perished. I imagine - if it is lawful, in matters
which concern the gods, to imagine anything - that the goddess herself
kept them out, because they had burnt her dwelling at Eleusis. Such,
then, was the issue of this battle.
(Herodotus IX, 65)
Plutarch also records how Themistocles who was in love with the same
woman as Aristides, manages to carry off the battle foreseen by the
oracle.
It is reported that, in the middle of the fight, a great flame rose into the air
above the city of Eleusis, and that sounds and voices were heard
through all the Thriasian plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number
of men accompanying and escorting the mystic Iacchus, and that a mist
seemed to form and rise from the place from whence the sounds came,
and, passing forward, fell upon the galleys. Others believed that they
saw apparitions, in the shape of armed men, reaching out their hands
from the island of Aegina before Grecian galleys; and supposed they
were the Aeacidae, whom they had invoked to their aid before the battle.
The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain of
the galley, who cut down its ensign, and dedicated it to Apollo the Laurel-
crowned. And as the Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and
could bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one another, the
Greeks thus equaled them in strength and fought with them till the
evening forced them back, and obtained, as says Simonides, that noble
and famous victory, than which neither amongst the Greek nor
barbarians was ever known more glorious exploit on the seas; by the
joint valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom and
sagacity of Themistocles.
(Plutarch Themistocles 15)
Women
Erich Neumann=s formulation: AThe woman experiences herself first
and foremost as the source of life@ is meaningful also from the
standpoint of the hermeneutics of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Zagreus
Zeus secretly begot his son Zagreus on Persephone, before she was
taken to the Underworld by her uncle Hades. He set Rhea=s sons, the
Cretan Curetes, or some say, the Corybantes, to guard his cradle in the
Idaen Cave, where they leaped about him, clashing their weapons, as
they had leaped about Zeus himself at Dicte. But the Titans, Zeus=s
enemies, whitening themselves with gypsum until they were
unrecognizable, waited until the Curetes slept. At midnight they lured
Zagreus away, by offering him such childish toys as a cone, a bull-
roarer, golden apples, a mirror, a knuckle-bone, and a tuft of wool.
Zagreus showed several transformations in an attempt to delude them:
he became successively Zeus in a goat-skin coat, Cronus making rain, a
lion, a horse, a horned serpent, a tiger, and a bull. At that point the
Titans seized him firmly by the horns and feet, tore him apart with their
teeth, and devoured his flesh raw.
Athena interrupted this grisly banquet before its end and, rescuing
Zagreus=s heart, enclosed it in a gypsum figure, into which she
breathed life; so that Zagreus became an immortal. His bones were
collected and buried at Delphi and Zeus struck the Titans dead with
thunderbolts.
1. This myth concerns the annual sacrifice of a boy which took place
in ancient Crete: a surrogate for Minos the Bull-King. He reigned for a
single day, went through a dance illustrative of the five seasons - lion,
goat, horse, serpent and bull-calf - and then was eaten raw. All the toys
with which the titans lured him away were objects used by the
philosophical Orphics, who inherited the tradition of this sacrifice but
devoured a bull-calf raw, instead of a boy. The bull-roarer was a pierced
stone or piece of pottery, which when whirled at the end of a cord made
a noise like a rising gale; and the tuft of wool may have been used to
daub the Curetes with the wet gypsum - these being youths who had cut
and dedicated their first hair to the goddess Car. They were also called
Corybantes, or crested dancers. Zagreus= other gifts served to explain
the nature of the ceremony by which the participant became one with
the god: the cone was an ancient emblem of the goddess, in whose
honor the Titans sacrificed him; the mirror represented each initiate=s
other self, or ghost; the golden apples, his passport to Elysium after a
mock-death; the knuckle bone, his divinatory powers.
Stories about a mythical murder that did not however end with the total
destruction of the slain child - a murder that was hinted at in the rite of
initiation - have been preserved from the sphere of the Samothracian
mysteries. The story told by Clement of Alexandria of the three
Korybantes of Thessalonike, the two elder of whom killed the youngest,
is an example. The murderers wrapped the severed head in a purple
garment, put a wreath on it, and bore it on a bronze shield to the foot of
Mt. Olympus - perhaps because this was the birthplace of Orpheus, who,
with the exception of its head which went on singing, was torn to pieces
by women like a second Dionysos. According to our Christian source,
the same two brothers carried the pagan secrets unveiled, the phallus
and with it the Dionysian religion, in a basket to the Etruscans...The
murder of the Divine Child was his reduction to an organ from which - or
as which - he could be reawakened. The murder was prerequisite to the
reawakening.
AHe did not long occupy the throne of Zeus,@ writes Nonnos of
Persephone=s just born child, whom he calls Zagreus. AHera in her
anger moved the Titans, their faces whitened with plaster, to kill him with
infernal knives while he was looking at his reflection in the mirror.@
Zeus
Here are placed votive offerings, including a wooden image of Zeus
which has two eyes in the natural place and a third on its forehead . . .
The reason for its three eyes one might infer to be this. That Zeus is king
in heaven is a saying common to all men. As for him who is said to rule
under the earth, there is a verse of Homer which calls him, too, Zeus:
AZeus of the underworld, and the August Persephonea@ The god in the
sea also, is called Zeus by Aeschylus, the son of Euphorion. So
whoever made the image made it with three eyes, as signifying that this
same god rules in all the three Aallotments@ of the Universe, as they are
called.
But when all his desire was fulfilled, and nothing that he required was
still undone, the Zeus of the Underworld sent forth his thunder, and the
maidens shuddered as they heard.
In this last and most terrifying capacity, as god of the thunder and
thunderbolt, he naturally impressed himself particularly on the
imaginations of his worshipers, and it gave rise to a magnificent series
of sonorous epithets. (Todd, how would this tie into Brimo?)
In order that his first cries might not be heard by his father, certain
daimones of Crete called Kuretes danced around him their war dance,
clashing their shields and spears together. This is clearly referred to by
the maenads of Euripides Bacchae, who in the wildly mingled strains of
one of their choruses sing (lines 119-125)
O lair of the Kuretes, holy haunts of Crete that saw the birth of Zeus,
where in they caves the triple-crested Korybantes invented this my
circle of stretched hide.
Yea, though he die, in Hades the guilt of his old deeds shall find him out.
There sits to judge our sins, as we are told, another Zeus, the dead=s
last arbiter.
Retribution for sin appears as something which awaits the ordinary man
after death. Zeus Katachthonios (Abeneath the earth@) was once
mentioned in the Iliad as the husband of Persephone.
Zeus the liberator, Eleutherios
Zeus, says Ovid, took the form of a shepherd when he met Mnemosyne –
a tale which recalls that of Attis and Kybele; indeed hundreds of terra-
cottas representing Attis as a shepherd were found by Monsieur P.
Perdizet at Amphipolis. Again, not only in the Muse-mother Mnemosyne,
but also in the prominence originally accorded to one of the Muses,
Kalliope or Thaleia we may detect a trace of the ancient goddess, whose
glory had paled before the rising light of Zeus…A red figured vase
painting from Nola formerly in the Hamilton collection, shows Zeus as a
might eagle in a blaze of celestial splendor carrying Thaleia from earth to
heaven. The maiden has been playing at ball and picking flowers on a
mountain side. .
Ammon was said to have transformed himself into a snake in order to
win his bride; and snakes at Kyrene were called by the name of Ammon.
Herodotos, therefore, did not hesitate to identify the Greek Zeus with
Amen-Ra, the Theban ram-god and sun-god. Doubtless, when Lucian in
the second century of our era make Momos, the god of Mockery, ask
Zeus how he can permit ram’s horns to be affixed to him and makes
Zeus apologize for the disgrace, Greek refinement had come to despise
these barbaric identifications.
Zeus, desiring to consort with his own mother Deo or Demeter, turned
himself into a bull and so compassed his end. Deo in fierce anger took
the title Brimo, ‘the wrathful’ and would not be appeased till Zeus came
before her in a mood of mock-repentance, pretended to have made a
eunuch of himself, and in proof of his words flung the severed parts into
her lap. In reality they were those of a fine ram which he had gelded.
The issue of his union with Deo was Kore or Pherephatta, with whom he
again had intercourse under the form of a monstrous snake. This time
the offspring was shaped like a bull. Hence the well-known line: Bull
began Snake, Snake begat Bull.
The Sabazian myth has much in common with Orphic tradition. For
Orpheus too represented Zeus as united successively with his mother
Rhea or Demeter and his daughter Phersephone or Kore. Rhea, to
avoid him, turned into a snake. Thereupon he became another snake,
and twined about her with the so-called Herculean knot, which is
symbolized in the caduceus of Hermes. Rhea bore to him Phersephone,
a horned child with four eyes, two in their normal position, two on the
forehead and an extra face on the back of her neck. Zeus, again taking
the form of a snake, consorted with his own monstrous progeny. The
child born of this second union was Dionysos, i.e., the chthonian
Dionysos or Zagreus. Nonnos in Orphic vein describes him as a horned
infant, who mounted the throne of Zeus himself and sat there grasping
the thunderbolt in his tiny hand. But Hera soon roused the titan to
smear their faces with gypsum and to attack him as he was looking in a
mirror. In his efforts to escape he took the forms of a youthful Zeus
brandishing the aigis, an aged Kronos dropping rain, a babe of shifting
shape, a wildly excited youth, a lion, a horse, a horned snake, a tiger and
a bull, in which final disguise he was cut to pieces by the knives of the
titans.
Now the Cretans, as Dr. Rendel Harris discovered held that Zeus was a
prince ripped up by a wild boar and buried in their midst. The manner of
his death gives us good reason to suspect that he was related to the
great mother-goddess of Crete as was Adonis to Aphrodite or Tammuz
to Ishtar. The manner of his burial confirms our suspicion; for his tomb
on Mount Juktas was in the temenos of a primitive sanctuary, apparently
a sanctuary of the mountain-mother, where in “Middle Minoan” times
votive limbs were dedicated for health restored. If this was the character
of the Cretan Zeus, it becomes highly probable that his death and
resurrection were annually celebrated as a magical means of reviving
the life of all that lives.
“This also raises the question of the “theology” of the pairs Kore-
Plouton and Thea-Theos. Did the worshippers at eleusis think of them
as co-existing, one pair on earth, the other below? So it would seem.
The Lakrateides Relief shows both pairs simultaneously. The
Lysimachides Relied, Kore and Thea simultaneously: but the artist in
each case may have intended a temporal procession form the
Underworld in the scene on the right to the upper world on the left. IGI
79 on the other hand, permits no ambiguity: it calls for separate
sacrifices to Kore, Thea and Theos. In this case, Kore and Thea were
believed to co-exist…It seems that we should conclude from this
coexistence that the Return of Kore, in the context of the Mysteries, may
not have been perceived as a seasonal event in the agrarian year, as it
was at the end of the Homeric Hymn. The Mysteries re-enact,
recelebrate the Return that took place in mythic time. But now, in real
time, outside the dram in the cult, Kore and Thea, Plouton and Thos,
somehow coexist, each pair in their separate realm.
An interesting feature of the cult of the Mysteries is that the God (Theos)
and the Goddess (Thea) are really the gods known elsewhere as Hades
and Persephone, but in the context of the Mysteries the names of hades
and Persephone do not occur. The only divine couples that occur at
Eleusis are (1) Plouton and Kore and (2) Theos and Thea.
This Mistress the Arcadians worship more than any other god, declaring
that she is a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Mistress is her
surname among the many, just as they surname Demeter=s daughter by
Zeus Athe Maid.@ But whereas the real name of the Maid is
Persephone, as Homer and Pamphos before him say in their poems, the
real name of the Mistress I am afraid to write to the uninitiated.
In fact, men assert that Pluto is none other than Serapis and that
Persephone is Isis, even as Archemachus of Euboea has said, and also
Heracleides Ponticus who holds the oracle in Canopus to be an oracle
of Pluto.
In Arcadia, the oldest center of her worship, Artemis was closely
associated in cult with Demeter and Persephone. Herodotus says that
Aeschylus actually called Artemis the daughter of Demeter, thus
identifying her with Persephone, the corn-goddess.
This is the story that the Egyptians tell to explain why the island moves:
that on this island that did not move before, Leto, one of the eight gods
who first came to be, who was living at Buto where this oracle of hers is,
taking charge of Apollo from Isis, hid him for safety in this island which
is now said to float, when Typhon came hunting through the world, keen
to find the son of Osiris. Apollo and Artemis were (they say) children of
Dionysus and Isis, and Leto was made their nurse and preserver; in
Egyptian, Apollo is Horus, Demeter Isis, Artemis Bubastis. It was from
this legend and no other that Aeschylus son of Euphorion took a notion
which is in no poet before him: that Artemis was the daughter of
Demeter. For this reason the island was made to float. So they say.
Now Zeus wedded Hera...but he had intercourse with many women,
both mortals and immortals...by Styx he had Persephone.
...and the goddesses of twofold name, Persephone and the kindly
goddess Demeter the queen of all...
Of the Great Goddesses, Demeter is of stone throughout, but the Savior
has drapery of wood. The height of each is about fifteen feet. The
images. . . and before them he made small maids in tunics reaching to
the ankles, each of whom carries on her head a basket full of flowers.
They are said to be daughters of Damophon, but those inclining to a
more religious interpretation hold that they are Athena and Artemis
gathering the flowers with Persephone.
It is also said that on reaching old age a vision came to him in a dream.
As he slept Persephone stood by him and declared that she alone of the
deities had not been honored by Pindar with a hymn, but that Pindar
would compose an ode to her also when he had come to her.
Pindar died at once, before ten days had passed since the dream. But
there was in Thebes an old woman related by birth to Pindar who had
practiced singing most of his odes. By her side in a dream stood Pindar,
and sang a hymn to Persephone. Immediately on waking out of her
sleep she wrote down all she had heard him singing in her dream. In
this song, among the epithets he applies to Hades is Agolden-reined@ -
a clear reference to the rape of Persephone.
Socrates: And APherephatta@! How many people fear this name,
and also AApollo!@ I imagine it is because they do not know about
correctness of names. You see they change the name to Phersephone
and its aspect frightens them. But really the name indicates that the
goddess is wise;
At a relatively early date, when substances were designated in poetic
diction by the names of the gods under whose protection they stood,
ground wheat was called AKore@ and wine ADionysus.@
As a nature myth, Persephone is the seed that splits off from the body of
the ripened grain, the mother, when, sinking beneath the earth, she
returns in spring as the new shoot. The etymology of her name - Ashe
who shines in the dark@ suggests that the seed doesn=t actually die,
but continues to live in the underworld, even though it cannot be seen
above.
Persephone (from phero and phonos Ashe who brings destruction@)
also called Persephatta at Athens (from pteris and ephapto Ashe who
fixes destruction@) and Proserpine (Athe fearful one@) at Rome, was, it
seems, a title of the Nymph when she sacrificed the sacred king.
Semele was, in fact, another name for Persephone...Core, of course, did
not ascend to heaven; she wandered about on earth with Demeter until
the time came for her to return to the Underworld. But soon after the
award of Olympic status to Dionysus the Assumption of his virgin-
mother became dogmatic and, once a goddess, she was differentiated
from Core, who continued heroine like to ascend and descend.
The ancients gave the name of Melissae (bees) to the priestess of
Demeter who were initiates of the chthonian goddess; the name
Melitodes to Kore herself; the moon (Artemis) too, whose province it
was to bring to the birth, they called Melissa, because the moon being a
bull and its ascension the bull, bees are begotten of bulls. And souls
that pass to the earth are bull begotten.
Again, the fact that the Rape of Kore took place in Sicily is, men say,
proof most evident that the goddesses made this island their favorite
retreat because it was cherished by them before all others. And the Rape
of Kore, the myth relates, took place in the meadows in the territory of
Enna. The spot is near the city, a place of striking beauty for its violets
and every other kind of flower and worthy of the goddess. And the story
is told that, because of the sweet odor of the flowers growing there,
trained hunting dogs are unable to hold the trail, because their natural
sense of smell is balked. And the meadow we have mentioned is level in
the center and well watered throughout, but on its periphery it rises high
and falls off with precipitous cliffs on every side. And it is conceived of
as lying in the very center of the island, which is the reason why certain
writers call it the navel in Sicily. Near to it also are sacred groves,
surrounded by marshy flats, to the north, and through it, the myth
relates, Pluton, coming out with his chariot, effected the rape of Kore.
And the violets, we are told, and the rest of the flowers which supply the
sweet odor continue to bloom, to one's amazement, throughout the
entire year, and so the whole aspect of the place is one of flowers and
delight.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 3)
Demeter's daughter, her whom none may name,
By secret schemings Pluton, men say, stole,
And then he dropped into earth's depths, whose light
Is darkness. Longing for the vanished girl
Her mother searched and visited all lands
In turn. And Sicily's land by Aetna's crags
Was filled with streams of fire which no man could
Approach, and groaned throughout its length; in grief
Over the maiden now the folk, beloved
Of Zeus, was perishing without the corn.
Hence honor they these goddesses e'en now.
But we should not omit to mention the very great benefaction which
Demeter conferred upon mankind; for beside the fact that she was the
discoverer of corn, she also taught mankind how to prepare it for food
and introduced laws by obedience to which men became accustomed to
the practice of justice, this being the reason, we are told, why she has
been given the epithet Thesmophoros or Lawgiver. Surely a benefaction
greater than these discoveries of hers one could not find; for they
embrace both living and living honorably.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 5)
Plutos
Greatly prosperous is he whom of mortal men these goddesses love:
immediately they send him Plutos.
The woman in the center, presumably Ge, who is emerging from the
earth holding a horn of plenty with the infant Ploutos sitting on it, looks
like another such touch. This surely cannot depict the birth of Ploutos,
for Ge, after all, is not his mother. Ge here seems to assume the role of
Kourotrophos. The scene may in part be a very personal allusion by the
artist to what took place in the cult drama, with the emphasis of the
dramatic quality of the appearance of Ploutos.
Discussing St. Petersburg Vase: “Here no temporal dimensions are
articulated but a general reference to the cult is given in the figure of
Eumolpos, symbolizing the celebration of the rites: in the appearance of
Ploutos at the reunion of Demeter and Kore we have an image of the
telos of the cult.
Chremylus: If Plutus recovers his sight and ceases from wandering
about unseeing and at random, he will go to seek the just men and never
leave them again; he will shun the perverse and ungodly; so, thanks to
him, all men will become honest, rich and pious. Can anything better be
conceived for the public weal?
To Iasion and Demeter, according to the story the myths relate, was
born Ploutos, but the reference is, as a matter of fact, to the wealth of the
grain, which was presented to Iasion because of Demeter=s association
with him at the time of the wedding of Harmonia. Now the details of the
initiatory rite are guarded among the matters not to be divulged and are
communicated to the initiates alone; but the fame has traveled wide of
how these gods appear to mankind and bring unexpected aid to those
initiates of theirs who call upon them in the midst of peril.
“In red figured painting Eleusinian Plutos is always naked and always a
boy of varying age, from infancy to early adolescence.) In seven of eight
extant red figure scenes he appears with a cornucopia and in at least
one he wears a wreath of grain-stalks in his hair. A fragment of a lekanis
cover found in Athens, now stored in the roman Agora is especially
important. There he stands with Demeter on his right and Kore on his
left; between him and Demeter several stalks of grain are rising from the
earth; and grain is emerging from the cornucopia which he holds. The
grain rising from the ground between Demeter and the boy is the focus
of their attention. Although the boy is naked, a himation is draped over
his shoulder. The himation makes a perfect parallel to the one in the
Great Eleusinian Relief. Indeed all the significant elements of the
Eleusinian Relief are contained in this scene: Demeter, Kore, the naked
boy between them, and the grain between the boy and Demeter. The
close similarity suggests that the boy in the relief is indeed Ploutus,
though in the relief he does not have a horn of plenty. The horn,
however, as we shall soon see, is not an essential attribute of Eleusinian
Ploutos. The crucial element is the display of grain.”
Plutus, we are told, was born in Cretan Tripolus to Demeter and Iasion,
and there is a double account of his origin. For some men say that the
earth, when it was sowed once by Iasion and given proper cultivation,
brought forth such an abundance of fruits that those who saw this
bestowed a special name upon the abundance of fruits when they
appear and called it plutus (wealth); consequently it has become
traditional among later generations to say that men who have acquired
more than they actually need have Plutus. But there are some who
recount the myth that a son was born to Demeter and Iasion whom they
named Plutus, and that he was the first to introduce diligence into the
life of man and the acquisition and safeguarding of property, all men up
to that time having been neglectful of amassing and guarding diligently
any store of property.
(V, 77)
Primary and Secondary Sources
Eleusis PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
The Phrygians, however, assert, he says, that he is likewise "a green ear
of corn reaped." And after the Phrygians, the Athenians, while initiating
people into the Eleusinian rites, likewise display to those who are being
admitted to the highest grade at these mysteries, the mighty, and
marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the
highest mystic truths: (I allude to) an ear of corn in silence reaped. But
this ear of corn is also (considered) among the Athenians to constitute
the perfect enormous illumination (that has descended) from the
unportrayable one, just as the Hierophant himself (declares); not,
indeed, emasculated like Attis, but made a eunuch by means of hemlock,
and despising116 all carnal generation. (Now) by night in Eleusis,
beneath a huge fire, (the Celebrant) enacting the great and secret
mysteries, vociferates and cries aloud, saying, "August Brimo has
brought forth a consecrated son, Brimus; "that is, a potent (mother has
been delivered of) a potent child. But revered, he says, is the generation
that is spiritual, heavenly, from above, and potent is he that is so born.
For the mystery is called "Eleusin" and "Anactorium." "Eleusin,"
because, he says, we who are spiritual come flowing down from Adam
above; for the word "eleusesthai" is, he says, of the same import with
the expression "to come." But "Anactorium" is of the same import with
the expression "to ascend upwards." This, he says, is what they affirm
who have been initiated in the mysteries of the Eleusinians. It is,
however, a regulation of law, that those who have been admitted into the
lesser should again be initiated into the Great Mysteries. For greater
destinies obtain greater portions. But the inferior mysteries, he says, are
those of Proserpine below; in regard of which mysteries, and the path
which leads thither, which is wide and spacious, and conducts those
that are perishing to Proserpine, the poet likewise says:-
"But under her a fearful path extends,
Hollow miry, yet best guide to
Highly-honoured Aphrodite's lovely grove."
These, he says, are the inferior mysteries, those appertaining to carnal
generation. Now, those men who are initiated into these inferior
(mysteries) ought to pause, and (then) be admitted into the great (and)
heavenly (ones). For they, he says, who obtain their shares (in this
mystery), receive greater portions. For this, he says, is the gate of
heaven; and this a house of God, where the Good Deity dwells alone.
And into this (gate), he says, no unclean person shall enter, nor one that
is natural or carnal; but it is reserved for the spiritual only. And those
who come hither ought to cast off their garments, and become all of
them bridegrooms, emasculated through the virginal spirit. For this is
the virgin who carries in her womb and conceives and brings forth a
son, not animal, not corporeal, but blessed for evermore. Concerning
these, it is said, the Saviour has expressly declared that "straight and
narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there are that enter
upon it; whereas broad and spacious is the way that leadeth unto
destruction, and many there are that pass through it."
From Refutation of All Heresies: Chapter III.-Further Exposition of the
Heresy of the Naasseni; Profess to Follow Homer; Acknowledge a Triad
of Principles; Their Technical Names of the Triad; Support These on the
Authority of Greek Poets; Allegorize Our Saviour's Miracles; The
Mystery of the Samothracians; Why the Lord Chose Twelve Disciples;
The Name Corybas, Used by Thracians and Phrygians, Explained;
Naasseni Profess to Find Their System in Scripture; Their Interpretation
of Jacob's Vision; Their Idea of the "Perfect Man; "The "Perfect Man"
Called "Papa" By the Phrygians; The Naasseni and Phrygians on the
Resurrection; The Ecstasis of St. Paul; The Mysteries of Religion as
Alluded to by Christ; Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower; Allegory
of the Promised Land; Comparison of the System of the Phrygians with
the Statements of Scripture; Exposition of the Meaning of the Higher
and Lower Eleusinian Mysteries; The Incarnation Discoverable Here
According to the Naasseni.
But no man sails from a port without having sacrificed to the Gods and
invoked their help; nor do men sow without having called on Demeter;
and shall a man who has undertaken so great a work undertake it safely
without the Gods? and shall they who undertake this work come to it
with success? What else are you doing, man, than divulging the
mysteries? You say, "There is a temple at Eleusis, and one here also.
There is an Hierophant at Eleusis, and I also will make an Hierophant:
there is a herald, and I will establish a herald; there is a torch-bearer at
Eleusis, and I also will establish a torch-bearer; there are torches at
Eleusis, and I will have torches here. The words are the same: how do
the things done here differ from those done there?" Most impious man,
is there no difference? these things are done both in due place and in
due time; and when accompanied with sacrifice and prayers, when a
man is first purified, and when he is disposed in his mind to the thought
that he is going to approach sacred rites and ancient rites. In this way
the mysteries are useful, in this way we come to the notion that all these
things were established by the ancients for the instruction and
correction of life. But you publish and divulge them out of time, out of
place, without sacrifices, without purity; you have not the garments
which the hierophant ought to have, nor the hair, nor the head-dress,
nor the voice, nor the age; nor have you purified yourself as he has: but
you have committed to memory the words only, and you say: "Sacred
are the words by themselves."
You ought to approach these matters in another way; the thing is great,
it is mystical, not a common thing, nor is it given to every man. But not
even wisdom perhaps is enough to enable a man to take care of youths:
a man must have also a certain readiness and fitness for this purpose,
and a certain quality of body, and above all things he must have God to
advise him to occupy this office, as God advised Socrates to occupy the
place of one who confutes error, Diogenes the office of royalty and
reproof, and the office of teaching precepts. But you open a doctor's
shop, though you have nothing except physic: but where and how they
should be applied, you know not nor have you taken any trouble about
it. "See," that man says, "I too have salves for the eyes." Have you also
the power of using them? Do you know both when and how they will do
good, and to whom they will do good? Why then do you act at hazard in
things of the greatest importance? why are you careless? why do you
undertake a thing that is in no way fit for you? Leave it to those who are
able to do it, and to do it well. Do not yourself bring disgrace on
philosophy through your own acts, and be not one of those who load it
with a bad reputation. But if theorems please you, sit still and turn them
over by yourself; but never say that you are a philosopher, nor allow
another to say it; but say: "He is mistaken, for neither are my desires
different from what they were before, nor is my activity directed to other
objects, nor do I assent to other things, nor in the use of appearances
have I altered at all from my former condition." This you must think and
say about yourself, if you would think as you ought: if not, act at hazard,
and do what you are doing; for it becomes you.
Epictetus, The Discourses, Book 3, Chapter 21, “Against those who
readily come to the profession of sophists”
It was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the
Mysteries would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine glory.
Hence, all were eager for initiation.
Scholiast on Aristophanes’ The Frogs.
It looks as if those also who established rites of initiation for us were no
fools, but that there is a hidden meaning in their teaching when it says
that whoever arrives uninitiated in Hades will lie in mud, but the purified
and initiated when he arrives there will dwell with gods. For there are in
truth, as those who understand the mysteries say, “Many who bear the
wand, but few who become Bakchoi.” Now these latter are in my
opinion no others than those who have given their lives to true
philosophy.”
Plato Phaedo
Origins of Eleusis
When Erichthonius died and was buried in the same precinct of Athens,
Pandion became king, in whose time Demeter and Dionysus came to
Attica. But Demeter was welcomed by Celeus at Eleusis, and Dionysus
by Icarius, who received from him a branch of a vine and learned the
process of making wine.
(Apollodorus III, xiv, 7)
There is a fair and fruitful island in mid-ocean called Crete; it is thickly
people and there are ninety cities in it; the people speak many different
languages which overlap one another, for there are Achaeans, brave
Eteocretans, Dorians of three-fold race, and noble Pelasgi. There is a
great town there, Knossos, where Minos reigned who every nine years
had a conference with Zeus himself.
(Homer Odyssey XIX, 172-178)
Such, then are the myths which the Cretans recount of the gods who
they claim were born in their land. They also assert that the honors
accorded to the gods and their sacrifices and the initiatory rites
observed in connection with the mysteries were handed down from
Crete to the rest of men, and to support this they advance the following
most weighty argument, as they conceive it: the initiatory rite which is
celebrated by the Athenians in Eleusis, the most famous, one may
venture, of them all, and that of Samothrace, and the one practiced in
Thrace among the Cicones, whence Orpheus came who introduced
them---these are all handed down in the form of a mystery, whereas at
Knossos in Crete it has been the custom from ancient times that these
initiatory rites should be handed down to all openly, and what is handed
down among other people as not to be divulged, this the Cretans
conceal from no one who may wish to inform himself upon such
matters. Indeed, the majority of the gods, the Cretans say, had their
beginning in Crete and set out from there to visit many regions of the
inhabited world, conferring benefactions upon the races of men and
distributing among each of them the advantage which resulted from the
discoveries they had made. Demeter, for example, crossed over into
Attica and then removed from there to Sicily and afterwards to Egypt;
and in these lands her choicest gift was that of the corn and instructions
in the sowing of it, whereupon she received great honors at the hands of
these whom she had benefited.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 77)
Moreover, I fed the men who were with him with barley meal from the
public store, and got subscriptions of wine and oxen for them to
sacrifice to their heart's content.
(Odyssey XIX, 196-198)
Hence it was in Crete that I saw Odysseus and showed him hospitality,
for the winds took him there as he was on his way to Troy, carrying him
off his course from cape Malea and leaving him in Amnisos off the cave
of Eileithyia, where the harbors are difficult to enter and he could hardly
find shelter from the winds that were then raging.
(Odyssey XIX, 185-190)
The snake of Cychreus: Hesiod says that it was brought up by
Cychreus, and was driven out by Eurylochus as defiling the island, but
that Demeter received it into Eleusis, and that it became her attendant.
(Hesiod Catalogues of Women and Eoiae 77)
But my father soon came to know, and cursed me bitterly, calling the
dread Erinyes to witness. He prayed that no son of mine might ever sit
upon my knees---and the gods, Zeus of the world below and awful
Persephone, fulfilled his curse.
(Iliad IX 454-457)
Persephone:
Maiden (Kore) and Queen of the Underworld
A Hymn to Proserpine by Orpheus:
Daughter of Jove, Persephone divine,
Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline:
Only-begotten, Pluto's honored wife,
O venerable Goddess, source of life:
'Tis thine in earth's profundities to dwell
Past by the wide and dismal gates of hell.
Jove's holy offspring, of a beauteous mien,
Avenging Goddess, subterranean queen.
The Furies' source, fair-hair'd, whose frame proceeds
from Jove's ineffable and secret seeds.
Mother of Bacchus, sonorous, divine,
And many-form'd, the parent of the vine.
Associate of the Seasons, essence bright,
All-ruling virgin, bearing heav'nly light.
With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind,
Horn'd, and alone desir'd by those of mortal kind.
O vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight,
Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight:
Whose holy form in budding fruits we view,
Earth's vig'rous offspring of a various hue:
Espous'd in autumn, life and death alone
To wretched mortals from thy pow'r is known:
For thine the task, according to thy will,
Life to produce, and all that lives to kill.
Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase
Of various fruits from earth, with lovely peace:
Send Health with gentle hand, and crown my life
With blest abundance, free from noisy strife;
Last in extreme old age the prey of Death,
Dismiss me willing to the realms beneath,
To thy fair palace and the blissful plains
Where happy spirits dwell, and Pluto reigns.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
The subject requires that I should narrate the rape of the Virgin.
(Ovid Fasti IV, 417-418)
Not the Father alone felt desire; but all that dwelt in Olympus had the
same, struck by one bolt, and wooed for a union with Deo's divine
daughter. Then Deo lost the brightness of her rosy face, her swelling
heart was lashed by sorrows. She untied the fruitful frontlet from her
head, and shook loose the long locks of hair over her neck, trembling for
her girl; the cheeks of the goddess were moistened with self-running
tears, in her sorrow that so many voters had been stung with one fiery
shot for a struggle of rival wooing, by maddening Eros, all contending
together for their loves.
(Nonnus Dionysiaca VI, 3-12)
Homeric Hymn to Demeter of the seventh century BC.
I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess - of her and her
trim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus rapt away, given to him by all-
seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer.
Apart from Demeter lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits, she
was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus and
gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful
violets, irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus, which Earth made
to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the Host of Many, to be a snare
for the bloom-like girl - a marvelous, radiant flower. It was a thing of awe
whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a
hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven
above and the whole earth and the sea's salt swell laughed for joy. And
the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to take the lovely
toy; but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nysa, and the
lord, Host of Many, with his immortal horses sprang out upon her - the
Son of Cronos, He who has many names.
He caught her up reluctant on his golden car and bare her away
lamenting. Then she cried out shrilly with her voice, calling upon her
father, the Son of Cronos, who is most high and excellent.
(Homeric Hymn To Demeter 1-21)
Also I will tell how he rapt me away by the deep plan of my father the Son
of Cronos and carried me off beneath the depths of the earth, and will
relate the whole matter as you ask. All we were playing in a lovely
meadow, Leucippe and Phaeno and Electra and Ianthe, Melito also and
Iache with Rhodea and Callirhoe and Melobosis and Tyche and
Ocyrhoe, fair as a flower, Chryseis, Ianeira, Acaste and Admete and
Rhodope and Pluto and charming Calypso; Styx too was there and
Urania and lovely Galaxaura with Pallas who rouses battles and Artemis
delighting in arrows: we were playing and gathering sweet flowers in
our hands, soft crocuses mingled with irises and hyacinths, and rose-
blooms and lilies, marvelous to see, and the narcissus which the wide
earth caused to grow yellow as a crocus. That I plucked in my joy; but
the earth parted beneath, and there the strong lord, the Host of Many,
sprang forth and in his golden chariot he bore me away, all unwilling,
beneath the earth: then I cried with a shrill cry.
(Homeric Hymn To Demeter 411-432)
Again, the fact that the Rape of Kore took place in Sicily is, men say,
proof most evident that the goddesses made this island their favorite
retreat because it was cherished by them before all others. And the Rape
of Kore, the myth relates, took place in the meadows in the territory of
Enna. The spot is near the city, a place of striking beauty for its violets
and every other kind of flower and worthy of the goddess. And the story
is told that, because of the sweet odor of the flowers growing there,
trained hunting dogs are unable to hold the trail, because their natural
sense of smell is balked. And the meadow we have mentioned is level in
the center and well watered throughout, but on its periphery it rises high
and falls off with precipitous cliffs on every side. And it is conceived of
as lying in the very center of the island, which is the reason why certain
writers call it the navel in Sicily. Near to it also are sacred groves,
surrounded by marshy flats, to the north, and through it, the myth
relates, Pluton, coming out with his chariot, effected the rape of Kore.
And the violets, we are told, and the rest of the flowers which supply the
sweet odor continue to bloom, to one's amazement, throughout the
entire year, and so the whole aspect of the place is one of flowers and
delight.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 3)
Sow then some seed of fame athwart the isle, that Zeus, the lord of
Olympus, gave to Persephone, and shook his locks in token unto her
that, as queen of the teeming earth, the fertile island of Sicily would be
raised to renown by the wealth of her glorious cities.
(Pindar The Nemean Odes I, 14)
Within this grove Proserpina was playing, and gathering violets or white
lilies. And while with girlish eagerness she was filling her basket and her
bosom, and striving to surpass her mates in gathering, almost in one act
did Pluto see and love and carry her away: so precipitate was his love.
The terrified girl called plaintively on her mother and her companions,
but more often upon her mother.
(Ovid Metamorphoses V, 391-398)
To Pluto
O mighty daemon, whose decision dread,
The future fate determines of the dead,
With captive Proserpina, through grassy plains,
Drawn in a four-yoked car with loosened reins,
Rapt o'er the deep, impelled by love, you flew
Till Eleusina's city rose to view:
There, in a wondrous cave obscure and deep,
The sacred maid secure from search you keep,
The cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display
An entrance to the kingdoms void of day.
Of works unseen and seen thy power alone
To be the great dispensing source is known.
All-ruling, holy God, with glory bright,
Thee sacred poets and their hymns delight,
Propitious to thy mystics' works incline,
Rejoicing come, for holy rites are thine.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
At Eleusis flows the Cephisus, a more impetuous stream than the
Cephisus mentioned before. Beside it is a place which they call Erineus.
They say that Pluto, when he carried off the Maid, descended here.
(Pausanias Description of Greece I, 38:5)
Having returned to the direct road, you will cross the Erasinus and come
to the Chimarrhus river. Near it is an enclosure of stones: they say that
when Pluto, as the story goes, ravished Demeter's daughter, the Maid,
he here descended to his supposed subterranean realm. Lerna is, as I
said before, beside the sea, and they celebrate mysteries here in honor
of Lernaean Demeter.
(Pausanias II, 36:7)
That the rape of Kore took place in the manner we have described is
attested by many ancient historians and poets. Carcinus the tragic poet,
for instance, who often visited in Syracuse and witnessed the zeal
which the inhabitants displayed in the sacrifices and festive gatherings
for both Demeter and Kore, has the following verses in his writings:
Demeter's daughter, her whom none may name,
By secret schemings Pluton, men say, stole,
And then he dropped into earth's depths, whose light
Is darkness. Longing for the vanished girl
Her mother searched and visited all lands
In turn. And Sicily's land by Aetna's crags
Was filled with streams of fire which no man could
Approach, and groaned throughout its length; in grief
Over the maiden now the folk, beloved
Of Zeus, was perishing without the corn.
Hence honor they these goddesses e'en now.
But we should not omit to mention the very great benefaction which
Demeter conferred upon mankind; for beside the fact that she was the
discoverer of corn, she also taught mankind how to prepare it for food
and introduced laws by obedience to which men became accustomed to
the practice of justice, this being the reason, we are told, why she has
been given the epithet Thesmophoros or Lawgiver. Surely a benefaction
greater than these discoveries of hers one could not find; for they
embrace both living and living honorably.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 5)
Demeter:
Mother of the Mysteries and the Grain
Teiresias: ... Two things there are, young prince, that
hold first rank among men, the goddess Demeter, that is,
the earth, call her which name you please; she it is that feeds men with
solid food....
(Euripides The Bacchantes 274)
Ceres was the first to turn the glebe with the hooked plow-
share; she first gave laws. All things are the gift of Ceres; she must be
the subject of my song.
(Ovid Metamorphoses V, 341-344)
To Ceres
O universal mother, Ceres fam'd,
August, the source of wealth, and various nam'd:
Great nurse, all-bounteous, blessed and divine,
Who joy'st in peace; to nourish corn is thine.
Goddess of seed, of fruits abundant, fair,
Harvest and threshing are thy constant care.
Lovely delightful queen, by all desir'd,
Who dwell'st in Eleusina's holy vales retired.
Nurse of all mortals, whose benignant mind
First ploughing oxen to the yoke confin'd;
And gave to men what nature's wants require,
With plenteous means of bliss, which all desire.
In verdure flourishing, in glory bright,
Assessor of great Bacchus, bearing light:
Rejoicing in the reapers' sickles, kind,
Whose nature lucid, earthly, pure, we find.
Prolific, venerable, nurse divine,
Thy daughter loving, holy Proserpine.
A car with dragons yok'd 'tis thine to guide,
And, orgies singing, round thy throne to ride.
only-begotten, much-producing queen,
All flowers are thine, and fruits of lovely green.
Bright Goddess, come, with summer's rich increase
Swelling and pregnant , leading smiling Peace;
Come with fair Concord and imperial Health,
And join with these a needful store of wealth.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus)
And Demeter since the corn still grew wild together with the other plants
and was still unknown to men, was the first to gather it in, to devise how
to prepare and preserve it, and to instruct mankind how to sow it. Now
she had discovered the corn before she gave birth to her daughter
Persephone, but after the birth of her daughter and the rape of her by
Pluton, she burned all the fruit of the corn, both because of her anger at
Zeus and because of her grief over her daughter. After she had found
Persephone, however, she became reconciled with Zeus and gave
Triptolemus the corn to sow, instructing him both to share the gift with
men everywhere and to teach them everything concerned with the labor
of sowing. And some men say that it was she also who introduced laws,
by obedience to which men have become accustomed to deal justly one
with another, and that mankind has called this goddess Thesmophoros
after the laws which she gave them. And since Demeter has been
responsible for the greatest blessing to mankind, she has been
accorded the most notable honors and sacrifices, and magnificent
feasts and festivals as well, not only by the Greeks, but also by almost all
barbarians who have partaken of this kind of food.
There is dispute about the discovery of the fruit of the corn on the part of
many peoples, who claim that they were the first among whom the
goddess was seen and to whom she made known both the nature and
use of the corn. The Egyptians, for example, say that Demeter and Isis
are the same, and that she was first to bring the seed to Egypt, since the
river Nile waters the fields at the proper time and that land enjoys the
most temperate seasons. Also the Athenians, though they assert that
the discovery of this fruit took place in their country, are nevertheless
witnesses to its having been brought to Attica from some other region;
for the place which originally received this gift they call Eleusis, from the
fact that the seed of the corn came from others and was conveyed to
them. But the inhabitants of Sicily, dwelling as they do on an island
which is sacred to Demeter and Kore, say that it is reasonable to believe
that the gift of which we are speaking was made to them first, since the
land they cultivate is the one the goddess holds most dear; for it would
be strange indeed, they maintain, for the goddess to take for her on, so
to speak, a land which is the most fertile known and yet to give it, the last
of all, a share in her benefaction, as though it were nothing to her,
especially since she has her dwelling there, all men agreeing that the
Rape of Kore took place on this island. Moreover, this land is the best
adapted for these fruit, even as the poet also says:
But all these things grow there for them unsown
And e'en untilled, both wheat and barley.
(Odyssey IX, 1O9)
This, then, is what the myths have to say about Demeter.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 68-69)
Zeus entered also into the bed of fruitful Demeter, who bore him
Persephone of the white arms, she that Aidoneus ravished away from
her mother and Zeus of the counsels granted it.
(Hesiod, Theogony 912-914)
Demeter, shining among goddesses, after the embraces of the hero
Iasion in the sweetness of love, brought forth Ploutos in a thrice-plowed
field there in the fertile countryside of Crete, a good son, who walks over
earth and the sea's wide ridges everywhere, and he who meets him with
the giving of hands between them is made a prosperous man, to whom
great wealth is granted.
(Hesiod, Theogony 969-974)
So again when Demeter fell in love with Iasion, and yielded to him in a
thrice-ploughed fallow field, Zeus came to hear of it before so very long
and killed Iasion with his thunderbolts.
(Homer's Odyssey V, 125)
But Zeus desired that the other of his two sons might also attain to
honor, and so he instructed him in the initiatory rite of the mysteries,
which had existed on the island since ancient times but was at that time,
so to speak, put in his hands; it is not lawful, however, or any but the
initiated to hear about the mysteries. And Iasion is reputed to have been
the first to initiate strangers into them and by this means to bring the
initiatory rite to high esteem.... And Demeter, becoming enamored of
Iasion, presented him with the fruit of the corn.... To Iasion and Demeter,
according to the story the myths relate, was born Plutus or Wealth, but
the reference is, as a matter of fact, to the wealth of the corn, which was
presented to Iasion because of Demeter's association with him at the
time of the wedding of Harmonia. Now the details of the initiatory rite are
guarded among the matters not to be divulged and are communicated to
the initiates alone; but the fame has traveled wide of how these gods
appear to mankind and bring unexpected aid to those initiates of theirs
who call upon them in the midst of perils. The claim is also made that
men who have taken part in the mysteries become both more pious and
more just and better in every respect than they were before. And this is
the reason, we are told, why the most famous both of the ancient heroes
and of the demi-gods were eagerly desirous of taking part in the
initiatory rite; and in fact Jason and the Dioscuri, and Heracles and
Orpheus as well, after their initiation attained success in all the
campaigns they undertook, because these gods appeared to them.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 48, 49)
Plutus, we are told, was born in Cretan Tripolus to Demeter and Iasion,
and there is a double account of his origin. For some men say that the
earth, when it was sowed once by Iasion and given proper cultivation,
brought forth such an abundance of fruits that those who saw this
bestowed a special name upon the abundance of fruits when they
appear and called it plutus (wealth); consequently it has become
traditional among later generations to say that men who have acquired
more than they actually need have Plutus. But there are some who
recount the myth that a son was born to Demeter and Iasion whom they
named Plutus, and that he was the first to introduce diligence into the
life of man and the acquisition and safeguarding of property, all men up
to that time having been neglectful of amassing and guarding diligently
any store of property.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 77)
But no one, either of the deathless gods or of mortal men, heard her
voice, nor yet the olive-trees bearing rich fruit: only tender-hearted
Hecate, bright-coifed, the daughter of Persaeus, heard the girl from her
care, and the lord Helios, Hyperion's bright son, as she cried to her
father, the Son of Cronos. But he was sitting aloof, apart from the gods,
in his temple where many pray, and receiving sweet offerings from
mortal men. So he, that Son of Cronos, of many names, who is Ruler of
Many and Host of Many, was bearing her away by leave of Zeus on his
immortal chariot - his own brother's child and all unwilling.
And so long as she, the goddess, yet beheld earth and starry heaven
and the strong-flowing sea where fishes shoal and the rays of the sun,
and still hoped to see her dear mother and the tribes of the eternal gods,
so long hope calmed her great heart for all her trouble.... and the heights
of the mountains and the depths of the sea rang with her immortal voice:
and her queenly mother heard her.
Bitter pain seized her heart, and she rent the covering upon her divine
hair with her dear hand: her dark cloak she cast down from both her
shoulders and sped, like a wild bird, over the firm land and yielding sea,
seeking her child. But no one would tell her the truth, neither god nor
mortal man; and of the birds of omen none came with true news for her.
Then for nine days queenly Deo wandered over the earth with flaming
torches in her hands, so grieved that she never tasted ambrosia and the
sweet draught of nectar, nor sprinkled her body with water.
(Homeric Hymn, To Demeter 22-50)
As the basket comes, greet it, you women, saying "Demeter, greatly hail!
Lady of much bounty, of many measures of corn." As the basket comes,
from the ground you shall see it, you uninitiated, and gaze not from the
roof or from aloft - child nor wife nor maid that has shed her hair - neither
then nor when we spit from parched mouths fasting. Hesperus from the
clouds marks the time of its coming: Hesperus, who alone persuaded
Demeter to drink, that time she pursued the unknown tracks of her
stolen daughter.
Lady, how were your feet able to carry you to the West, to the black men
and where the golden apples are? You did not drink nor did you eat
during that time nor did you wash. Thrice did you cross Achelous with
his silver eddies and as often did you pass over each of the ever-flowing
rivers, and thrice did you seat yourself on the ground beside the
fountain Callichorus, parched and without drinking, and did not eat nor
wash.
Nay, nay, let us not speak of that which brought the tear to Deo! Better to
tell how she gave to cities pleasing ordinances; better to tell how she
was the first to cut straw and holy sheaves of corn-ears and put in oxen
to tread them, that time Triptolemus was taught the good craft.
(Callimachus To Demeter 1-24)
But when the tenth enlightening dawn had come, Hecate, with a torch in
her hands met her, and spoke to her and told her news:
Queenly Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of good gifts, what god
of heaven or what mortal man has rapt away Persephone and pierced
with sorrow your dear heart? For I heard her voice, yet saw not with my
eyes who it was. But I tell you truly and shortly all I know.
So, then, said Hecate. And the daughter of rich-haired Rhea answered
her not but sped swiftly with her, holding flaming torches in her hands.
So they came to Helios, who is watchman of both gods and men, and
stood in front of his horses: and the bright goddess inquired of him:
"Helios, do you at least regard me, goddess as I am, if ever by word or
deed of mine I have cheered your heart and spirit. Through the fruitless
air I heard the thrilling cry of my daughter whom I bare, sweet scion of
my body and lovely in form, as of one seized violently; though with my
eyes I saw nothing. But you---for with your beams you look down fro the
bright upper air over all the earth and sea--- tell me truly of my dear child,
if you have seen her anywhere, what god or mortal man has violently
seied her against her will and mine, and so made off."
So said she. And the Son of Hyperion answered her:
Queen Demeter, daughter of rich-haired Rhea, I will tell you the truth; for
I greatly reverence and pity you in your grief for your trim-ankled
daughter. None other of the deathless gods is to blame, but only cloud-
gathering Zeus who gave her to Hades, her father's brother, to be called
his buxom wife, And Hades seized her and took her loudly crying in his
chariot down to his realm of mist and gloom. Yet, goddess, cease your
loud lament and keep not vain anger unrelentingly: Aidoneus, the Ruler
of Many, is no unfitting husband among the deathless gods for your
child, being your own brother and born of the same stock: also, for
honor, he has that third share which he received when division was
made at the first, and is appointed lord of those among whom he dwells.
So he spoke, and called to his horses: and at his chiding they quickly
whirled the swift chariot along, like long winged-birds.
But grief yet more terrible and savage came into the heart of Demeter,
and thereafter she was so angered with the dark-clouded Son of Cronos
that she avoided the gathering of the gods and high Olympus, and went
to the towns and rich fields of men, disfiguring her form a long while.
And no one of men or deep-bosomed women knew her when they saw
her, until she came to the house of wise Celeus who then was lord of
fragrant Eleusis. Vexed in her dear heart, she sat near the wayside by
the Maiden Well, from which the women of the place were used to draw
water, in a shady place over which grew an olive shrub.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 51-100)
You sat at the well Callichoron, without news of your child.
(Callimachus: Fragment 611)
Another road leads from Eleusis to Megara, Following this road we come
to a well called the Flowery Well. The poet Pamphos says that Demeter
sat on this well in the likeness of an old woman after the rape of her
daughter; and that thence she was conducted, in the character of an old
woman, by the daughter of Celeus to their mother Metanira, who
entrusted her with the upbringing of the boy. A little way from the well is
a sanctuary of Metanira.
(Pausanias I, 39, 1-2)
And she was like an ancient woman who is cut off from child bearing
and the gifts of garland-loving Aphrodite, like the nurses of king's
children who deal justice, or like the house-keepers in their echoing
halls. There the daughters of Celeus, son of Eleusis, saw her, as they
were coming for easy-drawn water, to carry it in pitchers of bronze to
their dear father's house: four were they and like goddesses in the
flower of their girlhood, Callidice and Cleisidice and lovely Demo and
Callithoe who was the eldest of them all. They knew her not, - for the
gods are not easily discerned by mortals -, but standing near by her
spoke winged words:
"Old mother, whence and who are you of folk born long ago? Why are
you gone away from the city and do not draw near the houses? For
there in the shady halls are women of just such age as you, and others
younger; and they would welcome you both by word and by deed."
Thus they said. And she, that queen among goddesses answered them
saying: "Hail, dear children, whosoever you are of womankind. I will tell
you my story; for it is not unseemly that I should tell you truly what you
ask. Doso is my name, for my stately mother gave it me. And now I am
come from Crete over the sea's wide back, - not willingly; but pirates
brought me thence by force of strength against my liking. Afterwards
they put in with their swift craft to Thoricus, and there the women landed
on the shore in full throng and the men likewise, and they began to make
ready a meal by the stern cables of the ship. But my heart craved not
pleasant food, and I fled secretly across the dark country and escaped
my master, that they should not take me unpurchased across the sea,
there to win a price for me. And so I wandered and am come here: and I
know not at all what land this is or what people are in it. But may all
those who dwell on Olympus give you husbands and birth of children as
parents desire, so you take pity on me, maidens, and show me this
clearly that I may learn, dear children, to the house of what man and
woman I may go, to work for them cheerfully at such tasks as belong to
a woman of my age. Well could I nurse a new-born child, holding him in
my arms, or keep house, or spread my master' bed in a recess of the
well-built chamber, or teach the women their work."
So said the goddess. And straightway the unwed maiden Callidice,
goodliest in form of the dauhters of Celeus, answered her and said:
Mother, what the gods send us, we mortals bear perforce, although we
suffer; for they are much stronger than we. But now I will teach you
clearly, telling you the name of men who have great power and honor
here and are chief among the people, guarding our city's coif of towers
by their wisdom and true judgments: there is wise Triptolemus and
Dioclus and Polyxeinus and blameless Eumolpus and Dolichus and our
own brave father. All these have wives who manage in the house and no
one of them? so soon as she had seen you, would dishonor you and
turn you from the house, but they will welcome you; for indeed you are
godlike, But if you will, stay here; and we will go to our father's house
and tell Metaneira, our deep-bosomed mother, all this matter fully, that
she may bid you rather come to our home than search after the houses
of others. She has an only son, late-born, who is being nursed in our
well-built house, a child of many prayers and welcome: if you could
bring him up until he reached the full measure of youth, any one of
womankind who should see you would straightway envy you, such gifts
would our mother give for his upbringing.
So she spoke: and the goddess bowed her head in assent. And they
filled their shining vessels with water and carried them off rejoicing.
Quickly they came to their father's great house and straightway told their
mother according as they had heard and seen. Then she bade them go
with all speed and invite the stranger to come for a measureless hire. As
hinds or heifers in spring time, when sated with pasture, bound about a
meadow, so they, holding up the folds of their lovely garments, darted
down the hollow path, and their hair like a crocus flower streamed about
their shoulders. And they found the good goddess near the wayside
where they had left her before and led her to the house of their dear
father. And she walked behind, distressed in her dear heart, with her
head veiled and wearing a dark cloak which waved about the slender
feet of the goddess.
Soon they came to the house of heaven-nurtured Celeus and went
through the portico to where their queenly mother sat by a pillar of the
close-fitted roof, holding her son, a tender scion, in her bosom. And the
girls ran to her. But the goddess walked to the threshold: and her head
reached the roof and she filled the doorway with a heavenly radiance.
Then awe and reverence and pale fear took hold of Metaneira, and she
rose up from her couch before Demeter, and bade her be seated. But
Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of perfect gifts, would not sit
upon the bright couch, but stayed silent with lovely eyes cast down until
careful Iambe placed a jointed seat for her and threw over it a silvery
fleece. Then she sat down and held her veil in her hands before her face.
A long time she sat upon the stool without speaking because of her
sorrow, and greeted no one by word or by sign, but rested, never
smiling and tasting neither food nor drink, because she pined with
longing for her deep-bosomed daughter, until careful Iambe - who
pleased her moods in aftertime also - moved the holy lady with many a
quip and jest to smile and laugh and cheer her heart. Then Metaneira
filled a cup with sweet wine and offered it to her; but she refused it, for
she said it was not lawful for her to drink red wine, but bade them mix
meal and water with soft mint and give her to drink. And Metaneira mixed
the draught and gave it to the goddess as she bade. So the great queen
Deo received it to observe the sacrament.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 101-212)
But Deo refused to drink, being tipsy with Persephone's trouble:
parents of an only child ever tremble for their beloved children.
(Nonnus, Dionysiaca VI, 30-32)
Meanwhile all in vain the affrighted mother seeks her daughter in every
land, on every deep. Not Aurora rising with dewy tresses, not Hesperus
sees her pausing in the search. She kindles two pine torches in the fires
of Aetna, and wanders without rest through the frosty shades of night;
again, when the genial day had dimmed the stars, she was still seeking
her daughter from the setting to the rising of the sun. Faint with toil and
athirst, she had moistened her lips in no fountain, when she chanced to
see a hut thatched with straw, and knocked at its lowly door. Then out
came an old woman and beheld the goddess, and when she asked for
water gave her a sweet drink with parched barley floating upon it. While
she drank, a coarse, saucy boy stood watching her, and mocked her
and called her greedy. She was offended, and threw what she had not
yet drunk, with the barley grain, full in his face.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 438-452)
After the Rape of Kore, the myth goes on to recount, Demeter, being
unable to find her daughter, kindled torches in the craters of Mt. Aetna
and visited many parts of the inhabited world, and upon the men who
received her with the greatest favor she conferred benefactions,
rewarding them with the gift of the fruit of the wheat. And since a more
kindly welcome was extended the goddess by the Athenians than by
any other people, they were the first after the Siceliotae to be given the
fruit of the wheat; and in return for this gift the citizens of that city in
assembly honored the goddess above all others with the establishment
both of most notable sacrifices and of the mysteries of Eleusis, which,
by reason of their very great antiquity and sanctity, have come to be
famous among all mankind. From the Athenians many peoples received
a portion of the gracious gift of the corn, and they in turn, sharing the gift
of the seed with their neighbors, in this way caused all the inhabited
world to abound with it. And the inhabitants of Sicily, since by reason of
the intimate relationship of Demeter and Kore with them they were the
first to share in the corn after its discovery, instituted to each one of the
goddesses sacrifices and festive gatherings, which they name after
them, and by the time chosen for these made acknowledgment of the
gifts which had been conferred upon them. In the case of Kore, for
instance, they established the celebration of her return at about the time
when the fruit of the corn was found to come to maturity, and they
celebrate this sacrifice and festive gathering with such strictness of
observance and such zeal as we should reasonably expect those men
to show who are returning thanks for having been selected before all
mankind for the greatest possible gift; but in the case of Demeter they
preferred that time for the sacrifice when the sowing of the corn is first
begun, and for a period of ten days they hold a festive gathering which
bears the name of this goddess and is most magnificent by reason of
the brilliance of their preparation for it, while in the observance of it they
imitate the ancient manner of life. And it is their custom during these
days to indulge in coarse language as they associate one with another,
the reason being that by such coarseness the goddess, grieved though
she was of the Rape of Kore, burst into laughter.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 4)
And of them all, well-girded Metaneira first began to speak: "Hail, lady!
For I think you are not meanly but nobly born; truly dignity and grace are
conspicuous upon your eyes as in the eyes of kings that deal justice.
Yet we mortals bear perforce what the gods send us, though we be
grieved; for a yoke is set upon our necks. But now since you are come
here, you shall have what I can bestow: and nurse me this child whom
the gods gave me in my old age and beyond my hope, a son much
prayed for. If you should bring him up until he reach the full measure of
youth, any one of womankind that sees you will straightway envy you,
so great reward would I give for his upbringing."
Then rich-haired Demeter answered her:
And to you, also, lady, all hail, and may the gods give you good! Gladly
will I take the boy to my breast, as you bid me, and will nurse him. Never,
I ween, through any heedlessness of his nurse shall witchcraft hurt him
nor yet the Undercutter: for I know a charm far stronger than the
Woodcutter, and I know an excellent safeguard against woeful
witchcraft.
When she had so spoken, she took the child in her fragrant bosom with
her divine hands: and his mother was glad in her heart. So the goddess
nursed in the palace Demophoön, wise Celeus' goodly son whom well-
girded Metaneira bare. And the child grew like some immortal being, not
fed with food nor nourished at the breast: for by day rich-crowned
Demeter would anoint him with ambrosia as if he were the offspring of a
god and breathe sweetly upon him as she held him in her bosom, but at
night she would hide him like a brand in the heart of the fire unknown to
his dear parents. And it wrought great wonder in these that he grew
beyond his age; for he was like the gods face to face. And she would
have made him deathless and unageing, had not well-girded Metaneira
in her heedlessness kept watch by night from her sweet-smelling
chamber and spied. But she wailed and smote her two hips, because
she feared for her son and was greatly distraught in her heart, so she
lamented and uttered winged words:
"Demophoön, my son, the strange woman buries you deep in fire and
works grief and bitter sorrow for me."
Thus she spoke, mourning. And the bright goddess, lovely crowned
Demeter, heard her, and was wroth with her. So with her divine hands
she snatched from the fire the dear son whom Metaneira had born
unhoped-for in the palace, and cast him from her to the ground; for she
was terribly angry in her heart. Forthwith she said to well-girded
Metaneira:
Witless are you mortals and dull to foresee your lot, whether of good or
evil, that comes upon you. For now in your heedlessness you have
wrought folly past healing; for - be witness the oath of the gods, the
relentless water of Styx - I would have made your dear son deathless
and unaging all his day and would have bestowed on him everlasting
honor, but now he can in no way escape death and the fates. Yet shall
unfailing honor always rest upon him, because he lay upon my knees
and slept in my arms. But, as the years move round and when he is in
his prime, the sons of the Eleusinian shall ever wage war and dread
strife with one another continually. Lo! I am that Demeter who has share
of honor and is the greatest help and cause of joy to the undying gods
and mortal men. But now, let all the people build me a great temple and
an altar below it and beneath the city and its sheer wall upon a rising
hillock above Callichorus. And I myself will teach my rites, that hereafter
you may reverently perform them and so win the favor of my heart.
When she had so said, the goddess changed her stature and her looks,
thrusting old age away from her: beauty spread round about her and a
lovely fragrance was wafted from her sweet-smelling robes, and from
the divine body of the goddess a light shone afar, while golden tresses
spread down over her shoulders, so that the strong house was filled
with brightness as with lightning. And so she went out from the palace.
And straightway Metaneira's knees were loosed and she remained
speechless for a long while and did not remember to take up her late-
born son from the ground. But his sisters heard his pitiful wailing and
sprang down from their well-spread bed: one of them took up the child
in her arms and laid him in her bosom while another revived the fire, and
a third rushed with soft feet to bring their mother from her fragrant
chamber. And they gathered about the struggling child and washed him,
embracing him lovingly; but he was not comforted, because nurse and
handmaids much less skillful were holding him now.
All night long they sought to appease the glorious goddess, quaking
with fear. But, as soon as dawn began to show they told powerful
Celeus all things without fail, as the lovely-crowned goddess Demeter
charged them. So Celeus called the countless people to an assembly
and bade them make a goodly temple for rich-haired Demeter and an
altar upon the rising hillock. And they obeyed him right speedily and
harkened to his voice, doing as he commanded. As for the child, he
grew like an immortal being.
Now when they had finished building and had drawn back from their toil,
they went every man to his house. But golden-haired Demeter sat there
apart from all the blessed gods and stayed, wasting with yearning for
her deep-bosomed daughter. Then she caused a most dreadful and
cruel year for mankind over the all-nourishing earth: the ground would
not make the seed sprout, for rich-crowned Demeter kept it hid. In the
fields the oxen drew many a curved plough in vain, and much white
barley was cast upon the land without avail.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 310-411)
She did not know as yet where her child was; still she reproached all
lands, calling them ungrateful and unworthy of the gift of corn; but Sicily
above all other lands, where she had found traces of her loss. So there
with angry hand she broke in pieces the plows that turn the glebe, and
in her rage she gave to destruction farmers and cattle alike, and bade
the plowed fields to betray their trust, and blighted the seed. The fertility
of this land, famous throughout the world, lay false to its good name: the
crops died in early blade, now too much heat, now too much rain
destroying them, Stars and winds were baleful, and greedy birds ate up
the seed as soon as it was sown; tares and thorns and stubborn
grasses choked the wheat.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 474-486)
Through wooded glen, o'er torrent's flood, and ocean's booming waves
rushed the mountain goddess, mother of the gods, in frantic hate, once
long ago, yearning for her daughter lost, whose name men dare not
utter; loudly rattled the Bacchic castanets in shrill accord, what time
those maidens, swift as whirlwinds, sped forth with the goddess on her
chariot yoked to wild creatures in quest of her that was ravished from
the circling choir of virgins; here was Artemis with her bow, and there
the grim-eyed goddess, sheathed in mail, and spear in hand. But Zeus
looked down from his throne in heaven, and turned the issue
overwhither. Soon as the mother ceased from her wild wandering toil, in
seeking her daughter stolen so subtly as to baffle all pursuit, she
crossed the snow-capped heights of Ida's nymphs; and in anguish cast
her down amongst the rock and brushwood deep in snow; and, denying
to man all increase to his tillage from those barren fields, she wasted the
human race; nor would she let the leafy tendrils yield luxuriant fodder
for the cattle wherefore many a beast lay dying; no sacrifice was offered
to the gods and on the altars were no cake to burn; yea, and she made
the dew-fed founts of crystal water to cease their flow, in her insatiate
sorrow for her child. But when for god and tribes of men alike she made
an end to festal cheer, Zeus spoke out, seeking to smooth the mother's
moody soul, "Ye stately Graces, go banish from Demeter's angry heart
the grief her wanderings bring upon her for her child, and go, ye Muses
too, with tuneful choir." Thereon did Cypris, fairest of the blessed gods,
first catch up the crashing cymbals, native to that land, and the drum
with tight-stretched skin and then Demeter smiled, and in her hand did
take the deep-toned flute, well pleased with its loud note.
(Euripides, Helen 1303-1361)
So she would have destroyed the whole race of man with cruel famine
and have robbed them who dwell on Olympus of their glorious right of
gifts and sacrifices, had not Zeus perceived and marked this in his heart.
First he sent olden-winged Iris to call rich-haired Demeter, lovely in form.
So he commanded. And she obeyed the dark-clouded Son of Cronos,
and sped with swift feet across the space between. She came to the
stronghold of fragrant Eleusis, and there finding dark-cloaked Demeter
in her temple, spake to her and uttered winged words:
Demeter, father Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, calls you to come
join the tribes of the eternal gods: come therefore, and let not the
message I bring from Zeus pass unobeyed.
Thus said Iris imploring her. But Demeter's heart was not moved. Then
again the father sent forth all the blessed and eternal gods besides: and
they came, one after the other, and kept calling her and offering many
very beautiful gifts and whatever rights she might be pleased to choose
among the deathless gods. Yet no one was able to persuade her mind
and will, so wrath was he in her heart; but she stubbornly rejected all
their words: for she vowed that she would never set foot on fragrant
Olympus nor let fruit spring out of the ground, until she beheld with her
eyes her own fair-faced daughter.
Now when all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer heard this, he sent the
Slayer of Argus whose wand is of gold to Erebus, so that having won
over Hades with soft words, he might lead forth chaste Persephone to
the light from the misty gloom to join the gods, and that her mother
might see her with her eyes and cease from her anger. And Hermes
obeyed, and leaving the house of Olympus, straightway sprang down
with speed to the hidden places of the earth. And he found the lord
Hades in his house seated upon a couch, and his shy mate with him,
much reluctant, because she yearned for her mother. But she was afar
off, brooding on her fell design because of the deed of the blessed god.
And the strong Slayer of Argus drew near and said:
Dark-haired Hades, ruler over the departed, father Zeus bids me bring
noble Persephone forth from Erebus unto the gods, that her mother may
see her with her eyes and cease from her dread anger with the
immortals; for now she plans an awful deed, to destroy the weakly tribes
of earth-born men by keeping seed hidden beneath the earth, and so
she makes an end of the honors of the undying gods. For she keeps
fearful anger and does not consort with the gods, but sits aloof in her
fragrant temple, dwelling in the rocky hold of Eleusis.
So he said. And Aidoneus, ruler over the dead, smiled grimly and
obeyed the behest of Zeus the king. For he straightway urged wise
Persephone, saying:
Go now, Persephone, to your dark-robed mother, go, and feel kindly in
your heart towards me: be not so exceedingly cast down; for I shall be
no unfitting husband for you among the deathless gods, that am own
brother to father Zeus. And while you are here, you shall rule all that lives
and moves and shall have the greatest rights among the deathless
gods: those who defraud you and do not appease your power with
offerings, reverently performing rites and paying fit gifts, shall be
punished for evermore.
When he said this, wise Persephone was filled with joy and hastily
sprang up for gladness. But he on his part secretly gave her sweet
pomegranate seed to eat, taking care for himself that he might not
remain continually with grave, dark-robed Demeter. Then Aidoneus the
Ruler of Many openly got ready his deathless horse beneath the olden
chariot. And she mounted on the chariot, and the strong Slayer of Argus
took reins and whip in his dear hands and drove forth from the hall, the
horses speeding readily. Swiftly they traversed their long course, and
neither the sea nor river waters nor grassy glens nor mountain-peaks
checked the career of the immortal horses, but they clave the deep air
above them as they went. And Hermes brought them to the place where
rich-crowned Demeter was staying and checked them before her
fragrant temple.
And when Demeter saw them, she rushed forth as does a Maenad down
some thick-wooded mountain, while Persephone on the other side,
when she saw her mother's sweet eyes, left the chariot and horses, and
leaped down to run to her and falling upon her neck, embraced her. But
while Demeter was still holding her dear child in her arms, her heart
suddenly misgave her for some snare, so that she feared greatly and
ceased fondling her daughter and asked of her at once:
My child, tell me, surely you have not tasted any food while you were
below? Speak out and hide nothing, but let us both know. For if you
have not, you shall come back from loathly Hades and live with me and
your father the dark-clouded Son of Cronos and be honored by all the
deathless gods; but if you have tasted food, you must go back again
beneath the secret place of the earth, there to dwell a third part of the
seasons every year: yet for the two parts you shall be with me and the
other deathless gods But when the earth shall bloom with the fragrant
flowers of spring in every kind, then from the realm of darkness and
gloom thou shalt come up once more to be a wonder for gods and
mortal men. And now tell me how he rapt you away to the realm of
darkness and gloom, and by what trick did the strong Host of Many
beguile you?
Then beautiful Persephone answered her thus:
Mother , I will tell you all without error. When luck-bringing Hermes came,
swift messenger from my father the Son of Cronos and the other Sons
of Heaven, bidding me come back from Erebus that you might see me
with your eyes and so cease from your anger and fearful wrath against
the gods, I sprang up at once for joy; but he secretly put in my mouth
sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 31-411)
"Proserpina shall return to heaven, but on one condition only: if in the
lower-world no food has as yet touched her lips. For so have the fates
decreed."
He spoke; but Ceres was resolved to have her daughter back. Not so
the fates; for the girl had already broken her fast, and while, simple child
that she was she wandered in the trim garden, she had plucked a purple
pomegranate hanging from a bending bough, and peeling off the hard
rind, she had eaten seven of the seeds...
But now Jove, holding the balance between his brother and his grieving
sister, divides the revolving year into two equal parts. Now the goddess,
the common divinity of two realms, spends half the months with her
mother and with her husband, half.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses 530-538, 564-567)
"All this is true, sore though it grieves me to tell the tale." So did they
then, with hearts at one, greatly cheer each the other's soul and spirit
with many an embrace: their heart had relief from their griefs while each
took and gave back joyousness.
Then bright-coifed Hecate came near to them, and often did she
embrace the daughter of holy Demeter: and from that time the lady
Hecate was minister and companion to Persephone.
And all-seeing Zeus sent a messenger to them, rich-haired Rhea, to
bring dark-cloaked Demeter to join the families of the gods: and he
promised to give her what rights she should choose among the
deathless gods and agreed that her daughter should go down for the
third part of the circling year to darkness and gloom, but for the two
parts should live with her mother and the other deathless gods. Thus he
commanded. And the goddess did not disobey the message of Zeus;
swiftly she rushed down from the peaks of Olympus and came to the
plain of Rharus rich, fertile corn-land once, but then in nowise fruitful, for
it lay idle and utterly leafless, because the white grain was hidden by
design of trim-ankled Demeter. But afterwards, as springtime waxed, it
was soon to be waving with long ears of corn, and its rich furrows to be
loaded with grain upon the ground, while others would already be
bound in sheaves. There first he landed from the fruitless upper air: and
glad were the goddesses to see each other and cheered in heart. Then
bright-coifed Rhea said to Demeter:
Come, my daughter; for far-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer calls you to
join the families of the gods, and has promised to give you what rights
you please among the deathless gods, and has agreed that for a third
part of the circling year your daughter shall go down to darkness and
gloom, but for the two parts shall be with you and the other deathless
gods: so has he declared it shall be and has bowed his head in token.
But come, my child, obey, and be not too angry unrelentingly with the
dark-clouded son of Cronos; but rather increase forthwith for men the
fruit that give them life.
So spoke Rhea. And rich-crowned Demeter did not refuse but
straightway made fruit to spring up from the rich lands, so that the whole
wide earth was laden with leaves and flowers. Then she went, and to the
kings who deal justice, Triptolemus and Diocles, the horse-driver, and to
doughty Eumolpus and Celeus, leader of the people, she showed the
conduct of her rites and taught them all her mysteries, to Triptolemus
and Polyxeinus and Diocles also, - awful mysteries which no one may in
any way transgress or pry into or utter, for deep awe of the gods checks
the voice. Happy is he among men upon earth who has seen these
mysteries; but he who is uninitiated and who has no part in them, never
has lot of like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and
gloom.
But when the bright goddess had taught them all, they went to Olympus
to the gathering of the other gods. And there they dwell beside Zeus
who delights in thunder, awful and reverend goddesses. Right blessed
is he among men on earth whom they freely love: soon they do send
Plutus as guest to his great house, Plutus who gives wealth to mortal
men.
And now, queen of the land of sweet Eleusis and sea-girt Paros and
rocky Antron, lady, giver of good gifts, bringer of seasons, queen Deo,
be gracious, you and your daughter all beauteous Persephone, and for
my song grant me heart-cheering substance. And now I will remember
you and another song also.
(Homeric Hymn to Demeter 433-495)
Agricultural Background and History
Triptolemus and the Spread of Agriculture
What I say is supported by the testimony of Sophocles, the tragic poet,
in his drama entitled Triptolemus ; for he there represents Demeter as
informing Triptolemus how large a tract of land he would have to travel
over while sowing it with the seeds he had given him.
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities I, 12)
Here she gave her fleet car to Triptolemus, and bade him scatter the
seed of grain she gave, part in the untilled earth and part in fields that
had long lain fallow.... "My country is far-famed Athens; Triptolemus, my
name. I came neither by ship over the sea, nor on foot by land; the air
opened a path for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, if you sprinkle
them over your wide field, will give a fruitful harvest and food not wild."
(Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 645-647, 652-656)
The right course, indeed, would have been for us not to take up arms
against one another in the beginning, since the tradition is that the first
strangers to whom Triptolemus, our ancestor, revealed the mystic rites
of Demeter and Kore were Heracles, your state's founder, and the
Dioscuri, your citizens; and further, that it was upon Peloponnesus that
he first bestowed the seed of Demeter's fruit.
(Xenophon, Hellenica VI, 3)
Above the fountain are temples: one of them is a temple of Demeter and
the Maid (Kore), in the other there is an image of Triptolemus. I will tell
the story of Triptolemus, omitting what relates to Deiope, Of all the
Greeks it is the Argives who must dispute the claim of the Athenians to
antiquity and to the possession of gifts of the gods, just as among the
barbarians it is the Egyptians who dispute the claims of the Phrygians.
The story runs that when Demeter came to Argos, Pelasgus received her
in his house, and that Chrysanthis, knowing the rape of the Maid told it
to her. They say that afterwards Trochilus, a priest of the mysteries, fled
from Argos on account of the enmity of Agenor, and came to Attica,
where he married an Eleusinian wife, and there were born to him two
sons, Eubuleus and Triptolemus. This is the Argive story. But the
Athenians and those who take their side know that Triptolemus the son
of Celeus was the first who sowed cultivated grain. However, some
verses of Musaeus (if his they are) declare Triptolemus to be a child of
Ocean and Earth; while other verses, which are attributed, in my
opinion, with just as little reason, to Orpheus, assert that Eubuleus and
Triptolemus were sons of Dysaules, and that, as a reward for the
information they gave her about her daughter, Demeter allowed them to
sow the grain. Choerilus the Athenian, in a drama called Alope says that
Cercyon and Triptolemus were brothers, that their mother was a
daughter of Amphictyon, but that the father of Triptolemus was Rarus,
and that the father of Cercyon was Poseidon. I purposed to pursue the
subject, and describe all the objects that admit of description in the
sanctuary at Athens called the Eleusinium, but I was prevented from so
doing by a vision in a dream. I will therefore turn to what may be lawfully
told to everybody, In front of this temple, in which is the image of
Triptolemus, stands a bronze ox as in the act of being led to sacrifice;
and Epimenides the Cnosian is portrayed sitting, of whom they say that
going into the country he entered a cave and slept, and did not awake
until forty years had come and gone, and afterwards he made verses
and purified cities, Athens among the rest.
(Pausanias I, 14:1-3)
Pausanias' Descriptions of Other Demeter Cults
After Thelpusa the Ladon descends to the sanctuary of Demeter in
Onceum. The Thelpusians call the goddess Fury, and with them agrees
Antimachus, the poet who celebrated the expedition of the Argives
against Thebes. His verse runs thus: -
They say that there is a seat of Demeter Fury in that place. Oncius,
according to common fame, was a son of Apollo, and he reigned at
Onceum in the land of Thelpusa. The goddess received the surname of
Fury on this wise. When Demeter was seeking her daughter, they say
that in her wanderings she was followed by Poseidon, who desired to
gain her favors. So she turned herself into a mare, and grazed with the
mares of Oncius; but Poseidon, detecting the deception, likewise took
the form of a horse, and so enjoyed Demeter. They say that at first
Demeter was wroth, but that in time she relented, and was fain to bathe
in the Ladon. Hence the goddess received two surnames: that of fury
(Erinus) on account of her wrath, because the Arcadians call a fit of
anger erinuein ; and that of Lusia, because she bathed (lousasthai) in
the Ladon. The images in the temple are of wood, but the faces, hands,
feet, are of Parian marble. The image of the Fury holds the so-called cista
(sacred basket), and in her right hand a torch: the height of the image we
guessed to be nine feet. The Lusia appeared to be six feet high. Some
think that the image represents Themis, and not Demeter Lusia; but this
is an idle fancy, and so I would have them know. They say that Demeter
had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not wont to divulge
to uninitiated persons, and that he also gave birth to the horse Arion; it
was for this reason, they say, that they gave Poseidon the surname of
Hippius ('of horses'), and they were first of the Arcadians who did so.
(Pausanias VIII, 25:4-7)
... and with befitting counsel, while he tends, not only the worship of
Demeter with the ruddy feet, and the festival of her daughter with her
white horses,
(Pindar, Olympian Odes VI, 95)
The Arcadians bring into the sanctuary the fruits of all cultivated trees
except the pomegranate. On the right as you leave the temple there is a
mirror fitted into the wall. Anyone who looks into this mirror will see
himself either very dimly or not at all, but the images of the gods and the
throne are clearly visible. Beside the temple of the mistress a little higher
up on the right is what is called the Hall. Here the Arcadians perform
mysteries, and sacrifice victims to the Mistress in great abundance.
Each man sacrifices what he has got. They do not cut the throats of the
victims as in the other sacrifices, but each man lops off a limb of the
victim, it matters not which. This Mistress is worshipped by the
Arcadians above all the gods and they say she is a daughter of
Poseidon and Demeter. Mistress is her popular surname, just as the
daughter of Demeter by Zeus is surnamed the Maid. The real name of the
Maid is Proserpine, as it occurs in the poetry of Homer and of Pamphos
before him; but the true name of the Mistress I fear to communicate to
the uninitiated.
(Pausanias VIII, 37:7-9)
In front of the temple is an altar to Demeter, and another to the Mistress,
and after it one to the Great Mother. The images of the goddesses,
namely, the mistress and Demeter, as well as the throne on which they
sit and the footstool under their feet, are all made of a single block of
stone. None of the drapery or work about the throne is made of a
different stone, attached with iron clamps or cement: all is of one block,
This block was not fetched from outside: they say that, following
directions given in a dream, they found it by digging within the
enclosure. The size of each of the two images is about that of the image
of the Mother at Athens. They are also works of Damophon. Demeter
carries a torch in her right hand, the other hand is laid on the Mistress.
The Mistress has a scepter, and the basket, as it is called, on her knees:
she holds the basket with her right hand.
(Pausanias VIII, 37:2-4)
The other mountain, Mount Elaius, is about thirty furlongs from Phigalia:
there is a cave there sacred to Demeter surnamed the Black. All that the
people of Thelpusa say touching the loves of Poseidon and Demeter is
believed by the Phigalians; but the Phigalians say that Demeter gave
birth not to a horse, but to her whom the Arcadians name the Mistress,
and they say that afterwards Demeter, wroth with Poseidon, and
mourning the rape of Proserpine, put on black raiment, and entering this
grotto tarried there in seclusion a long while. But when all the fruits of
the earth were wasting away, and the race of man was perishing still
more of hunger, none of the other gods, it would seem, knew where
Demeter was hid; but Pan, roving over Arcadia, and hunting now on one
mountain, now on another, came at last to Mount Elaius, and spied
Demeter, and saw the plight she was in, and the garb she wore. So Zeus
learnt of his from Pan, and sent the Fates to Demeter, and she
hearkened to the Fates, and swallowed her wrath, and abated even from
her grief.
For that reason the Phigalians say that they accounted the grotto sacred
to Demeter, and set up in it an image of wood. The image, they say, was
made thus: it was seated on a rock, and was in the likeness of a woman,
all but the head; the head and the hair were those of a horse, and
attached to the head were figures of serpents and other wild beasts; she
was clad in a tunic that reached even to her feet; on one of her hands
was a dolphin, and on the other a dove. Why they made the image thus
is plain to any man of ordinary sagacity who is versed in legendary lore.
They say they surnamed her Black, because the garb the goddess wore
was black. They do not remember who made this wooden image, nor
how it caught fire. When the old image disappeared the Phigalians did
not give the goddess another in its stead, and as to the festivals and
sacrifices, why they neglected most of them, until a dearth came upon
the land; then they besought the god, and the Pythian priestess
answered them as follows: -
Arcadians, Azanians, acorn-eaters, who inhabit Phigalia, the cave where
the Horse-mother Deo lay hid,
You come to learn a riddance of grievous famine,
You who alone have been nomads twice, and twice tasted the berries
wild.
'Twas Deo stopped your pasturing, and 'twas Deo caused you again
To go without the cakes of herdsmen who drag the ripe ears home,
Because she was robbed of privileges that men of old bestowed on her
and of her ancient honors,
And soon shall she make you to eat each other, and to feast on your
children,
If you appease not her wrath with libations offered of the whole people,
And if you adorn not the nook of the tunnel with honors divine.
When the oracle was reported to them, the Phigalians held Demeter in
higher honor than before, and in particular they induced Onatas, the
Aeginetan, son of Micon, to make them an image of Demeter for so
much. There is a bronze Apollo at Pergamus by this Onatus, which is
one of the greatest marvels both for size and workmanship. So he made
a bronze image for the Phigalians guided by a painting or a copy which
he discovered of the ancient wooden image; but he relied mainly, it is
said, on directions received in dreams.
(Pausanias VIII, 42:1-7, 11)
However that may be, the first who reigned in this country were
Polycaon, son of Lelex, and his wife Messene. It was to this Messene
that Caucon, son of Celaenus, son of Phylus, brought the orgies of the
Great Goddesses from Eleusis. The Athenians say that Phylus himself
was a son of Earth, and they are supported by the hymn which Musaeus
composed on Demeter for Lycomids. But many years after the time of
Caucon the mysteries of the Great Goddesses were raised to higher
honor by Lycus, son of Pandion; and the place where he purified the
initiated is still named the oak-coppice of Lycus.... And that this Lycus
was the son of Pandion is shown by the verses inscribed on the statue
of Methapus. For Methapus also made some changes in the mode of
celebrating the mysteries. Methapus was an Athenian by descent, and
he was a devisor of Mysteries and all sorts of orgies It was he who
instituted the mysteries of the Cabiri for the Thebans; and he also set up
in the chapel of the Lycomids a statue inscribed with an epigram, which
contains a passage confirming what I have said: -
And I purified houses of Hermes ... and paths
Of Demeter and of the first-born Maid, where they say
That Messene instituted for the Great Goddesses a rite
Which she learned from Caucon, illustrious scion of Phylus.
And I marveled how Lycus, son of Pandion,
Established all the sacred rites of Attis in dear Andania.
(Pausanias IV, 1:5-8)
At the other or western end of the colonnade there is an enclosure
sacred to the Great Goddesses. The Great Goddesses are Demeter and
the Maid, as I have already shown in my account of Messenia. The Maid
is called Savior by the Arcadians.... With regard to the image of the Great
Goddesses, that of Demeter is of stone throughout, but the drapery of
the Savior is of wood. The height of each is about fifteen feet. The
images ... and before them he made small images of girls in tunics
reaching to their ankles: each of the two girls bears on her head a
basket full of flowers: they are said to be the daughters of Damophon.
But those who put a religious interpretation on them think that they are
Athena and Artemis gathering flowers with Proserpine.
(Pausanias VIII, 31:1-2)
Five-and-twenty furlongs from here you come to a grove of Cabirian
Demeter and the Maid: the initiated are allowed to enter it. About seven
furlongs from this grove is the sanctuary of the Cabiri. I must crave
pardon of the curious if I preserve silence as to who the Cabiri are, and
what rites are performed in honor of them and their mother. There is,
however, nothing to prevent me disclosing the account which the
Thebans give of the origin of the rites. They say that in this place there
was once a city, the men of which were named Cabiri; and that Demeter
made the acquaintance of Prometheus, one of the Cabiri, and of his son
Aetnaeus, and entrusted something to their care; but what it was he
entrusted to them and what happened to it, I thought it wrong to set
down. At all events, the mysteries are a gift of Demeter to the Cabiri.
(Pausanias IX, 25:5-6)
Once more, when Alexander after his victory gave Thebes and all the
land of Thebes to the flames, some Macedonians who entered the
sanctuary of the Cabiri because it was in the enemy's country, were
destroyed by thunderbolts and lightening from heaven. So holy has this
sanctuary been from the beginning.
(Pausanias IX, 25:10)
But the most remarkable object of all is a sanctuary of Demeter on
Mount Pron. The Hermionians say that the founders of this sanctuary
were Clymenus, son of Phoroneus, and his sister Chthonia. But the
Argive story is this. When Demeter came to Argolis she was hospitably
received by Athera and Mysius. However, Colontas neither opened his
house to the goddess nor paid her any other mark of respect. But this
churlish behavior was not to the mind of his daughter Chthonia. They
each had their reward: the house of Colontas was burnt down and he in
it; but Chthonia was brought by Demeter to Hermion and founded the
sanctuary. However that may have been, the goddess herself is certainly
called Chthonia ('subterranean'), and they celebrate a festival called
Chthonia every year in summer-time.
(Pausanias II, 35:4-5)
The Pheneatians have also a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed
Eleusinian, and they celebrate mysteries in her honor, alleging that rites
identical with those performed at Eleusis were instituted in their land; for
Naus, they say, a grandson of Eumolpus, came to their country in
obedience to an oracle from Delphi. Beside the sanctuary of the
Eleusinian goddess is what is called the Petroma, two great stones fitted
to each other. Every second year, when they are celebrating what they
call the Greater Mysteries they open these stones, and taking out of
them certain writings which bear on the mysteries, they read them in the
hearing of the initiated, and put them back in their place that same night.
I know, too, that on the weightiest matters most of the Pheneatians
swear by the Petroma. There is a round top on it, which contains a mask
of Demeter Cidaria: this mask the priest puts on his face at the Greater
Mysteries, and smites the Underground Folk with rods. I suppose there
is some legend to account for the custom. The Pheneatians have a
legend that Demeter came hither on her wanderings even before Naus;
and that to those of the Pheneatians who welcomed her hospitably she
gave all the different kinds of pulse except beans. They have a sacred
story about the bean to show why they think it an unclean kind of pulse.
The men who received the goddess, according to the Pheneatian
legend, were Trisaules and Damithales: They built a temple of Demeter
Thesmia ('goddess of laws') under Mount Cyllene, and instituted in her
honor the mysteries which they still celebrate.
(Pausanias VIII, 15:1-4)
Dionysus and Iacchos at Eleusis
Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysus, Apollo, Hecate, the
Muses, and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bacchic
or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations; and they
give the name "Iacchus" not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-
chief of the mysteries, who is the genius of Demeter. And branch-
bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common elements in the
worship of these gods. As for the Muses and Apollo, the Muses preside
over the choruses, whereas Apollo presides both over these and the
rites of divination. But all educated men, and especially the musician, are
ministers of the Muses; and both these and those who have to do with
divination are ministers of Apollo; and the initiated and torch-bearers
and hierophants, of Demeter; and the Sileni and Satyri and Bacchae,
and also the Lenae and Thyiae and Mimallones and Naides and
Nymphae and the beings called Tityri, of Dionysus.
(Strabo Geography X, 3:10)
Was it haply, when you did bring into being Dionysus of the flowing
locks, who is enthroned beside Demeter of the clashing cymbals?
(Pindar, Isthmian VII, 3-5)
O you of many names, glory of the Cadmeian bride, offspring of loud-
thundering Zeus! you who watches over famed Italia, and reigns, where
all guests are welcomed, in the sheltered plain of Eleusinian Deo! O
Bacchus,
(Sophocles' Antigone 1115-1120)
Hard by is a temple of Demeter with images of the goddess, her
daughter, and Iacchus, who is holding a torch. An inscription in Attic
letters on the wall declares that they are works of Praxiteles.
(Pausanias, I, 2:4)
This god (Dionysus) was born in Crete, men say, of Zeus and
Persephone, and Orpheus has handed down the tradition in the
initiatory rites that he was torn in pieces by the Titans.
(Diodorus Siculus, V, 75)
Orpheus the Classic Mystic
.
In my opinion Orpheus was a man who surpassed his predecessors in
the beauty of his poetry, and attained great power because he was
believed to have discovered mystic rites, purifications for wicked deeds,
remedies for diseases, and modes of averting the wrath of the gods....
But some say that Orpheus was struck dead by the god with a
thunderbolt on account of certain revelations which he had made to
men at the mysteries.
(Pausanias, IX, 30:4-5)
To Amphietus Bacchus
Terrestrial Dionysus, hear my pray'r,
Rise vigilant with Nymphs of lovely hair:
Great Amphietus Bacchus, annual God,
Who laid asleep in Proserpine's abode,
Her sacred seat, didst lull to drowsy rest
The rites triennial and the sacred feast;
Which rous'd again by thee, in graceful ring,
Thy nurses round thee mystic anthems sing;
When briskly dancing with rejoicing pow'rs,
Thou mov'st in concert with the circling hours,
Come blessed, fruitful, horned, and divine,
And on this sacred Telete propitious shine;
Accept the pious incense and the pray'r,
And make prolific holy fruits thy care.
To Bacchus
Of Jove and Proserpine occultly born
In beds ineffable; all-bless'd pow'r,
Whom with triennial off'rings men adore.
Immortal daemon, hear my suppliant voice,
Give me in blameless plenty to rejoice;
And listen gracious to my mystic pray'r,
Surrounded with thy choir of nurses fair,
To the Nereids
Give plenteous wealth, and bless our mystic rites;
For you at first disclosed the rites divine,
Of holy Bacchus and of Proserpine,
To the Nymphs
With Bacchus and with Ceres hear my pray'r,
And to mankind abundant favor bear;
Propitious listen to your suppliant's voice,
Come, and benignant in these rites rejoice;
Give plenteous seasons and sufficient wealth,
And pour in lasting streams, continued health.
To Semele
Whom Proserpine permits to view the light,
And visit mortals from the realms of night.
Constant attending on the sacred rites,
And feast triennial, which thy soul delights;
When thy son's wondrous birth mankind relate
And secrets pure and holy celebrate.
Now I invoke thee, great Cadmean queen,
To bless thy mystics, lenient and serene.
To Adonis
Descended from the secret bed divine
Of Pluto's queen, the fair-hair'd Proserpine.
'Tis thine to sink in Tartarus profound,
And shine again thro' heav'ns illustrious round
Come, timely pow'r, with providential care,
And to thy mystics earth's productions bear.
To the Curetes
Fam'd deities the guards of Proserpine,
Preserving rites mysterious and divine:
To the Seasons
Invested with a veil of shining dew,
A flow'ry veil delightful to the view:
Attending Proserpine, when back from night
The Fates and Graces lead her up to light;
When in a band harmonious they advance,
And joyful round her form the solemn dance.
With Ceres triumphing, and Jove divine,
Propitious come, and on our incense shine;
Give earth a store of blameless fruits to bear,
And make these novel mystics' life your care.
To Nereus
Great daemon, source of all, whose pow'r can make
The sacred basis of blest Ceres shake,...
Send to thy mystics necessary wealth,
With gentle peace, and ever tranquil health.
To Love
Of all that Ceres' fertile realms contains,
By which th'all parent Goddess life sustains,
Or dismal Tartarus is doom'd to keep,
Widely extended, or the sounding deep;
For thee all Nature's various realms obey,
Who rul'st alone, with universal sway.
Come, blessed pow'r, regard these mystic fires,
And far avert unlawful mad desires.
To Corybas
By thee transmuted, Ceres' body pure
Became a dragon's savage and obscure.
Avert thy anger, hear me when I pray,
And, by fix'd fate, drive fancy's fears away.
To the Sun
Propitious on these mystic labors shine,
And bless thy suppliants with a life divine.
To the Moon
Shine on these sacred rites with prosp'rous rays,
And pleas'd accept thy suppliants' mystic praise.
To the Stars
These sacred rites regard with conscious rays,
And end our works devoted to your praise.
To Latona
Hear me, O queen, and fav'rbly attend,
And to this Telete divine afford a pleasing end.
To the Daemon
O holy blessed father, hear my pray'r,
Disperse the seed of life-consuming care,
With fav'ring mind the sacred rites attend,
And grant to life a glorious blessed end.
To the Muse
Commanding queens, who lead to sacred light
The intellect refin'd from Error's night;
And to mankind each holy rite disclose,
For mystic knowledge from your nature flows....
Come, venerable, various pow'rs divine,
With fav'ring aspect on your mystics shine;
Bring glorious, ardent, lovely, fam'd desire,
And warm my bosom with your sacred fire .
To Aurora
For all the culture of our life is thine.
Come, blessed pow'r and to these rites incline:
Thy holy light increase, and unconfin'd
Diffuse its radiance on thy mystics' mind
To Themis
Honor'd by all, of form divinely bright,
Majestic virgin, wand'ring in the night.
Mankind from thee first learnt perfective rites,
And Bacchus' nightly choirs thy soul delights;
For the God's honors to disclose is thine,
And holy mysteries and rites divine.
Be present Goddess, to my pray'r inclin'd,
And bless thy Telete with fav'ring mind.
To Death
Hear me, O Death, whose empire unconfin'd
Extends to mortal tribes of ev'ry kind.
On thee the portion of our time depends,
Whose absence lengthens life, whose presence ends.
Thy sleep perpetual bursts the vivid folds
By which the soul attracting body holds:
To Mnemosyne or the Goddess of Memory
The consort I invoke of Jove divine,
Source of the holy, sweetly speaking Nine;
Free from th'oblivion of the fallen mind,
By whom the soul with intellect is join'd.
Reason's increase and thought to thee belong,
All-powerful, pleasant, vigilant and strong.
'Tis thine to waken from lethargic rest
All thoughts deposited within the breast;
And naught neglecting, vig'rous to excite
The mental eye from dark oblivion's night
Come, blessed pow'r, thy mystics' mem'ry wake
To holy rites, and Lethe's fetters break.
To Heaven
Propitious on a novel mystic shine,
And crown his wishes with a life divine.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
The Goddesses' Blessings of Nature
The earth, again, they looked upon as a kind of vessel which holds all
growing things and so gave it the name "mother;" and in like manner
the Greeks also call it Demeter, the word having been slightly changed
in the course of time; for in olden time they called her Ge Meter (Earth
Mother), to which Orpheus bears witness when he speaks of "Earth the
Mother of all, Demeter giver of wealth."
(Diodorus, I, 12)
Demeter is who gives food like a mother;
(Plato Cratylus 404c)
"The chaste heaven loves to violate the earth, and love lays hold on
earth to join in wedlock. The rain from the streaming heaven falls down
and impregnates the earth; and she brings forth her mortals the
pasturage of sheep and Demeter's sustenance; and the ripe season for
the trees is perfected by the watery union. Of all this I am the cause."
(Aeschylus, The Deipnosophists XIII, 600b)
Furthermore, the early men have given Dionysus the name of "Dimetor"
("twice-born"), reckoning it as a single and first birth when the plant is
set in the ground and begins to grow, and as a second birth when it
becomes laden with fruit and ripens its clusters, the god, therefore,
being considered as having been born once from the earth and again
from the vine. And though the writers of myths have handed down the
account of a third birth as well, at which as they say the sons of Gaia
tore to pieces the god, who was a son of Zeus and Demeter, and boiled
him, but his members were brought together again by Demeter and he
experienced a new birth as if for the first time, such accounts as this
they trace back to certain causes found in nature. For he is considered
to be the son of Zeus and Demeter, they hold, by reason of the fact that
the vine gets its growth both from the earth and from rain and so bears
as its fruit the wine which is pressed out from the clusters of grapes;
and the statement that he was torn to pieces, while yet a youth, by the
"earth-born" signifies the harvesting of the fruit by the laborers, and the
boiling of his members has been worked into a myth by reason of the
fact that most men boil the wine and then mix it, thereby improving its
natural aroma and quality. Again, the account of his members, which the
"earth-born" treated with despite, being brought together again and
restored to their former natural state, shows forth that the vine, which
has been stripped of its fruit and pruned at the yearly seasons, is
restored by the earth to the high level of fruitfulness which it had before.
For, in general, the ancient poets and writers of myths spoke of Demeter
as Ge Meter (Earth Mother). And with these stories the teachings agree
which are set forth in the Orphic poems and are introduced into their
rites, but it is not lawful to recount them in detail to the uninitiated.
(Diodorus III, 62:5-8)
And in general, the myths relate that the gods who receive the greatest
approval at the hands of human beings are those who excelled in their
benefactions by reason of their discovery of good things, namely,
Dionysus and Demeter, the former because he was the discoverer of the
most pleasing drink, the latter because she gave to the race of men the
most excellent of the dry foods.
Some writers of myths, however, relate that there was a second
Dionysus who was much earlier in time than the one we have just
mentioned. For according to them there was born of Zeus and
Persephone a Dionysus who is called by some Sabazius and whose
birth and sacrifices and honors are celebrated at night and in secret,
because of the disgrace resulting from the intercourse of the sexes.
They state also that he excelled in sagacity and was the first to attempt
the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed, this
being the reason why they also represent him as wearing a horn.
(Diodorus, Library of History IV, 3-4)
The second Dionysus, the writers of myth relate, was born to Zeus by
Persephone, though some say it was Demeter. He is represented by
them as the first man to have yoked oxen to the plough, human beings
before that time having prepared the ground by hand. Many other things
also, which are useful for agriculture, were skillfully devised by him,
whereby the masses were relieved of their great distress; and in return
for this those whom he had benefited accorded to him honors and
sacrifices like those offered to the gods, since all men were eager,
because of the magnitude of his service to them, to accord to him
immortality. And as a special symbol and token the painters and
sculptors represented him with horns, at the same time making manifest
thereby the other nature of Dionysus and also showing forth the
magnitude of the service which he had devised for the farmers by his
invention of the plough.
(Diodorus Library of History. III, 64)
The season of the year also gives us a suspicion that this gloominess is
brought about because of the disappearance from our sight of the crops
and fruits that people in days of old did not regard as gods, but as
necessary and important contributions of the gods toward the
avoidance of a savage and a bestial life. At the time of year when they
saw some of the fruit vanishing and disappearing completely from the
tree, while they themselves were sowing others in a mean and poverty-
stricken fashion still, scraping away the earth with their hands and again
replacing it, committing the seed to the ground with uncertain
expectation of their ever appearing again or coming to fruition they did
many things like persons at a funeral in mourning for their dead.
(Plutarch, Isis and Osiris 70)
Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year's
victuals laid up betimes, even that which the earth bears, Demeter's
grain.
(Hesiod Works and Days 31)
But do you at any rate, always remembering my charge, work, high-born
Perses, that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter richly
crowned may love you and fill your barn with food.
(Hesiod, Works and Days, 328-331)
Pray to Zeus of the Earth and to pure Demeter to make Demeter's holy
grain sound and heavy, when first you begin ploughing, when you hold
in your hand the end of the plough-tail and bring down your stock on
the backs of the oxen as they draw on the pole-bar by the yoke-straps.
(Hesiod, Works and Day, 465-469)
When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising, begin your harvest,
and your ploughing when they are going to set. Forty nights and days
they are hidden and appear again as the year moves round, when first
you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the plains, and of those who
live near the sea, and who inhabit rich country, the glens and dingles far
from the tossing sea,---strip to sow and strip to plough and strip to reap,
if you wish to get in all Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each
kind may grow in its season.
(Hesiod, Works and Days, 383-393)
Set your slaves to winnow Demeter's holy grain, when strong Orion first
appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy place.
(Hesiod, Works and Days,. 597-599)
But when the Pleiades and Hyades and strong Orion begin to set, then
remember to plough in season: and so the completed year will fitly pass
beneath the earth.
(Hesiod, Works and Days, 614-617)
O Demeter, guardian of this Eleusinian land, and you servants of the
goddess who attend her sanctuary, grant happiness to me and my son
Theseus, to the city of Athens and the country of Pittheus.... Now it
chanced, that I had left my house and come to offer sacrifice on behalf of
the earth's crop at this shrine, where first the fruitful corn showed its
bristling shocks above the soil. And here at the holy altar of the twain
goddesses, Demeter and her daughter, I wait, holding these sprays of
foliage, a bond that binds not, in compassion for these childless
mothers, hoary with age, and from reverence for the sacred fillets.
(Euripides, The Suppliants 1-4, 30-35)
You attendants, with tucked up robes, take the knives away from the ox;
let the ox plough; sacrifice the lazy sow. The ax should never smite the
neck that fits the yoke; let him live and often labor in the hard soil.
(Ovid, Fasti IV, 409-416)
Good Ceres is content with little, if that little be but pure.
(Ovid, Fasti IV 407-408)
Now among the rites of Ceres, those Eleusinian rites are much famed
which were in the high highest repute among the Athenians, of which
Varro offers no interpretation except with respect to corn, which Ceres
discovered, and with respect to Proserpine, whom Ceres lost, Orcus
having carried her away. And this Proserpine herself, he says, signifies
the fecundity of seeds. But as this fecundity departed at a certain
season, whilst the earth wore an aspect of sorrow through the
consequent sterility, there arose an opinion that the daughter of Ceres,
that is, fecundity itself, who was called Proserpine, from proserpere (to
creep forth, to spring), had been carried away by Orcus, and detained
among the inhabitants of the nether world; which circumstance was
celebrated with public mourning. But since the same fecundity again
returned, there arose joy because Proserpine had been given back by
Orcus, and thus these rites were instituted. Then Varro adds, that many
things are taught in the mysteries of Ceres which only refer to the
discovery of fruits.
Augustine of Hippo, City of God, Book VII, Chapter 20: Concerning the
Rites of the Eleusinian Ceres.
The Thesmophoria
On this lake it is that the Egyptians represent by night his sufferings
whose name I refrain from mentioning, and this representation they call
their Mysteries. I know well the whole course of the proceedings in these
ceremonies, but they shall not pass my lips. So too, with regard to the
mysteries of Demeter, which the Greek term "the Thesmophoria," I know
them, but I shall not mention them, except so far as may be done without
impiety. The daughters of Danaus brought these rites from Egypt, and
taught them to the Pelasgic women of the Peloponnese. Afterward,
when the inhabitants of the peninsula were driven from their homes by
the Dorians, the rites perished. Only in Arcadia, where the natives
remained and were not compelled to migrate, their observance
continued.
(Herodotus, The History II, 171)
Look about you very carefully and throw out Demeter's holy grain upon
the well-rolled threshing floor on the seventh of the mid-month.
(Hesiod Works and Days 805-807)
As the breezes sport with the chaff upon some goodly threshing floor,
when men are winnowing - while yellow Demeter blows with the wind to
sift the chaff from the grain, and the chaff-heaps grow whiter and whiter -
(Homer Iliad V, 499-502)
Heracleides of Syracuse in his work On Institutions says that in
Syracuse, on the Day of Consummation at the Thesmophoria, cakes of
sesame and honey were molded in the shape of the female pudenda,
and called throughout the whole of Sicily mylloi and carried about in
honor of the goddesses.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XIV, 646f)
When you have crossed the Asopus and are just ten furlongs from the
city you come to the ruins of Potniae. Amongst them is a grove of
Demeter and the Maid, The images at the river which flows past Potniae
... they name the goddesses. At a stated time they perform certain
customary ceremonies: in particular they throw sucking pigs into what
they call the hallsy and they say that at the same time next year those
pigs appear at Dodona.
(Pausanias IX, 8:1)
Eleusis and History
Tisamenus, the Elean, had prophesied to Pausanias and all the Greeks,
and foretold them victory if they made no attempt upon the enemy, but
stood on their defense. But Aristides sending to Delphi, the god
answered that the Athenians should overcome their enemies in case
they made supplication to Zeus and Hera of Cithaeron, Pan and the
nymphs Shragitides, and sacrificed to the heroes Androcrates, Leucon,
Pisander, Damocrates, Hypsion, Actaeon, and Polyidus; and if they
fought within their own territories in the plain of Demeter Eleusinia and
Persephone....
But the plain of Demeter Eleusinia, and the offer of victory to the
Athenians, if they fought on their own territories, recalled them again,
and transferred the war into the country of Attica. In this juncture,
Arimnestus, who commanded the Plataeans, dreamed that Zeus, the
Savior, asked him what the Greeks had resolved upon; and that he
answered, "Tomorrow, my Lord, we march our army to Eleusis, and
there give the barbarians battle according to the directions of the oracle
of Apollo."
(Plutarch Aristides 12)
The following is a tale which was told by Dicaeus, the son of Theocydes,
an Athenian, who was at this time in exile and had gained a good report
among the Medes. He declared that after the army of Xerxes had, in the
absence of the Athenians, wasted Attica, he chanced to be with
Demaratus, the Lacedaemonian in the Thriasian plain, and that while
there, he saw a cloud of dust advancing from Eleusis, such as a host of
thirty thousand men might raise. As he and his companion were
wondering who the men, from whom the dust arose, could possibly be,
a sound of voices reached his ear, and he thought that he recognized
the mystic hymn to Bacchus, Now Demaratus was unacquainted with
the rites of Eleusis, and so he inquired of Dicaeus what the voices were
saying. Dicaeus made answer -
O Demaratus! beyond a doubt some mighty calamity is about to befall
the king's army! For it is manifest, inasmuch as Attica is deserted by its
inhabitants, that the sound which we have heard is an unearthly one
and is now upon its way from Eleusis to aid the Athenians and their
confederates. If it descends upon the Peloponnese, danger will threaten
the king himself and his land army - if it moves towards the ships at
Salamis, 'twill go hard but the king's fleet there suffers destruction.
Every year the Athenians celebrate this feast to the Mother and the
Daughter; and all who wish, whether they be Athenians or any other
Greeks, are initiated. The sound thou hearest is the Bacchic song, which
is wont to be sung at that festival.
"Hush now," rejoined the other; "and see thou tell no man of this matter.
For if thy words be brought to the king's ear, thou wilt assuredly lose thy
head because of them; neither I nor any man living can save thee. Hold
thy peace therefore. The gods will see to the king's army." Thus
Demaratus counseled him; and they looked, and saw the dust, from
which the sound arose, become a cloud, and the cloud rise up into the
air and sail away to Salamis, making for the station of the Grecian fleet.
Then they knew it was the fleet of Xerxes which would suffer
destruction. Such was the tale told by Dicaeus the son of Theocydes;
and he appealed for its truth to Demaratus and other eye-witnesses.
(Herodotus VIII, 65)
The Persians, as soon as they were put to flight by the Lacedaemonians,
ran hastily away, without preserving any order, and took refuge in their
own camp, within the wooden defense which they had raised in the
Theban territory. It is a marvel to me how it came to pass, that although
the battle was fought quite close to the grove of Demeter, yet not a
single Persian appears to have died on the sacred soil, nor even to have
set foot upon it, while round about the precinct, in the unconsecrated
ground, great numbers perished. I imagine - if it is lawful, in matters
which concern the gods, to imagine anything - that the goddess herself
kept them out, because they had burnt her dwelling at Eleusis. Such,
then, was the issue of this battle.
(Herodotus IX, 65)
It is reported that, in the middle of the fight, a great flame rose into the air
above the city of Eleusis, and that sounds and voices were heard
through all the Thriasian plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number
of men accompanying and escorting the mystic Iacchus, and that a mist
seemed to form and rise from the place from whence the sounds came,
and, passing forward, fell upon the galleys. Others believed that they
saw apparitions, in the shape of armed men, reaching out their hands
from the island of Aegina before Grecian galleys; and supposed they
were the Aeacidae, whom they had invoked to their aid before the battle.
The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain of
the galley, who cut down its ensign, and dedicated it to Apollo the Laurel-
crowned. And as the Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and
could bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one another, the
Greeks thus equaled them in strength and fought with them till the
evening forced them back, and obtained, as says Simonides, that noble
and famous victory, than which neither amongst the Greek nor
barbarians was ever known more glorious exploit on the seas; by the
joint valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom and
sagacity of Themistocles.
(Plutarch Themistocles 15)
The resentment felt upon it was heightened by the time it happened in,
for the garrison was brought in on the twentieth of the month of
Boedromion just at the time of the great festival, when they carry forth
Iacchus with solemn pomp from the city to Eleusis; so that the solemnity
being disturbed, many began to call to mind instances, both ancient and
modern, of divine interventions and intimations. For in old time, upon the
occasions of their happiest successes, the presence of the shapes and
voices of the mystic ceremonies had been vouchsafed to them, striking
terror and amazement into their enemies; but now, at the very season of
their celebration, the gods themselves stood witnesses of the saddest
oppressions of Greece, the most holy time being profaned, and their
greatest jubilee made the unlucky date of their most extreme calamity....
While a candidate for initiation was washing a young pig in the haven of
Cantharus, a shark seized him, bit off all his lower parts up to the belly
and devoured them, by which the god gave them manifestly to
understand, that having lost the lower town and seacoast, they should
keep only the upper city.
(Plutarch, Life of Phocion 28)
For most of the Hellenic cities, in memory of our ancient services, send
us each year the first-fruits of the harvest, and those who neglect to do
so have often been admonished by the Pythian priestess to pay us our
due portion of their crops and to observe in relation to our city the
customs of their fathers.
(Panegyricus 31)
For the highest and dearest of the gods are come to our city. Hither,
indeed, the time has brought together Demeter and Demetrius. She
comes to celebrate the solemn mysteries of the Daughter.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists VI, 253d)
Violators
And since they knew that in matters pertaining to the gods the city
would be most enraged if any man should be shown to be violating the
Mysteries
(Isocrates The Team of Horses 6)
If I see some initiate of the Mysteries giving away the secret ritual and
going through the dances in public, and I get angry and show him up,
are you going to consider me the wrongdoer?
(Lucian The Fisherman 33)
It is a great blessing for you that you have not seen the rites of the dread
goddess, or else you would have spewed up their story too.
(Callimachus, Aetia 75)
But of what he is doing a man might be ignorant, as for instance people
say, 'It slipped out of their mouths as they were speaking,' or 'They did
not know it was a secret,' as Aeschylus said of the mysteries.
(Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics III, I, 17)
The Assembly had met to give audience to Nicias, Lamachus, and
Alcibiades, the generals about to leave with the Sicilian expedition - in
fact, Lamachus' flag-ship was already lying off-shore - when suddenly
Pythonicus rose before the people and cried: 'Countrymen, you are
sending forth this mighty host in all its array upon a perilous enterprise.
Yet your commander, Alcibiades, has been holding celebrations of the
mysteries in a private house, and others with him; I will prove it, Grant
immunity to him whom I indicate, and a non-initiate, a slave belonging to
someone here present, shall describe the Mysteries to you. You can
punish me as you will, if that is not the truth.'
(Andocides On the Mysteries 11-12)
"Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia, lays information
that Alcibiades, the son of Clinias of the township of the Scambonidae,
has committed a crime against the goddess Demeter and Persephone,
by representing in derision the holy mysteries, and showing them to his
companions in his own house. Where, being habited in such robes as
are used by the chief priest, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Theodorus,
of the township of Phegaea, the herald; and saluted the rest of his
company as Initiates and Novices, all which was done contrary to the
laws and institutions of the Eulmolpidae, and the heralds and priests of
the temple at Eleusis."
He was condemned as contumacious upon his not appearing, his
property confiscated, and it was decreed that all the priests and
priestesses should solemnly curse him. But one of them, Theano, the
daughter of Menon, of the township of Agraule, is said to have opposed
that part of the decree, saying that her holy office obliged her to make
prayers, but not execrations.
(Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades 34)
It is worth your while, men of Athens, to consider this also - that you
punished Archias, who had been hierophant, when he was convicted in
court of impiety and of offering sacrifice contrary to the rites handed
down by our fathers. Among the charges brought against him was, that
at the feast of the harvest he sacrificed on the altar in the court at Eleusis
a victim brought by the courtesan Sinope, although it was not lawful to
offer victims on that day, and the sacrifice was not his to perform, but
the priestess'! It is, then, a monstrous thing that a man who was of the
race of the Eumolpidae, born of honorable ancestors and a citizen of
Athens, should be punished for having transgressed one of your
established customs; and the pleadings of his relatives and friends did
not save him, nor the public services which he and his ancestors had
rendered to the city; no, nor yet his office of hierophant; but you
punished him, because he was judged to be guilty.
(Demosthenes Against Neaera 116-117)
And at the celebration of the Mysteries, the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes,
because of our hatred of the Persians, give solemn warning to the other
barbarians also, even as to men guilty of murder, that they are forever
banned from the sacred rites.
(Isocrates, Panegyricus 157)
On the road from Athens to Eleusis, which the Athenians called the
Sacred Way, there is the tomb of Anthemocritus. He was the victim of a
most foul crime perpetuated by the Megarians; for when he came as a
herald to forbid them to encroach on the sacred land, they slew him. And
the wrath of the two goddesses abides upon them for that deed to this
day; for they were the only Greek people whom even the Emperor
Hadrian could not make to thrive.
(Pausanias I, 36:3)
Now the Athenians had undertaken the war against Philip for no
sufficient reason, since they retained nothing of their ancient greatness
except their spirit. Two young men from Acarnania, during the
celebration of the mysteries at Eleusis, though not initiated, had entered
the temple of Ceres, ignorant that they were committing sacrilege, and
merely following the crowd. Their words easily betrayed them, since
they asked foolish questions, and though it was clear that they had
come in openly and by mistake they were put to death as if they had
committed some heinous crime. The Acarnanians reported this revolting
and unfriendly act to Philip, and prevailed upon him to send them
Macedonian aid and permit them to attack Athens.
(Livy XXI, xiv, 6-10)
There is a sure reward for trusty silence, too. I will forbid the man who
has divulged the sacred rites of mystic Ceres, to abide beneath the same
roof or to unmoor with me the fragile bark.
(Horace Odes III, ii)
Heracles and the Lesser Mysteries
Demeter instituted the Lesser Mysteries in honor of Heracles, that she
might purify him of the guilt he had incurred in the slaughter of the
Centaurs.
(Diodorus Siculus, IV, 14)
And assuming that it would be to his advantage for the accomplishment
of this labor, he went to Athens and took part in the Eleusinian
Mysteries, Musaeus, the son of Orpheus, being at that time in charge of
the initiatory rite.
(Diodorus Siculus IV, 25)
Kerenyi translates the fragments on a papyrus from an oration of the
time of Hadrian
"I was initiated long ago (or: elsewhere). Lock up Eleusis, (Hierophant,)
and put the fire out, Dadouchos. Deny me the holy night! I have already
been initiated into more authentic mysteries.... (I have beheld) the fire,
whence (...and) I have seen the Kore.
(Kerenyi Eleusis p. 83-84)
Yet it is more credible, as others write, that there were, before, frequent
interviews between them, and that it was by the means of Theseus that
Hercules was initiated at Eleusis, and purified before initiation, upon
account of several rash actions of his former life.
(Plutarch, Theseus 30)
When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus
at Eleusis, wishing to be initiated. However it was not then lawful for
foreigners to be initiated: since he proposed to be initiated as the
adoptive son of Pylius. But not being able to see the mysteries because
he had not been cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs, he was
cleansed by Eumolpus and then initiated.
(Apollodorus, The Library II, v, 12)
Heracles: ... After my return at length from the soulless den of Hades and
the maiden queen of hell, I will not neglect to greet first of all the gods
beneath my roof.
Amphitryon: Why, did you in very deed go to the house of Hades, my
son?
Heracles: Aye, and brought to the light that three-headed monster.
Amphitryon: Did you worst him fight, or receive him from the goddess?
Heracles: In fair fight; for I had been lucky enough to witness the rites of
the initiated.
Amphitryon: Is the monster really lodged in the house of Eurystheus?
Heracles: The grove of Demeter and the city of Hermione are his prison.
(Euripides, Herakles Mad, 602-614)
I envy you, Callicles, for having been initiated into the great mysteries
before you were initiated into the lesser. I thought that this was not
allowable.
(Plato Gorgias 497)
The Greater Mysteries were Demeter's and the Lesser Persephone's.
(The scholiast of Aristophanes :Mylonas Eleusis p. 240)
The goddess Demeter is coming to celebrate her daughter's Mysteries.
(A fragment of Douris, the Samian Mylonas Eleusis p. 239-240)
The Greater Mysteries:
Announcement and Meeting at Athens
And when your heralds carried the proclamation of the sacred truce of
the Mysteries, the Phocians alone in all Hellas refused to recognize the
truce.
(Aeschines On the Embassy 133)
There is also an altar of Zephyr, and a sanctuary of Demeter and her
daughter: along with them are worshipped Athena and Poseidon. They
say that in this place Phytalus received Demeter in his house, and that
for so doing the goddess gave him the figtree. This story is attested by
the inscription on the grave of Phytalus: - Here the lordly hero Phytalus
once received the august Demeter, when she first revealed the autumnal
fruit which the race of mortals names the sacred fig; since when the race
of Phytalus hath received honors that wax not old.
(Pausanias I, 37:1-2)
The King in the first place superintends the Mysteries, in conjunction
with the Superintendents of Mysteries. The latter are elected in the
assembly by open vote, two from the general body of Athenians, one
from the Eumolpidae, and one from the Ceryces.
(Artistotle, The Athenian Constitution, 57:1)
And Cleocritus, the herald of the initiated, a man with a very fine voice,
obtained silence and said:
(Xenophon, Hellenica II, iv, 20)
All evil thoughts and profane be still: far hence, far hence from our
choirs depart,
Who knows not well what the Mystics tell, or is not holy and pure of
heart.
I charge them once, I charge them twice, charge them thrice, that they
draw not nigh To the sacred dance of the Mystic choir.
(Aristophanes The Frogs 346-347, 361-362)
When he was in Greece, he durst not attend the celebration of the
Eleusinian Mysteries, at the initiation of which, impious and wicked
persons are warned by the voice of the herald from approaching the
rites.
(Suetonius Nero XXXIV)
Ocean's unpolluted tide
(Aeschylus, The Persians, 577)
Iphigenia: My purpose is to cleanse them first by purification.
Thoas: In fresh spring water or salt sea-spray?
Iphigenia: The sea washes away from man all that is ill.
Thoas: True, they would then be holier victims for the goddess.
(Euripides, Iphigenia Among the Tauri 1191-1194)
Trygaeus: And is it so? And must I die indeed?
Hermes: You must indeed.
Trygaeus: O then, I prithee, lend me half a crown. I'll buy a pig, and get
initiated first.
(Aristophanes' The Peace 372-374)
But if there is an absolute necessity for their mention, a chosen few
might hear them in a mystery, and they should sacrifice not a common
(Eleusinian) pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim; and then the
number of the hearers will be very few indeed.
(Plato, Republic II, 378)
For instance, the Athenians professedly assign to Aesculapius a share
in the mysteries, and give to the day on which they do so the name of
Epidauria; and they date their worship of Aesculapius as a god from the
time when this practice was instituted.
(Pausanias, II, 26:8)
He (Archon) also superintends sacred processions, both that in honor
of Asclepius, when the initiated keep house, and that of the great
Dionysia.
(Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 56:4)
Arriving at Pireaus about the season of the Mysteries, when Athens is
more crowded than any place in Greece, he lost no time in going up to
the city from his ship. As he went he met many of the learned making
their way down to Piraeus. Some were basking naked---the autumn is
fine and sunny at Athens---others were deep in discussions upon a text,
some practicing recitations, some disputing. None of them passed him
by, but all guessing that this was Apollonius, turned back with him and
hailed him with enthusiasm. A party of ten youths fell in with him, who
stretched out their hands towards the Acropolis and swore 'by yonder
Athena, they were just setting out for Piraeus to take ship for Ionia and
find him there.' He welcomed them, and said he congratulated them on
their desire for learning.
It was the day of the Epidauria; and at the Epidauria the Athenian usage,
after the Preface and the sacrifice, is to initiate aspirants for a second
sacrifice. This tradition represents Asclepius' experience, because he
came from Epidaurus, late in the Mysteries, and they initiated him.
Heedless of the initiation service, the multitude hung round Apollonius,
more concerned with this than to secure admission to the Elect. He said
he would be with them anon, and encouraged them to attend the service
for the meanwhile, as he himself intended to be initiated. But the
hierophant refused him access to the holy things, saying that he would
never admit a charlatan, nor open Eleusis to a man of impure theology.
Apollonius was equal to himself on this occasion, and said, 'You have
not yet mentioned the greatest charge that might be brought against me,
which is that I know more than you about this rite, although I came to
you as to a man better skilled than myself.' The bystanders applauded
this vigorous and characteristic rebuke; and the hierophant, seeing that
the excommunication was unpopular, changed his tune and said, 'You
shall be admitted, for you seem to be a person of doctrine.' Apollonius
answered, 'I will be admitted at another time; the ceremony will be
performed by So-and-so'---prophetically naming the next occupant of
the hierophancy, who succeeded to his sacred office four years later.
(Philostratus In Honor of Apollonius of Tyana IV, 17-18)
The Procession to Eleusis and Dancing
Chorus: O Iacchus! O Iacchus! O Iacchus!
Xanthias: I have it, master: 'tis those blessed Mystics,...
Chorus: O Iacchus! power excelling, here in stately temples dwelling.
O Iacchus! O Iacchus!
Come to tread this verdant level,
Come to dance in mystic revel,
Come whilst round thy forehead hurtles
Many a wreath of fruitful myrtles,
Come with wild and saucy paces
Mingling in our joyous dance,
Pure and holy, which embraces all the charms of all the Graces,
When the mystic choirs advance.
Xanthias: Holy and sacred queen, Demeter' s daughter,
O, what a jolly whiff of pork breathed o'er me!
Dionysus: Hist! and perchance you'll get some tripe yourself.
Chorus: Come, arise, from sleep waking, come the fiery torches shaking,
O Iacchus! 0 Iacchus!
Morning Star that shinest nightly.
Lo, the mead is blazing brightly,
Age forgets its years and sadness,
Aged knees curvet for gladness,
Lift thy flashing torches o'er us,
Marshall all thy blameless train,
Lead, O lead the way before us; lead the lovely youthful Chorus
To thy marshy flowery plain.
All evil thoughts and profane be still: far hence, far hence from our
choirs depart,
Who knows not well what the Mystics tell, or is not holy and pure of
heart;
Who ne'er has the noble revelry learned, or danced the dance of the
Muses high;
Or shared in the Bacchic rites which old bull-eating Cratinus's words
supply;
Who vulgar coarse buffoonery loves, though all untimely the jests they
make;
Or lives not easy and kind with all, or kindling faction forbears to slake,
But fan the fire, from a base desire some pitiful gain for himself to reap;
Or takes, in office, his gifts and bribes, while the city is tossed on the
stormy deep;
Who foe or fleet to the foe betrays; or, a vile Thorycion, ships away
Forbidden stores from Aegina's shores, to Epidaurus across the Bay
Transmitting oar-pads and sails and tar, that curst collector of five per
cents;
The knave who tries to procure supplies for the enemy's armaments;
The cyclian singer who dares befoul the Lady Hecate's wayside shrine;
The public speaker who once lampooned in our Bacchic feasts would,
with heart malign,
Keep nibbling away the Comedian's pay; - to these I utter my warning
cry,
I charge them once, I charge them twice, I charge them thrice, that they
draw not nigh
To the sacred dance of the Mystic choir. But you, my comrades, awake
the song,
The night-long revels of joy and mirth which ever of right to our feast
belong.
Advance, true hearts, advance!
On to the gladsome powers,
On to the sward, with flowers
Embosomed bright!
March on with jest, and jeer, and dance,
Full well ye've supped tonight.
March, chanting loud your lays,
Your hearts and voices raising,
The Savior goddess praising
Who vows she'll still
Our city save to endless days,
Whate'er Thorycion's will.
Break off the measure, and change the time; and now with chanting and
hymns adorn
Demeter, goddess mighty and high, the harvest-queen, the giver of corn.
O Lady, over our rites presiding,
Preserve and succor thy coral throng,
And grant us all, in thy help confiding,
To dance and revel the whole day long;
And much in earnest, and much in jest,
Worthy thy feast, may we speak therein.
And when we have bantered and laughed our best,
The victor's wreath be it ours to win.
Call we now the youthful god, call him hither without delay,
Him who travels amongst his chorus, dancing along on the Sacred Way.
O, come with the joy of thy festival song,
O, come to the goddess, O, mix with our throng
Untired, though the journey be never so long.
O Lord of the frolic and dance, :
Iacchus, beside me advance!
For fun, and for cheapness, our dress thou hast rent,
Through thee we may dance to the top of our bent,
Reviling, and jeering, and none will resent.
O Lord of the frolic and dance,
Iacchus, beside me advance!
A sweet pretty girl I observed in the show,
Her robe had been torn in the scuffle, and lo,
There peeped through the tatters a bosom of snow.
O Lord of the frolic and dance,
Iacchus, beside me advance!...
Chorus: Now wheel your sacred dance through the glade with flowers
bedight,
All ye who are partakers of the holy festal rite;
And I will with the women and the holy maidens go
Where they keep the nightly vigil, an auspicious light to show.
Now haste we to the roses,
And the meadows full of posies,
Now haste we to the meadow
In our own old way,
In choral dances blending,
In dances never ending,
Which only for the holy
The Destinies array.
O, happy mystic chorus,
The blessed sunshine o'er us
On us alone is smiling,
In its soft sweet light:
On us who strove forever
With holy, pure endeavor
Alike by friend and stranger
To guide our steps aright.
(Aristophanes The Frogs 317-318, 323-413, 440-459)
What are called the Rhiti only resemble rivers in that they flow, for their
water is salt. One might suppose that they flow under ground from the
Chalcidian Euripus, falling into a lower sea. The Rhiti are said to be
sacred to the Maid and Demeter; and the priests alone are allowed to
catch the fish in them. The Rhiti were of old, as I am apprised, the
boundary between the Eleusinians and the rest of the Athenians.
(Pausanias, I, 38:1)
At the great assembly of the Eleusinia and at the festival of Poseidon, in
full sight of the whole Greek world, she removed only her cloak and let
down her long hair before stepping into the water. (Athenaeus, The
Deipnosophists XIII, 591a)
Nor did the son of Mene, Musaeus, master of the Graces, cause Antiope
to go without her meed of honor. And she, beside Eleusis's strand,
expounded to the initiates the loud, sacred voice of mystic oracles, as
she duly escorted the priest through the Rarian plain to honor Demeter.
And she is known even in Hades.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, 597d)
Chorus: Daughter of Demeter, goddess of highways, queen as thou art
of haunting powers of darkness,... I blush for that god of song, if this
stranger is to witness the torch-dance, that heralds in the twentieth
dawn, around Callichorus' fair springs, a sleepless rotary in midnight
revels, what time the star-lit firmament of Zeus, the moon, and Nereus'
fifty daughters, that trip it lightly o'er the sea and the eternal rivers' tides,
join the dance in honor of the maiden with the crown of gold and her
majestic mother;
(Euripides, Ion, 1048-1049, 1079-1086)
)
Situation at Eleusis
Kerenyi analyzes the etymology of Eleusis. The place had been called
Saisari, meaning "the grinning one" after an Eleusinian heroine
probably connected to the underworld goddess. Eleusis means the
"place of happy arrival" and is related to Elysion, the realm of the
blessed. (Kerenyi Eleusis p. 23)
Celeae is distant just about five furlongs from the city. They celebrate
the mysteries of Demeter there every third year, not annually. The high-
priest of the mysteries is not appointed for life, but at each celebration a
new priest is elected, who may, if he chooses, take a wife . In these
respects their practice differs from that observed at Eleusis; but the
actual mysteries are an imitation of the Eleusinian mysteries, indeed the
Phliasians themselves admit that they imitate the rites of Eleusis.
(Pausanias, II, 14:1)
The temple at Eleusis ... should be under the superintendence of the
Ceryces and the Eumolpidae, according to primitive custom.
(Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 39:2)
They say that this Eumolpus came from Thrace, and that he was a son
of Poseidon and Chione, who is said to have been a daughter of the
North Wind and Orithyia. Homer says nothing of the lineage of
Eumolpus, but in his verses calls him 'manly.' In a battle between the
Eleusinians and the Athenians, there fell Erechtheus, king of Athens,
and Immaradus, son of Eumolpus; and peace was made on these terms:
the Eleusinians were to perform the mysteries by themselves, but were
in all other respects to be subject to the Athenians. The sacred rites of
the two goddesses were celebrated by Eumolpus and he daughters of
Celeus: Pamphos and Homer agree in calling these damsels Diogenia,
Pammerope, and Saesara. On Eumolpus' death, Ceryx, the younger of
his sons, was left. But the Ceryces themselves say that Ceryx was a son
of Hermes by Aglaurus, daughter of Cecrops, and not a son of
Eumolpus.
(Pausanias, I, 38:3)
What glory remains to Eleusis, if we are to be ashamed of Eumolpus,
who, a migrant from Thrace, initiated and still initiates the Greeks into the
mysteries?
(Plutarch, On Exile 607b)
In Thebes, for example, a certain Alcaeus has a statue which they say is
a Heracles and was formerly so called; and among the Athenians there
is an image of a boy who was an initiate in the mysteries at Eleusis and it
bears no inscription; he, too, they say, is a Heracles.
(Dio Chrysostom XXXI, 92)
Calliades opposed his admission; but the Ceryces voted in favor of the
law which they have, whereby a father can introduce his son, if he
swears that it is his own son whom he is introducing.
(Andocides, On the Mysteries 127)
Aeschylus, too, besides inventing that comeliness and dignity of dress
which Hierophants and Dadouchoi emulate, when they put on their
vestments
(Athenaeus 21e)
The Council and the People have decreed: Democrates, son of Sunieus
of Colonus, proposed the motion: Whereas, the chosen stewards of the
mysteries for the year of the archon Diocles have offered to Demeter and
Kore and the other gods, as is customary, for the Council and the
People and the children and wives, all the offerings which are
appropriately to be made during the year, and also the preliminary
offering...; and have further provided, at their own cost, the conveyance
for the use of the sanctuaries, and have voluntarily turned over to the
Council the amount set aside for their use as the expense of the
conveyances, and have also provided for the procession to the sea and
for the reception of Iacchos in Eleusis, and similarly for the mysteries
before Agra, which took place twice in this year, during the celebration
of the Eleusinian games; and have moreover sent a steer as sacrifice for
the Eleusinian games, giving the six hundred and fifty members of the
Council their share of the flesh; and beyond all this have delivered the
accounts to the office of the treasury and the metroion (the Athenian
state archives in the temple of Cybele), and have rendered their account
before the court, in accordance with the laws; and out of their own
funds have provided for everything else connected with the sacrifice, in
order to show themselves agreeably disposed toward the Council and
the People, thus setting an example for those who are ready to sacrifice
themselves for the public welfare and showing that they can count upon
the proper gratitude, by good fortune.
Let the Council decree that the presiding offices who are to preside at
the next assembly of the people shall place this matter on the agenda
and present the decree of the Council to the People, that the Council has
agreed to honor the stewards of the mysteries in the year of the archon
Diocles, Thrasykles (son of ...) of Auridae, and Nicetes, son of Nicetes of
Pergase, and to crown them both with myrtle because of their piety
toward the gods and their unselfishness toward the council and the
People; and to set before them other popular honors in the future, if they
show themselves to be worthy of them; finally, that the secretary for the
Prytany is to have this decree inscribed upon two columns of stone and
set them up, one in the court of the sanctuary at Eleusis, the other on the
Acropolis. For the (cost of) inscribing ...
(Grant, F. C. Hellenistic Religions p. 15-16)
The Eleusinians have a temple of Triptolemus, and another of Artemis of
the Portal and of Father Poseidon, and a well called Callichorum, where
the Eleusinian women first danced and sang in honor of the goddess.
They say that the Rarian plain was the first to be sown and the first to
bear crops, and therefore it is their custom to take the sacrificial barley
and to make the cakes for the sacrifices out of its produce. Here is
shown what is called the threshing floor of Triptolemus and the altar.
But my dream forbade me to describe what is within the wall of the
sanctuary; and surely it is clear that the uninitiated may not lawfully hear
of that from the sight of which they are debarred. The hero Eleusis, after
whom they name the city, is said by some to be a son of Hermes and of
Daira, daughter of Ocean; but others have made him the son of Ogygus.
(Pausanias I, 40:5)
Here, too, is what is called the hall (megaron) of Demeter: they say it was
made by King Car.
(Pausanias I, 40:15)
The chapel at Eleusis, where the mysteries were celebrated, was begun
by Coroebus, who erected the pillars that stand upon the floor or
pavement, and joined them to the architraves; and after his death
Metagenes of Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of columns;
(Plutarch, Life of Pericles 13)
Fasting and Drinking the Kykeon
So, to those that approach the Holy Celebrations of the Mysteries, there
are appointed purifications and the laying aside of the garments worn
before,
(Plotinus, First Ennead VI, 7)
fasting on the sacred days of the Rarian Demeter.
(Callimachus, Aetia 10)
But most theologians say that the name of Persephone is derived from
nourishing a ringdove; for the ringdove is sacred to this Goddess.
Hence, also the priests of Maia dedicate to her a ringdove. And Maia is
the same with Persephone, as being obstetric, and a nurse. For this
Goddess is terrestrial, and so likewise is Demeter. To this Goddess, also
a cock is consecrated; and on this account those that are initiated in her
mysteries abstain from domestic birds. In the Eleusinian mysteries,
likewise, the initiated are ordered to abstain from domestic birds, from
fishes and beans, pomegranates and apples, which fruits are as equally
defiling to the touch, as a woman recently delivered, and a dead body
But whoever is acquainted with the nature of divinely-luminous
appearances knows also on what account it is requisite to abstain from
all birds, and especially for him who hastens to be liberated from
terrestrial concerns, and to be established with the celestial Gods.
(Porphyry On Abstinence From Animal Food IV, 16)
As she was about to pass within the lowly dwelling, she plucked a
smooth, a slumberous poppy that grew on the waste ground; and as
she plucked, 'tis said she tasted it forgetfully, and so unwitting stayed
her long hunger. Hence, because she broke her fast at nightfall, the
initiates time their meal by the appearance of the stars.
(Ovid, Fasti IV ca. 530)
the slow rivers of dark night,
the sluggish gift of sleep
Pindar
Initiation: Dromena (Things Acted)
to those entering the temenos (sacred precinct) of Eleusis the program
was stated, not to advance inside the adytum.
(Proclus, Mylonas Eleusis p. 261)
Why is the priestess of Demeter carried off, unless Demeter herself had
suffered the same sort of thing?
(Tertullian, To the Nations 30)
In the Mysteries of Demeter all night long with torches kindled they seek
for Persephone and when she is found, the whole ritual closes with
thanksgiving and the tossing of torches.
(Lactantius, Mylonas Eleusis p. 215)
There the goddess kindled two pine-trees to serve her as a light; hence
to this day a torch is given out at the rites of Ceres.
(Ovid, Fasti IV, 492-494)
The Hierophant is in the habit of sounding the so-called gong when
Kore is being invoked by name.
(Apollodorus, Fragment 36)
Just as persons who are being initiated into the Mysteries throng
together at the outset amid tumult and shouting, and jostle against one
another but when the holy rites are being performed and disclosed the
people are immediately attentive in awe and silence, so too at the
beginning of philosophy: about its portals also you will see great tumult
and talking and boldness, as some boorishly and violently try to jostle
their way towards the repute it bestows; but he who has succeeded in
getting inside, and has seen a great light, as though a shrine were
opened, adopts another bearing of silence and amazement, and
"humble and orderly attends upon" reason as upon a god.
(Plutarch, Progress in Virtue 81e)
Aristeides describes the range of emotions experienced.
Within this hall, the mystics were made to experience the most
bloodcurdling sensations of horror and the most enthusiastic ecstasy of
joy.
But their procedure is like Bacchic frenzy - like the leap of a man mad, or
possessed - the attainment of a goal without running the race, a passing
beyond reason without the previous exercise of reasoning. For the
sacred matter (contemplation) is not like attention belonging to
knowledge, or an outlet of mind, nor is it like one thing in one place and
another in another. On the contrary - to compare small and greater - it is
like Aristotle's view that men being initiated have not a lesson to learn,
but an experience to undergo and a condition into which they must be
brought, while they are becoming fit (for revelation).
(Synesius Dio 1133)
Entering now into the secret dome, he is filled with horror and
astonishment. He is seized with loneliness and total perplexity; he is
unable to move a step forward, and at a loss to find the entrance to the
way that leads to where he aspires to, till the prophet or conductor lays
open the anteroom of the Temple.
(Themistius Orat. in Patrem. 50)
a rude and fearful march through night and darkness.
(Stobaeus, Casavis The Greek Origins of Freemasonry p. 111)
In the most sacred Mysteries before the scene of the mystic visions,
there is terror infused over the minds of the initiated.
(Proclus, Casavis The Greek Origins of Freemasonryp. 111)
For, in your mysteries, what the boy who attends the altar accomplishes,
by performing accurately what he is commanded to do, in order to
render the gods propitious to all those who have been initiated, as far as
to muesis, that, in nations and cities, priests are able to effect, by
sacrificing for all the people, and through piety inducing the Gods to be
attentive to the welfare of those that belong to them.
(Porphyry, On Abstinence From Animal Food )
Thus death and initiation closely correspond; even the words (teleutan
and teleisthai) correspond, and so do the things. At first there are
wanderings, and toilsome running about in circles and journeys through
the dark over uncertain roads and culs de sac ; then, just before the end,
there are all kinds of terrors, with shivering, trembling, sweating, and
utter amazement. After this, a strange and wonderful light meets the
wanderer; he is admitted into clean and verdant meadows, where he
discerns gentle voices, and choric dances, and the majesty of holy
sounds and sacred visions. Here the now fully initiated is free, and
walks at liberty like a crowned and dedicated victim, joining in the
revelry; he is the companion of pure and holy men, and looks down
upon the uninitiated and unpurified crowd here below in the mud and
fog, trampling itself down and crowded together, though of death
remaining still sunk in its evils, unable to believe in the blessings that lie
beyond. That the wedding and close union of the soul with the body is a
thing really contrary to nature may clearly be seen from all this.
(The following passage from Plutarch's essay On the Soul survives
today only because it was quoted by Stobaeus (Florigelium 120). Grant,
F. C. Hellenistic Religions p. 148)
Revelation of the Mystic Grain
And the formula of the Eleusinian mysteries is as follows: "I fasted, I
drank the draught (kykeon ); I took from the chest; having done my task,
I placed in the basket, and from the basket into the chest.
(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks II, 18)
As the basket comes, greet it, you women, saying "Demeter, greatly hail!
Lady of much bounty, of many measures of corn." As the basket comes,
from the ground you shall see it, you uninitiated, and gaze not from the
roof or from aloft - child nor wife nor maid that has shed her hair - neither
then nor when we spit from parched mouths fasting.
(Callimachus, To Demeter 1-5)
Moreover Polemon, in the treatise On the Sacred Fleece, says: "After
these preliminaries (the priest) proceeds to the celebration of the mystic
rites; he takes out the contents of the shrine and distributes them to all
who have brought round their tray (kernos ). The latter is an earthenware
vessel, holding within it a large number of small cups cemented
together, and in them are sage, white poppy-seeds, grains of wheat and
barley, peas, vetches, okra-seeds, lentils, beans, rice-wheat, oats,
compressed fruit, honey, oil, wine, milk, and sheep's wool unwashed
The man who carries it, resembling the bearer of the sacred winnowing-
fan, tastes these articles."
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XI, 478d)
I cannot say with certainty whether he was the first who sowed beans
(kuamoi ), or whether they made up the name of a bean-hero because
the discovery of beans cannot be attributed to Demeter. Any one who
has seen the mysteries at Eleusis, or has read what are called the works
of Orpheus, knows what I mean.
(Pausanias, I, 37:3)
In regard to the dance in which kerna were carried, I know that they
carried lights or small hearths on their heads.
(Pollux IV, 103)
The Phrygians, however assert, he says, that he is likewise "a green ear
of corn reaped." And after the Phrygians, the Athenians, while initiating
people into the Eleusinian rites, likewise display to those who are being
admitted to the highest grade at these mysteries, the might, and
marvelous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the
highest mystic truths: (I allude to) an ear of corn in silence reaped. But
this ear of corn is also (considered) among the Athenians to constitute
the perfect enormous illumination (that has descended) from the
unportrayable one, just as the Hierophant himself (declares); not,
indeed, emasculated like Attis, but made a eunuch by means of hemlock,
and despising all carnal generation. (Now) by night in Eleusis, beneath a
huge fire, (the Celebrant,) enacting the great and secret mysteries,
vociferates and cries aloud, saying, "August Brimo has brought forth a
consecrated son, Brimus;" that is, a potent (mother has been delivered
of) a potent child. But revered, he says, is the generation that is spiritual,
heavenly, from above, and potent is he that is so born. For the mystery
is called "Eleusin" and "Anactorium." "Eleusin," because, he says, we
who are spiritual come flowing down from Adam above; for the word
"eleusesthai" is, he says, of the same import with the expression "to
come." But "Anactorium" is of the same import with the expression "to
ascend upward." This, he says, is what they affirm who have been
initiated in the mysteries of the Eleusinians. It is, however, a regulation of
law, that those who have been admitted into the lesser should again be
initiated into the Great Mysteries. For greater destinies obtain greater
portions. But the inferior mysteries, he says are those of Proserpine
below; in regard of which mysteries, and the path which leads there,
which is wide and spacious, and conducts those that are perishing to
Proserpine, the poet likewise says: -
"But under her a fearful path extends,
Hollow, miry, yet best guide to
Highly-honored Aphrodite's lovely grove."
These, he says, are the inferior mysteries those appertaining to carnal
generation. Now, those men who are initiated into these inferior
(mysteries) ought to pause, and (then) be admitted into the great (and)
heavenly (ones). For they, he says, who obtain their shares (in this
mystery), receive greater portions. For this, he says, is the gate of
heaven; and this a house of God, where the Good Deity dwells alone.
And into this (gate), he says, no unclean person shall enter, nor one that
is natural or carnal; but it is reserved for the spiritual only.
(Hippolytus The Refutation of All Heresies V, 3)
According to Himerios, a sophist who lived in Athens when Julian was
Emperor of Rome (361-363):
an old law ordered the initiates to take with them landfuls of agricultural
produce which were the badges of a civilized life.
Now Semus of Delos in his work On Paeans says: "The handfuls of
barley, taken separately, they called amalai; but when these are
gathered together and many are made into a single bundle people called
them ouloi or iouloi; hence also they called Demeter sometimes Chloe,
sometimes Ioulo. Hence from Demeter's gifts they call not only the fruit,
but also the hymns sung in honor of the goddess, ouloi or iouloi. There
are also Demetrouloi and kalliouloi ; and the refrain: 'Send forth a sheaf,
a plenteous sheaf, a sheaf send forth.'"
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XIV, 618d)
In Proclus' commentary on the Timaios 293c, he offers another recitation.
In the Eleusinian rites they gazed up to the heaven and cried aloud
"rain," they gazed down upon the earth and cried "conceive."
On the edge of a well by the Dipylon gate of Athens where the
procession to Eleusis began, an inscription reads:
O Pan, O Men, be of good cheer, beautiful Nymphs, rain, conceive,
overflow.
(Mylonas Eleusis p. 270)
Legomena (Things Said)
Porphyrus gives us a description of initiation which includes legomena
and seems to indicate also much of the content and feeling of the
Epopteia.
Crowned with myrtle, along with the other initiates we enter the entrance
hall of the temple, still blind, but the hierophant who is within will soon
open our eyes. But first, for nothing is to be done in haste, let us wash in
the holy water. We are led before the hierophant. From a book of stone,
he reads to us things which we must not divulge, under penalty of
death. Let us say only that they are in harmony with the place and
circumstance. You would laugh, perhaps, if you heard them outside the
temple, but here you have no desire to laugh as you listen to the words
of the elder (for he is always old) and as you look at the exposed
symbols. And you are far from laughing when, by her special language
and signs, by vivid sparkling of light and clouds piled upon clouds,
Demeter confirms everything that we have seen and heard from her holy
priest. Then, finally, the light of a serene wonder fills the temple; we see
the pure Elysian fields; we hear the chorus of the blessed ones. Now it
is not merely through an external appearance or through a philosophical
interpretation, but in fact and in reality that the hierophant becomes the
creator and the revelator of all things; the sun is but his torchbearer, the
moon, his helper of the altar, and Hermes, his mystical messenger. But
the last word has been uttered: Knox Om Pax.
The ritual has been consummated, and we are seers forever.
(Schuré, Edouard The Great Initiates p. 406)
Epopteia: The Holy Light of the Holy Night
And I will with the women and the holy maidens go
Where they keep the nightly vigil, an auspicious light to show.
(Aristophanes, The Frogs 442-443)
I was initiated long ago. Lock up Eleusis, and put the fire out,
Dadouchos. Deny me the holy night! I have already been initiated into
more authentic mysteries.... (I have beheld) the fire, whence (... and) I
have seen the Kore.
(Kerenyi Eleusis p. 84)
Schuré quotes Proclus and interprets the word "gods" in this instance
as "all orders of spirits."
In all the initiations and Mysteries the gods manifest themselves in many
forms, assuming a great variety of guises; sometimes they appear in a
formless light, again in quite different form.
(The Great Initiates p. 407)
Ericapaeus, celebrated pow'r,
Ineffable, occult, all-shining flow'r.
'Tis thine from darksome mists to purge the sight,
All-spreading splendor, pure and holy light;
Hence, Phanes, call'd the glory of the sky,
On waving pinions thro' the world you fly.
Priapus, dark-ey'd splendor, thee I sing,
Genial, all-prudent, ever blessed king.
With joyful aspect on these rites divine
And holy Telite propitious shine.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
When, under Pluto's semblance, Jove divine
Deceiv'd with guileful arts dark Proserpine.
Hence, partly black thy limbs and partly white,
From Pluto dark, from Jove ethereal bright
Thy color'd member, men by night inspire
When seen in spectred forms, with terrors dire;
Now darkly visible involved in night,
Perspicuous now they meet the fearful sight.
Terrestrial queen, expel wherever found
The soul's mad fears to earth's remotest bound;
With holy aspect on our incense shine,
And bless thy mystics, and rites divine.
(Taylor, Mystical Hymns of Orpheus.)
There was a time when with the rest of the happy band they saw beauty
shining in brightness, - we philosophers following in the train of Zeus,
others in company with other gods; and then we beheld the beatific
vision and were initiated into a mystery which may be truly called most
bleed, celebrated by us in our state of innocence before we had any
experience of evils to come, when we were admitted to the sight of
apparitions innocent and simple and calm and happy, which we beheld
shining in pure light.
(Plato, Phaedrus, 250)
Plemochoe is an earthen dish shaped like a top, but tolerably firm on its
base; some call it a kotyliskos, according to Pamphilus. They use it at
Eleusis on the last day of the Mysteries, a day which they call from it
Plemochoai; on that day they fill two plemochoai, and they invert them
(standing up and facing the east in the one case, the west in the other),
reciting a mystical formula over them.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XI, 496a)
Different Interpretations
On the tomb of Menoeceus there grows a pomegranate-tree: if you
break the outer husk of the ripe fruit, you will find the inside like blood.
This pomegranate-tree is living.
(Pausanias, IX, 25:1)
Asterios (c. 390 CE), the bishop of Amaseia in Asia Minor in his
Engomion to the Saintly Martyrs.
The Eleusinian Mysteries, are they not the main part of your religion and
the demos of Athens, yea the whole of Greece gathers to celebrate that
vanity? I not there (in the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis) the
katabasion and the solemn meeting of the Hierophant and the priestess,
each with the other alone; are not the torches then extinguished and the
vast crowd believes that its salvation depends on what those two act in
the darkness?
(. 311-312)
The next is by Epiphanios who was a bishop of Eleutheroupolis of
Palestine and Konstantia of Kypros and lived 367-403 CE.
In Alexandria there is the so-called Korion, and it is a very large temple,
that is the temenos of Kore. (The worshippers) having passed the night
in vigilance with songs and flute playing, singing to the idol... After the
call of the roosters they descend with torches in hand to an
underground chamber and from it they bring up on a litter a wooden
xoanon, seated, nude, bearing on its forehead some seal of a cross,
covered with gold ... and they carry this xoanon around seven times,
making a circle around the most central temple with flutes and drums
and hymns, and having sang and danced they take it down again to the
underground place ... and they say that at this hour, today the Kore, that
is the Virgin, gave birth to the Aion. (Ibid. p. 302)
Demeter and Persephone have come to be the subject of a mystic
drama, and Eleusis celebrates with torches the rape of the daughter and
the sorrowful wandering of the mother. Now it seems to me that the
terms "orgy" and "mystery" must be derived, the former from the wrath
(orge) of Demeter against Zeus, and the latter from the pollution (mysos)
that took place in connection with Dionysus.
(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks II, 12)
It tells how Demeter, wandering through Eleusis, which is a part of
Attica, in search of her daughter the Maiden, becomes exhausted and
sits down at a well in deep distress. This display of grief is forbidden, up
to the present day, to those who are initiated, lest the worshippers
should seem to imitate the goddess in her sorrow. At that time Eleusis
was inhabited by aborigines, whose names were Baubo, Dysaules,
Triptolemus, and also Eumolpus and Eubouleus. Triptolemus was a
herdsman, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubouleus a swineherd. These
were progenitors of the Eumolpidae and of the Heralds, who form the
priestly clan at Athens. But to continue; for I will not forbear to tell the
rest of the story. Baubo, having received Demeter as a guest, offers her
a draught of wine and meal. She declines to take it, being unwilling to
drink on account of her mourning. Baubo is deeply hurt, thinking she
has been slighted, and thereupon uncovers her secret parts and
exhibits them to the goddess. Demeter is pleased at the sight, and now
at last receives the draught, - delighted with the spectacle! These are the
secret mysteries of the Athenians! These are also the subjects of
Orpheus' poems. I will quote you the very lines of Orpheus, in order that
you may have the originator of the mysteries as witness of their
shamelessness:
This said, she drew aside her robes and showed
A sight of shame; child Iacchus was there,
And laughing, plunged his hand below her breasts.
Then smiled the goddess, in her heart she smiled,
And drank the draught from out the glancing cup.
(Clement of Alexandria, II, 16-18)
The mysteries, then, are mere custom and vain opinion, and it is a deceit
of the serpent that men worship when, with spurious piety, they turn
towards these sacred initiations that are really profanities, and solemn
rites that are without sanctity. Consider, too, the contents of the mystic
chests; for I must strip bare their holy things and utter the unspeakable.
Are they not sesame cakes, pyramid and spherical cakes, cakes with
many navels, also balls of salt and a serpent, the mystic sign of
Dionysus Basareus? Are they not also pomegranates, fig branches,
fennel stalks, ivy leaves, round cakes and poppies? These are their holy
things! In addition, there are the unutterable symbols of Ge Themis,
marjoram, a lamp, a sword, and a woman's comb, which is euphemistic
expression used in the mysteries for a woman's secret parts.
(Clement of Alexandria, II, 19)
But no man sails from a port without having sacrificed to the Gods and
invoked their help; nor do men sow without having called on Demeter;
and shall a man who has undertaken so great a work undertake it safely
without the Gods? and shall they who undertake this work come to it
with success? What else are you doing, man, than divulging the
mysteries? You say, "There is a temple at Eleusis, and one here also.
There is an Hierophant at Eleusis, and I also will make an Hierophant:
there is a herald, and I will establish a herald; there is a torch-bearer at
Eleusis, and I also will establish a torch-bearer; there are torches at
Eleusis, and I will have torches here. The words are the same; how do
the things done here differ from those done there?" Most impious man,
is there no difference? these things are done both in due place and in
due time; and when accompanied with sacrifice and prayers, when a
man is first purified, and when he is disposed in his mind to the thought
that he is going to approach sacred rites and ancient rites. In this way
the mysteries are useful, in this way we come to the notion that all these
things were established by the ancients for the instruction and
correction of life. But you publish and divulge them out of time, out of
place, without sacrifices, without purity; you have not the garments
which the hierophant ought to have, nor the hair, nor the head-dress,
nor the voice nor the age; nor have you purified yourself as he has: but
you have committed to memory the words only, and you say: "Sacred
are the words by themselves."
You ought to approach these matters in another way; the thing is great,
it is mystical, not common thing, nor is it given to every man.
(Epictetus Discourses III, 21)
Now, in the case of those Eleusinian mysteries, which are the very
heresy of Athenian superstition, it is their secrecy that is their disgrace.
Accordingly, they previously beset all access to their body with
tormenting conditions; and they require a long initiation before they
enroll (their members), even instruction during five years for their perfect
disciples, in order that they may mold their opinions by this suspension
of full knowledge, and apparently raise the dignity of their mysteries in
proportion to the craving for them which they have previously created.
Then follow the duty of silence. Carefully is that guarded, which is so
long in finding. All the divinity, however, lies in their secret recesses:
there are revealed at last all the aspirations of the fully initiated, the entire
mystery of the sealed tongue, the symbol of virility. But this allegorical
representation, under the pretext of nature's reverend name, obscures a
real sacrilege by help of an arbitrary symbol and by empty images
obviates the reproach of falsehood!
(Tertullian Against the Valentinians I)
He learned the details of the day when her only child was new born, and
the exact time and veritable course of the season which gave her birth:
then he bent the turning fingers of his hands and measured the moving
circle of the ever-recurring number counting from hand to hand in
double exchange He called to a servant, and Asterion lifted a round
revolving sphere, the shape of the sky, the image of the universe, and
laid it upon the lid of a chest. Here the ancient got to work. He turned it
upon its pivot, and directed his gaze round the circle of the Zodiac,
scanning in this place and that planets and fixed stars. He rolled the pole
about with a push, and the counterfeit sky went rapidly round and round
in mobile course with a perpetual movement, carrying the artificial stars
about the axle set through the middle. Observing the sphere with a
glance all round, the deity found that the Moon at the full was crossing
the curved line of her conjunction, and the Sun was half through his
course opposite the Moon moving at his central point under the earth; a
pointed cone of darkness creeping from the earth into the air opposite to
the Sun hid the whole Moon. Then when he heard the rivals for wedded
love, he looked especially for Ares, and espied the wife-robber over the
sunset house along with the evening star of the Cyprian. He found the
portion called the Portion of the Parents under the Virgin's starry corn-
ear; and round the Ear ran the light-bearing star of Cronides, father of
rain.
When he had noticed everything and reckoned the circuit of the stars,
he put away the ever-revolving sphere in its roomy box, the sphere with
its curious surface; and in answer to the goddess he mouthed a triple
oracle of prophetic sound:
Fond mother Demeter, when the rays of the Moon are stolen under a
shady cone and her light is gone, guard against a robber-bridegroom for
Persephoneia, a secret ravisher of your unsmirched girl, if the threads of
the Fates can be persuaded. You will see before marriage a false and
secret bedfellow come unforeseen, a half-monster cunning-minded:
since I perceive by the western point Ares the wife-stealer walking with
the Paphian, and I notice the Dragon rising beside them both. But I
proclaim you most happy: for you will be known for glorious fruits in the
four quarters of the universe, because you shall bestow fruit on the
barren soil; since the Virgin Astraia holds out her hand full of corn for
the destined lot of your girl's parents.
(Nonnus Dionysiaca VI, 58-102)
When Demeter came to our land, in her wandering after the rape of Kore,
and, being moved to kindness towards our ancestors by services which
may not be told save to her initiates, gave these two gifts, the greatest in
the world - the fruits of the earth, which have enabled us to rise above
the life of the beasts, and the holy rite which inspires in those who
partake of it sweeter hopes regarding both the end of life and all eternity,
- our city was not only so beloved of the gods but also so devoted to
mankind that, having been endowed with these great blessings, she did
not begrudge them to the rest of the world, but shared with all men what
she had received. The mystic rite we continue even now, each year, to
reveal to the initiates; and as for the fruits of the earth, our city has, in a
word, instructed the world, in their uses, their cultivation, and the
benefits derived from them.
(Isocrates, Panegyricus 28-29)
M: Then what will become of our Iacchus and Eumolpidae and their
impressive mysteries, if we abolish nocturnal rites? For we are
composing laws not for the Roman people in particular, but for all
virtuous and stable nations.
A: I take it for granted that you make an exception of those rites into
which we ourselves have been initiated.
M: I will do so indeed. For among the many excellent and indeed divine
institutions which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to
human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries. For by
their means we have been brought out of our barbarous and savage
mode of life and educated and refined to a state of civilization; and as
the rites are called "initiations," so in very truth we have learned from
them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live
happily, but also to die with a better hope.
(Cicero Laws II, xiv, 36)
Psyche cast herself before the goddess, wetting the holy feet with tears
and sweeping the ground with her tresses. Amid a thicket of
supplications she asked for the favor of Ceres:
'By your right hand of Plenty, I implore you. By your joyous Ceremonies
of Harvest; by your Mystery enclosed in Osier-baskets; by the winged
Gig of your familiar Dragons; by the Furrows of the Sicilian Glebe, the
Rape of the Chariot, the Earth that yields not up its own, the Descent
into the Night of the Nuptials of Proserpine, and the Ascent into the light
of the Maiden's Restoration; by all the other Symbols which the
Sanctuary of Eleusis in Attica preserves in Silences - stand by your
suppliant Psyche in the hour of her deep need. Permit me, at least for a
few days, to shelter myself among the layers of wheat until the passage
of time mitigates the raging rancor of the mighty goddess, or until an
interval of rest refreshes the body that daily stress has now exhausted.'
(Apuleius Metamorphoses VI, 2)
I say nothing of the holy and awe-inspiring sanctuary of Eleusis, "where
tribes from earth's remotest confines seek Initiation," and I pass over
Samothrace and those "occult mysteries which throngs of worshippers
at dead of night in forest covert deep do celebrate" Lemnos, since such
mysteries when interpreted and rationalized prove to have more to do
with natural science than with theology.
(Cicero De Natura Deorum I, 52)
If the earth transmits the generative soul to growing things - or retains it
while allowing a vestige of it to constitute the vegetal principle in them -
at once the earth is ensouled, as our flesh is, and any generative power
possessed by the plant world is of its bestowing: this phase of the soul
is immanent in the body of the growing thing, and transmits to it that
better element by which it differs from the broken off part no longer a
thing of growth but a mere lump of material.
But does the entire body of the earth similarly receive anything from the
soul?
Yes: for we must recognize that earthly material broken of from the main
body differs from the same remaining continuously attached; thus
stones increase as long as they are embedded, and from the moment
they are separated, stop at the size attained.
We must conclude, then, that every part and member of the earth carries
its vestige of this principle of growth, an under-phase of that entire
principle which belongs not to this or that member but to the earth as a
whole: next in order is the nature (the soul-phase), concerned with
sensation, this not interfused (like the vegetal principle) but in contact
from above: then the higher soul and the Intellectual Principle,
constituting together the being known as Hestia (Earth-Mind) and
Demeter (Earth-Soul) - a nomenclature indicating the human intuition of
these truths, asserted in the attribution of a divine name and nature.
(Plotinus, Fourth Ennead IV, 27)
The result of soul and body commingled is the irrational or the affective
factor, whereas of mind and soul the conjunction produces reason; and
of these the former is source of pleasure and pain, the latter of virtue and
vice. In the composition of these three factors earth furnishes the body,
the moon the soul, and the sun furnishes mind to man for the purpose of
his generation even as it furnishes light to the moon herself. As to the
death we die, one death reduces man from three factors to two and
another reduces him from two to one; and the former takes place in the
earth that belongs to Demeter (wherefore "to make an end" is called "to
render one's life to her" and Athenians used in olden times to call the
dead "Demetrians"), the latter in the moon that belongs to Persephone,
and associated with the former is Hermes the terrestrial, with the latter
Hermes the celestial. While the goddess here dissociates the soul from
the body swiftly and violently, Persephone gently and by slow degrees
detaches the mind from the soul and has therefore been called "single-
born" because the best part of man is "born single" when separated off
by her. Each of the two separations naturally occurs in this fashion: All
soul, whether without mind or with it, when it has issued from the body
is destined to wander in the region between earth and moon but not for
an equal time. Unjust and licentious souls pay penalties for their
offenses; but the good soul must in the gentlest part of the air, which
they call "the meads of Hades," pass a certain set time sufficient to
purge and blow away the pollution contracted from the body as from an
evil odor. Then, as if brought home from banishment abroad, they savor
joy most like that of initiates, which attended by glad expectation is
mingled with confusion and excitement. For many, even as they are in
the act of clinging to the moon, she thrusts off and sweeps away; and
some of those souls too that are on the moon they see turning upside
down as if sinking again into the deep. Those that have got up, however,
and have found a firm footing first go about like victors crowned with
wreaths of feathers called wreathes of steadfastness, because in life
they had made the irrational or affective element of the soul orderly and
tolerably tractable to reason; secondly, in appearance resembling a ray
of light but in respect of their nature, which in the upper region is
buoyant as it is here in ours, resembling the ether about the moon, they
get from it both tension and strength as edged instruments get a temper,
for what laxness and diffuseness they still have is strengthened and
becomes firm and translucent. In consequence they are nourished by
any exhalation that reaches them, and Heraclitus was right in saying:
"Souls employ the sense of smell in Hades."
(Plutarch The Face of the Moon 28)
To the Terrestrial Hermes
O Bacchic Hermes, progeny divine
Of Dionysus, parent of the vine,
And of celestial Venus, Paphian queen,
Dark-eyelash'd Goddess of a lovely mien:
Who constant wand'rest thro' the sacred seats
Where Hell's dread empress, Proserpine, retreats;
To wretched souls the leader of the way,
When Fate decrees, to regions void of day.
Thine is the wand which causes sleep to fly,
Or lulls to slumb'rous rest the weary eye;
For Proserpine, thro' Tart'rus dark and wide,
Gave the for ever flowing souls to guide,
Come, blessed pow'r, the sacrifice attend,
And grant thy mystics' works a happy end.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
Taylor quotes Proclus who also makes the distinction between
terrestrial and celestial gods.
Hence, there is a terrestrial Ceres, Vesta, and Isis, as likewise a terrestrial
Jupiter and a terrestrial Hermes, established about the one divinity of the
earth, just as a multitude of celestial Gods proceeds about the one
divinity of the heavens. For there are progressions of all the celestial
Gods into the Earth: and Earth contains all things, in an earthly manner,
which Heaven comprehends celestially. Hence we speak of a terrestrial
Bacchus and a terrestrial Apollo, who bestows the all-various streams of
water with which the earth abounds, and openings prophetic of futurity.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus p. xxxiii)
... having, by happy fortune, culled the fruit of the rite that releases from
toil. And, while the body of all men is subject to over-mastering death, an
image of life remains alive, for it alone comes from the gods. But it
sleeps, while the limbs are active; yet, to them that sleep in many a
dream it gives presage of a decision of things delightful or doleful.
(Pindar Fragment 96)
When his fame was spread abroad from one end of Greece to the other,
the Pythian priestess set him on a still higher pinnacle of renown by
bidding the Delphians give to Pindar an equal share of all the first-fruits
they offered to Apollo. It is said, too, that in his old age there was
vouchsafed to him a vision in a dream. As he slept Proserpine stood by
him and said that of all the deities she alone had not been hymned by
him, but that, nevertheless, he should make a song on her also when he
was come to her. Before ten days were out Pindar had paid the debt of
nature. But there was in Thebes an old woman, a relation of Pindar's,
who had practiced singing, most of his songs. To her Pindar appeared
in a dream and sang to her a hymn on Proserpine; and she, as soon as
she was awake, wrote down all the song she had heard him singing in
her dream. In this song, amongst the epithets applied to Hades is that of
'golden-reined,' obviously in reference to the rape of Proserpine.
(Pausanias IX, 23:3-4)
A man in the night kindles a light for himself when his vision is
extinguished; living, he is in contact with the dead, when asleep, and
with the sleeper, when awake.
(Herakleitos, Diels 236)
To the Divinity of Dreams
Thee I invoke, blest pow'r of dreams divine,
Angel of future fates, swift wings are thine.
Great source of oracles to human kind,
When stealing soft, and whisp'ring to the mind,
Thro' sleep's sweet silence, and the gloom of night,
Thy pow'r awakes th'intellectual sight;
To silent souls the will of heaven relates,
And silently reveals their future fates.
Forever friendly to the upright mind,
Sacred and pure, to holy rites inclin'd;
For these with pleasing hope thy dreams inspire:
Bliss to anticipate, which all desire.
Thy visions manifest of fate disclose,
What methods best may mitigate our woes;
Reveal what rites the Gods immortal please,
And what the means their anger to appease;
For ever tranquil is the good man's end,
Whose life thy dreams admonish and defend,
But from the wicked turned averse to bless,
Thy form unseen, the angel of distress;
No means to check approaching ill they find,
Pensive with fears, and to the future blind.
Come blessed pow'r, the signatures reveal
Which heav'n's decrees mysteriously conceal,
Signs only present to the worthy mind,
Nor omens ill disclose of monstrous kind.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus )
There are holy things that are not communicated all at once: Eleusis
always keeps something back to show those who come again.
(Seneca, Quaestiones Naturalis VII, 30:6)
Haply by the shores loved of Apollo, haply by that torch-lit strand where
the Great Goddess cherish dread rites for mortals, on whose lips the
ministrant Eumolpidae have laid the precious seal of silence;
(Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 1048-1053)
But for your mysteries which speech may not profane, you shall mark
them for yourself, when you come to that place alone; and when you are
coming to the end of life, disclose them to your heir alone; let him teach
his heir; and so thenceforth.
(Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1526-1534)
This way - hither, this way! - for this way does Guiding Hermes lead me,
and the goddess of the dead.
(Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus 2556-1558)
And then he called his daughters, and bade them fetch water from some
fount, that he should wash, and make a drink-offering. And they went to
the hill which was in view, Demeter's hill who guards the tender plants,
and in short space brought that which their father had enjoined; then
they ministered to him with washing, and dressed him, as use ordains.
(Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus 1595-1602)
Weep no more maidens; for where the kindness of the Dark Powers is
an abiding grace to the quick and to the dead, there is no room for
mourning; divine anger would follow.
(Sophocles,Oedipus at Colonus 1750-1753)
Thrice happy are those of mortals, who having seen those rites depart
for Hades; for to them alone is it granted to have true life there; to the
rest all there is evil.
(Sophocles Fragment 719)
Beautiful indeed is the Mystery given us by the blessed gods: death is
for mortals no longer an evil, but a blessing.
(Inscription at Eleusis, S. Angus tr. The Mystery Religions and
Christianity p. 140)
It was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the
Mysteries would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine glory.
Hence all were eager for initiation.
(Scholiast on Aristophanes The Frogs 158)
Blessed is he who has seen these things before he goes beneath the
earth; for he understands the end of mortal life, and the beginning (of a
new life) given of god.
(Pindar, Fragment 102)
They are taking off his chains, and giving orders that he is to die today.
(Plato Phaedo 60)
I had singular feeling at being in his company. For I could hardly believe
that I was present at the death of a friend, and therefore I did not pity
him, Echecrates; he died so fearlessly, and his words and bearing were
so noble and gracious, that to me he appeared blessed. I thought that in
going to the other world he could not be without a divine call, and that
he would be happy, if any man ever was, when he arrived there; and
therefore I did not pity him as might have seemed natural at such an
hour.
(Plato Phaedo 58-59)
There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which affirms that they
go from hence into the other world, and returning here, are born again
from the dead. Now if it be true that the living come from the dead, then
our souls must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they have
been born again?...
Then let us consider the whole question, not in relation to man only, but
in relation to animals generally, and to plants, and to everything of which
there is generation, and the proof will be easier.
(Plato Phaedo . 70)
For if the soul exists before birth, and in coming to life and being born
can be born only from death and dying, must she not after death
continue to exist, since she has to be born again?
(Plato Phaedo,77)
Why, because each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and
rivets the souls to the body, until she becomes like the body, and
believes that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from
agreeing with the body and having the same delights she is obliged to
have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever to be pure at her
departure to the world below, but is always infected by the body; and so
she sinks into another body and there germinates and grows, and has
therefore no part in the communion of the divine and pure and simple.
(Plato Phaedo, 83)
We arrive at the conclusion that the living come from the dead, just as
the dead come from the living; and this, if true, affords a most certain
proof that the souls of the dead exist in some place out of which they
come again.... But I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living
again, and that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the
dead are in existence, and that the good souls have a better portion than
the evil.
(Plato Phaedo, 72)
The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and out of sleeping
waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping; and the process of
generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the other waking up.
(Plato Phaedo, 71)
Then may we not say,... there is an absolute beauty, and goodness, and
an absolute essence of all things;... which is now discovered to have
existed in our former state, we refer all our sensations, and with this
compare them, finding these ideas to be pre-existent and our inborn
possession - then our souls must have had a prior existence.
(Plato Phaedo, 76)
Your favorite doctrine, Socrates, that knowledge is simply recollection, if
true, also necessarily implies a previous time in which we have learned
that which we now recollect. But this would be impossible unless our
soul had been in some place before existing in the form of man; here
then is another proof of the soul's immortality.
(Plato Phaedo,72-73)
And were we not saying long ago that the soul when using the body as
an instrument of perception, that is to say, when using the sense of
sight or hearing or some other sense (for the meaning of perceiving
through the body is perceiving through the senses) - were we not
saying that the soul too is then dragged by the body into the region of
the changeable, and wanders and is confused; the world spins round
her, and she is like a drunkard, when she touches change.
Very true.
But when returning into herself she reflects, then she passes into the
other world, the region of purity, and eternity, and immortality, and
unchangeableness, which are her kindred, and with them she ever lives,
when she is by herself and is not let or hindered; then she ceases from
her erring ways, and being in communion with the unchanging is
unchanging. And this state of the soul is called wisdom?
That is well and truly said, Socrates, he replied.
(Plato Phaedo 79)
Then reflect,... - that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and
immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and
unchangeable; and that the body is in the very likeness of the human
and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform and dissoluble, and
changeable....
But if it be true, then is not the body liable to speedy dissolution? and is
not the soul almost or altogether indissoluble?
(Plato Phaedo, 80)
Yet all men will agree that God, and the essential form of life, and the
immortal in general, will never perish.
Yes, all men, he said - that is true; and what is more, gods, if I am not
mistaken, as well as men.
Seeing then that the immortal is indestructible, must not the soul, if she
is immortal, be also imperishable?
Most certainly.
Then when death attacks a man, the mortal portion of him may be
supposed to die, but the immortal retires at the approach of death and is
preserved safe and sound?
True.
Then, Cebes, beyond question, the soul is immortal and imperishable,
and our souls will truly exist in another world!
(Plato Phaedo,106-107)
And now, 0 my judges, I desire to prove to you that the real philosopher
has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after
death he may hope to obtain the greatest good in the other world.... For I
deem that the true votary of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by
other men; they do not perceive that he is always pursuing death and
dying; and if this be so, and he has had the desire of death all his life
long, why when his time comes should he repine at that which he has
been always pursuing and desiring?...
For they have not found out either what is the nature of that death which
the true philosopher deserves, or how he deserves or desires death....
Is it not the separation of soul and body? And to be dead is the
completion of this; when the soul exists in herself, and is released from
the body and the body is released from the soul, what is this but death?...
Would you not say that he is entirely concerned with the soul and not
with the body? He would like, as far as he can, to get away from the
body and to turn to the soul.
Quite true.
In matters of this sort philosophers, above all other men, may be
observed in every sort of way to dissever the soul from the communion
of the body.
Very true.
Whereas, Simmias, the rest of the world are of opinion that to him who
has sense of pleasure and no part in bodily pleasure, life is not worth
having; and that he who is indifferent about them is as good as dead.
That is also true.
(Plato Phaedo, 63-64)
Then when does the soul attain truth? - for in attempting to consider
anything in company with the body she is obviously deceived.
True.
Then must not true existence be revealed to her in thought, if at all?
Yes.
And thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself and none of
these things trouble her - neither sound nor sights nor pain nor any
pleasure, - when she takes leave of the body, and has as little as
possible to do with it, when she has no bodily sense or desire, but is
aspiring after true being?
Certainly.
(Plato Phaedo, 65)
And he attains to the purest knowledge of them who goes to each with
the mind alone, not introducing or intruding in the act of thought sight or
any other sense together with reason, but with the very light of the mind
in her own clearness searches into the very truth of each; he who has
got rid, as far as he can, of eyesores and, so to speak, of the whole
body, these being in his opinion distracting elements which when they
infect the soul hinder her from acquiring truth and knowledge - who, if
not he, is likely to attain to the knowledge of true being?
(Plato Phaedo 65-66)
'It has been proved to us by experience that if we would have pure
knowledge of anything we must be quit of the body - the soul in herself
must behold things in themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom
which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers; not while we
live, but after death; for if while in company with the body, the soul
cannot have pure knowledge, one of two things follows - either
knowledge is not to be attained at all, or, if at all, after death. or then, and
not till then, the soul will be parted from the body and exist in herself
alone. In this present life, I reckon that we make the nearest approach to
knowledge when we have the least possible intercourse or communion
with the body, and are not surfeited with the bodily nature, but keep
ourselves pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us.
And thus having got rid of the foolishness of the body we shall be pure
and hold converse with the pure, and know of ourselves the clear light
everywhere, which is no other than the light of truth.' For the impure are
not permitted to approach the pure.
(Plato Phaedo, 65-66)
But, 0 my friend, if this be true, there is great reason to hope that, going
where I go, when I have come to the end of my journey, I shall attain that
which has been the pursuit of my life. And therefore I go on my way
rejoicing, and not I only, but every other man who believes that his mind
has been made ready and that he is in a manner purified.
Certainly, replied Simmias.
And what is purification but the separation of the soul from the body, as I
was saying before; the habit of the soul gathering and collecting herself
into herself from all sides out of the body; the dwelling in her own place
alone, as in another life, so also in this, as far as she can; - the release of
the soul from the chains of the body?
Very true, he said.
And this separation and release of the soul from the body is termed
death?
To be sure, he said.
And the true philosophers, and they only, are ever seeking to release the
soul. Is not the separation and release of the soul from the body their
special study?
That is true.
(Plato Phaedo, 67)
The founders of the mysteries would appear to have had a real meaning,
and were not talking nonsense when they intimated in a figure long ago
that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below
will lie in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation and
purification will dwell with the gods. For 'many,' as they say in the
mysteries, 'are the thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics,' - meaning,
as I interpret the words, 'the true philosophers.'
(Plato Phaedo, 69)
But she will calm passion, and follow reason, and dwell in the
contemplation of her, beholding the true and divine (which is not matter
of opinion), and thence deriving nourishment. Thus she seeks to live
while she lives, and after death she hopes to go to her own kindred and
to that which is like her, and to be freed from human ills.
(Plato Phaedo 84)
But then, 0 my friends, he said, if the soul is really immortal, what care
should be taken of her, not only in respect of the portion of time which is
called life, but of eternity! And the danger of neglecting her from this
point of view does indeed appear to be awful. If death had only been the
end of all, the wicked would have had a good bargain in dying, for they
would have been happily quit not only of their body, but of their own evil
together with their souls. But now, inasmuch as the soul is manifestly
immortal, there is no release or salvation from evil except the attainment
of the highest virtue and wisdom. For the soul when on her progress to
the world below takes nothing with her but nurture and education; and
these are said greatly to benefit or greatly to injure the departed, at the
very beginning of his journey there.
For after death, as they say, the genius of each individual, to whom he
belonged in life, leads him to a certain place in which the dead are
gathered together, whence after judgment has been given they pass into
the world below, following the guide, who is appointed to conduct them
from this world to the other: and when they have there received their
due and remained their time, another guide brings them back again after
many revolutions of ages.
(Plato Phaedo,107)
And is it likely that the soul, which is invisible, in passing to the place of
the true Hades, which like her is invisible, and pure, and noble, and on
her way to the good and wise God, whither, if God will, my soul is also
soon to go, - that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature and origin, will be
blown away and destroyed immediately on quitting the body as the
many say? That can never be, my dear Simmias and Cebes. The truth
rather is, that the soul which is pure at departing and draws after her no
bodily taint, having never voluntarily during life had connection with the
body, which she is ever avoiding, herself gathered into herself; - and
making such abstraction her perpetual study - which means that she
has been a true disciple of philosophy; and therefore has in fact been
always engaged in the practice of dying? For is not philosophy the
study of death?
(Plato Phaedo, 80-81)
That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world - to the
divine and immortal and rational: there arriving, she is secure of bliss
and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild
passions and all other human ills, and forever dwells, as they say of the
initiated, in company with the gods.
(Plato Phaedo, 81)
But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world; they may
have seen them for a short time only, or they may have been unfortunate
in their earthly lot, and, having had their hearts turned to injustice
through some corrupting influence, they may have lost the memory of
the holy things which once they saw. Few only retain an adequate
remembrance of them; and they when they see here any image of that
other world, are rapt in amazement; but they are ignorant of what this
rapture means, because they do not clearly perceive. For there is no
light of justice or temperance or any of the higher ideas which are
precious to souls in the earthly copies of them: they are seen through a
glass dimly; and there are few who, going to the images, behold in them
the realities, and these only with difficulty. There was a time when with
the rest of the happy band they saw beauty shining in brightness, - we
philosophers following in the train of Zeus, others in company with other
gods; and then we saw the beatific vision and were initiated into a
mystery which may be truly called most blessed, celebrated by us in our
state of innocence, before we had any experience of evils to come, when
we were admitted to the sight of apparitions innocent and simple and
calm and happy, which we saw shining in pure light, pure ourselves and
not yet enshrined in that living tomb which we carry about, now that we
are imprisoned in the body like an oyster in his shell.
(Plato Phaedrus 250)
Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every
Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows what I intend when I say it is
beautiful. Even the desire of it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is
for those that will take the upward path, who will set all their forces
towards it, who will divest themselves of all that we have put on in our
descent: - so, to those that approach the Holy Celebrations of the
Mysteries, there are appointed purifications and the laying aside of the
garments worn before, and the entry in nakedness - until, passing on the
upward way, all that is other than the God, each in the solitude of himself
shall see that solitary-dwelling Existence, the Apart, the Unmingled, the
Pure, that from which all things depend for Which all look and live and
act and know, the Source of Life and of Intellection and of Being.
(Plotinus First Ennead VI, 7)
For whoever is able, by purifications conjurations, to drive away such an
affection, will be able, by other practices, to excite it; and, according to
this view, its divine nature is entirely done away with. By such sayings
and doings, they profess to be possessed of superior knowledge, and
deceive mankind by enjoining lustrations and purifications upon them,
while their discourse turns upon the divinity and the godhead. And yet it
would appear to me that their discourse savors not of piety, as they
suppose, but rather of impiety, and as if there were no gods, and that
what they hold to be holy and divine, were impious and unholy. This I
will now explain. For, if they profess to know how to bring down the
moon, darken the sun, induce storms and fine weather, and rains and
droughts, and make the sea and land unproductive, and so forth,
whether they arrogate this power as being derived from mysteries or
any other knowledge or consideration, they appear to me to practice
impiety, and either to fancy that there are no gods, or, if there are, that
they have no ability to ward off any of the greatest evils. How, then, are
they not enemies to the gods? For if a man by magical arts and
sacrifices will bring down the moon, and darken the sun, and induce
storms, or fine weather, I should not believe that there was anything
divine, but human, in these things, provided the power of the divine
were overpowered by human knowledge and subjected to it. But
perhaps it will be said, these things are not so, but, not withstanding,
men being in want of the means of life, invent many and various things,
and devise many contrivances for all other things, and for this disease,
in every phase of the disease, assigning the cause to a god. Nor do they
remember the same things once, but frequently. For, if they imitate a
goat, or grind their teeth, or if their right side be convulsed, they say that
the mother of the gods is the cause. But if they speak in a sharper and
more intense tone, they resemble this state to a horse, and say that
Poseidon is the cause. Or if any excrement be passed, which is often the
case, owing to the violence of the disease, the appellation of Enodia is
adhibited; or, if it be passed in smaller and denser masses, like bird's, it
is said to be from Apollo Nomius. But if foam be emitted by the mouth,
and the patient kick with his feet, Ares then gets the blame. But terrors
which happen during the night, and fevers, and delirium, and jumpings
out of bed, and frightful apparitions, and fleeing away,-all these they
hold to be the plots of Hecate, and the invasions the and use
purifications and incantations, and, as appears to me, make the divinity
to be most wicked and most impious. For they purify those laboring
under this disease, with the same sorts of blood and the other means
that are used in the case of those who are stained with crimes, and of
malefactors, or who have been enchanted by men, or who have done
any wicked act; who ought to do the very reverse, namely, sacrifice and
pray, and, bringing gifts to the temples, supplicate the gods. But now
they do none of these things, but purify; and some of the purifications
they conceal in the earth, and some they throw into the sea, and some
they carry to the mountains where no one can touch or tread upon them.
But these they ought to take to the temples and present to the god, if a
god be the cause of the disease. Neither truly do I count it a worthy
opinion to hold that the body of man is polluted by god, the most impure
by the most holy; for were it defiled, or did it suffer from any other thing,
it would be like to be purified and sanctified rather than polluted by god.
For it is the divinity which purifies and sanctifies the greatest of offenses
and the most wicked, and which proves our protection from them. And
we mark out the boundaries of the temples and the groves of the gods,
so that no one may pass them unless he be pure, and when we enter
them we are sprinkled with holy water, not as being polluted, but as
laying aside any other pollution which we formerly had. And thus it
appears to me to hold, with regard to purifications. But this disease
seems to me to be no more divine than others; but it has its nature such
as other diseases have, and a cause whence it originates, and its nature
and cause are divine only just as much as all others are, and it is curable
no less than the others, unless when, the from of time, it is confirmed,
and has became stronger than the remedies applied. Its origin is
hereditary, like that of other diseases.
Hippocrates: On the Sacred Disease
The Mysteries of Eleusis
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254.
Profanation of the Mysteries
Violators
Whenever light descends to form and color, shadows appear. So the
sacred must protect itself from profanation here below. The Greeks
recognizing exceptional value guarded it carefully. Silence preserved
the spiritual that speech might offend. The Eleusinian Mysteries are one
of the most widely spread, best kept secrets in history.
And since they knew that in matters pertaining to the gods the city
would be most enraged if any man should be shown to be violating the
Mysteries
(Isocrates The Team of Horses 6)
Isocrates has expressed a common sentiment, also employed by one of
Lucian's characters.
If I see some initiate of the Mysteries giving away the secret ritual and
going through the dances in public, and I get angry and show him up,
are you going to consider me the wrongdoer?
(Lucian The Fisherman 33)
Callimachus hints that the ability to hold one's tongue is prerequisite to
initiation.
It is a great blessing for you that you have not seen the rites of the dread
goddess, or else you would have spewed up their story too.
(Aetia 75)
Aristotle touches on the same theme and also mentions the case of
Aeschylus who was born at Eleusis and might have lost his life for the
information he gave out in one of his lost plays, except that they could
not prove that he had ever been initiated.
But of what he is doing a man might be ignorant, as for instance people
say, 'It slipped out of their mouths as they were speaking,' or 'They did
not know it was a secret,' as Aeschylus said of the mysteries.
(Nicomachaean Ethics III, I, 17)
Alcibiades, whose rowdy behavior is depicted in Plato's Symposium, is
the most famous, or infamous, profaner of the mysteries. He actually
mocked them through vulgar initiation. Andocides tells how he was
brought to trial on the eve of a major military expedition.
The Assembly had met to give audience to Nicias, Lamachus, and
Alcibiades, the generals about to leave with the Sicilian expedition - in
fact, Lamachus' flag-ship was already lying off-shore - when suddenly
Pythonicus rose before the people and cried: 'Countrymen, you are
sending forth this mighty host in all its array upon a perilous enterprise.
Yet your commander, Alcibiades, has been holding celebrations of the
mysteries in a private house, and others with him; I will prove it, Grant
immunity to him whom I indicate, and a non-initiate, a slave belonging to
someone here present, shall describe the Mysteries to you. You can
punish me as you will, if that is not the truth.'
(Andocides On the Mysteries 11-12)
Plutarch in his Life of Alcibiades gives the results of the case, adding an
interesting anecdote showing the spirituality of one of the priestesses.
"Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia, lays information
that Alcibiades, the son of Clinias of the township of the Scambonidae,
has committed a crime against the goddess Demeter and Persephone,
by representing in derision the holy mysteries, and showing them to his
companions in his own house. Where, being habited in such robes as
are used by the chief priest, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Theodorus,
of the township of Phegaea, the herald; and saluted the rest of his
company as Initiates and Novices, all which was done contrary to the
laws and institutions of the Eulmolpidae, and the heralds and priests of
the temple at Eleusis."
He was condemned as contumacious upon his not appearing, his
property confiscated, and it was decreed that all the priests and
priestesses should solemnly curse him. But one of them, Theano, the
daughter of Menon, of the township of Agraule, is said to have opposed
that part of the decree, saying that her holy office obliged her to make
prayers, but not execrations.
(Plutarch Alcibiades 34)
Demosthenes in his oration Against Neaera uses the case of a
hierophant who favored a certain woman, as an example of the
strictness of Athenian law.
It is worth your while, men of Athens, to consider this also - that you
punished Archias, who had been hierophant, when he was convicted in
court of impiety and of offering sacrifice contrary to the rites handed
down by our fathers. Among the charges brought against him was, that
at the feast of the harvest he sacrificed on the altar in the court at Eleusis
a victim brought by the courtesan Sinope, although it was not lawful to
offer victims on that day, and the sacrifice was not his to perform, but
the priestess'! It is, then, a monstrous thing that a man who was of the
race of the Eumolpidae, born of honorable ancestors and a citizen of
Athens, should be punished for having transgressed one of your
established customs; and the pleadings of his relatives and friends did
not save him, nor the public services which he and his ancestors had
rendered to the city; no, nor yet his office of hierophant; but you
punished him, because he was judged to be guilty.
(Demosthenes Against Neaera 116-117)
Isocrates is not correct in condemning foreigners outright as knowledge
of Greek was the only requirement for initiation; murderers were
prohibited unless purified by the priests.
And at the celebration of the Mysteries, the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes,
because of our hatred of the Persians, give solemn warning to the other
barbarians also, even as to men guilty of murder, that they are forever
banned from the sacred rites.
(Panegyricus 157)
Pausanias tells the story of an Eleusinian martyr.
On the road from Athens to Eleusis, which the Athenians called the
Sacred Way, there is the tomb of Anthemocritus. He was the victim of a
most foul crime perpetuated by the Megarians; for when he came as a
herald to forbid them to encroach on the sacred land, they slew him. And
the wrath of the two goddesses abides upon them for that deed to this
day; for they were the only Greek people whom even the Emperor
Hadrian could not make to thrive.
(Pausanias I, 36:3)
Livy relates an unfortunate accident of the year 201 BC which led to war.
Now the Athenians had undertaken the war against Philip for no
sufficient reason, since they retained nothing of their ancient greatness
except their spirit. Two young men from Acarnania, during the
celebration of the mysteries at Eleusis, though not initiated, had entered
the temple of Ceres, ignorant that they were committing sacrilege, and
merely following the crowd. Their words easily betrayed them, since
they asked foolish questions, and though it was clear that they had
come in openly and by mistake they were put to death as if they had
committed some heinous crime. The Acarnanians reported this revolting
and unfriendly act to Philip, and prevailed upon him to send them
Macedonian aid and permit them to attack Athens.
(Livy XXI, xiv, 6-10)
Horace even feared the company of a violator of the sacred mysteries.
There is a sure reward for trusty silence, too. I will forbid the man who
has divulged the sacred rites of mystic Ceres, to abide beneath the same
roof or to unmoor with me the fragile bark.
(Horace Odes III, ii)
Libanius Decl 12.28 and frg. 50.3. Both passages, slightly corrupt, in the
context of Alcibiades’ profanation of the Mysteries, refer to torches from
the Anaktoron used by Alcibiades and his fellow revelers…This seems
to suggest that initiates took home torches from the Mysteries, perhaps
as a sacred momento, just as Christians do with palm leaves on Palm
Sunday. These torches Alcibiades was thought to have used in his
revels.
When all things were fitted for the voyage, many unlucky omens
appeared. At that very time the feast of Adonis happened in which the
women were used to expose, in all parts of the city, images resembling
dead men carried out to their burial, and to represent funeral solemnities
by lamentations and mournful songs. The mutation, however, of the
images of Mercury, most of which, in one night, had their faces all
disfigured, terrified many persons who were wont to despise most
things of that nature...But the report gained no credit with the people,
nor yet the opinion of those who would not believe that there was
anything ominous in the matter, but that it was only an extravagant
action, committed, in that sort of sport which runs into license, by wild
young men coming from a debauch...During the examination, Androcles,
one of the demagogues, produced certain slaves and strangers before
them who accused Alcibiades and some of his friends of defacing other
images in the same manner, and of having profanely acted the sacred
mysteries at a drunken meeting, where one Theodorus represented the
herald, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Alcibiades the chief priest, which
the rest of the party appeared as candidates for initiation, and received
the title of Initiates. These were the matters contained in the articled of
information which Thessalus, the son of Cimon, exhibited against
Alcibiades, formation which Thessalus, the son of Cimon, for his
impious mockery of the goddesses Ceres and Proserpine.
The information against him was conceived in this form:
Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia, lays information
that Alcibides, the son of Clinias of the township of the Scambonidae,
has committed a crime against the goddesses Ceres and Proserpine, by
representing in derision the holy mysteries, and showing them to
companions in his own house. Where, being habited in such robes as
are used by the chief pries, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Theodorius, of
the township of Phegea, the herald; and saluted the rest of his company
as Initiates and Novices, all which was done contrary to the laws and
institutions of the Eumolpidae, and the heralds and priests of the temple
at Eleusis.
During that time Androcles, the popular leader, produced sundry aliens
and slaves who accused Alcibiades and his friends of mutilating other
sacred images, and of making a parody of the mysteries of Eleusis in a
drunken revel. They said that one Theodorus played the part of the
Herald, Pulytion that of the Torch-bearer, and Alcibiades that of the High
Priest, and that the rest of his companions were there in the role of
initiates and were dubbed Mystae.
His impeachment is on record and runs as follows: AThessalus, son of
Cimon, of the deme Laciadae, impeaches Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, of
the deme Scambonidae, for committing crime against the goddesses of
Eleusis, Demeter and Core, by mimicking the mysteries and showing
them forth to his companions in his own house, wearing a robe such as
the High Priest wears when he shows forth the sacred secrets to the
initiates, and calling himself High Priest, Pulytion Torch-bearer, and
Theodorus, of the deme Phegaea, Herald, and hailing the rest of his
companions as Mystae and Epoptae, contrary to the laws and
institutions of the Eumolpidae, Heralds and Preisets of Eleusis.
Note the difference between Mystae and Epoptae, many are the thysus
bearers, but few the mystics.
Accordingly, it seemed to Alcibiades that it would be a fine thing,
enhancing his holiness in the eyes of the gods and his good repute in
the minds of men, to restore its traditional fashion to the sacred festival
by escorting the rite with his infantry along past the enemy by land. He
would thus either thwart and humble Agis, if the king kept entirely quiet,
or would fight a fight that was sacred and approved by the gods, in
behalf of the greatest and holiest interests, in full sight of his native city,
and with all his fellow citizens eye-witnesses of his valor.
When he had determined upon this course and made known his design
to the Eumolpidae and Heralds, he stationed sentries on the heights,
sent out an advance-guard at break of day, and then took the priests,
Mystae, and mystagogues, encompassed them with his men-at-arms,
and led them over the road to Eleusis in decorous and silent array. So
August and devout was the spectacle which, as general he thus
displayed, that he was hailed by those who were not unfriendly to him
as High Priest, rather, and Mystagogue.
AI therefore informed the Council that I knew the offenders, and showed
exactly what had occurred. The idea, I said, had been suggested by
Euphiletus at a drinking party; but I opposed it, and succeeded in
preventing its execution for the time being. Later, however, I was thrown
from a colt of mine in Cynosarges; I broke my collar-bone and fractured
my skull, and had to be taken home on a litter.
When Euphiletus saw my condition, he informed the others that I had
consented to join them and had promised to mutilate the Hermes next to
the shrine of Phorbuas as my share in the escapade.@
What is the connection here? Hermes is guide to the Underworld. Plot
hatched at a drinking party. Andocides says that by coming forward, AI
freed Athens from the panic which was working such havoc.@ Todd:
Mutilation of the Hermes might have prevented impregnation.
“Diocleides= tale was that he had to fetch the earnings of a slave of his
at Laurium. He arose at an early hour, mistaking the time, and started off
on his walk by the light of a full moon. As he was passing the gateway
of the theater of Dionysus, he noticed a large body of men coming down
into the orchestra from the Odeum. In alarm, he withdrew into the
shadow and crouched down between the column and the pedestal with
the bronze statue of the general upon it He then saw some three
hundred men standing about in groups of five and ten, and in some
cases, twenty. He recognized the faces of the majority as he could see
them in the moonlight....after seeing what he had, he went on to
Laurium; and when he learned next day of the mutilation of the Hermae,
he knew at once that it was the work of the men he had noticed.@
Diocleides was lying and then AAlcibiades and Amiantus fled from the
country in terror; and when you heard the facts yourselves, you handed
Dioclides over to the court and put him to death.@
The prosecution have also accused me in connection with the
suppliant=s bough. They allege that it was I who placed it in the
Eleusinium and that under ancient law the penalty for doing such a thing
during the Mysteries is death...It was on our return from Eleusis, after the
information had already been lodged against me. The Basileus
appeared before the Prytanes to give the usual report on all the had
occurred during the performance of the ceremonies there. The Prytanes
said that they would bring him before the Council and told him to give
Cephisius and myself notice to attend at the Eleusinium, as it was there
that the Council was to sit in conformity with a slaw of Solon=s, which
lays down that a sitting shall be held in the Eleusinium on the day after
the Mysteries. We duly attended.
And since they knew that in matters pertaining to the gods the city
would be most enraged if any man should be shown to be violating the
Mysteries, and that in other matters if any man should dare to attempt
the overthrow of the democracy, they combined both these charges and
tried to bring an action of impeachment before the senate. They
asserted that my father was holding meetings of his political club with a
view to revolution, and that these members of the club, when dining
together in the house of Pulytion, had given a performance of the
Mysteries.
One of the porticoes contains shrines of gods, and a gymnasium called
that of Hermes. In it is the house of Pulytion, at which it is said that a
mystic rite was performed by the most notable of Athenians, parodying
the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Not only were Socrates and his friends notorious Spartan sympathizers,
but even before the great scandal of the profanations, he was suspect of
profaning the Mysteries. In the Clouds, he had been shown teaching his
students to disdain conventional theology in a parody of a mystery
initiation, as they probed the lower world for the bulbous plants that in
the Eleusinian myth were associated with Persephone=s abduction to
Hades (188ff.) He had, in fact, even been labeled a Melian in that comedy
(830), on the model either of Diagoras of Melos or Aristagoras of the
same island, both of whom had profaned the Mysteries on some
occasion before the great scandal of 415 (scholia to Clouds 830 and
Birds 1072.) If one could accuse Socrates of profaning the Mysteries in
422, the date of the Clouds, certainly the proven guild of Alcibiades
seven years later would have implicated his unconventional and pro-
Spartan teacher as well, and, in fact, the infamy of Diagoras is recalled in
the Birds when the chorus of birds cites the reward that had been
posted for the capture and death of that earlier profanation of the Lesser
Mystery (1072-1073.) It would have been inevitable, in any case, that
suspicion would fall upon Socrates since it was apparently well known
that he was subject to mystical trances that were so similar to the
experience of the Eleusinian vision that Plato adapts the language of the
Mystery to describe them. (Plato Symposium 174dff, and 220bff.,
Phaedrus 250c.)
The most prominent atheist of the fifth century seems to have been
Diagoras of Melos, not a philosopher or theoretician but a poet; later it
was a philologist=s joke to quote pious hymns to the gods from his
oeuvre...Diagoras revealed the Eleusinian mysteries to everyone Aand
thus made them ordinary.@ In the light of day the nocturnal ceremonies
are nothing.
This sacred marriage had some relation to the so-called Lesser
Eleusinian Mystery, a ceremony that was a preliminary to the Greater
Mystery that would be performed in the autumn of the year at the
neighboring village of Eleusis. Socrates= rite of necromancy, therefore,
in this Swamp with a person like Peisander and at this particular date
would seem somehow involved in the great scandal of the day, the
profanation of the Mysteries. (See The Dramatic Festivals at Athens,
revised by J. Gould and D. Lewis. (Oxford, 1968.)
It also includes Poulytion=s house, where some distinguished
Athenians are supposed to have carried out a parody of an initiation at
Eleusis; in my time the place was consecrated to Dionysos.
Pig
...may not the pig, which was so closely associated with Demeter, be
nothing but the goddess herself in animal form? The pig was regularly
sacrificed in her mysteries, the reason assigned being that the pig
injures the corn and is therefore an enemy of the goddess.
A trace of the older conception survived in the legend that when
Demeter was looking for the lost Proserpine, the footprints of the latter
were obliterated by the footprints of a pig.
Ovid pleads for the bull which serves man well, giving over the useless
pig for sacrifice . As far as we know the trend at Eleusis was in this
direction.
You attendants, with tucked up robes, take the knives away from the ox;
let the ox plough; sacrifice the lazy sow. The ax should never smite the
neck that fits the yoke; let him live and often labor in the hard soil.
(Fasti IV, 409-416)
Purification
The skin of a victim sacrificed to Zeus was widely used by the Greeks in
various purificatory rites. Individuals, who wished to be purified, stood
upon it supporting themselves on their left foot only. When a multitude
or a locality was to be cleansed, it is more probable that the skin was
carried round in procession. Further, the skins of animals sacrificed to
Zeus…were kept and used by those who marshaled the procession…by
the torch bearers of Eleusis…
The last general trait which I want to stress - the universal fear of
pollution (miasma), and its correlate, the universal craving for ritual
purification (catharsis.) (Did Persephone need to be purified upon her
return from Hades?)
The need for purification, as we have seen, was bound up with dark
superstitions about the power of the dead to return and visit with
frightful plagues the guilty or neglected living. Katharmoi and telatai are
spoken of together by Plato as means of averting their curse, and teletai,
as we know from the nature of the Eleusinian and other mysteries, were
above all things a means of getting into touch with the spirits of the
other world. There were in the first of chthonian powers like Demeter,
Pluto, Dionysus and him of Crete. In this way therefore Apollo=s
connection with homicides points not to Olympus but to the Chthonian
depths, and he stands as a unique bridge between the two worlds.
In connection with Herakles, a second priest, the Dadouchos, also had
to appear and slaughter the ram on whose skin the greatest sinners sat
during the remaining rites of purification. (A vase scene depicting the
lesser mysteries.@)
There follows a purification ceremony for which the Homeric Hymn has
Demeter herself set the example. Without speaking a word she sits
down on a stool which is covered by a ram fleece, and she veils her
head. Thus reliefs show Herakles at his initiation, veiled and sitting on a
ram fleece, while either a winnowing fan is held over him or a torch is
brought up close to him from beneath. In ancient interpretation this
would be purification by air and by fire; for the blindfolded mystes these
must be disquieting, threatening experiences. On the reliefs there
follows the encounter with Demeter, Kore, and the kiste. This probably
points to the festival proper: >As long as you have not reached the
Anaktoron, you are not initiated.=
Ram
The image of the Ram was placed among the stars by Nubes (cloud) to
preside over the time of year when the grain is sowed because formerly
Ino sowed parched grain at that time – which was largely responsible for
the flight of Phrixus and Hellej….the Ram (Zeus) represented among the
stars such that when the sun is in its sign, all things that grow are
renewed; this comes to pass in the spring because of the fact that Liber’
s army was renewed by the ram’s flight.
Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy, 2.20 ff (When the king, Athamas, King of
Boetia, was about to sacrifice Phrixus, Zeus sent a golden ram to carry
the children to safety…this probably reflects an ancient custom of
sacrificing a king’s son in time of famine.)
Zeus, desiring to consort with his own mother Deo or Demeter, turned
himself into a bull and so compassed his end. Deo in fierce anger took
the title Brimo, ‘the wrathful’ and would not be appeased till Zeus came
before her in a mood of mock-repentance, pretended to have made a
eunuch of himself, and in proof of his words flung the severed parts into
her lap. In reality they were those of a fine ram which he had gelded.
The issue of his union with Deo was Kore or Pherephatta, with whom he
again had intercourse under the form of a monstrous snake. This time
the offspring was shaped like a bull. Hence the well-known line: Bull
began Snake, Snake begat Bull.
The Thebans and all other Egyptians who worshiped the Theban god
Ammon held rams to be sacred and would not sacrifice them. But once
a year at the festival of Ammon they killed a ram, skinned it, and clothed
the image of the god in the skin. Then they mourned over the ram and
buried it in a sacred tomb. The custom was explained by a story that
Zeus had once exhibited himself to Hercules clad in the fleece and
wearing the head of a ram. (Herodotus ii, 42) Of course the ram in this
case was simply the beast god of Thebes, as the wolf was the beast god
of Lycopolis, and the goat was the beast god of Mendes. In other words,
the ram was Ammon himself.
Here is Phrixos carried away to Kolchoi by the ram: he sacrifices the
ram to some god, perhaps the one called Laphystios at Orchomenos,
cuts up the thighs in the Greek traditional way, and watches them burn.
(In his footnote, Peter Levi says APhrixos rode on a golden ram that
Hermes gave his mother. He went to Kolchoi on it to escape from his
stepmother, married, and settled down there. This ram=s fleece was
Jason=s golden fleece. Laphystios is the Zeus of Mount Laphystion in
Boiotia; there are coins connecting Zeus Laphystios with this saga.)
In connection with Herakles, a second priest, the Dadouchos, also had
to appear and slaughter the ram on whose skin the greatest sinners sat
during the remaining rites of purification. (A vase scene depicting the
lesser mysteries.@)
As you go on along the straight road to Lechaion, you come to a seated
bronze Hermes, with a ram standing beside him, because Hermes is the
god who seems to have most interest in flocks and to increase them, as
Homer says in the Iliad:
Phorbas of the flocks of Troy whom Hermes loved and gave him wealth
As for the story about Hermes and the ram told during the mystery of the
Mother, I know it but will not tell it. (Fraser thought it was an obscene
story told by Clement of Alexandria which is not about Hermes, but
about Zeus.)
About the sanctuaries of HERMES WITH THE RAM and of the Champion,
the story told of the first title is that Hermes turned away a plague for
them by carrying a ram around the town wall, and so Kalamis made a
statue of Hermes carrying the ram over his shoulders. At Hermes=
festival, the most beautifully-shaped young man is chosen to go round
the circuit of the wall with a lamb on his shoulders.
There are statues of the gods, Karneian Apollo, the Pure One, and
Hermes carrying a ram. The Pure One is a title of Demeter=s daughter,
the Maid; water comes up from the spring right beside her statue. As for
the story of the Great Goddesses, whose mystery is also celebrated in
Karnasion, let me not speak of it: I judge them for their awful holiness to
be second only to the Eleusinians. But the dream has not forbidden me
to tell everybody that the bronze jar the Argive commander found and
the bones of Eurytos so of Melaneus were kept here.
There follows a purification ceremony for which the Homeric Hymn has
Demeter herself set the example. Without speaking a word she sits
down on a stool which is covered by a ram fleece, and she veils her
head. Thus reliefs show Herakles at his initiation, veiled and sitting on a
ram fleece, while either a winnowing fan is held over him or a torch is
brought up close to him from beneath. In ancient interpretation this
would be purification by air and by fire; for the blindfolded mystes these
must be disquieting, threatening experiences. On the reliefs there
follows the encounter with Demeter, Kore, and the kiste. This probably
points to the festival proper: >As long as you have not reached the
Anaktoron, you are not initiated.=
Hermes=s visit to Penelope in the form of a ram - the ram devil is as
common in the North-western witch cult as the goat - her impregnation
by all the suitors and the claim that Pan had coupled with everyone of
the Maenads refers to the promiscuous nature of the revels in honor of
the Fig-goddess Pitys or Elate.
At Hera=s orders the Titans seized Zeus= newly-born son Dionysus, a
horned child crowned with serpents and, despite his transformations,
tore him into shreds. These they boiled in a cauldron, while a
pomegranate-tree sprouted from the soil where his blood had fallen; but,
rescued and reconstituted by his grandmother Rhea, he came to life
again...Then, on Zeus= instructions, Hermes temporarily transformed
Dionysus into a kid or a ram, and presented him to the nymphs Macris,
Nysa, Erato, Bromie and Bacche, of heliconian Mount Nysa. They
tended Dionysus in a cave, cosseted him, and fed him on honey, for
which service Zeus subsequently placed their images among the stars,
naming them the Hyades.
Secrets
“A most important Athenian testimony concerning the myth and the cult
is offered by the brief synopsis which Isocrates gave in his Panegyricus
(28)
‘First of all, that which mankind first needed was provided by our city.
For even if the story is mythic, nevertheless, it is fitting for it to be told
even now. When Demeter, having wandered about after Kore was
abducted, arrived in our country, and was well disposed to our
ancestors because of their kindnesses which it is not possible for those
who are not initiated to hear, and gave them double gifts, which happen
to be the greatest – the fruits of the earth, which are responsible for the
fact that we do not live like animals, and the festival, the participants in
which have sweeter hopes concerning the end of life and all time, our
city was so reverent and generous, that when it possessed such great
good things it did not begrudge them to others but let all share in the
things which it received.’”…
…What is interesting is that the Hymn does not give us a solid clue that
there even existed a secret part of the myth itself.
AIs it not, perhaps, the secret of every true and great mystery that it is
simple?@ - Kerenyi
I wanted to go on with this story and describe the contents of the
Athenian sanctuary called the Eleusinion, but I was stopped by
something I saw in a dream.
But a man may be ignorant of (2) what he is doing, as for instance when
people say Ait slipped out while they were speaking@ or Athey were not
aware that the matter was a secret@ as Aeschylus said of the
Mysteries.
My dream forbade the description of the things within the wall of the
sanctuary, and the uninitiated are of course not permitted to learn that
which they are prevented from seeing. The hero Eleusis, after whom the
city is names, some assert to be a son of Hermes and of Daeira,
daughter of Ocean; there are poets, however, who have made Ogygus
father of Eleusis.
Proceeding on the direct road to Lechaeum we see a bronze image of a
seated Hermes. By him stands a ram, for Hermes is the god who is
thought most to care for and to increase flocks, as Homer puts in the
Iliad:
Son was he of Phorbas, the dearest of the Trojans to Hermes
Rich in flocks, for the god vouchsafed him wealth in abundance.
The story told at the Mysteries of the Mother about Hermes and the ram I
know but do not relate.
And so the envoys came with a request to Aeacus from each city. By
sacrifice and prayer to Zeus, God of all the Greeks, he caused rain to fall
upon the earth, and the Aeginetans made these likenesses of those who
came to him. Within the enclosure are olive trees that have grown there
from of old and there is an altar which is raised but a little from the
ground. That this altar is also the tomb of Aeacus is told as a holy
secret.
Advancing from here twenty-five stades you come to a grove of
Cabeirean Demeter and the Maid. The initiated are permitted to enter it.
The sanctuary of the Cabeiri is some seven stades distant from the
grove. I must ask the curious to forgive me if I keep silence as to who
the Cabeiri are, and what is the nature of the ritual performed in honor of
them and of the Mother.
“solemn rites which it is not possible to transgress or to learn about or
to utter. For a great reverence for the gods holds back one’s voice.”
(Note: what is the cause of the reverence – might it not be to reveal
something embarrassing to one or more of the gods?)
But there is nothing to prevent my declaring to all what the Thebans say
was the origin of the ritual. They say that once there was in this place a
city, with inhabitants called Cabeiri, and that Demeter came to know
Prometheus, once of the Cabeiri, and Aetnaelis his son, and entrusted
something to their keeping. What was entrusted to them, and what
happened to it, seemed to me a sin to put into writing, but at any rate the
rites are a gift of Demeter to the Cabeiri.
There are statues of the gods Apollo Carneius and Hagne, also Hermes
carrying a ram. Hagne (the holy one) is a title of Kore the daughter of
Demeter. Water rises from a spring close to the statue. I may not reveal
the rites of the Great Goddesses, for it is their mysteries which they
celebrate in the Canasian grove, and I regard them as second only to the
Eleusinian in sanctity. But my dream did not prevent me from making
known to all that the brazen urn, discovered by the Argive general, and
the bones of Eurytus the son of Melaneus were kept here.
Story of Hermes averting a plague from the city by carrying a ram on his
shoulders found in Pausanias IX, 22
ASecret@ must not necessarily be taken to mean Amystery.@
Underneath there may indeed be a true mystery in the sense adopted by
Romano Guardini, who defined a genuine mystery as one that is
experienced, venerated, lived - in other words, is not kept especially
secret - and yet remains forever a mystery. The secret itself may be less
important than the fact that it is kept secret.
It may be said at the outset that the obligation of secrecy applied only to
the final rite of Beholding (Epopteia), which formed the climax to a
procedure lasting a number of days.
We need not waste time in speculating on the nature of the final
spectacle in the actual Telesterion at Eleusis. This it was that admitted a
man to the highest grade of initiation, that of Epoptes, Beholder. Of
these last solemn rites it was not permitted to speak. Of these last
solemn rites it was not permitted to speak. AA great awe of the gods
holds back the voice@, as the Homeric Hymn puts it and a chorus of
Sophocles says that a golden key is laid upon the tongue of mortals by
the Eumolpid priests.
The image of Fury holds what is called the chest, and in her right hand a
torch. Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name
they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called
Areion. For this reason they say that they were the first Arcadians to call
Poseidon AHorse.@
In Arcadia, the oldest center of her worship, Artemis was closely
associated in cult with Demeter and Persephone. Herodotus says that
Aeschylus actually called Artemis the daughter of Demeter, thus
identifying her with Persephone, the corn-goddess.
This is the story that the Egyptians tell to explain why the island moves:
that on this island that did not move before, Leto, one of the eight gods
who first came to be, who was living at Buto where this oracle of hers is,
taking charge of Apollo form Isis, hid him for safety in this island which
is now said to float, when Typhon came hunting through the world, keen
to find the son of Osiris. Apollo and Artemis were (they say) children of
Dionysus and Isis, and Leto was made their nurse and preserver; in
Egyptian, Apollo is Horus, Demeter Isis, Artemis Bubastis. It was from
this legend and no other that Aeschylus son of Euphorion took a notion
which is in no poet before him: that Artemis was the daughter of
Demeter. For this reason the island was made to float. So they say.
Aeschylus was accused, says the Scholiast to Aristotle, or revealing the
mysteries in the Toxotides, the Priestess, Sisyphus Petrokylistes,
Iphigenia and Oedipus: that is, in five different plays. (The Toxotides, or
Archer Maidens, dealt with the sparagmos of the Dionysiac hero
Actaeon; of the Priestess nothing more is known; Sisyphus Rolling the
Stone is so called to distinguish it from Sisyphus the Runaway, which
was a satyr-play about the deceiving of death. We cannot tell whether it
was a satyr-play also or a tragedy. The Iphigenia and the Oedipus were
tragedies dealing with the well-known sagas.
Diodorus does not name his authority. It was probably a historian from
Crete. His proof of the Cretan origin of the Mysteries, cited in Diodorus
(V 77 3) is of interest: elsewhere, these are the exact words, - such rites
are communicated in secret, but in Crete, in Knossos, it has been the
custom since time immemorial to speak of these ceremonies quite
openly to all, and, if anyone wished to learn of them, to conceal none of
the things which elsewhere were imparted to the initiate under the vow
of silence.
On the road stands a small temple called that of Cyamites. I cannot state
for certain whether he was the first to sow beans, or whether they gave
this name to a hero because they may not attribute to Demeter the
discovery of beans. Whoever has been initiated at Eleusis or has read
what are called the Orphica knows what I mean.
The statue of Hera is seated on a throne; it is huge, made of gold and
ivory, and is a work of Polycleitus. She is wearing a crown with Graces
and Seasons worked upon it, and in one had she carries a pomegranate
and in the other a scepter. About the pomegranate I must say nothing,
for its story is somewhat of a holy mystery.
To those Pheneatians who received her with hospitality into their homes
the goddess gave all sorts of pulse save the bean only. There is a
sacred story to explain why the bean in their eyes is an impure kind of
pulse.
in the first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human
occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and
secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine
inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and thirdly, the
secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for
the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid
being perceived by our human senses; and, fourthly, music, which
includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the
delight it affords and by its artistic beauty, brings us in touch with the
divine, and for this for the following reason; for although it has been well
said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing
food to others, yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such
happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing
philosophy and engaging in music; for, if music is perverted when
musicians turn their art to sensual delights at symposiums and in
orchestric and scenic performances and the like, we would not lay the
blame upon music itself, but should rather examine the nature of our
system of education, since this is based on music.
On the road between the Tralleians and Nysa is a village of the Nysaens,
not far from the city Acharaca, where is the Plutonium, with a costly
sacred precinct and a shrine of Pluto and Core, and also the Charonium,
a cave that lies above the sacred precinct, by nature wonderful; for they
say that those who are diseased and give heed to the cures prescribed
by these gods resort thither and live in the village near the cave among
experienced priests, who on their behalf sleep in the cave and through
dreams prescribe the cures. These are also the men who invoke the
healing power of the gods. And they often bring the sick into the cave
and leave them there, to remain in quiet, like animals in their lurking-
holes, without food for many days. And sometimes the sick give heed
also to their own dreams, but still they use those other men, as priests,
to initiate them into the mysteries and counsel them. To all others the
place is forbidden and deadly.
This sacred marriage had some relation to the so-called Lesser
Eleusinian Mystery, a ceremony that was a preliminary to the Greater
Mystery that would be performed in the autumn of the year at the
neighboring village of Eleusis. Socrates= rite of necromancy, therefore,
in this Swamp with a person like Peisander and at this particular date
would seem somehow involved in the great scandal of the day, the
profanation of the Mysteries. (See The Dramatic Festivals at Athens,
revised by J. Gould and D. Lewis. (Oxford, 1968.)
What was carried about - whether in a cista mystica or in a liknon - could
not, however, be kept entirely secret. It was not a heart but a phallus.
This is evident from the Orphic books themselves. In a text about which
we shall have more to say later, the object that the goddess Hipta took
from Zeus and carried on her head in a liknon was called the AKradiaios
Dionysos.@ Kradiaios can have two meanings, and this is the key to
the secret. It can be derived either from Kradia (Aheart=) or from krade
(Afig tree@): in the latter case, it means an object made from a fig branch
or fig wood. According to one myth, Dionysos himself fashioned a
phallus from fig wood for use in a mystic rite connected with his return
from the underworld. The soft wood was suitable for the Dionysian
utensil, which was referred to by the euphemism Aheart.@ According to
the sources the object that was preserved by Pallas Athena was the
sacrificed he-goat=s male organ, which was neither boiled nor roasted
nor burned, but set aside and hidden. The action was symbolic and it is
very likely that in place of the dried members, or along with it, a phallus
of fig wood was used the following year in the ceremony serving to
Aawaken@ Liknites, the god lying in the liknon.
Sisyphus
And Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, founded Ephyra, which is now called
Corinth, and married Merope, daughter of Atlas. They had a son
Glaucus, who had by Eurymede a son Bellerophon, who slew the fire
breathing Chimera. But Sisyphus is punished in Hades by rolling a
stone with his hands and head in the effort to heave it over the top; but
push as he will, it rebounds backward. This punishment he endures for
the sake of Aegina, daughter of Asopus; for when Zeus had secretly
carried her off Sisyphus is said to have betrayed the secret to Asopus,
who was looking for her.
(Sisyphus the Runaway is named only in the Medicean Catalogue;
Sisyphus the Stone-Roller, is mentioned twice in grammarians;
elsewhere the form of citation is simply Sisyphus.
The first named drama was satyric; its them, the escape from Hades of
the craft Corinthian king. According to the fabulous story told by
Pherecydes (Fragment 78 in Muller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum)
Sisyphus made know to Asopus that it was Zeus who had carried off his
daughter Aegina; in punishment for which offence the god send Death
against the babbler; but Sisyphus bound Death fast, so that men ceased
to die, until Ares came to the rescue, released Death, and gave Sisyphus
into his power. Before he died, however, Sisyphus directed his wife
Merope to omit his funeral rites, so that Hades, being deprived of his
customary offerings, was persuaded by the cunning trickster to let him
go back to life in order to complain of his wife=s neglect. But, once in
the upper world, he refused to return, and had to be fetched back by
Hermes. The Satyrs forming the Chorus were probably represent as
initiates if the play was a parody of the Dionysiac-Orphic mysteries.
(Sisyphus the Stone-Roller is one of the six dramas mentioned by the
ancients in connection with the charge of impiety brought against the
poet.)
ANay, is it some field-mouse so monstrous large?@ From a description
of Sisyphus emerging from the earth.
ANow I come to bid farewell to Zagreus and to his sire, the hospitaler.@
(Sisyphus describes his departure from the lower world. Dionysus,
viewed by the Orphics as the child of Zeus and Persephone, received
the name Zagreus, the Agreat hunter.@ At times he was thus identified
with Hades, at times made the son of the Ahospitaler of the dead.@
(Suppliant Maidens 157.)
Soul
Souls therefore, all possessed of this power, which is innate but dim and
hardly manifest, nevertheless oftentimes disclose its flower and
radiance in dreams, and some in the hour of death, when the body
becomes cleansed of all impurities and attains a temperament adapted
to this end, a temperament through which the reasoning and thinking
faculty of the soul is relaxed and released from their present state as
they range amid the irrational and imaginative realms of the future. It is
not true, as Euripides says, that
the best of seers is he that guesses well
no, the best of seers is the intelligent man, following the guidance of that
in his soul which possess sense and which, with the help of reasonable
probability, leads him on his way. But that which foretells the future, like
a tablet without writing, is both irrational and indeterminate in itself, but
receptive of impressions and presentiments through what may be done
to it, and inconsequentially grasps at the future when it is farthest
withdrawn from the present. Its withdrawal is brought about by a
temperament and disposition of the body as it is subjected to a change
which we call inspiration. Often the body of itself alone attains this
disposition. Moreover the earth sends forth for men streams of many
other potencies, some of them producing derangements, diseases or
deaths; others helpful, benignant and beneficial; as is plan from the
experience of persons who have come upon them. But the prophetic
current and breath is most divine and holy, whether it issues by itself
through the air or come in the company of running waters; for when it is
instilled into the body, it creates in souls an unaccustomed and unusual
temperament, the peculiarity of which it is hard to describe with
exactness, but analogy offers many comparisons. It is likely that by
warmth and diffusion it opens up certain passages through which
impressions of the future are transmitted, just as wine when its fumes
rise to the head, reveals many unusual movements and also words
stored away and unperceived
for Bacchic rout and frenzied mind contain much prophecy
according to Euripides, when the soul becomes hot and fiery, and
throws aside the caution that human intelligence lays upon it, and thus
often diverts and extinguishes the inspiration.
The same persons are roused now to less, now to more, extravagant
conduct by the Bacchic revels or stimulated by the wine, as the
temperament within them becomes different. But especially does the
imaginative faculty of the soul seem to be swayed by the alterations in
the body, and to change as the body changes, a fact which is clearly
shown in dreams; for at one time we find ourselves beset in our dreams
by a multitude of visions of all sorts, and at another time again there
comes a complete calmness and rest free from all such fancies...
Whenever, then, the imaginative and prophetic faculty is in a state of
proper adjustment for attempting itself to the spirit as to a drug;
inspiration in those who foretell the future is bound to come; and
whenever the conditions are not thus, it is bound not to come, or when it
does come to be misleading, abnormal and confusing...
I know that the Chaldaeans and Indian sages were the first to say that
the soul of man is immortal, and have been followed by some of the
Greeks, particularly by Plato, the son of Ariston.
Socrates: They were certain priests and priestesses who have
studied so as to be able to give a reasoned account of their ministry;
and Pindar also and many another poet of heavenly gifts. As to their
words, they are these: mark now, if you judge them to be true. They say
that the soul of man is immortal, and at one time comes to an end, which
is called dying, and at another is born again, but never perishes.
Consequently one ought to live all one=s life in the utmost holiness.
For from whomsoever Persephone shall accept requital for ancient
wrong, the souls of these she restores in the ninth year to the upper sun
again; from them arise glorious kings and men of splendid might and
surpassing wisdom, and for all remaining time are they called holy
heroes amongst mankind.
Seeing then that the soul is immortal and has been born many times,
and has beheld all things both in this world and in the nether worlds,
she has acquired knowledge of all and everything, so that is no wonder
that she should be able to recollect all that she knew before about virtue
and other things. For as all nature is akin, and the soul has learned all
things, there is no reason why we should not, by remembering but one
single thing - an act which men call learning - discover everything else, if
we have courage and faint not in the search; since, it would seem,
research and learning are wholly recollection.
Soul, considered collectively, has the care of all that which is soulless,
and it traverses the whole heaven, appearing sometimes in one form
and sometimes in another; now when it is perfect and fully winged, it
mounts upward and governs the whole world; but the soul which has
lost its wings is borne along until it gets hold of something solid, when it
settles down; taking upon itself an earthly body, which seems to be self-
moving, because of the power of the souls within it; and the whole;
compounded of soul and body, is called a living being, and is further
designated as mortal.
But pregnancy of soul - for there are persons, she declared, who in their
souls still more than in their bodies conceive these things which are
proper for soul to conceive and bring forth...
We have seen how the Classical Age inherited a whole series of
inconsistent pictures of the Asoul@ or Aself@ - the living corpse in the
grave, the shadowy image in Hades, the perishable breath that is spilt in
the air or absorbed in the aether, the daemon that is reborn in other
bodies.
But we must be careful not to assume that this entity which is to be
saved is a spiritual soul. Wherever it has appeared, the notion of the
soul grew out of and did not precede the idea of salvation.
In Homeric language, a something, the psyche, leaves man at the
moment of death and enters the house of Ais, also known as Aides,
Aidoneus and in the Attic as Hades. Psyche means breath just as
psychein is the verb to breathe; arrested breathing is the simplest
outward sign of death...Yet from the moment it leaves the man it is also
termed an eidolon, a phantom image, like the image reflected in a mirror
which can be seen, though not always clearly, but cannot be grasped:
the dream image and the ghostly image, the forms in which the dead
man can still appear, are identified with the breath which has left the
body. Thus the psyche of a dead man can on appropriate occasions be
seen and at all events can be imagined.
Gimbutas suggests that the double blades of the axe evolved from the
neolithic butterfly, and that the double double-axe in particular precisely
imitates the double wings of the butterfly. The butterfly is still in many
lands the image of the soul, and in Greek the word for butterfly and the
soul were the same: psyche. Both the axe and the butterfly, Gimbutas
adds, are images of the Goddess.
To say gods and men, the Greek might use the words theoi and
anthropoi, but he might equally well use the words athanatoi and
thnetoi. Athanatos (immortal) is an adjective, and may therefore be used
in conjunction with theos. But it may equally well stand alone, and its
meaning then is unambiguous: it means god and nothing else, just as
theos does. It follows that to believe the soul to be immortal is to believe
it to be divine. If man is immortal, then he is a god. This is universal in
Greek.
(From the 11th book of the Iliad:) AHe was marvelously like himself to
look at,@ said Achilles afterward, and as the ghost, with a thin shriek,
vanished like smoke beneath the earth, eluding his attempts to embrace
it, he exclaimed with an ejaculation of astonishment: ATrue it is, then,
that even in the house of Hades there exists a soul and a wraith, but
there are no phrenes in it at all!@ Phrenes is a word which is sometimes
to be translated Aheart@, as when a man feels grief at his phrenes, and
sometimes mind, as when one is said to know something, or to conceive
an idea, in the phrenes.
Even for those who through the Eleusinian mysteries, or the Atales of
those told in Hades@, hoped for something better after death, it was
probably a new and astonishing thing to be told that the psyche was the
seat of the moral and intellectual faculties and of far greater importance
than the body.
Among existing forms of religion, the best hope of a solution seemed to
be offered by the Dionysiac, in which by means of ecstasy and frenzy
the puny, individual soul felt itself lifted out of its loneliness so that at the
height of its passionate experience it could call itself Bacchos, one with
the god by whom it was inspired.
"But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world;
they may have seen them for a short time only,
or they may have been unfortunate in their earthly lot,
and, having had their hearts turned to injustice
through some corrupting influence,
they may have lost the memory
of the holy things which once they saw.
Few only retain an adequate remembrance of them;
and they when they see here any image of that other world,
are rapt in amazement;
but they are ignorant of what this rapture means,
because they do not clearly perceive.
For there is no light of justice or temperance
or any of the higher ideas which are precious to souls
in the earthly copies of them:
they are seen through a glass dimly;
and there are few who, going to the images,
seen in them the realities, and these only with difficulty.
There was a time when with the rest of the happy band
they saw beauty shining in brightness,---
we philosophers following in the train of Zeus,
others in company with other gods;
and then we saw the beatific vision
and were initiated into a mystery
which may be truly called most blessed,
celebrated by us in our state of innocence,
before we had any experience of evils to come,
when we were admitted to the sight of apparitions
innocent and simple and calm and happy,
which we saw shining in pure light,
pure ourselves and not yet enshrined in that living tomb
which we carry about, now that we are imprisoned in the body,
like an oyster in his shell."
Socrates in Plato Phaedrus 250
"There we must ascend again towards the good,
desired of every soul.
Anyone who has seen this, knows what I intend
when I say it is beautiful.
Even the desire of it is to be desired as a good.
To attain it is for those who will take the upward path,
who will set all their forces towards it,
who will divest themselves of all
that we have put on in our descent:---
so, to those who approach the Holy Celebrations of the Mysteries,
there are appointed purifications
and the laying aside of the garments worn before,
and the entry in nakedness---
until, passing on the upward way,
all that is other than the God,
each in the solitude of oneself
shall see that solitary-dwelling existence,
the apart, the unmingled, the pure,
that from which all things depend,
for which all look and live and act and know,
the source of life and of intellection and of being."
Plotinus First Ennead VI, 7
"For we believe that there is nothing more important
for man to receive,
or more ennobling for God of his grace to grant,
than the truth." Plutarch Isis and Osiris
In Eckankar, Paul Twitchell informs us that all the ancient mysteries of
Dionysus, of Delphi, and of Eleusis taught out-of-the-body travel. (p. 134)
He describes the path to God from purgatorial virtues of purification,
theoretic or epoptic virtues bestowing clairvoyance and clairaudience,
exemplary virtues conferring magical powers, and theurgic virtues
which transform one into God. Twitchell calls the Eleusinian Mysteries
the supreme font of western occult lore that released the soul from
bodily bondage. (Twitchell Eckankar p. 18)
He quotes Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Glossary under "Soma
Drink" which refers to the initiates' drinking the Kykeon which enables
them to easily reach the place of splendor or heaven. (Ibid. p. 18)
Twitchell also saw Plato's Phaedo as symbolic of the Eleusinian
Mysteries.
They are taking off his chains, and giving orders that he is to die today.
(Plato Phaedo 60)
Socrates' execution has been delayed due to the holy season
proclaimed in honor of the ship sent to Delos to commemorate
Theseus's and fourteen youths' victory over Minos and Crete. Socrates
is advised not to talk too much so that the hemlock may take effect, and
before he drank it he bathed and changed his clothes as the initiates did
before the final vision at the celebration. Phaedo himself describes the
mood at this historic event.
I had singular feeling at being in his company. For I could hardly believe
that I was present at the death of a friend, and therefore I did not pity
him, Echecrates; he died so fearlessly, and his words and bearing were
so noble and gracious, that to me he appeared blessed. I thought that in
going to the other world he could not be without a divine call, and that
he would be happy, if any man ever was, when he arrived there; and
therefore I did not pity him as might have seemed natural at such an
hour.
(Plato Phaedo 58-59)
To lift the veil from death, two truths were to be learned and experienced
by the initiates. The first is reincarnation or the continual regeneration of
spiritual life symbolized by seeds and plants. The second is even a
greater mystery and has to do with initiation into divine life or the soul
realm achieved while alive on earth and practiced on the higher planes
of consciousness after the new birth. Let us look at Socrates' argument
for the first.
There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which affirms that they
go from hence into the other world, and returning here, are born again
from the dead. Now if it be true that the living come from the dead, then
our souls must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they have
been born again?...
Then let us consider the whole question, not in relation to man only, but
in relation to animals generally, and to plants, and to everything of which
there is generation, and the proof will be easier.
(Ibid. 70)
Thus we see the perpetual transformations of nature. The soul enters
the body at birth and departs at death.
For if the soul exists before birth, and in coming to life and being born
can be born only from death and dying, must she not after death
continue to exist, since she has to be born again?
(Ibid. 77)
What is the reason for the soul's coming to birth in a body over and over
again?
Why, because each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and
rivets the souls to the body, until she becomes like the body, and
believes that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from
agreeing with the body and having the same delights she is obliged to
have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever to be pure at her
departure to the world below, but is always infected by the body; and so
she sinks into another body and there germinates and grows, and has
therefore no part in the communion of the divine and pure and simple.
(Ibid. 83)
The ethical laws of the universe are just, though not necessarily
completed within a lifetime.
We arrive at the conclusion that the living come from the dead, just as
the dead come from the living; and this, if true, affords a most certain
proof that the souls of the dead exist in some place out of which they
come again.... But I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living
again, and that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the
dead are in existence, and that the good souls have a better portion than
the evil.
(Ibid. 72)
Sleep is analogous to death, because the soul and the subtler bodies
often leave the physical body to travel the inner realms of
consciousness.
The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and out of sleeping
waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping; and the process of
generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the other waking up.
(Ibid. 71)
The very existence of God or the absolute and the soul which
comprehends this absolute by being one with it, implies the previous
existence of the soul.
Then may we not say,... there is an absolute beauty, and goodness, and
an absolute essence of all things;... which is now discovered to have
existed in our former state, we refer all our sensations, and with this
compare them, finding these ideas to be pre-existent and our inborn
possession - then our souls must have had a prior existence.
(Ibid. 76)
Your favorite doctrine, Socrates, that knowledge is simply recollection, if
true, also necessarily implies a previous time in which we have learned
that which we now recollect. But this would be impossible unless our
soul had been in some place before existing in the form of man; here
then is another proof of the soul's immortality.
(Ibid. 72-73)
Socrates tells how the soul may be forgotten when a person is swayed
by the body and its senses.
And were we not saying long ago that the soul when using the body as
an instrument of perception, that is to say, when using the sense of
sight or hearing or some other sense (for the meaning of perceiving
through the body is perceiving through the senses) - were we not
saying that the soul too is then dragged by the body into the region of
the changeable, and wanders and is confused; the world spins round
her, and she is like a drunkard, when she touches change.
Very true.
But when returning into herself she reflects, then she passes into the
other world, the region of purity, and eternity, and immortality, and
unchangeableness, which are her kindred, and with them she ever lives,
when she is by herself and is not let or hindered; then she ceases from
her erring ways, and being in communion with the unchanging is
unchanging. And this state of the soul is called wisdom?
That is well and truly said, Socrates, he replied.
(Plato Phaedo 79)
Socrates points out that the body and the senses are visible and
changing while the soul is invisible and unchanging.
Then reflect,... - that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and
immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and
unchangeable; and that the body is in the very likeness of the human
and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform and dissoluble, and
changeable....
But if it be true, then is not the body liable to speedy dissolution? and is
not the soul almost or altogether indissoluble?
(Ibid. 80)
Yet all men will agree that God, and the essential form of life, and the
immortal in general, will never perish.
Yes, all men, he said - that is true; and what is more, gods, if I am not
mistaken, as well as men.
Seeing then that the immortal is indestructible, must not the soul, if she
is immortal, be also imperishable?
Most certainly.
Then when death attacks a man, the mortal portion of him may be
supposed to die, but the immortal retires at the approach of death and is
preserved safe and sound?
True.
Then, Cebes, beyond question, the soul is immortal and imperishable,
and our souls will truly exist in another world!
(Ibid. 106-107)
Now Socrates discuses how the true philosopher seeks death, by which
he means the purification of the soul from the body to reach the higher
life.
And now, 0 my judges, I desire to prove to you that the real philosopher
has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after
death he may hope to obtain the greatest good in the other world.... For I
deem that the true votary of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by
other men; they do not perceive that he is always pursuing death and
dying; and if this be so, and he has had the desire of death all his life
long, why when his time comes should he repine at that which he has
been always pursuing and desiring?...
For they have not found out either what is the nature of that death which
the true philosopher deserves, or how he deserves or desires death....
Is it not the separation of soul and body? And to be dead is the
completion of this; when the soul exists in herself, and is released from
the body and the body is released from the soul, what is this but death?...
Would you not say that he is entirely concerned with the soul and not
with the body? He would like, as far as he can, to get away from the
body and to turn to the soul.
Quite true.
In matters of this sort philosophers, above all other men, may be
observed in every sort of way to dissever the soul from the communion
of the body.
Very true.
Whereas, Simmias, the rest of the world are of opinion that to him who
has sense of pleasure and no part in bodily pleasure, life is not worth
having; and that he who is indifferent about them is as good as dead.
That is also true.
(Ibid. 63-64)
Socrates tells how the higher levels of consciousness are attained.
Then when does the soul attain truth? - for in attempting to consider
anything in company with the body she is obviously deceived.
True.
Then must not true existence be revealed to her in thought, if at all?
Yes.
And thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself and none of
these things trouble her - neither sound nor sights nor pain nor any
pleasure, - when she takes leave of the body, and has as little as
possible to do with it, when she has no bodily sense or desire, but is
aspiring after true being?
Certainly.
(Ibid. 65)
Absolute justice, absolute beauty and absolute good are not perceived
by bodily senses but by the intellectual vision of the soul.
And he attains to the purest knowledge of them who goes to each with
the mind alone, not introducing or intruding in the act of thought sight or
any other sense together with reason, but with the very light of the mind
in her own clearness searches into the very truth of each; he who has
got rid, as far as he can, of eyesores and, so to speak, of the whole
body, these being in his opinion distracting elements which when they
infect the soul hinder her from acquiring truth and knowledge - who, if
not he, is likely to attain to the knowledge of true being?
(Plato Phaedo 65-66)
Socrates explains how the soul attains the higher knowledge when it is
apart from the body which also may be achieved through soul travel.
'It has been proved to us by experience that if we would have pure
knowledge of anything we must be quit of the body - the soul in herself
must behold things in themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom
which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers; not while we
live, but after death; for if while in company with the body, the soul
cannot have pure knowledge, one of two things follows - either
knowledge is not to be attained at all, or, if at all, after death. or then, and
not till then, the soul will be parted from the body and exist in herself
alone. In this present life, I reckon that we make the nearest approach to
knowledge when we have the least possible intercourse or communion
with the body, and are not surfeited with the bodily nature, but keep
ourselves pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us.
And thus having got rid of the foolishness of the body we shall be pure
and hold converse with the pure, and know of ourselves the clear light
everywhere, which is no other than the light of truth.' For the impure are
not permitted to approach the pure.
(Ibid. 65-66)
He declares this purification of the soul from the body to be the aim of
the true philosopher.
But, 0 my friend, if this be true, there is great reason to hope that, going
where I go, when I have come to the end of my journey, I shall attain that
which has been the pursuit of my life. And therefore I go on my way
rejoicing, and not I only, but every other man who believes that his mind
has been made ready and that he is in a manner purified.
Certainly, replied Simmias.
And what is purification but the separation of the soul from the body, as I
was saying before; the habit of the soul gathering and collecting herself
into herself from all sides out of the body; the dwelling in her own place
alone, as in another life, so also in this, as far as she can; - the release of
the soul from the chains of the body?
Very true, he said.
And this separation and release of the soul from the body is termed
death?
To be sure, he said.
And the true philosophers, and they only, are ever seeking to release the
soul. Is not the separation and release of the soul from the body their
special study?
That is true.
(Ibid. 67)
Thus the initiates who are born anew into divine life in the mystery
celebration are called by Socrates "the true philosophers."
The founders of the mysteries would appear to have had a real meaning,
and were not talking nonsense when they intimated in a figure long ago
that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below
will lie in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation and
purification will dwell with the gods. For 'many,' as they say in the
mysteries, 'are the thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics,' - meaning,
as I interpret the words, 'the true philosophers.'
(Ibid. 69)
It is for the divine soul to rule and govern and the mortal body to obey
and serve. The soul must master the lower forces.
But she will calm passion, and follow reason, and dwell in the
contemplation of her, beholding the true and divine (which is not matter
of opinion), and thence deriving nourishment. Thus she seeks to live
while she lives, and after death she hopes to go to her own kindred and
to that which is like her, and to be freed from human ills.
(Plato Phaedo 84)
Socrates describes what happens to the soul when separated from the
body at death and how its immortality makes the action in life more
important as each gets its just reward or punishment.
But then, 0 my friends, he said, if the soul is really immortal, what care
should be taken of her, not only in respect of the portion of time which is
called life, but of eternity! And the danger of neglecting her from this
point of view does indeed appear to be awful. If death had only been the
end of all, the wicked would have had a good bargain in dying, for they
would have been happily quit not only of their body, but of their own evil
together with their souls. But now, inasmuch as the soul is manifestly
immortal, there is no release or salvation from evil except the attainment
of the highest virtue and wisdom. For the soul when on her progress to
the world below takes nothing with her but nurture and education; and
these are said greatly to benefit or greatly to injure the departed, at the
very beginning of his journey there.
For after death, as they say, the genius of each individual, to whom he
belonged in life, leads him to a certain place in which the dead are
gathered together, whence after judgment has been given they pass into
the world below, following the guide, who is appointed to conduct them
from this world to the other: and when they have there received their
due and remained their time, another guide brings them back again after
many revolutions of ages.
(Ibid. 107)
But the philosopher who is good and true has no fear of death.
And is it likely that the soul, which is invisible, in passing to the place of
the true Hades, which like her is invisible, and pure, and noble, and on
her way to the good and wise God, whither, if God will, my soul is also
soon to go, - that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature and origin, will be
blown away and destroyed immediately on quitting the body as the
many say? That can never be, my dear Simmias and Cebes. The truth
rather is, that the soul which is pure at departing and draws after her no
bodily taint, having never voluntarily during life had connection with the
body, which she is ever avoiding, herself gathered into herself; - and
making such abstraction her perpetual study - which means that she
has been a true disciple of philosophy; and therefore has in fact been
always engaged in the practice of dying? For is not philosophy the
study of death?
(Ibid. 80-81)
The reward of the good and pure soul is initiation into divine life.
That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world - to the
divine and immortal and rational: there arriving, she is secure of bliss
and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild
passions and all other human ills, and forever dwells, as they say of the
initiated, in company with the gods.
(Ibid. 81)
Then is the holy life remembered.
But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world; they may
have seen them for a short time only, or they may have been unfortunate
in their earthly lot, and, having had their hearts turned to injustice
through some corrupting influence, they may have lost the memory of
the holy things which once they saw. Few only retain an adequate
remembrance of them; and they when they see here any image of that
other world, are rapt in amazement; but they are ignorant of what this
rapture means, because they do not clearly perceive. For there is no
light of justice or temperance or any of the higher ideas which are
precious to souls in the earthly copies of them: they are seen through a
glass dimly; and there are few who, going to the images, behold in them
the realities, and these only with difficulty. There was a time when with
the rest of the happy band they saw beauty shining in brightness, - we
philosophers following in the train of Zeus, others in company with other
gods; and then we saw the beatific vision and were initiated into a
mystery which may be truly called most blessed, celebrated by us in our
state of innocence, before we had any experience of evils to come, when
we were admitted to the sight of apparitions innocent and simple and
calm and happy, which we saw shining in pure light, pure ourselves and
not yet enshrined in that living tomb which we carry about, now that we
are imprisoned in the body like an oyster in his shell.
(Plato Phaedrus 250)
The destiny of all souls is to return to God from where we came. Plotinus
inspires us in that direction.
Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every
Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows what I intend when I say it is
beautiful. Even the desire of it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is
for those that will take the upward path, who will set all their forces
towards it, who will divest themselves of all that we have put on in our
descent: - so, to those that approach the Holy Celebrations of the
Mysteries, there are appointed purifications and the laying aside of the
garments worn before, and the entry in nakedness - until, passing on the
upward way, all that is other than the God, each in the solitude of himself
shall see that solitary-dwelling Existence, the Apart, the Unmingled, the
Pure, that from which all things depend for Which all look and live and
act and know, the Source of Life and of Intellection and of Being.
(Plotinus First Ennead VI, 7) Copyright 1996 Sanderson Beck
The doctrine of the soul’shome in the heavens is at least as old as
Pythagoras, whom his biographer Iamblichus represnts as havingheld
that the sun and the moon were actually the Isles of the Blessed (De Vita
Pythagorica 18, 2.) For Pliny, the soul, being part of the heavens, wished
to return there (HN II, 24.95) Plutarch tells us how the sould of
Timarchus escaped the body and ascended through the spheres to the
realm of fire. There he learned that some souls who have escaped the
cycle of birth, decay and death go to the moon, where the immutable
realm begins. (De. Gen. 590-592.22)
Tantalus
Tantalus is punished in Hades by having a stone impending over him,
by being perpetually in a lake and seeing at his shoulders on either side
trees with fruit growing beside the lake. The water touches his jaws, but
when he would take a draught of it, the water dries up; and when he
would partake of the fruits, the trees with the fruits are lifted by winds as
high as the clouds. Some say that he is thus punished because he
blabbed to men the mysteries of the gods, and because he attempted to
share ambrosia with his fellows.
Telesterion
Eight tiers of seats on 4 sides divided by openings for 2 entrances each
on each of 3 sides. A total of 42 superimposed columns arranged in a
6x7 pattern supported the opaioned roof. Directly below the opaion was
a rectangular chamber.
Serving as the initiation Hall and Temple for the Eleusinian Mysteries,
the Telesterion was located on the same spot through many building
enlargements. The interior chamber housed the hiera (sacred objects)
and was known as the Anaktoron (Palace). In all renovations after the
Archaic period this area remained unaltered.
The appearance of the sanctuary at Eleusis went through many
changes at different periods in its history. In the sixth century the
sanctuary was distinguished from the city of Eleusis. The exterior
appearance with its solid unbroken wall of gray-blue stone must have
had an impressive effect on the Hellenes who would usually only see
such a color in sky or water. There was evidence also of statues having
been painted. There were many statues and friezes of the goddesses
and others, decorated with different art motifs such as a flower of eight
petals or grain. Near the Lesser Propylaia was the sacred precinct of
Plouton, the cave where, by legend, Persephone was carried off into the
underworld.
Warned in a dream not to divulge what was inside the sanctuary wall,
Pausanias finds this demand reasonable and in keeping with the silence
of these Mysteries.
The Eleusinians have a temple of Triptolemus, and another of Artemis of
the Portal and of Father Poseidon, and a well called Callichorum, where
the Eleusinian women first danced and sang in honor of the goddess.
They say that the Rarian plain was the first to be sown and the first to
bear crops, and therefore it is their custom to take the sacrificial barley
and to make the cakes for the sacrifices out of its produce. Here is
shown what is called the threshing floor of Triptolemus and the altar.
But my dream forbade me to describe what is within the wall of the
sanctuary; and surely it is clear that the uninitiated may not lawfully hear
of that from the sight of which they are debarred. The hero Eleusis, after
whom they name the city, is said by some to be a son of Hermes and of
Daira, daughter of Ocean; but others have made him the son of Ogygus.
(Pausanias I, 40:5)
Inside the main entrance of the Lesser Propylaia, serving as pillars are
huge (twice life-size) statues of goddesses, one on each side, standing
on eight-foot pedestals, and bearing the sacred baskets (kistai) which in
turn hold up the ceiling. These baskets are beautifully designed with the
three sheaves of grain and the mandala flowers predominant. Between
their breasts which show through their typically Grecian dress is a
ghost-like head of a child. This head with baby-face cheeks and
decoratively curled hair is at the focal point of the crossing straps of the
gown. (Kerenyi Eleusis p. 77) Here is concrete evidence of the child or
new birth in the Mysteries.
The final initiations took place in the Telesterion centering around the
Anaktoron. In the time of Solon this was still just a rectangular room
about seventy feet in length with an entrance at one end and the closed
off Anaktoron at the other. The Anaktoron is referred to by Homer and
here by Pausanias as the megaron.
Here, too, is what is called the hall (megaron) of Demeter: they say it was
made by King Car.
(Pausanias I, 40:15)
In the time of Peisistratos the telesterion was more than doubled in size
giving a more square-like shape. There was an outer porch with many
pillars on the perimeter and inside stairs on the perimeter of the other
three sides for standing, except for the west corner where the Anaktoron
was located.
The Anaktoron was about fifteen feet by forty-five feet with a small
entrance way for the Hierophant on the long side in its eastern corner.
There was an elaborate throne for the hierophant next to this door. This
holy of holies was to remain the same till the end though the telesterion
was to change and grow around it. The most significant new feature of
the Peisistratean telesterion was the forest of twenty-two pillars squarely
spaced in the building. The Persians destroyed this sanctuary around
480 BC. It was rebuilt in the time of Kimon lengthening the building into a
long rectangle so that the Anaktoron was in the middle of the long
southwest side . The enlarged plan of Iktinos under the rulership of
Pericles spaced out the pillars more and left the Anaktoron in the center
of a large square-shaped building with entrances on three sides and
stairs all the way around except across the doorways. A similar
structure lasted into Roman times. (Kerenyi Eleusis p. 86-87) Plutarch
gives credit to the rebuilders in his Life of Pericles.
The chapel at Eleusis, where the mysteries were celebrated, was begun
by Coroebus, who erected the pillars that stand upon the floor or
pavement, and joined them to the architraves; and after his death
Metagenes of Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of columns;
(Pericles 13)
Thesmophoria
"It is called Thesmophoria, because Demeter is called Thesmophoros in
respect of her establishing laws or thesmoi in accordance with which
men must provide nourishment and work the land."
From Notes on the Scholiast to Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans
Since the fall harvest must usually take an agricultural society through
winter, it is vitally important for survival. Whatever power provides that
bounty deserves praise. Basically, that's why we celebrate
Thanksgiving. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls in October; in the U.S., in
November. A similar festival was held in Ancient Greece, in honor of the
goddess who taught mankind to tend the soil, during a month known as
Pyanopsion (Puanepsion), according to the lunar calendar of the
Athenians. Since our calendar is solar, the month doesn't exactly match
but Pyanopsion would be, more or less, October into November.
On the 11-13 of Pyanopsion, Greek matrons took a break from their
usual homebound lives. They participated in the autumn sowing
(Sporetos) festival known as Thesmophoria. Although the practices are
a mystery, the matrons appear to have symbolically relived the anguish
of Demeter when her daughter Kore/Persephone was abducted by
Hades and to have asked for her help in obtaining a bountiful harvest.
Demeter (the Greek Ceres) was the goddess of grain who refused to eat
or feed the world until the other gods arranged a satisfactory resolution
to her conflict with Hades over Persephone. After her reunion with her
daughter, Demeter gave the gift of agriculture to mankind.
Before the festival itself, there was a preparatory nighttime festival, the
Stenia, in which women engaged in Aiskhrologia, insulting each other
and using foul language, to commemorate Iambe's successful attempts
to make the grieving mother laugh.
A long time she sat upon the stool without speaking because of her
sorrow, and greeted no one by word or by sign, but rested, never
smiling, and tasting neither food nor drink, because she pined with
longing for her deep-bosomed daughter, until careful Iambe -- who
pleased her moods in aftertime also -- moved the holy lady with many a
quip and jest to smile and laugh and cheer her heart.
Homeric Hymn to Demeter
At this time the women may also have placed the fertility objects, molded
bread, pine cones and piglets, in the snake-filled chamber called a
megaron. After the uneaten pig remains had begun to rot, the women
retrieved them and the other objects during the Thesmophoria proper.
Two days may not have been enough time for decomposition, so some
people think the fertility objects were thrown down during the Skira, a
midsummer fertility festival. However, four months may have been too
long for there to have been any remains.
The first day of the Thesmophoria itself was Anodos, the ascent. With all
the supplies they would need for two nights and three days, the women
ascended the hill, set up camp on the Thesmophorion (the hillside
sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros). They then slept on the ground
probably in two-person (Aristophanes* refers to sleeping partners) leafy
huts.
The second day of the Thesmophoria was the Nesteia (Fast) when
women fasted and mocked each other, again using the foul language
that may have been a deliberate imitation of Iambe and Demeter. They
may also have whipped each other with bark scourges.
The third day of the Thesmophoria was the Kalligeneia (Fair Offspring).
Commemorating Demeter's torchlight search for her daughter
Persephone, there was a night-time torch light ceremony. The Antletriai
(Bailers), ritually purified, descended to the megaron to remove the
decayed matter thrown down earlier: pigs, pine cones, and dough
formed in the shape of men's genitals. They clapped to scare the snakes
away and brought back the material to place on the altars for later use as
especially potent fertilizer in the sowing of seed.
*For a humorous picture of the religious festival, read Aristophanes'
comedy about a man who tries to infiltrate the women-only festival,
Thesmophoriazusae.
On this lake it is that the Egyptians represent by night his sufferings
whose name I refrain from mentioning, and this representation they call
their Mysteries. I know well the whole course of the proceedings in these
ceremonies, but they shall not pass my lips. So too, with regard to the
mysteries of Demeter, which the Greek term "the Thesmophoria," I know
them, but I shall not mention them, except so far as may be done without
impiety. The daughters of Danaus brought these rites from Egypt, and
taught them to the Pelasgic women of the Peloponnese. Afterward,
when the inhabitants of the peninsula were driven from their homes by
the Dorians, the rites perished. Only in Arcadia, where the natives
remained and were not compelled to migrate, their observance
continued.
(The History II, 171)
The Mysteries are probably not one of the oldest Demeter festival. The
main argument for the origin of the Mysteries in the Bronze Age is based
on remains of a Mycenaean building that lies under the Telesterion.
However, even if these remains served a cult, there is no guarantee that
the earlier cult was the same. In fact, a recent study of the evidence
concluded that these remains most likely did not belong to a proto-
Telesterion. At most, some of the remains may attest that a cult existed
on the site in the Bronze Age, perhaps a cult of Demeter, but they offer
no compelling evidence for a festival such as the Mysteria.
…Martin Nillsson called the Thesmophoria “by far the most widespread
of all Greek festivals.” It was also celebrated at Eleusis. Its early
universality and its nature suggest an institution of considerable
antiquity. The Eleusinian Mysteries, on the other hand, are unique in the
Greek world, especially down through the Classical period. Their
uniqueness, in contrast to widespread Demeter festivals like the
thesmophoria, urges us to consider seriously the questions whether
they are a more recent innovation.”
The Thesmophoria was an autumn festival, celebrated by women alone
in October, and appears to have represented with mourning rites the
descent of Proserpine (or Demeter) into the lower world, and with joy her
return from the dead. Hence the name Descent or Ascent variously
applied to the first, and the name Kalligeneia (fair-born) applied to the
third day of the festival...The Scholiast tells us that it was customary at
the Thesmophoria to throw pigs, cakes of dough, and branches of pine-
trees into Athe chasms of Demeter and Proserpine@ which appear to
have been sacred caverns or vaults. In these caverns or vaults there
were said to be serpents, which guarded the caverns and consumed
most of the flesh of the pigs and dough-cakes which were thrown in.
Afterwards - apparently at the next annual festival - the decayed remains
of the pigs, the cakes, and the pine-branches were fetched by women
called Adrawers@ who, after observing rules of ceremonial purity for
there days, descended into the caverns, and frightening away the
serpents by clapping their hands, brought up the remains and placed
them on the altar. Whoever got a piece of the decayed flesh and cakes,
and sowed it with the seed-corn in his field, was believed to be sure of a
good crop.
To explain this rude and ancient rite the following legend was told. At
the moment that Pluto carried off Proserpine, a swineherd called
Eubuleus was herding his swine on the spot, and his herd was engulfed
in the chasm down which Pluto vanished with Proserpine. Accordingly,
at the Thesmophoria, pigs were annually thrown into caverns in order to
commemorate the disappearance of the swine of Eubuleus. If follows
from this that the casting of the pigs into the vaults at the Thesmophoria
formed part of the dramatic representation of Proserpine=s descent into
the lower world;; and as no image of Proserpine appears to have been
thrown in, it follows that the descent of the pigs must have been, not an
accompaniment of her descent, but the descent itself; in short, the pigs
were Proserpine.
The Stemia on the 7th of Pyanepsion, the month after Boedromion, was
the last festival before the Thesmophoria when the women ate the
pomegranate seeds and probably was concerned with the mother's visit
to her daughter in the underworld. (Kerenyi Eleusis p. 149-150) The
sexual symbolism of the pomegranate finds elaboration in Athenaeus'
discussion of mylloi..
Heracleides of Syracuse in his work On Institutions says that in
Syracuse, on the Day of Consummation at the Thesmophoria, cakes of
sesame and honey were molded in the shape of the female pudenda,
and called throughout the whole of Sicily mylloi and carried about in
honor of the goddesses.
(The Deipnosophists XIV, 646f)
Nilsson recounts how in a fertility ritual connected to the Thesmophoria
during threshing pigs were thrown into subterranean hollows, and the
putrefied remains were brought back up at the autumn Thesmophoria
festival of sowing, laid on altars, and mixed with seed corn as a fertility
charm. The swine was the animal sacred to Demeter, and pigs were
sacrificed prior to initiation. Figures of swine are found at Eleusis. (Greek
Folk Religion p. 49) Pausanias also relates this ritual to Demeter and
Persephone.
When you have crossed the Asopus and are just ten furlongs from the
city you come to the ruins of Potniae. Amongst them is a grove of
Demeter and the Maid, The images at the river which flows past Potniae
... they name the goddesses. At a stated time they perform certain
customary ceremonies: in particular they throw sucking pigs into what
they call the hallsy and they say that at the same time next year those
pigs appear at Dodona.
(Pausanias IX, 8:1)
Throne
However, the discovery and restoration of the Hierophant=s throne,
which was of the utmost importance for the reconstruction of the most
secret ceremony was the work of Travlos and was not sufficiently taken
into account by Mylonas.
They are acting just like the celebrants of the Corybantic rites, when
they perform the enthronement of the person whom they are about to
initiate. There, as you know, if you have been through it, they have
dancing and merrymaking;
Also of Cretan origin was the act in Onomakritos= dramatic composition
that preceded the slaying and dismembering of the scarcely born Divine
Child. In this act, according to the Orphic conception, Dionysos
appeared whole for the last time as the ruler of our age of the world.
At the heart of this act is a scene corresponding to a rite of initiation
known to us in other contexts: the thronosis or thronismos, the
enthronement. In late antiquity Crete was still said to be threskeuousa
thronosin, practicing the rite of enthronement as a cult. Homer
characterizes Minos, in his function of judge of the dead, as seated and
holding his scepter in his hand while the others most
uncharacteristically sit or stand. The throne itself is not of particular
importance to the Greek poet, but in the centuries that had passed since
the Minoan culture no one had forgotten the motif of the king sitting on
his throne. The prominent part in the throne room where the ceremonial
sitting occurred is known to us from the palaces of Knossos and Pylos.
The worship of gods in the cult of thronosis mean more than the offering
of a chair or throne, which often occurred in Greek temples as a sign of
hospitality to the god. The thronosis was a special festive act in which
the god or his representative was paled on a chair standing by itself. If
one looks closely at the painting on a calyx krater of the Classical
period, one sees that precisely this is being done with a frail human
figure in the role of Dionysos. The thronosis is explicitly said to be the
first act of what happened to the myoumenoi, the participants in an
initiation. Todd: how would this relate to Aboy of the hearth.@?
Triptolemos
The attributes of Triptolemos: A vehicle is his most important attribute
in Attic art. It is like a wagon, but it frequently looks merely like a seat
with wheels; it is often winged, often accompanied by snakes, but in a
couple of instances Triptolemos sits simply in a winged chair.” (Note:
why would Triptolemos appear before the judges of the dead, to plead
Persephone’s case?)
“In five Apulian red-figure scenes Triptolemos has his familiar snake-
wagon (in one case winged.) Four other Apulian scenes show the
Judges of the Dean in the Underworld. Triptolemos appears at least
once and quite possibly in all four.”
It is said, then, that when Demeter came to Argos she was received by
Pelasgus into his home, and the Chrysanthis, knowing about the rape of
the Maid, related the story to her. Afterwards Trochilus, the priest of the
Mysteries, fled, they say, from Argos because of the enmity of Agenor,
came to Attica and married a woman of Eleusis, by whom he had two
children, Eubuleus and Triptolemos. That is the account given by the
Argives. But the Athenians and those who with them . . . know that
Triptolemos, son of Celeus, was the first to sow seed for cultivation.
Historians of the earliest period of Patrai say Eumelos, an aboriginal son
of the soil, was the first to settle in this country, where he was king of a
few people. But Triptolemos came here from Attica and Eumelos
obtained cultivated crops from him and learnt how to build; he called his
city Ploughland after the cultivation of the earth. But when Triptolemos
went to sleep, they say Eumelos= son Antheas yoked up Triptolemos=
flying serpents to the chariot and tried to sow on his own; he fell out and
was killed, and Triptolemos and Eumelos built the city of Antheia
together, named after Eumelos= son.
A consciousness of the intimate connection of the pig with the corn
lurks in the tradition that the swineherd Eubuleus was a brother of
Triptolemos, to whom Demeter first imparted the secret of the corn.
Indeed, according to one version of the story, Eubuleus himself
received, jointly with his brother Triptolemos, the gift of the corn from
Demeter as a reward for revealing to her the fate of Proserpine.
(Pausanias, I, 14, 3.)
What I say is supported by the testimony of Sophocles, the tragic poet,
in his drama entitled Triptolemus ; for he there represents Demeter as
informing Triptolemus how large a tract of land he would have to travel
over while sowing it with the seeds he had given him.
(Roman Antiquities I, 12)
Ovid says this:
Here she gave her fleet car to Triptolemus, and bade him scatter the
seed of grain she gave, part in the untilled earth and part in fields that
had long lain fallow.... "My country is far-famed Athens; Triptolemus, my
name. I came neither by ship over the sea, nor on foot by land; the air
opened a path for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, if you sprinkle
them over your wide field, will give a fruitful harvest and food not wild."
(Metamorphoses V, 645-647, 652-656)
Xenophon argues for peace between Athens and those to whom
Triptolemus first granted Demeter's two main gifts: the mystic rites and
the grain.
The right course, indeed, would have been for us not to take up arms
against one another in the beginning, since the tradition is that the first
strangers to whom Triptolemus, our ancestor, revealed the mystic rites
of Demeter and Kore were Heracles, your state's founder, and the
Dioscuri, your citizens; and further, that it was upon Peloponnesus that
he first bestowed the seed of Demeter's fruit.
(Hellenica VI, 3)
Pausanias is warned in a dream from describing the sanctuary at
Athens, though he does describe what pertains to Triptolemus, which
could indicate that his role was not part of the secret doctrine. He also
mentions Epimenides, a Cretan mystic of the sixth century BC.
Above the fountain are temples: one of them is a temple of Demeter and
the Maid (Kore), in the other there is an image of Triptolemus. I will tell
the story of Triptolemus, omitting what relates to Deiope, Of all the
Greeks it is the Argives who must dispute the claim of the Athenians to
antiquity and to the possession of gifts of the gods, just as among the
barbarians it is the Egyptians who dispute the claims of the Phrygians.
The story runs that when Demeter came to Argos, Pelasgus received her
in his house, and that Chrysanthis, knowing the rape of the Maid told it
to her. They say that afterwards Trochilus, a priest of the mysteries, fled
from Argos on account of the enmity of Agenor, and came to Attica,
where he married an Eleusinian wife, and there were born to him two
sons, Eubuleus and Triptolemus. This is the Argive story. But the
Athenians and those who take their side know that Triptolemus the son
of Celeus was the first who sowed cultivated grain. However, some
verses of Musaeus (if his they are) declare Triptolemus to be a child of
Ocean and Earth; while other verses, which are attributed, in my
opinion, with just as little reason, to Orpheus, assert that Eubuleus and
Triptolemus were sons of Dysaules, and that, as a reward for the
information they gave her about her daughter, Demeter allowed them to
sow the grain. Choerilus the Athenian, in a drama called Alope says that
Cercyon and Triptolemus were brothers, that their mother was a
daughter of Amphictyon, but that the father of Triptolemus was Rarus,
and that the father of Cercyon was Poseidon. I purposed to pursue the
subject, and describe all the objects that admit of description in the
sanctuary at Athens called the Eleusinium, but I was prevented from so
doing by a vision in a dream. I will therefore turn to what may be lawfully
told to everybody, In front of this temple, in which is the image of
Triptolemus, stands a bronze ox as in the act of being led to sacrifice;
and Epimenides the Cnosian is portrayed sitting, of whom they say that
going into the country he entered a cave and slept, and did not awake
until forty years had come and gone, and afterwards he made verses
and purified cities, Athens among the rest.
(Pausanias I, 14:1-3)
Underworld
At Eleusis flows the Cephisus, a more impetuous stream than the
Cephisus mentioned before. Beside it is a place which they call Erineus.
They say that Pluto, when he carried off the Maid, descended here.
(Pausanias Description of Greece I, 38:5)
Having returned to the direct road, you will cross the Erasinus and come
to the Chimarrhus river. Near it is an enclosure of stones: they say that
when Pluto, as the story goes, ravished Demeter's daughter, the Maid,
he here descended to his supposed subterranean realm. Lerna is, as I
said before, beside the sea, and they celebrate mysteries here in honor
of Lernaean Demeter.
(Pausanias II, 36:7)
The attributes of Triptolemos: A vehicle is his most important attribute
in Attic art. It is like a wagon, but it frequently looks merely like a seat
with wheels; it is often winged, often accompanied by snakes, but in a
couple of instances Triptolemos sits simply in a winged chair.” (Note:
why would Triptolemos appear before the judges of the dead, to plead
Persephone’s case?)
A scholion to Aristophanes’ Knights mentions the ( x Petra) just after
describing the (Eleusinian Petra) which seems to be a cliff (or a large
rock jutting out of the sea) on Salamis. The scholion describes it as
follows: “There is also the so-called (x Petra) among the Athenians,
where they say Theseus sat as he was about to descend to Hades:
from which the Rock got its name, or because Demeter sat there
weeping when she was searching for Kore.”
One of the cave’s important physical features tends to confirm what the
inscriptions and reliefs found there have suggested, that the cave was
believed to be an entrance to the Underworld. The French excavated a
narrow inner cave about 5 meters deep, which proved very difficult to
penetrate. At the far end they found sacrificial remains of oxen and
sheep along with traces of carbon. This inner cave, which is little
known, obviously had religious significance, and it is hard to imagine
what else this significance might be than that of an opening to the
Underworld.
The first region of Tartarus contains the cheerless Asphodel Fields,
where souls of heroes stay without purpose among the throngs of less
distinguished dead that twitter like bats, and where only Orion still has
the heart to hunt the ghostly deer. None of them but would rather live in
bondage to a landless peasant than rule over all Tartarus. Their one
delight is in libations of blood poured to them by the living: when they
drink they feel themselves almost men again; Beyond these meadows
lie Erebus and the palace of Hades and Persephone. To the left of the
palace, as one approaches it, a white cypress shades the pool of Lethe,
where the common ghosts flock down to drink Initiated souls avoid this
water, choosing to drink instead from a pool of Memory, shaded by a
white poplar which gives them a certain advantage over their fellows.
Close by, newly arrived ghosts are daily judged by Minos,
Rhadamanthys, and Aeacus at a place where three roads meet.
Rhadamanthys tries Asiatics and Aecus tries Europeans; but both refer
the difficult cases to Minos. As each verdict is given the ghosts are
directed along one of the three roads; that leading back the to Asphodel
Meadows, if they are neither virtuous nor evil; that leading to the
punishment field of Tartarus, if they are evil; that leaving to the orchards
of Elysium, if they are virtuous.
Elysium, ruled over by Cronus, lies near Hade=s dominions, its entrance
close to the pool of Memory, but forms no part of them; it is a happy land
of perpetual day, without cold or snow, where games, music and revels
never cease, and where the inhabitants may elect to be reborn on earth
whenever they please. Near by are the Fortunate Islands, reserved for
those who have been three times born, and three times attained
Elysium. Bust some say that there is another Fortunate Isle called
Leuce in the Black Sea, opposite the mouths of the Danube, wooded
and full of beasts, wild and tame, where the ghosts of Helen and Achilles
hold high revelry and declaim Homer=s verse to heroes who have taken
part in the events celebrated by him.
Elysium seems to mean Aapple land@ alisier is a pre-Gallic word for
sorb-apple.
Styx (Ahated@), a small stream in Arcadia, the waters of which were
supposed to be deadly poison, was located in Tartarus only by late
mythographers. Acheron (Astream of woe@) and Cocytus (Awailing@)
are fanciful names to describe the misery of death. Aornis (Abirdless@)
is a Greek mistranslation of the Italic AAvernus@. Lethe means
Aforgetfulness@; and Erebus Acovered.@ Phlegethon (Aburning@)
refers to the custom of cremation but also, perhaps, to the theory that
sinners were burned in streams of lava. Tartarus seems to be a
reduplication of the pre-Hellenic word tar which occurs in the names of
places lying to the West; its sense of infernality comes later.
Socrates: Liefer were I in the fields up above to be serf to another
Tiller of some poor plot which yields him a scanty subsistence,
Than to be ruler and king over all the dead who have perished.
Admetus: O noble son of mighty Zeus, may good fortune attend you,
and may the father who begot you preserve your life! For you alone
have raised up my fortunes. How did you bring her up form below to the
light of day?
Herakles: I fought the divinity who controlled her.
Admetus: Where, say you, did you join this battle with Death?
Herakles: Lying in wait hard by the tomb, I seized him with my arms.
Admetus: But why on earth does she stand silent?
Herakles: You are not allowed to hear her speak to you, not until she
becomes purified in the sight of the nether gods when the third day
comes. But take her in. Continue, Admetus, to show your guests the
piety of a righteous man. And now farewell.
His (Gelon=s) descendants in time became and continue to be priests of
the goddesses of the underworld; this office had been won, as I will
show, by Telines, one of their forefathers. There were certain Geloans
who had been worsted in party strife and had been banished to the town
of Mactorium, inland of Gela.
These men Telines brought to Gela with no force of men but only the
holy instruments of the goddesses worship to aid him. From where he
got these, and whether or not they were his own invention, I cannot say,
however that may be, it was in reliance upon them that he restored the
exiles, on the condition that his descendants should be ministering
priests of the goddesses.
(Circe speaks) Odysseus of many devices...you must first complete
another journey, and come to the house of Hades and dread
Persephone, to seek soothsaying of the spirit of Theban Teiresias, the
blind seer, whose mind abides steadfast. To him even in death
Persephone has granted reason, that he alone should have
understanding; but the others flit about as shadows.@
ASo I spoke, and the beautiful goddess straightaway made answer:
ASon of Laertes, sprung from Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, let there
be in thy mind no concern for a pilot to guide they ship, but set up thy
mast, and spread the white sail, and sit thee down; and the breath of the
North Wind well bear her onward. But when in thy ship thou has now
crossed the stream of Oceanus, where is a level shore and the groves of
Persephone - tall poplars, and willows that shed their fruit -- there do
thou beach they ship by the deep eddying Oceanus, but go thyself to
the dank house of Hades. There into Acheron flow Periphlegethon and
Cocytus, which is a branch of the water of the Styx; and there is a rock,
and the meeting place of the two roaring rivers. Thither, prince, do thou
draw nigh, as I bid thee, and dig a pit of a cubit=s length this way and
that, and around it pour a libation to all the dead, first with mild and
honey, thereafter with sweet wine, and in the third place with water, and
sprinkle thereon white barley meal. And do thou earnestly entreat the
powerless heads of the dead, vowing that when thou comest to Ithaca
thou will sacrifice in thy halls a barren heifer, the best thou hast, and wilt
fill the altar with rich gifts; and that to Teiresias alone thou wilt sacrifice
separately a ram, wholly black, the goodliest of they flock. But when
with prayers thou hast made supplication to the glorious tribes of the
dead, then sacrifice a ram and a black ewe, turning their heads toward
Erebus but thyself turning backward, and setting they face towards the
streams of the river. Then many ghosts of men that are dead will come
forth. But do thou thereafter call to thy comrades. And bid them flay and
burn the sheep that lie there, slain by the pitiless bronze, and make
prayer to the gods, to mighty Hades and to dread Persephone. And do
thou thyself draw thy sharp sword from beside thy thigh, and sit there,
not suffering the powerless heads of the dead to draw near to the blood,
til thou has enquired of Teiresias. Then the seer will presently come to
thee, leader of men, and he will tell thee thy way and the measures of thy
path, and thy return, how thou mayest go over the teeming deep.@
And if unto the dead thou art fain to do good, or if thou wouldst work
them ill - tis all one, since they feel not or joy or grief. Nevertheless our
righteous resentment is mightier than they, and Justice executeth the
dead man=s wrath. (Elsewhere Aeschylus declared that the dead
possess consciousness and are wroth with those who have done them
injury (Libation-Bearers 324, 41.) Here, where Hermes has in mind the
outrage done by Achilles to Hector=s corpse, his utterance is intended
to console Priam and rebuke Achilles with the though that, though, the
dead are insensible and cannot avenge themselves, their cause is in the
divine keeping. It is the gods alone who have the power to do that
which is commonly ascribed to the spirits of the dead.)
Among the sights of Thesprotia is Zeus= sanctuary at Dodona with the
sacred oak tree of the god. Near Kichyros lie an Acherosian lake and a
river Acheron, and the detestable stream Kokytos. I think Homer must
have seen the region and in his very daring poetry about Hades taken
the names of rivers from the rivers in Thesprotia.
On returning to the straight road, you will cross the Erasinus and reach
the river Cheimarrus (Winter-torrent). Near it is a circuit of stones, and
they say that Pluto, after carrying off, according to the story, Core, the
daughter of Demeter descended here to his fabled kingdom
underground. Lerna is, I have already stated, by the sea, and here they
celebrate mysteries in honor of Lernaean Demeter.
The other side of the course is not a bank of earth but a low hill. At the
foot of the hill has been built a sanctuary to Demeter surnamed
Chamyne. Some are of the opinion that the name is old, signifying that
here the earth gaped for the chariot of Hades and then closed up once
more.
The specific fancy of a hell of mud is usually called AOrphic@ on the not
very impressive authority of Olympiodorus. Aristides attributes is to
Eleusis. At some point in its development it was interpreted as the
appropriate punishment of the uninitiated or Aunclean@; this might be
the contribution of Eleusis or of the Orphics or of both.
So when the Athenians, and under their leadership the whole of Greece,
took over Eleusis, they fused the old idea of immortality, connected with
the cult of Demeter and her daughter, with Homer=s teaching about
Elysium. The thin, barely conscious existence of the Homeric shade
remained the lot of the ordinary man after death. Now however the
ordinary man was the uninitiated, and Elysium was removed from the
surface of the earth, and made into a part of the realm of the dead, and
its privileges reserved, not for the relatives-by-marriage of Zeus, but for
the initiated.
The original belief of the Eleusinian religion, as of its Cretan forebears
and its Thracian relations, must have been in an immortality dependent
on some form of union as son of the divinity. The two ideas are not
separate, for in human families in Greece the solemn adoption of a child
was represent as rebirth from the womb of his new mother. Later writers
speak of those initiated in certain mysteries (not the Eleusinian) as
Areborn,@ and this phrase was also applied to adopted children. Some
have held that the final ceremony at Eleusis actually contained a rite
symbolically enacting the rebirth of the initiate from the womb of
Demeter. This, though possible, must be held to be not proven.
Judging from these various sources, the Orphic beliefs seem to have
been somewhat as follows. At death our souls go to Hades, the road to
which, as Socrates says in the myths of the Phaedo and Gorgias, is not
simple but forked. Similarly in the Republic we learn that the just are
allowed to take the road to the right whereas the unjust are sent to the
left. This is strikingly matched by the verses on the gold plates in which
the soul is greeted the words: AHail, hail to thee journeying the right-
hand road, to holy meadows and groves of Persephone.@ It is also
given the following instructions: AThou shall find to the left of the
house of Hades a spring, and by the side of it standing a white cypress.
To this spring approach not near. But thou shalt find another, form the
lake of Memory cold water flowing forth, and there are guardians before
it. Say, AI am a child of Earth and starry Heaven. This ye know
yourselves. But I am parched with thirst and I perish. Give me quickly
the cold water flowing forth from the Lake of Memory.@ And of
themselves they will give thee to drink of the holy spring, and thereafter
among the other heroes thou shalt have lordship.@ In Plato=s Myth of
Er, all souls destined for reincarnation are made to drink a certain
amount of the water of Lethe to make them forget their experiences in
the other world. Those who are wise avoid drinking too much, but this
is difficult, since they have just come through the stifling heat of the
barren plain of Lethe. Naturally the soul of the Orphic is considered to
have achieved its final incarnation, and will return no more to a body.
Consequently it must avoid drinking of Lethe altogether. As it is made to
say, AI have flown out of the sorrowful wary circle.@ (Todd, if the
initiates saw a great fire, felt heat, had fasted, had only the kykeon -
which would be a refreshment - ran through a maze, couldn=t they have
as part of their initiation, a way of refusing the refreshment of the waters
and that this would then tie into the final pouring of wine, as a reminder
of its importance?)
The whole process of the wary circle was something like this. A soul
dies and is judged, and according to its deserts is assigned a place of
punishment or happiness. Whichever it is, the sojourn there is
temporary. After a lapse of time which together with its previously
earthly life completes a period of a thousand years, it is prepared for
another life on earth.
There is also in the painting a jar, and an old man, with a boy and two
women. One of these, who is young, is under the rock; the other is
beside the old man and of a like age to his. The others are carrying
water, but you will guess that the old woman=s water-jar is broken. All
that remains of the water in the sherd she is pouring out again into the
jar. We inferred that these people too were of those who had held of no
account the rites at Eleusis. For the Greeks of an earlier period looked
upon the Eleusinian mysteries as being as much higher than all other
religious acts as gods are higher than heroes.
Beyond Kallisto and the women with her is the shape of a cliff, with
Sisyphos son of Aiolos struggling to heave his rock up to the top. There
is also a great jar in the painting, an old man, a boy, and some women, a
young one under the rock and an old one beside the old man. Most of
them are carrying water, but you can see that the old woman=s pot is
broken, and whatever water was left in it is pouring back into the great
jar. I concluded that these people as well despised the rites at Eleusis;
in earlier times the Greeks paid more honor to the Eleusinian mystery
than to any other kind of piety whatever, in just the same way as they
put gods before heros.
VIRGO
There are numerous other stories concerning this constellation. Some
say it id Demeter because of the sheaf of grain that she holds.
Pseudo-Eratosthenes, The Constellations, 9.
Others say she is Fortuna, others Ceres; between the two, the latter is
less likely because her head is very obscure. Many say she is Erigone,
the daughter of Icarius, about who we spoke earlier (2.4) Others say is is
Apollo’s daughter by Chrysothemis, who as an infant was called
parthenos and who, because she died young, was placed by Apollo
among the stars.
Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy, 2.25.
The spherical device for measuring the revolutions of the sun, moon,
and planets round the zodiac is certainly a product of later times, but the
interpretation of the horoscope is cosmic and the same in all ages. The
eclipse of the moon caused by the earth blocking the sun's light is
portentous for the mother, the feminine principle and domestic life. Its
darkness when it should be full is symbolic of Persephone's prominent
and sudden venture to the underworld and the shadowing over the
mother. The "sunset house" is the twelfth portion of the sky over the
western horizon and is called the seventh house, indicating marriage
and partnership. Naturally Asterion found Mars there, the planet of sex,
boldness, heat, force, and strong action. Its conjunction with Venus, the
planet of love and harmony, can mean a rash, intense, adventurous,
harmonious marriage. Jupiter, the benevolent and expansive planet, in
Virgo in the "Portion of the Parents" (fourth house) means great benefit
to the parents through the products of the earth. Apparently Jupiter was
very close to the star symbolizing the ear of corn, indicating Demeter's
gift of the grain.
War Games
When the Eleusinians fought with the Athenians, Erechtheus, king of the
Athenians, was killed, as was also Immaradus, son of Eumolpus. These
were the terms on which they concluded the war: the Eleusinians were
to have independent control of the mysteries, but in all things else were
to be subject to the Athenians. The ministers of the Two Goddesses
were Eumolpus and the daughters of Celeus whom Pamphos and
Homer agree in naming Diogenia, Pammerope, and the third Saesara.
Eumolpus was survived by Ceryx, the younger of his sons whom the
Ceryces themselves say was a son of Aglaurus, daughter of Cecrops,
and of Hermes, not of Eumolpus.
In order that his first cries might not be heard by his father, certain
daimones of Crete called Kuretes danced around him their war dance,
clashing their shields and spears together. This is clearly referred to by
the maenads of Euripides Bacchae, who in the wildly mingled strains of
one of their choruses sing (lines 119-125)
O lair of the Kuretes, holy haunts of Crete that saw the birth of Zeus,
where in they caves the triple-crested Korybantes invented this my
circle of stretched hide.
Tisamenus, the Elean, had prophesied to Pausanias and all the Greeks,
and foretold them victory if they made no attempt upon the enemy, but
stood on their defense. But Aristides sending to Delphi, the god
answered that the Athenians should overcome their enemies in case
they made supplication to Zeus and Hera of Cithaeron, Pan and the
nymphs Shragitides, and sacrificed to the heroes Androcrates, Leucon,
Pisander, Damocrates, Hypsion, Actaeon, and Polyidus; and if they
fought within their own territories in the plain of Demeter Eleusinia and
Persephone....
But the plain of Demeter Eleusinia, and the offer of victory to the
Athenians, if they fought on their own territories, recalled them again,
and transferred the war into the country of Attica. In this juncture,
Arimnestus, who commanded the Plataeans, dreamed that Zeus, the
Savior, asked him what the Greeks had resolved upon; and that he
answered, "Tomorrow, my Lord, we march our army to Eleusis, and
there give the barbarians battle according to the directions of the oracle
of Apollo."
(Plutarch Aristides 12)
Herodotus gives two accounts of the mystical events before and during
the battle which took place on the same day as the Mysteries were due
to be celebrated (around September 23 on our calendar) in the year 480
BC.
The following is a tale which was told by Dicaeus, the son of Theocydes,
an Athenian, who was at this time in exile and had gained a good report
among the Medes. He declared that after the army of Xerxes had, in the
absence of the Athenians, wasted Attica, he chanced to be with
Demaratus, the Lacedaemonian in the Thriasian plain, and that while
there, he saw a cloud of dust advancing from Eleusis, such as a host of
thirty thousand men might raise. As he and his companion were
wondering who the men, from whom the dust arose, could possibly be,
a sound of voices reached his ear, and he thought that he recognized
the mystic hymn to Bacchus, Now Demaratus was unacquainted with
the rites of Eleusis, and so he inquired of Dicaeus what the voices were
saying. Dicaeus made answer -
O Demaratus! beyond a doubt some mighty calamity is about to befall
the king's army! For it is manifest, inasmuch as Attica is deserted by its
inhabitants, that the sound which we have heard is an unearthly one
and is now upon its way from Eleusis to aid the Athenians and their
confederates. If it descends upon the Peloponnese, danger will threaten
the king himself and his land army - if it moves towards the ships at
Salamis, 'twill go hard but the king's fleet there suffers destruction.
Every year the Athenians celebrate this feast to the Mother and the
Daughter; and all who wish, whether they be Athenians or any other
Greeks, are initiated. The sound thou hearest is the Bacchic song, which
is wont to be sung at that festival.
"Hush now," rejoined the other; "and see thou tell no man of this matter.
For if thy words be brought to the king's ear, thou wilt assuredly lose thy
head because of them; neither I nor any man living can save thee. Hold
thy peace therefore. The gods will see to the king's army." Thus
Demaratus counseled him; and they looked, and saw the dust, from
which the sound arose, become a cloud, and the cloud rise up into the
air and sail away to Salamis, making for the station of the Grecian fleet.
Then they knew it was the fleet of Xerxes which would suffer
destruction. Such was the tale told by Dicaeus the son of Theocydes;
and he appealed for its truth to Demaratus and other eye-witnesses.
(Herodotus VIII, 65)
The Persians, as soon as they were put to flight by the Lacedaemonians,
ran hastily away, without preserving any order, and took refuge in their
own camp, within the wooden defense which they had raised in the
Theban territory. It is a marvel to me how it came to pass, that although
the battle was fought quite close to the grove of Demeter, yet not a
single Persian appears to have died on the sacred soil, nor even to have
set foot upon it, while round about the precinct, in the unconsecrated
ground, great numbers perished. I imagine - if it is lawful, in matters
which concern the gods, to imagine anything - that the goddess herself
kept them out, because they had burnt her dwelling at Eleusis. Such,
then, was the issue of this battle.
(Herodotus IX, 65)
Plutarch also records how Themistocles who was in love with the same
woman as Aristides, manages to carry off the battle foreseen by the
oracle.
It is reported that, in the middle of the fight, a great flame rose into the air
above the city of Eleusis, and that sounds and voices were heard
through all the Thriasian plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number
of men accompanying and escorting the mystic Iacchus, and that a mist
seemed to form and rise from the place from whence the sounds came,
and, passing forward, fell upon the galleys. Others believed that they
saw apparitions, in the shape of armed men, reaching out their hands
from the island of Aegina before Grecian galleys; and supposed they
were the Aeacidae, whom they had invoked to their aid before the battle.
The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain of
the galley, who cut down its ensign, and dedicated it to Apollo the Laurel-
crowned. And as the Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and
could bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one another, the
Greeks thus equaled them in strength and fought with them till the
evening forced them back, and obtained, as says Simonides, that noble
and famous victory, than which neither amongst the Greek nor
barbarians was ever known more glorious exploit on the seas; by the
joint valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom and
sagacity of Themistocles.
(Plutarch Themistocles 15)
Women
Erich Neumann=s formulation: AThe woman experiences herself first
and foremost as the source of life@ is meaningful also from the
standpoint of the hermeneutics of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Zagreus
Zeus secretly begot his son Zagreus on Persephone, before she was
taken to the Underworld by her uncle Hades. He set Rhea=s sons, the
Cretan Curetes, or some say, the Corybantes, to guard his cradle in the
Idaen Cave, where they leaped about him, clashing their weapons, as
they had leaped about Zeus himself at Dicte. But the Titans, Zeus=s
enemies, whitening themselves with gypsum until they were
unrecognizable, waited until the Curetes slept. At midnight they lured
Zagreus away, by offering him such childish toys as a cone, a bull-
roarer, golden apples, a mirror, a knuckle-bone, and a tuft of wool.
Zagreus showed several transformations in an attempt to delude them:
he became successively Zeus in a goat-skin coat, Cronus making rain, a
lion, a horse, a horned serpent, a tiger, and a bull. At that point the
Titans seized him firmly by the horns and feet, tore him apart with their
teeth, and devoured his flesh raw.
Athena interrupted this grisly banquet before its end and, rescuing
Zagreus=s heart, enclosed it in a gypsum figure, into which she
breathed life; so that Zagreus became an immortal. His bones were
collected and buried at Delphi and Zeus struck the Titans dead with
thunderbolts.
1. This myth concerns the annual sacrifice of a boy which took place
in ancient Crete: a surrogate for Minos the Bull-King. He reigned for a
single day, went through a dance illustrative of the five seasons - lion,
goat, horse, serpent and bull-calf - and then was eaten raw. All the toys
with which the titans lured him away were objects used by the
philosophical Orphics, who inherited the tradition of this sacrifice but
devoured a bull-calf raw, instead of a boy. The bull-roarer was a pierced
stone or piece of pottery, which when whirled at the end of a cord made
a noise like a rising gale; and the tuft of wool may have been used to
daub the Curetes with the wet gypsum - these being youths who had cut
and dedicated their first hair to the goddess Car. They were also called
Corybantes, or crested dancers. Zagreus= other gifts served to explain
the nature of the ceremony by which the participant became one with
the god: the cone was an ancient emblem of the goddess, in whose
honor the Titans sacrificed him; the mirror represented each initiate=s
other self, or ghost; the golden apples, his passport to Elysium after a
mock-death; the knuckle bone, his divinatory powers.
Stories about a mythical murder that did not however end with the total
destruction of the slain child - a murder that was hinted at in the rite of
initiation - have been preserved from the sphere of the Samothracian
mysteries. The story told by Clement of Alexandria of the three
Korybantes of Thessalonike, the two elder of whom killed the youngest,
is an example. The murderers wrapped the severed head in a purple
garment, put a wreath on it, and bore it on a bronze shield to the foot of
Mt. Olympus - perhaps because this was the birthplace of Orpheus, who,
with the exception of its head which went on singing, was torn to pieces
by women like a second Dionysos. According to our Christian source,
the same two brothers carried the pagan secrets unveiled, the phallus
and with it the Dionysian religion, in a basket to the Etruscans...The
murder of the Divine Child was his reduction to an organ from which - or
as which - he could be reawakened. The murder was prerequisite to the
reawakening.
AHe did not long occupy the throne of Zeus,@ writes Nonnos of
Persephone=s just born child, whom he calls Zagreus. AHera in her
anger moved the Titans, their faces whitened with plaster, to kill him with
infernal knives while he was looking at his reflection in the mirror.@
Zeus
Here are placed votive offerings, including a wooden image of Zeus
which has two eyes in the natural place and a third on its forehead . . .
The reason for its three eyes one might infer to be this. That Zeus is king
in heaven is a saying common to all men. As for him who is said to rule
under the earth, there is a verse of Homer which calls him, too, Zeus:
AZeus of the underworld, and the August Persephonea@ The god in the
sea also, is called Zeus by Aeschylus, the son of Euphorion. So
whoever made the image made it with three eyes, as signifying that this
same god rules in all the three Aallotments@ of the Universe, as they are
called.
But when all his desire was fulfilled, and nothing that he required was
still undone, the Zeus of the Underworld sent forth his thunder, and the
maidens shuddered as they heard.
In this last and most terrifying capacity, as god of the thunder and
thunderbolt, he naturally impressed himself particularly on the
imaginations of his worshipers, and it gave rise to a magnificent series
of sonorous epithets. (Todd, how would this tie into Brimo?)
In order that his first cries might not be heard by his father, certain
daimones of Crete called Kuretes danced around him their war dance,
clashing their shields and spears together. This is clearly referred to by
the maenads of Euripides Bacchae, who in the wildly mingled strains of
one of their choruses sing (lines 119-125)
O lair of the Kuretes, holy haunts of Crete that saw the birth of Zeus,
where in they caves the triple-crested Korybantes invented this my
circle of stretched hide.
Yea, though he die, in Hades the guilt of his old deeds shall find him out.
There sits to judge our sins, as we are told, another Zeus, the dead=s
last arbiter.
Retribution for sin appears as something which awaits the ordinary man
after death. Zeus Katachthonios (Abeneath the earth@) was once
mentioned in the Iliad as the husband of Persephone.
Zeus the liberator, Eleutherios
Zeus, says Ovid, took the form of a shepherd when he met Mnemosyne –
a tale which recalls that of Attis and Kybele; indeed hundreds of terra-
cottas representing Attis as a shepherd were found by Monsieur P.
Perdizet at Amphipolis. Again, not only in the Muse-mother Mnemosyne,
but also in the prominence originally accorded to one of the Muses,
Kalliope or Thaleia we may detect a trace of the ancient goddess, whose
glory had paled before the rising light of Zeus…A red figured vase
painting from Nola formerly in the Hamilton collection, shows Zeus as a
might eagle in a blaze of celestial splendor carrying Thaleia from earth to
heaven. The maiden has been playing at ball and picking flowers on a
mountain side. .
Ammon was said to have transformed himself into a snake in order to
win his bride; and snakes at Kyrene were called by the name of Ammon.
Herodotos, therefore, did not hesitate to identify the Greek Zeus with
Amen-Ra, the Theban ram-god and sun-god. Doubtless, when Lucian in
the second century of our era make Momos, the god of Mockery, ask
Zeus how he can permit ram’s horns to be affixed to him and makes
Zeus apologize for the disgrace, Greek refinement had come to despise
these barbaric identifications.
Zeus, desiring to consort with his own mother Deo or Demeter, turned
himself into a bull and so compassed his end. Deo in fierce anger took
the title Brimo, ‘the wrathful’ and would not be appeased till Zeus came
before her in a mood of mock-repentance, pretended to have made a
eunuch of himself, and in proof of his words flung the severed parts into
her lap. In reality they were those of a fine ram which he had gelded.
The issue of his union with Deo was Kore or Pherephatta, with whom he
again had intercourse under the form of a monstrous snake. This time
the offspring was shaped like a bull. Hence the well-known line: Bull
began Snake, Snake begat Bull.
The Sabazian myth has much in common with Orphic tradition. For
Orpheus too represented Zeus as united successively with his mother
Rhea or Demeter and his daughter Phersephone or Kore. Rhea, to
avoid him, turned into a snake. Thereupon he became another snake,
and twined about her with the so-called Herculean knot, which is
symbolized in the caduceus of Hermes. Rhea bore to him Phersephone,
a horned child with four eyes, two in their normal position, two on the
forehead and an extra face on the back of her neck. Zeus, again taking
the form of a snake, consorted with his own monstrous progeny. The
child born of this second union was Dionysos, i.e., the chthonian
Dionysos or Zagreus. Nonnos in Orphic vein describes him as a horned
infant, who mounted the throne of Zeus himself and sat there grasping
the thunderbolt in his tiny hand. But Hera soon roused the titan to
smear their faces with gypsum and to attack him as he was looking in a
mirror. In his efforts to escape he took the forms of a youthful Zeus
brandishing the aigis, an aged Kronos dropping rain, a babe of shifting
shape, a wildly excited youth, a lion, a horse, a horned snake, a tiger and
a bull, in which final disguise he was cut to pieces by the knives of the
titans.
Now the Cretans, as Dr. Rendel Harris discovered held that Zeus was a
prince ripped up by a wild boar and buried in their midst. The manner of
his death gives us good reason to suspect that he was related to the
great mother-goddess of Crete as was Adonis to Aphrodite or Tammuz
to Ishtar. The manner of his burial confirms our suspicion; for his tomb
on Mount Juktas was in the temenos of a primitive sanctuary, apparently
a sanctuary of the mountain-mother, where in “Middle Minoan” times
votive limbs were dedicated for health restored. If this was the character
of the Cretan Zeus, it becomes highly probable that his death and
resurrection were annually celebrated as a magical means of reviving
the life of all that lives.
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