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diff --git a/35087-0.txt b/35087-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4e7f22 --- /dev/null +++ b/35087-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2428 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35087 *** + +THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES AND RITES + +By + +DUDLEY WRIGHT + +INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. J. FORT NEWTON, D.Litt., D.D. + +_Past Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, U.S.A._ + + +THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE + + +LONDON--DENVER + +1919 + + + + +[Illustration] + +_Reproduced by permission of the Encyclopædia Britannica._ + +PLAN OF THE SACRED BUILDINGS OF ELEUSIS. + + 1. Temple of Artemis Propylæa. + 2. Outer Propylæon. + 3. Inner Propylæon. + 4. Temple of Demeter. + 5. Outer Enclosure of the Sacred Buildings. + 6. Inner Enclosure. + + + + +PREFACE + + +At one time the Mysteries of the various nations were the only vehicle +of religion throughout the world, and it is not impossible that the very +name of religion might have become obsolete but for the support of the +periodical celebrations which preserved all the forms and ceremonials, +rites and practices of sacred worship. + +With regard to the connection, supposed or real, between Freemasonry and +the Mysteries, it is a remarkable coincidence that there is scarcely a +single ceremony in the former that has not its corresponding rite in one +or other of the Ancient Mysteries. The question as to which is the +original is an important one to the student. The Masonic antiquarian +maintains that Freemasonry is not a scion snatched with a violent hand +from the Mysteries--whether Pythagorean, Hermetic, Samothracian, +Eleusinian, Drusian, Druidical, or the like--but is the original +institution, from which all the Mysteries were derived. In the opinion +of the renowned Dr. George Oliver: "There is ample testimony to +establish the fact that the Mysteries of all nations were originally the +same, and diversified only by the accidental circumstances of local +situation and political economy." The original foundation of the +Mysteries has, however, never been established. Herodotus ascribed the +institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries to Egyptian influences, while +Pococke declares them to have been of Tartar origin, and to have +combined Brahmanical and Buddhistic ideas. Others are equally of opinion +that their origin must be sought for in Persia, while at least one +writer--and who, in these days, will declare the theory to be +fanciful?--ventures the opinion that it is not improbable that they were +practised among the Atlanteans. + +The Eleusinian Mysteries--those rites of ancient Greece, and later of +Rome, of which there is historical evidence dating back to the seventh +century before the Christian era--bear a very striking resemblance in +many points to the rituals of both Operative and Speculative +Freemasonry. As to their origin, beyond the legendary account put forth, +there is no trace. In the opinion of some writers of repute an Egyptian +source is attributed to them, but of this there is no positive evidence. +There is a legend that St. John the Evangelist--a character honoured and +revered by Freemasons--was an initiate of these Mysteries. Certainly, +more than one of the early Fathers of the Christian Church boasted of +his initiation into these Rites. The fact that this is the first time +that an attempt has been made to give a detailed exposition of the +ceremonial and its meaning in the English language will, it is hoped, +render the articles of interest and utility to students of Masonic lore. + +As to the influence of the Mysteries upon Christianity, it will be seen +that in more than one instance the Christian ritual bears a very close +resemblance to the solemn rites of the Latin and Greek Mysteries. + +The Bibliography at the end does not claim to be exhaustive, but it will +be found to contain the principal sources of our knowledge of the +Eleusinian Mysteries. + + +DUDLEY WRIGHT. + +OXFORD. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PREFACE + +INTRODUCTION + +I. THE ELEUSINIAN LEGEND. + +II. THE RITUAL OF THE MYSTERIES + +III. PROGRAMME OF THE GREATER MYSTERIES + +IV. THE INITIATORY RITES + +V. THEIR MYSTICAL SIGNIFICANCE + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + + + +INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. J. FORT NEWTON, D.LITT., D.D., + +_Past Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Iowa._ + + +Few aspects of the history of the human spirit are more fascinating than +the story of the Mysteries of antiquity, one chapter of which is told in +the following pages with accuracy, insight, and charm. Like all human +institutions, they had their foundation in a real need, to which they +ministered by dramatizing the faiths and hopes and longings of humanity, +and evoking that eternal mysticism which is at once the joy and solace +of man as he marches or creeps or crowds through the welter of doubts, +dangers, disease, and death, which we call our life. + +Once the sway of the Mysteries was well-nigh universal, but towards the +end of their power they fell into the mire and became corrupt, as all +things human are apt to do, the Church itself being no exception. Yet at +their best and highest they were not only lofty and noble, but elevating +and refining, and that they served a high purpose is equally clear, else +they had not won the eulogiums of the most enlightened men of antiquity. +From Pythagoras to Plutarch the teachers of old bear witness to the +service of the Mysteries, and Cicero testified that what a man learned +in the house of the Hidden Place made him want to live nobly, and gave +him happy thoughts for the hour of death. + +The Mysteries, said Plato, were established by men of great genius, who, +in the early ages, strove to teach purity, to ameliorate the cruelty of +the race, to exalt its morals and refine its manners, and to restrain +society by stronger bonds than those which human laws impose. Such being +their purpose, he who gives a thought to the life of man at large will +enter their vanished sanctuaries with sympathy; and if no mystery any +longer attaches to what they taught--least of all to their ancient +allegory of immortality--there is the abiding interest in the rites, +drama, and symbols employed in the teaching of wise and good and +beautiful truth. + +What influence the Mysteries had on the new, uprising Christianity is +hard to know, and the issue is still in debate. That they did influence +the early Church is evident from the writings of the Fathers--more than +one of whom boasted of initiation--and some go so far as to say that the +Mysteries died at last, only to live again in the ritual of the Church. +St. Paul in his missionary journeys came in contact with the Mysteries, +and even makes use of some of their technical terms in his Epistles, the +better to show that what they sought to teach by drama can be known only +by spiritual experience. No doubt his insight is sound, but surely drama +may assist to that realization, else public worship might also come +under ban. + +Of the Eleusinian Mysteries in particular, we have long needed such a +study as is here offered, in which the author not only sums up in an +attractive manner what is known, but adds to our knowledge some +important details. An Egyptian source has been attributed to the +Mysteries of Greece, but there is little evidence of it, save as we may +conjecture it to have been so, remembering the influence of Egypt upon +Greece. Such influences are difficult to trace, and it is safer to say +that the idea and use of Initiation--as old as the Men's House of +primitive society--was universal, and took different forms in different +lands. + +Such a study has more than an antiquarian interest, not only to students +in general, but especially to the men of the gentle Craft of +Freemasonry. If we may not say that Freemasonry is historically +descended from the instituted Mysteries of antiquity, it does +perpetuate, to some extent, their ministry among us. At least, the +resemblance between those ancient rites arid the ceremonials of both +Operative and Speculative Freemasonry are very striking; and the present +study must be reckoned as not the least of the services of its author to +that gracious Craft. + +THE CITY TEMPLE, LONDON, E.C. + + + + +The Eleusinian Mysteries and Rites + + + +I + +THE ELEUSINIAN LEGEND + + +The legend which formed the basis of the Mysteries of Eleusis, presence +at and participation in which demanded an elaborate form or ceremony of +initiation, was as follows:-- + +Persephone (sometimes described as Proserpine and as Cora or Kore), when +gathering flowers, was abducted by Pluto, the god of Hades, and carried +off by him to his gloomy abode; Zeus, the brother of Pluto and the +father of Persephone, giving his consent. Demeter (or Ceres), her +mother, arrived too late to assist her child, or even catch a glimpse of +her seducer, and neither god nor man was able, or willing, to enlighten +her as to the whereabouts of Persephone or who had carried her away. For +nine nights and days she wandered, torch in hand, in quest of her child. +Eventually, however, she heard from Helios (the sun) the name of the +seducer and his accomplice. Incensed at Zeus, she left Olympos and the +gods, and came down to scour the earth disguised as an old woman. + +In the course of her wanderings she arrived at Eleusis, where she was +honourably entertained by Keleos, the ruler of the country, with whom, +and his wife Metanira, she consented to remain in order to watch over +the education of Demophon, who had just been born to the aged king and +whom she undertook to make immortal. + + Long was thy anxious search + For lovely Proserpine, nor didst thou break + Thy mournful fast, till the far-fam'd Eleusis + Received thee wandering. + + _Orphic Hymn._ + +The city of Eleusis is said to derive its name from the hero Eleusis, a +fabulous personage deemed by some to have been the offspring of Mercury +and Daira, daughter of Oceanus, while by others he was claimed as the +son of Oxyges. + +Unknown to the parents Demeter used to anoint Demophon by day with +ambrosia, and hide him by night in the fire like a firebrand. Detected +one night by Metanira, she was compelled to reveal herself as Demeter, +the goddess. Whereupon she directed the Eleusinians to erect a temple as +a peace-offering, and, this being done, she promised to initiate them +into the form of worship which would obtain for them her goodwill and +favour. "It is I, Demeter, full of glory, who lightens and gladdens the +hearts of gods and men. Hasten ye, my people, to raise, hard by the +citadel, below the ramparts, a fane, and on the eminence of the hill, an +altar, above the wall of Callichorum. I will instruct you in the rites +which shall be observed and which are pleasing to me." + +The temple was erected, but Demeter was still vowing vengeance against +gods and men, and because of the continued loss of her daughter she +rendered the earth sterile during a whole year. + + What ails her that she comes not home? + Demeter seeks her far and wide; + And gloomy-browed doth ceaseless roam + From many a morn till eventide. + "My life, immortal though it be, + Is naught!" she cries, "for want of thee, + Persephone--Persephone!" + +The oxen drew the plough, but in vain was the seed sown in the prepared +ground. Mankind was threatened with utter annihilation, and all the gods +were deprived of sacrifices and offerings. Zeus endeavoured to appease +the anger of the gods, but in vain. Finally he summoned Hermes to go to +Pluto and order him to restore Persephone to her mother. Pluto yielded, +but before Persephone left she took from the hand of Pluto four +pomegranate pips which he offered her as sustenance on her journey. +Persephone, returning from the land of shadows, found her mother in the +temple at Eleusis which had recently been erected. Her first question +was whether her daughter had eaten anything in the land of her +imprisonment, because her unconditional return to earth and Olympos +depended upon that. Persephone informed her mother that all she had +eaten was the pomegranate pips, in consequence of which Pluto demanded +that Persephone should sojourn with him for four months during each +year, or one month for each pip taken. Demeter had no option but to +consent to this arrangement, which meant that she would enjoy the +company of Persephone for eight months in every year, and that the +remaining four would be spent by Persephone with Pluto. Demeter caused +to awaken anew "the fruits of the fertile plains," and the whole earth +was re-clothed with leaves and flowers. Demeter called together the +princes of Eleusis--Triptolemus, Diocles, Eumolpus, Polyxenos, and +Keleos--and initiated them "into the sacred rites--most venerable--into +which no one is allowed to make enquiries or to divulge; a solemn +warning from the gods seals our mouths." + +Although secrecy on the subject of the nature of the stately Mysteries +is strictly enjoined, the writer of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter makes no +secret of the happiness which belonged to all who became initiates: +"Happy is he who has been received unfortunate he who has never received +the initiation nor taken part in the sacred ordinances, and who cannot, +alas! be destined to the same lot reserved for the faithful in the +darkling abode." + +The earliest mention of the Temple of Demeter at Eleusis occurs in the +Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which has already been mentioned. This was not +written by Homer, but by some poet versed in Homeric lore, and its +probable date is about 600 B.C. It was discovered a little over a +hundred years ago in an old monastery library at Moscow, and now reposes +in a museum at Leyden. + +In this Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Persephone gives her own version of the +incident as follows: "We were all playing in the lovely +meadows--Leucippe, and Phaino, and Electra, and Ianthe, and Melitê, and +Iachê and Rhodeia, and Callinhoe, and Melobosis, and Ianeira, and +Acastê, and Admetê, and Rhodope, and Plouto, and winsome Calypso, and +Styx, and Urania, and beautiful Galaxamê. We were playing there and +plucking beautiful blossoms with our hands; crocuses mingled, and iris, +and hyacinth, and roses, and lilies, a marvel to behold, and narcissus, +that the wide earth bare, a wile for my undoing. Gladly was I gathering +them when the earth gaped beneath, and therefrom leaped the mighty +prince, the host of many guests, and he bare me against my will, despite +my grief, beneath the earth, in his golden chariot; and shrilly did I +cry." + +The version of the legend given by Minucius Felix is as follows: +"Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres by Jupiter, as she was gathering +tender flowers in the new spring, was ravished from her delightful abode +by Pluto; and, being carried from thence through thick woods and over a +length of sea, was brought by Pluto into a cavern, the residence of +departed spirits, over whom she afterwards ruled with absolute sway. But +Ceres, upon discovering the loss of her daughter, with lighted torches +and begirt with a serpent, wandered over the whole earth for the purpose +of finding her, till she came to Eleusis; there she found her daughter, +and discovered to the Eleusinians the plantation of corn." + +According to another version of the legend, Neptune met Ceres when she +was in quest of her daughter, and fell in love with her. The goddess, in +order to escape from his attentions, concealed herself under the form of +a mare, when the god of the sea transformed himself into a horse to +seduce her, with which act she was so highly offended that after having +washed herself in a river and reassumed human form, she took refuge in a +cave, where she lay concealed. When famine and pestilence began to +ravage the earth, the gods made search for her everywhere, but could not +find her until Pan discovered her and apprised Jupiter of her +whereabouts. This cave was in Sicily, in which country Ceres was known +as the black Ceres, or the Erinnys, because the outrages offered her by +Neptune turned her frantic and furious. Demeter was depicted in Sicily +as clad in black, with a horse's head, holding a pigeon in one hand and +a dolphin in the other. + +On the submission of Eleusis to Athens, the Mysteries became an integral +part of the Athenian religion, so that the Eleusinian Mysteries became a +Panhellenic institution, and later, under the Romans, a universal +worship, but the secret rites of initiation were well kept throughout +their history. + +Eleusis was one of the twelve originally independent cities of Attica, +which Theseus is said to have united into a simple state. Leusina now +occupies the site, and has thus preserved the name of the ancient city. + +Theseus is portrayed by Virgil as suffering eternal punishment in Hades, +but Proclus writes concerning him as follows: "Theseus, and Pirithous +are fabled to have ravished Helen, and to have descended to the infernal +regions--i.e. they were lovers of intelligible and visible beauty. +Afterwards Theseus was liberated by Pericles from Hades, but Pirithous +remained there because he could not sustain the arduous attitude of +divine contemplation." + +Dr. Warburton, in his _Divine Legation of Moses,_ gives it as his +opinion that Theseus was a living character who once forced his way into +the Eleusinian Mysteries, for which crime he was imprisoned on earth and +afterwards damned in the infernal regions. + +The Eleusinian Mysteries seem to have constituted the most vital portion +of the Attic religion, and always to have retained something of awe and +solemnity. They were not known outside Attica until the time of the +Median wars, when they spread to the Greek colonies in Asia as part of +the constitution of the daughter states, where the cult seems to have +exercised a considerable influence both on the populace and on the +philosophers. Outside Eleusis the Mysteries were not celebrated so +frequently nor on so magnificent a scale. At Celeas, where they were +celebrated every fourth year, a hierophant, who was not bound by the law +of celibacy, as at Eleusis, was elected by the people for each +celebration. Pausanias is the authority for a statement by the +Phliasians that they imitated the Eleusinian Mysteries. They maintained, +however, that their rendering was instituted by Dysaules, brother of +Celeus, who went to their country after he had been expelled from +Eleusis by Ion, the son of Xuthus, at the time when Ion was chosen +commander-in-chief of the Athenians in the war against Eleusis. +Pausanias disputed that any Eleusinian was defeated in battle and forced +into exile, maintaining that peace was concluded between the Athenians +and the Eleusinians before the war was fought out, even Eumolpus himself +being permitted to remain in Eleusis. Pausanias, also, while admitting +that Dysaules might have gone to Phlias for some cause other than that +admitted by the Phliasians, questioned whether Dysaules was related to +Celeus, or, indeed, to any illustrious Eleusinian family. The name of +Dysaules does not occur in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, where are +enumerated all who were taught the ritual of the Mysteries by the +goddess, though that of Celeus is mentioned:-- + + She showed to Triptolemus and Diocles, smiter of horses + And mighty Eumolpus and Celeus, leader of people, + The way of performing the sacred rites and explained + to all of them the orgies. + +Nevertheless, according to the Phliasians, it was Dysaules who +instituted the Mysteries among them. + +The Pheneatians also had a sanctuary dedicated to Demeter, which they +called Eleusinian, and in which they celebrated the Mysteries in honour +of the goddess. They had a legend that Demeter went thither in her +wanderings, and that, out of gratitude to the Pheneatians for the +hospitality they showed her, she gave them all the different kinds of +pulse, except beans. Two Pheneatians--Trisaules and Damithales--built a +temple to Demeter Thesuria, the goddess of laws, under Mount Cyllene, +where were instituted the Mysteries in her honour which were celebrated +until a late period, and which were said to be introduced there by Naus, +a grandson of Eumolpus. + +"Much that is excellent and divine," wrote Cicero, "does Athens seem to +me to have produced and added to our life, but nothing better than those +Mysteries by which we are formed and moulded from a rude and savage +state of humanity; and, indeed, in the Mysteries we perceive the real +principles of life, and learn not only to live happily, but to die with +a fairer hope." Every manner of writer--religious poet, worldly poet, +sceptical philosopher, orator--all are of one mind about this, that the +Mysteries were far and away the greatest of all the religious festivals +of Greece. + + + + +II + +THE RITUAL OF THE MYSTERIES + + +The Eleusinian Mysteries, observed by nearly all Greeks, but +particularly by the Athenians, were celebrated yearly at Eleusis, though +in the earlier annals of their history they were celebrated once in +every three years only, and once in every four years by the Celeans, +Cretans, Parrhasians, Pheneteans, Phliasians, and Spartans. It was the +most celebrated of all the religious ceremonies of Greece at any period +of the country's history, and was regarded as of such importance that +the Festival is referred to frequently simply as "The Mysteries." The +rites were guarded most jealously and carefully concealed from the +uninitiated. If any person divulged any part of them he was regarded as +having offended against the divine law, and by the act he rendered +himself liable to divine vengeance. It was accounted unsafe to abide in +the same house with him, and as soon as his offence was made public he +was apprehended. Similarly, drastic punishment was meted out to any +person not initiated into the Mysteries who chanced to be present at +their celebration, even through ignorance or genuine error. + +The Mysteries were divided into two parts--the Lesser Mysteries and the +Greater Mysteries. The Lesser Mysteries were said to have been +instituted when Hercules, Castor, and Pollux expressed a desire to be +initiated, they happening to be in Athens at the time of the celebration +of the Mysteries by the Athenians in accordance with the ordinance of +Demeter. Not being Athenians, they were ineligible for the honour of +initiation, but the difficulty was overcome by Eumolpus, who was +desirous of including in the ranks of the initiated a man of such power +and eminence as Hercules, foreigner though he might be. The three were +first made citizens, and then as a preliminary to the initiation +ceremony as prescribed by the goddess, Eumolpus instituted the Lesser +Mysteries, which then and afterwards became a ceremony preliminary to +the Greater Mysteries, as they then became known, for candidates of +alien birth. In later times this Lesser Festival, celebrated in the +month of Anthesterion at the beginning of spring, at Agra, became a +general preparation for the Greater Festival, and no persons were +initiated into the Greater Mysteries until they had first been initiated +into the Lesser. + +With regard to Hercules, there is a legend that on a certain time +Hercules wished to become a member of one of the secret societies of +antiquity. He accordingly presented himself and applied in due form for +initiation. His case was referred to a council of wise and virtuous men, +who objected to his admission on account of some crimes which he had +committed. Consequently he was rejected. Their words to him were: "You +are forbidden to enter here; your heart is cruel, your hands are stained +with crime. Go! repair the wrong you have done; repent of your evil +doings, and then come with pure heart and clean hands, and the doors of +our Mysteries shall be opened to you." The legend goes on to say that +after his regeneration he returned and became a worthy member of the +Order. + +The ceremonies of the Lesser Mysteries were entirely different from +those of the Greater Mysteries. The Lesser Mysteries represented the +return of Persephone to earth--which, of course, took place at Eleusis; +and the Greater Mysteries represented her descent to the infernal +regions. The Lesser Mysteries honoured the daughter more than the +mother, who was the principal figure in the greater Mysteries. In the +Lesser Mysteries, Persephone was known as Pherrephatta, and in the +Greater Mysteries she was given the name of Kore. Everything was, in +fact, a mystery, and nothing was called by its right name. Lenormant +says that it is certain that the initiated of the Lesser Mysteries +carried away from Agra a certain store of religious knowledge which +enabled them to understand the symbols and representations which were +displayed afterwards before their eyes at the Greater Mysteries at +Eleusis. + +The object of the Lesser Mysteries was to signify occultly the condition +of the impure soul invested with a terrene body and merged in a material +nature. The Greater Mysteries taught that he who, in the present life, +is in subjection to his irrational part, is truly in Hades. If Hades, +then, is the region of punishment and misery, the purified soul must +reside in the region of bliss, theoretically, in the present life, and +according to a deific energy in the next. They intimated by gorgeous +mystic visions the felicity of the soul, both here and hereafter, when +purified from the defilements of a material nature and consequently +elevated to the realities of intellectual vision. + +The Mysteries were supposed to represent in a kind of moral drama the +rise and establishment of civil society, the doctrine of a state of +future rewards and punishments, the errors of polytheism, and the Unity +of the Godhead, which last article was afterwards demonstrated to be +their famous secret. The ritual was produced from the sanctuary. It was +enveloped in symbolical figures of animals which suggested a +correspondence which was utterly inexplicable to the uninitiated. + +K.O. Müller, in his _History of the Literature of Ancient Greece_, +says:-- + +"All the Greek religious poetry treating of death and the world beyond +the grave refers to the deities whose influence was supposed to be +exercised in this dark region at the centre of the earth, and were +thought to have little connection with the political and social +relations of human life. These deities formed a class apart from the +gods of Olympus and were comprehended under the name of the Chthenian +gods (gods of the underworld). The mysteries of the Greeks were +connected with the worship of those gods alone. That a love of +immortality first found a support in a belief in these deities appears +from the fable of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter. Every year at the +time of harvest, Persephone was supposed to be carried from the world +above to the dark dominions of the invisible King of Shadows, and to +return every spring in youthful beauty to the arms of her mother. It was +thus that the ancient Greeks described the disappearance and return of +vegetable life in the alternations of the seasons. The changes of +Nature, however, must have been considerable in typifying the changes in +the lot of man; otherwise Persephone would have been merely a symbol of +the seed committed to the ground and would not have become queen of the +dead. But when the goddess of inanimate nature had become queen of the +dead, it was a natural analogy, which must have early suggested itself, +that the return of Persephone to the world of light also denoted a +renovation of life and a new birth in man. Hence the Mysteries of +Demeter, and especially those celebrated at Eleusis, inspired the most +elevated and animating hopes with regard to the condition of the soul +after death." + +No one was permitted to attend the Mysteries who had incurred the +sentence of capital punishment for treason or conspiracy, but all other +exiles were permitted to be present and were not molested in any way +during the whole period of the Festival. No one could be arrested for +debt during the holding of the Festival. + +Scarcely anything is known of the programme observed during the course +of the Lesser Mysteries. They were celebrated on the 19th to 21st of the +month Anthesterion, and, like the Greater Mysteries, were preceded and +followed by a truce on the part of all engaged in warfare. The same +officials presided at both celebrations. The Lesser Mysteries opened +with a sacrifice to Demeter and Persephone, a portion of the victims +offered being reserved for the members of the sacred families of +Eumolpus and Keryce. The main object of the Lesser Mysteries was to put +the candidates for initiation in a condition of ritual purification, +and, according to Clement of Alexandria, they included certain +instructions and preparations for the Greater Mysteries. Like the +Eleusinian Mysteries, properly so called, they included dramatic +representations of the rape of Persephone and the wanderings of Demeter; +in addition, according to Stephen Byzantium, to certain Dionysian +representations. + +Two months before the full moon of the month of Boedromion, +sphondophoroi or heralds, selected from the priestly families of the +Eumolpides and Keryces, went forth to announce the forthcoming +celebration of the Greater Mysteries, and to claim an armistice on the +part of all who might be waging war. The truce commenced on the 15th of +the month preceding the celebration of the Mysteries and lasted until +the 10th day of the month following the celebration. In order to be +valid the truce had to be proclaimed in and accepted by each Hellenic +city. + +All arrangements for the proper celebration of the Mysteries, both +Lesser and Greater, were in the hands of the families of Eumolpides and +Keryces. These were ancient Eleusinian families, whose origin was traced +back to the time when Eleusis was independent of Athens, and the former +family survived as a priestly caste down to the latest period of +Athenian history. Its member possessed the hereditary and the sole right +to the secrets of the Mysteries. Hence the recognition by the State of +the exclusive right and privilege of these families to direct the +initiations and to provide each a half of the religious staff of the +temple. The Eumolpides held so eminent a place in the Mysteries that +Cicero mentions them alone, to the exclusion of the Keryces. + +Pausanias relates that, following a war between the Eleusinians and the +Athenians, when Erectheus, King of Athens, conquered Immaradus, son of +Eumolpus, the subdued Eleusinians, in making their submission, +stipulated that they should remain custodians of the Mysteries, but in +all other respects were to be subject to the Athenians. This tradition +is disputed by more modern writers, but it was accepted by the Athenians +and acted upon generally, and the right of the two families solely to +prepare candidates for initiation was recognized by a decree of the +fifth century B.C., the privilege being confirmed afterwards at a +convention between the representatives of Eleusis and Athens. The +Eumolpides were the descendants of a mythical ancestor, Eumolpus, son of +Neptune, who is first mentioned in the time of Pisastrus. On the death +of Eumolpus according to one legend, Ceryx, the younger of the sons, was +left. But the Keryces claimed that Ceryx was a son of Hermes by Aglamus, +daughter of Cecrops, and that he was not a son of Eumolpus. + +The members of the family of Eumolpides had the first claim upon the +flesh of the sacrificed animals, but they were permitted to give a +portion to any one else as a reward or recompense for services rendered. +But when a sacrifice was offered to any of the infernal divinities, the +whole of it had to be consumed by the fire. Nothing must be left. All +religious problems relating to the Mysteries which could not be solved +by the known laws were addressed to the Eumolpides, whose decision was +final. + +The meaning of the name "Eumolpus" is "a good singer," and great +importance was attached to the quality of the voice in the selection of +the hierophant, the chief officiant at the celebration of the Mysteries +and at the ceremony of initiation, and who was selected from the family +of the Eumolpides. It was essential that the formulæ disclosed to the +initiates at Eleusis should be pronounced with the proper intonation, +for otherwise the words would have no efficacy. Correct intonation was +of far greater importance than syllabic pronunciation. + +An explanation of this is given by Maspero, who says: "The human voice +is pre-eminently a magical instrument, without which none of the highest +operations of art can be successful: each of its utterances is carried +into the region of the invisible and there releases forces of which the +general run of people have no idea, either as to their existence or +their manifold action. Without doubt, the real value of an evocation +lies in its text, or the sequence of the words of which it is composed, +and the tone in which it is enunciated. In order to be efficacious, the +conjuration should be accompanied by chanting, either an incantation or +a song. In order to produce the desired effect the sacramental melody +must be chanted without the variation of a single modulation: one false +note, one mistake in the measure, the introversion of any two of the +sounds of which it is composed, and the intended effect is annulled. +This is the reason why all who recite a prayer or formula intended to +force the gods to perform certain acts must be of true voice. The result +of their effort, whether successful or unsuccessful, will depend upon +the exactness of their voice. It was the voice, therefore, which played +the most important part in the oblation, in the prayer of definite +request, and in the evocation--in a word, in every instance where man +sought to seize hold of the god." + +Apart from a "true voice" the words were merely dead sounds. The +character of the voice plays an important part in many religions. The +Vedas contain in them many invocations and hymns which no uninitiated +Brahman can recite: it is only the initiate who knows their true +properties and how to put them into use. Some of the hymns of the +_Rig-Veda_, when anagrammatically arranged, will yield all the secret +invocations which were used for magical purposes in the Brahmanical +ceremonies. Some Parsees pay much attention to what is called _dzád dwá_ +or "free voice." It is recorded in Moslem tradition that a revelation +came to the venerated Arabian prophet resembling "the tone of a bell." +The effects which low, monotonous chanting produce on nervous people and +children are well known. Even animals and serpents are amenable to the +influence of sound. + +The hierophant was a revealer of holy things. He was a citizen of +Athens, a man of mature age, and held his office for life, devoting +himself wholly to the service of the temple and living a chaste life, to +which end it was usual for him to anoint himself with the juice of +hemlock, which, by its extreme coldness, was said to extinguish in a +great measure the natural heat. In the opinion of some writers celibacy +was an indispensable condition of the highest branch of the priesthood; +but, according to inscriptions which have been discovered, some at any +rate of the hierophants were married, so that, in all probability, the +rule was that during the celebration of the Mysteries and, probably, for +a certain time before and after, it was incumbent on the hierophant to +abstain from all sexual intercourse. Foucart is of opinion that celibacy +was demanded only during the celebration of the Mysteries, although +Pausanias states definitely otherwise. In support of Foucart it may be +stated that among the inscriptions discovered at Eleusis there is one +dedicating a statue to a hierophant by his wife. It was essential that +the hierophant should be a man of commanding presence and lead a simple +life. On being raised to the dignity he received a kind of consecration +at a special ceremony, at which only those of his own rank were +permitted to be present, when he was entrusted with certain secrets +pertaining to his high office. Prior to this ceremony he went through a +special purificatory rite, immersing himself in the sea, an act to which +the Greeks attributed great virtue. He had to be exemplary in his moral +conduct, and was regarded by the people as being particularly holy. The +qualifications of a hierophant were so high that the office could not be +regarded as hereditary, for it would have been an exception to find both +father and son in possession of the many various and high qualifications +regarded as essential to the holding of the office. The robe of the +hierophant was a long purple garment; his hair, crowned with a wreath of +myrtle, flowed in long locks over his shoulders, and a diadem ornamented +his forehead. At the celebration of the Mysteries he was held to +represent the Creator of the world. He alone was permitted to penetrate +into the innermost shrine in the Hall of the Mysteries--the holy of +holies, as it were--and then only once during the celebration of the +Mysteries, when, at the most solemn moment of the whole mystic +celebration, his form appeared suddenly to be transfigured with light +before the rapt gaze of the initiated. He alone was permitted to reveal +to the fully initiated the mystic objects, the sight of which marked the +completion of their admission into the community. He had the power of +refusing admission to those applicants whom he deemed unfit to be +entrusted with the secrets. He was not inactive during the intervals +between the celebrations of the Mysteries. It was his duty to +superintend the instruction of the candidates for initiation, who for +that purpose were divided into groups and instructed by officials known +as mystagogues. The personal name of the hierophant was never mentioned. +It was supposed to be unknown, "wafted away into the sea by the mystic +law," and he was known only by the title of the office which he bore. + +An interesting inscription was found some years ago at Eleusis, engraved +on the base of a statue erected to a hierophant: "Ask not my name; the +mystic rule (or packet) has carried it away into the blue sea. But when +I reach the fated day, and go to the abode of the blest, then all who +care for me will pronounce it." One of his sons had written below this +inscription, after the death of the hierophant: "Now we, his children, +reveal the name of the best of fathers, which, when alive, he hid in the +depths of the sea. This is the famous Apollonius." There is extant an +epigram by a female hierophant, which runs: "Let my name remain +unspoken: on being shut off from the world when the sons of Cecrops made +me hierophantide to Demeter, I myself hid it in the vasty depths." +Eunapius, in _Vita Maxim_, says: "I may not tell the name of him who was +then hierophant, for it was he who initiated me." The manner in which +the name was committed to the sea was either by the immersion of the +bearer or by writing the name on a leaden tablet, which was cast into +the sea. The holy name, by which the hierophant was afterwards known, +was derived from the name of some god or bore some ritualistic meaning. +Sometimes the hierophant was known simply by the title of his office +with the addition of his father's name. The rule as to the public +mention of the former name of the hierophant was occasionally +transgressed, and there is the instance of the atheistic philosopher +Theodorus addressing a hierophant by his discarded name of Lacrateides, +and also of Deinias, who was put into prison for the offence of +addressing a hierophant by his discarded family name. + +Lucian refers to this in one passage in _Lexiphanes_: "The first I met +were a torch-bearer, a hierophant, and others of the initiated, haling +Deinias before the judge, and protesting that he had called them by +their names, though he well knew that, from the time of their +sanctification, they were nameless, and no more to be named but by +hallowed names." + +In the Imperial Inscriptions we find the titles substituted for the +proper names.[1] The hierophant was compelled to avoid contact with the +dead in the same manner as the Cohanim of the Jewish faith, and with +certain animals reputed to be unclean. Contact with any person from whom +blood was issuing also caused impurity. He was assisted by a female +hierophant, or hierophantide--an attendant upon the goddess Demeter and +her daughter Persephone. She also was selected from the family of the +Eumolpides and was chosen for life. She was permitted to marry, and +several inscriptions mention the names of children of hierophantides. On +her initiation into this high degree she was brought forward naked to +the side of a sacred font, in which her right hand was placed, the +priest declaring her to be true and holy and dedicated to the service of +the temple. The special duty of the female hierophant was to superintend +the initiation of female aspirants, but she was present throughout the +ceremony and played some part in the initiation of the male candidates. +An inscription on the tomb of one hierophantide mentions to her glory +that she had set the myrtle crown, the seal of mystic communion, on the +heads of the illustrious initiates, Marcus Aurelius and his son, +Commodus. Another gloried in the fact that she had initiated the Emperor +Hadrian. + +Next in rank to the hierophant and hierophantide came the male and +female dadouchos, who were taken from the family of the Keryces. They +were the torch-bearers, and their duty consisted mainly in carrying the +torches at the Sacred Festival. They also wore purple robes, myrtle +crowns, and diadems. They were appointed for life, and were permitted to +marry. The male dadouchos particularly was associated with the +hierophant in certain solemn and public functions, such as the opening +address to the candidates for initiation and in the public prayers for +the welfare of the State. The office was frequently handed down from +father to son. Until the first century B.C. the dadouchos was never +addressed by his own personal name, but always by the title of his +office. + +The hierocceryx, or messenger of holy tidings, was the representative of +Hermes, or Mercury, who, as the messenger of the gods, was indispensable +as mediator whenever men wished to approach the Immortals. He also wore +a purple-coloured robe and a myrtle crown. He was chosen for life from +the family of the Keryces. He made the necessary proclamations to the +candidates for initiation into the various degrees, and in particular +enjoined them to preserve silence. It was necessary for him to have +passed through all the various degrees, as his duties necessitated his +presence throughout the ceremonial. + +The phaidantes had the custody of the sacred statues and the sacred +vessels, which they had to maintain in good repair. They were selected +from one or other of the two sacerdotal families. + +Among the other officials were: The liknophori, who carried the mystic +fan; the hydranoi, who purified the candidates for initiation by +sprinkling them with holy water at the commencement of the Festival; the +spondophoroi, who proclaimed the sacred truce, which was to permit of +the peaceful celebration of the Mysteries; the pyrphoroi, who brought +and maintained the fire for the sacrifices; the hieraules, who played +the flute during the time the sacrifices were being offered--they were +the leaders of the sacred music, who had under their charge the +hymnodoi, the hymnetriai; the neokoroi, who maintained the temples and +the altars; the panageis, who formed a class between the ministers and +the initiated. Then there were the "initiates of the altar," who +performed expiatory rites in the name and in the place of all the +initiated. There were also many other minor officials, by the general +name of melissæ--i.e. bees, perhaps so-called because bees, being makers +of honey, were sacred to Demeter. The diluvian priestesses and +regenerated souls were called "bees." All these officials had to be of +unblemished reputation, and wore myrtle crowns while engaged in the +service of the temple. + +The officials; whose duty it was to take care that the ritual was +punctiliously followed in every detail, included nine archons, who were +chosen every year to manage the affairs of Greece. The first of these +was always the King, or Archon Basileus, whose duty at the celebration +of the Mysteries it was to offer prayers and sacrifices, to see that no +indecency or irregularity was committed during the Festival, and at the +conclusion to pass judgment on all offenders. There were also four +epimeletæ, or curators, elected by the people, one being appointed from +the Eumolpides, another from the Keryces, and the remaining two from the +rank and file of the citizens; and ten hieropoioi, whose duty it was to +offer sacrifices. It may be worthy of remark here that Epimenides of +Crete, who flourished about the year 600 B.C., is said by Diogenes +Laertius, in his life of that philosopher, to have been the first to +perform expiatory sacrifices and lustrations in fields and houses and to +have been the first to erect temples for the purpose of sacrifice. + +The sacred symbols used in the ceremonies were enclosed in a special +chamber in the Telestrion, or Hall of Initiation, known as the +Anactoron, into which the hierophant alone had the right to penetrate. +During the celebration of the Mysteries they were carried to Athens +veiled and hidden from the gaze of the profane, whence they were taken +back to Eleusis. It was permitted only to the initiated to look upon +these "hiera," as they were called. These sacred objects were in the +charge of the Eumolpides family. + +Written descriptions, however graphic or eloquent, convey but a faint +impression of the wonderful scenes that were enacted; Aristides says +that what was seen rivalled anything that was heard. Another writer has +declared: "Many a wondrous sight may be seen and not a few tales of +wonder may be heard in Greece; but there is nothing on which the +blessing of God rests in so full a measure as the rites of Eleusis and +the Olympic games." For nine centuries--that period of time being +divided almost equally between the pre-Christian and Christian +eras--they were the Palladium of Greek Paganism. In the latter part of +their history, when the restrictions as to admission began to be +relaxed, and in proportion to that relaxation, their essential religious +character disappeared, they became but a ceremony, their splendour being +their principal attraction, until finally they degenerated into a mere +superstition. Julian strived in vain to infuse new life into the +vanishing cult, but it was too late--the Eleusinian Mysteries were dead. + +The Athenians were pious in the extreme, and throughout the period that +initiation was limited to that race the reputation of Eleusis was +maintained, although pilgrims from various and remote parts of the world +visited it at the season of the Mysteries. When the Eleusinian Mysteries +were taken to Rome, as they were in the reign of Hadrian, they +contracted impurities and degenerated into riot and vice; the +spirituality of their teachings did not accompany the transference or it +failed to be comprehended. Although the forms of initiation were still +symbolical of the original and noble objects of the institution, the +licentious Romans mistook the shadow for the substance, and while they +passed through all the ceremonies they were strangers to the objects for +which they were framed. + +In A.D. 364, a law prohibiting nocturnal rites was published by +Valentinian, but Praetextatus, whom Julian had constituted governor of +Achaia, prevailed on him to revoke it, urging that the lives of the +Greeks would be rendered utterly unsupportable if he deprived them of +this, their most holy and comprehensive festival. Much has been made by +some writers of the fact that the ceremonies were held at night, but in +the early days of Christianity also it was the custom for Christians to +forgather either at night or before daybreak, a circumstance which led +to their assemblies being known as _antelucani_ and themselves as +_lucifugæ_ or "light-haters," by way of reproach. About the beginning of +the fifth century Theodosius the Great prohibited and almost totally +extinguished the pagan theology in the Roman Empire, and the Eleusinian +Mysteries suffered in the general destruction. It is probable, however, +that the Mysteries were celebrated secretly in spite of the severe +edicts of Theodosius and that they were partly continued through the +dark ages, though stripped of their splendour. It is certain that many +rites of the pagan religion were performed under the dissembled name of +convivial meetings, long after the publication of the Emperor's edicts, +and Psellius informs us that the Mysteries of Ceres existed in Athens +until the eighth century of the Christian era and were never totally +suppressed. + +The Festival of the Greater Mysteries--and this was, of course, by far +the more important--began on the 15th of the month of Boedromion, +corresponding roughly with the month of September, and lasted until the +23rd of the same month. During that time it was unlawful to arrest any +man present, or present any petition except for offences committed at +the Festival, heavy penalties being inflicted for breaches of this law, +the penalties fixed being a fine of not less than a thousand drachmas, +and some assert that transgressors were even put to death. + + +[Footnote 1: From two inscriptions found at Eleusis it would appear that +it was customary to make the name public after the death of the +hierophant. It seems also to have been the practice to make the name +known to the initiate under the pledge of secrecy. Sir James Frazer +thinks that the names were, in all probability, engraved on tablets of +bronze or lead and then thrown into deep water in the Gulf of Salamis.] + + + + +III + +PROGRAMME OF THE GREATER MYSTERIES + + +The following is the programme of the "Greater Mysteries," which +extended over a period of ten days. The various functions were +characterized by the greatest possible solemnity and decorum, and the +ceremonies were regarded as "religious" in the highest interpretation of +that term. + +FIRST DAY.--The first day was known as the "Gathering," or the +"Assembly," when all who had passed through the Lesser Mysteries +assembled to assist in the celebration of the Greater Mysteries. On this +day the Archon Basileus presided over all the cults of the city, and +assembled the people at a place known as the Poikile Stoa. After the +Archon Basileus, with four assistants, had offered up sacrifices and +prayers for the welfare of Greece, the following proclamation was made +by the Archon Basileus, wearing his robe of office:-- + +"Come, whoever is clean of all pollution and whose soul has not +consciousness of sin. Come, whosoever hath lived a life of righteousness +and justice. Come all ye who are pure of heart and of hand, and whose +speech can be understood. Whosoever hath not clean hands, a pure soul, +and an intelligible voice must not assist at the Mysteries." + +The people were then commanded by the hierophant to wash their hands in +consecrated water, and the impious were threatened with the punishment +set forth in the law if they were discovered, but especially, and this +in any case, with the implacable anger of the gods. The hierocceryx then +impressed upon all the duty of observing the most rigid secrecy with +respect to what they might witness, and bade them to be silent +throughout the ceremonies, and not utter even an exclamation. The +candidates for initiation assembled outside the temple, each under the +guidance and direction of the mystagogue, who repeated these +instructions to the candidates. Once within the sacred enclosure all the +initiates were subject to a purification by fire ceremonial. All wore +regalia special to the occasion. This is evident from the wording of +inscriptions which have been discovered, but particulars of the regalia +are wanting. We know that extravagant and costly dresses were regarded +by Demeter with disfavour, and that it was forbidden to wear such in the +temple. Jewellery, gold ornaments, purple-coloured belts, and +embroideries were also barred, as were robes and cloths of mixed +colours. The hair of women had to fall down loose upon the shoulders, +and must not be in plaits or coiled upon the head. No woman was +permitted to use cosmetics. + +SECOND DAY.--The second day was known as _Halade Mystæ_, or "To the sea, +ye mystæ," from the command which greeted all the initiates to go and +purify themselves by washing in the sea, or in the salt water of the two +consecrated lakes, called Rheiti, on what was known as "The Sacred Way." +The priests had the exclusive right of fishing in these lakes. A +procession was formed, in which all joined and made their way to the sea +or the lakes, where they bathed and purified themselves. This general +purification was akin to that practised to this day by the Jews at the +beginning of the Jewish year. The day was consecrated to Saturn, into +whose province the soul is said to fall in the course of its descent +from the tropic of Cancer. Capella compares Saturn to a river, +voluminous, sluggish, and cold. The planet signifies pure intellect, and +Pythagoras symbolically called the sea a tear of Saturn. The bathing was +preceded by a confession, and the manner in which the bathing was +carried out and the number of immersions varied with the degree of guilt +which each confessed. According to Suidas, those who had to purify +themselves from murder plunged into salt water on two separate +occasions, immersing themselves seven times on each occasion. On +returning from the bath all were regarded as "new creatures," the bath +being regarded as a laver of regeneration, and the initiates were +clothed in a plain fawn-skin or a sheep-skin. The purification, however, +was not regarded as complete until the following day, when there was +added the sprinkling of the blood of a pig sacrificed. Each had carried +to the river or lake a little pig, which was also purified by bathing, +and on the next day this pig was sacrificed. The pig was offered because +it was very pernicious to cornfields. On the Eleusinian coinage the pig, +standing on a torch placed horizontally, appears as the sign and symbol +of the Mysteries. On this day also some of the initiated submitted to a +special purification near the altar of Zeus Mellichios on the Sacred +Way. For each person whom it was desired to purify an ox was sacrificed +to Zeus Mellichios, the infernal Zeus, the skin of the animal was laid +on the ground by the dadouchos, and the one who was the object of the +lustration remained there squatting on the left foot. + +THIRD DAY.--On the third day pleasures of every description, even the +most innocent, were strictly forbidden, and every one fasted till +nightfall, when they partook of seed cakes, parched corn, salt, +pomegranates, and sacred wine mixed with milk and honey. The Archon +Basileus, assisted again by the four epimeletæ, celebrated, in the +presence of representatives from the allied cities, the great sacrifice +of the Soteria for the well-being of the State, the Athenian citizens, +and their wives and children. This ceremony took place in the Eleusinion +at the foot of the Acropolis. The day was known as the Day of Mourning, +and was supposed to commemorate Demeter's grief at the loss of +Persephone. The sacrifices offered consisted chiefly of a mullet and of +barley out of Rharium, a field of Eleusis. The oblations were accounted +so sacred that the priests themselves were not permitted, as was usual +in other offerings, to partake of them. At the conclusion of the general +ceremony each one individually sacrificed the little pig purified in the +sea the night before. + +The hog of propitiation offered to Frey was a solemn sacrifice in the +North of Europe and in Sweden, down to modern times, the custom has been +preserved by baking, on Christmas Eve, a loaf or cake in the form of a +hog. + +FOURTH DAY.--The principal event of the fourth day was a solemn +procession, when the holy basket of Ceres (Demeter) was carried in a +consecrated cart, the crowds of people shouting as it went along, "Hail, +Ceres!" The rear end of the procession was composed of women carrying +baskets containing sesamin, carded wool, grains of salt, corn, +pomegranates, reeds, ivy boughs, cakes known as poppies, and sometimes +serpents. One kind of these cakes was known as "ox-cakes"; they were +made with little horns and dedicated to the moon. Another kind contained +poppy seeds. Poppy was used in the ceremonies because it was said that +some grains of poppy were given to Demeter upon her arrival in Greece to +induce sleep, which she had not enjoyed from the time of the abduction +of Persephone. Demeter is invariably represented in her statues as being +very rotund, crowned with ears of corn, and holding in her hand a branch +of poppy. + +FIFTH DAY.--The fifth day was known as the Day of Torches, from the fact +that at nightfall all the initiates walked in pairs round the temple of +Demeter at Eleusis, the dadouchos himself leading the procession. The +torches were waved about and changed from hand to hand, to represent the +wanderings of the goddess in search of her daughter when she was +conducted by the light of a torch kindled in the flames of Etna. + +SIXTH DAY.--Iacchos was the name given to the sixth day of the Festival. +The "fair young god," Iacchos, or Dionysos, or Bacchus, was the son of +Jupiter and Ceres, and accompanied the goddess in her search for +Persephone. He also carried a torch, hence his statue has always a torch +in the hand. This statue, together with other sacred objects, were taken +from the Iacchion, the sanctuary of Iacchos in Athens, mounted on a +heavy rustic four-wheeled chariot drawn by bulls, and, accompanied by +the Iacchogogue and other magistrates nominated for the occasion, +conveyed from the Kerameikos, or Potter's Quarter, to Eleusis by the +Sacred Way in solemn procession. It was on this day that the solemnity +of the ceremonial reached its height. The statue, as well as the people +accompanying it, were crowned with myrtle, the people dancing all the +way along the route, beating brass kettles and playing instruments of +various kinds and singing sacred songs. Halts were made during the +procession at various shrines, at the site of the house of Phytalus, +who, it was said, received the goddess into his house, and, according to +an inscription on his tomb, she requited him by revealing to him the +culture of the fig; particularly at a fig-tree which was regarded as +sacred, because it had the renown of being planted by Phytalus; also +upon a bridge built over the river Cephissus, by the side of which Pluto +descended into Hades with Persephone, where the bystanders made +themselves merry at the expense of the pilgrims. At each of the shrines +sacrifices and libations were offered, hymns sung, and sacred dances +performed. Having passed the bridge, the people entered Eleusis by what +was known as the Mystical Entrance. Midnight had set in before Eleusis +was reached, so that a great part of the journey had to be accomplished +by the light of the torches carried by each of the pilgrims, and the +nocturnal journey was spoken of as the "Night of Torches" by many +ancient authors. The pitch and resin of which the torches were composed +were substances supposed to have the virtue of warding off evil spirits. +The barren mountains of the Pass of Daphni and the surface of the sea +resounded with the chant, "Iacchos, O Iacchos!" At one of the halts the +Croconians, descendants of the hero Crocon, who had formerly reigned +over the Thriasian Plain, fastened a saffron band on the right arm and +left foot of each one in the procession. Iacchos was always regarded as +a child of Demeter, inasmuch as the vine grows out of the earth. Various +symbols were carried by the people, who numbered sometimes as many as +from thirty to forty thousand. These symbols consisted of winnowing +fans--the "Mystic Fan of Iacchos," plaited reeds and baskets, both +relating to the worship of the goddess and her son. The fan, or van, as +it was sometimes called, was the instrument that separates the wheat +from the chaff, and was regarded also as an emblem of the power which +separates the virtuous from the wicked. In the ancient paintings by +Bellori two persons are represented as standing by the side of the +initiate. One is the priest who is performing the ceremony, who is +represented as in a devout posture, and wearing a veil, the old mark of +devotion, while another is holding a fan over the head of the candidate. +In some of the editions of Southey's translation of the _Æneid_ the +following lines appear:-- + + Now learn what arms industrious peasants wield + To sow the furrow's glebe, and clothe the field: + The share, the crooked plough's strong beam, the wain + That slowly rolls on Ceres to her fane: + Hails, sleds, light osiers, and the harrow's load, + The hurdle, and _the mystic van of God._ + +The distance covered by the procession was twenty-two kilometres, but +Lycurgus ordered that if any woman should ride in a chariot to Eleusis +she should be mulcted in a fine of 8,000 drachmas. This was to prevent +the richer women from distinguishing themselves from their poorer +sisters. Strange to relate, the wife of Lycurgus was the first to break +this law, and Lycurgus himself had to pay the fine which he had +ordained. He not only paid the penalty, but gave a talent to the +informer. Immediately upon the deposit of the sacred objects in the +Eleusinion, at the foot of the Acropolis, one of the Eleusinian priests +solemnly announced their arrival to the priestess of the tutelary +goddess of Athens--Pallas Athene. Plutarch, in commenting upon lucky and +unlucky days, says that he is aware that unlucky things happen sometimes +on lucky days, for the Athenians had to receive a Macedonian garrison +"even on the 20th of Boedromion, the day on which they led forth the +mystic Iacchos." + +SEVENTH DAY.--On the seventh day the statue was carried back to Athens. +The return journey was also a solemn procession, and attended with +numerous ceremonies. Halts were again made at several places, like the +"stations" of Roman Catholic pilgrimages, when the inhabitants also fell +temporarily into line with the procession. For those who remained behind +at Eleusis the time was devoted to sports, the combatants appearing +naked, and the victors were rewarded with a measure of barley, it being +a tradition that that grain was first sown in Eleusis. It was also +regarded as a day of solemn preparation by those who were to be +initiated on the following night. The return journey was conducted with +the same splendour as the outward journey. It comprised comic incidents, +the same as on the previous day. Those who awaited the procession at the +bridge over the Athenian river Cephisson exchanged all kinds of chaff +and buffoonery with those who were in the procession, indulging in what +was termed "bridge fooling." These jests, it is said, were to recall the +tactful measures employed by a maidservant named Iambe to rouse Demeter +from her prolonged sorrowing. There is a strange contradiction in the +various statements made by the ancient writers as to what was +permissible and what was forbidden during the ceremonies. Demeter, when +in search of her daughter, broke down with fatigue at Eleusis, where she +sat down on a well, overwhelmed with grief. It was strictly forbidden to +any of the initiated to sit down on this well lest it should appear that +they were mimicking the weeping goddess. Yet the mimicking of the jests +of Iambe were part of the ceremonial of the Mysteries. According to the +ancient writers the "jests," so-called, would be regarded to-day as in +bad taste. + + Having thus spoken, she drew aside her garments + And showed all that shape of the body which it is + improper to name--the growth of puberty. + And with her own hand Iambe stripped herself under + the breasts. + Blandly then the goddess laughed and laughed in her + mind, + And received the glancing cup in which was the + draught. + +During the Peloponnesian war the Athenians were unable to obtain an +armistice from the Lacedæmonians who held Decelea, and it became +necessary to send the statue of Iacchos and the processionists to +Eleusis by sea. Plutarch says: "Under these conditions it was necessary +to omit the sacrifices usually offered all along the road during the +passing of Iacchos." + +EIGHTH DAY.--The eighth day was called Epidaurion, because it happened +once that Æsculapius, coming from Epidaurius to Athens, desired to be +initiated, and had the Lesser Mysteries repeated for that purpose. It +therefore became customary to celebrate the Lesser Mysteries a second +time upon this day, and to admit to initiation any such approved +candidates who had not already enjoyed the privilege. There was also +another reason for the repetition of the initiatory rites then. The +eighth day was regarded as symbolical of the soul falling into the lunar +orbi, and the repeated initiation, the second celebration of that sacred +rite, was symbolical of the soul bidding adieu to everything of a +celestial nature, sinking into a perfect oblivion of her divine origin +and pristine felicity, and rushing profoundly into the region of +dissimilitude, ignorance, and error. The day opened with a solemn +sacrifice offered to Demeter and Persephone, which took place within the +peribolus. The utmost precision had to be observed in offering this +sacrifice as regarding the age, colour, and sex of the victim, the +chants, perfumes, and libations. The acceptance or rejection of a +sacrifice was indicated by the movements of the animal as it approached +the altar, the vivacity of the flame, the direction of the smoke, etc. +If these signs were not favourable in the case of the first victim +offered, other animals must be slain until one presented itself in which +all the signs were favourable. The flesh of the animal offered was not +allowed to be taken outside the sacred precincts, but had to be consumed +within the building. The following is said to have been an Invocation +used during the celebration of the Mysteries:-- + + Daughter of Jove, Persephone divine, + Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline; + Only-begotten, Pluto's honoured wife, + O venerable goddess, source of life: + 'Tis thine in earth's profoundities to dwell, + Fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell. + Jove's holy offering, 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 forms 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. + +NINTH DAY.--The ninth day was known as the Day of Earthen Vessels, +because it was the custom on that day to fill two jugs with wine. One +was placed towards the East and the other towards the West, and after +the repetition of certain mystical formulæ both were overthrown, the +wine being spilt upon the ground as a libation. The first of these +formulæ was directed towards the sky as a prayer for rain, and the +second to the earth as a prayer for fertility. + +The words used by the hierophant to denote the termination of the +celebration of the Mysteries-_Conx Om Pax_: "Watch and do no evil"--are +said to have been Egyptian, and were the same as those used at the +conclusion of the Mysteries of Isis. This fact is sometimes used as an +argument in favour of the Egyptian origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries. + +TENTH DAY.--On the tenth day the majority of the people returned to +their homes, with the exception of every third and fifth year, when they +remained behind for the Mystery Plays and Sports, which lasted from two +to three days. + +The Eleusinian Games are described by the rhetorician Aristides as the +oldest of all Greek games. They are supposed to have been instituted as +a thank-offering to Demeter and Persephone at the conclusion of the corn +harvest. From an inscription dating from the latter part of the third +century B.C. sacrifices were offered to Demeter and Persephone at these +games. They included athletic and musical contests, a horse race, and a +competition which bore the name of the Ancestral or the Hereditary +Contest, the nature of which is not known, but which it is thought may +have had its origin in a contest between the reapers on the sacred +Rharian plain to see which should first complete his allotted task. + +The ancient sanctuary in which the Mysteries were celebrated was burnt +by the Persians in 480 or 479 B.C., and a new sanctuary was built--or, +at least, begun--under the administration of Pericles. Plutarch says +that Corcebus began the Temple of Initiation at Eleusis, but only lived +to finish the lower rank of columns with their architraves; Metagenes, +of the ward of Xypete, added the rest of the entablature and the upper +row of columns, and that Xenocles of Cholargus built the dome on the +top. The long wall, the building of which Socrates says he heard +Pericles propose to the people, was undertaken by Callicrates. Cratinus +satirized the work as proceeding very slowly:-- + + Stone upon stone the orator has pil'd + With swelling words, but words will build no walls. + +According to some writers the Temple was planned by Tetinus, the +architect of the Parthenon, and Pericles was merely the overseer of the +building. We are told by Vitruvius that the Temple at Eleusis consisted +at first of one cell of vast magnitude, without columns, though it was +probable that it was meant to be surrounded in the customary manner; a +prostyle, however, only was added, and that not until the time of +Demetrius Phalereus, some ages after the original structure was erected. +It is probable that the uncommon magnitude of the cell, added to the +various and complicated rites of initiation to the Eleusinian Mysteries, +of which it was the scene, prevented its being a peristyle, the expense +of which would have been enormous. The Temple was one of the largest of +the sacred edifices of Greece. Its length was 68 metres, its breadth +54,66 metres and its superficial area 3716,88 square metres. The +monumental altar of sacrifice was placed in front of the facade, close +by the eastern angle of the enclosure. According to Virgil the words +"Far hence, O be ye far hence, ye profane ones," were inscribed over the +main portal. + +In the fourth century of the Christian era the Temple of Eleusis was +destroyed by the Goths, at the instigation of the monks, who followed +the hosts of Alaric. + +The revenues from the celebrations must have been considerable. At both +the Lesser Mysteries and the Greater Mysteries a charge of one obole a +day was demanded from each one attending, which was given to the +hierophant. The hierocceryx received a half-obole a day, and other +assistants a similar sum. In current coinage an obole was of the value +of a fraction over 1 1/4d. + + + + +IV + +THE INITIATORY RITES + + +Two important facts must be set down with regard to the Mysteries: +first, the general custom of all Athenian citizens, and afterwards of +all Greeks generally, and eventually of many foreigners, to seek +admission into the Eleusinian Mysteries in the only possible +manner--viz. by initiation; and, second, the scrupulous care exercised +by the Eumolpides to ensure that only persons duly qualified, of +irreproachable--or, at any rate, of circumspect, character passed the +portals. In the earlier days of the Mysteries it was a necessary +condition that the candidates for initiation should be free-born +Athenians, but in course of time this rule was relaxed, until eventually +strangers (as residents outside Athens were called), aliens, slaves, and +even courtesans, were admitted, on condition that they were introduced +by a mystagogue, who was, of course, an Athenian. An interesting +inscription was discovered a few years ago demonstrating the fact that +the public slaves of the city were initiated at the public expense. From +historical records we learn that Lysias was enabled without difficulty +to secure the initiation of his mistress, Metanira, who was then in the +service of the courtesan Nicareta. There always prevailed, however, the +strict rule that no one could be admitted who had been guilty of murder +or homicide, wilful or accidental, or who had been convicted of +witchcraft, and all who had incurred the capital penalty for conspiracy +or treason were also excluded. Nero sought admission into the Eleusinian +Mysteries, but was rejected because of the many slaughters connected +with his name. Antoninus, when he would purge himself before the world +of the death of Avidius Cassius, elected to be initiated into the +Eleusinian Mysteries, it being recognized at that time that none was +admitted into them who was justly guilty of heinous immorality or crime. + +Apollonius of Tyana was desirous of being admitted into the Eleusinian +Mysteries, but the hierophant refused to admit him on the ground that he +was a magician, and had intercourse with divinities other than those of +the Mysteries, declaring that he would never initiate a wizard or throw +open the Mysteries to a man addicted to impure rites. Apollonius +retorted: "You have not yet mentioned the chief of my offences, which is +that, knowing, as I do, more about the initiatory rites than you do +yourself, I have nevertheless come to you as if you were wiser than I +am." The hierophant, when he saw that the exclusion of Apollonius was +not by any means popular with the crowd, changed his tone and said: "Be +thou initiated, for thou seemest to be some wise man that has come +here." But Apollonius replied: "I will be initiated at another time, and +it is (mentioning a name) who will initiate me." Hereon, says +Philostratus, he showed his gift of prevision, for he glanced at the one +who succeeded the hierophant he addressed, and presided over the temple +four years later when Apollonius was initiated. + +Persons of both sexes and of all ages were initiated, and neglect of the +ceremony came to be regarded almost in the light of a crime. Socrates +and Demonax were reproached and looked upon with suspicion because they +did not apply for initiation. Persians were always pointedly excluded +from the ceremony. Athenians of both sexes were granted the privilege of +initiation during childhood on the presentation of their father, but +only the first degree of initiation was permitted. For the second and +third degrees it was necessary to have arrived at full age. The Greeks +looked upon initiation in much the same light as the majority of +Christians look upon baptism. So great was the rush of candidates for +initiation when the restrictions were relaxed that Cicero was able to +write that the inhabitants of the most distant regions flocked to +Eleusis in order to be initiated. Thus it became the custom with all +Romans, who journeyed to Athens to take advantage of the opportunity to +become initiates. Even the Emperors of Rome, the official heads of the +Roman religion, the masters of the world, came to the Eumolpides to +proffer the request that they might receive the honour of initiation and +become participants in the Sacred Mysteries revealed by the goddess. + +While Augustus, who was initiated in the year 21 B.C., did not hesitate +to show his antipathy towards the religion of the Egyptians, towards +Judaism and Druidism, he was always scrupulous in observing the pledge +of secrecy demanded of initiates into the Eleusinian Mysteries, and on +one occasion, when it became necessary for some of the priests of the +Eleusinian temple to proceed to Rome to plead before his tribunal on the +question of privilege, and in the course of the evidence to speak of +certain ceremonial in connection with the Mysteries of which it was not +lawful to speak in the presence of the uninitiated, he ordered every one +who had not received the privilege of initiation to leave the tribunal +so that he and the witnesses alone remained. The Eleusinian Mysteries +were not deemed inimical to the welfare of the Roman Empire as were the +religions of the Egyptians, Jews, and ancient Britons. + +Claudius, another imperial initiate, conceived the idea of transferring +the scene of the Mysteries to Rome, and, according to Suetonius, was +about to put the project into execution, when it was ruled that it was +obligatory that the principal scenic presentation of the Mysteries must +be celebrated on the ground trodden by the feet of Demeter and where the +goddess herself had ordered her temple to be erected. + +The initiation of the Emperor Hadrian (who succeeded where Claudius had +failed, in introducing the celebration of the Mysteries into Rome) took +place in A.D. 125, when he was present at the Lesser Mysteries in the +spring and at the Greater Mysteries in the following autumn. In +September, A.D. 129, he was again at Athens, when he presented himself +for the third degree, as is known from Dion Cassius, confirmed by a +letter written by the Emperor himself, in which he mentions a journey +from Eleusis to Ephesus made by him at that time. Hadrian is the only +imperial initiate, so far as is known, who persevered and passed through +all three degrees. Since he remained at Eleusis as long as it was +possible for him to do so after the completion of his initiation, it is +not rash to assume that he was inspired by something more than curiosity +or even by a desire to show respect. + +It is uncertain whether the Emperor Antonin was initiated, although from +an inscription it seems probable that he was and that he should be +included in the list of imperial initiates. Both Marcus Aurelius and +Commodus, father and son, were initiated at the same time, at the Lesser +Mysteries in March, A.D. 176, and at the Greater Mysteries in the +following September. Septimius Severus was initiated before he ascended +the throne. + +There was, as stated, three degrees, and the ordinary procedure with +regard to initiation was as follows:-- + +In the month of Anthesterion, the flower month of spring, corresponding +with February-March, an applicant could, if approved, become an initiate +into the first degree at the celebration of the Lesser Mysteries and +take part in their celebration at the Eleusinion at Agra, near to +Athens. The ceremony of initiation into this first degree was on a far +less imposing scale than the ceremony of initiation into the second and +third degrees at the Greater Mysteries. The candidate, however, had to +keep chaste and unpolluted for nine days prior to the ceremony, which +each one attended wearing crowns and garlands of flowers and observed by +offering prayers and sacrifices. Immediately previous to the celebration +the candidates for initiation were prepared by the Mystagogues, the +special teachers selected for the purpose from the families of the +Eumolpides and Keryces. They were instructed in the story of Demeter and +Persephone, the character of the purification necessary and other +preliminary rites, the fast days, with particulars of the food +permissible and forbidden to be eaten, and the various sacrifices to be +offered by and for them under the direction of the mystagogues. + +Without this preparation no one could be admitted to the Mysteries. +There was, however, neither secret doctrine nor dogmatic teaching in +this preliminary instruction. Revelation came through contemplation of +the sacred objects displayed during the ceremonies by the hierophant, +the meaning of which was communicated by means of the mystic formulæ; +but the preparation demanded of the initiates, the secrecy imposed, the +ceremonies at which the initiates assisted, all of which were performed +in the dead of night, created a strong impression and lively hope in +regard to the future life. No other cult in Greece, still less the cold +Roman religion, had anything of the kind, or approaching to it, to +offer. Fasting from food and drink for a certain period before and after +initiation was essential, but the candidates did not attach to this act +any idea of maceration or expiation of faults: it was simply the +reproduction of an event in the life of the goddess, and undergone in +order that the body might become more pure. Bowls or vases of +consecrated or holy water were placed at the entrance of the temple for +the purposes of aspersion. In cases of special or particular impurity an +extra preparation extending over two or three days longer became +necessary, and unctions of oil or repeated immersions in water were +administered. The outward physical purity, the result of immersion prior +to initiation, was but the symbol of the inward purity which was +supposed to result from initiation. One of the duties of the mystagogues +was to see that the candidates were in a state of physical cleanliness +both before and throughout the ceremony. According to inscriptions which +have been discovered there appear to have been temples or buildings set +apart for the cleansing of candidates from special impurities. +Initiation into the Lesser Mysteries only permitted the neophyte to go +as far as the outer vestibule of the temple. + +In the following autumn, if of full age and approved by the hierophant, +the neophyte could be initiated into the Greater Mysteries, into the +second degree, that of Mysta. This, however, did not secure admission to +all the ceremonies performed during the celebration of the Greater +Mysteries. A further year, at least, had to elapse before the third +degree, that of Epopta, was taken, before he could see with his own eyes +and hear with his own ears, all that took place in the temple during the +celebration of the Mysteries. Even then, there was one part of the +temple and one portion of the ceremony which could be entered and +witnessed only by the hierophant and hierophantide. + +According to Plutarch, Demetrius, when he was returning to Athens, wrote +to the republic that on his arrival he intended to be initiated and to +be admitted immediately, not only to the Lesser Mysteries, but to the +Greater as well. This was unlawful and unprecedented, though when the +letter was read, Pythodorus, a torch-bearer, was the only person who +ventured to oppose the demand, and his opposition was entirely +ineffectual. Stratocles procured a decree that the month of Munychion +should be reputed to be and called the month of Anthesterion, to give +Demetrius the opportunity for the initiation into the first degree. This +was done, whereupon a second decree was issued by which Munychion was +again changed into Boedromion, and Demetrius was admitted to the +Mysteries of the next degree. Philippides, the poet, satirized +Stratocles in the words: "The man who can contract the whole year into +one month," and Demetrius, with reference to his lodging in the +Parthenon, in the words: "The man who turns the temples into inns and +brings prostitutes into the company of the virgin goddess." + +The design of initiation, according to Plato, was to restore the soul to +that state from which it fell, and Proclus states that initiation into +the Mysteries drew the souls of men from a material, sensual, and merely +human life and joined them in communion with the gods. "Happy is the +man," wrote Euripides, "who hath been initiated into the Greater +Mysteries and leads a life of piety and religion," and Aristophanes +truly represented public opinion when he wrote in _The Frogs_: "On us +only does the sun dispense his blessings; we only receive pleasure from +his beams; we, who are initiated, and perform towards citizens and +strangers all acts of piety and justice." The initiates sought to +imitate the allegorical birth of the god. The epoptæ were supposed to +have experienced a certain regeneration and to enter upon a new state of +existence, and they were fantastically deemed to have acquired a great +increase of light and knowledge. Hitherto they had been exoteric and +profane; now they had become esoteric and holy. + +Jevons, in his _Introduction to the Study of Religion,_ says that no +oath was demanded of the initiate, but that silence was observed +generally as an act of reverence rather than as an act of purposed +concealment. There seems, however, to be conclusive evidence that an +oath of secrecy was demanded of and taken by the candidates for +initiation, at any rate, into the second and third degrees, if not into +the first degree. Moreover, there are on record several prosecutions of +citizens for having broken the pledge of secrecy they had given. +Æschylus was indicted for having disclosed in the theatre certain +details of the Mysteries, and he only escaped punishment by proving that +he had never been initiated and, therefore, could not have violated any +obligation. A Greek scholiast says that in five of his tragedies +Æschylus spoke of Demeter and therefore may be supposed in these cases +to have touched upon subjects connected with the Mysteries, and +Heraclides of Pontus says that on this account he was in danger of being +killed by the populace if he had not fled for refuge to the altar of +Dionysos and been begged off by the Areopagites and acquitted on the +ground of his exploits at Marathon. An accusation was brought against +Aristotle of having performed a funeral sacrifice in honour of his wife +in imitation of the Eleusinian ceremonies. Alcibiades was charged with +mimicking the sacred Mysteries in one of his drunken revels, when he +represented the hierophant; Theodorus, one of his friends, represented +the herald; and another, Polytion, represented the dadouchos; other +companions attending as initiates and being addressed as mystæ. The +information against him ran:-- + +"Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the ward of Lacais, accuseth +Alcibiades, the son of Clinian, of the ward of Scambonis, of +sacrilegiously offending the goddess Ceres and her daughter, Persephone, +by counterfeiting their Mysteries and showing them to his companions in +his own house, wearing such a robe as the high priest does when he shows +the holy things; he called himself high priest; as did Polytion +torch-bearer; and Theodorus, of the ward of Thyges, herald; and the rest +of his companions he called persons initiated and Brethren of the +Secret; therein acting contrary to the rules and ceremonies established +by the Eumolpides, the Heralds and Priests at Eleusis." + +Alcibiades did not appear in answer to the charge, and he was condemned +in his absence, an order being made that his goods were to be +confiscated. This occurred in 415 B.C. and the incident created quite a +panic, as many prominent citizens, Andocides included, were implicated. +"This man," said the accuser of Andocides, "vested in the same costume +as a hierophant, has shown the sacred objects to men who were not +initiated and has uttered words which it is not permissible to repeat." +Andocides admitted the charge, but turned king's evidence, and named +certain others as culprits with him. He was rewarded with a free pardon +under a decree which Isotmides had issued, but those whom he named were +either put to death or outlawed and their goods were confiscated. +Andocides afterwards entered the temple while the Mysteries were in +progress and was charged with breaking the law in so doing. He defended +himself before a court of heliasts, all of whom had been initiated into +the Mysteries, the president of the court being the Archon Basileus. The +indictment was lodged by Cephisius, the chief prosecutor, with the +Archon Basileus, during the celebration of the Greater Mysteries and +while Andocides was still at Eleusis. Andocides was acquitted, and it is +stated that Cephisius having failed to obtain one-fifth of the votes of +the court, the result, according to the law, was that he had to pay a +fine of a thousand drachmas and to suffer permanent exclusion from the +Eleusinian shrine. Diagoras was accused of railing at the sanctity of +the Mysteries of Eleusis in such a manner as to deter persons from +seeking initiation, and a reward of one talent was offered to any one +who should kill him or two talents to any one who should bring him +alive. The Greek talent was of the value of about £200. + +An ancient theme of oratorical composition and one set even in the sixth +century of the Christian era ran:-- + +"The law punishes with death whoever has disclosed the Mysteries: some +one to whom the initiation has been revealed in a dream asks one of the +initiated if what he has seen is in conformity with reality: the +initiate acquiesces by a movement of the head; and for that he is +accused of impiety." + +Every care, therefore, was taken to prevent the secrecy of the Mysteries +from being broken and the ceremonial becoming known to any not +initiated. Details have, nevertheless, come to light in various ways, +but chiefly through the ancient writings and inscriptions. Step by step +and piece by piece the diligent researcher has been rewarded by the +discovery of disconnected and isolated fragments which, by themselves, +supply no precise information, but, taken in the aggregate, form a +perfect mosaic. Though it was strictly forbidden to reveal what took +place within the sacred enclosure and in the Hall of Initiation, it was +permissible to state clearly the main object of initiation and the +advantages to be derived from the act. Not only was the breaking of the +obligation of secrecy given by an initiate visited with severe, +sometimes even with capital, punishment, but the forcing of the temple +enclosure by the uninitiated, as sometimes happened, was an offence of +an equally impious and heinous character. By virtue of the unwritten +laws and customs dating back to the most remote periods the penalty of +death was frequently pronounced for faults not grave in themselves, +although the forcing of the temple enclosure was, of course, a grave +crime, but because they concerned religion. It was probably by virtue of +those unwritten laws that the priests ordered the death of two young +Arcananians who had penetrated, through ignorance, into the sacred +precincts. They happened inadvertently to mix with the crowd at the +season of the Mysteries and to enter the temple, but the questions asked +by them, in consequence of their ignorance of the proceedings, betrayed +them, and their intrusion was punished with death. This was in 200 B.C., +and Rome made war upon Philip V of Macedonia on the complaint of the +government of Athens against that king who wished to punish them for +having rigorously applied the ancient laws to those two offenders, who +were found guilty merely of entering the sanctuary at Eleusis without +having previously been initiated. No judicial penalty, however, was +meted out to the fanatical Epicurean eunuch who, with the object of +proving that the gods had no existence, forced himself blaspheming into +that part of the sanctuary into which the hierophant and the +hierophantide alone had the right of entry. Ælianus states that a divine +punishment in the form of a disease alone overtook him. Horace declared +that he would not risk his life by going on to the water with a +companion who had revealed the secret of the Mysteries. + +The two days prior to initiation into the second and third degrees were +spent by the candidates in solitary retirement and in strict fasting. It +was a "retreat" in the strictest sense of the word. Fasting was +practised, not only in imitation of the sufferings of Demeter when +searching for Persephone, but because of the danger of the contact of +holy things with unholy, the clean with the unclean. This also is one of +the reasons why it was held to be impious even to speak of the Mysteries +to one who had not been initiated and especially dangerous to allow such +unclean and profane persons to take any part, even that of a viewer, in +the ceremonies. Hence the punishment meted out by the State was in lieu +of, or to avert, the divine wrath which such pollution might bring on +the community at large. + +At the entrance to the temple tablets were placed containing a list of +forbidden foods. The list included several kinds of fish--the +whistle-fish, gurnet, crab, and mullet. In all probability the +whistle-fish is that known as _Sciæna aquila_, a Mediterranean fish that +makes a noise under the water which has been compared to bellowing, +buzzing, purring, or whistling, the air bladder being the +sound-producing organ. The fish was greatly esteemed by the Romans. +There is a large _Sciæna_, not _aquila_, though very like it, in the +Fish Gallery of the British Museum (Natural History) opposite the +entrance from the Zoological Library. The whistle-fish and crab were +held to be impure, the first because it laid its eggs through the mouth, +and the second because it ate filth which other fish rejected. The +gurnet was rejected because of its fecundity as witnessed in its annual +triple laying of eggs, but, according to some writers, it was rejected +because it ate a fish which was poisonous to mankind. It may well be +that other fish were interdicted, but Porphyry was probably exaggerating +when he said that all fish were forbidden. Birds bred at home, such as +chickens and pigeons, were also on the banned list, as were beans and +certain vegetables which were forbidden for a mystical reason which +Pausanias said he dare not reveal save to the initiated. The probable +reason was that they were connected in some way with the wanderings of +Demeter. Pomegranates were, of course, forbidden, from the incident of +the eating of the pomegranate seeds by Persephone. + +The candidates were carefully instructed in these rules before the +beginning of the celebration. Originally the instruction of the +candidates was in the hands of the hierophant, who, following the +example of his ancestor, Eumolpus, claimed the privilege of preparing +the candidates as well as that of communicating to them the knowledge of +the divine Mysteries. But the continually increasing number of +candidates made it necessary to employ auxiliary instructors, and this +particular work was handed over to the charge of the mystagogues, who +prepared the candidates either singly or in groups, the hierophant +reserving to himself the general direction of the instruction. In the +course of the initiation ceremony certain words had to be spoken by the +candidates, and these were made known to them in advance, although, of +course, apart from their context. + +Admission to the second degree took place during the night between the +sixth and seventh days of the celebration of the Mysteries, the +candidates being led blindfolded into the temple and the ceremony opened +with prayers and sacrifices by the second Archon. The candidates were +crowned with myrtle wreaths, and, on entering the building, they +purified themselves in a formal manner by immersing their hands in the +consecrated water. Salt, laurel-leaves, barley, and crowns of flowers +were also employed in the purification. The priests, vested in their +sacerdotal garments, then came forward to receive the candidates. This +initial ceremony took place in the outer hall of the temple, the temple +itself being closed. A herald then came forward and uttered the +proclamation: "Begone ye profane. Away from here, all ye that are not +purified, and whose souls have not been freed from sin." In later years +this formulary was changed, and in its stead the herald proclaimed: "If +any atheist, or Christian, or Epicurean, is come to spy on the orgies, +let him instantly retire, but let those who believe remain and be +initiated, with good future." It was the final opportunity for the +retirement of any who were not votaries who had by chance entered the +precincts: if discovered afterwards the punishment was death. In order +to make certain that no intruders remained behind all who were present +had to answer certain specified questions. Then all again immersed their +hands into the consecrated water and renewed their pledge of secrecy. +The candidates for initiation then took off their ordinary garments and +put on the skins of young does. This done, the priests wished them joy +of all the happiness their initiation would bring them, and then left +the candidates alone. Within a few minutes the apartment in which they +were was plunged in total darkness. Lamentations and strange noises were +heard; terrific peals of thunder resounded, seemingly shaking the very +foundations of the temple; vivid flashes of lightning lit up the +darkness, rendering it more terrible, while a more persistent light from +a fire displayed fearful forms. Sighs, groans, and cries of pain +resounded on all sides, like the shrieks of the condemned in Tartarus. +The novitiates were taken hold of by invisible hands, their hair was +torn, and they were beaten and thrown to the ground. Then a faint light +became visible in the distance and a fearful scene appeared before their +eyes. The gates of Tartarus were opened and the abode of the condemned +lay before them. They could hear the cries of anguish and the vain +regrets of those to whom Paradise was lost for ever. They could, +moreover, witness their hopeless remorse: they saw, as well as heard, +all the tortures of the condemned. The Furies, armed with relentless +scourges and flaming torches, drove the unhappy victims incessantly to +and fro, never letting them rest for a moment. Meanwhile the loud voice +of the hierophant, who represented the judge of the earth, could be +heard expounding the meaning of what was passing before them, and +warning and threatening the initiates. It may well be imagined that all +these fearful scenes were so terrifying that very frequently beads of +anguish appeared on the brows of the novices. Howling dogs and even +material demons are said actually to have appeared to the initiates +before the scene was changed. Proclus, in his _Commentary on +Alcibiades_, says: "In the most holy of the Mysteries, before the +presence of the god, certain terrestrial demons are hurled forth, which +call the attention from undefiled advantages to matter." At length the +gates of Tartarus were closed, the scene was suddenly changed, and the +innermost sanctuary of the temple lay open before the initiates in +dazzling light. In the midst stood the statue of the goddess Demeter +brilliantly decked and gleaming with precious stones; heavenly music +entranced their souls; a cloudless sky overshadowed them; fragrant +perfumes arose; and in the distance the privileged spectators beheld +flowering meads, where the blessed danced and amused themselves with +innocent games and pastimes. Among other writers the scene has been +described by Aristophanes in _The Frogs_:-- + + _Heracles_. The voyage is a long one. For you will come directly to + a very big lake of abysmal depth. + + _Dionysos_. Then how shall I get taken across it? + + _Heracles_. In a little boat just so high: an old man who plies + that boat will take you across for a fee of two oboles. + + _Dionysos_. Oh dear! How very powerful those two oboles are all + over the world. How did they manage to get here? + + _Heracles_. Theseus brought them. After this you will see serpents + and wild beasts in countless numbers and very terrible. Then a + great slough and overflowing dung; and in this you'll see lying any + one who ever yet at any place wronged his guest or beat his mother, + or smote his father's jaw, or swore an oath and foreswore + himself.... And next a breathing of flutes shall be wafted around + you, and you shall see a very beautiful light, even as in this + world, and myrtle groves, and happy choirs of men and women, and a + loud clapping of hands. + + _Dionysos_. And who are these people, pray? + + _Heracles_. The initiated. + +It was regarded as permissible to describe certain scenes of the +initiation, and this has been done by many writers, but a complete +silence was demanded as to the means employed to realize the end, the +rites and ceremonies in which the initiate took part, the emblems which +were displayed, and the actual words uttered, and the slightest +contravention of this rule rendered the offender liable to the strongest +possible condemnation and chastisement. + +In the course of the ceremony the hierophant asked the candidates a +series of questions, to which written answers had been prepared and +committed to memory by the candidates. The holy Mysteries were revealed +to them from a book called _Petroma,_ a word derived from _petra_, a +stone, and so called because the writings were kept between two cemented +stones which fitted in to each other. The Pheneatians used to swear by +and on the Petroma. The domed top held within it a mask of Demeter which +the hierophant wore at the celebration of the Mysteries, or during part +of the ceremonial. The garments worn by the initiates during the +ceremony were accounted sacred and equal to incantations and charms in +their power to avert evils. Consequently they were never cast off until +torn and tattered. Nor was it usual, even then, to throw them away, but +it was customary to make them into swaddling clothes for children or to +consecrate them to Demeter and Persephone. + +Admission to the third degree took place during the night between the +seventh and eighth days of the celebration of the Greater Mysteries. +This, the final degree, with the exception of those called to be +hierophants, was known as the degree of Epopta. Exactly in what the +ceremonial consisted, save in one particular presently to be described, +is unknown. Hippolytus is practically the only authority for the main +incident of the degree. Certain words and signs were, however, +communicated to the initiated which, it was stated, would, when +pronounced at the hour of death, ensure the eternal happiness of the +soul. + +The most solemn part of the ceremony was that which has been described +by some writers as the hierogamy, or sacred marriage of Zeus and +Demeter, although some have erroneously referred to it as the marriage +of Pluto and Persephone. During the celebration of the Mysteries the +hierophant and hierophantide descended into a cave or deep recess and, +after remaining there for a time, they returned to the assembly, +surrounded seemingly by flames, and the hierophant, displaying to the +gaze of the initiated an ear of corn, exclaimed with a loud voice: "The +divine Brimo has given birth to the holy child Brimos: The strong has +brought forth strength." The scene was dramatic and symbolical, and +there could have been nothing material in the incident. The torches of +the multitude were extinguished while the throng above awaited with +anxious suspense the return of the priest and priestess from the murky +place into which they had descended, for they believed their own +salvation to depend upon the result of the mystic congress. The charges +brought against the Eleusinian Mysteries of rioting and debauchery +during their Grecian history are brought by those who were not permitted +to share their honours, or who were prejudiced in favour of some other +form of religion. In the opinion of the majority of contemporary writers +these charges were wholly gratuitous, and they maintain that the +Eleusinian Mysteries produced a sanctity of manners and a cultivation of +virtue. They could not, of course, make a man virtuous against his will +and Diogenes, when asked to submit to initiation, replied that +Pataecion, a notorious robber, had obtained initiation. + +"The Athenians," says Hippolytus, "in the initiation of Eleusis, show to +the epoptæ the great, admirable, and most perfect mystery of the epoptæ: +an ear of corn gathered in silence." The statement is so clear as to +leave no doubt whatever on the subject; indeed, it has never been called +into question. The presentation of the ear of corn was regarded as a +special, indeed the most important, feature of the Mysteries of Eleusis, +and it was reserved for the final degree. Much has been made of this +incident by many who can see no beauty in pre-Christian or non-Christian +systems of religion, their comments being based mainly on a statement of +Gregory Nazianus, who stands almost alone in discerning lewdness in the +Eleusinian ceremonial. He says: "It is not in our religion that you will +find a seduced Cora, a wandering Demeter, a Keleos, and a Triptolemus +appearing with serpents; that Demeter is capable of certain acts and +that she permits others. I am really ashamed to throw light on the +nocturnal orgies of the initiations. Eleusis knows as well as the +witnesses the secret of the spectacle, which is with reason kept so +profound." + +Apart from this isolated statement the Eleusinian Mysteries have not +been charged, as many other ancient rites were, with promoting and +encouraging immorality. In his account of the doings of the false +prophet Alexander of Abountichos, Lucian describes how the impostor +instituted rites which were a close parody of those celebrated at +Eleusis, and he narrates the details of the travesty. Among the mimetic +performances were not only the epiphany and birth of a god but the +enactment of a sacred marriage. All preliminaries were gone through, and +Lucian says that but for the abundance of lighted torches the marriage +would actually have been consummated. The part of the hierophant was +taken by the false prophet himself. From the travesty it is evident that +in the genuine Mysteries, in silence, in darkness, and in perfect +chastity the sacred marriage was symbolized and that immediately +afterwards the hierophant came forward and standing in a blaze of +torchlight made the announcement to the initiates. + +The name _Brimo_, expressed at full length _Obrimo,_ seems to be a +variation of the compound term _Ob-Rimon_, "the lofty serpent goddess." + + The birth of Brimo; and the mighty deeds + Of the Titanic hosts; the servitude + Of Jove; and the mysterious mountain rites + Of Cybelè, when with distracted pace she sought + Through the wide world the beauteous Proserpine; + The far-fam'd labours of the Machian Hercules; + Th' Idèan orgies; and the giant force + Of the dread Corybantes; and the wanderings + Of Ceres, and the woes of Prosperpine: + With these I sung the gifts of the Cabiri; + The Mysteries of Bacchus; and the praise + Of Lemnos, Samothrace, and lofty Cyprus, + Fair Adonean Venus; and the rites + Of dread Ogygian Praxidicè; + Arinian Minerva's nightly festival; + And Egypt's sorrow for the lost Osiris. + + _Orphic Hymn._ + +Dr. Jevons maintains that this ear of corn was the totem of Eleusis, and +this view has been adopted by M. Reinach, who says: "We find in the +texts a certain trace not only of the cult but of the adoration and the +exaltation (in the Christian meaning of the word) of the ear of corn." +But he has omitted to quote the texts on which he relies for this +assertion. It would be interesting to know why, among all the plants +which die and revive in the course of a year, wheat was chosen for +preference, why the ear more than the grain, why it should be emphasized +that it was gathered, for what reason the spectacle was reserved for the +epoptæ, and in what manner it secured or ensured for the individual a +blissful existence after death. The demonstration presupposes that the +preceding rites were leading up to this supreme display. + +After this demonstration the epoptæ partook of barley meal flavoured +with pennyroyal, as a solemn form of communion with Demeter. According +to Eustathius, the compound was a kind of thick gruel, half-solid, +half-liquid. This done, each of the initiated repeated after the +hierophant the following words: "I have fasted, I have drank 'cyceon.' I +have taken from the cystos, and after having tasted of it I placed it in +the calathos. I again took it from the calathos and put it back in the +cystos." This formula, notwithstanding its length, is said to have been +the password leading to the third degree. + +Justin Martyr gives the oath of initiation as follows: "So help me +heaven, the work of God who is great and wise: so help me the word of +the Father which he spake when he established the whole universe in his +wisdom." + +With this ceremony the third degree ended, save that the epoptæ were +placed upon exalted seats, around which the priests circled in mystic +dances. The day succeeding admission into the final degree was regarded +as a rigorous fast, at the conclusion of which the epoptæ drank of the +mystic cyceon and ate of the sacred cakes. + +According to Theo of Smyrna, the full or complete initiation consisted +of five steps or degrees, which he sets out as follows:-- + +"Again, philosophy may be called the initiation into true sacred +ceremonies, and the tradition of genuine mysteries; for there are five +parts of initiation; the first of which is previous purgation, for +neither are the Mysteries communicated to all who are willing to receive +them, but there are certain characters who are prevented by the voice of +the crier, such as those who possess impure hands and an inarticulate +voice, since it is necessary that such as are not expelled from the +Mysteries should first be refined by certain purgations, but after +purgation the tradition of the sacred rite succeeds. The third part is +denominated inspection. And the fourth, which is the end and design of +inspection, is the binding of the head and fixing the crown, so that the +initiated may, by this means, be enabled to communicate to others the +sacred rites in which he has been instructed. Whether after this he +becomes a torch-bearer, or an interpreter of the Mysteries, or sustains +some other part of the sacerdotal office. But the fifth, which is +produced from all these, is friendship with divinity, and the enjoyment +of that felicity which arises from intimate converse with the gods. +According to Plato, purification is to be derived from the five +mathematical disciplines, viz. arithmetic, geometry, stereometry, music, +and astronomy." + +Apuleius is represented as saying to himself:-- + +"I approached the confines of death; and, having crossed the threshold +of Proserpine, I at length returned, borne along through all the +elements. I beheld the sun shining in the dead of night with luminous +splendour: I saw both the infernal and the celestial gods. I approached +and adored them." + +Themistius represents initiation in the following words:-- + +"Entering now the mystic dome, he is filled with horror and amazement. +He is seized with solicitude and a total perplexity. He is unable to +move a step forward; and he is at a loss to find the entrance to that +road which is to lead him to the place he aspires to. But now, in the +midst of his perplexity, the prophet (hierophant) suddenly lays open to +him the space before the portals of the temple. Having thoroughly +purified him, the hierophant now discloses to the initiated a region all +over illuminated and shining with a divine splendour. The cloud and +thick darkness are dispersed; and the mind, which before was full of +disconsolate obscurity, now emerges, as it were, into day, replete with +light and cheerfulness, out of the profound depth into which it had been +plunged." + +The fee for initiation was a minimum sum of fifteen drachmas (a drachma +being of the value of 7 3/4d.), in addition to which there were the +usual honoraria to be bestowed upon the various officials, to which +reference has already been made. Presumably, also, gifts in kind were +made to the principal officials, for an inscription of the fifth century +B.C., found at Eleusis, reads:-- + +"Let the Hierophant and the Torch-bearer command that at the Mysteries +the Hellenes shall offer first-fruits of their crops in accordance with +ancestral usage.... To those who do these things there shall be many +good things, both good and abundant crops, whoever of them do not injure +the Athenians, nor the city of Athens, nor the two goddesses." + +The Telestrion or Hall of Initiation, sometimes called "The Mystic +Temple," was surrounded on all sides by steps, which presumably served +as seats for the initiated while the sacred dramas and processions took +place on the floor of the hall. These steps were partly built in and +partly cut in the solid rock; in later times they appear to have been +covered with marble. There were two doors on each side of the hall with +the exception of the north-west, where the entrance was cut out of the +solid rock, a rock terrace at a higher level adjoining it. This was +probably the station of those not yet admitted to full initiation. The +roof of the hall was carried by rows of columns which were more than +once renewed. The Hall itself did not accommodate more than four +thousand people. The building was perhaps more accurately described by +Aristophanes, who called it: "The House that welcomed the Mystæ," and he +carefully distinguished it from the Temple of Demeter. It was not the +dwelling-place of any god, and it, therefore, did not contain any holy +image. It was built for the celebration of a definite ritual, and the +Eleusinian Hall of Initiation was therefore the only known _church_ of +antiquity, if by that term we mean the meeting-place of the +congregation. + +Mr. James Christie, in his work on _Greek Vases,_ contends that the +phantasmal scenes in the Mysteries were shown by transparencies, such as +are yet used by the Chinese, Javanese, and Hindus. + + + + +V + +THEIR MYSTICAL SIGNIFICANCE + + +Life, as we know it, was looked upon by the ancient philosophers as +death. Plato considered the body as the sepulchre of the soul, and in +the _Cratylus_ acquiesces in the doctrine of Orpheus that the soul is +punished through its union with the body. Empedocles, lamenting his +connection with this corporeal world, pathetically exclaimed:-- + + For this I weep, for this indulge my woe, + That e'er my soul such novel realms should know. + +He also calls this material abode, or the realms of generation, + + a joyless region, + Where slaughter, rage, and countless ills reside. + +Philolaus, the celebrated Pythagorean, wrote: "The ancient theologists +and priests testify that the soul is united with the body for the sake +of suffering punishment, and that it is buried in the body as in a +sepulchre"; while Pythagoras himself said: "Whatever we see when awake +is death, and when asleep a dream." + +This is the truth intended to be expressed in the Mysteries. Sallustius, +the neo-Platonic philosopher, in his treatise _Peri Theon kai Kosmou_, +"Concerning the gods and the existing state of things," explains the +rape of Persephone as signifying the descent of the soul. Other writers +have explained the real element of the Mysteries as consisting in the +relations of the universe to the soul, more especially after death, or +as intimating obscurely by splendid visions the felicity of the soul +here and hereafter when purified from the defilements of a material +nature. The intention of all mystic ceremonies, according to Sallustius, +was to conjoin the world and the gods. Plotinus says that to be plunged +into matter is to descend and then fall asleep. The initiate had to +withstand the dæmons and spectres, which, in later times, illustrated +the difficulties besetting the soul in its approach to the gods, so also +the Uasarian had to repel or satisfy the mystic crocodiles, vipers, +avenging assessors, dæmons of the gate, and other dread beings whom he +encountered in his trying passage through the valley of the shadow of +death. Pindar, speaking of the Eleusinian Mysteries, says: "Blessed is +he who, on seeing those common concerns under the earth, knows both the +end of life and the given end of Jupiter." + +Psyche is said to have fallen asleep in Hades through rashly attempting +to behold corporeal beauty, and the truth intended to be taught in the +Eleusinian Mysteries was that prudent men who earnestly employed +themselves in divine concerns were, above all others, in a vigilant +state, and that imprudent men who pursued objects of an inferior nature +were asleep, and engaged only in the delusion of dreams; and that if +they happened to die in this sleep before they were aroused they would +be afflicted with similar, but still sharper, visions in a future state. + +Matter was regarded by the Egyptians as a certain mire or mud. They +called matter the dregs or sediment of the first life. Before the first +purification the candidate for initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries +was besmeared with clay or mud which it was the object of the +purification to wash away. It also intimated that while the soul is in a +state of servitude to the body it lives confined, as it were, in bonds +through the dominion of this Titanic life. Thus the Greeks laid great +stress upon the advantages to be derived from initiation. Not only were +the initiates placed under the protection of the State, but the very act +of initiation was said to assist in the spreading of goodwill among men, +keep the soul from sin and crime, place the initiates under the special +protection of the gods, and provide them with the means of attaining +perfect virtue, the power of living a spotless life, and assure them of +a peaceful death and of everlasting bliss hereafter. The hierophants +assured all who participated in the Mysteries that they would have a +high place in Elysium, a clearer understanding, and a more intimate +intercourse with the gods, whereas the uninitiated would for ever remain +in outer darkness. Indeed, in the third degree the epoptæ were said to +be admitted to the presence of and converse with the goddesses Demeter +and Persephone, under whose immediate care and protection they were said +to be placed. Initiation was referred to frequently as a guarantee of +salvation conferred by outward and visible signs and by sacred formulæ. + +The Lesser Mysteries were intended to symbolize the condition of the +soul while subservient to the body, and the liberation from this +servitude, through purgative virtues, was what the wisdom of the +Ancients intended to signify by the descent into Hades and the speedy +return from those dark abodes. They were held to contain perfective +rites and appearances and the tradition of the sacred doctrines +necessary to the perfection or accomplishment of the most splendid +visions. The perfective part, said Proclus, precedes initiation, as +initiation precedes inspection. + +"Hercules," said Proclus also in _Plat. Polit_., "being purified by +sacred initiations and enjoying undefiled fruits, obtained at length a +perfect establishment among the gods"; that is, freed from the bondage +of matter ascending beyond the reach of its hands. + +Plutarch wrote:-- + +"To die is to be initiated into the great mysteries,... Our whole life +is but a succession of errors, of painful wanderings, and of +long-journeys by tortuous ways, without outlet. At the moment of +quitting it, fears, terrors, quiverings, mortal sweats, and a lethargic +stupor come and overwhelm us; but, as soon as we are out of it, we pass +into delightful meadows, where the purest air is breathed, where sacred +concerts and discourses are heard; where, in short, one is impressed +with celestial visions. It is there that man, having become perfect +through his new initiation, restored to liberty, really master of +himself, celebrates, crowned with myrtle, the most august mysteries, +holds converse with just and pure souls, and sees with contempt the +impure multitude of the profane or uninitiated, ever plunged and sinking +itself into the mire and in profound darkness." + +Dogmatic instruction was not included in the Mysteries; the doctrine of +the immortality of the soul traces its origin to sources anterior to the +rise of the Mysteries. At Eleusis the way was shown how to secure for +the soul after death the best possible fate. The miracle of +regeneration, rather than the eternity of being, was taught. + +Plato introduces Socrates as saying: "In my opinion those who +established the Mysteries, whoever they were, were well skilled in human +nature. For in these rites it was of old signified to the aspirants that +those who died without being initiated stuck fast in mire and filth; but +that he who was purified and initiated should, at his death, have his +habitation with the gods." + +Plato, again, in the seventh book of the _Republic_ says: "He who is not +able by the exercise of his reason to define the idea of the good, +separating it from all other objects and piercing as in a battle through +every kind of argument; endeavouring to confute, not according to +opinion but according to evidence, and proceeding with all these +dialectical exercises with an unshaken reason--he who cannot accomplish +this, would you not say that he neither knows the good itself, nor +anything which is properly demonstrated good? And would you not assert +that such a one when he apprehended it rather through the medium of +opinion than of science, that in the present life he is sunk in sleep +and conversant with delusions and dreams; and that before he is roused +to a vigilant state he will descend to Hades, and be overwhelmed with +sleep perfectly profound?" + +Olympiodorus, in his MS. Commentary on the Georgias of Plato, says of +the Elysian fields: "It is necessary to know that the fortunate islands +are said to be raised above the sea.... Hercules is reported to have +accomplished his last labour in the Hesperian regions, signifying by +this that, having vanquished an obscure and terrestrial life, he +afterwards lived in open day--that is, in truth and resplendent light. +So that he who in the present state vanquishes as much as possible a +corporeal life, through the exercise of the cathartic virtues, passes in +reality into the fortunate islands of the soul, and lives surrounded +with the bright splendours of truth and wisdom proceeding from the sun +of good." + +The esoteric teaching was not, of course, grasped by all the initiates; +the majority merely recognized or grasped the exoteric doctrine of a +future state of rewards and punishments. Virgil, in his description, in +the _Æneid_, of the Mysteries, confines himself to the exoteric +teaching. Æneas, having passed over the Stygian lake, meets with the +three-headed Cerberus. By Cerberus must be understood the discriminative +part of the soul, of which a dog, by reason of its sagacity, is an +emblem. The three heads signify the intellective, dianoetic, and doxatic +powers. "He dragg'd the three-mouth'd dog to upper day"--i.e. by +temperance, continence, and other virtues he drew upwards the various +powers of the soul. The teaching of the Mysteries was not in opposition +to the ordinary creed: it deepened it rather, revived it in a spiritual +manner and gave to religion a force and a power it had not hitherto +possessed. + +The fable of Persephone, as belonging to the Mysteries, was properly of +a mixed nature, composed of all four species of fable--theological, +physical, animistic, and material. According to the arcana of ancient +theology, the Coric order--i.e. that belonging to Persephone--is +twofold, one part supermundane and the other mundane. + +Proclus says: "According to the rumour of theologists, who delivered to +us the most holy Eleusinian Mysteries, Persephone abides on high, in +those dwellings of her mother which she prepared for her in inaccessible +places, exempt from the sensible world. But she likewise dwells with +Pluto, administering terrestrial concerns, governing the recesses of the +earth and imparting soul to beings which are of themselves inanimate and +dead." + +The Orphic poet describes Persephone as "the life and the death of +mortals," and as being the mother of Eubuleus or Bacchus by an ineffable +intercourse with Jupiter. Porphyry asserts that the wood pigeon was +sacred to her and that she was the same as Maia, or the great mother, +who is usually claimed as the parent of the Arkite god Mercury. + +According to Nösselt the following may be taken as the meaning of the +myth of Demeter and her lost daughter: "Persephone, the daughter of the +all-productive earth (Demeter), is the seed. The earth rejoices at the +sight of the plants and flowers, but they fade and wither, and the seed +disappears quickly from the face of the earth when it is strewn on the +ground. The dreaded monarch of the underworld has taken possession of +it. In vain the mother searches for her child, the whole face of nature +mourns her loss, and everything sorrows and grieves with her. But, +secretly and unseen, the seed develops itself in the lap of the earth, +and at length it starts forth: what was dead is now alive; the earth, +all decked with fresh green, rejoices at the recovery of her long-lost +daughter, and everything shares in the joy." + +Demeter was worshipped in a twofold sense by the Greeks, as the +foundress of agriculture and as goddess of law and order. They used to +celebrate yearly in her honour the Thesmorphoria, or Festival of Laws. +According to some ancient writers the Greeks, prior to the time of +Demeter and Triptolemus, fed upon the acorns of the ilex, or the +evergreen oak. Acorns, according to Virgil, were the food in Epiros, and +in Spain, according to Strabo. The Scythians made bread with acorns. +According to another tradition, before Demeter's time, men neither +cultivated corn nor tilled the ground, but roamed the mountains and +woods in search for the wild fruits which the earth produced. Isocrates +wrote: "Ceres hath made the Athenians two presents of the greatest +consequence: corn, which brought us out of a state of brutality; and the +Mysteries, which teach the initiated to entertain the most agreeable +expectations touching death and eternity." The coins of Eleusis +represented Demeter in a car drawn by dragons or serpents which were +sometimes winged. The goddess had two ears of corn in her right hand or, +as some imagined, torches, indicating that she was searching for her +daughter. George Wheler, in his _Journey into Greece_, published in +1682, says: "We observed many large stones covered with wheat-ears and +bundles of poppy bound together; these being the characters of Ceres." +At Copenhagen there is a statue representing Demeter holding poppies and +ears of corn in her left hand. On a coin of Lampsacus of the fourth +century B.C., Persephone is described in the act of rising from the +earth. + +According to Taylor, the Platonist, Demeter in the legend represents the +evolution of that self-inspective part of our nature which we properly +determine intellect, and Persephone that vital, self-moving, and animate +part which we call soul. Pluto signifies the whole of our material +nature, and, according to Pythagoras, the empire of this god commences +downwards from the Galaxy or Milky Way. + +Sallust says that among the mundane divinities Ceres is the deity of the +planet Saturn. The cavern signifies the entrance into mundane life +accomplished by the union of the soul with the terrestrial body. +Demeter, who was afraid lest some violence be offered to Persephone on +account of her inimitable beauty, conveyed her privately to Sicily and +concealed her in a house built on purpose by the Cyclops, while she +herself directed her course to the temple of Cybele, the mother of the +gods. Here we see the first cause of the soul's descent, viz. her +desertion of a life wholly according to intellect, occultly signified by +the separation of Demeter and Persephone. Afterwards Jupiter instructed +Venus to go and betray Persephone from her retirement, that Pluto might +be enabled to carry her away, and, to prevent any suspicion in the +virgin's mind, he commanded Diana and Pallas to bear her company. The +three goddesses on arrival found Persephone at work on a scarf for her +mother, on which she had embroidered the primitive chaos and the +formation of the world. Venus, says Taylor, is significant of desire, +which, even in the celestial regions (for such is the residence of +Persephone until she is ravished by Pluto), begins silently and +fraudulently in the recesses of the soul. Minerva is symbolical of the +rational power of the soul; and Diana represents nature, or the merely +natural and vegetable part of our composition, both ensnared through the +allurements of desire. + +In Ovid we have Narcissus, the metamorphosis of a youth who fell a +victim to love of his own corporeal form. The rape of Persephone, +according to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, was the immediate consequence +of her gathering this wonderful flower. By Narcissus falling in love +with his shadow in the limpid stream we behold the representation of a +beautiful soul, which, by prolonged gaze upon the material form, becomes +enamoured of a corporeal life and changed into a being consisting wholly +of the mere energies of nature. Plato, forcing his passage through the +earth, seizes on Persephone and carries her away, despite the resistance +of Minerva and Diana, who were forbidden by Jupiter to attempt her +deliverance after her abduction. This signifies that the lapse of the +soul into a material nature is contrary to the genuine wish and proper +condition. Pluto having hurried Persephone into the infernal regions, +marriage succeeds. That is to say, the soul having sunk into the +profoundities of a material nature, unites with the dark tenement of the +material body. Night is with great beauty and propriety introduced, +standing by the nuptial couch and confirming the oblivious league. That +is to say, the soul, by union with a material body, becomes familiar +with darkness and subject to the empire of night, in consequence of +which she dwells wholly with delusive phantoms and till she breaks her +fetters is deprived of the perception of that which is real and true. + +The nine days of the Festival are said to be significant of the descent +of the soul. The soul, in falling from her original, divine abode in the +heavens, passes through eight spheres, viz. the inerratic sphere and the +seven planets, assuming a different body and employing different +energies in each, finally becoming connected with the sublunary world +and a terrene body on the ninth. Demeter and the foundation of the art +of tillage are said to signify the descent of intellect into the realms +of generation, the greatest benefit and ornament which a material nature +is capable of receiving. Without the possibility of the participation of +intellect in the lower material sphere nothing but an irrational and a +brutal life would subsist. + +But, according to some writers, the initiates into the third degree were +taught that the gods and goddesses were only dead mortals, subject while +alive to the same passions and infirmities as themselves; and they were +taught to look upon the Supreme Cause, the Creator of the Universe, as +pervading all things by His virtue and governing all things by His +power. Thus the meaning of _Mystes_ is given as "one who sees things in +disguise," and that of _Epopt_ as "one who sees things as they are, +without disguise." The Epopt, after passing through the ceremonial of +exaltation, was said to have received Autopsia, or complete vision. +Virgil declared that the secret of the Mysteries was the Unity of the +Godhead, and Plato owned it to be "difficult to find the Creator of the +Universe, and, when found, impossible to discover Him to all the world." +Varro, in his work _Of Religions_, says that "there were many truths +which it was inconvenient for the State to be generally known; and many +things which, though false, it was expedient the people should believe, +and that, therefore, the Greeks shut up their Mysteries in the silence +of their sacred enclosures." The Mysteries declared that the future life +was not the shadowy, weary existence which it had hitherto been supposed +to be, but that through the rites of purification and sacrifices of a +sacramental character man could secure a better hope for the future. +Thus the Eleusinian Mysteries became the chief agent in the conversion +of the Greek world from the Homeric view of Hades to a more hopeful +belief as to man's state after death. Tully promulgated a law forbidding +nocturnal sacrifices in which women were permitted to take part, but +made an express exception in favour of the Eleusinian Mysteries, giving +as his reason: "Athens hath produced many excellent, even divine +inventions and applied them to the use of life, but she has given +nothing better than those Mysteries by which we are drawn from an +irrational and savage life and tamed, as it were, and broken to +humanity. They are truly called _Initia_, for they are indeed the +beginnings of a life of reason and virtue." + +Secrecy was enjoined because it was regarded as essential that the +profane should not be permitted to share the knowledge of the true +nature of Demeter and Persephone, as if it were known that these +goddesses were only mortal women their worship would become +contemptible. Cicero says that it was the humanity of Demeter and +Persephone, their places of interment, and several facts of a like +nature that were concealed with so much care. Diagoras, the Melian, was +accounted an atheist because he revealed the real secret of the +Eleusinian. Mysteries. The charge of atheism was the lot of any who +communicated a knowledge of the one, only God. Pindar says, referring to +the Mysteries: "Happy is he who has seen these things before leaving +this world: he realizes the beginning and the end of life, as ordained +by Zeus"; and Sophocles wrote: "Oh, thrice blessed the mortals, who, +having contemplated these Mysteries, have descended to Hades; for those +only will there be a future life of happiness--the others there will +find nothing but suffering." + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + Andocides. _De Mysteriis._ + _Antiquities of Ionia._ + Apollodorus. + Aristides. + Aristophanes. + Aristotle. _Nico. Ethics._ + Arnobius. _Disputationes adversus Gentes._ + + Barthelemy. _Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis en Grèce._ + _Blackwood's Magazine_, 1853. + + Chandler. _Travels in Greece._ + Cheetham, S. _Mysteries, Pagan and Christian._ + Cicero. + Clement of Alexandria. + _Contemporary Review_,1880. + Cornutus. _Theologies Græca Compendium._ + _Corpus inscript. Attic._ + _Corpus inscript. 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