The Eleusinian Mysteries and Rites

usis, presence at and participation in which demanded an

ter (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

e ruler of the country, with whom, and his wife Metanira, she consented to remain in order to watch over t

thy anxio

serpine, nor d

st, till the fa

thee wa

ic H

lous personage deemed by some to have been the offspring of Mercury and Dair

sinians 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 go

against gods and men, and because of the continued loss of he

r that she c

eks her fa

rowed doth c

a morn til

immortal t

he cries, "fo

one-Per

ound 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 t

cret of the happiness which belonged to all who became initiates: "Happy is he who has been received unfortunate he who has never received the ini

ioned. This was not written by Homer, but by some poet versed in Homeric lore, and its probable date is about 600 B.C. It w

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

ied 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 dau

he 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 o

gion, so that the Eleusinian Mysteries became a Panhellenic institution, and later, under the Roma

which Theseus is said to have united into a simple state. Leusina now

fabled to have ravished Helen, and to have descended to the infernal regions-i.e. they were lovers of intelligible and visible beauty. Afterwards T

was a living character who once forced his way into the Eleusinian Mysteries, for w

ierophant, 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,

tolemus and Diocle

pus and Celeus,

ming the sacred r

f them t

liasians, it was Dysaules who ins

gs, 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 T

om 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