The Eleusinian Mysteries and Rites

and eventually of many foreigners, to seek admission into the Eleusinian Mysteries in the only possible manner-viz. by initiation; and, second, the scrupulou

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

u 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 s

r, 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 E

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 th

was about to put the project into execution, when it was ruled that it was obligatory that the principal scenic presentation of the Mys

. 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 a

luded in the list of imperial initiates. Both Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, father and son, were initiated at the same time, at the Lesser Myst

, and the ordinary procedure with r

itiation 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 te

ligion, 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

monies 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, al

o 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 Boedromi

he 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 initiate

ed 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 ?schylus 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 o

teries 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

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 Andocid

osition and one set even in the six

has been revealed in a dream asks one of the initiated if what he has seen is in conformity with r

ital, 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 pun

ter 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 espe

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 int

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 ei

er 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 an

e. For you will come directly to

how shall I get

: an old man who plies that boat will t

those two oboles are all over the w

l 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 fl

who are thes

. The in

ed 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 ac

e 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

ierophants, 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 m

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 debau

t 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

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

imo, seems to be a variation of the compound

Brimo; and th

nic hosts;

he mysterious

with distracte

world the beaut

abours of the M

gies; and th

orybantes; and

d the woes o

ung the gifts

of Bacchus;

mothrace, and

n Venus; an

Ogygian P

erva's nigh

orrow for the

ic H

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 emph

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

n, the work of God who is great and wise: so help me the word of the Fat

the priests circled in mystic dances. The day succeeding admission into the final degree was regarded as a

omplete initiation consisted of five steps

ry 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. Wheth

resented as say

returned, borne along through all the elements. I beheld the sun shining in the dead of night with

ts initiation in th

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

ere were the usual honoraria to be bestowed upon the various officials, to which reference has already been made. Presumably, a

ir crops in accordance with ancestral usage.... To those who do these things there shall be many good things, both

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 Aris

he phantasmal scenes in the Mysteries were shown by transparenc