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	The '''Eleusinian Mysteries''' were annual [[initiation ceremony\|initiation ceremonies]] for the cult of [[Demeter]] and [[Persephone]] based at [[Eleusis]] in [[ancient Greece]]. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries later spread to [[ancient Rome\|Rome]]. The rites, cultic worships, and beliefs were kept secret, for initiation rites united the worshipper with god, and included promises of divine power and rewards in [[life after death]].		The '''Eleusinian Mysteries''' were annual [[initiation ceremony\|initiation ceremonies]] for the cult of [[Demeter]] and [[Persephone]] based at [[Eleusis]] in [[ancient Greece]]. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries later spread to [[ancient Rome\|Rome]]. The rites, cultic worships, and beliefs were kept secret, for initiation rites united the worshipper with god, and included promises of divine power and rewards in [[life after death]].

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The '''Eleusinian Mysteries''' were annual [[initiation ceremony|initiation ceremonies]] for the cult of [[Demeter]] and [[Persephone]] based at [[Eleusis]] in [[ancient Greece]]. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries later spread to [[ancient Rome|Rome]]. The rites, cultic worships, and beliefs were kept secret, for initiation rites united the worshipper with god, and included promises of divine power and rewards in [[life after death]].

Eleusis (modern-day [[Elefsina]]) was a small town located about 30 km NW of [[Athens, Greece|Athens]]. It was an [[agriculture|agricultural]] town, producing [[wheat]] and [[barley]].<br />

== Mythology ==
[[Image:NAMA Triade éleusinienne.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Triptolemus]] received wheat sheaves from [[Demeter]] and blessings from [[Persephone]], [[5th century BC]] relief, [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]]]]
The Mysteries were based on a legend revolving around Demeter, the goddess of life, agriculture and fertility. According to the legend, Demeter's daughter Persephone was gathering flowers with friends one day, when she was seen by [[Hades]], the god of death and the underworld. Hades fell in love with Persephone and kidnapped her, taking her to his underworld kingdom. Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter; in her distress, she neglected her duties. In turn, this caused a terrible dry season in which the people suffered and starved. (Although the dry season is summer in [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], this catastrophe is often associated with winter.)

During her search, Demeter wandered far and wide, having many minor adventures along the way, including one in which she teaches the secrets of [[agriculture]] to [[Triptolemus]]. Finally, by consulting [[Zeus]], Demeter reunites with her daughter and the earth returns to its former verdance and prosperity: the first spring. (For more information on this story, see [[Demeter]].) Unfortunately, Persephone was unable to remain permanently in the land of the living; while in the underworld she had eaten six seeds of a [[pomegranate]] that Hades had given her, meaning that she had to stay in the underworld for six months of the year (Autumn/Winter) but was allowed by Zeus and Hades to stay on the earth for the other six months (Spring/Summer).

The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated Persephone's return, for it was also the return of plants and of life to the earth. Persephone had gone into the [[underworld]] (underground, like seeds in the winter), then returned to the land of the living: her rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life during the spring and, by extension, all life on earth.

==The Mysteries==
The Mysteries are believed to have been begun about [[1500s BC|1500 BC]], during the [[Mycenae|Mycenean Age]]. They were held annually for about two thousand years. In the [[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn]] to Demeter, a King [[Celeus]] is said to have been one of the first people to learn the secret rites and mysteries of her cult, as well as one of the original priests, along with [[Diocles]], [[Eumolpos]], [[Polyxeinus]], and [[Triptolemus]], Celeus' son, who had supposedly learned agriculture from Demeter.

Under [[Pisistratus]] of Athens, the Eleusinian Mysteries became pan-Hellenic and pilgrims flocked from Greece and beyond to participate. Around [[300 BC]], the state took over control of the Mysteries; they were specifically controlled by two families, the [[Eumolpidae]] and the [[Kerykes]]. This led to a vast increase in the number of initiates. The only requirements for membership were a lack of "blood guilt", meaning having never committed murder, and not being a barbarian (ie. unable to speak Greek). Men, women and even slaves were allowed to be initiated.

===Participants===

There were four categories of people who participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries:
#The priests, priestesses and hierophantes.
#The initiates, undergoing the ceremony for the first time.
#The others who had already participated at least once. They were eligible for the fourth category.
#Those who had attained epopteia, who had learned the secrets of the greatest mysteries of Demeter.

===Secrets===

The outline below is only a capsule summary; much of the concrete information about the Eleusinian Mysteries was never written down. For example, only initiates knew what the "kiste," a sacred chest, and the "kalathos," a basket with a lid, contained. The contents, like so much about the Mysteries, are still unknown, and probably will be forever.

However, [[Thomas Taylor]] writes that this Cista ("kiste") contained a golden mystical serpent, egg, a phallus, and possibly also seeds sacred to Demeter.{{rf|1|Taylor}}

===Two Eleusinian Mysteries, the "Greater" and the "Lesser."===

Taylor has written that "the Lesser Mysteries signified the miseries of the soul while in subjection to the body. The Greater Mysteries obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul, both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities intellectual [spiritual] vision." He also quotes Plato who wrote that "the design of the mysteries was to lead us back to the principles from which we descended, that is to a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good". {{rf|1|Taylor}}

The Lesser Mysteries were held in Anthesterion (March) but the exact time was not always fixed and changed occasionally, unlike the Greater Mysteries. The priests purified the candidates for initiation (''[[myesis]]''). They first sacrificed a pig to Demeter and then purified themselves.

The Greater Mysteries took place in [[Boedromion]] (the first month of the [[Attic calendar]]) and lasted nine days.

==Outline – The Greater Mysteries in Five Acts==
The first act (14th Boedromion) of the Greater Mysteries was the bringing of the sacred objects from Eleusis to the [[Eleusinion]], a temple at the base of the [[Acropolis, Athens|Acropolis]].

On 15th Boedromion, the hierophantes (priests) declared [[prorrhesis]], the start of the rites.

The ceremonies began in Athens on 16th Boedromion with the celebrants washing themselves in the sea at [[Phaleron]] and sacrificing a young pig at the Eleusinion on 17th Boedromion.

The procession to Eleusis began at [[Kerameikos]] (the Athenian cemetery) on the 19th Boedromion from where the people walked to Eleusis, along what was called the "Sacred Way", swinging branches called [[bacchoi]]. At a certain spot along the way, they shouted obscenities in commemoration of [[Iambe]] (or [[Baubo]]), an old woman who, by cracking dirty jokes, had made Demeter smile as she mourned the loss of her daughter. The procession also shouted "Iakch' o Iakche!," referring to [[Iacchus]], possibly an epithet for [[Dionysus]], or a separate deity, son of Persephone or Demeter.

Upon reaching Eleusis, there was a day of fasting in commemoration of Demeter's fasting while searching for Persephone. The fast was broken while drinking a special drink of barley and [[pennyroyal]], called [[kykeon]]. Then on 20th and 21st Boedromion, the initiates entered a great hall called [[Telesterion]]; in the center stood the [[Anaktoron]] ("palace"), which only the hierophantes could enter, where sacred objects were stored. Here in the Telesterio, the initiates were shown the sacred relics of Demeter. This was the most secretive part of the Mysteries and those who had been initiated were forbidden to ever speak of the events that took place in the Telesterion. The penalty was death. [[Athenagoras of Athens]] claims that it was for this crime (among others) that [[Diagoras]] had received the death penalty.

As to the climax of the Mysteries, there are two modern theories. Some hold that the priests were the ones to reveal the visions of the holy night, consisting of a fire that represented the possibility of life after death, and various sacred objects. Others hold this explanation to be insufficient to account for the power and longevity of the Mysteries, and that the experiences must have been internal and mediated by a powerful psychoactive ingredient contained in the [[kykeon]]. (See "[[Eleusinian Mysteries#Entheogenic theories|entheogenic theories]]" below)

Following this section of the Mysteries was the [[Pannychis]], an all-night feast accompanied by dancing and merriment. The dances took place in the [[Rharian Field]], rumored to be the first spot where grain grew. A bull sacrifice also took place late that night or early the next morning. That day (22nd Boedromion), the initiates honored the dead by pouring libations from special vessels.

On 23rd Boedromion, the Mysteries ended and everyone returned home.

==End of the Eleusinian Mysteries==
The [[Roman Empire|Roman]] emperor [[Theodosius I]] closed the sanctuaries by decree in AD [[392]] as part of his effort to suppress [[Hellenistic religion|Hellenistic]] resistance to the imposition of [[Christianity]] as a [[state religion]]. The last remnants of the Mysteries were wiped out in AD [[396]], when [[Alaric I|Alaric]], King of the [[Goths]], invaded accompanied by Christians "in their dark garments," bringing [[Arianism|Arian]] Christianity and desecrating the old sacred sites. The closing of the Eleusinian Mysteries in the 4th century is reported by [[Eunapios]], a historian and biographer of the Greek philosophers. Eunapios had been initiated by the last legitimate [[Hierophant]], who had been commissioned by the emperor [[Julian the Apostate|Julian]] to restore the Mysteries, which had by then fallen into decay. According to Eunapios, the very last Hierophant was a usurper, "the man from [[Thespiai]] who held the rank of Father in the mysteries of [[Mithras]]".

== The Mysteries in art ==
There are a great many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of the Mysteries. The [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/god2/ho_14.130.9.htm Eleusinian Relief], from late [[5th century BCE]], stored in the [[Archaeological National Museum]] in Athens is a representative example. Triptolemus is depicted receiving seeds from Demeter and teaching mankind how to work the fields to grow crops with Persephone holding her hand over his head to protect him. Vases and other works of relief sculpture, from the [[4th century BCE|4th]], [[5th century BCE|5th]] and [[6th century BCE|6th centuries BCE]], depict Triptolemus holding an ear of corn, sitting on a winged throne or chariot, surrounded by Persephone and Demeter with pine torches.

The [[Ninnion Tablet]] in the same museum depicts Demeter, followed by Persephone and Iacchus, and then the procession of initiates. Then, Demeter is sitting on the kiste inside the Telesterion, with Persephone holding a torch and introducing the initiates. The initiates each hold a bakchoi. The second row of initiates were led by [[Iakchos]], a priest who held torches for the ceremonies. He is standing near the [[omphalos]] while an unknown female (probably a priestess of Demeter) sat nearby on the kiste, holding a scepter and a vessel filled with kykeon. Pannychis is also represented.

==Entheogenic theories==
Some scholars believe that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the [[kykeon]]'s functioning as a [[psychedelic]] agent; this was argued most extensively in ''The Road to Eleusis''[http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/road_to.html], by [[R. Gordon Wasson]], [[Albert Hofmann]], and [[Carl A. P. Ruck]]. Barley may be [[parasite|parasitized]] by the [[fungus]] [[ergot]], which contains [[Ergine|LSA]], a precursor to [[LSD]]. It is thus possible that the initiates, sensitized by their fast and prepared by preceding ceremonies, were propelled by the effects of a powerful psychoactive potion into revelatory mind states with profound spiritual and intellectual ramifications.

While Wasson et al. have presented evidence supporting their view that a potion was drunk as part of the ceremony, the exact composition of that agent remains controversial, as modern preparations of kykeon using ergot-parasitized barley have yielded inconclusive results. It has been argued by [[Terence McKenna]] that the mysteries were focused around a variety of [[Psilocybe]] mushrooms, and various other [[entheogen]]ic plants, such as [[Amanita]] mushrooms, have also been suggested but at present no consensus has been reached.

==Notes==
{{ent|1|Taylor}} T. Taylor, ''Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries''
{{ent|2|Taylor2}} T. Taylor, ''Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries'', p.47

==References==
* [[Carl Kerenyi]], ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter,'' (in his series ''Archetypal Images in Greek religion''), Bollingen, (August 12, 1991). ISBN 0-691-01915-0.
* Clifford H. Moore, ''Religious Thought of the Greeks'', 1916.
* George Emmanuel Mylonas, ''Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries'', Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1961.
* Martin P. Nilsson, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/ ''Greek Popular Religion''], 1940.
*Xavier Riu, ''Dionysism and Comedy'', 1999. cf. p.107 for a discussion of Dionysus and his role in the Eleusinian Mysteries. [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2000/2000-06-13.html]
* [[Erwin Rohde]], ''Psyche'', 1925. cf. Chapter 6, The Eleusinian Mysteries.
* [[Thomas Taylor]], ''A Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries'', 1791.
* [[R. Gordon Wasson|Wasson]], [[Carl A. P. Ruck|Ruck]], [[Albert Hofmann|Hofmann]], ''The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries,'' Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1978. ISBN 0-15-177872-8.

==External links==
* [http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/hymns/eleusis.php A description of the Mysteries]
* [http://www.uwec.edu/philrel/faculty/beach/publications/eleusis.html Edward A. Beach on the Eleusinian Mysteries]
* [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0009&query=head%3D%23168 Thomas R. Martin on the Eleusinian Mysteries] from ''An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander''
*[http://www.culture.gr/2/21/211/21103a/e211ca04.html Ministry of Culture Eleusis website (English)Remains of the site as it has been cleared by archaeologists]
*[http://eleusis.library.cornell.edu/ Mysteries at Eleusis: Images of Inscriptions - Cornell University Library]

[[Category:Eleusinian Mysteries| ]]

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