ELEUSINIA, in Grecian antiquity, a festival kept in honour of Ceres, every fourth year by some states, but by others every fifth. The Athenians celebrated it at Eleusis, a town of Attica: whence the name.
Ceres, says an Athenian orator (Isocrates), wandering in quest of her daughter Proserpine, came into Attica, where some good offices were done her, which it is unlawful for those who are not initiated to hear. In return she conferred two unparalleled benefits; to wit, the knowledge of agriculture, by which the human race is raised above the brute creation; and the mysteries, from which the partakers derive sweeter hopes than other men enjoy, both as to the present life and to eternity. It was the popular opinion, that the Eleusinian goddesses suggested prudent counsel to their votaries, and influenced their conduct; that these were respected in the infernal regions, and had precedence in the assemblies of the blessed; while the unhallowed were in utter darkness, wallowing in mire, or labouring to fill a leaky vessel. The Athenians were solicitous to secure these advantages to their children, by having them initiated as soon as was allowed.
Ceres was supposed to be particularly partial to Eleusis and its vicinity. There were the memorials of her presence and of her bounty; the well named Callichorras, by which she had rested, in the reign of Erechtheus; the stone on which she sat, named the sorrowful; the Rharian plain, where barley was first sown; and the threshing-floor and altar of Triptolemus, a herdsman whom she instructed in the culture of that grain, the use of which succeeded to acorns. Her mysteries continued to possess a pre-eminence in holiness, and to be accounted as much superior to all other religious festivals as the gods were to the heroes. Even the garments worn at the solemnity were supposed to partake of their efficacy, and to be endowed with signal virtues. It was usual to retain them until they were perishing; and then to dedicate them in the temple, or to reserve them for the purpose of enwrapping newborn children.
The mystic temple, as it was called, provided by Pericles for the solemnity, created such awe by its sanctity as could be equalled only by the effect of its beauty and magnitude, which excited astonishment in every beholder. The profane or uninitiated were forbidden to enter it on any pretence. Two young Arcanarians happened inadvertently to mix with the crowd
Eleusinia. crowd at the season of the mysteries, and to go in; but the question suggested by their ignorance presently betrayed them, and their intrusion was punished with death. The chief priest, hierophant, or mystagogue, was taken from the Eumolpidæ, a holy family flourishing at Athens, and descended from Eumolpus, a shepherd and favourite of Ceres. He was enjoined celibacy, and wore a stole or long garment, his hair, and a wreath of myrtle. The grand requisites in his character were strength and melody of voice, solemnity of deportment, magnificence, and great decorum. Under him, besides many of inferior station, was the daduchus or torch-bearer, who had likewise his hair, with a fillet; the priest, who officiated at the altar; and the hiero-ceryx, or sacred herald; all very important personages. The latter was of a family which claimed the god Mercury and Aglauros the daughter of Cecrops for its ancestors.
The secrecy in which the mysteries were enveloped, served to enhance the idea of their consequence, and to increase the desire of participation. It was so particular, that no person was allowed even to name the hierophant by whom he had been initiated. Public abhorrence and detestation awaited the babbler, and the law directed he should die.
The Athenians suffered none to be initiated into these mysteries but such as were members of their city. This regulation, which compelled Hercules, Castor, and Pollux, to become citizens of Athens, was strictly observed in the first ages of the institution, but afterwards all persons, barbarians excepted, were freely initiated.
The festivals were divided into great and less mysteries. The less were instituted from the following circumstance. Hercules passed near Eleusis while the Athenians were celebrating the mysteries, and desired to be initiated. As this could not be done, because he was a stranger, and as Eumolpus was unwilling to displease him on account of his great power, and the services which he had done to the Athenians, another festival was instituted without violating the laws. It was called μυστα, and Hercules was solemnly admitted to the celebration and initiated. These less mysteries were observed at Agræ near the Ilissus. The greater were celebrated at Eleusis, from which place Ceres has been called Eleusinia. In later times the smaller festivals were preparatory to the greater, and no person could be initiated at Eleusis without a previous purification at Agræ. This purification they performed by keeping themselves pure, chaste, and unpolluted, during nine days; after which they came and offered sacrifices and prayers, wearing garlands of flowers, called ἄρπεα or ἄρπεα, and having under their feet ἄνδρος, Jupiter's skin, which was the skin of a victim offered to that god. The person who assisted was called ὄδωρ; from ὄδωρ water, which was used at the purification, and they themselves were called μυσταί, the initiated.
A year after the initiation at the less mysteries they sacrificed a sow to Ceres, and were admitted in the greater, and the secrets of the festivals were solemnly revealed to them, from which they were called ἱερεῖς and ἐπεῖται, inspectors.
This festival was observed in the month Boedromian or September, and continued nine days from the
15th till the 23d. During that time it was unlawful to arrest any man, or present any petition, on pain of forfeiting a thousand drachmas, or according to others on pain of death. It was also unlawful for those who were initiated to sit upon the cover of a well, to eat beans, mullets, or weazels. If any woman rode to Eleusis in a chariot, she was obliged by an edict of Lycurgus to pay 6000 drachmas. The design of this law was to destroy all distinction between the richer and poorer sort of citizens. When the season approached, the mystæ or persons who had been initiated only in the lesser mysteries, repaired to Eleusis to be instructed in the ceremonial. The service for the opening of the temple, with morning sacrifice, was performed. The ritual was then produced from the sanctuary. It was enveloped in symbolical figures of animals, which suggested words compendiously, in letters with ligatures, implicated, the tops huddled together, or disposed circularly like a wheel; the whole utterly inexplicable to the profane. The case, which was called petroma, consisted of two stones exactly fitted. The mysterious record was replaced after the reading, and closed up until a future festival. The principal rite was nocturnal, and confined to the temple and its environs. The mystæ waited without, with impatience and apprehension. Lamentations and strange noises were heard. It thundered. Flashes of light and of fire rendered the deep succeeding darkness more terrible. They were beaten, and perceived not the hand. They beheld frightful apparitions, monsters, and phantoms of a canine form. They were filled with terror, became perplexed and unable to stir. The scene then suddenly changed to brilliant and agreeable. The propylæa or vestibules of the temple were opened, the curtains withdrawn, the hidden things displayed. They were introduced by the hierophant and daduchus, and the former showed them the mysteries. The splendour of illumination, the glory of the temple and of the images, the singing and dancing which accompanied the exhibition, all contributed to soothe the mind after its late agitation, and to render the wondering devotee tranquil and self-satisfied. After this inspection, or, as it was called, the autopsia, they retired, and others advanced. The succeeding days were employed in purification, in sacrifice, in pompous processions, and spectacles, at which they assisted, wearing myrtle crowns. The second day was called ἀναὶ μυσταί, to the sea, you that are initiated; because they were commanded to purify themselves by bathing in the sea. On the third day sacrifices, and chiefly a mullet, were offered; as also barley from a field of Eleusis. These oblations were called Θῶα, and held so sacred that the priests themselves were not, as in other sacrifices, permitted to partake of them. On the fourth day they made a solemn procession, in which the καλαδία, holy basket of Ceres, was carried about in a consecrated cart, while on every side the people shouted ἦναι Ἀστυν, Hail, Ceres! After these followed women, called κισσέες, who carried baskets, in which was sesame, carded wool, grains of salt, a serpent, pomegranates, reeds, ivy boughs, certain cakes, &c. The fifth was called ἡ τῶν λαμπυράδων ἡμέρα, the torch day; because on the following night the people ran about with torches in their hands. It was usual to dedicate torches to Ceres, and contend which should offer the biggest.
Eleusis biggest, in commemoration of the travels of the goddess, and, of her lighting a torch in the flames of Mount Ætna. The sixth day was called Ιαχης, from Iacechus, the son of Jupiter and Ceres, who accompanied his mother in her search after Proserpine, with a torch in his hand. From that circumstance his statue had a torch in his hand, and was carried in solemn procession from the Ceramicus to Eleusis. The statue, with those that accompanied it, called Ιαχηγυγνι, was crowned with myrtle. In the way nothing was heard but singing and the noise of brazen kettles as the votaries danced along. The way through which they issued from the city was called Ιερὸς ὁδός, the sacred way, the resting place Ιερὸς ὄρος, from a fig-tree which grew in the neighbourhood. They also stopped on a bridge over the Cephisus, where they derided those that passed by. After they had passed this bridge, they entered Eleusis by a place called μυστικὴ ἐσόδος, the mystical entrance. On the seventh day were sports, in which the victors were rewarded with a measure of barley, as that grain had been first sown in Eleusis. The eighth day was called Επιδαύριος ἵππος, because once Æsculapius at his return from Epidaurus to Athens, was initiated by the repetition of the less mysteries. It became customary therefore to celebrate them a second time upon this, that such as had not hitherto been initiated might be lawfully admitted. The ninth and last day of the festival was called Παλαιοί, carthen vessels, because it was usual to fill two such vessels with wine; one of them being placed towards the east, and the other towards the west; which, after the repetition of some mystical words, were both thrown down, and the wine being spilt on the ground, was offered as a libation.
The story of Ceres and Proserpine, the foundation of the Eleusinian mysteries, was partly local. It was both verbally delivered, and represented in allegorical show. Proserpine was gathering flowers when she was stolen by Pluto. Hence the procession of the holy basket, which was placed on a car dragged along by oxen, and followed by a train of females, some carrying the mystic chests, shouting, Hail, Ceres! At night a procession was made with lighted torches, to commemorate the goddess searching for her daughter. A measure of barley, the grain which, it was believed, she had given, was the reward of the victors in the gymnic exercises; and the transactions at the temple had a reference to the legend. A knowledge of these things and places, from which the profane were excluded, was the amount of initiation; and the mode of it, which had been devised by craft, was skilfully adapted to the reigning superstitions. The operation was forcible, and the effect in proportion. The priesthood flourished as piety increased. The dispensation was corrupt, but its tendency not malignant. It produced sanctity of manners and an attention to the social duties; desire to be as distinguished by what was deemed virtue as by silence.
Some have supposed the principal rites at this festival to have been obscene and abominable, and that from thence proceeded all the mysterious secrecy. They were carried from Eleusis to Rome in the reign of Adrian, where they were observed with the same ceremonies as before, though perhaps with more freedom and licentiousness. They lasted about 1800
years, and were at last abolished by Theodosius the Great.
Eleusis, in Ancient Geography, a town in Attica, between Megara and the Piræus, celebrated for the festivals of Ceres. See the preceding article.—Those rites were finally extinguished in Greece upon the invasion of Alaric the Goth. Eleusis, on the overthrow of its goddess and the cessation of its gainful traffic, probably became soon an obscure place, without character or riches. For some ages, however, it was not entirely forsaken, as is evident from the vast consumption of the ancient materials, and from the present remains, of which the following account is given by Dr Chandler *. "The port was small and of a circular form. The stones of one pier are seen above water, and the corresponding side may be traced. About half a mile from the shore is a long hill, which divides the plain. In the side next the sea are traces of a theatre, and on the top are cisterns cut in the rock. In the way to it, some masses of wall and rubbish, partly ancient, are standing; with ruined churches; and beyond, a long broken aqueduct crosses to the mountains. The Christian pirates had infested the place so much, that in 1676 it was abandoned. It is now a small village at the eastern extremity of the rocky brow, on which was once a castle; and is inhabited by a few Albanian families, employed in the culture of the plain, and superintended by a Turk, who resides in an old square tower. The proprietor was Achmet Aga, the primate or principal person of Athens.
"The mystic temple at Eleusis was planned by Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon. Pericles was overseer of the building. It was of the Doric order; the cell so large as to admit the company of a theatre. The columns on the pavement within, and their capitals, were raised by Corebus. Mentagenes of Xypete added the architraves and the pillars above them, which sustained the roof. Another completed the edifice. This was a temple in antis, or without exterior columns, which would have occupied the room required for the victims. The aspect was changed to Prostylos under Demetrius the Phalerean; Philo, a famous architect, erecting a portico, which gave dignity to the fabric, and rendered the entrance more commodious. The site was beneath the brow, at the east end, and encompassed by the fortress. Some marbles, which are uncommonly massive, and some pieces of the columns, remain on the spot. The breadth of the cell is about 150 feet; the length, including the pronaos and portico is 216 feet; the diameter of the columns, which are fluted, 6 inches from the bottom of the shafts, is 6 feet, and more than six inches. The temple was a de-castyle, or had 10 columns in the front, which was to the east. The peribulus or inclosure, which surrounded it on the north-east and on the south side, measures 387 feet in length from north to south, and 328 feet in breadth from east to west. On the west side it joined the angles of the west end of the temple in a straight line. Between the west wall of the inclosure and temple and the wall of the citadel was a passage of 42 feet 6 inches wide, which led to the summit of a high rock at the north-west angle of the inclosure, on which are visible the traces of a temple in antis, in length 74 feet 6 inches from north to south, and in breadth from the
Eleusis, east to the wall of the citadel, to which it joined on the west, 54 feet. It was perhaps that sacred to Triptolemus. This spot commands a very extensive view of the plain and bay. About three-fourths of the cottages are within the precincts of the mystic temple, and the square tower stands on the ruined wall of the inclosure.
"At a small distance from the north end of the inclosure is a heap of marble, consisting of fragments of the Doric and Ionic orders; remains, it is likely, of the temples of Diana Propylea and of Neptune, and of the Propyleum or gateway. Wheler saw some large stones carved with wheat-ears and bundles of poppy. Near it is the bust of a colossal statue of excellent workmanship, maimed, and the face disfigured; the breadth at the shoulders, as measured by Pococke, five feet and a half; and the basket on the head above two feet deep. It probably represented Proserpine. In the heap are two or three inscribed pedestals; and on one are a couple of torches, crossed. We saw another fixed in the same stairs, which lead up the square tower on the outside. It belonged to the statue of a lady, who was hierophant or priestess of Proserpine, and had covered the altar of the goddess with silver. A well in the village was perhaps that called Callichorus, where the women of Eleusis were accustomed to dance in honour of Ceres. A tradition prevails, that if the broken statue be removed, the fertility of the land will cease. Achmet Aga was fully possessed with this superstition, and declined permitting us to dig or measure there, until I had overcome his scruples by a present of a handsome snuff-box containing several zechins or pieces of gold."