(anc. geog.) a town in Attica between Megara and the Piraeus, 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, Travels in Greece, p. 189. 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 croftes 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 Coroebus. Metagenes 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 Prothyros 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 fortresses. 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 6 inches. The temple was a decastyle or had 10 columns in the front, which was to the east. The peribolus 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 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, feet and an half; and the basket on the head above 2 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 stone 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 Callchorus, 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 zecchins or pieces of gold."