Eleusinian Mysteries

Lesser Eleusinia in February-March; Greater Eleusinia in September-October

In ancient Athens, the Eleusinia was the most celebrated of all religious ceremonies. Often referred to as the Mysteries because anyone who violated the secrecy surrounding the festival rites would be punished by death, the Eleusinia consisted of two celebrations: The Greater Eleusinia was observed for a week or more in September or October; the Lesser Eleusinia was observed in early spring. Those who had been initiated at the lesser mysteries were allowed to participate in the greater mysteries the following year, when the secrets of the festival would be revealed to them.
The Eleusinia was based on the legend of Demeter, a goddess associated with the harvest, and her daughter Persephone, who was carried off by Pluto to live in his underground kingdom. Although the secrecy that accompanied the Eleusinian mysteries has made it difficult to reconstruct exactly what went on there, it is believed that they were intended to encourage a bountiful growing season. The men and women who were initiated during these ceremonies were believed to live happier and more secure lives, and when they died, they were granted a place in the Elysian Fields, the mythical place where the souls of the virtuous went after death.

CONTACTS:
Tufts University, Department of the Classics
321 Eaton Hall
Medford, MA 02155
617-627-3213; fax: 617-627-2896
www.ase.tufts.edu

SOURCES:
AtticFest-1981, pp. 139, 192
ClassDict-1984, p. 220
DictFolkMyth-1984, p. 512
EncyRel-1987, vol. 5, p. 83
OxClassDict-1970, p. 716

Eleusinian Mysteries

ancient religious rites; its secrets have never been discovered. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 305]

See: Mystery

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Eleusinian Mysteries

a religious festival held in Attica, in ancient Greece, in honor of the goddess Demeter and her daughter the goddess Persephone (Kore).

The cult of Demeter and Persephone was one of the most ancient agricultural cults. The Eleusinian mysteries, celebrated from earliest times in Eleusis, became an Athenian state festival after Eleusis was incorporated into the league of Attic states in the late seventh century B.C. Regardless of sex and social position, all of the citizens of Athens, including slaves, had the right to be initiated into the mysteries, which were celebrated in late September or early October. The ritual included a solemn procession along the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis and the mysteries proper, which consisted of representations of Demeter’s sorrow at the loss of her daughter, her search for Persephone, and her joy upon Persephone’s return. The details of the Eleusinian mysteries, which apparently included pantomime and the recitation of sacred texts, are unknown.

REFERENCES

Novosadskii, N. I. Elevsinskie misterii. St. Petersburg, 1887.
Foucart, P. Les Mystères d’Eleusis. Paris, 1914.
Deubner, L. Attische Feste [2nd ed.]. Berlin, 1966.

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References in periodicals archive

Demeter's revelation in Eleusis is a confirmation of the sacred character of the Eleusinian Mysteries in the centre of which Persephone or Kore is placed.

The Arretos Kore: Mythical Voices in Contemporary Greek Fiction

(7) To this list of innovations that Makron introduced, this article will demonstrate that we can add one more: he painted the earliest known representation of Dionysos as an initiate into the Eleusinian Mysteries.

God as Cult Initiate: Dionysos and the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greek Vase-Painting

After all the riddles and conundrums posed to her by a variety of Wonderland tutors since leaving the great hall, Alice, like an initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries, has acquired many life lessons.

Alice: The Oldest Story in the World

Here we might think him mastered by the spell Of Dionysus, lately intertwined With winnowing-fans and a new clientele Mad keen for any psychotropic smell Of Eleusinian mysteries. Resigned No longer to drop anchor, but to dwell For keeps in this safe haven, he'd the blind Sooth-sayer now to thank who'd once divined, Way back, how no port in a storm could quell His storm-tossed soul.

The winnowing fan

The story may be read as a perverse revisiting of the Eleusinian mysteries as initiation ceremonies for the cult of Demeter and Persephone, the disrupted nuptials and the resonance of the economic with human sacrifice.

Culture and Sacrifice: Ritual Death in Literature and Opera

"Epiphany in the Eleusinian Mysteries." ICS 29: 85-109.

'Blessed is he, who has seen': the power of ritual viewing and ritual framing in Eleusis

The 23 essays in this collection include discussions of mystery and secrecy in The Secret Revelation of John, the Sethian books of the Nag Hammadi library as secret books, esotericism and Evagrius of Pontus in the Egyptian desert, the secret of an early Christian mystical experience, mystery and secrecy in Paul, a suggestion on the origins of Christological fish symbolism, initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries, the Mithras Liturgy as mystery and magic, and the secret hymn in Hermetic texts.

Mystery and secrecy in the Nag Hammadi collection and other ancient literature; ideas and practices; studies for Einar Thomassen at sixty

These conclusions about death are reinforced when Reno meets members of a secret society who perform their own personal death dramas in rites loosely based on the Eleusinian mysteries. Resurrections are based on the story of Lazarus, who failed, after he was resurrected, to report any afterlife because he had experienced none.

New Kind of Resurrection: Lazarus in the Labyrinth Published by Outskirts Press

Additionally, the Eleusinian Mysteries allowed foreigners to participate in festivals featuring public feasting.

Civic Rites: Democracy and Religion in Ancient Athens

Mr Bowden examines the Eleusinian mysteries, those of the Kabeiroi and the gods of Samothrace, the 'mother of the gods', Dionysus, Isis, and Mithras.

Mystery Cults in the Ancient World