DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5386#0080
61
crease the splendour of it gradually until it should be brought
to the greatest possible degree of brilliancy. If the supposed
transparent curtain had been formed of plates of horn, we might
then imagine the folding doors of the portal itself to have been
veneered with ivory ; and a satisfactory account might be rendered
for the allusion of Virgil to the actual vision of the goddess at
the first portal, which would have appeared as an unsubstantial
dream to those who had been afterwards admitted by a free pas-
sage through the second.
According to the foregoing speculation, the propylasa of the
inner peribolos, or enclosure of the temple, would have been
obstructed by this machinery until the close of the second day.
The procession to the sea would take place on the conclusion of
this scenic exhibition ; and on the third day, these obstructions
being removed, the inner propyleea would have been open for
the ingress of the mystae to the last enclosure, where the
Anactoron, or temple, with its still more interesting exhibitions,
was open to receive them ; and to this, as we may conclude
from Themistius *, they were conducted through the inner pro-
pyl aea, by the daduchus or torch-bearer.
The third day was opened by the sacrifice of a mullet, as
we must presume, preparatory to the great scenic exhibition.
On the fourth the mystic basket was brought upon a waggon to
Eleusis, followed by females carrying other baskets, or cistse,
bound with purple fillets, and containing symbols which Clemens
has enumerated. His observations give us reason to suspect, that
it was after the arrival of this procession at Eleusis, that a further
examination of the mystse took place, and that their answers were
* After noticing the splendour which succeeded to the previous gloom, The-
mistius adds (of his father),—" Venus was near, in the character of torch-bearer, and
" the Graces, hand-in-hand, performed the perfectory rites." The whole of this
passage in his clogc funcbre is well wortli perusal. It is full of allusion to the cere-
monies and topography of the temple, but so faintly and delicately expressed, as
scarcely to bear translating.
crease the splendour of it gradually until it should be brought
to the greatest possible degree of brilliancy. If the supposed
transparent curtain had been formed of plates of horn, we might
then imagine the folding doors of the portal itself to have been
veneered with ivory ; and a satisfactory account might be rendered
for the allusion of Virgil to the actual vision of the goddess at
the first portal, which would have appeared as an unsubstantial
dream to those who had been afterwards admitted by a free pas-
sage through the second.
According to the foregoing speculation, the propylasa of the
inner peribolos, or enclosure of the temple, would have been
obstructed by this machinery until the close of the second day.
The procession to the sea would take place on the conclusion of
this scenic exhibition ; and on the third day, these obstructions
being removed, the inner propyleea would have been open for
the ingress of the mystae to the last enclosure, where the
Anactoron, or temple, with its still more interesting exhibitions,
was open to receive them ; and to this, as we may conclude
from Themistius *, they were conducted through the inner pro-
pyl aea, by the daduchus or torch-bearer.
The third day was opened by the sacrifice of a mullet, as
we must presume, preparatory to the great scenic exhibition.
On the fourth the mystic basket was brought upon a waggon to
Eleusis, followed by females carrying other baskets, or cistse,
bound with purple fillets, and containing symbols which Clemens
has enumerated. His observations give us reason to suspect, that
it was after the arrival of this procession at Eleusis, that a further
examination of the mystse took place, and that their answers were
* After noticing the splendour which succeeded to the previous gloom, The-
mistius adds (of his father),—" Venus was near, in the character of torch-bearer, and
" the Graces, hand-in-hand, performed the perfectory rites." The whole of this
passage in his clogc funcbre is well wortli perusal. It is full of allusion to the cere-
monies and topography of the temple, but so faintly and delicately expressed, as
scarcely to bear translating.