DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.791#0009
CHAPTER I.
ELEUSIS.
The Plain of Athens is separated from another of considerable extent by a ridge of Mount Icarius,
stretching in a north-easterly direction from the bay of Eleusis. This was the Thriasian plain,
hallowed, according to the writers of antiquity, by the presence of Ceres, who first instructed its
inhabitants in agriculture.
A low rocky hill about three hundred yards from the sea, at the south-eastern extremity, was
selected by the Eleusinians for the site of their citadel.
The declivity of the hill facing the south-east being formed into an artificial terrace, and the
rock having been cut away from the front to the rear, a level area was obtained for the sacred
inclosure of the mystic temple; which was destined to be the theatre of the most solemn amongst
the rites of Greece.
The magnificent structure erected by the great statesman of Attica for the solemnization of the
Mysteries of Ceres, stood a bold and prominent feature in a picture, whose back ground was
formed by the walls and towers of the impending Acropolis. In front, the villas and gardens of
the Eleusinians, spreading themselves around the foot of the rock, and along the borders of the
Bay of Salamis, completed a scene which had no where its equal.
As accessories in the composition of this grand design, the vestibule of the sacred enclosure,
and the connected temple of Diana-Propylsea, were worthy of admiration. The former, little
inferior to the Propylasa of the Athenian Acropolis, from which it appears to have been faithfully
copied, was in itself a work of the greatest importance, and little less costly than its prototype, the
execution of which is said to have involved an expenditure of two thousand and twelve talents.
The-latter much inferior in magnitude, was advanced fifty feet before the Propylaea, upon a platform
extending an hundred and fifty feet from its front, and nearly twice that distance in length along
ELEUSIS.
The Plain of Athens is separated from another of considerable extent by a ridge of Mount Icarius,
stretching in a north-easterly direction from the bay of Eleusis. This was the Thriasian plain,
hallowed, according to the writers of antiquity, by the presence of Ceres, who first instructed its
inhabitants in agriculture.
A low rocky hill about three hundred yards from the sea, at the south-eastern extremity, was
selected by the Eleusinians for the site of their citadel.
The declivity of the hill facing the south-east being formed into an artificial terrace, and the
rock having been cut away from the front to the rear, a level area was obtained for the sacred
inclosure of the mystic temple; which was destined to be the theatre of the most solemn amongst
the rites of Greece.
The magnificent structure erected by the great statesman of Attica for the solemnization of the
Mysteries of Ceres, stood a bold and prominent feature in a picture, whose back ground was
formed by the walls and towers of the impending Acropolis. In front, the villas and gardens of
the Eleusinians, spreading themselves around the foot of the rock, and along the borders of the
Bay of Salamis, completed a scene which had no where its equal.
As accessories in the composition of this grand design, the vestibule of the sacred enclosure,
and the connected temple of Diana-Propylsea, were worthy of admiration. The former, little
inferior to the Propylasa of the Athenian Acropolis, from which it appears to have been faithfully
copied, was in itself a work of the greatest importance, and little less costly than its prototype, the
execution of which is said to have involved an expenditure of two thousand and twelve talents.
The-latter much inferior in magnitude, was advanced fifty feet before the Propylaea, upon a platform
extending an hundred and fifty feet from its front, and nearly twice that distance in length along