DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0063
48 ANCIENT ATHENS.
Some philosophers might despise the" ceremony; yet to the latest
period of paganism, initiation was eagerly sought by the highest and
most distinguished persons; and Cicero, in a general condemnation of
all nocturnal rites, excepted only this.1
The mysteries shadowed forth the analogy between the sowing of
the seed and the committal of the dead body to the earth, from which
both were to rise again with renewed vigour. Cicero, in another pas-
sage, adverts to a custom—which he says was as old as the time of
Cecrops—of immediately burying the dead in the earth, and sowing
seeds over their graves, so that they might repose, as it were, in the
bosom of a mother.2 Core, the offspring of Demeter, passes, like the seed,
a portion of her existence underground, or in Hades, and in the spring
of the year rises again to the light of day. The myth ran as follows :
Demeter, when her daughter had been ravished by Aidoneus, wan-
dered over the earth, seeking her with lighted torches. The scene of
the rape has been variously selected; but Attic traditions—with which
alone we are here concerned—placed it either atErineos, on the western
or Eleusinian Cephisus, or at the chasm at Colonus, supposed to have
been the threshold of Hades.3 At length, having arrived at Eleusis—
from which circumstance the place, according to some, derived its name
(e\ev<ri<i, ' advent')—she sat down on the aje\aaTo<; ireTpa, or stone of
grief, near the well called Callichoros, on which also Theseus was
related to have sat before his descent into Hades.4 Being introduced
into the palace of Celeus, King of the Eleusinians, an old woman
named Baubo,5 Babo, or Iambe, made the goddess laugh by her obscene
1 " Nam mihi quum multa cximia divi- 3 6 KarappaKTrjs 686s.—Soph. (Ed. Col.
naque videntur Athena? tuas pepcrisse 1500.
atque in vitam hominum attulisse, turn ' Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 782.
nihil melius illis mysteriis, quibus ex B( The name, slightly altered to Baj3/3o>,
agresti immanique vita exculti ad humani- appears to be still used in these parts as a
tatem et mitigati sumus. Initiaque ut term of reproach towards a disreputable
appellantur, ita re. vera principia vitse old woman. F. Lenormant, Voie Sacree, i.
cognovimus : neque solum cum Uetitia p. 244. As Iambe, she is the eponymous
vivendi rationem accepinuis, set etiam cvim inventor of the iambic verse, also employed
spe meliore moriendi.''—De Leg. ii. 14,36. for abuse. Cf. Apollod. i. 5, 1; Clemens
2 Ibid. 25, 63. Alex. Protrept. p. 17 ; Hor. Od. i. 16, 24.
Some philosophers might despise the" ceremony; yet to the latest
period of paganism, initiation was eagerly sought by the highest and
most distinguished persons; and Cicero, in a general condemnation of
all nocturnal rites, excepted only this.1
The mysteries shadowed forth the analogy between the sowing of
the seed and the committal of the dead body to the earth, from which
both were to rise again with renewed vigour. Cicero, in another pas-
sage, adverts to a custom—which he says was as old as the time of
Cecrops—of immediately burying the dead in the earth, and sowing
seeds over their graves, so that they might repose, as it were, in the
bosom of a mother.2 Core, the offspring of Demeter, passes, like the seed,
a portion of her existence underground, or in Hades, and in the spring
of the year rises again to the light of day. The myth ran as follows :
Demeter, when her daughter had been ravished by Aidoneus, wan-
dered over the earth, seeking her with lighted torches. The scene of
the rape has been variously selected; but Attic traditions—with which
alone we are here concerned—placed it either atErineos, on the western
or Eleusinian Cephisus, or at the chasm at Colonus, supposed to have
been the threshold of Hades.3 At length, having arrived at Eleusis—
from which circumstance the place, according to some, derived its name
(e\ev<ri<i, ' advent')—she sat down on the aje\aaTo<; ireTpa, or stone of
grief, near the well called Callichoros, on which also Theseus was
related to have sat before his descent into Hades.4 Being introduced
into the palace of Celeus, King of the Eleusinians, an old woman
named Baubo,5 Babo, or Iambe, made the goddess laugh by her obscene
1 " Nam mihi quum multa cximia divi- 3 6 KarappaKTrjs 686s.—Soph. (Ed. Col.
naque videntur Athena? tuas pepcrisse 1500.
atque in vitam hominum attulisse, turn ' Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 782.
nihil melius illis mysteriis, quibus ex B( The name, slightly altered to Baj3/3o>,
agresti immanique vita exculti ad humani- appears to be still used in these parts as a
tatem et mitigati sumus. Initiaque ut term of reproach towards a disreputable
appellantur, ita re. vera principia vitse old woman. F. Lenormant, Voie Sacree, i.
cognovimus : neque solum cum Uetitia p. 244. As Iambe, she is the eponymous
vivendi rationem accepinuis, set etiam cvim inventor of the iambic verse, also employed
spe meliore moriendi.''—De Leg. ii. 14,36. for abuse. Cf. Apollod. i. 5, 1; Clemens
2 Ibid. 25, 63. Alex. Protrept. p. 17 ; Hor. Od. i. 16, 24.