DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0315
METROUM AT AGRjE.
295
expressly says that it is on the further side of the Ilissus.1 And that
this was the first time that he crossed it is plain from his giving an
account of that river and its tributary.
The existence of a Metkoum, or Temple of Demetek, at Agrae, is
shown from a host of authorities. It was here that the Lesser Mys-
teries were celebrated, a necessary preliminary to initiation in the
Greater, which required an interval of a year. Thus Demetrius was
initiated in the Lesser Mysteries at Agra, but the interval was shortened
in his favour. The text of Plutarch indeed has rd irpb<; dyopav;2 and
it might be thought that he was alluding to the Eleusinium on the
agora which we have already described. But though this is not the
sole instance where, in such a connexion, we find dyopav where we
should expect "Aypap, yet we are not aware that the celebration of the
mysteries at the temple on the agora can be established on any good
authority. At the same time we do not think it impossible that the
Lesser Mysteries might sometimes have been celebrated there, or in
any temple of Demeter; for, as we have already seen, Heracles was
related to have been initiated in them, in a temple in Melite (supra,
p. 51). But the existence of a Metroum, and the celebration of the
Lesser Mysteries in it, at Agree on the Ilissus, are so well established as
to admit of no doubt. "We give some of the principal authorities on the
subject in a note.3 To the site of the temple we have no clue. There
are considerable remains of masonry on the top of the hill, on the south
side of the Stadium, which Leake and others have attributed to Herodes'
temple of Fortune, but which may not improbably have belonged to the
Metroum.
1 ftuititiai 8e tov ElXtffffuv, ^apiov Aypat
KaXovfitvov ku'l vabs 'Ayporepas eoriv *ApT€-
fuSos.—i. 19, 7.
2 £T€\ovit ro5 ArfpjjTpia ra npbs dyopav.—
Demetr. c. 26.
3 "Aypai • %<oplov e£u> r t) s ndXecjs
,A6r}vS>v, o5 to. fiiKpa rijs Ariprfrpos aycrat
livtrrripia, a A«ycT<u Ta ir "Aypais, o>s iv
'Au-KXrjniov.—Bekk. An. Or. 326. And at
the end of the same article, from Clcide-
mU8 : eis to itpbv to yirjTpaov to iv"Aypms
(which shows that this Metroum belonged
to Demeter). nap 'iXio-o-ou fivcmKals
oX8ms.—Himer. ap. Phot. Bibl. p. 1120
(369 A, Bekk.). ravra piv dff trvviBtvro
napa tov IAicrow, ov tov Ka.6app.bv TeXovat
tois ekdrroo-i pvo~rrjpiois.—Polyajn. Strat.
v. 17; cf. Dionys. Perieg. 42-1. "Aypai •
Xupiov\\TTiKov t£m Tijr 7roX«ws, Upov Ariprj-
Tpot.— Hesych.; cf. Suid. in voc. &c.
295
expressly says that it is on the further side of the Ilissus.1 And that
this was the first time that he crossed it is plain from his giving an
account of that river and its tributary.
The existence of a Metkoum, or Temple of Demetek, at Agrae, is
shown from a host of authorities. It was here that the Lesser Mys-
teries were celebrated, a necessary preliminary to initiation in the
Greater, which required an interval of a year. Thus Demetrius was
initiated in the Lesser Mysteries at Agra, but the interval was shortened
in his favour. The text of Plutarch indeed has rd irpb<; dyopav;2 and
it might be thought that he was alluding to the Eleusinium on the
agora which we have already described. But though this is not the
sole instance where, in such a connexion, we find dyopav where we
should expect "Aypap, yet we are not aware that the celebration of the
mysteries at the temple on the agora can be established on any good
authority. At the same time we do not think it impossible that the
Lesser Mysteries might sometimes have been celebrated there, or in
any temple of Demeter; for, as we have already seen, Heracles was
related to have been initiated in them, in a temple in Melite (supra,
p. 51). But the existence of a Metroum, and the celebration of the
Lesser Mysteries in it, at Agree on the Ilissus, are so well established as
to admit of no doubt. "We give some of the principal authorities on the
subject in a note.3 To the site of the temple we have no clue. There
are considerable remains of masonry on the top of the hill, on the south
side of the Stadium, which Leake and others have attributed to Herodes'
temple of Fortune, but which may not improbably have belonged to the
Metroum.
1 ftuititiai 8e tov ElXtffffuv, ^apiov Aypat
KaXovfitvov ku'l vabs 'Ayporepas eoriv *ApT€-
fuSos.—i. 19, 7.
2 £T€\ovit ro5 ArfpjjTpia ra npbs dyopav.—
Demetr. c. 26.
3 "Aypai • %<oplov e£u> r t) s ndXecjs
,A6r}vS>v, o5 to. fiiKpa rijs Ariprfrpos aycrat
livtrrripia, a A«ycT<u Ta ir "Aypais, o>s iv
'Au-KXrjniov.—Bekk. An. Or. 326. And at
the end of the same article, from Clcide-
mU8 : eis to itpbv to yirjTpaov to iv"Aypms
(which shows that this Metroum belonged
to Demeter). nap 'iXio-o-ou fivcmKals
oX8ms.—Himer. ap. Phot. Bibl. p. 1120
(369 A, Bekk.). ravra piv dff trvviBtvro
napa tov IAicrow, ov tov Ka.6app.bv TeXovat
tois ekdrroo-i pvo~rrjpiois.—Polyajn. Strat.
v. 17; cf. Dionys. Perieg. 42-1. "Aypai •
Xupiov\\TTiKov t£m Tijr 7roX«ws, Upov Ariprj-
Tpot.— Hesych.; cf. Suid. in voc. &c.