DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4377#0093
AND PLUTO EPIMACIIOS. 423
except the few terracottas already noticed. It is
thus under her Chthonic, and not under her Agra-
rian aspect, that Demeter appears in the temenos ;
and, though we recognize among the ohjects dis-
covered emhlems which were certainly used in
the Eleusinian and in other mysteries, Ave cannot,
from the evidence before us, determine the particu-
lar form of worship of which this spot may have
been the seat.
It may, however, he worthy of consideration,
whether the temenos may not have been connected
with those rites of Demeter and Persephone which
Telines, the ancestor of the first Gelon, transported
from Telos to Sicily ? These rites, according to
Herodotus, were of so mysterious and peculiar a
nature, that their hierophant Telines owed to them
his remarkable political ascendancy at Gela. A
knowledge of them was handed down to his de-
scendants, who continued to officiate as hierophants
after they were established as a dynasty at Syracuse.8
Though Herodotus professes himself unable to ex-
plain the origin of these rites, it seems reasonable
to conclude, from the positive statement of later
authorities, that they were imported from Thessaly
to Cnidus, by Triopas, when he fled from Dotium,
B Herod, vii. 153 : 'iph is the expression used by Herodotus in
this passage. Mr. Grote, Hist, of Greece, v. 281, defines these
tpit as visible and portable symbols which Telines possessed, with a
privileged knowledge of the ceremonial acts and formalities of
divine worship under which they were to be shown. See the
whole of his note, p. 279. The exclusive possession of these sacra
hy the family of Telines is analogous to the worship of the De-
meter Achaja, which was peculiar to the Gephynei.—Herod, v. 61,
except the few terracottas already noticed. It is
thus under her Chthonic, and not under her Agra-
rian aspect, that Demeter appears in the temenos ;
and, though we recognize among the ohjects dis-
covered emhlems which were certainly used in
the Eleusinian and in other mysteries, Ave cannot,
from the evidence before us, determine the particu-
lar form of worship of which this spot may have
been the seat.
It may, however, he worthy of consideration,
whether the temenos may not have been connected
with those rites of Demeter and Persephone which
Telines, the ancestor of the first Gelon, transported
from Telos to Sicily ? These rites, according to
Herodotus, were of so mysterious and peculiar a
nature, that their hierophant Telines owed to them
his remarkable political ascendancy at Gela. A
knowledge of them was handed down to his de-
scendants, who continued to officiate as hierophants
after they were established as a dynasty at Syracuse.8
Though Herodotus professes himself unable to ex-
plain the origin of these rites, it seems reasonable
to conclude, from the positive statement of later
authorities, that they were imported from Thessaly
to Cnidus, by Triopas, when he fled from Dotium,
B Herod, vii. 153 : 'iph is the expression used by Herodotus in
this passage. Mr. Grote, Hist, of Greece, v. 281, defines these
tpit as visible and portable symbols which Telines possessed, with a
privileged knowledge of the ceremonial acts and formalities of
divine worship under which they were to be shown. See the
whole of his note, p. 279. The exclusive possession of these sacra
hy the family of Telines is analogous to the worship of the De-
meter Achaja, which was peculiar to the Gephynei.—Herod, v. 61,