Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

ELEUSINIA. ]50 ELEUSIXIA.

were becoming acquainted with the benefits
of agriculture, and of a regularly constituted
form of society.—In the reign of Erechtheus
a war is said to have broken out between the
Athenians and Eleusinians; and when the
latter were defeated, they acknowledged the
supremacy of Athens in everything except
the mysteries, which they wished to conduct
and regulate for themselves. Thus the su-
perintendence remained with the descendants
of Eumolpus [Eumolpidak], the daughters of
the Eleusinian king Celcus, and a third class
of priests, the Ceryces, who seem likewise to
have been connected with the family of Eu-
molpus, though they themselves traced their
origin to Hermes and Aglauros.—At the
time when the local governments of the
several townships of Attica were concentrated
at Athens, the capital became also the centre
of religion, and several deities who had
hitherto cnly enjoyed a local worship, were
now raised to the rank of national gods. This
seems also to have been the case with the
Eleusinian goddess, for in the reign of The-
seus we find mention of a temple at Athens,
called Eleusmion, probably the new and na-
tional sanctuary of Demeter. Her priests
and priestesses now became naturally at-
tached to the national temple of the capital,
though her original place of worship at Eleu-
sis, with which so many sacred associations
were connected, still retained its importance
and its special share in the celebration of the
national solemnities.—We must distinguish
between the greater Eleusinia, which were
celebrated at Athens and Eleusis, and the
lesser, which were held at Agrae on the
Ilissus. The lesser Eleusinia were only a
preparation (7rpoKa0apcris or Trpodyveva-is) for
the real mysteries. They were held every
year in the month of Anthesterion, and, ac-
cording to some accounts, in honour of Per-
sephone alone. Those who were initiated
in them bore the name of Mystae (p-vo-rai),
and had to wait at least another year before
they could be admitted to the great myste-
ries. The principal rites of this first stage
of initiation consisted in the sacrifice of a
sow, which the mystae seem to have first
washed in the Cantharus, and in the purifi-
cation by a priest, who bore the name of
Hydranos ('YSpaTOs). The mystae had also
to take an oath of secresy, which was admi-
nistered to them by the Mystagoyus (ixvcrra-
yuryo;, also called Jepoipavrr;; or Jrpo^TT)?), and
they received some kind of preparatory in-
struction, which enabled them afterwards to
understand the mysteries which were revealed
to them in the great Eleusinia.—The great
mysteries were celebrated every year in the
month of Boedromlon, during nine days,

from the 1.3th to the 23rd, both at Athena
and Eleusis. The initiated were called
ettotttcll or etpvpoi. On the first day, those
who had been initiated in the lesser Eleu-
sinia, assembled at Athens. On the second
day the mystae went in solemn procession
to the sea-coast, where they underwent a
purification. Of the third day scarcely any-
thing is known with certainty ; we are only
told that it was a day of fasting, and that in
the evening a frugal meal was taken, which
consisted of cakes made of sesame and honey.
On the fourth day the xaXdOos xa^ofio? seems
to have taken place. This was a procession
with a basket containing pomegranates and
poppy-seeds ; it was carried on a waggon
drawn by oxen, and women followed with
small mystic cases in their hands. On the
fifth day, which appears to have been called
the torch day (17 Ttov Aa/i7ra8uiv ^p.e'pa), the
mystae, led by the SaSovxo<;, went in the even-
ing with torches to the temple of Demeter at
Eleusis, where they seem to have remained
during the following night. This rite was
probably a symbolical representation of De-
meter wandering about'in search of Perse-
phone. The sixth day, called Iacchos, was
the most solemn of all. The statue of Iacchos,
son of Demeter, adorned with a garland of
myrtle and bearing a torch in his hand, was
carried along the sacred road amidst joyous
shouts and songs, from the Cerameicus to
Eleusis. This solemn procession was accom-
panied by great numbers of followers and
spectators. During the night from the sixth
to the seventh day the mystae remained at
Eleusis, and were initiated into the last mys-
teries (e7T07TTei'a). Those who were neither
e-oKTai nor nv'orai were sent away by a
herald. The mystae now repeated the oath
of secresy which had been administered to
them at the lesser Eleusinia, underwent a
new purification, and then they were led by
the mystagogus in the darkness of night into
the lighted interior of the sanctuary (ipwra-
■ywyi'a), and were allowed to see (avm^ia)
what none except the epoptae ever beheld.
The awful and horrible manner in which the
initiation is described by later, especially
Christian writers, seems partly to proceed
from their ignorance of its real character,
partly from their horror of and aversion to
these pagan rites. The more ancient writers
always abstained from entering upon any
description of the subject. Each individual,
after his initiation, is said to have been dis-
missed by the words toy*, op-n-af, in order to
make room for other mystae. On the se-
venth day the initiated returned to Athens
amid various kinds of raillery and ;ests, es-
pecially at the bridge over the Cephisus,