eleusis
Amidst the fertile plains of Eleusis, a mere 14 miles from Athens, lies an archeological site that was in ancient Greece a sanctuary of immense spiritual significance. For centuries the Eleusinian Mysteries captivated the hearts and minds of ancient Greeks, fostering a profound connection between the mortal world and the realm of the divine.
Throughout its eleven centuries long life span, the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore was a living organism that would transform when necessary to accommodate cult changes, practical needs, and political visions.
In the ancient Greek world, cults were primarily tied to the cities. The Athenians claimed that they were the first to receive the gifts of the goddess Demeter —the grain and the Mysteries. Political leaders of Athens would capitalize on this “privilege” early on by enhancing the Eleusinian Sanctuary with monumental buildings. The spread of the cult throughout Greece added to Athens’ political status and the municipality of Eleusis’ income.
During the Roman period, the Sanctuary emerged as a religious centre of universal importance. Some of the most impressive monuments that are visible today at the archaeological site were built during the 2nd century CE, by emperors who were initiated in the Mysteries.
With the ascendance of Christianity, the Eleusinian cult was not immediately eradicated; it came to an abrupt halt however with the abolition of idolatry by Theodosius I (392 CE). Its ultimate demise was brought on by raiding Visigoths led by Alaric, who destroyed the sanctuary and killed the last hierophant (395 CE).
– from a display board in the museum of Eleusis –
The Myth
At the heart of the Mysteries lay the myth of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility, and her beloved daughter Persephone. Demeter, stricken with despair at Persephone’s abduction by Hades, god of the underworld, wandered the earth in search of her lost child. Her grief brought barrenness and hardship to the land, signaling the onset of winter. After a protracted search, Demeter finally found Persephone, who had been granted the privilege of spending half the year with her mother on earth and the other half with her husband in the underworld. This divine arrangement ensured the cyclical renewal of nature, with Persephone’s return symbolizing the rebirth of spring and summer.
The Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries revolved around this central myth, offering initiates a transformative journey into the mysteries of life, death, and rebirth. The rites were shrouded in secrecy, with initiates bound by an oath of silence to protect the sacred knowledge they had acquired. The Mysteries unfolded over nine days, gradually revealing the profound truths embedded within the Demeter-Persephone narrative. Initiates participated in a series of rituals, processions, and symbolic acts, culminating in a ceremony held in the center of the sacred Eleusian district, the Telesterion.
The famous Greek playwright Sophokles wrote about the Mysteries:
Thrice blessed are those mortals
who having seen these rites go to Hades.
For them alone there is life there;
for the others all is misery.
Mysteria (or simply Mysteries, as they are commonly referred to in English) are a religious phenomenon that for centuries dominated the ancient Mediterranean. The oldest, most venerable, and best-known mystery cult was that of Demeter and Kore at the sanctuary of the two goddesses at Eleusis. For more than a thousand years people from every corner of the Greco-Roman world and from a wide range of ethnic origins and social standings sought spiritual comfort and the hope for a blessed afterlife through initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries. In antiquity itself, and in our memory of antiquity, the Eleusinian Mysteries stand out as the archetype of ancient mystery cults.
(Michael B. Cosmopoulos. Bronze Age Eleusis and the Origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Cambridge University Press, 2015)
The Eleusinian mysteries – like Dionysianism and Orphism in general – confront the investigator with countless problems, especially in regard to their origin and hence their antiquity. For in each of these cases we have to do with extremely archaic rites and beliefs. None of these initiatory cults can be regarded as a creation of the Greek mind. Their roots go deep into prehistory. Cretan, Asiatic, and Thracian traditions were taken over, enriched, and incorporated into a new religious horizon. It was through Athens that Eleusis became a Panhellenic religious center; but the mysteries of Demeter and Kore had been celebrated at Eleusis for centuries. The Eleusinian initiation descends directly from an agricultural ritual centered around the death and resurrection of a divinity controlling the fertility of the fields. The bullroarer, which figured in the Orphic-Dionysiac ceremonies, is a religious object characteristic of primitive hunter cultures.
(Chris Gosden. The History of Magic – From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present. Penguin Random House UK. 2020.)