3elonging to the first class, and under the patronage of the Athenian state, were maintained two forms of the worship of Demeter, the earth
MYSTERY
mother—the 7 λογία and the LEleusinia. The former were so called from the ancestral nk (@ecuol) by which the observances were strictly regulated. They constituted a festival of seed-time, lasted four days, were essentially a country rite; and those who took part in them were married women, the fruitfulness of married life being here, as elsewhere, associated with that of the soul. The most remarkable and elaborate of all the mysteries were, however, those celebrated at Eleusis, certainly in the beginning of the 6th cent. B.C., and perhaps at a much earlier period. They gathered up almost all the elements belonging to such rites which elsewhere are found separately ; with the worship of Demeter they combined that of Dionysus ; and some of their most rofound and interesting features were probably derived from the kindred Orphie Mysteries. The Eleusinia included two annual celebrations—the Lesser Mysteries held at Agra, a suburb of Athens, in the month Anthesterion (roughly corresponding to February), and the Greater observed at Eleusis in the month Boedromion (September). The latter, therefore, was the autumn festival, the hiding away of the seed ; the former, the spring festival celebrating its reappearance ; the interval between the two being mythologically represented as the sojourn of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, in the under-world. Every one who desired to be initiated at Eleusis had to pass through the cere- monies at Agr, and probably a cycle of at least four stages, including two visits to each place, had to be observed. This might be spread over several years, so that it was said: παῖς μύστης καὶ ἐπόπτης ἀνήρ--ἰῦ bridged over the passage from youth tomanhood. The more important Mysteries (those at Eleusis) were under the control of a body of magistrates, but the active direction was taken by the ἱεροφάντης, who must be a descendant of
umolpus, the Thracian bard, to whom the origin of the Mysteries was traditionally attributed. Candidates for initiation, having already qualified at Agree, were called μύσται, and the leader or instructor of a group of such candidates was the μυσταγωγός. The privilege of participation, at first confined to Athenians, was afterwards extended to all, women as well as men, except slaves, Persians (the hereditary enemy, specia excluded), and infamous or criminal persons. They took an oath of secrecy, were subjected to certain ceremonial restrictions in respect of diet and behaviour, and received some sort of instruction which prepared them for the experiences which lay before them. In the ceremonies themselves, which lasted nine days, from the 15th to the 28rd of the month, ‘four acts were distinguished: (a) κάθαρσις, the preliminary purification ; (6) σύστασις, the rites and sacrifices which preceded and prepared the way for the actual celebration ; (6) τελετή or μύησις, the initiation properly so ed ; and (d) ἐποπτεία, the last and highest grade of initiation’ (Gardner and Jevons), Secrecy characterized only the last two stages. One of the most interesting features of ths occasion was the sacred truce which was pro- claimed at the beginning of the festival, and which was usually observed, though circumstances led to its abandonment during the latter portion of the Peloponnesian war. In the celebrations them- selves, only two points can be absolutely fixea— the purification known as ἄλαδε μύσται (‘To the sea, Ὁ mysta’), which took place on the 16th of the month, and the day of Iacchus, the 20th; other features are more or less hypothetically placed (Mommsen, Feste, p. 207).
The probable order was as follows: On the first day, called ἀγυρμός, the assembling, the μύσται joined the group to which they were to be attached, and received the instruction already
MYSTERY 469
alluded to. On the second (the 16th) they went in solemn procession to the seacoast and ἐπι τς in the purifying waters. The third, fourth, and fifth days were occupied with various sacrifices, rocessions, and feasts. The last of these was <nown as ‘the day of the torches,’ because in the evening, just before sunset, the great procession of the myste, each group led by its δᾳδοῦχος, or torch-bearer, set out for the temple at Eleusis, where they seem to have spent the night in visit- ing the places associated with the wandering of Demeter in search of her daughter Persephone. This procession divides what may be termed the Athenian from the Eleusinian section of the Mysteries. The sixth day (the 20th) was specially sacred, and bore, as we have seen, the name of Tacchus, who was identified with Bacchus (Dionysus), and represented as the husband or
son 0 Rerephene, is statue being borne in the procession. The next two nights were occupied
with the higher stages of the symbolical cere- mony. These included a further purification, a progress through darkness unrelieved by either moonlight or torchlight, whence the myste passed into the lighted interior of the Great Hall of Initiation, where they were allowed to see and handle certain sacred objects which none but the ἐπόπται (those who had received final initiation, ἐποπτεία) ever beheld. It seems certain that there were some representations of a dramatic character illustrating the myths of the deities involved— miracle plays, as we might call them, in which the more profound lessons which those in charge meant to convey were communicated. The return to Athens was made in a jesting mood, both on the part of the myste themselves and on that of the general population, which may have been due to the reaction from the strain and solemnity of the preceding days. The ninth day was termed πλη- μοχόαι from certain peculiar libations with which the rite was brought to anend. Associated with these libations was one of the mystical formulas which were imparted in the course of the pro- ceedings, were esteemed specially sacred, and throw light upon the original character of the festival. The ninth day formula was te, xie—the first a prayer for rain, the second for fertility ; but the most notable of these sayings was that connected with the ‘communication of the sacred things’ (παράδοσις τῶν lepdv)—‘I have fasted: I have drunk of the potion : I have taken out of the casket, and after having tasted I have deposited in the basket: I have taken out of the basket again, and have put back into the casket.’ The combination of sight and sound, of rhythmic movement, sacred association, mystic formula, and, above all, the obligation of secrecy, must have been deeply impressive, especially after being long looked forward to, and being made the object of careful preparation.