As a primary stage of initiation into the mysteries at Eleusis, mysteries were celebrated in the month of February at Agra, a suburb of Athens. Our information concerning their rise, their ceremonial, and their mystic significance is very defective. It is probable that they were once exclusively Athenian, and on the incorporation of Eleusis be- came subordinated to the Eleusinian rites. Clement of Alexandria calls them the ' minor mysteries which have some foundation of instruction and of pre- liminary preparation for what is to come after,' namely, the great mysteries at Eleusis (Strom, v. 11). The goddess who presided over them ap- pears to have been exclusively Kore or Persephone, the daughter of Demeter. We learn from Hip- polytus, a wi-iter of the 3rd cent., that 'the in- ferior mysteries are those of Proserpine [Perse- phone] below ' (Philos. v. 3). The .scholiast on the Plutus of Aristophanes (845) also tells us that ' in the course of the year two sets of mysteries are performed to Demeter and Kore — the greater were of Demeter, the lesser of Persephone, her daughter,' although the genuineness of this passage is subject to doubt. Dionysus, also, was a sharer in the mysteries, and was known by, the name of lacchos. On the Ninion Pinax, a monument dedicated by a woman named Ninion to the ' Two Goddesses,' he is represented as a full-grown man and as the bearer of the torch. Apparently he has no essen- tial connexion with the mysteries, especially at Eleusis, and might be regarded as a visitor. The exact date of his entrance into the mysteries has not been determined. Aliout tliese three deities the interest of the mysteries turns. On Demeter, Kore, and lacchos the devotion of the worshippers is centred.
In the month of Boedromion, early in the autumn (September), the initiation intothe greater mysteries occurred. On the 13tli of the month the Itpij^oi, soldiers still in their young manhood, went out, armed with spear and shield, to Eleusis to bring back the 'holy things' to the Eleusinion, which lay at the foot of the Acropolis of Athens. The ' lioly things' were really in charge of the priestess, and, on their arrival in Athens on the following day, they were met by the Athenian priests and
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magistrates. On tlie 15th of the month the real festival began. Tho eaiKliilates were assembled for initiation, and the order was pj-oelaiined by the liieroi>liant in the Stoa Poikile that no one of un- clean hands or of unintelligible speech sliould share in the mysteries. Thus two classes of persons were rigorously excluded. The lirst w.as eompo.sed of those who had been guilty of murder or homicide. Tliese were invariably denied admission to all cults. The second class was composed of barbarians, or else of persons with defective speech, wbicli would prevent their pronouncing clearly and distinctly the sacred words. All others, including children, whatever their position in life might be, were eligible for the reception of the secret rites of Demeter. It has been doubted whether slaves were numbered among them, but the doubt is not well supported. No dogmatic questions were asked, as in the bamothracian mysteries, all being admitted without assent to confessions of any sort. The only requirement to which all alike were sulijected was ceremoniixl purity. Consequently on the I6th of the month the candidates again assembled and began their m.arch of six miles to the sea, shouting as they went, ii\aSe ixvarai, ' to the sea, ye mystics.' The salt waters of the mysterious ocean were sup- posed to possess great purifying powers, and a relic of the belief may be seen in the sacramental use of salt in Christian sacramental practice. Euripides (Iph. Tanr. 1193) alludes to the belief in his words OdXaffcra K\i'i*et TrdvTa TavSpuiiriiiv KaKo. ( ' the sea washes away all evils of men'). Each candidate had pro- vided himself with a youn" sacrificial pig which he drove before him, and on liia arrival at the shore took it with him into the sea. Thus both were purified and the pig rendered fit for tlie sacrifice. The blood of the pig sprinkled on the candidate completed the purification, and the candidate him- self, with head veiled, seated on a rani's skin and grasping a winnow, was ready for the initiation. Hut at this point the festival of Asclepius, the Epidauria, which had been recognized in Athens as early as 421 B.C. and which had no vital con- nexion with the initiation, intervened, and lasted throughout the 17th and ISth of the month. During its celebration the candidates for the Eleu- sinian mysteries remained quietly at home, while the interval gave an opportunity to late comers to begin their initiation, or to complete the initial ceremonies, if they had already realized a part of them. On the 19th day of the month, perhaps one of the most solemn in the celebration, the proces- sion of purified candidates set out from the Eleu- sinion on its tedious march over the sacred way leading to Eleusis. It followed the sacred image of lacchos, which was borne aloft before it, and it carried back to Eleusis the ' holy things ' which the Itp-qjioi had brought to Athens. The number of those who composed it was comparatively great, sometimes 10,000 persons being in line ; of course these could not all have been candidates, for the hall of initiation at Eleusis could not have con- tained so many. They were in part the initiated who accompanied the candidates and sang hymns in jiraise of lacchos on the way, or at certain places iiiilulL:ed in coarse ribaldry and witticisms in order to liiild aloof the evil spirits. On the evening of the '20th the mystics reached the ' holy city,' which they entered with flaming torches, and passed the following day in rest or in ottering the sacrifice. Probably on the 22nd the initiation took place in the Telesterion, a large square building surrounded by thick walls to shield its secrets from prying eyes. It was set almost in the centre of an extensive enclosure, which contained the large and small propylrea or massive gateways, through which the candidates were conducted past the small temple of Pluto along the sacred way leading to the doors of