the Telesterion. Seats of stone, imrtly hewn from the native rock and partly constructed, rose tier on tier around the hall with a capacity for accom- modating about 3,000 persons. The original build- ing of course did not have this magnitude, for the Telesterion was repeatedly rebuilt, each time on a largerscale. Wliat i>art t'becmler buildings played in the initiation is not known. I'ossilily the ilescent of Kore into the under world and Dcmeter's search for her may have been represented in the tein])lc of I'luto ; l)nt this is douljtfnl, for the ruins of the temple reveal no subterranean construction. It is more probal)le that the final initiation was begun, continued, and completed in the Telesterion. What the nature of the mystic ceremony was is not easy to determine. Clement of Alexandria tells us that ' Deo [mystic name for Demeter] and Persephone may have become the heroines of a mystic drama. ; and their wanderings, seizure, and grief Eleusis celebrates by torchlight processions' \Frotrept. 2). Perhaps it would be precarious to take the word 'drama' literally. It may have had the character of a passion play, as L. K. I'arnell suggests (/v7ir" xix. 120) ; or it may have expressed the rehearsal of the story of Demeter in the pantomimic dance accompanied by songs, sacramental words, and other ceremonies, as De -long suggests (Da.i antike jMysterienwesen, p. 19 f.). But beyond such con- jectures we know nothing of the manner in wliicli the experiences, of which Demeter and Kore were the subject, were presented. In some way they were rendered so vivid, solemn, and impressive amid the dim light as to lift the ob.server up into a consciousness of union, even of identity, with the immortal goddess. Nor do we know what the 'holy things' were which the hierophant revealed at the most solemn moment of the initiation. Farnell (£23)-" xix. 120) suggests that they 'in- cluded certain primitive idols of the goddesses ' and perhaps ' " a cut corn-stalk."' A. Dieterich {Eiiw Ulithraditurgie., Leipzig, 1903, p. 125) would find among them symbols significant of phallic worship. The presentation of the corn token rests on the authority of Hippolytus, who says that ' the Athenians, while initiating people into the Eleu- sinian rites, likewise display to those who are being admitted to the highest grade of these mysteries, the mighty, and marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the highest mystic truths: [I allude to] an ear of corn in silence reaped ' {Philos. v. 3). Hippolytus may not be trustworthy in his statement. 15ut the majority of our authorities, such as Frazer, I'arnell, and De Jong, are inclined to think that such a token was really shown. De Jong believes that tlie rendering of the words referring to it should be ' display . . . in silence a reaped ear of corn' (Dns antike My- terienweaen, p. 23, n. 1). Dieteridi's suggestion of the presence of the phallic symbol rests on the retention of the old reading ipyaad.uo'oi, which C. A. Lobeck {A(jlaopha7HUs, p. 26) found unintelligible and changed to iy'YCV(rd^lel'os. His contention is tliat we have no right to alter a text, especially the text of a mystic formula, simply because we cannot understand it in its actual sense {Kine Jtlifhnis- liturgie, p. 125). If Dieterich's interpretation of the difficult term is correct, we can hardly regard this element in the Eleusinian mysteries as morally elevating, even taking into view its religious sig. nificance. It may be that at this point in the ceremonies a 'holy marriage' was celebrated in imitation of the marriage of Demeter and Zeus, or of Kore and Pluto. Its possibility rests mainly on the assertion of Asterius, who lived at the close of the 4th cent, and who briefly alludes to the act (Encomium in SS. Marii/res [I'G xl. 323]). De Jong seems to place great reliance on his witness (Das antike Mysteriemvesen, p. 22), while I'arnell
54
MYSTERY, MYSTEKIES
MYSTERY, MYSTERIES
re^jcards the passage embodying it as doubtful. Witli this sacred marriage the words of Hippolytus may be connected : ' by night in Eleusis . . . [the hierophan t] enacting the great and secret mysteries, vociferates and cries aloud, saying, " August Hrimo has brought forth a consecrated son, Brinius," that is, a potent [mother has been delivered of] a potent child ' (Philos. v. 3). Brimo is commonly believed to have been another name for Demeter ; but Miss Harrison explains it as another name for the Thes- salian Kore and designating in the Eleusinian mysteries simjily a maiden (Prolegomena, p. 553). Bi'imus, the child, is understood by J. N. Svoronos (' Erklarung der Denkmiiler des eleus. niystischen Kreisen,' in Journal international (Varchiolnrjie numisnuttique, iv. [1901]) to be Pluto, by Dieterich to be lacchos (Eine Mithraaliturgie, p. 138). Frazer attributes reality to this feature of the ceremonies, and explains it as magical, ' intended to make the fields wave with yellow corn' (GB^, pt. i., The Magic Art, London, 1911, ii. 138). If tlie ' holy marriage' really occurred in the mysteries, it must have been a relic of the old Nature-religions preserved in the cult and having the meaning which Frazer gives it. One more interesting feature of the mysteries of Demeter is the KVKcaf, or sacred drink. Clement of Alexandria refers to it in the only confession he ascribes to the initiate : ' I have fasted, I have drunk the cup {kvkcuv) ; I have re- ceived from the box ; having done (having tasted) I put it into the basket, and out of the basket into the chest ' (Protrcpt. 2). The kvk€wi/ was a mixture of grain, water, and other ingredients, which was the Krst food that Demeter had taken after her long wanderings and fastings. Among these in- gredients the sacramental wine must have been absent, for, while it was offered to other deities, it was not used in the cult of the underground gods (K. Kircher, Die sakrale Bedeatung des Weines im Altcrtum, Giessen, 1910, p. 21 ; P. Stengel, Op- ferbrduche der Griechen, Leipzig, 1910, p. 129). Stengel explains its absence on the ground that the chthonic cult reaches back to a remote time when the Greeks had not yet begun to cultivate the vine, and by reason of the conservatism of religion were disinclined, on the introduction of wine into use, to make any change in the practices of the religious cult. Moreover, the ancients were loath in their reverence for the chthonic deity to use anything which did not spring directly from the soil. However, the KvKeuiv was ' a sort of soup ' (Miss Harrison, Prolegomena, p. 156) or ' a kind of thick gruel,' as Frazer describes it (GB'^, pt. v., Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, p. 161, n. 4). The part which it played in the progress of the ceremonies cannot be determined. But apparently it was not an important part, and therefore, in this respect, the KVKeuiv cannot be likened to the Lord's Supper. It was a feature of the experience of Demeter in her search for her daughter, and, as every feature of that experience was closely fol- lowed in the pantomime, the manner in which she broke her protracted fast would be imitated. It is quite possible that sharing in the sacred drink meant also a formal induction into the community life of the mysteries and a reinforcing of the bonds which were binding its new members to the old. More than this — e.g. that the reception of it im- plied a belief of the presence of the deity with, in, and under its elements — can hardly be claimed for it. On the 23rd day, the last day of the festival, the final ceremony was performed. The worshippers assembled and, casting water from two vessels, now toward the east, and again toward the west, looked up to the heavens with the brief cry ' Rain ! ' and then looking down to the earth cried ' Be fruitful ! ' or ' Conceive ! ' The prayer, pregnant with significance, throws back a bright