ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES 135
ELEUTHEROPOLIS
acles came to Athens to be initiated into the mysteries it was not j^et permitted to admit any foreign Greek. In order not to violate the traditional laws, and at the same time not to oftund the great hero, who was not less feared than venerated, the lesser mysteries were transferred to Agrie, a suburb of Athens, and with them Heracles had to be content. From tliis time tiie lesser mysteries served as a preparation for the great- er. The initiation into the mysteries was preceded by some devotional exercises, sacred rites, and sj'm- bolic actions, the object of which was to divert the candidates for initiation for a time from the world, its pleasures and occupations, and to bring about in them a change of mind, and a longing for the disclosures to be made to them. Between initiation into the lesser and initiation into the greater one j'ear had to elapse. The lesser were celebrated from the 19th to the L^lst of the month Anthesterion (beginning of April) ; the greater one, the Eleusinian mysteries, were celebrated from the IGth to the 25th of Boedromion (beginning of October). "On the first day (called agurmos, the assembling), the neophytes, already initiated at the preparatory festival, met, and were instructed in their sacred duties. On the second day (called Ilalade, mysta;. To the sea, ye initiated!), they purified them- selves hj washing in the sea. On the thu-d daj', sac- rifices, comprising, among other things, tlie mullet- fish, and cakes made of barley from the Rharian plain, were offered witii special rites. The fourth day was devoted to the procession of the sacred basket of Ceres (the Kalathion). Tliis basket — containing pomegran- ates, salt, poppy seeds, etc., and followed bj' bands of women carr3'ing smaller baskets similarly filled — was drawn in a consecrated cart through the streets, amid shouts of ' Hail, Ceres !' from the onlookers. The fifth day was known as the 'day of the torches,' and was thought to sjMnbolize tiie wanderings of Ceres in quest of her daughter. On it the mj'stie, led b}* the ' dadu- chus,' the torch-hearer, walked two by two to the tem- ple of the goddess, and seem to have spent the niglit there. The sixth daj', called lacchus, in honor of the son of Ceres, was the great day of tlie feast. On that day the statue of lacclius was borne in pomp along the sacred waj' from the Ceramicus at Athens to Eleusis, where the votaries spent the ni^ht, and were initiated in the last mysteries. Till this stage of the proceed- ings they had been only mystip; but on the ni^ht of the sixth day they were admitted into the innermost sanctuary of the temple, and, from l)eing allowed to behold the sacred things, became entitled to be called 'epoptiB,' or 'ephori,' i. e. spectators, or contemphifors. The}' were once more purified, and repeated their original oath of secrecy witii an imposing and awful ceremonial, somewdiat resembling, it is believed, the forms of modern free-masonry. On the seventh day the votaries returned to Athens with mirth and music, halting for a wliile on the bridge over the Cephisus, and exercising their wit and satire against the specta- tors. Tlie eighth day was called Epidauria, and was believed to Iiave been added to the original number of the diiys for the convenience of tliose who had been nnalile to attend the grand ceremonial of the sixth daj'. It was named in honor of ^Esculapius, who ar- rived on one occasion from his native city of Epidau- rus too late for the solemn rites, and the Athenians, unwilling to disappoint so distinguished a benefactor of mankind, added a supplementary day. On the ninth day took place the ceremony of the ' Plenin- choff,' in which tw-o earthen vessels filled with wine were turned one towards the east and the other to- wards the west. The attendant priests, uttering some mj-stic words, then upset both vessels, and the wine so spilt was ofFercd as a libation. Slaves, prosti- tutes, and persons who had forfeited their citizenship were excluded from the rites. During the period of the festival, none of those taking part in it could be arrested for any offence. Lycurgus, with a A'iew to