MYSTERY
192
3IYSTERY
Ceres was invoked under this name, was a day of mer- ' ffoffus (/ivaraywyoc, also called i(po<tiavrt]c or irpoip);- rimeiit and raillery among the women themselves, in | rijc), and they received some kind of preparatory' in- commemoration of lambe, who was said to have made j struction, which enabled them afterwards to understand the goddess smile during her grief. i the mysteries that were revealed to them in the great
3. But far more important, so much so indeed as al- , Eleusinia. most to monopolize the terra '• mystery" among the | The great mysteries were celebrated everj' year in (Jreeks, were the Kleusinian mysteries (iXtvaivta'), a i the month of IJoedromion during nine days, from the festival and mysteries, originally celebrated only at 15th to the 23d, both at Athens and Eleusis. The
Eleiisis in Attica, in honor of Ceres and Proserpina. The Eleusinian mysteries, or ike mysteries, as they were sometimes called, were the holiest and most ven- erable of all that were celebrated in Cireece. Various traditions were current among the Greeks respecting the author of these mysteries; for, while some consid- ered Eumolpus or Musajus to be their founder, otliers ^tate^^ that they had been introduced from Egypt by Erechtheus, who at a time of scarcity provided his country with corn from P^gypt, and imported from the same quarter the sacred rites and mysteries of Eleusis. A third tradition attributed the institution to Ceres herself, who, when wandering about in search of her
initiated were called tTrvirrai or t<pvpoi. On the first day those who had been initiated in the lesser Eleu- sinia assembled at Athens. On the second day the mystai went in solemn procession to the sea- coast, where they undenvent a purification. Of the third day scarcely any thing is known with certainty; we are only told that it was a day of fasting, and that in the evening a frugal meal was taken, which consisted of cakes made of sesame and honey. On the fourth day the KaXa^oc KaSroCoc seems to have taken place. Tliis was a procession with a basket containing pomegranates and poppy -seeds; it was carried on a wagon drawn bv oxen, and women followed with small mvstic cases
laughter, Proserpina, was believed to have come to in their hands. On the tifth day, which appears to
Attica, in the reign of Erechtheus, to have supplied its inhabitants with corn, and to have instituted tlie mys- teries at Eleusis. This last opinion seems to have been the most common among the ancients, and in sub- sequent times a stone was shown near the well Cal- licliorus at Eleusis on which the goddess, overwhelmed with grief and fatigue, was believed to have rested on her arrival in Attica. All the accounts and allusions in ancient writers seem to warrant the conclusion that the legends concerning the introduction of tlie Eleu- sinia are descriptions of a period when the inhabitants of Attica were becoming acquainted with the benefits
have been called the torch day (»'/ -iZv Xa^nracwv y'lftipa), the mystie, led by the c «cor';^'or, went in the evening with torches to the temple of Ceres at Eleusis, where they seem to have remained during the follow- ing night. Tliis rite was probably a symbolical repre- sentation of Ceres wandering about in search of Pro- serpina, The sixth day, called lacc/ivs, %vas the most solemn of all. The statue of lacchus, son of Ceres, adorned with a garland of myrtle and bearing a torch in his hand, was carried along the sacred road amid joyous shouts and songs, from the Ceraraicus to Eleusis. This solemn procession was accompanied by great num-
of agriculture and of a regularly constituted form of bers of followers and spectators. During tlie night society. In the reign of Erechtheus a war is said to from the sixth to the seventh day the mystie remained
have broken out between the Athenians and Eleusin- ians; and when the latter were defeated, thej^ ac- knowledged the supremacy of Athens in cverytliing except the mysteries, which they wished to conduct and regulate for themselves. Thus the superinten- dence remained with the descendants of Eumolpus,
at Eleusis, and were initiated into the last mysteries (tTTOTTrtia). Those wlio were neither tVo5rrot nor Hvarai were sent away by a herald. The mysta; now repeated the oath of secrecy which had been adminis- tered to them at the lesser Eleusinia, underwent a new purification, and then they were led by the mystagogus
the daughters of the Eleusinian king Celeus, and a J in the darkness of niglit into the lighted interior of the third class of priests, the Cerj-ces, who seem likewise j sanctuary (^ojraywyia), and were allowed to sec (ai'-c- to have been connected with the family of Eumolpus, i^^/a) what none excejtt tlic epoptse ever beheld. The though they themselves traced their origin to Mer- [ awful and horrible manner in which the initiation is de- cury and Aglauros. At the time when flie local gov- I scribed by later, esjiecially Christian writers, seems ernments of the several townships of Attica were con- j partly to proceed from their ignorance of its real char- centrated at Athens, the capital became also the centre , acter, partly from their horror of and aversion to these of religion, and several deities who had hitherto only 1 pagan rites. The more ancient writers always ab-