9 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Tribal and Cultic Mysteries
gods and of spirits into great deities are well-known phenomena; the centers of crystallization were furnished by foreign gods brought in with the earlier migrations. In such cases as the Eleusinian mysteries (which will be taken as the typical example here), the focusing upon Demeter and Kore is explained by the elements of the myth itself—in the narrative of a period of unfruitfulness followed by a return of harvest attributed to the goddess. The adoption is precisely parallel to the acclaim of Yahweh by Israel after the passage of the Red Sea and the defeat of the Amalekites. The early local character of the mysteries celebrated at Eleusis (12 m. n.w. of Athens) is attested by a large number of facts, the most prominent of which is the performance of the principal rites (“‘ greater mysteries ””) at Eleusis while only the preliminary rites (‘lesser mysteries’’) were performed at Athens. Moreover, this latter celebration was instituted almost certainly after the subjection of Eleusis to Athens in the seventh century B.c., and was clearly a political move to afford the suzerain city a share in the popular observances and to foster local pride. Almost as decisive a proof is the hereditary transmission of the principal functions in the mysteries and the restriction of knowledge of the higher secrets to certain families of Eleusis, the Eumolpide, Triptolemide, and Diocletide, and to these were given a heroic or semi-divine ancestry. Other indications of derivation from primitive puberty rites are the requirements of adultship in the candidates, as well as (in early times) of local citizenship, and (in all times) of legitimacy of birth; here also are to be placed the retention among the sacra of implements originally magical (so far as the reports of the sacra are to be trusted), the early meaning of which was lost while a palpably secondary and more philosophical symbolism was read into them. The facts adduced, and a number of others, warrant selection of the Eleusinia as illustrative and typical of this type of rites. Significant are not only the evident ancestry, and a tendency to syn- _ eretism, but also the esteem in which 8. Esti- they were held, their duration throughmates of the 5 a 5 Eleusinia, OUt a millennium of history, and the abiding secrecy which veiled the proceedings. How highly they were regarded is witnessed by a series of testimonies. Thus Pausanias says (V., x. 1): ‘ There is nothing on which the blessing of God rests in so full measure as the rites of Eleusis and the Olympic games ’”’; Pindar (ed. C. J. T. Mommsen, p. 470, Berlin, 1864) declares: ‘© happy one, who goes beneath the hollow earth having witnessed these (mysteries)! he indeed knows the issues of life’’; Sophocles remarks (as cited by Plutarch, Quomodo adolescens, iii.): ‘‘ Thrice blessed the mortals who, having contemplated these mysteries, have descended to Hades; for those only will there be a future life [of happiness], the others will find there nothing but suffering”; and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter reads: “ Happy he among mortal men who hath beheld these things! he that is uninitiate, and hath no lot in them, hath never equal lot in death beneath the murky gloom ”’ (Andrew Lang, Homeric Hymns, p. 210, London, 1899). The history can be traced from Pindar and
the Homeric Hymns in the seventh century B.c. to 396 a.p.; the mysteries survived the edicts of the Christian emperors, but the monks who accompanied Alaric to Attica in 396 secured the destruction of the temples and buildings at Eleusis in which the mystic drama had its home. For the continuance of the secrecy there are in evidence not only the still dense ignorance respecting the ritual and the fact that what little is known is the result of patient gleaning from every available source covering a millennium of Greek and Roman literature (best gathered in C. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, Regensburg, 1829), but also the explicit testimony of Gregory Nazianzen: ‘“‘ Eleusis knows as well as the witnesses the secret of this spectacle (the drama), which is with reason kept so profound ”’ (“ Oration XXXIX. On the Holy Lights,” in NPNF, 2 ser., vii., 353). The myth which lay at the base of the Eleusinia as celebrated in the historical period was that Kore, daughter of Demeter, was seized while 4. The Kore - :
Myth. gathering flowers and carried away by Hades, king of the lower world, Zeus conniving at the deed. Demeter wandered disconsolate over the earth seeking knowledge of her daughter, and at last was told by Helios, who alone had seen the rape, what had been done; after nine days’ wandering she arrived at Eleusis in the guise of an old woman, where she seated herself by the sacred spring. She was kindly received by Celeus, king of the place, but declined refreshment in the shape of wine, directing, however, preparation of the kykeon—a compound of meal and water flavored with crushed mint, with which she broke her long fast. She became nurse to the infant son of Celeus, whom by daily anointing with ambrosial ointment and nightly baths of fire she intended to make immortal. But the. mother was suspicious, spied on the goddess, was terrified at sight of the flames, and, crying out, foiled the purpose of Demeter. The latter then revealed herself, directed a temple to be built in her honor, and in this took up her dwelling; she then inaugurated the mysteries, the conduct of which she taught to the families of Eumolpus, Triptolemus, and Diocles, directing them ever to keep secret the knowledge imparted in the ceremonies from all but initiates (Arnobius, ‘‘ Against the Heathen,” v. 25, ANF, vi. 499; A. Lang, ut sup., pp. 209-210). Still she mourned her daughter, and in sympathy the earth refused its fruits, till the extinction of the race of men and discontinuation of offerings to the gods were threatened. Zeus then sent Hermes to the lower world to release Kore and have her brought back to earth. Hades had, however, prevailed upon the maiden to eat a pomegranate seed, and, having eaten, she was bound to return thither, though a season of dwelling upon earth was permitted. So maid and mother were reunited at Eleusis, and the earth once more became fruitful (for a parallel to this myth see Tammuz- Avonis, § 4; for the descensus ad inferos see SUN AND SuN Worsuip, II., § 7). Eumolpus was accredited with the actual establishment of the ceremonies, and in his family remained the chief places in the conduct of the mysteries. The natural objects in Eleusis made sacred by the visit of Demeter
Tribal and Cultic Mysteries