THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 10
ae
were the hill where the shrine was erected, and the spring Callichoros shaded by the olive-tree under which Demeter rested. Into the myth as related above there were gradually woven Dionysiac and Orphic elements, which yet never obscured, as they did elsewhere, the local motif.
The myth is evidently etiological; a dearth may have been the occasion of the introduction of the Demeter and Kore elements that covered the more primitive rationale of the earlier clan rites. What seems to have escaped the attention of observers is the discord between myth and ceremonial. The former relates the reunion in the autumn of maid and mother—the season of harvest and of sowing of winter grain. The disappearance of Kore is by common consent the sowing of the seed corn, and this reappears (comes from the underworld) in its green sprouts in the spring, and spring, according to all analogy, should be the time of reunion of mother and daughter. Moreover, harvest offerings were, according to epigraphic evidence, a part of the involved ritual at Eleusis. The myth was, therefore, forced into connection with the Eleusinia, was superimposed upon the old clan ceremonies, just as the Dionysiac-Iacchic-Orphic elements later came in upon the whole.
As already indicated, the Eleusinia consisted of the “lesser ’’ and the ‘‘ greater ’’ mysteries. The former were celebrated at Athens and served as the
preliminary degree or preparation for
5. Lesser the greater or real initiation; they
Mysteries. were sacred to Kore and Dionysus, while the greater were sacred to Demeter and Kore. The time of the lesser is in doubt, being either in the month Anthesterion (February- March), or in Elaphebolion (March-April); the days were the twentieth to the twenty-first. The place was Agra or Agri, a suburb of Athens, near the spring Callirhoe, where was a temple to Demeter and Persephone (Kore). The memory of the purely supplementary origin of the lesser mysteries is preserved in the legend that they were instituted in honor of Herakles, who wished to be initiated, but could not as his visit to Athens did not coincide with the season of the observance; besides, one not a citizen could not take the greater initiation, and foreigners were allowed to take the lesser degree. The observance then became preliminary to the final ceremonies. Little is known of the rites, though it is certain that the central thought, as of the greater, was purification, there being several marks of that proceeding, fasting (abstention from fowl, certain kinds of fish, beans, pomegranates, and apples), continence, and lustration on the banks of the Ilyssos River (cf. Eusebius, Preparatio Evangelica, III., i., Eng. transl., i. 91, Oxford, 1903). The candidates received instruction from the mystagogue (preceptor for the occasion) in the needful matters; this possibly included the Eleusinian version of the myth concerning the principal deities, and may have embraced the Iacchic-Dionysiac corruptions. Certainly the methods of purification were taught, also the dietary restrictions and taboos and the kind and order of sacrifices.
The greater mysteries were divided between
Athens and Eleusis, which places were connected
by the “sacred way’ along which processions passed, with shrines at frequent intervals which had significance for the celebration. The 6. Greater time was the month Boedromion, the Mysteries: ..4son of harvest for late fruits, but Pe estar og concerning the exact dates and the ‘order of the rites there are considerable differences among the authorities. For three of the dates there isyepigraphic evidence which fixes the days for certain ceremonies. The actual opening of the celebration was preceded perhaps two months earlier by the proclamation of the sacred heralds announcing the solemn truce between warring states, in order that would-be participants might travel in safety. The dates fixed by inscriptions (Corpus inscriptionum Atticarum, III., 5) are the thirteenth,’on which Athenian epheboi proceeded to Eleusis to escort the sacra, which in procession were brought by priestesses to Athens on the fourteenth, and on the nineteenth were returned to Eleusis, where they were kept till the next year. The order of events was probably the following. On the fifteenth came the gathering (agyrmos) of the myste (those who had taken the lesser mysteries) at the Stoa Poikile in Athens, and the address (prorrhésis) by the hierophant (the principal actor in the mysteries), while the herald warned away the defiled and profane, murderers, traitors, and the like, as well as non-Greeks (cf. the parody in Aristophanes’ ‘“ Frogs,’”’ 354). On the sixteenth was the essential and great purification known technically as halade myste, “‘ to the sea, ye mystai,” when the candidates proceeded to the seashore, each carrying the pig which was his sacrifice (the one usual to chthonic gods), and this with himself he purified by bathing. The seventeenth seems to have been the day when the archon-basileus offered at Athens the great soteria sacrifice to Demeter and Kore; the eighteenth was apparently devoted to private sacrifices, these two constituting the Epidauria, an accretion of the fifth century. On the nineteenth the sacra were returned to Eleusis. On the night of the nineteenth or early on the morning of the twentieth took place the great procession of the purified myste, wearing myrtle crowns and carrying torches (the torch is usually a symbol of underworld deities such as Kore had become), and the entire day was consumed and far into the night in traversing the sacred way, stops being made for sacrifice and worship at the numerous shrines. This procession escorted also the myrtle-crowned image of the young Iacchus (the Bacchus of the Eleusinia, son of Zeus and Demeter, identified also with Dionysus) attended by two priestesses who bore the liknon (fan, cradle) and playthings, all to the accompaniment of the joyous ery Jacche (‘ O Iacchus”’), songs, clashing of cymbals, blowing of trumpets, and dancing. This day had distinction as the real beginning of the mysteries—another of the many facts which mark the performances at Athens as secondary and additional.
The twentieth (or twenty-first; from this point the dates are in uncertainty) was possibly the day of the offering of first-fruits to Demeter (C. F. W. Dittenberger, Sylloge inscriptionum Grecarum,