es RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
p. 13, Leipsic, 1883), as well as of sacrifices to other deities, demigods, and the Charites. The two nights following were almost certainly the
adh The nights of initiation and of the presenysteries . : Proper, ‘tion of the mystic drama, when the
myst shared the mourning of Demeter and her subsequent joy, visited the spots consecrated, according to the story, by the experiences of the goddess, and then, like her, broke their fast by drinking the kykeon (see above, II., 1, § 4), the chief sacrament of the festival. The two nights of the drama seem to represent two degrees of initiation, the second possibly taken after a year’s interval, full initiates being known as epopte, the term indicating evidently that they had seen and (according to the formula given by Clement of Alexandria) handled the sacra. The day following seems to have been a day of games, at which the prize was a measure of new barley, the firstfruits from the sacred field of Demeter near by. The Eleusinia closed with the return of the myst to Athens in procession bearing the statue of Tacchus, two final events marking the entry. The first was the passing of the bridge of the Kephissos, the mystz and the spectators bandying jests, sometimes ribald and perhaps obscene (an addition probably after the admission of Dionysus to a share in the honors; certainly not original); and the pouring of two libations of water at the gate of Athens, most likely one to the East (the place of sunrise and the heavenly gods) and the other to the West (the place of sunset and of the entrance to the underworld). On the next day, the ceremonies being closed, the Athenian senate met to hear the report of the officials concerning the celebration and to try offenders who had offered profanation. There are very clear indications that the celebration was in the latest period prolonged for two or three days, thus deferring by that period the day of assembling of the senate.
The matters given in the preceding paragraphs constitute in the main the externals only, and except for the purifications and sacrifices do not deal with the concerns which gave to the mysteries their significance and their value.
se poesen = These externals were not closed to any Sacra. Citizens as spectators, women as well
as men attending the processions and other rites. The secrecy began with the performances which followed the arrival of Iacchus at Eleusis. The essentials there consisted of four series of acts: katharsis or purification, sustasis or rites and sacrifices preliminary to initiation (both these open to the public as spectators) ; teleuéé or initiation, and epopteia or sight of the sacred objects (these only for candidates and initiates). In the epopteia are doubtless included the viewing of the sacred drama and the sight and handling of the sacra. Scattered cryptic references indicate that the drama included startling transformations effected by sudden transitions from darkness to intense light, while the actors reproduced the scenes of the myth, especially the reappearance of Kore from the underworld and the actions of the other divinities in the myth, The keynotes of all the proceedings were
Tribal and Cultic Mysteries
purification, consecration, and hope for the future both in this life and the next. Concerning the secret rites only a few details are known from incidental allusions in literature and from the excavations at Eleusis, the latter clearing up much concerning the possibilities of the telesterion or hall of initiation. It is a Christian Father, Clement of Alexandria (‘‘ Exhortation to the Heathen,” chap. ii., in ANF, ii. 175-177; cf. Harrison, Prolegomena, ut sup., pp. 155, 158), who gives the “token” (symbol) by which the initiate proved his adeptship: ‘ I fasted, I drank the kykeon, I took from the chest, I put into the basket and back from the basket into the chest’; or “I ate from the timbrel, I drank from the cymbal, I carried the kernos, I passed beneath the pastos.”” The meaning of the first two clauses in the first of these formulas is clear; the cryptic character of the rest is evident. But one can not doubt that certain articles were taken out of a chest, and for the time placed in a basket until all had been handled and then returned to the chest. Doubtless the mystagogue explained during the process the symbolical significance of the articles; but what these were is practically unknown. For while certain articles used in the mysteries are spoken of in the classics, in Clement of Alexandria, and in the earlier treatises on antiquities (such as Athenzeus, ‘‘ Banquet,” xi. 52-56) and dictionaries, in each case there is doubt whether they belonged to the Eleusinia or to some of the numerous mysteries of the Greek world. With the utmost probability one of the articles was an ear of barley. Another, the kernos, is nearly as certain, and while it has been explained as @ winnowing fan, it is now known from excavations to have designated a composite cup (Harrison, Prolegomena, ut sup., pp. 158-160)—a platter with a number of little cups attached which held cereals, perhaps honey, and other materials, symbolic of the gifts of Demeter. Clement (ut sup.) tabulates the articles taken from the chest as ‘‘ sesame, cakes, pyramidal cakes, globular and flat cakes embossed all over, lumps of salt, and a serpent, . . . pomegranates, branches, rods, ivy leaves, . . . poppy seeds, ... the unmentionable symbols of Themis, marjoram, a lamp, a sword, a woman’s comb, which is a euphemism and mystic expression for the muliebra.’’ But Clement may have confused these articles with things that were employed in the mysteries of the great mother of Asia Minor.
The sacerdotal functionaries who conducted or took part were the hierophantes of the Eumolpis er odcinis family, who conducted the initiations : “and uttered the sacred sayings in which the revelations were made. They were assisted by the daduchoi, who seem also to have been Eumolpide. These grades seem to have included both sexes. Other officers were the Zacchogos, kourotrophos (nurse) and datrites, who officiated in the Iacchic procession. The liknophoros bore the liknon (winnowing fan? or was it another name for the kernos?), explained by some as the article used as the cradle of the infant Iacchos. Hydranoi purified with water the candidates, pyrophorot maintained the sacred fires, hieraules were sacred flutists
Tribal and Cultic Mysteries