The Eleusinia or "Eleusinian Mysteries" are a festival in honor of the goddess Demeter (Ceres) that was celebrated every 4 years among the Celeans and Phliasians, and every year among the Pheneasians, Lacedaemonians, Parrhasians and Cretans, but more especially among the Athenians at Eleusis, a city of Attica, from where they were transferred by Hadrian to Rome and survived until the reign of Theodosius I, Roman emperor from 379 to 395 AD.
It was, of all the Greek festivals, the most famous and the most mysterious: it was therefore called the Mysteries par excellence.
❖ Origins
Some attribute the establishment of the first to Eumolpus (son of Poseidon and Chione, daughter of Boreas), others to Orpheus. The Athenians, who called themselves the inventors of agriculture, attributed its origin to Demeter herself, who, under the name and dress of a simple mortal, came, in search of her daughter, to seek shelter with Celeus, king of Eleusis, where she ended her fast by drinking kykeon (a drink made from wine, barley and grated goat's cheese). As a reward, she initiated him into the mysteries and taught him agriculture.
Diodorus Siculus gives as its author Erechtheus, fourth king of Athens, who, coming from Egypt with a fleet loaded with wheat, delivered Attica from a major famine, and who, placed on the throne by the gratitude of the inhabitants, taught them the cult of Demeter.
The Legend:
The basis of the cult was the story of Demeter and Kore/Persephone. In this tale, Hades falls in love with Kore and kidnaps her from the field where she plays, to drag her into the kingdom. When Demeter discovers her daughter's absence, she searches the entire Earth for her. When she learns that Hades is holding her daughter, she refuses to let anything grow on the earth. Zeus, realizing that his people were going to starve, insists to Hades to release Persephone. Unfortunately, Persephone during her stay had eaten 6 pomegranates, and since she had shared the food of the dead, she is now one of them and according to the laws of nature she can no longer return to the world of the living.
Demeter does not give up and wants to get her daughter back, and Zeus, with the help of his messenger Hermes, negotiates a partial release of Persephone so that she returns to earth for 6 months of the year in the spring and leaves in the fall to be with her husband.
❖ Procession.
These festivals lasted 9 days.
- The first day was called Agyrmos, or assembly day.
- The 2nd day was devoted to purifications, which consisted of sea baths.
- On the third day sacrifices were offered, which consisted of millet and barley collected from a field in Eleusis. These offerings were so sacred, that the priests themselves could not take their share of them.
- The 4th day was marked by a solemn procession, where the Calâthion, (sacred basket), was carried on a cart pulled by oxen, these sacred relics (the hiera) were transported to Athens to be placed in the Eleusinion, a sanctuary at the base of the Acropolis amidst the cheers of the people.
- The 5th day was called the day of Torches, because the following night, men and women ran through the streets, torches in hand, in imitation of Demeter looking for Persephone.
- The 6th day was named Iacchos, in honor of the one who had accompanied the goddess in her research.
- The 7th day was devoted to gymnastic games, where the winner was rewarded with a measure of barley.
- The 8th day was used to initiate those who were not yet initiated, and had the name of Epidaura, in memory of Asclepius who had come from Epidaurus to be admitted to initiation.
- The 9th day was called Plémochoe, (Vase with a wide and shallow basin placed on a high foot) because two containers were filled with water and wine, one of which was placed to the east, and the other to the west, and which were overturned while repeating certain mystical words.
After these nine days of procession, the priest arrived at the Telesterion, seated on a throne (the thrônosis), drank the kykeon and sacrificed a piglet in the middle of a terrible din, punctuated by the music of the dancers who surrounded him. We do not know much about the secret rituals that took place in the dark. The secret was well kept.
The ceremony was performed at night. The initiates assembled near the temple, in an enclosure large enough to accommodate a large crowd. They wore crowns of myrtle, and washed their hands at the entrance to the portico. After various preparations, the chief minister of the goddess put a series of questions to them, to which they answered with a formula preserved for us by Arnobius and Clement of Alexandria. After this answer, they were made to pass rapidly through continual alternations of light and darkness; a confused multitude of diverse objects passed before their eyes; several voices were finally heard; the ceremony was concluded by exposing to their eyes the object of their expectation, and they withdrew amidst acclamations. The initiates never took off their robes unless they were worn out by old age: then they consecrated them to Demeter and Persephone.
Article taken from Mabon and Mythologica.fr