The Festival of the Greater Mysteries, and this was, of course, by far the more important, began on the 15th of the month Boedromion, corresponding roughly with the month of September, and lasted until the 23rd of the same month. During that time it was unlawful to arrest any man present, or present any petition except for offenses committed at the Festival, heavy penalties being inflicted for breaches of this law, the penalties fixed being a fine of not less than a thousand drachmas, and some assert that transgressors were even put to death.
The following was the programme of the Festival:
First Day. The first day was known as the "Gathering" or the "Assembly," when all who had passed through the Lesser Mysteries assembled to assist in the celebration of the greater Mysteries. On this day the Archon Basileus presided over all the cults of the city and assembled the people at a place known as the Poikile Stoa. After the Archon Basileus, with four assistants, had offered up sacrifices and prayers for the welfare of Greece, the following proclamation was made by the Archon Basileus, wearing his robe of office:
Come whoever is clean of all pollution and whose soul has not consciousness of sin. Come, whosoever hath lived a life of righteousness and justice. Come all ye who are pure of heart and of hand, and whose speech can be understood. Whosoever hath not clean hands, a pure soul, and an intelligible voice, must not assist at the Mysteries.
The people were then commanded by the hierophant to wash their hands in consecrated water and the impious were threatened with the punishment set forth in the law if they were discovered, but especially, and this in any case, with the implacable anger of the gods. The Hierocceryx then impressed upon all the duty of observing the most rigid secrecy with respect to all that they might witness and bade all be silent throughout the ceremonies and not utter even an exclamation. The candidates for initiation assembled outside the temple, each under the guidance and direction of a mystagogue, who repeated these instructions to the candidates. Once within the sacred enclosure all the initiated were subject to a purification by fire ceremonial. All wore regalia special to the occasion; this is evident from the wording of inscriptions which have been discovered, but particulars of this regalia are wanting.
We know that extravagant and costly dresses were regarded by Demeter with disfavour and that it was forbidden to wear such in the temple. Jewelry, gold ornaments, purple coloured belts and embroideries were also barred, as were robes and cloths of mixed colours. The hair of women had to fall down loose upon the shoulders and must not be in plaits or coiled upon the head. No woman was permitted to use cosmetics.
Second Day. The second day was known as Halade Mystae, or "To the sea, ye mystae" from the command which greeted all the initiated to go and purify themselves by washing in the sea, or in the salt water of the two lakes, called Rheiti, on what was known as "The Sacred Way." A procession was formed in which all joined and made their way to the sea or the lakes where they bathed and purified themselves.
This general purification was akin to that practised to this day by the Jews at the beginning of the Jewish year. The day was consecrated to Saturn, into whose province the soul is said to fall in the course of its descent from the tropic of Cancer. Capella compares Saturn to a river, voluminous, sluggish, and cold. The planet signifies pure intellect and Pythagoras symbolically called the sea a tear of Saturn. The bathing was preceded by a confession and the manner in which the bathing was carried out and the number of immersions varied with the degree of guilt which each confessed.
According to-Suidas, those who had to purify themselves from murder plunged into salt water on two separate occasions, immersing themselves seven times on each occaeion On returning from the bath all were regarded as "new creatures," the bath being regarded as a laver of regeneration, and the initiated were clothed in a plain fawn skin or a sheep skin. The purification, however, was not regarded as complete until the following day when there was added the sprinkling of the blood of a pig sacrificed. Eaeh had carried to the river or lake a little pig which was also purified by bathing and on the next day this pig was sacrificed.
On the Eleusinian coinage, the pig, standing on a torch placed horizontally, appears as the sign and symbol of the Mysteries. On this day also some of the initiated submitted to a special purification near the altar of Zeus Mellichios on the Sacred Way. For each person whom it was desired to purify, an ox was sacrificed to Zeus Mellichios, the infernal Zeus, and the skin of the animal was laid on the ground by the Dadouchos, and the one who was the object of the lustration remained there squatting on the left foot.
Third Day. On the third day pleasures of every description, even the most innocent, were strictly forbidden, and every one fasted till nightfall, when they partook of seed cakes, parched corn, salt, pomegranates, and sacred wine mixed with milk and honey. The Archon Basileus, assisted again by the four Epimeletae, celebrated in the presence of representatives from the allied cities, the great sacrifice of the Soteria for the well-being of the State, the Athenian citizens, and their wives and children.
This ceremony took place in the Eleusinion at the foot of the Acropolis. The day was known as the Day of Mourning and was supposed to commemorate Demeter's grief at the loss of Persephone. The sacrifices offered consisted chiefly of a mullet and of barley out of Rharium, a field of Eleusis. The oblations were accounted so sacred that the priests themselves were not permitted, as was usual in other offerings, to partake of them. At the conclusion of the general ceremony each one individually sacrificed the little pig purified in the sea the night before.
Fourth Day. The principal event of the fourth day was a solemn procession when the holy basket of Ceres (Demeter) was carried in a consecrated cart, the crowds of people shouting as it went along, "Hail, Ceres!" The rear end of the procession was composed of women carrying baskets containing sesamin, carded wool, grains of salt, serpents, pomegranates reeds, ivy boughs, and cakes known as poppies.
Fifth Day. The fifth day was known as the Day of Torches from the fact that at nightfall all the initiated walked in pairs round the temple of Demeter at Eleusis, the Dadouchos himself leading the procession. The torches were waved about and changed from hand to hand to represent the wanderings of the goddess in search of her daughter when she was conducted by the light of a torch kindled in the flames of Etna.
Sixth Day. Iacchos was the name given to the sixth day of the Festival. The "fair young god" Iacchos, or Dionysos, or Sacchus, was the son of Jupiter and Ceres, and accompanied the goddess in her search for Persephone. He also carried a torch, hence his statue has always a torch in the hand. This statue, together with other sacred objects, were taken from the Iacchion, the sanctuary of Iacchos in Athens, mounted on a heavy rustic four- wheeled chariot drawn by bulls, and, accompanied by the Iacchogogue and other magistrates nominated for the occasion, conveyed from the Caramicus to Eleusis by the Sacred Way in solemn procession. The statue, as well as the people accompanying it, was crowned with myrtle, the people dancing all the way along the route, beating brass kettles and playing instruments of various kinds and singing sacred songs. Halts were made during the procession at various shrines, particularly at a fig-tree which was regarded as sacred, also upon a bridge built over the river Cephissus where the by- standers made themselves merry at the expense of the pilgrims.
At each of the shrines sacrifices and libations were offered, hymns sung, and sacred dances performed. Having passed the bridge the people entered Eleusis by what was known as the Mystical Entrance. Midnight had set in before Eleusis was reached so that a great part of the journey had to be accomplished by the light of the torches carried by each of the pilgrims and the nocturnal journey was spoken of as the "night of torches" by many ancient authors. The pitch and resin of which the torches were composed were substances supposed to have the virtue of warding off evil spirits. The barren mountains of the Pass of Daphni and the surface of the sea resounded with the chant: "Iacchos, O Iacchos!" At one of the halts, the Croconians, descendants of the hero Crocon, who had formerly reigned over the Thriasian Plain, fastened a saffron band on the right arm and left foot of each one in the procession. Iacchos was always regarded as a child of Demeter, inasmuch as the vine grows out of the earth. Various symbols were carried by the people, who numbered sometimes as many as thirty and forty thousand.
These symbols consisted of winnowing fans the "mystic fan of Iacchos"; plaited reeds and baskets, both relating to the worship of the goddess and her son. The distance covered by the procession was 22 kilometres, but Lyourgus ordered that if any woman should ride in a chariot to Eleusis she should be mulcted in a fine of 8,000 drachmas. This was to prevent the richer women from distinguishing themselves from their poorer sisters. Strange to relate, the wife of Lyourgus was the first to break thig law and Lyourgus himself had to pay the fine which he had ordained. He not only paid the penalty but gave a talent to the informer. Immediately upon the deposit of the sacred objects in the Eleusinion at the foot of the Acropolis, one of the Eleusinion priests solemnly announced their arrival to the priestess of the tutelary goddess of Athens Pallas Athene. Plutarch, in commenting upon lucky and unlucky days, says that he is aware that unlucky things happen sometimes on lucky days, for the Athenians had to receive a Macedonian garrison "even on the 20th of Boedromion, the day on which they lead forth the mystic Iacchos."
Seventh Day. On the seventh day the statue was carried back to Athens. The return journey was also a solemn procession and attended with numerous ceremonies. Halts were again made at several places, like the "stations" of Roman Catholic pilgrimage, when the inhabitants also fell into line with the procession. For those who remained behind at Eleusis the time was devoted to sports, the victors in which were rewarded with a measure of barley, it being a tradition that that grain was first sown in Eleusis. It was also regarded as a day of preparation for the initiation ceremony of the following night. The return journey was conducted with the same splendour as the outward journey. It comprised comic incidents, the same as on the previous day.
Those who awaited the procession at the bridge over the Athenian river Cephisson exchanged all kinds of chaff and buffoonery with those who were in the procession, indulging in what was termed "bridge fooling." These jests, it is said, were to recall the tactful measure employed by a maid-servant named Iambe, to rouse Demeter from her prolonged mourning. During the Peliponnesian war the Athenians were unable to obtain an armistice from the Lacedaemonians who held Decelea and it became necessary to send the statue of Iacchos and the processionists to Eleusis by sea. Plutarch says: "Under these conditions it was necessary to omit the sacrifices usually offered all along the road during the passing of Iacchos."
Eighth Day. The eighth day was called Epidaurion because it happened once that Aesculapius, coming from Epidaurius to Athens, desired to be initiated and had the Lesser Mysteries repeated for that purpose. It therefore became customary to celebrate the Lesser Mysteries a second time upon this day and to admit to initiation any such approved candidates who had not already enjoyed the privilege. There was also another reason for the repetition of the initiatory rites then. The eighth day was regarded as symbolical of the soul falling into the lunar orbi and the repeated initiation, the second celebration of that sacred rite, was symbolical of the soul bidding adieu to everything of a celestial nature, sinking into a perfect oblivion of her divine origin and pristine felicity, and rushing profoundly into the region of dissimilitude, ignorance, and error.
The day opened with a solemn sacrifice offered to Demeter and Persephone, which took place within the peribolus. The utmost precision had to be observed in offering this sacrifice as regarding the age, colour, and sex of the victim; the chants, perfumes, and libations. The acceptance or rejection of a sacrifice was indicated by the movements of the animal as it approached the altar, the vivacity of the flame, the direction of the smoke, etc. If these signs were not favourable in the case of the first victim offered other animals must be slain until one presented itself in which all the signs were favourable. The flesh of the animal offered was not allowed to be taken outside the sacred precincts but had to be consumed within the building.
The following is said to have been an Invocation used during the celebration of the Mysteries:
Daughter of Jove, Persephone divine, Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline; Only-begotten, Pluto's honoured wife, O venerable goddess, source of life: 'Tis thine in earth's profundities to dwell, Fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell. Jove's holy offspring, of a beauteous mien, Avenging Goddess, subterranean queen. The Furies' source, fair-hair'd, whose frame proceeds From Jove's ineffable and secret seeds. Mother of Bacchus, sonorous, divine, And many form'd, the parent of the vine. Associate of the Seasons, essence bright, All-ruling virgin, bearing heavnly light.
With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind, Horn'd, and alone desir'd by those of mortal kind. O vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight, Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight: Whose holy forms in budding fruits we view, Earth's vig'rous offspring of a various hue: Espous'd in autumn, life and death alone To wretched mortals from thy pow'r is known: For thine the task, according to thy will, Life to produce, and all that lives to kill. Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase Of various fruits from earth, with lovely Peace; Send Health with gentle hand, and crown my life With blest abundance, free from noisy strife; Last in extreme old age the prey of death, Dismiss me willing to the realms beneath, To thy fair palace and the blissful plains Where happy spirits dwell, and Pluto reigns.
Ninth Day. The ninth day was known as the Day of Earthen Vessels because it was the custom on that day to fill two jugs with wine. one was placed towards the east and the other towards the west, and after the repetition of certain mystical formulae both were overthrown, the wine being spilt upon the ground as a libation. The first of these formulae was directed towards the sky as a prayer for rain and the second to the earth as a prayer for fertility.
On the tenth day the majority of the people returned to their homes, with the exception of every third and fifth year, when they remained behind for the Mystery Plays and Sports which lasted from two to three days.
The ancient sanctuary in which the Mysteries were celebrated was burnt by the Persians in B. C. 480 or 479, and a new sanctuary was built, or, at least, begun under the administration of Pericles. Plutarch says that Coroebus began the Temple of Initiation at Eleusis, but only lived to finish the lower rank of columns with their architraves. Metagenes, of the ward of Xypete, added the rest of the entablature and the upper row of columns, and Xenocles of Cholargus built the dome on the top. The long wall, the building of which Socrates says he heard Pericles propose to the people, was undertaken by Callicrates. Cratinus satirised the work as proceeding very slowly:
Stone upon stone the orator has pil'd With swelling words, but words will build no walls.
In the fourth century of the Christian era the temple at Eleusis was destroyed by the Goths at the instigation of the monks who followed the hosts of Alaric.
The revenues from the celebrations must have been considerable. At both the Lesser Mysteries and the Greater Mysteries a charge of one obole a day was demanded from each one attending, which was given to the hierophant. The Hierocceryx received a half obole a day, and other assistants a similar sum.
(to be continued)
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