The MYSTERIES of ELEUSIS - Images and Symbolism

Music

Dr. Guillermo Calvo Soriano

 Initiate
and Family.
Kerameikos
Cemetery.

“The Mysteries of Eleusis are a good that Athens accords

to the peoples”. Elefsis, ancient city of Attica 15 km from Athens.
The Sanctuary was in the high place, in the Acropolis,
to the North East, on the Hill of Kallikoros
that dominates the Gulf of Aegina and the Island of Salamis.
 Elefsis - Eleusis was the theater of the most important
and solemn mystery and initiation ceremonies of the ancient world.
It enjoyed exceptional prestige until the 4th century AD. C.,
for about 2000 years. The veneration of DEMETER is deeply linked
to her mythological legend. We need to know her Myth
and its meaning to understand the Rites celebrated in her Honor.
 Mystery, from the Greek root mis, Silence, to close the mouth,
referring to Ritual Silence. The Mystery is what should not be talked
about, about what should be kept silent. It is forbidden to make it
known abroad. The Mystery is inexpressible, it can only be
contemplated in silence...
Trivially it is synonymous
with enigma or secret.
Its secrets could not be reproduced
in works of art or in writing,
under penalty of death, so there are
very few ancient texts with direct
references and few images
of the Little Mysteries that were public...
Phillis, Daughter of Cliomedes,
in her hands a scroll
with the Mysteries of Eleusis.
Funerary relief.
 “What the Initiates experienced was new, surprising, inaccessible
to rational cognition. Eleusis is a Sanctuary common to the entire
earth, and of all the Divine Things that exist among men, it is
the most revered and the most luminous. Where in the World have
the most Miraculous Canticles been sung and where have
the Dromena provoked greater emotion, where has there been
greater rivalry between looking and listening? Ineffable visions
whose contemplation was the privilege of lucky men and women”.
Aelius Aristides 2nd century A.D.

Eleusinian Iniciates
 “Venerable DEMETER with
a beautiful Crown, divine among
the Gods, legislator, you incite
to practice justice, giver of fruits,
subterranean goddess, black
for mourning and verdant
for vegetation, you are the one
who brings the seasons, the one
with abundant hair, the of rich
crown, the one that grants
the perfect gifts, the cause
of the joys of the mortals,
the most popular of the goddesses,
from your garments emanates
soft fragrance and from your body
the Light radiates...”
Hymn to DEMETER by Homer
DEMETER
DEMETER DEMETER seated on a throne
wrapped in a long robe
and with a veil over her head.
DEMETER of Cnidos,
in marble from Parian,
340 BC. C.
British Museum in London.
Etymologically,
she is Mother of the Earth,
of Spelled, the Cretan
equivalent of Barley,
or she would come
from lighting,
by the Light of her Torches.
 The celestial god ZEUS fell in love with DEMETER, among
other goddesses, when he was rejected he became a Bull to rape her,
from this union KORE, the Maiden, was born. When conceiving her,
she DEMETER assumes a double role of mother, as a woman
and as a cultivated land that shelters and feeds her seed,
serving as a model for the Greek Woman.

KORE
 KORE, the one with white arms,
iconographically represented
with a bouquet of Daffodils,
or sitting on an ebony throne,
with a Torch in her hand,
or in a Chariot pulled
by black horses next to HADES.
In classical times she was compared
to the Phases of the Moon.

KORE
 KORE was kidnapped
while cutting a singular
100-headed Narkissos
, due to the numbness it caused
(created by Gea, the earth
goddess in the cosmogonic
sense, instigated by ZEUS)
when she picked flowers in
the company of the daughters
of Ocean in Nisa.
She opened the earth
and HADES appeared,
the enamored
god of the Underworld,
who took her away
in his Golden Chariot.
KORE
 KORE was carried across the water in her Sacred Marriage
to the Chthonic Realm of Death, a journey synonymous with
the Death of her former identity as a Maiden. Psychologically all
Marriage is a Death, passing into the captivity of her New
Guardian.
Oceanus was
believed to surround
the inhabited world,
he and his daughters
marked
the last frontier,
beyond which
the Otherworld
stretched...

HADES abducts
to KORE
 No one hears her cries
except for her Mother,
who veils her yellow braids
with a dark blanket,
and thus, in mourning,
looks for her daughter
for 9 days and 9 nights,
in the midst of lamentations
and lighting up the darkness
with a Torch lit
in the Volcano Etna.
Abduction of PERSEPHONE
by Bernini
at the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
In the hereafter she ceases
to be KORE.
 The kidnapper HADES
or DIONYSOS according
to Heraclitus, because it was
in Nysa, Zeus or God of Nisa,
the “Divine Bridegroom”,
being the deity of intoxicating
substances and his devotees,
the Maenads, experienced ecstatic
possession during his Cult.
They collected plants on the hills,
their emblem the Thyrsus is
a long cane filled with ivy leaves,
to keep them fresh, with known
entheogenic properties in ancient
times. There is a resemblance
between Nisa and the words
meaning sleep, betrothal, and Maenade with Thyrsus
ivy.
 At dawn on the 10th day
she meets HECATE,
who saw her pass by
in a resplendent Chariot.
Finding out from HELIOS
about the author and
the complacency of ZEUS
himself, she indignantly
leaves the Sacred
Mount of Olympus going
to live among men fasting
without tasting
the Ambrosia,
sadly looking for KORE
all over the World.
HELIOS
 In mourning for her missing
daughter DEMETER she went
to Eleusis. A trip in analogical
imitation of the entrance
of PERSEPHONE
to the Citadel of Hades,
since Eleusis was
an image of the Other World.
As an old woman she rests
in the shade of an Olive Tree,
near the Well of the Maidens.
Before the daughters
of King Keleo she cries
to her daughter that she is
in the Otherworld, separated
by an aquatic border.
DEMETER Lifting her veil reveals
her Divine Expression.
 Well of the Maiden, or Anthion, Well of the Flower, or Kallichoron,
the “Well of Beautiful Dance”, With the false name of Two (or Doso)
“the Giver”, which a New PERSEPHONE, DEMETER passes to
the Palace of Eleusis in the role of Aya of the last son
of the old queen, as HECATE, in her prototypical occupation.

Kallichoron
DEMETER proclaims that she too was kidnapped in Crete by pirates
who took her across the Water. The two goddesses as Sacred Couple,
were related, as the Past with the Future.

With the transition

of PERSEPHONE
to the Matrimonial state
in the Kingdom
of Death, DEMETER
DEMETER abandons such identity
so she disguises herself
as a woman who can
no longer be a Mother,
discovering
the third stage
of Femininity.
Spoiled Iambé, a grotesquely fertile
woman, makes her laugh, showing
her behind or with obscene jokes,
about how she had IAKKOS
growing in her womb like another
PERSEPHONE, later identified
with the obscene dwarf Baubo,
wife of Dysaules, the Inhospitable,
negative epithet
for the Great Host who was
the Lord of Death.
Baubo meant “the entrails” and in
the figurines of the V century a. C.
from Asia Minor, she appears
as a Dwarf who has her face
in her womb, in relation to Baubon:
Comforter.
Baubo
 The impressed queen gives her
her seat and a glass of red wine,
but DEMETER rejects her because
her pain for her missing daughter
did not allow her to participate
in the body of the raptor
DIONYSOS. She, on the other
hand, proposed a different kind
of Communion that of the Sacred
KYKEON. of Barley flour, Water
and soft Mint (Blechon) thus
signifying her Affliction, then an
essential Element in his Mysteries.

DEMETER
 Following the Maiden's
deadly union with the
flower, DEMETER vows
to protect the queen's son
from Enchantments
and from cutting the plant
at the base of the stem
for magical purposes.
A chthonic connection:
the Aya of Milk is usually
a woman who has just lost
her own child.

DEMETER
 Different responses to the abduction are described in the Homeric
Hymn. As Nurse, she implements his first solution. Wishing to annul
the possibility of one day losing her daughter again, she tries
to make one of the Eleusinian Princes Immortal. During the day
she anoints him as a god with the divine drug Ambrosia, and as she
holds him against her breast she fills him, not with human nutrients
but with her Breath. At night she stirred him like a brand
in the Fire, to burn what was mortal about him, in a Cremation Rite.
The Metanira mother, who cannot understand, protests
by screaming, which made the child fall into the fire. DEMETER
swears that the child must now be mortal, although
he will benefit from the fact that his last deed will be a heroic death.

Metanira
She angrily discovered her personality, demanding that a Temple be
built in her Honor on the rock so that she could teach the Atoning
Rites. This tragic error caused the resplendent Epiphany
of DEMETER and the establishment of the Mysteries of it.

DEMETER
 He sought to mitigate
DEMETER his pain by denying the
possibility of the World
of the Dead in which
he has lost his daughter,
feeding Immortality
to the royal Prince. In
the Eleusinian Sanctuary
he settles and swears that
if her daughter is to die,
everything else must join
her in an Eternity
of Death through
a plague of sterility
that covers all the plants on earth and causes famine.
The celestial deities implore DEMETER to leave Eleusis,
she renounces her chthonic intentions as a Goddess of Death
because as a Celestial Divinity she corresponds to an Eternal Life.
ZEUS sends HERMES to HADES to return PERSEPHONE
and cease DEMETER's resentment, so that the fields recover
their fertility and greenery, thus symbolizing
the Rebirth of Nature in Spring after the Death of Winter.
At dawn the Lord of the Dead gave him a Pomegranate Seed to eat.
It is a mythical theme, whoever tastes the delicacies of the Other
World can no longer fully return among the living, remaining bound
to the underground mansions for a third of the year.
The Pomegranate, whose ripe fruit opens like a wound
and shows red seeds inside, symbolizes DEATH
and the Promise of RESURRECTION when it is in the hand
of the goddess PERSEPHONE or HERA.
Pomegranate
 DEMETER The Gods fear that
and Humanity will be
PERSEPHONE extinguished
and all Men will find
themselves in Hades,
the balance between
the Worlds would be
broken and there
would be no one
to honor the Gods of
Heaven. DEMETER
only relents when
ZEUS agrees to send
PERSEPHONE back. In the manner of a Maenad in her transport
of Joy, she is reunited with her daughter, but discovers that, having
accepted a few Pomegranate seeds, she belongs to Both Worlds,
therefore she is obliged to return, according
to the passing of the Seasons, to the Realm of Death.
 The Abduction of PERSEPHONE
in Nisa is the Nuptials between
two Kingdoms, the pristine
experience of Death. In the place
of Hunting called Agrai,
the Aspirants experienced in some
way the Death of PERSEPHONE
through the Ritual Mimesis
of the Dionysian Celebrations,
an event called The Lesser Mysteries
or Little Mysteries in relation
to the Spring Equinox...
From the Initiatic point of view,
they offer Spiritual Regeneration.
They teach and prepare
for what must follow… PERSEPHONE
 The Great Mysteries
of Eleusis were divided
into Degrees,
- 1st Grade The Little
Mysteries or Purification.
- 2nd Grade
The Great Mysteries
or The Initiation.
- 3rd Grade The Epopteia
According
to Leo of Smyrna:
- 4th Grade
The Hierophant
- 5th Grade Happiness
According to Magnienne (contemporary): - 4th Grade The Crown
- 5th Grade Priestly Initiation,
- 6th Grade The Royal Initiation,
- 7th Grade The Supreme Initiation : The Union with the Divine...
The Eleusinian Mysteries in Ceramics
 In Anthesterion, the month of Flowers, February, the cold time
of Winter when the bulbs bloom, was celebrated at the Eleusinon
of Athens on the 1st day, Day of the Meeting, in the northwest
corner of the Acropolis, where the Proclaimed to the Participating
assembly members. On the eve the Hiera,
the Sacred Objects arrived from Eleusis.

The Mysteries were the complement of all

Knowledge and All Things were seen
and learned in them... Initiates
 On the 2nd Day or of the Purifying Bath called Katharsis,
they bathed in the waters of the Illisos, the Sacred River of Athens.
Ablutions symbolize the need of the Soul to purify itself,
if it is intended to escape from temporary servitude.
They were the origin of the Preparatory Baptisms, Lustrations,
Immersions and Purifications of all kinds.

DEMETER
DEMETER

Temple of Illisos
Priestess They were taken to the Bay of Falero where
the Mystes were thrown into the Waters of the Sea,
carrying a Suckling Pig or Porca presidanea that
would be consecrated to the Sacrifice, not
an ordinary Sacrifice of a victim to the gods but
as a Means of Purification to remove the relative
impurity . Once all the impurity is absorbed,
like the sponge that dries a table, it is completely
destroyed so that this impurity disappears.
 The preliminary or preparatory Fast Day, the 3rd day in Agrai.
The Initiate was a MYSTES, he had his eyes closed to the world,
because he was still blind to the Truths to be revealed to him.
He loses mortal sight to gain deeper insight as a preliminary act
to the termination of his life… They asked him if he spoke Greek,
if he had eaten Bread or if he was innocent of all guilt.
After this Ritual Abstinence
or Khatarois, remembering
the Fast of DEMETER,
he takes the KYKEON
from a Sacred Chalice,
as a Sacrament. It is the Act
of Solemn Communion
with the Divine. One of
the most important Rites,
commemorating
the sadness of the Goddess.
 Drinking the KYKEON is
an essential part of the Mysteries.
Its ingredients: Barley (alphi)
water and soft Mint (glechon).
In an Orphic Hymn,
the KYKEON is served by Baube.
The vessel receives the name
of Angos, a generic term
for "vessel" or "bowl" adding
an epithet as made of metal.
In the Caryatid of Eleusis we see
an elegant Cup with two handles
on one foot and with a lid, where
Spikes could be intertwined ,
to indicate the Symbolism of the
Potion. It was sealed with a rope,
The Caryatid of Eleusis to be carried on the head.
In the center the Eleusinian Sacred Cup with two handles
 Priestess
with a Piglet The Great Sacrifice of
the 4th Day in the presence of the
representatives of the Temple, the
King Archon, the traditional
Guardian of the Athenian
Religion and his wife practiced
the Immolation of the Pig
with due ritual.
The Piglet, in Greek Koiros,
in vulgar language
meant the female sexual organ.
Thus, symbolically,
the Sacrifice of a Piglet,
the Animal of DEMETER,
represented the violent Death
of a Girl...
 Marble Urn. Palazzo Massimo.
Eumolpus, the first Hierophant
with one hand pours Wine on
a Propitiatory Pig, while with
the other he holds a tray
with Poppies. The Pig was
an offering to the Goddesses
of the Underworld and in the
immolated animal the Initiate
offered himself to the care
of the deities. The entrails
and other portions of the victim,
bathed in fat, were burned
in the Fire of the Altar, but
the bulk of the animal
was consumed by the Worshipers
in a Communal Sacrificial Feast,
the Sacred Banquet. Pig Libation
 The Eleusinian Priests practiced
some kind of herbalism,
and the ecstatic abduction
of PERSEPHONE occurred
in the context of the ritual
collection of some bulbous plant
with magical properties.
In Aristophanes' Clouds
an Initiation into the Mysteries
is parodied as a quest for Bulbs
as the characters grope their way
to the Underworld. A plate
of Porridge prepared with bulbs
is an aphrodisiac
in “The Women's Assembly.”
The Initiates carried
Myrtle Branches when they went
PERSEPHONE to claim PERSEPHONE.
 The Torchlight Procession was held during
the Night of the 5th Day, with the participation
of the MYSTES, demure maidens, men
and young people, the flower of Athenian
youth.
With a Torch
in hand
they paraded
two by two
in the midst of
the deepest silence.
Then the Torches
whose Fire
was purifying
were passed
from hand to hand.

Mystes with Torchs

The Great Sacred or Panegyric Procession took place on the 6th Day.
It was the most solemn and with it the Public Ceremonies ended.
It left at dawn. The Neophytes, their tutors and numerous Athenians
participated, the Festival Carriages, with animals, censers and tools
for the Sacrifice, the Ephebes went on horseback and boys and girls
from the Schools occupied a special place. Along the Via Sacra,
they crossed the Sacred Plain that leads to Eleusis.
Via Sacra 6 meters Via Sacra
below ground level

Mystes
Pictorial Representation
of a Great Procession
The Great Sublime Procession was passing through the Ceramic Gate.
The Pilgrims while walking, launched the repeated Ritual Shout,
“IAKKOS, IAKKOS” invoking the one who would guide them
to the Mysteries, thanks to his help they could return queen
PERSEPHONE to the World of the Living. Represented by a young
man with a Crown of Myrtle, a Funerary Plant, carrying a Torch
in his hand, identified with ZAGREO or DIONYSOS,
he led the Procession of the Initiates.

As in
the Eleusinian Choir
of the Frogs
of Aristophanes
 Iakkos (Ιακχος Iakkhos) is an epithet for DIONYSOS,
who is associated with the Mysteries of Eleusis, where he “brings
Salvation.” He was considered a son of ZEUS and DEMETER,
bearer of the Torch in the Procession from Eleusis, being sometimes
considered as the Herald of the “Divine Son” of the Goddess,
born in the Underworld, and even his own son. He was called
“the Star” that carries the Light
of “the Nocturnal Mysteries”,
compared to a Star that brings
the Light to the darkness of the
Rites granting possible associations
with Sirius and Sothis. The Name
“Iakkos” was also given to one of
the days of the Mysteries: the 20th
of Boedromion, when Iakkos
was taken from the Shrine of him
Iakkos in Athens and accompanied
in Solemn Procession to Eleusis.
 In Euripides' Chorus of Ion we get something of the primal joy.
The Initiates speak of the Holy 6th Night, when they would finally
arrive at the Sacred Well, next to the Door of the Sanctuary
of Eleusis, where they would Sing and Dance in a circle holding
hands all night in Honor of DEMETER. PERSEPHONE
and DIONYSOS the God of intoxicants. And with his Dance
the Starry Sky and the Moon would also mingle and the 50
daughters of Oceanus
who would come out
of the rivers and the sea
to their exultation.
Alluding to
the Revolution
of the Planets around
the Sun or it would be
a Rite of Sympathetic
Magic to ensure the
continuous flow of
 Arriving at the Bridge of Cephisus, the inhabitants of
the surroundings disguised with Masks, were unleashed in expletives
and obscene jokes. They are the Gerifismos or Ayskron, from the
shameful or abject Greek, which were answered by word and deed.
Scholars insist on the apotropaic function or protection against Evil
of dark expressions for cathartic purposes to free them
from the Evil
that practicing
it would cause them...
This is how Iambe
was remembered...

Cephisus Bridge
 Eleusis, a sacred region for its special affinity with the Realm
of the Dead, which ensured the fertility of the Plain. The Procession
symbolically passed the Border between the Two Worlds,
executing the dangerous crossing of the last water barrier,
a transcendental journey characterized by its difficulty,
the bridge had been intentionally built too narrow.

Cephisus Bridge
 The Journey to Eleusis
represents a Crossing to
the Other World to recover
from Death the daughter
of DEMETER, whose pain
for the loss of a child could only
be alleviated through
the Mystery of Rebirth. It will be
difficult to locate the Brackish
Streams that flowed from
an underground source that once
formed the Border between the
Two Worlds. The Priests had the
privilege of fishing in those
waters, since they regulated
the Passage from Life to Death,
passage considered as a Metaphysical Union
between Lovers through a Division of Water.
The Sacred Herald proclaimed
“Retreat you Profane”
Demanding the Syntema
or Holy and Sign
according to
Clement of Alexandria,
Christian Priest
in his work Propepticus.
Thus it was recognized
that he had passed
through the Little Mysteries.
 When the MYSTES arrived at the Temple of Eleusis, certain
symbolic Ceremonies and Secret Rites were carried out outside the
Sanctuary through which the Priests acted physically and mentally.
They were instructed about certain enigmatic Formulas and taught
to answer questions by the that should be given to know:
Syntema
or The “Pastword” :
“I have Fasted,
I have taken
the KYKEON”.
Liknon

Sacred Chalice DEMETER

 "I have taken the Basket or Sieve “Liknon”
accomplished my task, I put back in the Basket,
and from the Basket again in the Chest…”
Thus DEMETER separated the Grain from the chaff...

Liknon

Initiated
 The Sacred “ta Hiera” in the “Kistai”, circular covered Mystical
Baskets of The Mysteries that were charged with a Divine Presence.
By touching or uniting them with each other or with their own
Genitals, they made them Reborn as Children of DEMETER
or made them be in Union with the goddess. They would be a replica
of a Phallus in the Basket and a “Cteis” Matrix in the Basket, or a
Serpent, a Pomegranate, and Cupcakes in the form of both genital
organs, which were shown in the midst of an intense Light…

The Pitcher, the Silver Rhitons with the Phallus in the Liknon
accompanied by Masks, are visible in the Mural paintings of
the House of the Vettii in Pompeii, a Greek city in Southern Italy...
 The 8th Day of the Feasts was called
Epidaurus, dedicated to ASCLEPIUS,
ASCULAPIUS, who could not participate
after coming from there, so the Ceremony
had to be repeated the following day.
“The Mysteries teach to practice Justice
and to venerate the Goddesses
by recommending a Virtue of which they
set the example. The Human Race owes
to DEMETER and PERSEPHONE
the first elements of the Intellectual and
Physical Life, the Knowledge of the Laws,
the Precepts of Morals
and the Trials of Civilization.” Cicero.

ASCLEPIUS
 In the Plemokai
of the 9th Day,
two Receptacles full of
Water were placed,
one to the East
and the other to the West.
The Initiate poured out
the Water while repeating
a Secret Formula,
after which the Vessels were
shattered,
thus acting with evident
Cosmic Significance.

DEMETER practices a Lustration.

A lying goat, an Initiate carries a plate with Poppies.
“The Participants in the Mysteries are Happy because they are
an inexhaustible flow of Prosperity.”

“Three times blessed

are the Mortals who,
after contemplating
these Rites, march to Hades,
because only they
will be able to spend
a true life there,
while the others will suffer
all kinds of miseries…
The Initiates were taught
to live happily in the Hope
of a Happy Future...”
 The Eleusinian
Autumn Feasts
or the GREAT
MYSTERIES
in the midst
of a holy Peace
throughout Greece
were celebrated
in the Month
of Boedromion
on the bright days
of September
in mystical relation to the Autumnal Equinox,
the time of the Harvest Harvest in honor to DEMETER
with the Initiates of the previous Year. They lasted 8 days.
On the 3rd Day of the Feasts, the MYSTES met in the Stoa Pecile
to take the Via Sacra from there that would lead them to Eleusis.
 The Officials who celebrated the Mysteries were the Hierophant,
Supreme Priest of Attica who presided over the Ceremonies and
explained the nature of the Mysteries. The Torch Bearer Dadichus
carried the Sun as a symbol. The Hierocerix Sacred Herald of the
Ceremonies officiated at the Altar. The Epibonnus or Altar Server
was in charge of the Temple. “The Initiate does not have to learn
nothing but
to experience
certain emotions
or impressions and
to adopt certain
dispositions placing
oneself in a certain
mental condition
by becoming
a “worthy
Candidate.”
Aristotle.
The Rites were very complicated
and served to inculcate DEMETER
the feeling of participation
in the Divine Mysteries,
thus communicating with the
Goddesses who would help them
overcome the transcendental
problems of Life and Death.
 Initiation of Hercules
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli
 In the Major Mysteries,
the Initiate HERCULES
appears seated, covered
by a mourning veil
waiting for the Rebirth
that symbolizes the Liknon
(Screen or Winnower)
that a Priestess holds
above his head.

Marble Urn.
Palazzo Massimo
National Museum of Rome.
 Cystophoric Tetradrachm. 57-56 B. C.
C. Fabius ProConsul. Left :
Cista Mystica in Ivy Crown
with a Snake.

HERCULES
touch a Snake
in the presence of DEMETER
sitting in the Basket or Kiste The Initiate witnesses the exit of
of the Sacred Eleusinian Rite. Great Snake of the Cista Mystica
 PERSEPHONE approaches.
DEMETER with Torch and Ears of Barley in hand and hair.
 Arriving the Procession at night,
at the Light of the Torches crossing
the Ritti River in the Thriason Plain, which
surrounds the Sacred Temple of Eleusis.
Before entering they were forced to wash
their hands in a small Vat of Lustral Water
A pure heart and hands were required
of them. The firm and momentous
entrance to the forbidden territory that lay
beyond the Cavern was an Entrance
to Hades and the Rock where DEMETER
had sat to mourn his pain.
 The ruins of Eleusis are surrounded by a magical halo, typical
of those places where the Spirit has blown. The Myth as Dromena or
Sacred Drama is represented in mimic and symbolic scenes in the
Initiation Rites. It is the Hierodrama presenting the Passion of the
Goddesses. The theme, the action of the characters, the decoration,
the staging and the style are hieratic, with a view to an exterior call
and an interior reminiscence. The vision of mental becomes
perceptive, and the Myth of Word in Act...
 Some ceremonies included
the Legomena, brief liturgical
forms or invocations of which
there are no major news.

Via Sacra
 The presents of the Initiation
are not momentary, not only
do you receive a necessary
instruction to be happier
in this world, but also
beautiful hopes are acquired
for the Moment of Death
by having the invaluable
advantage of passing
to a state of perfect
Happiness when you die. .
The Mysteries not only
provide comfort in this life
but also ensure a happier
state after this Life.

From the Initiatic point of view,

the Great Mysteries offer Spiritual Regeneration.
 The All Night Watch.
A part of that night Persephone
was dedicated
to the Sacred Dances
and Songs
in Honor of the Goddesses,
celebrated around the Well
of the 6th Century B.C.
All the Mysteries refer
to the future life
and the condition of the Soul
after Death,
the close relationship
of Mystic Order between
Agriculture, Hierosgamos,
violent Death and the Hope
of a Blessed Life
Beyond Death…
“Death should not be feared, on the contrary, having been Initiated
in the Mysteries of Eleusis, one has become a relative of the Gods.
It is a joy to be Admitted to the Mysteries because when he dies,
Immortality is considered certain...”

Relief in Tomb
on the way
to Eleusis.
75 B. C.
 Votive Tablet
dedicated to DEMETER
Eukrates. 4th century
B. C. Eleusis.
National Archaeological
Museum, Athens.
Eleusinian Initiated

Eleusian Initiated
Marble Stela.
Eleusis 200 B. C.
Eleusinian Initiated
 “We owe to the Goddesses
of Eleusis the goods of the Society
and the beautiful Promise
that the Initiation
of a Blessed Eternity makes us.
It is necessary to purify oneself
before descending to the unknown
regions so as not to be precipitated
into the Abyss. Only those exempt
from the Impurities of the World
are allowed to enjoy
the Presence of the Divinity,
it is the Security of the Initiates
to be Admitted
in the Society of the Gods”.
Socrates in Plato's Phaedo.
DEMÉTER and PERSEPHONE
 “Initiation brings Hope with a view
to the End of Life and for all Eternity.
Whoever has been Initiated into
the Mysteries at the Hour of Death
will become Worthy of Divine Glory.
Those who have been Initiated
maintain the satisfactions
and the best hopes both
in the Twilight of Life
and in the Whole Future…”
Isocrates

DEMETER
 The Kathabasion or Underground Chamber was used
so that the MYSTES could symbolically descend to Hell
in an Allegorical Disappearance of Death.
The Door or entrance to the Other World, the Cavern or Plutonion.
Dying and being Initiated are synonyms because this
Grand Doctrine referred to the later Resurrection from the Dead.
 We must appreciate the fusion of the Gods of the Lower World.
PLUTO, source of all wealth is also HADES who reigns in the same
environment but over the Souls of the Dead.
By abducting KORE PERSEPHONE, the Grain,
he represents Death in search of his fiancee.

The Rape of Persephone by Rubens in the Prado Museum. Madrid

 Just as the Dead were buried,
the Grain was stored in jars,
and in a similar way it was buried
under a shallow layer of earth,
from where it was removed
for the sowing that would produce
the following year's vegetation.
The worshipers had before them
the Mysterious powers of the Dead
and of the fertile earth,
both below the surface of the ground,
so they placed them under the Aegis
of the same Divinities.

DEMETER
 The Journey to Hell is an evocation
of the Ultimate Ends of Man,
the Death of a Divinity explains
the Archaic Myth
of the Creation of Cereals.
There is a parallelism between
the Appearance
and Death of the Crops
and the Life and Death of Man.
Thus entered
the Agrarian Cult in relation
to the Kingdom of the Dead
and the Myth had a deeper meaning.

DEMETER
 The Pilgrims entered the Outer Courtyard of the Sanctuary
in Sacred Procession at nightfall with the Fire of the Torches
in their hands, the MYSTES, imitating the comings and goings
of DEMETER, suffered together with the Mother in the Search
for her rapturous daughter KORE, with contradictory feelings
of Terror and Calm, Sadness, Fear and Hope...
 The Hierophant Priest while celebrating the Service sang ancient
Songs in falsetto. The Priestesses danced balancing the Vessels
and some lamps on their heads while mixing and distributing
the KYKEON that the Initiates drank when preparing for
the culminating Vision. The fragrant Blechon, the aromatic Mint
undervalued, linked with the illicit nature of kidnapping, was dipped
in water, a pinch of Sacred Barley flour, and the Barley Ergot,
Claviceps, whose sporangia are purple,
the color of the robe and footwear of the Goddess
 Vessel
Spikes

DEMETER

Mushrooms
Omphalos

Niniion Iakkos Basket

Bakkhoi PERSEPHONE
The Eleusinian Mysteries in Ceramics
The Priestesses danced with the Vessel
balanced on their heads, apparently
with candles lit in some of
the peripheral cups. The Kernoi were
called “Krateres of the Mysteries”
(Mixing Bowls) “Then the Hierophant
performs the Initiation and takes
the things of the Chamber
and distributes them to all those
who will carry the Kernos around
at the dance... Then, raising
his Kernos high, in the manner
of one who carries the Liknon
or Shooter's Basket,
tastes these things…”
Polemon, Philosopher of the Christian
Era. Quoted in Athenaeus.
 Golden Kerchnoi are mentioned
Kerchnoi in the records of the Treasury kept
at the Eleusinion in Athens.
The Kerna consist of a central bowl
surrounded by several smaller cups
fixed around it, containing a variety
of animal and vegetable products:
sage, white poppy seeds, grains
of barley, wheat and rye, peas, lentils,
beans, rice, oatmeal, carob beans,
hibiscus seeds, dried fruits, honey,
oil, wine, milk, egg and virgin wool.
These ritual acts, Dromena,
of the Initiation, were accompanied
by words recited by the Logomena.
All Secret Things… the Aporrrheta,
which must not be told…
 According to Clement of Alexandria (Protrepticus) the Hiera
were only foods of various kinds: Sacred Rolls of various shapes and
meanings, balls of Salt, Pomegranates, Poppies, Fig Tree branches,
a Serpent, the Thyrsos, Phallic Symbols or the Kteis
pudenda muliebria, Mystical Emblems of DIONYSOS.
The Hiera were related
to the Total Domain of the Sacred, with
the Experience and the Rite of the
Religion.
Kistai

Kistai Kistai
 The TELESTERION, Heart of the Sanctuary, inside of which
Mysteries unfolded. Of an almost square plane,Measuring 74 x 52 m,
it included a ground floor with a vast room divided by 6 rows
of columns framed by steps in which more than 3,000 people could
take part in the ceremonies and in the secret rites called the Teleté.
The MYSTES sat Blindfolded and in Silence in white sheepskins.
 Inside the Temple, in the Great Telesterion or Initiation Hall,
something could be seen. The experience consisted of a vision
whereby the Pilgrim became someone he had Seen, an Epoptes.
Phasmata : Phantasmal Apparitions. In the darkness inside
the Telesterion they saw something that confirmed the continuity
of the Existence Beyond the Grave, “the End of Life as well
as its Divinely Graced Beginning”. Poet Pindar.
 “The Soul at the Hour of Death has the same experience
than the Initiates in the Great Mysteries with terror and
continual agitation. At first one walks aberrationally and shakes
tired going from one side to another and moving forward
with a start through the Darkness as an Uninitiated...”
 “Then come the great terrors. Before the Final Initiation,
trembling, shuddering, sweats, fright. Plutarch.
“I approached the Confines of Death and having stepped
on PERSEPHONE's hinge I returned from there being led through
of The Elements...” Apuleius. It was the March in the Dark...
 The Hierosgamos or Marriage of the Gods.
The Union of the Celestial god ZEUS with the Goddess DEMETER,
the Cultivated Earth. It is the mythical projection of
a Primitive Fertility Ritual linked to many agricultural practices.
The act of Plowing and Sowing
was considered analogous to Sexual Intercourse.

This Marriage
seems to have
been
represented by
the union of
the Hierophant
with
the Priestess
of DEMETER
 “The Torches went out, the Couple descended to a gloomy place
and the immense Mob of Worshipers awaited in anxious suspense
the result of the Mystic Congress, since they believed that their own
Salvation depended on what the two did in the Darkness.
Bishop Christian Asterius. Year 440 a. D. Allegorically, this mystical
relationship would promote the Fertility of the Fields semen in
the womb
of the mother
and the Grain
that germinates
in the seed
in the earth.
But this was only
symbolic, because
the Hierophant,
by applying
Hemlock, had
depressed Virility...
 According to Proclus, the EPOPTES looked at the Sky shouting:
“It rains...!” They turned their gaze towards the earth
and exclaimed “Conceive...!”, words that would be the Great Secret
according to Hippolitus. Ritual Formula related to the Hierosgamos
characteristic of the Cult of the Vegetation. The Marriage of Earth
and Sky is a common motif in Mythology. The Rain that fertilizes
and makes things grow is considered the Seed of Heaven.
 After a while the Hierophant reappeared and in a flame of blazing
Light, silently exhibited to the Assembly The Sprocket of Barley,
then loudly proclaimed: “Lady BRIMO has given birth
to Lord BRIMOS…! which means “The Terrible or Powerful has
given the Being to the Terrible or Powerful…! Hippolytus of Rome,
Christian writer of the 2nd century a. D. in Refutatio omnium
haeresium. The Refutation of all Heresies”. It is the most wonderful,
strongest and most complete of the Epoptic Mysteries...
 When the Hierophant evoked KORE
resonating a bronze Gong.
The Realm of the Dead
was shattering, the roar of a percussion
instrument that, to the ecstatic
audience, surpassed that of violent
thunder and proceeded
from the bowels of the Earth.
“At Midnight I saw the Sun
resplendent with its brilliant Light,
and I I approached the Presence
of the lower and higher gods,
stayed close to them
and worshiped them…”
“Then suddenly, the Light was made and the ends of this world
exploded at the same time that the spiritual presences made
themselves felt among the initiates and the Room
was flooded by a Radiant Mystery...”
 The Mother of the Grain had indeed
given birth to her daughter
The Barley and her agonizing
Labor of Labor was enacted
in the Sacred Drama.
The Revelation of the Harvested Ear
of Barley which grows and ripens
with supernatural rapidity
is the Specific Miracle,
the Coronation of the Eleusinian
Mysteries. The Final Experience,
The EPOPTEIA, the Supreme Vision,
of “epop” the one who contemplates...
Thus the Silent Harvest of
a few Spikes was considered
the Most Sacred Rite representing the
Withering and Rebirth of Vegetation,
and allegorically of Man.
 She was BRIMO the Queen of Death,
at the same time PERSEPHONE
and HECATE, Triumphant of Femininity
over the chthonic experience
by conceiving a son of the Lord of Death.
She made the Destroyer the Savior
of herself and of Humanity.
In the Homeric Hymn
she is called Ploutus (Pluto),

the Wealth that the Vision of Eleusis assured the Initiates,

for so familiar did Death become, that its friendly presence
maintained a constant prosperity springing from the salutary
agreement between Life and its Sources in Death, rewards
of successful cultivation of the Earth. PLUTO, another manifestation
of HADES, chthonic hypostasis of DIONYSOS himself.
 Death in the form of PLUTO
was born in Eleusis as an analogy
of the Spike. The Initiates received
the beatific Vision of the Glorious
Resurrection of the Goddess,
in the company of her son
conceived underground,
at the same time that they joined
in Communion on the body
of the Lord with blue-purple hair,
renewing the balance
that he seeks in the World.
Civilized Abundance and Life.
They would die more confident,
after a life of greater security
in good Fortune and Prosperity,
as relatives of PLUTO himself.
 IAKKOS of Semele,
bestower of PLUTO
or Wealth.
IAKKOS
clearly DIONYSOS
has conceived PLUTO,
that is to say himself,
in a redemptive
personification.
It was He who headed
the Initiates
in the Major Mysteries,
in his person
the Raptor of Agrai
had become familiar
and had become
a Savior like PLUTO.
DEMETER PLUTO KORE
DIONYSOS PERSEPHONE
Kratera Spike
and Vines of Barney
and Rooster

Museo Nazionale de Reggio Calabria. Italia

 The Epiphany of PERSEPHONE, that is, her Reappearance
as Barley or reunited with her mother, the Earth, was the decisive
religious experience. The Central Episode of EPOPTEIA.
They were the Old Harvest and the New Harvest symbolizing
the Life of Nature. Life and Death represented by the New Harvest
that springs from the previous one. The Vision of that Divine Secret
radically changed the Ultraterrestrial Destiny of the Initiates,
adopted by the Divinities, the MYSTES became EPOPTES.

DEMETER PERSEPHONE
 The Consecration by Fire. A great Fire burned
in the ANAKTORON or Holy of Holies. Flames and smoke were
escaping through an opening in the roof and were visible from afar.
Regarding Cremation, it is probable that some MYSTES
were cremated on the Temple Terrace between 1110 - 700 b. C.
Brahman Zarmaros the year 20 b. C. after having attended
the Epopteia he entered the Fire and was consumed by it …
Joyfully the goddesses show Triptolemus the First Grain of Barley,
in the Scene of the Transformation of the naked Eleusinian Valley
suddenly turned by the desire of the Goddesses into a vast
and blonde sheet. It is the Creation of the Cereals
and the Traditional Foundation of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
 DEMETER teaches
the Mystery of Immortality
and Rebirth to Triptolemus,
the first to Sow the Grain
traveling from one end
of the World to the other
in a flying Chariot
pulled by Serpents.
His creed was Seed Reborn,
Barley or Alphi cultivated
food as opposed
to natural meli honey.
The barley used in
the Eleusinian Ceremonies
was cultivated especially
in the Rarian plain
and shelled on the ground
of Triptolemus.
DEMETER Triptolemus PERSEPHONE
 In the Great Eleusinian
Relief of the National
Museum of Athens,
Triptolemus
is the Divine Offspring
in Adolescence,
at once ambiguously
Son and Lover
of the two Goddesses
who adore him.
DEMETER offers him
a Golden Spike.

DEMETER, PERSEPHONE
and Triptolemo
 The essential event was
the Sacred Union,
periodically the Priestesses
entered Communion with the Kingdom
of the Spirits within the Earth,
in order to renew the Agricultural Year
and the Civilized Life
that grew on its surface.
The sign of Redemption
was an Ear of Barley,
the Harvested Grain,
which after the Mystery
would be entrusted once more
to the cold Earth
in the Seeding
of the Sacred Plain adjacent to Eleusis.
Ears of Barley
King Keleo was its First Priest
and other Initiates
the Eleusinian Princes
Polisseno,
Diocles and Eumolpo.

After revealing the Characteristics

of the Fertility Cult Ritual,
Sacred Mystical Rites
with which she wishes
to be honored,
the two Blessed Goddesses
vanish into the Heavens.
They are the Mysteries of the Promotion of Fertility and Purification
transferred allegorically to Human Life.
The Mystery and Sacredness of Food is related to Sexual Activity,
Procreation and Ritual Death,
a profound expression of Greek Religious Sentiment.

DEMETER
Egg,
Pomegranate
and Egyptian
Lotus Flower
“One feels surprised by a Wonderful LIGHT. Suddenly the Darkness
is followed by a Great Clarity. The image of Divinity appears
Radiant with Divine Light and Splendor. Only for the Initiates
the SUN shows off its brightest splendors.
The Initiates will have their own SUN after Death…”
Funerary Gold Foil from the Tomb of an Adept in Italy.
DEMETER and Ears of Barley
A Hope to look at the End of Life and
PERSEPHONE
the continuation of it for All Eternity.
The Return of PERSEPHONE
is the Restoration of the Soul
to Eternal Life,
from which Hope in IMMORTALITY
is Born and Blooms…
Then they were summoned
to an Assembly with the Formula
“Com Om Pax” repeated by all…
 The final solution is
to return the Health
of the Universe,
where Death has now been
introduced, also admitting
the possibility of Returning
to Life. Rebirth from Death
was the Secret of Eleusis…
PERSEPHONE in Hades
takes the Seed in her Body
and mercies to tha
t he returns eternally
to his Ecstatic Mother
with her Newborn Son,
PERSEPHONE Crowns DEMETER only to also Eternally Die
in the Fertilizing Embrace
of his Own Son.
 The Maiden revives DEMETER
with hers Her Son with Ears of Barley
conceived in Death, and Poppies
the Spike of Barley
that like her had sprouted
under the Earth.
Through such
a Resurrection,
the continuation of the most
precious thing for a Greek,
the Forms of Civilized Life,
was validated.
 The 8th Day of the Dromena was dedicated to Rites for the Dead.
The Poppy is a Symbol of Regeneration. The sleeping properties
of the plant expressed the idea of Stillness and the Seeds contained
the idea of a New Existence… Nature, which however temporarily
suspended its tasks, still possessed the ability to be summoned to
a New Existence. Planted near a Tomb it symbolizes the idea of
the Resurrection… transmitting the same symbolism as the Myrtle,
another Sacred Plant of these Mysteries,
the Immortelle or our Branch of Acacia…
 The left Hand holds Ears of Rye and Poppies.
Plastron Mask. Egyptian Sarcophagus. Roman Period 190 - 220 b.C.
 When Eleusis was
in decline,
some uncertain glimpses
are allowed. There is
a reference to a Collation
that was served
to the Initiates:
a Great Cake
called Pelanos,
prepared with Barley
and Wheat harvested
in the Sacred Rarian
plain.
It was broken into pieces
and the portions were
served to the whole world
by the Canephoroi,
Priestesses of DEMETER
 According to Aristotle,
the Mysteries were more
of an Experience and not
something to be learned.
Basically they were Arrheta
or ineffables. Both levels
of prohibition concerned
the Mysteries. Revelation is
essentially incommunicable,
a Knowledge so profound
that it did not need
to be repeated.
PERSEPHONE holds
the Ears of Barley that will
be his Redemption
and a Rooster. HADES
carries Myrtle Branches.
Goddess DEMETER Gold Coin
Ears of Barley
 The Initiates were then received in a Place of Delights, their ears
recreated melodious voices and sacred harmonies and their eyes
were ecstatic contemplating Dance Choirs and marvelous
apparitions in the forbidden Fields sown with Golden Barley that
had a miraculous development. “They go through the Meadows
of PERSEPHONE dancing in the Sacred Choir of Festival
of Mysteries.
One is received
in pure regions
and prairies
with the Voices
and the Majesty
of the Forms
and
the Sacred
Sounds.”
Plutarch
 Poem by Guillermo Calvo Soriano :
DEMETER Mother of the Harvests
Who wear Wreaths of Wheat as an Emblem of Abundance,
In one hand the lit Torch,
In the other clusters of Poppies, Ears of Wheat and Serpents,
Symbols of the Resurrection and Eternal Life.
 May the fire of your Torches
Take us to the Divine Illumination of the Midnight SUN,
May your clear Radiance enliven
With renewed Vigor our Hearts
So that each heartbeat be a Creation in your gift.
 As a Seed that is Born when Buried, allow us to Rise
Rising from the Depths like a splendid Golden Spike,
From the bottom of the moist earth germinating a New Life,
A new and more complete plant to offer
More abundant and tasty Fruits.
 Rejoice us with the full Green of Youth,
May the Eleusinian Plain be the Place of Reunion,
Let the Miracle be repeated,
That of the despicable personal remains
Reborn vigorous Fraternity
May the Joy of Spring shine its flowering foliage
With new and pure Apprentices,
Shoots growing to the Golden Maturity of the Master.
 That as a New Triptolemus
Sow the Seed of the Wheat of Love
And till the Earth freeing it from the dark shadows
For All of Us to harvest with you
In The Luminous Eternity…
 HAIL
DEMETER
OUR
MOTHER !!!
Dedicated
to my Master
R.·.H.·.Vitali Maya Ortiz
Bibliography
- Mylonas G, Eleusis and The Eleusinian Mysteries 1961
- Kerenyi K, Eleusis: Archetypal image of mother
& daugther 1991
- Scarpi P, Le Religioni dei Misteri, Eleusis 2002
- Gordon Wasson G, El Camino a Eleusis 1995