ELEUSIN'IAN MYSTERIES, the sacred rites with which the annual festival of Ceres was celebrated at Eleusis. Many traditions were afloat in ancient times as to the origin of this festival. Of these, the most generally accepted was to the effect that Ceres, wandering over the earth in quest of her daughter Proserpine, arrived at Eleusis, where she took rest on the sorrowful stone beside the well Callichorus. In return for some small acts of kindness, and to commemorate her visit, she taught Triptolemus the use of corn on the Rharian plain near the city, and instituted the mystic rites peculiarly known as hers. The outward method of the celebration of these mysteries is known with con siderable accuracy of detail. Their esoteric significance is very variously interpreted. The ancients themselves generally believed that the doctrines revealed to the initiated. gave them better hopes than other men enjoyed, both as to the present life and as to a future state of existence. Modern speculation has run wild in the attempt satisfactorily to explain these mysteries. As reasonable a solution as any other seems to be that of bishop Thirlwall, who finds in them " the remains of a worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic mythology and its attendant rites, grounded on a view of nature, less fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to awaken both philosophical thought and religious feeling." The festival itself consisted of two parts, the greater and the lesser mysteries. The less important feast, serving as a sort of preparation for the greater, was held at Agra', on the Ilissus. The celebration of the great mysteries began at Eleusis on the 15th day of Bo6dromion, the third month of the Attic year, and lasted over nine days. On the first day (called agurnios, the assembling), the neophytes, already initiated at the preparatory festival, met, and were instructed in their sacred duties. On the second day (called Halade, mystas, To the sea, ye initiated I), they puri fied themselves by washing in the sea. On the third day, sacrifices, cbmprising, among other things, the mullet-fish, and cakes made of barley from the Rharian plain, were offered with special rites. The fourth day was devoted to the proces sion. of the sacred basket of Ceres (the Kalathion). This basket, containing porno granates, salt, poppy-seeds, etc., and followed by bands of women carrying smaller baskets similarly filled„ was, drawn, in a consecrated cart through the streets, amid shouts of " Hail, Ceres!' the onlookers. The fifth day was known as the ",day of the torches," and was thought to symbolize the wanderings of Ceres in quest of her daughter. On it the mystx, led by the " daduchus," the torch-bearer, walked two by two to the temple of the goddess, and seem to have spent the night there. The
sixth day, called Iacchus, in honor of the son of Ceres, was the great day of the feast. On that day the statue of Iacchus was borne in pomp along the sacred way from the Ceramicus at Athens to Eleusis, where the votaries spent the night, and were initiated in the last mysteries. Till this stage of the proceedings, they had been only mystoy but on the night of the sixth day they were admitted into the innermost sanctuary of the temple, and, from being allowed to behold the sacred things, became entitled to be called " epoptte," or " ephori;" i.e., spectators, or contemplators. They were once more purified, and repeated their original oath of secrecy with an impos ing and awful ceremonial, somewhat resembling, it is believed, the forms of modern freemasonry. On the seventh day, the votaries returned to Athens with mirth and music, halting for a while on the bridge over the Cephisus, and exercising their wit and satire against the spectators. The eighth day was called Epidauria, and was believed to have been added to the original number of the days for the convenience of those who had been unable to attend the grand ceremonial of the sixth day. It was named in honor of .iEsculapius, who arrived on one occasion from his native city of Epidaurus too late for the solemn rites, and the Athenians, unwilling to disappoint so distinguished a bene factor of mankind, added a supplementary day. On the ninth day took place the cere mony of the " Plemochow," in which two earthen vessels filled with wine were turned one towards the e., and the other towards the west. The attendant priests, uttering some mystic words, then upset both vessels, and the wine so spilt was offered as a libation.
Initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries was compulsory on every freeborn Athenian; but slaves, prostitutes, and persons who had forfeited their citizenship were excluded froin'the rites. During the period of the festival, none of those taking part in it could be seized or arrested for any offense. Lycurgus, with a view to destroying distinctions of class, forbade any woman to ride to the Eleusinia in a chariot, under a penalty of 6,000 drachmae. The mysteries were celebrated with the most scrupulous secrecy. No initi ated person might reveal what he had seen under pain of death, and no uninitiated person could take part in the ceremonies under the same penalty. The priests were chosen from the sacred family of the Eumolpidx, whose ancestor, Eumolpus, had been the special favorite of Ceres. The chief priest was called the "Hierophant," or " Mysta gogue;" next in rank to him was the Daduclius, or Torch-bearer; after them came the " Hiero-Ceryx," or sacred herald, and the priest at the altar. Besides these leading ministers, there was a multitude of inferior priests and servants.