ELEU'SIS (Lat., from Gk. 'EXeves, properly place of resort, from nettolt, c/cusis, a going, cl•usesthai, to be about to go). A town in Attica, near the northern shore of the Gulf of Salamis, ant far from the confines of Me garis. It was the chief seat of the worship of Demeter. and the seem. of Ilse relebration of the Elensinian mysteries. (See llYsTERIEs.) The town was very and in early times a rival of Athens. against whose supremacy in Attica it long held out, and filially submitted on terms which left it two priestly families—the Funtol pida• and Cervees—in control of the sanctuary and its rites. though in later times the State eon trolled the revenues of the temple. Until 1SS3 excavations on this site had been few and un remunerative; but in that year the Creek Gov ernment expropriated the site of the sanctuary, and the Greek Arelueological Society began a series of excavations which have laid bare the entire savred previ»et. The temple of the t wo god desses—Demeter and kore—has disappeared, and even its site is uncertain; but the two Propyh•a erected in Homan times, the Sacred Well. when Demeter rested. lesser temples, a Bouleuterion, or council hall. and the great terrace on which stmt.' the Telesterion in which the mysteries were celebrated, can be plainly traced. Before the Persian War the Great Dail was a rather small building at the foot of the rocky bill which formed the ancient Acropolis. After the war this
structure was enlarged by cutting back into the rock, and in the time of Pericles still further enlarged by building along...We another hall of about the same size. Probably these two halls had a common upper story, for both contain many large columns which must have been needed to sustain a heavy weight. In the fourth rennin n.c. the architect Philon of Eleusis added a great portico to the common front of these hails, anti in Roman times, probably under liad•ian. the 111•0 buildings were n11'011'11 into TIC great hall with interior columns (seven rows of six columns each). and a series of raised steps around the shies. Probably both lower and upper stories were used in the celebration of the mysteries. The modern name for the little village on this site is 1„evsina. Consnit : :anther, Nea- ellaylcrs in Greek istory (Loudon. IS92) : Diehl, 1.;.rettr sionR in (o IreCe London. 1S93I: Philios„ EicaNis ( Freneb, Athens. 1 S9I1 : Frazer. Pousunins (London. 1S9S). The reports of the excavations are to he found in the Hparmd, of the Greek Ar clupological Society, and the 'ApxatoX0 -it(c4; they arc summarized in the excellent guide book by who directed tile work for many years.