The Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries had three degrees of initiation, starting from an initiation into the Lesser Mysteries, then to a proper initiation into the Greater Mysteries or telete, and an optional initiation, which was the highest degree of initiation or epopteia (Mylonas 239). In the myths of Demeter and Persephone, Demeter instituted the Mysteries in response to the return of her daughter after she was abducted by Hades and taken to the Underworld, giving the cult an origin (Johnston 378). The relationship between initiates and the two goddesses was that Persephone was expected to favor them in their afterlife (378). The Lesser Mysteries were closely related to Persephone, but Demeter was still viewed as an honored guest (Mylonas 240). The

The Mysteries officially began on the fifteenth of Boedromion and continued for nine days until the twenty-third of Boedromion. However, there was a procession that occurred the day before the fifteenth of Boedromion where the hiera or sacred objects of Demeter were moved from their place in the Anaktoron in Eleusis and taken to Athens. The procession began near the Pompeion in Eleusis, which was located outside the outer court of the Sanctuary, after the initial sacrifices or prothymata were given. The objects were then carried by the priestesses of Eleusis in carriages and were contained in special cists so that no one knew what the objects were

The Archon Basileus made a proclamation or prorrhesis proclaiming that the initiates could be “everyone who has clean hands and intelligible speech…he who is pure from all pollution and whose souls is conscious of no evil and who has lived justly.” (Mylonas 247). This characterized the Mysteries as a panhellenic cult. The second day or elasis was characterized by the act of having all the participants cleanse themselves in the sea whilst shouting “To the Sea, Oh Mystai.” During this time, the initiate had a pig that also was to be washed and upon the return to Athens, their pig was sacrificed. Both the sea and the blood of the pigs were powerful agents of purification, cleansing the spirit from all evil (249). The third day or the day of sacrifices was an entire day where all the participants made sacrifices to Demeter to pray on behalf of the Athenian state and their families (250). The fourth day or the epidauria was a day to honor Askelpios and commemorate his late initiation with another sacrifice (251). The fifth day or pompe was the culmination of the rites and festivities in Athens. This day was when the initiates with myrtle crown began the Great Procession to Eleusis from the Eleusinion in Athens (Cosmopoules 18). Also, the procession represented Demeter’s own journey back to Eleusis (Mylonas,