Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

8452 -~ELEPHAS. ELEUSINIA.
set up at Daphne by Antiochus IV., in imitation ing of which are writing tablets (&.Erol, libri sceof that of Pheidias; certain statues, in the temple p/hanstini), with two, three, five, or more leaves
of Zeus Olympius at Athens, which are praised, (di.tyclCa tritpclha, pensptschac, &c.), either enbut not specified, by PauLsanias: and even some of tirely of ivory, or with the leaves of parchment and
the Greek kings of the conquered states of Asia the covers of ivory: the covers are carved in relief.
arrogated to themselves this highest honour that fhese tablets are chiefly of the later ages of Rome,
the piety of earlier times could pay to the gods; and are divided into two classes, Consstlorsia and
for Pausanias saw, in the temple of Zeus at Ecclesiasticc,, which are distinguished by the carvOlympia, an ivory statue of king Nicomnedes (v. ings on their covers; those on the former being
12. ~ 5). The chief of the above works are fully figures of consuils at the poompa Circensis, missiones,
described in the Dictionary of Biogeaphy, arts. and so forth, those on the latter representing bibliPhieidias, Polyeleitus. cal subjects (iMiiller, 1. c. n. 3). The teeth of the
The question respecting the mechanical execu- iihippopotaus were sometimes used as a substition of chryselephantine statues involves certain tute for ivory in works of art. (Paus. Yiii. 46.
difficulties, which have been very elaborately and ~ 2.) [P. S.]
ingeniously examined by Quatremere de Quincy, ELEUSI'NIA ('EEvaouert), a festival and
in his splendid work entitled " Le Jupiter 0lyr1 - mysteries, originally celebrated only at Eleusis in
pien, ou, l'Art de la Sculpture Antique, consid6re Attica, in honour of Demeter and Persephone.
sous un nouveau point de ~ue:" &c. Paris, 1 811, (Anldoc. De Mlyst. 15.) All the ancients who have
folio. A very slight consideration of the material occasion to mention the Eleusinian mysteries, or
emlpl.yed will show the nature of the difficulties. t1he mysteries, -as they were sometimes called, agree
From a log of wood or a block of marble the re- that they were the holiest and most venerable of
qulired figure can be elaborated by cutting away all that were celebrated in.Greece. (Aristot. Rlet.
certain portions: clay can be moulded, and bronze ii. 24; Cic. De Nat. Deor. i. 42.) Various tradi~or plaster cast, in the form previously determined tions were current among the Greeks respecting
on-: but the material for an ivory statue is pre- the author of these mysteries; for, while some contsented in piec-s which must be made to assume an sidered Eumolpus or Musaeus to be their founder,
entirely new form before the worlk can be com- others stated that they had been introdulced frosn
menced. Now De Quiincy supposes that the Egypt by Erecllthes, -who at a -tine of scarcity
ancients possessed the art, now lost, of cutting the provided his country with corn from Egypt, andc
curved parts of the elephant's tusk into thin imported from the same quarter the sacred rites
plates, varying in breadth up to 1-2 or even 20 and mysteries of Eleusis. A third tradition attriinches, and bending them into the exact curves butecl the institution to Demeter herself; who, awhen
required by the various parts of the'figure to be wadoering about in search of her daughter, Persecovered. These plates, having been brought to phone, was believed to have come to Attica, in the
their proper forms by comparison with a model, on reign of Erechtheus, to have supplied its inhabllitwhich each of them was marked, were placed upon ants with corn, and to have instituted the'ceXeTcr
the core of the statue, which was -of wood, and mysteries at Elcusis. (Diod. Sic. i. 29; Isocrat.
strengthened with metal rods, and were fastened Paoiely/r. p. 46, ed. Steph.) This last opinion
to it and to each other chiefly by isinglass; -and seems to have been the most common among the
of course the whole surface was polished. (An ancients, and in subsequent times a stone, called
excellent account of the process, according to De adyEAav-os'r rpoa (triste saxum), was showan near
Quincy's views, -is given in the work entitled the well Callichoros -at Eleusis, on which the godA1Iencgqeries, vol.. ii. c. 13.) The ivory was used doess, overwvhelmed with gtief and 4f tigue, awas befor the flesh parts, that is, in the colossal statues lieved to have rested on her arrival in Attica.
of the deities, the face, neck, breast, arms, hsands, (Apollod. Biblieofl. i. 5; Ovid.'ast, iv. 5029 &c.)
and feet. The other parts of the wooden core Around the well Callichoros, the Eleusinia na women
were covered with thin beaten gold, to represent were said to have first performed their chorus, and
the hair -and drapery, which was affixed to the to have sung hymns to the goddess. (Pans. i. 38.
statue in such a Inanner as to be taken off at -plea- ~ 6.) All the accounts and allusions in ancient
sure, as, ultimately, it was. The gold -was in awriters seem to warrant the conciussion that the
many places embossed and chased; and colours legends concerning the introduction of the Eleuwere freely employed. The eves were formed sinia are descriptions of a period when the inhabit.
either of precious stones or of coloured marbles. ants of Attica were becoming acquainted with the
To preserve the ivory from injury, -either from too benefits of agriculture, and of a regularly constimunch or too little moisture, oil was poured over it tuted form of society. (Cic. LDe Leg. ii. 14, in
in the first case, water in the second. (Comp. Verr. v. 14.)
Diet. of B/iq. art. Pceidias, and Miiller, Arch. d. In the reign of Erechitheus a war is said to have
Kuznst, ~ 312.) The prodigious quantities of ivory brolken out between the Athenians and Eleusinians
required for these works were imported, in the (Hernann, Polit. Antiq. of Greece, ~ 91. note 9),
time of Phleidias, chiefly from Africa. (Hermipp. and when the latter were defeated, they acknowap. A tl. i. p. 27.) ledged the supremacy of Athens in evesy thing exThe other uses of ivory in the arts were chiefly cept the TsEAETrU, which they wished to conduct
the making of statuettes and other small objects, and regulate for themselves. (Thucyd. ii. 15;
which could be carved at once out of the solid part Paus. i. 38. ~ 3.) Thus the superintendence reof the tusk; and for sucih purposes it seems to mained with the descendants of Eumolpus [Erlhave been employed from a very early period. MsOIPIDAE], the daughters of the Eleusinian king
Thus on the chest of Cypselhis there were ivory Celeus, and a third class of priests, the Keryces,
figures in relief (Paus. v. 17. ~ 2). Various small who seem likewise to have been connected with
-works in ivory have come down to us, belonging the family of Eumolpns, though they themselves
to all periods of the art, among the most interest- traced their origin to Hermes and Aglauros.