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

454 ELEUSINIA. ELEUTHERIA.
mystae now repeated the oath of secresy which while celebrating the festival, could be seized or
had been administered to them at the lesser Eleu- arrested for any offence. (Demosth. c. Mid. p. 571.)
sinia, underwent a new purification, and then they Lycurlgs made it a law that any woman using a
were led by the mystagogus in the darkness of carriage in the procession to Eleusis should be fined
night into the lighted interior of the sanctuary one thousand drachmae. (Plut. De Cup. Div. ix.
(Owra-yw-7?ya), and were allowed to see (abV'roia) p. 348; Aelian, Y. H. xiii. 24.) The custom
what none except the epoptae ever beheld. The against which this law was directed seems to have
awful and horrible manner in which the initia- been very common before. (Demosth. c. Mid.
tion is described by later, especially Christian p. 565.)
writers, seems partly to proceed from their igno- The Eleusinian mysteries long survived the inrance of its real character, partly from their horror dependence of Greece. Attempts to suppress them
and aversion to these pagan rites. The more were made by the emperor Valentinian, but he
ancient writers always abstained from entering met with strong opposition, and they seem to have
upon any description of the subject. Each in- continued down to the time of the elder Theododividual, after his initiation, is said to have been sins. Respecting the secret doctrines which were,
dismissed by the words Hcoyt, ourad (Hesych. s. v.), revealed in them to the initiated, nothing certain
in order to make room for other mystae. is known. The general belief of the ancients was
On the seventh day the initiated returned to that they opened to man a comforting prospect of
Athens amid various kinds of raillery and jests, a future state. (Pind. Tirten. p. 8. ed. Bickh.)
especially at the bridge over the Cephisus, where But this feature does not seem to have been origithey sat down to rest, and poured forth their ridi- nally connected with these mysteries, and was procule on those who passed by. Htence the words bably added to them at the period which followed
yfsPvpiSe'r and yepvprotdos (Strabo, ix. p. 395; the opening of a regular intercourse between Greece
Suidas, s. v. reqsvpiov: Hesych. s. v. reqpvpLoTai: and Egypt, when some of the speculative doctrines
Aelian, Hist. Animal. iv. 43; Miiller, Hgist. of the of the latter country, and of the East, may have
Lit. of Greece, p. 132). These oa ckx1uara seem, been introduced into the mysteries, and hallowed
like the procession with torches to Eleusis, to have by the names of the venerable bards of the mythibeen dramatical and symbolical representations of cal age. This supposition would also account, in
the jests by which, according to the ancient legend, some measure, for the legend of their introduction
Iambe or Baubo had dispelled the grief of the god- from Egypt. In modern times many attempts have
dess and made her smile. We may here observe, been made to discover the nature of the mysteries
that probably the whole history of Demeter and revealed to the initiated, but the results have been
Persephone was in some way or other symbolically as various and as fanciful as might be expected.
represented at the Eleusinia. Hence Clemens of The most sober and probable view is that, acAlexandria (Protrept. p. 12, ed. Potter) calls the cording to which, " they were the remains of a
Eleusinian mysteries a " mystical drama." (See worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic
Miiller, Iist. of tile Lit. of' Greece, p. 287, &c.) mythology and its attendant rites, grounded on a
The eighth day, called'Emnravppa, was a kind of view of nature, less fanciful, more earnest, and
additional day for those who by some accident had better fitted to awaken both philosophical thought
come too late, or had been prevented from being and religious feeling." (Thirlwall, IHist. of Greece,
initiated on the sixth day. It was said to have ii. p. 140, &c.) Respecting the Attic Eleusinia
been added to the original number of days, when see Meursius,.Eleusinia, Lngd. Bat. 1619; St.
Asclepius, coming over from Epidaurus to be in- Croix, Reclierc;les Hist. et C0ritiq. suzr les MIyste'e.s
itiated, arrived too late, and the Athenians, not to dzu Paganismne (a second edition was published in
disappointtlhe god, added an eighth day. (Philostr. 1817, by Sylvestre de Sacy, in 2 vols. Pariis)
Vit. Apoll. iv. 6; Paus. ii. 26. ~ 7.) The ninth Ouwaroff, Essai sr les il]ystires d'Eleusis, 3d ediand last day bore the nalme of rsrXtaoX0al (Pollux, tion, Paris, 1816; Wachsmuth, Hell. Alter. vol. ii.
x. 74; Athen. xi. p. 496), from a peculiar kind p. 575, &c. 2d edit. p. 249, &c.; Creuzer, Sylmbol.
of vessel called;rAp7toxomvj, which is described as a mt. ifytlol. iv. p. 534, &c.; Nitzsch, De Eleusins.
small kind of tcrrvXos. Two of these vessels were Ratione, Kiel, 1842.
on this day filled with water or wine, and the con- Eleusinia were also celebrated in other parts of
tents of the one thrown to the east, and those of Greece. At Ephesus they had been introduced
the other to the west, while those who perfolmed feom Athens. (Strabo, xiv. p. 633.) In Laconia
this rite uttered some mystical words. they were, as far as we know, only celebrated by
Besides tle various rites and ceremonies described the inhabitants of the ancient town of Helos, who
above, several others are mentioned, but it is not on certain days, carried a wooden statue of Perknown to which day they belonged. Among them sephone to the Eleusinion, in the heights of Taywe shall mention only the Eleusinian games and getus. (Paus. iii. 20. ~ 5, &c.) Crete had likewise
contests, which Meursius assigns to the seventh its Eleusinia. (See Me-urs. Eleus. c. 33.) [L. S.]
day. They are mentioned by Gellius (xv. 20), and ELEUTHE'RIA. (ieEvOepa), the feast of
are said to have been the most ancient in Greece. liberty, a festival -rwhich the Greeks, after the
The prize of the victors consisted in ears of barley. battle of Plataeae (479, B. c.), instituted in honour
(SchoI. ad Pined. 01. ix. 1.50.) It was considered of Zeus Eleustherios (the deliverer). It was inllas one of the greatest profanations of the Eleusinia, tended not merely to be a token of their gratitude
if during their celebration an arTtLAos camie as a sup- to the god to whom they believed themselves to be
pliant to the temple (the Eleusinion), and placed indebted for their victory over the barbarians, but
his olive branch (KCesTpIa) in it (Andoc. De Myst. also as a bond of union among themselves; for, in
p. 54); and whoever did so might be put to death an assembly of all the Greeks, Aristides carried a
without any trial, or had to pay a fine of one thou- decree that delegates (7rpodovuAoX al aeWopol) fromn
sand drachmae. It may also be remarked that at all the Greek states should assemble every year at
bther festivals, as well as the Eleusinia, no man, Plataeae for the celebration of the Eleutheria. The