Eleusinian Mysteries

The holiest and most venerated of the Greek festivals. The Le er Eleusinia, held at Agræ in the month A nth ester i on, were a preparation for the Greater, which were celebrated at Athens and Eleusis. The Mystæ were the initiated at the Le er, of which the principal rite was the sacrifice of a sow, previously purified by washing in the Cantharus. The Greater were celebrated every year in the month Boedromion, and lasted nine days. On the first day the Mystæ a embled at Athens; on the second they went through a ceremony of purification at the sea-coast; the third was a day of fasting; on the fourth there was a proce ion of a waggon drawn by oxen, followed by women who had small mystic cases in their hands; on the fifth, or torch day, the Mystæ went in the evening with torches to the temple of Demeter, where they pa ed the night; on the sixth, which was the most solemn of all, a statue of Iacchos, the son of Demeter, was borne in proce ion to Eleusis, and the Mystæ were there initiated in the last mysteries during the following night. There was something in the secrets of this part of the ceremony which excited greatly the imagination of the ancient writers, especially Christians, who describe them “in an awful and horrible manner.” Each of the initiated was dismi ed by the mystagogus with the words κόγξ, ὄμπαξ. On the next day they returned to Athens, and resting on the bridge of Cephisus engaged in a contest of ridicule with the pa ers-by: the eighth and ninth days were unimportant.