Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries (
The rites, ceremonies, and beliefs were kept secret and consistently preserved from antiquity.
Etymology
Eleusinian Mysteries (Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) was the name of the mysteries of the city Eleusis.
The name of the city
The ancient Greek word from which English mystery derives, mystḗrion (μυστήριον), means "mystery or secret rite"[15] and is related with the verb myéō (μυέω), which means "(I) teach, initiate into the mysteries",[16] and the noun mýstēs (μύστης), which means "one initiated".[17] The word mystikós (μυστικός), source of the English mystic, means "connected with the mysteries", or "private, secret" (as in Modern Greek).[18]
Demeter and Persephone
The Mysteries are related to a myth concerning Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility as recounted in one of the Homeric Hymns (c. 650 BC). According to the hymn, Demeter's daughter Persephone (also referred to as Kore, "maiden") was assigned the task of painting all the flowers of the earth. Before completion, she was seized by Hades, the god of the underworld, who took her to his underworld kingdom. Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter. Because of her distress, and in an effort to coerce Zeus to allow the return of her daughter, she caused a terrible drought in which the people suffered and starved, depriving the gods of sacrifice and worship. As a result, Zeus relented and allowed Persephone to return to her mother.[19]
According to the myth, during her search Demeter traveled long distances and had many minor adventures along the way. In one she taught the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemus.[20] Finally, by consulting Zeus, Demeter reunited with her daughter and the earth returned to its former verdure and prosperity: the first spring.
Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds (either six or four according to the telling), which forced her to return to the underworld for some months each year. She was obliged to remain with Hades for six or four months (one month per seed) and lived above ground with her mother for the rest of the year. This left a long period of time when Demeter was unhappy due to Persephone's absence, neglecting to cultivate the earth. When Persephone returned to the surface, Demeter became joyful and cared for the earth again.
In the central foundation document of the mystery, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter line 415, Persephone is said to stay in Hades during winter and return to her mother in the spring of the year: "This was the day [of Persephone's return], at the very beginning of bountiful springtime."[21]
Persephone's rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life and the symbol of eternity of life that flows from the generations that spring from each other.[22]
However, a scholar has proposed a different version,[23] according to which the four months during which Persephone is with Hades correspond to the dry Greek summer, a period during which plants are threatened with drought.[24]
Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries are believed to have ancient origins. Some findings in the temple Eleusinion in
One line of thought by modern scholars has been that the Mysteries were intended "to elevate man above the human sphere into the divine and to assure his redemption by making him a god and so conferring immortality upon him".[27]
Some scholars argued that the Eleusinian cult was a continuation of a Minoan cult,[28] and that Demeter was a poppy goddess who brought the poppy from Crete to Eleusis.[29][30] Some useful information from the Mycenean period can be taken from the study of the cult of Despoina (the precursor goddess of Persephone) and the cult of Eileithyia, who was the goddess of childbirth. The megaron of Despoina at Lycosura is quite similar to the Telesterion of Eleusis,[31] and Demeter is united with the god Poseidon, bearing a daughter, the unnamable Despoina (the mistress).[32] In the cave of Amnisos at Crete, the goddess Eileithyia is related with the annual birth of the divine child, and she is connected with Enesidaon (The Earth Shaker),[33] who is the chthonic aspect of Poseidon.[34]
At
The main theme was the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother Demeter.
The high point of the celebration was "an ear of grain cut in silence", which represented the force of the new life. The idea of immortality did not exist in the mysteries at the beginning, but the initiated believed that they would have a better fate in the underworld. Death remained a reality, but at the same time a new beginning like the plant which grows from the buried seed.[4] A depiction from the old palace of Phaistos is very close to the image of the anodos of Persephone. An armless and legless deity grows out of the ground, and her head turns to a large flower.[42]
According to
Under
Participants
To participate in these mysteries one had to swear a vow of secrecy.
Four categories of people participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries:
- Priests, priestesses, and hierophants
- Initiates, undergoing the ceremony for the first time
- Others who had already participated at least once – they were eligible for the final category
- Those who had attained épopteia (Greek: ἐποπτεία) (contemplation), who had learned the secrets of the greatest mysteries of Demeter
Priesthood
The priesthood officiating at the Eleusinian Mysteries and in the sanctuary was divided into several offices with different tasks.
Six categories of priests officiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries:
- Hierophantes – male high priest, an office inherited within the Phileidae or Eumolpidae families.[48]
- High Priestess of Demeter or Priestess of Demeter and Kore – an office inherited within the Phileidae or Eumolpidae families.[48]
- Dadouchos – men serving as torch bearers, the second-highest male role next to Hierophantes.[48]
- Dadouchousa Priestess – a female priestess who assisted the Dadouchos, an office inherited within the Phileidae or Eumolpidae families.[48]
- Hierophantides – two married priestesses, one serving Demeter, and the other Persephone.[48]
- Panageis ('the holy') or melissae ('bees') – a group of priestesses who lived a life secluded from men.[48]
The offices of Hierophant, High Priestess, and Dadouchousa priestess were all inherited within the Phileidae or Eumolpidae families, and the Hierophant and the High Priestess were of equal rank.[48] It was the task of the High Priestess to impersonate the roles of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone in the enactment during the mysteries, and at Eleusis events were dated by the name of the reigning High Priestess.[48]
Secrets
The outline below is only a capsule summary; much of the concrete information about the Eleusinian Mysteries was never written down. For example, only initiates knew what the kiste, a sacred chest, and the calathus, a lidded basket, contained.
Hippolytus of Rome, one of the Church Fathers writing in the early 3rd century AD, discloses in Refutation of All Heresies that "the Athenians, while initiating people into the Eleusinian rites, likewise display to those who are being admitted to the highest grade at these mysteries, the mighty, and marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the highest mystic truths: an ear of grain in silence reaped."[49]
Lesser Mysteries
There were two Eleusinian Mysteries, the Greater and the Lesser. According to Thomas Taylor, "the dramatic shows of the Lesser Mysteries occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in subjection to the body, so those of the Greater obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual [spiritual] vision." According to Plato, "the ultimate design of the Mysteries ... was to lead us back to the principles from which we descended, ... a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good."[50]
The Lesser Mysteries took place in the month of Anthesteria – the eighth month of the Attic calendar, falling in mid winter around February or March – under the direction of Athens' archon basileus. In order to qualify for initiation, participants would sacrifice a piglet to Demeter and Persephone, and then ritually purify themselves in the river Illisos. Upon completion of the Lesser Mysteries, participants were deemed mystai (initiates) worthy of witnessing the Greater Mysteries.
Greater Mysteries
For among the many excellent and indeed divine institutions which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries. For by their means we have been brought out of our barbarous and savage mode of life and educated and refined to a state of civilization; and as the rites are called "initiations," so in very truth we have learned from them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live happily, but also to die with a better hope.
Cicero, Laws II, xiv, 36
The Greater Mysteries took place in
The first act (on the 14th of Boedromion) was the bringing of the sacred objects from Eleusis to the Eleusinion, a temple at the base of the Acropolis of Athens.
On the 15th of Boedromion, a day called the Gathering (Agyrmos), the priests (hierophantes, those who show the sacred ones) declared the start of the rites (
The seawards initiates (halade mystai) started out in Athens on 16th Boedromion with the celebrants washing themselves in the sea at Phaleron.
On the 17th, the participants began the Epidauria, a festival for Asklepios named after his main sanctuary at Epidauros. This "festival within a festival" celebrated the healer's arrival at Athens with his daughter Hygieia, and consisted of a procession leading to the Eleusinion, during which the mystai apparently stayed at home, a great sacrifice, and an all-night feast (pannykhís).[51]
The procession to Eleusis began at Kerameikos (the Athenian cemetery) on the 18th, and from there the people walked to Eleusis, along the Sacred Way (Ἱερὰ Ὁδός, Hierá Hodós), swinging branches called bacchoi.[52] At a certain spot along the way, they shouted obscenities in commemoration of Iambe (or Baubo), an old woman who, by cracking dirty jokes, had made Demeter smile as she mourned the loss of her daughter. The procession also shouted "Íakch', O Íakche!", possibly an epithet for Dionysus, or a separate deity Iacchus, son of Persephone or Demeter.[53]
Upon reaching Eleusis, there was an all-night vigil (pannychis) according to Mylonas[54] and Kerényi.[55] perhaps commemorating Demeter's search for Persephone. At some point, initiates had a special drink (kykeon), of barley and pennyroyal, which has led to speculation about its chemicals perhaps having psychotropic effects from ergot (a fungus that grows on barley, containing psychedelic alkaloids similar to LSD). Discovery of fragments of ergot in a temple dedicated to the two Eleusinian goddesses excavated at the Mas Castellar site (Girona, Spain) provided legitimacy for this theory. Ergot fragments were found inside a vase and within the dental calculus (plaque) of a 25-year-old man, providing evidence of ergot being consumed (Juan-Stresserras, 2002). This finding seems to support the hypothesis of ergot as an ingredient of the Eleusinian kykeon.
Inside the Telesterion
On the 19th of Boedromion, initiates entered a great hall called Telesterion; in the center stood the Palace (Anaktoron), built of ruins dating back to the Mycenaean Age,[46] which only the hierophants could enter, where sacred objects were stored. Before mystai could enter the Telesterion, they would recite, "I have fasted, I have drunk the kykeon, I have taken from the kiste (box) and after working it have put it back in the calathus (open basket).[56]
It is widely supposed that the rites inside the Telesterion comprised three elements:
- dromena (things done), a dramatic reenactment of the Demeter/Persephone myth
- deiknumena (things shown), displayed sacred objects, in which the hierophant played an essential role
- legomena (things said), commentaries that accompanied the deiknumena[57]
Combined, these three elements were known as the aporrheta (unrepeatables); the penalty for divulging them was death.
Athenagoras of Athens, Cicero, and other ancient writers cite that it was for this crime (among others) that Diagoras was condemned to death in Athens;[58][59] the tragic playwright Aeschylus was allegedly tried for revealing secrets of the mysteries in some of his plays, but was acquitted.[60] The ban on divulging the core ritual of the mysteries was thus absolute, which is probably why almost nothing is known about what transpired there.
Climax
As to the climax of the mysteries, there are two modern theories.
Some hold that the priests were the ones to reveal the visions of the holy night, consisting of a fire that represented the possibility of life after death, and various sacred objects. Others hold this explanation to be insufficient to account for the power and longevity of the mysteries, and that the experiences must have been internal and mediated by a powerful psychoactive ingredient contained in the kykeon drink (see Entheogenic theories below).
Following this section of the Mysteries was an all-night feast (Pannychis)[61] accompanied by dancing and merriment. This portion of the festivities was open to the public.[62] The dances took place in the Rharian Field, rumored to be the first spot where grain grew. A bull sacrifice also took place late that night or early the next morning. That day (22nd Boedromion), the initiates honoured the dead by pouring libations from special vessels.
On the 23rd of Boedromion, the mysteries ended and everyone returned home.[63]
Demise
In 170 AD, the Temple of Demeter was sacked by the
According to historian Hans Kloft, despite the destruction of the Eleusinian Mysteries, elements of the cult survived in the Greek countryside. There, local peasants and shepherds partially transferred Demeter's rites and religious duties onto Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki, who gradually became the local patron of agriculture and "heir" to the pagan mother goddess.[72]
In art, literature, and culture
There are many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of the Mysteries. The
The
In Shakespeare's Mystery Play: A Study of The Tempest, Colin Still argued that The Tempest was an allegory for initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries.[75] Though widely rejected, this interpretation was supported by Michael Srigley in Images of Regeneration.[76]
Dimitris Lyacos in the second book of the Poena Damni trilogy With the People from the Bridge, a contemporary, avant-garde play focusing on the return of the dead and the revenant legend combines elements from the Eleusinian mysteries as well as early Christian tradition in order to convey a view of collective salvation. The text uses the pomegranate symbol in order to hint at the residence of the dead in the underworld and their periodical return to the world of the living.[78]
Entheogenic theories
Numerous scholars have proposed that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the
Many
Discovery of fragments of ergot (fungi containing LSD-like psychedelic alkaloids) in a temple dedicated to the two Eleusinian Goddesses excavated at the Mas Castellar site (Girona, Spain) provided legitimacy for this theory. Ergot fragments were found inside a vase and within the dental calculus of a 25-year-old man, providing evidence of ergot being consumed. This finding seems to support the hypothesis of ergot as an ingredient of the Eleusinian kykeon.[87]
Another candidate for the psychoactive drug is an opioid derived from the poppy. The cult of the goddess Demeter may have brought the poppy from Crete to Eleusis; it is certain that opium was produced in Crete.[91]
Another theory is that the psychoactive agent in kykeon is
Alternatively,
Notable participants
- Aeschylus (525/524–456/455 BC)[citation needed]
- Plato (428/427 or 424/423–348/347 BC)
- Augustus(63 BC–AD 14)
- Plutarch (c. AD 46–after 119)[74]
- Hadrian (76–138)
- Antinous (c. 111–130)
- Marcus Aurelius (121–180)
- Commodus (161–192)
- Gallienus (c. 218–268)[94]
- Julian (331–363)
See also
- Cabeiri
- Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I
- Dionysian Mysteries
- Kykeon
- Mycenaean Greece
- Orphism
- Poppy goddess
- Sacerdos Cereris
Notes
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Martin P. Nilsson, Vol I, p. 470
- ^ a b c Dietrich (1975) The origins of Greek Religion. Bristol Phoenix Press pp. 166, 167
- ^ a b c Walter Burkert. (1985)Greek Religion. Harvard University Press. p. 285
- ^ Ouvaroff, M. (alternatively given as Sergei Semenovich Uvarov, or Sergey Uvarov, 1786–1855) (Translated from the French by J. D. Price) Essay on the Mysteries of Eleusis, London : Rodwell and Martin, 1817 (Reprint: United States: Kessinger Publishing, 2004). Ouvaroff does write that fixing the earliest foundation date to the Eleusinian Mysteries is fraught with problems.
- ^ Tripolitis, Antonia. Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, November 2001. pp. 16–21.
- ISBN 978-0674033870
- ISBN 978-0415141482
- ^ a b c Wasson, R. Gordon, Ruck, Carl, Hofmann, A., The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1978.
- ^ Eiland, Murray (2019). "Ancient Wellsprings of Religion and Creativity". Antiqvvs. 1 (2). Interview with Carl Ruck: 8–11.
- W. KohlhammerStuttgart. pp. 141–142
- Eleusis". Willets, p. 222.
- ^ F. Schachermeyer (1967). Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta. W.Kohlhammer Stuttgart, p. 141
- ^ "In Laconia there is a temple of Demeter Eleusinia. The name was used very early, and cannot be an influence of the goddess of Eleusis": Nilsson, Vol I, pp. 313–314
- Perseus Project.
- ^ μυέω in Liddell and Scott.
- ^ μύστης in Liddell and Scott.
- ^ μυστικός in Liddell and Scott.
- ^ Foley, Helene P., The Homeric "Hymn ro Demeter". Princeton University Press, 1994. Also Vaughn, Steck. Demeter and Persephone. Steck Vaughn Publishing, 1994 [ISBN missing] [page needed]
- ^ Smith, William. A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography Vol. II. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2006.
- ^ The Homeric Hymns translated by Jules Cashford, Penguin Books, 2003, p. 24.
- ^ Similar ideas appear in many ancient agricultural societies: in the cult of Adonis in Phoenicia, the cult of Osiris in Egypt and the cult of Ariadne in Minoan Crete. Also in China: "There in the buried seed, the end of life is connected with a new beginning": The I Ching or book of changes, transl. Richard Wilhelm p. 45
- ^ Smith, 2006.
- ^ Greene, William C. "The Return of Persephone". Classical Philology. University of Chicago Press 1946. pp. 105–106
- ^ Nilsson, Vol I, p. 470
- ^ Nilsson, Vol I, pp. 474, 475
- ^ Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Popular Religion "The Religion of Eleusis" New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. pp. 42–64
- ^ Kerényi (1976), Dionysos. Archetypal image of indestructible life p. 79
- ^ Kerenyi, 1976 p. 23
- ^ " Persephone is probably the unnamable mistress of the labyrinth (Mycenean (Linear B) inscription : da-pu-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja) " : Kerényi. Dionysos. Archetypal image of indestructible life. pp. 89, 90.
- ^ Burkert: Greek religion p. 285
- ^ Pausanias, 8.37.9
- ^ Mycenean (Linear B) inscription :E-ne-si-da-o-ne
- ^ Dietrich The origins of Greek Religion pp. 220, 221
- ^ Pseudo Apollodorus Biblioteca IV.2
- ^ Kevin Klinton (1993), Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches, Routledge, p. 11
- ^ Nilsson, Greek popular religion p. 51
- ^ Burkert(1985) p. 285
- ^ Wunderlich 1972 The secret of Creta p. 134
- ISBN 978-0691035239.
- ^ Chadwick: The Mycenean world p. 92
- ^ Burkert (1985)Greek Religion. Harvard University Press. p. 42
- ^ Mylonas, George E. "Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries". Princeton University Press 1961, pp. 239, 243.
- ^ Kerenyi, Carl. Eleusis – Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter. Bollingen Foundation 1967, p. 48.
- ^ Apollodorus, 1.5.2.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
- ^ Smith, William. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London, 1875.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Pomeroy, Sarah B. (1995). Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in classical antiquity. New York: Schocken Books.
- Refutation of all Heresies, in ANF, vol. 5; 5, 3
- ^ Taylor, p. 49.
- ^ Clinton, Kevin. "The Epidauria and the Arrival of Asclepius in Athens", in Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence, edited by R. Hägg. Stockholm, 1994.
- ^ Mystical Initiation in Ancient Greece: The Eleusinian Mysteries, retrieved 2022-12-09
- Anabasis Alexandri, ii. 16; Virgil, Georgics, i. 166; and Plutarch, Themistocles, 15.
- ^ Mylonas, G. E., 1961 Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, p. 258
- ^ Kerenyi, C. Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, p. 62
- ^ According to Clement of Alexandria's Exhortation to the Greeks. See Meyer 1999, 18.
- ^ See (e.g.) Brisson/Teihnayi 2004, 60
- ISSN 0278-6656.
- ISSN 1128-8221.
- ^ Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1111a8-10.
- Perseus Project
- ISSN 1568-5276.
- ^ Boardman, Griffin, and Murray. The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford University Press 1986. [page needed]
- ^ "Eleusis: Pathways to Ancient Myth". Calvin.edu. Archived from the original on 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2012-09-15.
- ISBN 978-8478447725.
- ^ Bernabé, A., "Las religiones mistéricas del mundo grecorromano", en David Castro de Castro y Araceli Striano Corrochano (eds.), Religiones del Mundo Antiguo, SCEC: Madrid, 2010, pp. 111–137.
- ^ Burkert, W., Religión griega, arcaica y clásica, Abada: Madrid, 2007.
- ^ Clinton, K., Myth and cult. The iconography of the Eleusynian mysteries, Svenska institutet i Athen: Estocolmo, 1992.
- ^ Cosmopoulos, M. B. (ed.), Greek mysteries. The archaeology and ritual of ancient Greek secret cults, Psychology Press: Londres-Nueva York, 2003.
- ^ González González, M., Creencias y rituales funerarios: el más allá en la antigua Grecia, Síntesis: Madrid, 2018.
- ^ Mylonas, G. E., Eleusis and the Eleusinian mysteries, Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, 1961.
- ^ Kloft (2010), p. 25.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
- ^ a b "The Eleusinian Mysteries: The Rites of Demeter". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
- JSTOR 2923299.
- ^ Ormsby-Lennon, Hugh (1988). "Review: Images of Regeneration". Modern Philology. 85 (3).
- ^ Richard Noll. "Mysteria: Jung and the Ancient Mysteries (1994) [uncorrected page proofs of a book cancelled prior to publication due to objections by the Jung family]". Academia.edu.
- ^ Julie Kovacs, The nightmare continues in With the People from the Bridge. Exercise Bowler, Issue 21, 2015. http://exercisebowler.com/issue21.htm
- ^ Julian Carrillo Sanz (2017). "Eleusis: música y misterios a tu alcance".
- ^ Collins, Derek. Magic in the Ancient Greek World. Wiley, 2008
- ^ a b Wasson, et al..
- ^ Burkert, op.cit. Ch.4
- ^ Robin Waterfield,Why Socrates Died, Faber & Faber, 2009, p. 92.
- ^ Ruck, Carl (2000). "Mixing the Kykeon". vdocuments.mx. Archived from the original on 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
- ^ Shulgin & Shulgin. Tihkal. Transform Press, 1997.
- ^ "Erowid Ergot Vault". Erowid.org. Retrieved 2012-09-15.
- ^ Juan-Stresserras, J. , & Matamala, J. C. (2005). Estudio de residuos microscópicos y compuestos orgánicos en utillaje de molido y de contenido de las vasijas [A study of the microscopic residue and organic compounds in grinding tools and jar contents]. In P. Bueno, R. Balbín, & R. Barroso (cur.), El dolmen de Toledo (pp. 235–241). Alcalá de Henares, Spain: Universidad de Alcalá.
- OCLC 761273872.
- ^ McKenna.
- S2CID 19297225.
- ^ Kerényi.Dionysos. Archetypal image of indestructible life. p 24
- ^ Metzner, Ralph. "The Reunification of the Sacred and the natural". Eleusis Volume VIII, 1997. pp. 3–13
- ^ Sansonese, J. Nigro. The Body of Myth. Rochester, 1994, pp. 195–215.
- ^ The Encyclopedia of Religion, Volume 10, p 233.
Bibliography
- Boardman, Griffin, and Murray. The Oxford History of the Classical World (Oxford University Press 1986). ISBN 978-0-19-872112-3.
- Bowden, Hugh. Mystery Cults of the Ancient World (Princeton University Press; 2010)
- Bizzotto, Jacopo. "The hypothesis on the presence of entheogens in the Eleusinian mysteries." Medicina Historica 2.2 (2018): 85–93.
- ISBN 0-226-07535-4
- Burkert, Walter, Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard University Press, 1987. [ISBN missing]
- Clinton, Kevin (1974). "The Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 64 (3): 1–143. JSTOR 1006226.
- Clinton, Kevin (1988). "Sacrifice at the Eleusinian Mysteries". In Hägg, R.; Marinatos, N. (eds.). Early Greek Cult Practice. Stockholm. pp. 69–79.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Clinton, Kevin. "The Epidauria and the Arrival of Asclepius in Athens" in Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence. edited by R. Hägg, Stockholm, 1994. ISBN 91-7916-029-8.
- Clinton, Kevin (1995). "The sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis". Greek sanctuaries : new approaches. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0203432709.
- Clinton, Kevin (2004). "Epiphany in the Eleusinian Mysteries". Illinois Classical Studies. 29: 85–109. JSTOR 23065342.
- Clinton, Kevin (2005). Eleusis, the Inscriptions on Stone: Documents of the Sanctuary of the Two Goddesses and Public Documents of the Deme. Archaeological Society at Athens. ISBN 978-960-8145-46-7.
- Clinton, Kevin (2019). "Journeys to the Eleusinian Mysteria (with an Appendix on the Procession at the Andanian Mysteria)". In Friese, W.; Handberg, S.; Kristensen, T.M. (eds.). Ascending and Descending the Acropolis. Movement in Athenian Religion. Athens. pp. 161–177.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 978-1-316-36823-7.
- Greene, William C. "The Return of Persephone" in Classical Philology. University of Chicago Press, 1946. pp. 105–106.
- ISBN 0-691-01915-0.
- Metzner, Ralph. "The Reunification of the Sacred and the natural", Eleusis Volume VIII, pp. 3–13 (1997).
- Kloft, Hans (2010). Mysterienkulte der Antike. Götter, Menschen, Rituale (in German). ISBN 978-3-406-44606-1.
- ISBN 0-553-37130-4.
- Meyer, Marvin W. (1999). The Ancient Mysteries, a Sourcebook: Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1692-X
- Moore, Clifford H. Religious Thought of the Greeks. (1916). Kessinger Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7661-5130-1.
- Mylonas, George Emmanuel. Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princeton University Press, 1961.
- Muraresku, Brian C. The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name. Macmillan, 2020. ISBN 978-1250207142
- Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Popular Religion 1940.
- Parker, Robert (2005). "Eleusinian Festivals". Polytheism and society at Athens. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 327–368. ISBN 978-0191534522.
- Rosen, Ralph M. "Hipponax fr. 48 DG. and the Eleusinian Kykeon." The American Journal of Philology 108.3 (1987): 416–426.
- ISBN 0-89281-409-8.
- Shulgin, Alexander, Ann Shulgin. TiHKAL. Transform Press, 1997.
- Smith, William, A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography Vol. II. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2006. ISBN 1-4286-4561-6.
- Smith, William. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London, 1875.
- Tonelli, Angelo. Eleusis e Orfismo. I Misteri e la tradizione iniziatica greca. Feltrinelli, 2015. ISBN 978-8807901645
- Tripolitis, Antonia. Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001. ISBN 0-8028-4913-X.
- ISBN 0-15-177872-8.
- Virgili, Antonio. "Culti misterici ed orientali a Pompei". Roma. Gangemi, 2008
- Willoughby, Harold R. (1929). "The Greater Mysteries at Eleusis". Pagan Regeneration: A Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
External links
- The Eleusinian Mysteries, Edward A. Beach
- The Eleusinian Mysteries at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2001-11-30), Thomas R. Martin, from An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander.
- Images of Inscriptions about the Mysteries at Eleusis, Cornell University Library
- Foreword and first chapter from The Road to Eleusis Archived 2012-12-14 at the Wayback Machine R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, Carl A. P. Ruck
- Mixing the Kykeon, Peter Webster, Daniel M. Perrine, Ph.D, and Carl A. P. Ruck. From the pages of ELEUSIS: Journal of Psychoactive Plants and Compounds New Series 4, 2000
- Rosicrucian Digest vol. 87 devoted entirely to the Eleusinian Mysteries
- The Best-Kept Secret in History - Brian Muraresku After Skool, Animation Video, 2021