ELEUSINIA – מילון אנגלי-עברי
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Eleusinian Mysteries
The
Eleusinian Mysteries were
initiations held every year for the
cult of
Demeter and
Persephone based at
Eleusis in
ancient Greece. They are the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". It is thought that their basis was an old
agrarian cult which probably goes back to the
Mycenean period (c. 1600 – 1100 BC) and it is believed that the cult of Demeter was established in 1500 BC. The mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld
Hades, in a cycle with three phases, the "descent" (loss), the "search" and the "ascent", with the main theme the "ascent" of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spread to
Rome. The name of the town, Eleusís, seems to be Pre-Greek and it is probably a counterpart with
Elysium and the goddess
Eileithyia.
Eleusinia
Eleusinia or Eleusinian Mysteries (Greek) [from eleusinia things that are to come] The most famous Mysteries in ancient Greece and, next to those of Samothrace, the most ancient. Even the Christian writer Epiphanius traces them to the days of Inachos (which some writers place so close to our time as 1800 BC, which is far too near), while others make the founder Eumolpos. Both these founders are described as at once kings and of divine parentage.
The Greater Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated at the time of the autumnal equinox, the time of grape gathering, and the Mysteries were in honor of Demeter -- in Latin Ceres and in one range of mythologic thought also the Egyptian Isis -- the Earth-Mother, presiding over fertility.
The celebration of the complete Eleusinia consisted of Less and Greater Mysteries. In the former the produce of the earth was given a part, while in the latter emphasis was laid on its higher correspondences in connection with Mystery-teaching. As its name implies, at Eleusis were taught the doctrines concerning what will happen to man after death.
Iacchos, the god of wine in more senses than one, plays an important part in these Mysteries. Demeter's daughter Persephone, goddess of the underworld, was also honored. The usual accounts, vague and fragmentary only, describe the dramatic representations of the adventures of these deities, the esoteric meaning of which was given in the Greater Mysteries.
