Authors Pausanias to Xenophon

PAUSANIAS

Hard by is a temple of Demeter with images of the
goddess, her daughter, and Iacchus, who is holding a
torch. An inscription in Attic letters on the wall declares
that they are works of Praxiteles.
(Pausanias, I, 2:4)
Above the fountain are temples: one of them is a temple
of Demeter and the Maid (Kore), in the other there is an
image of Triptolemus. I will tell the story of Triptolemus,
omitting what relates to Deiope, Of all the Greeks it is the
Argives who must dispute the claim of the Athenians to
antiquity and to the possession of gifts of the gods, just
as among the barbarians it is the Egyptians who dispute
the claims of the Phrygians. The story runs that when
Demeter came to Argos, Pelasgus received her in his
house, and that Chrysanthis, knowing the rape of the
Maid told it to her. They say that afterwards Trochilus, a
priest of the mysteries, fled from Argos on account of the
enmity of Agenor, and came to Attica, where he married
an Eleusinian wife, and there were born to him two sons,
Eubouleus and Triptolemus. This is the Argive story. But
the Athenians and those who take their side know that
Triptolemus the son of Celeus was the first who sowed
cultivated grain. However, some verses of Musaeus (if his
they are) declare Triptolemus to be a child of Ocean and
Earth; while other verses, which are attributed, in my
opinion, with just as little reason, to Orpheus, assert that
Eubouleus and Triptolemus were sons of Dysaules, and
that, as a reward for the information they gave her about
her daughter, Demeter allowed them to sow the grain.
Choerilus the Athenian, in a drama called Alope says that
Cercyon and Triptolemus were brothers, that their mother
was a daughter of Amphictyon, but that the father of
Triptolemus was Rarus, and that the father of Cercyon
was Poseidon. I purposed to pursue the subject, and
describe all the objects that admit of description in the
sanctuary at Athens called the Eleusinium, but I was
prevented from so doing by a vision in a dream. I will
therefore turn to what may be lawfully told to everybody,
In front of this temple, in which is the image of
Triptolemus, stands a bronze ox as in the act of being led
to sacrifice; and Epimenides the Cnosian is portrayed
sitting, of whom they say that going into the country he
entered a cave and slept, and did not awake until forty
years had come and gone, and afterwards he made
verses and purified cities, Athens among the rest.
(Pausanias I, 14:1-3)
On the road from Athens to Eleusis, which the Athenians
called the Sacred Way, there is the tomb of
Anthemocritus. He was the victim of a most foul crime
perpetuated by the Megarians; for when he came as a
herald to forbid them to encroach on the sacred land,
they slew him. And the wrath of the two goddesses
abides upon them for that deed to this day; for they were
the only Greek people whom even the Emperor Hadrian
could not make to thrive.
(Pausanias I, 36:3)
There is also an altar of Zephyr, and a sanctuary of
Demeter and her daughter: along with them are
worshipped Athena and Poseidon. They say that in this
place Phytalus received Demeter in his house, and that
for so doing the goddess gave him the figtree. This story
is attested by the inscription on the grave of Phytalus: -
Here the lordly hero Phytalus once received the august
Demeter, when she first revealed the autumnal fruit which
the race of mortals names the sacred fig; since when the
race of Phytalus hath received honors that wax not old.
(Pausanias I, 37:1-2)
I cannot say with certainty whether he was the first who
sowed beans (kuamoi ), or whether they made up the
name of a bean-hero because the discovery of beans
cannot be attributed to Demeter. Any one who has seen
the mysteries at Eleusis, or has read what are called the
works of Orpheus, knows what I mean.
(Pausanias, I, 37:3)
What are called the Rhiti only resemble rivers in that they
flow, for their water is salt. One might suppose that they
flow under ground from the Chalcidian Euripus, falling
into a lower sea. The Rhiti are said to be sacred to the
Maid and Demeter; and the priests alone are allowed to
catch the fish in them. The Rhiti were of old, as I am
apprised, the boundary between the Eleusinians and the
rest of the Athenians.
(Pausanias, I, 38:1)
They say that this Eumolpus came from Thrace, and that
he was a son of Poseidon and Chione, who is said to
have been a daughter of the North Wind and Orithyia.
Homer says nothing of the lineage of Eumolpus, but in
his verses calls him 'manly.' In a battle between the
Eleusinians and the Athenians, there fell Erechtheus,
king of Athens, and Immaradus, son of Eumolpus; and
peace was made on these terms: the Eleusinians were to
perform the mysteries by themselves, but were in all
other respects to be subject to the Athenians. The sacred
rites of the two goddesses were celebrated by Eumolpus
and he daughters of Celeus: Pamphos and Homer agree
in calling these damsels Diogenia, Pammerope, and
Saesara. On Eumolpus' death, Ceryx, the younger of his
sons, was left. But the Ceryces themselves say that
Ceryx was a son of Hermes by Aglaurus, daughter of
Cecrops, and not a son of Eumolpus.
(Pausanias, I, 38:3)
At Eleusis flows the Cephisus, a more impetuous stream
than the Cephisus mentioned before. Beside it is a place
which they call Erineus. They say that Pluto, when he
carried off the Maid, descended here.
(Pausanias Description of Greece I, 38:5)
Another road leads from Eleusis to Megara, Following
this road we come to a well called the Flowery Well. The
poet Pamphos says that Demeter sat on this well in the
likeness of an old woman after the rape of her daughter;
and that thence she was conducted, in the character of
an old woman, by the daughter of Celeus to their mother
Metanira, who entrusted her with the upbringing of the
boy. A little way from the well is a sanctuary of Metanira.
(Pausanias I, 39, 1-2)
The Eleusinians have a temple of Triptolemus, and
another of Artemis of the Portal and of Father Poseidon,
and a well called Callichorum, where the Eleusinian
women first danced and sang in honor of the goddess.
They say that the Rarian plain was the first to be sown
and the first to bear crops, and therefore it is their custom
to take the sacrificial barley and to make the cakes for the
sacrifices out of its produce. Here is shown what is called
the threshing floor of Triptolemus and the altar. But my
dream forbade me to describe what is within the wall of
the sanctuary; and surely it is clear that the uninitiated
may not lawfully hear of that from the sight of which they
are debarred. The hero Eleusis, after whom they name
the city, is said by some to be a son of Hermes and of
Daira, daughter of Ocean; but others have made him the
son of Ogygus.
(Pausanias I, 40:5)
Here, too, is what is called the hall (megaron) of Demeter:
they say it was made by King Car.
(Pausanias I, 40:15)
Celeae is distant just about five furlongs from the city.
They celebrate the mysteries of Demeter there every third
year, not annually. The high-priest of the mysteries is not
appointed for life, but at each celebration a new priest is
elected, who may, if he chooses, take a wife . In these
respects their practice differs from that observed at
Eleusis; but the actual mysteries are an imitation of the
Eleusinian mysteries, indeed the Phliasians themselves
admit that they imitate the rites of Eleusis.
(Pausanias, II, 14:1)
For instance, the Athenians professedly assign to
Aesculapius a share in the mysteries, and give to the day
on which they do so the name of Epidauria; and they
date their worship of Aesculapius as a god from the time
when this practice was instituted.
(Pausanias, II, 26:8)
But the most remarkable object of all is a sanctuary of
Demeter on Mount Pron. The Hermionians say that the
founders of this sanctuary were Clymenus, son of
Phoroneus, and his sister Chthonia. But the Argive story
is this. When Demeter came to Argolis she was
hospitably received by Athera and Mysius. However,
Colontas neither opened his house to the goddess nor
paid her any other mark of respect. But this churlish
behavior was not to the mind of his daughter Chthonia.
They each had their reward: the house of Colontas was
burnt down and he in it; but Chthonia was brought by
Demeter to Hermion and founded the sanctuary.
However that may have been, the goddess herself is
certainly called Chthonia ('subterranean'), and they
celebrate a festival called Chthonia every year in summer-
time.
(Pausanias II, 35:4-5)
Having returned to the direct road, you will cross the
Erasinus and come to the Chimarrhus river. Near it is an
enclosure of stones: they say that when Pluto, as the
story goes, ravished Demeter's daughter, the Maid, he
here descended to his supposed subterranean realm.
Lerna is, as I said before, beside the sea, and they
celebrate mysteries here in honor of Lernaean Demeter.
(Pausanias II, 36:7)
However that may be, the first who reigned in this
country were Polycaon, son of Lelex, and his wife
Messene. It was to this Messene that Caucon, son of
Celaenus, son of Phylus, brought the orgies of the Great
Goddesses from Eleusis. The Athenians say that Phylus
himself was a son of Earth, and they are supported by the
hymn which Musaeus composed on Demeter for
Lycomids. But many years after the time of Caucon the
mysteries of the Great Goddesses were raised to higher
honor by Lycus, son of Pandion; and the place where he
purified the initiated is still named the oak-coppice of
Lycus.... And that this Lycus was the son of Pandion is
shown by the verses inscribed on the statue of
Methapus. For Methapus also made some changes in the
mode of celebrating the mysteries. Methapus was an
Athenian by descent, and he was a devisor of Mysteries
and all sorts of orgies It was he who instituted the
mysteries of the Cabiri for the Thebans; and he also set
up in the chapel of the Lycomids a statue inscribed with
an epigram, which contains a passage confirming what I
have said: -
And I purified houses of Hermes ... and paths
Of Demeter and of the first-born Maid, where they say
That Messene instituted for the Great Goddesses a rite
Which she learned from Caucon, illustrious scion of
Phylus.
And I marveled how Lycus, son of Pandion,
Established all the sacred rites of Attis in dear Andania.
(Pausanias IV, 1:5-8)
At the other or western end of the colonnade there is an
enclosure sacred to the Great Goddesses. The Great
Goddesses are Demeter and the Maid, as I have already
shown in my account of Messenia. The Maid is called
Savior by the Arcadians.... With regard to the image of the
Great Goddesses, that of Demeter is of stone throughout,
but the drapery of the Savior is of wood. The height of
each is about fifteen feet. The images ... and before them
he made small images of girls in tunics reaching to their
ankles: each of the two girls bears on her head a basket
full of flowers: they are said to be the daughters of
Damophon. But those who put a religious interpretation
on them think that they are Athena and Artemis gathering
flowers with Proserpine.
(Pausanias VIII, 31:1-2)
The Pheneatians have also a sanctuary of Demeter
surnamed Eleusinian, and they celebrate mysteries in her
honor, alleging that rites identical with those performed at
Eleusis were instituted in their land; for Naus, they say, a
grandson of Eumolpus, came to their country in
obedience to an oracle from Delphi. Beside the sanctuary
of the Eleusinian goddess is what is called the Petroma,
two great stones fitted to each other. Every second year,
when they are celebrating what they call the Greater
Mysteries they open these stones, and taking out of them
certain writings which bear on the mysteries, they read
them in the hearing of the initiated, and put them back in
their place that same night. I know, too, that on the
weightiest matters most of the Pheneatians swear by the
Petroma. There is a round top on it, which contains a
mask of Demeter Cidaria: this mask the priest puts on his
face at the Greater Mysteries, and smites the
Underground Folk with rods. I suppose there is some
legend to account for the custom. The Pheneatians have
a legend that Demeter came hither on her wanderings
even before Naus; and that to those of the Pheneatians
who welcomed her hospitably she gave all the different
kinds of pulse except beans. They have a sacred story
about the bean to show why they think it an unclean kind
of pulse. The men who received the goddess, according
to the Pheneatian legend, were Trisaules and Damithales:
They built a temple of Demeter Thesmia ('goddess of
laws') under Mount Cyllene, and instituted in her honor
the mysteries which they still celebrate.
(Pausanias VIII, 15:1-4)
After Thelpusa the Ladon descends to the sanctuary of
Demeter in Onceum. The Thelpusians call the goddess
Fury, and with them agrees Antimachus, the poet who
celebrated the expedition of the Argives against Thebes.
His verse runs thus: -
They say that there is a seat of Demeter Fury in that
place. Oncius, according to common fame, was a son of
Apollo, and he reigned at Onceum in the land of
Thelpusa. The goddess received the surname of Fury on
this wise. When Demeter was seeking her daughter, they
say that in her wanderings she was followed by
Poseidon, who desired to gain her favors. So she turned
herself into a mare, and grazed with the mares of Oncius;
but Poseidon, detecting the deception, likewise took the
form of a horse, and so enjoyed Demeter. They say that at
first Demeter was wroth, but that in time she relented, and
was fain to bathe in the Ladon. Hence the goddess
received two surnames: that of fury (Erinus) on account
of her wrath, because the Arcadians call a fit of anger
erinuein ; and that of Lusia, because she bathed
(lousasthai) in the Ladon. The images in the temple are of
wood, but the faces, hands, feet, are of Parian marble.
The image of the Fury holds the so-called cista (sacred
basket), and in her right hand a torch: the height of the
image we guessed to be nine feet. The Lusia appeared to
be six feet high. Some think that the image represents
Themis, and not Demeter Lusia; but this is an idle fancy,
and so I would have them know. They say that Demeter
had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not
wont to divulge to uninitiated persons, and that he also
gave birth to the horse Arion; it was for this reason, they
say, that they gave Poseidon the surname of Hippius ('of
horses'), and they were first of the Arcadians who did so.
(Pausanias VIII, 25:4-7)
In front of the temple is an altar to Demeter, and another
to the Mistress, and after it one to the Great Mother. The
images of the goddesses, namely, the mistress and
Demeter, as well as the throne on which they sit and the
footstool under their feet, are all made of a single block of
stone. None of the drapery or work about the throne is
made of a different stone, attached with iron clamps or
cement: all is of one block, This block was not fetched
from outside: they say that, following directions given in
a dream, they found it by digging within the enclosure.
The size of each of the two images is about that of the
image of the Mother at Athens. They are also works of
Damophon. Demeter carries a torch in her right hand, the
other hand is laid on the Mistress. The Mistress has a
scepter, and the basket, as it is called, on her knees: she
holds the basket with her right hand.
(Pausanias VIII, 37:2-4)
The Arcadians bring into the sanctuary the fruits of all
cultivated trees except the pomegranate. On the right as
you leave the temple there is a mirror fitted into the wall.
Anyone who looks into this mirror will see himself either
very dimly or not at all, but the images of the gods and
the throne are clearly visible. Beside the temple of the
mistress a little higher up on the right is what is called the
Hall. Here the Arcadians perform mysteries, and sacrifice
victims to the Mistress in great abundance. Each man
sacrifices what he has got. They do not cut the throats of
the victims as in the other sacrifices, but each man lops
off a limb of the victim, it matters not which. This Mistress
is worshipped by the Arcadians above all the gods and
they say she is a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter.
Mistress is her popular surname, just as the daughter of
Demeter by Zeus is surnamed the Maid. The real name of
the Maid is Proserpine, as it occurs in the poetry of
Homer and of Pamphos before him; but the true name of
the Mistress I fear to communicate to the uninitiated.
(Pausanias VIII, 37:7-9)
The other mountain, Mount Elaius, is about thirty furlongs
from Phigalia: there is a cave there sacred to Demeter
surnamed the Black. All that the people of Thelpusa say
touching the loves of Poseidon and Demeter is believed
by the Phigalians; but the Phigalians say that Demeter
gave birth not to a horse, but to her whom the Arcadians
name the Mistress, and they say that afterwards Demeter,
wroth with Poseidon, and mourning the rape of
Proserpine, put on black raiment, and entering this grotto
tarried there in seclusion a long while. But when all the
fruits of the earth were wasting away, and the race of man
was perishing still more of hunger, none of the other
gods, it would seem, knew where Demeter was hid; but
Pan, roving over Arcadia, and hunting now on one
mountain, now on another, came at last to Mount Elaius,
and spied Demeter, and saw the plight she was in, and
the garb she wore. So Zeus learnt of his from Pan, and
sent the Fates to Demeter, and she hearkened to the
Fates, and swallowed her wrath, and abated even from
her grief.

For that reason the Phigalians say that they accounted
the grotto sacred to Demeter, and set up in it an image of
wood. The image, they say, was made thus: it was seated
on a rock, and was in the likeness of a woman, all but the
head; the head and the hair were those of a horse, and
attached to the head were figures of serpents and other
wild beasts; she was clad in a tunic that reached even to
her feet; on one of her hands was a dolphin, and on the
other a dove. Why they made the image thus is plain to
any man of ordinary sagacity who is versed in legendary
lore. They say they surnamed her Black, because the
garb the goddess wore was black. They do not remember
who made this wooden image, nor how it caught fire.
When the old image disappeared the Phigalians did not
give the goddess another in its stead, and as to the
festivals and sacrifices, why they neglected most of them,
until a dearth came upon the land; then they besought
the god, and the Pythian priestess answered them as
follows: -

Arcadians, Azanians, acorn-eaters, who inhabit Phigalia,
the cave where the Horse-mother Deo lay hid,
You come to learn a riddance of grievous famine,
You who alone have been nomads twice, and twice
tasted the berries wild.
'Twas Deo stopped your pasturing, and 'twas Deo
caused you again
To go without the cakes of herdsmen who drag the ripe
ears home,
Because she was robbed of privileges that men of old
bestowed on her and of her ancient honors,
And soon shall she make you to eat each other, and to
feast on your children,
If you appease not her wrath with libations offered of the
whole people,
And if you adorn not the nook of the tunnel with honors
divine.

When the oracle was reported to them, the Phigalians
held Demeter in higher honor than before, and in
particular they induced Onatas, the Aeginetan, son of
Micon, to make them an image of Demeter for so much.
There is a bronze Apollo at Pergamus by this Onatus,
which is one of the greatest marvels both for size and
workmanship. So he made a bronze image for the
Phigalians guided by a painting or a copy which he
discovered of the ancient wooden image; but he relied
mainly, it is said, on directions received in dreams.
(Pausanias VIII, 42:1-7, 11)
When you have crossed the Asopus and are just ten
furlongs from the city you come to the ruins of Potniae.
Amongst them is a grove of Demeter and the Maid, The
images at the river which flows past Potniae ... they name
the goddesses. At a stated time they perform certain
customary ceremonies: in particular they throw sucking
pigs into what they call the hallsy and they say that at the
same time next year those pigs appear at Dodona.
(Pausanias IX, 8:1)
When his fame was spread abroad from one end of
Greece to the other, the Pythian priestess set him on a
still higher pinnacle of renown by bidding the Delphians
give to Pindar an equal share of all the first-fruits they
offered to Apollo. It is said, too, that in his old age there
was vouchsafed to him a vision in a dream. As he slept
Proserpine stood by him and said that of all the deities
she alone had not been hymned by him, but that,
nevertheless, he should make a song on her also when
he was come to her. Before ten days were out Pindar had
paid the debt of nature. But there was in Thebes an old
woman, a relation of Pindar's, who had practiced singing,
most of his songs. To her Pindar appeared in a dream
and sang to her a hymn on Proserpine; and she, as soon
as she was awake, wrote down all the song she had
heard him singing in her dream. In this song, amongst the
epithets applied to Hades is that of 'golden-reined,'
obviously in reference to the rape of Proserpine.
(Pausanias IX, 23:3-4)

On the tomb of Menoeceus there grows a pomegranate-
tree: if you break the outer husk of the ripe fruit, you will
find the inside like blood. This pomegranate-tree is living.
(Pausanias, IX, 25:1)
Five-and-twenty furlongs from here you come to a grove
of Cabirian Demeter and the Maid: the initiated are
allowed to enter it. About seven furlongs from this grove
is the sanctuary of the Cabiri. I must crave pardon of the
curious if I preserve silence as to who the Cabiri are, and
what rites are performed in honor of them and their
mother. There is, however, nothing to prevent me
disclosing the account which the Thebans give of the
origin of the rites. They say that in this place there was
once a city, the men of which were named Cabiri; and
that Demeter made the acquaintance of Prometheus, one
of the Cabiri, and of his son Aetnaeus, and entrusted
something to their care; but what it was he entrusted to
them and what happened to it, I thought it wrong to set
down. At all events, the mysteries are a gift of Demeter to
the Cabiri.
(Pausanias IX, 25:5-6)
Once more, when Alexander after his victory gave
Thebes and all the land of Thebes to the flames, some
Macedonians who entered the sanctuary of the Cabiri
because it was in the enemy's country, were destroyed
by thunderbolts and lightening from heaven. So holy has
this sanctuary been from the beginning.
(Pausanias IX, 25:10)
In my opinion Orpheus was a man who surpassed his
predecessors in the beauty of his poetry, and attained
great power because he was believed to have discovered
mystic rites, purifications for wicked deeds, remedies for
diseases, and modes of averting the wrath of the gods....
But some say that Orpheus was struck dead by the god
with a thunderbolt on account of certain revelations
which he had made to men at the mysteries.
(Pausanias, IX, 30:4-5)

            PHILOSTRATUS

Arriving at Pireaus about the season of the Mysteries,
when Athens is more crowded than any place in Greece,
he lost no time in going up to the city from his ship. As he
went he met many of the learned making their way down
to Piraeus. Some were basking naked---the autumn is fine
and sunny at Athens---others were deep in discussions
upon a text, some practicing recitations, some disputing.
None of them passed him by, but all guessing that this
was Apollonius, turned back with him and hailed him with
enthusiasm. A party of ten youths fell in with him, who
stretched out their hands towards the Acropolis and
swore 'by yonder Athena, they were just setting out for
Piraeus to take ship for Ionia and find him there.' He
welcomed them, and said he congratulated them on their
desire for learning.
It was the day of the Epidauria; and at the Epidauria the
Athenian usage, after the Preface and the sacrifice, is to
initiate aspirants for a second sacrifice. This tradition
represents Asclepius' experience, because he came from
Epidaurus, late in the Mysteries, and they initiated him.
Heedless of the initiation service, the multitude hung
round Apollonius, more concerned with this than to
secure admission to the Elect. He said he would be with
them anon, and encouraged them to attend the service
for the meanwhile, as he himself intended to be initiated.
But the hierophant refused him access to the holy things,
saying that he would never admit a charlatan, nor open
Eleusis to a man of impure theology. Apollonius was
equal to himself on this occasion, and said, 'You have not
yet mentioned the greatest charge that might be brought
against me, which is that I know more than you about this
rite, although I came to you as to a man better skilled than
myself.' The bystanders applauded this vigorous and
characteristic rebuke; and the hierophant, seeing that the
excommunication was unpopular, changed his tune and
said, 'You shall be admitted, for you seem to be a person
of doctrine.' Apollonius answered, 'I will be admitted at
another time; the ceremony will be performed by So-and-
so'---prophetically naming the next occupant of the
hierophancy, who succeeded to his sacred office four
years later.
(Philostratus In Honor of Apollonius of Tyana IV, 17-18)

                     PINDAR

Was it haply, when you did bring into being Dionysus of
the flowing locks, who is enthroned beside Demeter of
the clashing cymbals?
(Pindar, Isthmian VII, 3-5)
Sow then some seed of fame athwart the isle, that Zeus,
the lord of Olympus, gave to Persephone, and shook his
locks in token unto her that, as queen of the teeming
earth, the fertile island of Sicily would be raised to
renown by the wealth of her glorious cities.
(Pindar The Nemean Odes I, 14)
... and with befitting counsel, while he tends, not only the
worship of Demeter with the ruddy feet, and the festival of
her daughter with her white horses,
(Pindar, Olympian Odes VI, 95)
... having, by happy fortune, culled the fruit of the rite that
releases from toil. And, while the body of all men is
subject to over-mastering death, an image of life remains
alive, for it alone comes from the gods. But it sleeps,
while the limbs are active; yet, to them that sleep in many
a dream it gives presage of a decision of things delightful
or doleful.
(Pindar Fragment 96)
Blessed is he who has seen these things before he goes
beneath the earth; for he understands the end of mortal
life, and the beginning (of a new life) given of god.
(Pindar, Fragment 102)
the slow rivers of dark night, the sluggish gift of sleep

                     PLATO

Demeter is who gives food like a mother;
(Plato Cratylus 404c)
I envy you, Callicles, for having been initiated into the
great mysteries before you were initiated into the lesser. I
thought that this was not allowable.
(Plato Gorgias 497)
I had singular feeling at being in his company. For I could
hardly believe that I was present at the death of a friend,
and therefore I did not pity him, Echecrates; he died so
fearlessly, and his words and bearing were so noble and
gracious, that to me he appeared blessed. I thought that
in going to the other world he could not be without a
divine call, and that he would be happy, if any man ever
was, when he arrived there; and therefore I did not pity
him as might have seemed natural at such an hour.
(Plato Phaedo 58-59)
They are taking off his chains, and giving orders that he
is to die today.
(Plato Phaedo 60)
Then when does the soul attain truth? - for in attempting
to consider anything in company with the body she is
obviously deceived.
True.
Then must not true existence be revealed to her in
thought, if at all?
Yes.
And thought is best when the mind is gathered into
herself and none of these things trouble her - neither
sound nor sights nor pain nor any pleasure, - when she
takes leave of the body, and has as little as possible to do
with it, when she has no bodily sense or desire, but is
aspiring after true being?
Certainly.
(Plato Phaedo, 65)
And he attains to the purest knowledge of them who
goes to each with the mind alone, not introducing or
intruding in the act of thought sight or any other sense
together with reason, but with the very light of the mind in
her own clearness searches into the very truth of each;
he who has got rid, as far as he can, of eyesores and, so
to speak, of the whole body, these being in his opinion
distracting elements which when they infect the soul
hinder her from acquiring truth and knowledge - who, if
not he, is likely to attain to the knowledge of true being?
(Plato Phaedo 65-66)
'It has been proved to us by experience that if we would
have pure knowledge of anything we must be quit of the
body - the soul in herself must behold things in
themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom which
we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers; not
while we live, but after death; for if while in company with
the body, the soul cannot have pure knowledge, one of
two things follows - either knowledge is not to be attained
at all, or, if at all, after death. or then, and not till then, the
soul will be parted from the body and exist in herself
alone. In this present life, I reckon that we make the
nearest approach to knowledge when we have the least
possible intercourse or communion with the body, and
are not surfeited with the bodily nature, but keep
ourselves pure until the hour when God himself is
pleased to release us. And thus having got rid of the
foolishness of the body we shall be pure and hold
converse with the pure, and know of ourselves the clear
light everywhere, which is no other than the light of truth.'
For the impure are not permitted to approach the pure.
(Plato Phaedo, 65-66)
But, 0 my friend, if this be true, there is great reason to
hope that, going where I go, when I have come to the end
of my journey, I shall attain that which has been the
pursuit of my life. And therefore I go on my way rejoicing,
and not I only, but every other man who believes that his
mind has been made ready and that he is in a manner
purified.
Certainly, replied Simmias.
And what is purification but the separation of the soul
from the body, as I was saying before; the habit of the
soul gathering and collecting herself into herself from all
sides out of the body; the dwelling in her own place
alone, as in another life, so also in this, as far as she can;
- the release of the soul from the chains of the body?
Very true, he said.
And this separation and release of the soul from the body
is termed death?
To be sure, he said.
And the true philosophers, and they only, are ever
seeking to release the soul. Is not the separation and
release of the soul from the body their special study?
That is true.
(Plato Phaedo, 67)
The founders of the mysteries would appear to have had
a real meaning, and were not talking nonsense when they
intimated in a figure long ago that he who passes
unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below will lie
in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation
and purification will dwell with the gods. For 'many,' as
they say in the mysteries, 'are the thyrsus-bearers, but
few are the mystics,' - meaning, as I interpret the words,
'the true philosophers.'
(Plato Phaedo, 69)
And now, 0 my judges, I desire to prove to you that the
real philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he
is about to die, and that after death he may hope to obtain
the greatest good in the other world.... For I deem that the
true votary of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by
other men; they do not perceive that he is always
pursuing death and dying; and if this be so, and he has
had the desire of death all his life long, why when his time
comes should he repine at that which he has been
always pursuing and desiring?...
For they have not found out either what is the nature of
that death which the true philosopher deserves, or how
he deserves or desires death....
Is it not the separation of soul and body? And to be dead
is the completion of this; when the soul exists in herself,
and is released from the body and the body is released
from the soul, what is this but death?...
Would you not say that he is entirely concerned with the
soul and not with the body? He would like, as far as he
can, to get away from the body and to turn to the soul.
Quite true.
In matters of this sort philosophers, above all other men,
may be observed in every sort of way to dissever the soul
from the communion of the body.
Very true.
Whereas, Simmias, the rest of the world are of opinion
that to him who has sense of pleasure and no part in
bodily pleasure, life is not worth having; and that he who
is indifferent about them is as good as dead.
That is also true.
(Plato Phaedo, 63-64)
There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which
affirms that they go from hence into the other world, and
returning here, are born again from the dead. Now if it be
true that the living come from the dead, then our souls
must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they
have been born again?...
Then let us consider the whole question, not in relation to
man only, but in relation to animals generally, and to
plants, and to everything of which there is generation,
and the proof will be easier.
(Plato Phaedo, 70)
The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and
out of sleeping waking is generated, and out of waking,
sleeping; and the process of generation is in the one
case falling asleep, and in the other waking up.
(Plato Phaedo, 71)
We arrive at the conclusion that the living come from the
dead, just as the dead come from the living; and this, if
true, affords a most certain proof that the souls of the
dead exist in some place out of which they come again....
But I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living
again, and that the living spring from the dead, and that
the souls of the dead are in existence, and that the good
souls have a better portion than the evil.
(Plato Phaedo, 72)
Your favorite doctrine, Socrates, that knowledge is simply
recollection, if true, also necessarily implies a previous
time in which we have learned that which we now
recollect. But this would be impossible unless our soul
had been in some place before existing in the form of
man; here then is another proof of the soul's immortality.
(Plato Phaedo,72-73)
Then may we not say,... there is an absolute beauty, and
goodness, and an absolute essence of all things;... which
is now discovered to have existed in our former state, we
refer all our sensations, and with this compare them,
finding these ideas to be pre-existent and our inborn
possession - then our souls must have had a prior
existence.
(Plato Phaedo, 76)
For if the soul exists before birth, and in coming to life
and being born can be born only from death and dying,
must she not after death continue to exist, since she has
to be born again?
(Plato Phaedo,77)
And were we not saying long ago that the soul when
using the body as an instrument of perception, that is to
say, when using the sense of sight or hearing or some
other sense (for the meaning of perceiving through the
body is perceiving through the senses) - were we not
saying that the soul too is then dragged by the body into
the region of the changeable, and wanders and is
confused; the world spins round her, and she is like a
drunkard, when she touches change.
Very true.
But when returning into herself she reflects, then she
passes into the other world, the region of purity, and
eternity, and immortality, and unchangeableness, which
are her kindred, and with them she ever lives, when she
is by herself and is not let or hindered; then she ceases
from her erring ways, and being in communion with the
unchanging is unchanging. And this state of the soul is
called wisdom?
That is well and truly said, Socrates, he replied.
(Plato Phaedo 79)
Then reflect,... - that the soul is in the very likeness of the
divine, and immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and
indissoluble, and unchangeable; and that the body is in
the very likeness of the human and mortal, and
unintellectual, and multiform and dissoluble, and
changeable....
But if it be true, then is not the body liable to speedy
dissolution? and is not the soul almost or altogether
indissoluble?
(Plato Phaedo, 80)
And is it likely that the soul, which is invisible, in passing
to the place of the true Hades, which like her is invisible,
and pure, and noble, and on her way to the good and
wise God, whither, if God will, my soul is also soon to go,
- that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature and origin, will
be blown away and destroyed immediately on quitting
the body as the many say? That can never be, my dear
Simmias and Cebes. The truth rather is, that the soul
which is pure at departing and draws after her no bodily
taint, having never voluntarily during life had connection
with the body, which she is ever avoiding, herself
gathered into herself; - and making such abstraction her
perpetual study - which means that she has been a true
disciple of philosophy; and therefore has in fact been
always engaged in the practice of dying? For is not
philosophy the study of death?
(Plato Phaedo, 80-81)
That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible
world - to the divine and immortal and rational: there
arriving, she is secure of bliss and is released from the
error and folly of men, their fears and wild passions and
all other human ills, and forever dwells, as they say of the
initiated, in company with the gods.
(Plato Phaedo, 81)
Why, because each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail
which nails and rivets the souls to the body, until she
becomes like the body, and believes that to be true which
the body affirms to be true; and from agreeing with the
body and having the same delights she is obliged to have
the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever to be
pure at her departure to the world below, but is always
infected by the body; and so she sinks into another body
and there germinates and grows, and has therefore no
part in the communion of the divine and pure and simple.
(Plato Phaedo, 83)
But she will calm passion, and follow reason, and dwell in
the contemplation of her, beholding the true and divine
(which is not matter of opinion), and thence deriving
nourishment. Thus she seeks to live while she lives, and
after death she hopes to go to her own kindred and to
that which is like her, and to be freed from human ills.
(Plato Phaedo 84)
Yet all men will agree that God, and the essential form of
life, and the immortal in general, will never perish.
Yes, all men, he said - that is true; and what is more,
gods, if I am not mistaken, as well as men.
Seeing then that the immortal is indestructible, must not
the soul, if she is immortal, be also imperishable?
Most certainly.
Then when death attacks a man, the mortal portion of him
may be supposed to die, but the immortal retires at the
approach of death and is preserved safe and sound?
True.
Then, Cebes, beyond question, the soul is immortal and
imperishable, and our souls will truly exist in another
world!
(Plato Phaedo,106-107)
But then, 0 my friends, he said, if the soul is really
immortal, what care should be taken of her, not only in
respect of the portion of time which is called life, but of
eternity! And the danger of neglecting her from this point
of view does indeed appear to be awful. If death had only
been the end of all, the wicked would have had a good
bargain in dying, for they would have been happily quit
not only of their body, but of their own evil together with
their souls. But now, inasmuch as the soul is manifestly
immortal, there is no release or salvation from evil except
the attainment of the highest virtue and wisdom. For the
soul when on her progress to the world below takes
nothing with her but nurture and education; and these
are said greatly to benefit or greatly to injure the
departed, at the very beginning of his journey there.
For after death, as they say, the genius of each individual,
to whom he belonged in life, leads him to a certain place
in which the dead are gathered together, whence after
judgment has been given they pass into the world below,
following the guide, who is appointed to conduct them
from this world to the other: and when they have there
received their due and remained their time, another guide
brings them back again after many revolutions of ages.
(Plato Phaedo,107)
There was a time when with the rest of the happy band
they saw beauty shining in brightness, - we philosophers
following in the train of Zeus, others in company with
other gods; and then we beheld the beatific vision and
were initiated into a mystery which may be truly called
most bleed, celebrated by us in our state of innocence
before we had any experience of evils to come, when we
were admitted to the sight of apparitions innocent and
simple and calm and happy, which we beheld shining in
pure light.
(Plato, Phaedrus, 250)
But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other
world; they may have seen them for a short time only, or
they may have been unfortunate in their earthly lot, and,
having had their hearts turned to injustice through some
corrupting influence, they may have lost the memory of
the holy things which once they saw. Few only retain an
adequate remembrance of them; and they when they see
here any image of that other world, are rapt in
amazement; but they are ignorant of what this rapture
means, because they do not clearly perceive. For there is
no light of justice or temperance or any of the higher
ideas which are precious to souls in the earthly copies of
them: they are seen through a glass dimly; and there are
few who, going to the images, behold in them the
realities, and these only with difficulty. There was a time
when with the rest of the happy band they saw beauty
shining in brightness, - we philosophers following in the
train of Zeus, others in company with other gods; and
then we saw the beatific vision and were initiated into a
mystery which may be truly called most blessed,
celebrated by us in our state of innocence, before we had
any experience of evils to come, when we were admitted
to the sight of apparitions innocent and simple and calm
and happy, which we saw shining in pure light, pure
ourselves and not yet enshrined in that living tomb which
we carry about, now that we are imprisoned in the body
like an oyster in his shell.
(Plato Phaedrus 250)
But if there is an absolute necessity for their mention, a
chosen few might hear them in a mystery, and they
should sacrifice not a common (Eleusinian) pig, but some
huge and unprocurable victim; and then the number of
the hearers will be very few indeed.
(Plato, Republic II, 378)

             PLOTINIUS

Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the
desired of every Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows
what I intend when I say it is beautiful. Even the desire of
it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is for those that
will take the upward path, who will set all their forces
towards it, who will divest themselves of all that we have
put on in our descent: - so, to those that approach the
Holy Celebrations of the Mysteries, there are appointed
purifications and the laying aside of the garments worn
before, and the entry in nakedness - until, passing on the
upward way, all that is other than the God, each in the
solitude of himself shall see that solitary-dwelling
Existence, the Apart, the Unmingled, the Pure, that from
which all things depend for Which all look and live and
act and know, the Source of Life and of Intellection and of
Being.
(Plotinus First Ennead VI, 7)
If the earth transmits the generative soul to growing
things - or retains it while allowing a vestige of it to
constitute the vegetal principle in them - at once the earth
is ensouled, as our flesh is, and any generative power
possessed by the plant world is of its bestowing: this
phase of the soul is immanent in the body of the growing
thing, and transmits to it that better element by which it
differs from the broken off part no longer a thing of
growth but a mere lump of material.
But does the entire body of the earth similarly receive
anything from the soul?
Yes: for we must recognize that earthly material broken
of from the main body differs from the same remaining
continuously attached; thus stones increase as long as
they are embedded, and from the moment they are
separated, stop at the size attained.
We must conclude, then, that every part and member of
the earth carries its vestige of this principle of growth, an
under-phase of that entire principle which belongs not to
this or that member but to the earth as a whole: next in
order is the nature (the soul-phase), concerned with
sensation, this not interfused (like the vegetal principle)
but in contact from above: then the higher soul and the
Intellectual Principle, constituting together the being
known as Hestia (Earth-Mind) and Demeter (Earth-Soul) -
a nomenclature indicating the human intuition of these
truths, asserted in the attribution of a divine name and
nature.
(Plotinus, Fourth Ennead IV, 27)

             PLUTARCH

The season of the year also gives us a suspicion that this
gloominess is brought about because of the
disappearance from our sight of the crops and fruits that
people in days of old did not regard as gods, but as
necessary and important contributions of the gods
toward the avoidance of a savage and a bestial life. At the
time of year when they saw some of the fruit vanishing
and disappearing completely from the tree, while they
themselves were sowing others in a mean and poverty-
stricken fashion still, scraping away the earth with their
hands and again replacing it, committing the seed to the
ground with uncertain expectation of their ever appearing
again or coming to fruition they did many things like
persons at a funeral in mourning for their dead.
(Plutarch, Isis and Osiris 70)
"Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia,
lays information that Alcibiades, the son of Clinias of the
township of the Scambonidae, has committed a crime
against the goddess Demeter and Persephone, by
representing in derision the holy mysteries, and showing
them to his companions in his own house. Where, being
habited in such robes as are used by the chief priest,
Polytion the torch-bearer, and Theodorus, of the
township of Phegaea, the herald; and saluted the rest of
his company as Initiates and Novices, all which was done
contrary to the laws and institutions of the Eulmolpidae,
and the heralds and priests of the temple at Eleusis."
He was condemned as contumacious upon his not
appearing, his property confiscated, and it was decreed
that all the priests and priestesses should solemnly curse
him. But one of them, Theano, the daughter of Menon, of
the township of Agraule, is said to have opposed that
part of the decree, saying that her holy office obliged her
to make prayers, but not execrations.
(Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades 34)
Tisamenus, the Elean, had prophesied to Pausanias and
all the Greeks, and foretold them victory if they made no
attempt upon the enemy, but stood on their defense. But
Aristides sending to Delphi, the god answered that the
Athenians should overcome their enemies in case they
made supplication to Zeus and Hera of Cithaeron, Pan
and the nymphs Shragitides, and sacrificed to the heroes
Androcrates, Leucon, Pisander, Damocrates, Hypsion,
Actaeon, and Polyidus; and if they fought within their
own territories in the plain of Demeter Eleusinia and
Persephone....

But the plain of Demeter Eleusinia, and the offer of victory
to the Athenians, if they fought on their own territories,
recalled them again, and transferred the war into the
country of Attica. In this juncture, Arimnestus, who
commanded the Plataeans, dreamed that Zeus, the
Savior, asked him what the Greeks had resolved upon;
and that he answered, "Tomorrow, my Lord, we march
our army to Eleusis, and there give the barbarians battle
according to the directions of the oracle of Apollo."
(Plutarch Life of Aristides 12)
The chapel at Eleusis, where the mysteries were
celebrated, was begun by Coroebus, who erected the
pillars that stand upon the floor or pavement, and joined
them to the architraves; and after his death Metagenes of
Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of columns;
(Plutarch, Life of Pericles 13)
The resentment felt upon it was heightened by the time it
happened in, for the garrison was brought in on the
twentieth of the month of Boedromion just at the time of
the great festival, when they carry forth Iacchus with
solemn pomp from the city to Eleusis; so that the
solemnity being disturbed, many began to call to mind
instances, both ancient and modern, of divine
interventions and intimations. For in old time, upon the
occasions of their happiest successes, the presence of
the shapes and voices of the mystic ceremonies had
been vouchsafed to them, striking terror and amazement
into their enemies; but now, at the very season of their
celebration, the gods themselves stood witnesses of the
saddest oppressions of Greece, the most holy time being
profaned, and their greatest jubilee made the unlucky
date of their most extreme calamity....

While a candidate for initiation was washing a young pig
in the haven of Cantharus, a shark seized him, bit off all
his lower parts up to the belly and devoured them, by
which the god gave them manifestly to understand, that
having lost the lower town and seacoast, they should
keep only the upper city.
(Plutarch, Life of Phocion 28)
It is reported that, in the middle of the fight, a great flame
rose into the air above the city of Eleusis, and that
sounds and voices were heard through all the Thriasian
plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number of men
accompanying and escorting the mystic Iacchus, and
that a mist seemed to form and rise from the place from
whence the sounds came, and, passing forward, fell
upon the galleys. Others believed that they saw
apparitions, in the shape of armed men, reaching out
their hands from the island of Aegina before Grecian
galleys; and supposed they were the Aeacidae, whom
they had invoked to their aid before the battle. The first
man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian,
captain of the galley, who cut down its ensign, and
dedicated it to Apollo the Laurel-crowned. And as the
Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and could
bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one
another, the Greeks thus equaled them in strength and
fought with them till the evening forced them back, and
obtained, as says Simonides, that noble and famous
victory, than which neither amongst the Greek nor
barbarians was ever known more glorious exploit on the
seas; by the joint valor, indeed, and zeal of all who
fought, but by the wisdom and sagacity of Themistocles.
(Plutarch Life of Themistocles 15)
Yet it is more credible, as others write, that there were,
before, frequent interviews between them, and that it was
by the means of Theseus that Hercules was initiated at
Eleusis, and purified before initiation, upon account of
several rash actions of his former life.
(Plutarch, Life of Theseus 30)
What glory remains to Eleusis, if we are to be ashamed of
Eumolpus, who, a migrant from Thrace, initiated and still
initiates the Greeks into the mysteries?
(Plutarch, On Exile 607b)
Just as persons who are being initiated into the Mysteries
throng together at the outset amid tumult and shouting,
and jostle against one another but when the holy rites are
being performed and disclosed the people are
immediately attentive in awe and silence, so too at the
beginning of philosophy: about its portals also you will
see great tumult and talking and boldness, as some
boorishly and violently try to jostle their way towards the
repute it bestows; but he who has succeeded in getting
inside, and has seen a great light, as though a shrine
were opened, adopts another bearing of silence and
amazement, and "humble and orderly attends upon"
reason as upon a god.
(Plutarch, Progress in Virtue 81e)
The result of soul and body commingled is the irrational
or the affective factor, whereas of mind and soul the
conjunction produces reason; and of these the former is
source of pleasure and pain, the latter of virtue and vice.
In the composition of these three factors earth furnishes
the body, the moon the soul, and the sun furnishes mind
to man for the purpose of his generation even as it
furnishes light to the moon herself. As to the death we
die, one death reduces man from three factors to two and
another reduces him from two to one; and the former
takes place in the earth that belongs to Demeter
(wherefore "to make an end" is called "to render one's
life to her" and Athenians used in olden times to call the
dead "Demetrians"), the latter in the moon that belongs to
Persephone, and associated with the former is Hermes
the terrestrial, with the latter Hermes the celestial. While
the goddess here dissociates the soul from the body
swiftly and violently, Persephone gently and by slow
degrees detaches the mind from the soul and has
therefore been called "single-born" because the best part
of man is "born single" when separated off by her. Each
of the two separations naturally occurs in this fashion: All
soul, whether without mind or with it, when it has issued
from the body is destined to wander in the region
between earth and moon but not for an equal time. Unjust
and licentious souls pay penalties for their offenses; but
the good soul must in the gentlest part of the air, which
they call "the meads of Hades," pass a certain set time
sufficient to purge and blow away the pollution
contracted from the body as from an evil odor. Then, as if
brought home from banishment abroad, they savor joy
most like that of initiates, which attended by glad
expectation is mingled with confusion and excitement.
For many, even as they are in the act of clinging to the
moon, she thrusts off and sweeps away; and some of
those souls too that are on the moon they see turning
upside down as if sinking again into the deep. Those that
have got up, however, and have found a firm footing first
go about like victors crowned with wreaths of feathers
called wreathes of steadfastness, because in life they had
made the irrational or affective element of the soul orderly
and tolerably tractable to reason; secondly, in
appearance resembling a ray of light but in respect of
their nature, which in the upper region is buoyant as it is
here in ours, resembling the ether about the moon, they
get from it both tension and strength as edged
instruments get a temper, for what laxness and
diffuseness they still have is strengthened and becomes
firm and translucent. In consequence they are nourished
by any exhalation that reaches them, and Heraclitus was
right in saying: "Souls employ the sense of smell in
Hades."
(Plutarch The Face of the Moon 28)

                     POLLUX

In regard to the dance in which kerna were carried, I
know that they carried lights or small hearths on their
heads.
(Pollux IV, 103)

             PORPHYRY

But most theologians say that the name of Persephone is
derived from nourishing a ringdove; for the ringdove is
sacred to this Goddess. Hence, also the priests of Maia
dedicate to her a ringdove. And Maia is the same with
Persephone, as being obstetric, and a nurse. For this
Goddess is terrestrial, and so likewise is Demeter. To this
Goddess, also a cock is consecrated; and on this
account those that are initiated in her mysteries abstain
from domestic birds. In the Eleusinian mysteries,
likewise, the initiated are ordered to abstain from
domestic birds, from fishes and beans, pomegranates
and apples, which fruits are as equally defiling to the
touch, as a woman recently delivered, and a dead body
But whoever is acquainted with the nature of divinely-
luminous appearances knows also on what account it is
requisite to abstain from all birds, and especially for him
who hastens to be liberated from terrestrial concerns,
and to be established with the celestial Gods.
(Porphyry On Abstinence From Animal Food IV, 16)

For, in your mysteries, what the boy who attends the altar
accomplishes, by performing accurately what he is
commanded to do, in order to render the gods propitious
to all those who have been initiated, as far as to muesis,
that, in nations and cities, priests are able to effect, by
sacrificing for all the people, and through piety inducing
the Gods to be attentive to the welfare of those that
belong to them.
(Porphyry, On Abstinence From Animal Food )
Porphyrus gives us a description of initiation which
includes legomena and seems to indicate also much of
the content and feeling of the Epopteia.
Crowned with myrtle, along with the other initiates we
enter the entrance hall of the temple, still blind, but the
hierophant who is within will soon open our eyes. But
first, for nothing is to be done in haste, let us wash in the
holy water. We are led before the hierophant. From a
book of stone, he reads to us things which we must not
divulge, under penalty of death. Let us say only that they
are in harmony with the place and circumstance. You
would laugh, perhaps, if you heard them outside the
temple, but here you have no desire to laugh as you
listen to the words of the elder (for he is always old) and
as you look at the exposed symbols. And you are far from
laughing when, by her special language and signs, by
vivid sparkling of light and clouds piled upon clouds,
Demeter confirms everything that we have seen and
heard from her holy priest. Then, finally, the light of a
serene wonder fills the temple; we see the pure Elysian
fields; we hear the chorus of the blessed ones. Now it is
not merely through an external appearance or through a
philosophical interpretation, but in fact and in reality that
the hierophant becomes the creator and the revelator of
all things; the sun is but his torchbearer, the moon, his
helper of the altar, and Hermes, his mystical messenger.
But the last word has been uttered: Knox Om Pax.
The ritual has been consummated, and we are seers
forever.
(Schuré, Edouard The Great Initiates p. 406)

             PROCLUS

to those entering the temenos (sacred precinct) of
Eleusis the program was stated, not to advance inside
the adytum.
(Proclus, Mylonas Eleusis p. 261)
In the most sacred Mysteries before the scene of the
mystic visions, there is terror infused over the minds of
the initiated.
(Proclus, Casavis The Greek Origins of Freemasonryp.
111)
In Proclus' commentary on the Timaios 293c, he offers
another recitation.
In the Eleusinian rites they gazed up to the heaven and
cried aloud "rain," they gazed down upon the earth and
cried "conceive."
On the edge of a well by the Dipylon gate of Athens
where the procession to Eleusis began, an inscription
reads:
O Pan, O Men, be of good cheer, beautiful Nymphs, rain,
conceive, overflow.
(Mylonas Eleusis p. 270)
Schuré quotes Proclus and interprets the word "gods" in
this instance as "all orders of spirits."
In all the initiations and Mysteries the gods manifest
themselves in many forms, assuming a great variety of
guises; sometimes they appear in a formless light, again
in quite different form.
(The Great Initiates p. 407)
Taylor quotes Proclus who also makes the distinction
between terrestrial and celestial gods.
Hence, there is a terrestrial Ceres, Vesta, and Isis, as
likewise a terrestrial Jupiter and a terrestrial Hermes,
established about the one divinity of the earth, just as a
multitude of celestial Gods proceeds about the one
divinity of the heavens. For there are progressions of all
the celestial Gods into the Earth: and Earth contains all
things, in an earthly manner, which Heaven
comprehends celestially. Hence we speak of a terrestrial
Bacchus and a terrestrial Apollo, who bestows the all-
various streams of water with which the earth abounds,
and openings prophetic of futurity.
(Taylor Mystical Hymns of Orpheus p. xxxiii)

Cross the bridge, O Kore, before it is time to begin the
threefold plowing. (Fragment XXIII)

                     SENECA

There are holy things that are not communicated all at
once: Eleusis always keeps something back to show
those who come again.
(Seneca, Quaestiones Naturalis VII, 30:6)

                     SOPHOCLES

O you of many names, glory of the Cadmeian bride,
offspring of loud-thundering Zeus! you who watches over
famed Italia, and reigns, where all guests are welcomed,
in the sheltered plain of Eleusinian Deo! O Bacchus,
(Sophocles' Antigone 1115-1120)
Haply by the shores loved of Apollo, haply by that torch-
lit strand where the Great Goddess cherish dread rites for
mortals, on whose lips the ministrant Eumolpidae have
laid the precious seal of silence;
(Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 1048-1053)
But for your mysteries which speech may not profane,
you shall mark them for yourself, when you come to that
place alone; and when you are coming to the end of life,
disclose them to your heir alone; let him teach his heir;
and so thenceforth.
(Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1526-1534)
And then he called his daughters, and bade them fetch
water from some fount, that he should wash, and make a
drink-offering. And they went to the hill which was in
view, Demeter's hill who guards the tender plants, and in
short space brought that which their father had enjoined;
then they ministered to him with washing, and dressed
him, as use ordains.
(Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus 1595-1602)
Weep no more maidens; for where the kindness of the
Dark Powers is an abiding grace to the quick and to the
dead, there is no room for mourning; divine anger would
follow.
(Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1750-1753)
This way - hither, this way! - for this way does Guiding
Hermes lead me, and the goddess of the dead.
(Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus 2556-1558)
Thrice happy are those of mortals, who having seen
those rites depart for Hades; for to them alone is it
granted to have true life there; to the rest all there is evil.
(Sophocles Fragment 719)

             STOBAEUS

a rude and fearful march through night and darkness.
(Stobaeus, Casavis The Greek Origins of Freemasonry p.
111)
Thus death and initiation closely correspond; even the
words (teleutan and teleisthai) correspond, and so do the
things. At first there are wanderings, and toilsome
running about in circles and journeys through the dark
over uncertain roads and culs de sac ; then, just before
the end, there are all kinds of terrors, with shivering,
trembling, sweating, and utter amazement. After this, a
strange and wonderful light meets the wanderer; he is
admitted into clean and verdant meadows, where he
discerns gentle voices, and choric dances, and the
majesty of holy sounds and sacred visions. Here the now
fully initiated is free, and walks at liberty like a crowned
and dedicated victim, joining in the revelry; he is the
companion of pure and holy men, and looks down upon
the uninitiated and unpurified crowd here below in the
mud and fog, trampling itself down and crowded
together, though of death remaining still sunk in its evils,
unable to believe in the blessings that lie beyond. That
the wedding and close union of the soul with the body is
a thing really contrary to nature may clearly be seen from
all this.
(The following passage from Plutarch's essay On the
Soul survives today only because it was quoted by
Stobaeus (Florigelium 120). Grant, F. C. Hellenistic
Religions p. 148)

                     STRABO

Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysus, Apollo,
Hecate, the Muses, and above all to Demeter, everything
of an orgiastic or Bacchic or choral nature, as well as the
mystic element in initiations; and they give the name
"Iacchus" not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-
chief of the mysteries, who is the genius of Demeter. And
branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are
common elements in the worship of these gods. As for
the Muses and Apollo, the Muses preside over the
choruses, whereas Apollo presides both over these and
the rites of divination. But all educated men, and
especially the musician, are ministers of the Muses; and
both these and those who have to do with divination are
ministers of Apollo; and the initiated and torch-bearers
and hierophants, of Demeter; and the Sileni and Satyri
and Bacchae, and also the Lenae and Thyiae and
Mimallones and Naides and Nymphae and the beings
called Tityri, of Dionysus.
(Strabo Geography X, 3:10)

             SUETONIUS

When he was in Greece, he durst not attend the
celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries, at the initiation of
which, impious and wicked persons are warned by the
voice of the herald from approaching the rites.
(Suetonius Nero XXXIV)

            SYNESIUS DIO

But their procedure is like Bacchic frenzy - like the leap of
a man mad, or possessed - the attainment of a goal
without running the race, a passing beyond reason
without the previous exercise of reasoning. For the
sacred matter (contemplation) is not like attention
belonging to knowledge, or an outlet of mind, nor is it like
one thing in one place and another in another. On the
contrary - to compare small and greater - it is like
Aristotle's view that men being initiated have not a lesson
to learn, but an experience to undergo and a condition
into which they must be brought, while they are
becoming fit (for revelation).
(Synesius Dio 1133)

             TERTULLIAN

Now, in the case of those Eleusinian mysteries, which are
the very heresy of Athenian superstition, it is their
secrecy that is their disgrace. Accordingly, they
previously beset all access to their body with tormenting
conditions; and they require a long initiation before they
enroll (their members), even instruction during five years
for their perfect disciples, in order that they may mold
their opinions by this suspension of full knowledge, and
apparently raise the dignity of their mysteries in
proportion to the craving for them which they have
previously created. Then follow the duty of silence.
Carefully is that guarded, which is so long in finding. All
the divinity, however, lies in their secret recesses: there
are revealed at last all the aspirations of the fully initiated,
the entire mystery of the sealed tongue, the symbol of
virility. But this allegorical representation, under the
pretext of nature's reverend name, obscures a real
sacrilege by help of an arbitrary symbol and by empty
images obviates the reproach of falsehood!
(Tertullian Against the Valentinians I)
Why is the priestess of Demeter carried off, unless
Demeter herself had suffered the same sort of thing?
(Tertullian, To the Nations 30)

             THEMISTIUS

Entering now into the secret dome, he is filled with horror
and astonishment. He is seized with loneliness and total
perplexity; he is unable to move a step forward, and at a
loss to find the entrance to the way that leads to where he
aspires to, till the prophet or conductor lays open the
anteroom of the Temple.
(Themistius Orat. in Patrem. 50)

     THEO SMYRNAEUS

There are five stages in Initiation. First of all purification,
for participation in the Mysteries is not possible for all
those who wish it, some being excluded beforehand by
proclamation, such as those whose hands are impure
and whose speech is unintelligible, while it is required of
those not excluded that they previously undergo
purification, after the purification, the second step is
communication of the rite, the third is what is called
epepteia,. The fourth act, closing the Epopteia is the
binding and decking with garlands, qualifying the initiate
to communicate to others the rite delivered to him either
as torch-bearer, hierophant, or in any other sacred
capacity; the firth arriving from the preceding, is
Blessedness according to the faith and fellowship to the
Diety.

            XENOPHON

And Cleocritus, the herald of the initiated, a man with a
very fine voice, obtained silence and said:
(Xenophon, Hellenica II, iv, 20)
The right course, indeed, would have been for us not to
take up arms against one another in the beginning, since
the tradition is that the first strangers to whom
Triptolemus, our ancestor, revealed the mystic rites of
Demeter and Kore were Heracles, your state's founder,
and the Dioscuri, your citizens; and further, that it was
upon Peloponnesus that he first bestowed the seed of
Demeter's fruit.
(Xenophon, Hellenica VI, 3)

UNKNOWN
Kerenyi translates the fragments on a papyrus from an
oration of the time of Hadrian
"I was initiated long ago (or: elsewhere). Lock up Eleusis,
(Hierophant,) and put the fire out, Dadouchos. Deny me
the holy night! I have already been initiated into more
authentic mysteries.... (I have beheld) the fire, whence (...
and) I have seen the Kore.
(Kerenyi Eleusis p. 83-84)
Kerenyi analyzes the etymology of Eleusis. The place
had been called Saisari, meaning "the grinning one" after
an Eleusinian heroine probably connected to the
underworld goddess. Eleusis means the "place of happy
arrival" and is related to Elysion, the realm of the blessed.
(Kerenyi Eleusis p. 23)

The Council and the People have decreed: Democrates,
son of Sunieus of Colonus, proposed the motion:
Whereas, the chosen stewards of the mysteries for the
year of the archon Diocles have offered to Demeter and
Kore and the other gods, as is customary, for the Council
and the People and the children and wives, all the
offerings which are appropriately to be made during the
year, and also the preliminary offering...; and have further
provided, at their own cost, the conveyance for the use of
the sanctuaries, and have voluntarily turned over to the
Council the amount set aside for their use as the expense
of the conveyances, and have also provided for the
procession to the sea and for the reception of Iacchos in
Eleusis, and similarly for the mysteries before Agra,
which took place twice in this year, during the celebration
of the Eleusinian games; and have moreover sent a steer
as sacrifice for the Eleusinian games, giving the six
hundred and fifty members of the Council their share of
the flesh; and beyond all this have delivered the
accounts to the office of the treasury and the metroion
(the Athenian state archives in the temple of Cybele), and
have rendered their account before the court, in
accordance with the laws; and out of their own funds
have provided for everything else connected with the
sacrifice, in order to show themselves agreeably
disposed toward the Council and the People, thus setting
an example for those who are ready to sacrifice
themselves for the public welfare and showing that they
can count upon the proper gratitude, by good fortune.
Let the Council decree that the presiding offices who are
to preside at the next assembly of the people shall place
this matter on the agenda and present the decree of the
Council to the People, that the Council has agreed to
honor the stewards of the mysteries in the year of the
archon Diocles, Thrasykles (son of ...) of Auridae, and
Nicetes, son of Nicetes of Pergase, and to crown them
both with myrtle because of their piety toward the gods
and their unselfishness toward the council and the
People; and to set before them other popular honors in
the future, if they show themselves to be worthy of them;
finally, that the secretary for the Prytany is to have this
decree inscribed upon two columns of stone and set
them up, one in the court of the sanctuary at Eleusis, the
other on the Acropolis. For the (cost of) inscribing ...
(Grant, F. C. Hellenistic Religions p. 15-16)
I was initiated long ago. Lock up Eleusis, and put the fire
out, Dadouchos. Deny me the holy night! I have already
been initiated into more authentic mysteries.... (I have
beheld) the fire, whence (... and) I have seen the Kore.
(Kerenyi Eleusis p. 84)
Beautiful indeed is the Mystery given us by the blessed
gods: death is for mortals no longer an evil, but a
blessing.
(Inscription at Eleusis, S. Angus tr. The Mystery Religions
and Christianity p. 140)

“Dionysius and his companions, when descending to
Hades, were, according to the story, first initiated in the
Mysteries, and they received their courage for the journey
from the Eleusinian goddess.” (Axiochus, 371 e cited in
Clinton’s Myth and Cult, p. 37.))