AESCHINES

And when your heralds carried the proclamation of the sacred truce of the
Mysteries, the Phocians alone in all Hellas refused to recognize the truce.
(Aeschines On the Embassy 133)


             









                            AESCHYLUS

[The flame,] come to its youthful strength, consumed the lofty labor of the
carpenters.  Fragment 195
FRAGMENT 214  Scholiast on Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1047.  “With bright
flashes, the torches’ might.”
Fragment 279:  Pfeiffer).
[?]
. . . anointed with unguents . . . not more than Hera . . . more arrogant . . . mighty .
. . from afar. May there abide . . . life . . . the gods . . . among friendly . . . But may
all the envious be absent, and all unseemly rumour. We pray that Semele’s good
fortune may ever steer a straight course. For . . . this other . . . Semele . . .
Cadmus . . . the all-powerful Zeus . . . marriage.
[HERA]
Nymphs that speak the truth, honoured goddesses are they for whom I collect
offerings, the life-giving children of Inachus the river of Argos. They are present
at all the actions of men, at feasts and banquets and the sweet songs of
marriage, and they initiate maidens lately wedded and new to love. . . . kindly . . .
eyes . . . of the eye . . . For unsullied modesty . . . is by far the best or adorners
for a bride. And fruitful in children are the families of those to whom the nymphs
shall come in kindness, with sweet disposition, . . . coming . . . both . . . harsh
and hateful . . . when they come near. Many . . . husband . . . girdles . . .
"The chaste heaven loves to violate the earth, and love lays hold on earth to join
in wedlock. The rain from the streaming heaven falls down and impregnates the
earth; and she brings forth her mortals the pasturage of sheep and Demeter's
sustenance; and the ripe season for the trees is perfected by the watery union.
Of all this I am the cause."
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XIII, 600b)
Aeschylus, too, besides inventing that comeliness and dignity of dress which
Hierophants and Dadouchoi emulate, when they put on their vestments
(Athenaeus 21e)







                                                                                                    
                                                                   

ANDOCIDES

The Assembly had met to give audience to Nicias, Lamachus, and Alcibiades,
the generals about to leave with the Sicilian expedition - in fact, Lamachus' flag-
ship was already lying off-shore - when suddenly Pythonicus rose before the
people and cried: 'Countrymen, you are sending forth this mighty host in all its
array upon a perilous enterprise. Yet your commander, Alcibiades, has been
holding celebrations of the mysteries in a private house, and others with him; I
will prove it, Grant immunity to him whom I indicate, and a non-initiate, a slave
belonging to someone here present, shall describe the Mysteries to you. You
can punish me as you will, if that is not the truth.'
(Andocides On the Mysteries 11-12)
Calliades opposed his admission; but the Ceryces voted in favor of the law
which they have, whereby a father can introduce his son, if he swears that it is
his own son whom he is introducing.
(Andocides, On the Mysteries 127)

               









                                ARISTOTLE

“The Mystai are not intended to learn anything, but to suffer something and thus
be made worthy.”  Preserved in Synesius Dion , c. 7.
A tragedy, the, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having
magnitude, complete in itself, in language with pleasurable accessories, each
kind brought in separitively in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a
narrative form, with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish
its catharsis of such emotions.  (Poetics, VI 2 (1449b).

             








                                 ATHENAEUS

Next the hierophant performs the initiation and he takes the things from the
chamber and distributes them to all the ones who will carry the kernos
around…Then, raising his kernos aloft like the person who carries the liknon or
winnowing basket, he tastes those things.  (Polemon, quoted in Athenaeus 11,
478d.)

            







                               APOLLODORUS

When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus at
Eleusis, wishing to be initiated. However it was not then lawful for foreigners to
be initiated: since he proposed to be initiated as the adoptive son of Pylius. But
not being able to see the mysteries because he had not been cleansed of the
slaughter of the centaurs, he was cleansed by Eumolpus and then initiated.
(Apollodorus, The Library II, v, 12)
When Erichthonius died and was buried in the same precinct of Athens,
Pandion became king, in whose time Demeter and Dionysus came to Attica. But
Demeter was welcomed by Celeus at Eleusis, and Dionysus by Icarius, who
received from him a branch of a vine and learned the process of making wine.
(Apollodorus III, xiv, 7)
The Hierophant is in the habit of sounding the so-called gong when Kore is
being invoked by name.
(Apollodorus, Fragment 36)

                    







                                        APULEIUS

Psyche cast herself before the goddess, wetting the holy feet with tears and
sweeping the ground with her tresses. Amid a thicket of supplications she
asked for the favor of Ceres:
'By your right hand of Plenty, I implore you. By your joyous Ceremonies of
Harvest; by your Mystery enclosed in Osier-baskets; by the winged Gig of your
familiar Dragons; by the Furrows of the Sicilian Glebe, the Rape of the Chariot,
the Earth that yields not up its own, the Descent into the Night of the Nuptials of
Proserpine, and the Ascent into the light of the Maiden's Restoration; by all the
other Symbols which the Sanctuary of Eleusis in Attica preserves in Silences -
stand by your suppliant Psyche in the hour of her deep need. Permit me, at least
for a few days, to shelter myself among the layers of wheat until the passage of
time mitigates the raging rancor of the mighty goddess, or until an interval of
rest refreshes the body that daily stress has now exhausted.'
(Apuleius Metamorphoses VI, 2)

                  





ARISTEDES

Eleusis is a shrine common to the whole earth and of all the divine things that
exist among men, it is both the most terrible and the most luminous.  At what
place in the world have more miraculous tidings been sung, where have the
Dromena called forth greater emotion, where has there been a greeter rivalry
between seeing and hearing?  “ineffable visions”  “many generations of
fortunate men and women”

              








ARISTOPHANES

Chorus: O Iacchus! O Iacchus! O Iacchus!
Xanthias: I have it, master: 'tis those blessed Mystics,...
Chorus: O Iacchus! power excelling, here in stately temples dwelling.
O Iacchus! O Iacchus!
Come to tread this verdant level,
Come to dance in mystic revel,
Come whilst round thy forehead hurtles
Many a wreath of fruitful myrtles,
Come with wild and saucy paces
Mingling in our joyous dance,
Pure and holy, which embraces all the charms of all the Graces,
When the mystic choirs advance.
Xanthias: Holy and sacred queen, Demeter' s daughter,
O, what a jolly whiff of pork breathed o'er me!
Dionysus: Hist! and perchance you'll get some tripe yourself.
Chorus: Come, arise, from sleep waking, come the fiery torches shaking,
O Iacchus! 0 Iacchus!
Morning Star that shinest nightly.
Lo, the mead is blazing brightly,
Age forgets its years and sadness,
Aged knees curvet for gladness,
Lift thy flashing torches o'er us,
Marshall all thy blameless train,
Lead, O lead the way before us; lead the lovely youthful Chorus
To thy marshy flowery plain.
All evil thoughts and profane be still: far hence, far hence from our choirs depart,
Who knows not well what the Mystics tell, or is not holy and pure of heart;
Who ne'er has the noble revelry learned, or danced the dance of the Muses high;
Or shared in the Bacchic rites which old bull-eating Cratinus's words supply;
Who vulgar coarse buffoonery loves, though all untimely the jests they make;
Or lives not easy and kind with all, or kindling faction forbears to slake,
But fan the fire, from a base desire some pitiful gain for himself to reap;
Or takes, in office, his gifts and bribes, while the city is tossed on the stormy
deep;
Who foe or fleet to the foe betrays; or, a vile Thorycion, ships away
Forbidden stores from Aegina's shores, to Epidaurus across the Bay
Transmitting oar-pads and sails and tar, that curst collector of five per cents;
The knave who tries to procure supplies for the enemy's armaments;
The cyclian singer who dares befoul the Lady Hecate's wayside shrine;
The public speaker who once lampooned in our Bacchic feasts would, with
heart malign,
Keep nibbling away the Comedian's pay; - to these I utter my warning cry,
I charge them once, I charge them twice, I charge them thrice, that they draw not
nigh
To the sacred dance of the Mystic choir. But you, my comrades, awake the song,
The night-long revels of joy and mirth which ever of right to our feast belong.
Advance, true hearts, advance!
On to the gladsome powers,
On to the sward, with flowers
Embosomed bright!
March on with jest, and jeer, and dance,
Full well ye've supped tonight.
March, chanting loud your lays,
Your hearts and voices raising,
The Savior goddess praising
Who vows she'll still
Our city save to endless days,
Whate'er Thorycion's will.
Break off the measure, and change the time; and now with chanting and hymns
adorn
Demeter, goddess mighty and high, the harvest-queen, the giver of corn.
O Lady, over our rites presiding,
Preserve and succor thy coral throng,
And grant us all, in thy help confiding,
To dance and revel the whole day long;
And much in earnest, and much in jest,
Worthy thy feast, may we speak therein.
And when we have bantered and laughed our best,
The victor's wreath be it ours to win.
Call we now the youthful god, call him hither without delay,
Him who travels amongst his chorus, dancing along on the Sacred Way.
O, come with the joy of thy festival song,
O, come to the goddess, O, mix with our throng
Untired, though the journey be never so long.
O Lord of the frolic and dance, :
Iacchus, beside me advance!
For fun, and for cheapness, our dress thou hast rent,
Through thee we may dance to the top of our bent,
Reviling, and jeering, and none will resent.
O Lord of the frolic and dance,
Iacchus, beside me advance!
A sweet pretty girl I observed in the show,
Her robe had been torn in the scuffle, and lo,
There peeped through the tatters a bosom of snow.
O Lord of the frolic and dance,
Iacchus, beside me advance!...
Chorus: Now wheel your sacred dance through the glade with flowers bedight,
All ye who are partakers of the holy festal rite;
And I will with the women and the holy maidens go
Where they keep the nightly vigil, an auspicious light to show.
Now haste we to the roses,
And the meadows full of posies,
Now haste we to the meadow
In our own old way,
In choral dances blending,
In dances never ending,
Which only for the holy
The Destinies array.
O, happy mystic chorus,
The blessed sunshine o'er us
On us alone is smiling,
In its soft sweet light:
On us who strove forever
With holy, pure endeavor
Alike by friend and stranger
To guide our steps aright.
(Aristophanes The Frogs 317-318, 323-413, 440-459)
Trygaeus: And is it so? And must I die indeed?
Hermes: You must indeed.
Trygaeus: O then, I prithee, lend me half a crown. I'll buy a pig, and get initiated
first.
(Aristophanes' The Peace 372-374)

The Greater Mysteries were Demeter's and the Lesser Persephone's.
(The scholiast of Aristophanes :Mylonas Eleusis p. 240)

It was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the Mysteries
would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine glory. Hence all were eager
for initiation.
(Scholiast on Aristophanes The Frogs 158)

            





ARISTOTLE

The temple at Eleusis ... should be under the superintendence of the Ceryces
and the Eumolpidae, according to primitive custom.
(Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 39:2)
He (Archon) also superintends sacred processions, both that in honor of
Asclepius, when the initiated keep house, and that of the great Dionysia.
(Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 56:4)
The King in the first place superintends the Mysteries, in conjunction with the
Superintendents of Mysteries. The latter are elected in the assembly by open
vote, two from the general body of Athenians, one from the Eumolpidae, and
one from the Ceryces.
(Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, 57:1)
But of what he is doing a man might be ignorant, as for instance people say, 'It
slipped out of their mouths as they were speaking,' or 'They did not know it was
a secret,' as Aeschylus said of the mysteries.
(Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics III, I, 17)

            







ASTERIOS

Asterios (c. 390 CE), the bishop of Amaseia in Asia Minor in his Engomion to the
Saintly Martyrs.
The Eleusinian Mysteries, are they not the main part of your religion and the
demos of Athens, yea the whole of Greece gathers to celebrate that vanity? I not
there (in the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis) the katabasion and the solemn
meeting of the Hierophant and the priestess, each with the other alone; are not
the torches then extinguished and the vast crowd believes that its salvation
depends on what those two act in the darkness?  (311-312)

            






ATHENAEUS

For the highest and dearest of the gods are come to our city. Hither, indeed, the
time has brought together Demeter and Demetrius. She comes to celebrate the
solemn mysteries of the Daughter.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists VI, 253d)
Moreover Polemon, in the treatise On the Sacred Fleece, says: "After these
preliminaries (the priest) proceeds to the celebration of the mystic rites; he
takes out the contents of the shrine and distributes them to all who have
brought round their tray (kernos ). The latter is an earthenware vessel, holding
within it a large number of small cups cemented together, and in them are sage,
white poppy-seeds, grains of wheat and barley, peas, vetches, okra-seeds,
lentils, beans, rice-wheat, oats, compressed fruit, honey, oil, wine, milk, and
sheep's wool unwashed The man who carries it, resembling the bearer of the
sacred winnowing-fan, tastes these articles."
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XI, 478d)
Plemochoe is an earthen dish shaped like a top, but tolerably firm on its base;
some call it a kotyliskos, according to Pamphilus. They use it at Eleusis on the
last day of the Mysteries, a day which they call from it Plemochoai; on that day
they fill two plemochoai, and they invert them (standing up and facing the east
in the one case, the west in the other), reciting a mystical formula over them.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XI, 496a)
At the great assembly of the Eleusinia and at the festival of Poseidon, in full
sight of the whole Greek world, she removed only her cloak and let down her
long hair before stepping into the water. (Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XIII,
591a)
Nor did the son of Mene, Musaeus, master of the Graces, cause Antiope to go
without her meed of honor. And she, beside Eleusis's strand, expounded to the
initiates the loud, sacred voice of mystic oracles, as she duly escorted the priest
through the Rarian plain to honor Demeter. And she is known even in Hades.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, 597d)
According to Himerios, a sophist who lived in Athens when Julian was Emperor
of Rome (361-363):
an old law ordered the initiates to take with them handfuls of agricultural
produce which were the badges of a civilized life.
Now Semus of Delos in his work On Paeans says: "The handfuls of barley,
taken separately, they called amalai; but when these are gathered together and
many are made into a single bundle people called them ouloi or iouloi; hence
also they called Demeter sometimes Chloe, sometimes Ioulo. Hence from
Demeter's gifts they call not only the fruit, but also the hymns sung in honor of
the goddess, ouloi or iouloi. There are also Demetrouloi and kalliouloi ; and the
refrain: 'Send forth a sheaf, a plenteous sheaf, a sheaf send forth.'"
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XIV, 618d)
Heracleides of Syracuse in his work On Institutions says that in Syracuse, on
the Day of Consummation at the Thesmophoria, cakes of sesame and honey
were molded in the shape of the female pudenda, and called throughout the
whole of Sicily mylloi and carried about in honor of the goddesses.
(Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XIV, 646f)
Aeschylus, too, besides inventing that comeliness and dignity of dress which
Hierophants and Dadouchoi emulate, when they put on their vestments
(Athenaeus 21e)

           






CALLIMACHUS

fasting on the sacred days of the Rarian Demeter.
(Callimachus, Aetia 10)
It is a great blessing for you that you have not seen the rites of the dread
goddess, or else you would have spewed up their story too.
(Callimachus, Aetia 75)
As the basket comes, greet it, you women, saying "Demeter, greatly hail! Lady of
much bounty, of many measures of corn." As the basket comes, from the
ground you shall see it, you uninitiated, and gaze not from the roof or from aloft
- child nor wife nor maid that has shed her hair - neither then nor when we spit
from parched mouths fasting. Hesperus from the clouds marks the time of its
coming: Hesperus, who alone persuaded Demeter to drink, that time she
pursued the unknown tracks of her stolen daughter.
Lady, how were your feet able to carry you to the West, to the black men and
where the golden apples are? You did not drink nor did you eat during that time
nor did you wash. Thrice did you cross Achelous with his silver eddies and as
often did you pass over each of the ever-flowing rivers, and thrice did you seat
yourself on the ground beside the fountain Callichorus, parched and without
drinking, and did not eat nor wash.
Nay, nay, let us not speak of that which brought the tear to Deo! Better to tell
how she gave to cities pleasing ordinances; better to tell how she was the first
to cut straw and holy sheaves of corn-ears and put in oxen to tread them, that
time Triptolemus was taught the good craft.
(Callimachus To Demeter 1-24)
You sat at the well Callichoron, without news of your child.
(Callimachus: Fragment 611)

                    CICERO

I say nothing of the holy and awe-inspiring sanctuary of Eleusis, "where tribes
from earth's remotest confines seek Initiation," and I pass over Samothrace and
those "occult mysteries which throngs of worshippers at dead of night in forest
covert deep do celebrate" Lemnos, since such mysteries when interpreted and
rationalized prove to have more to do with natural science than with theology.
(Cicero De Natura Deorum I, 52)
M: Then what will become of our Iacchus and Eumolpidae and their impressive
mysteries, if we abolish nocturnal rites? For we are composing laws not for the
Roman people in particular, but for all virtuous and stable nations.
A: I take it for granted that you make an exception of those rites into which we
ourselves have been initiated.
M: I will do so indeed. 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)

    CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

And the formula of the Eleusinian mysteries is as follows: "I fasted, I drank the
draught (kykeon ); I took from the chest; having done my task, I placed in the
basket, and from the basket into the chest.
(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks II, 18)
Demeter and Persephone have come to be the subject of a mystic drama, and
Eleusis celebrates with torches the rape of the daughter and the sorrowful
wandering of the mother.  Now it seems to me that the terms "orgy" and
"mystery" must be derived, the former from the wrath (orge) of Demeter against
Zeus, and the latter from the pollution (mysos) that took place in connection
with Dionysus.
(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks II, 12)
It tells how Demeter, wandering through Eleusis, which is a part of Attica, in
search of her daughter the Maiden, becomes exhausted and sits down at a well
in deep distress. This display of grief is forbidden, up to the present day, to
those who are initiated, lest the worshippers should seem to imitate the
goddess in her sorrow. At that time Eleusis was inhabited by aborigines, whose
names were Baubo, Dysaules, Triptolemus, and also Eumolpus and Eubouleus.
Triptolemus was a herdsman, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubouleus a
swineherd. These were progenitors of the Eumolpidae and of the Heralds, who
form the priestly clan at Athens. But to continue; for I will not forbear to tell the
rest of the story. Baubo, having received Demeter as a guest, offers her a
draught of wine and meal. She declines to take it, being unwilling to drink on
account of her mourning. Baubo is deeply hurt, thinking she has been slighted,
and thereupon uncovers her secret parts and exhibits them to the goddess.
Demeter is pleased at the sight, and now at last receives the draught, - delighted
with the spectacle! These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians! These are
also the subjects of Orpheus' poems. I will quote you the very lines of Orpheus,
in order that you may have the originator of the mysteries as witness of their
shamelessness:
This said, she drew aside her robes and showed
A sight of shame; child Iacchus was there,
And laughing, plunged his hand below her breasts.
Then smiled the goddess, in her heart she smiled,
And drank the draught from out the glancing cup.
(Clement of Alexandria, II, 16-18)
The mysteries, then, are mere custom and vain opinion, and it is a deceit of the
serpent that men worship when, with spurious piety, they turn towards these
sacred initiations that are really profanities, and solemn rites that are without
sanctity. Consider, too, the contents of the mystic chests; for I must strip bare
their holy things and utter the unspeakable. Are they not sesame cakes,
pyramid and spherical cakes, cakes with many navels, also balls of salt and a
serpent, the mystic sign of Dionysus Basareus? Are they not also
pomegranates, fig branches, fennel stalks, ivy leaves, round cakes and
poppies? These are their holy things! In addition, there are the unutterable
symbols of Ge Themis, marjoram, a lamp, a sword, and a woman's comb, which
is euphemistic expression used in the mysteries for a woman's secret parts.
(Clement of Alexandria, II, 19)

    CRINAGORAS OF MYTILENE (EPIGRAM)

…Go…to Attica to see those nights of the great Mysteries of Demeter; from them
you shall get a heart free of care while you live and lighter to bear when you join
the realm of the majority.

            DEMOSTHENES

It is worth your while, men of Athens, to consider this also - that you punished
Archias, who had been hierophant, when he was convicted in court of impiety
and of offering sacrifice contrary to the rites handed down by our fathers.
Among the charges brought against him was, that at the feast of the harvest he
sacrificed on the altar in the court at Eleusis a victim brought by the courtesan
Sinope, although it was not lawful to offer victims on that day, and the sacrifice
was not his to perform, but the priestess'! It is, then, a monstrous thing that a
man who was of the race of the Eumolpidae, born of honorable ancestors and a
citizen of Athens, should be punished for having transgressed one of your
established customs; and the pleadings of his relatives and friends did not save
him, nor the public services which he and his ancestors had rendered to the
city; no, nor yet his office of hierophant; but you punished him, because he was
judged to be guilty.
(Demosthenes Against Neaera 116-117)

           DIO CHRYSOTOM

In Thebes, for example, a certain Alcaeus has a statue which they say is a
Heracles and was formerly so called; and among the Athenians there is an
image of a boy who was an initiate in the mysteries at Eleusis and it bears no
inscription; he, too, they say, is a Heracles.
(Dio Chrysostom XXXI, 92)

      DIODORUS SICULUS

The earth, again, they looked upon as a kind of vessel which holds all growing
things and so gave it the name "mother;" and in like manner the Greeks also
call it Demeter, the word having been slightly changed in the course of time; for
in olden time they called her Ge Meter (Earth Mother), to which Orpheus bears
witness when he speaks of "Earth the Mother of all, Demeter giver of wealth."
(Diodorus, I, 12)
Furthermore, the early men have given Dionysus the name of "Dimetor" ("twice-
born"), reckoning it as a single and first birth when the plant is set in the ground
and begins to grow, and as a second birth when it becomes laden with fruit and
ripens its clusters, the god, therefore, being considered as having been born
once from the earth and again from the vine. And though the writers of myths
have handed down the account of a third birth as well, at which as they say the
sons of Gaia tore to pieces the god, who was a son of Zeus and Demeter, and
boiled him, but his members were brought together again by Demeter and he
experienced a new birth as if for the first time, such accounts as this they trace
back to certain causes found in nature. For he is considered to be the son of
Zeus and Demeter, they hold, by reason of the fact that the vine gets its growth
both from the earth and from rain and so bears as its fruit the wine which is
pressed out from the clusters of grapes; and the statement that he was torn to
pieces, while yet a youth, by the "earth-born" signifies the harvesting of the fruit
by the laborers, and the boiling of his members has been worked into a myth by
reason of the fact that most men boil the wine and then mix it, thereby improving
its natural aroma and quality. Again, the account of his members, which the
"earth-born" treated with despite, being brought together again and restored to
their former natural state, shows forth that the vine, which has been stripped of
its fruit and pruned at the yearly seasons, is restored by the earth to the high
level of fruitfulness which it had before. For, in general, the ancient poets and
writers of myths spoke of Demeter as Ge Meter (Earth Mother). And with these
stories the teachings agree which are set forth in the Orphic poems and are
introduced into their rites, but it is not lawful to recount them in detail to the
uninitiated.
(Diodorus III, 62:5-8)
The second Dionysus, the writers of myth relate, was born to Zeus by
Persephone, though some say it was Demeter. He is represented by them as the
first man to have yoked oxen to the plough, human beings before that time
having prepared the ground by hand. Many other things also, which are useful
for agriculture, were skillfully devised by him, whereby the masses were
relieved of their great distress; and in return for this those whom he had
benefited accorded to him honors and sacrifices like those offered to the gods,
since all men were eager, because of the magnitude of his service to them, to
accord to him immortality. And as a special symbol and token the painters and
sculptors represented him with horns, at the same time making manifest
thereby the other nature of Dionysus and also showing forth the magnitude of
the service which he had devised for the farmers by his invention of the plough.
(Diodorus Library of History. III, 64)

And in general, the myths relate that the gods who receive the greatest approval
at the hands of human beings are those who excelled in their benefactions by
reason of their discovery of good things, namely, Dionysus and Demeter, the
former because he was the discoverer of the most pleasing drink, the latter
because she gave to the race of men the most excellent of the dry foods.

Some writers of myths, however, relate that there was a second Dionysus who
was much earlier in time than the one we have just mentioned. For according to
them there was born of Zeus and Persephone a Dionysus who is called by
some Sabazius and whose birth and sacrifices and honors are celebrated at
night and in secret, because of the disgrace resulting from the intercourse of
the sexes. They state also that he excelled in sagacity and was the first to
attempt the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed, this
being the reason why they also represent him as wearing a horn.
(Diodorus, Library of History IV, 3-4)
Demeter instituted the Lesser Mysteries in honor of Heracles, that she might
purify him of the guilt he had incurred in the slaughter of the Centaurs.
(Diodorus Siculus, IV, 14)

And assuming that it would be to his advantage for the accomplishment of this
labor, he went to Athens and took part in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Musaeus, the
son of Orpheus, being at that time in charge of the initiatory rite.
(Diodorus Siculus IV, 25)
Again, the fact that the Rape of Kore took place in Sicily is, men say, proof most
evident that the goddesses made this island their favorite retreat because it was
cherished by them before all others. And the Rape of Kore, the myth relates,
took place in the meadows in the territory of Enna. The spot is near the city, a
place of striking beauty for its violets and every other kind of flower and worthy
of the goddess. And the story is told that, because of the sweet odor of the
flowers growing there, trained hunting dogs are unable to hold the trail,
because their natural sense of smell is balked. And the meadow we have
mentioned is level in the center and well watered throughout, but on its
periphery it rises high and falls off with precipitous cliffs on every side. And it is
conceived of as lying in the very center of the island, which is the reason why
certain writers call it the navel in Sicily. Near to it also are sacred groves,
surrounded by marshy flats, to the north, and through it, the myth relates,
Pluton, coming out with his chariot, effected the rape of Kore. And the violets,
we are told, and the rest of the flowers which supply the sweet odor continue to
bloom, to one's amazement, throughout the entire year, and so the whole
aspect of the place is one of flowers and delight.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 3)
After the Rape of Kore, the myth goes on to recount, Demeter, being unable to
find her daughter, kindled torches in the craters of Mt. Aetna and visited many
parts of the inhabited world, and upon the men who received her with the
greatest favor she conferred benefactions, rewarding them with the gift of the
fruit of the wheat. And since a more kindly welcome was extended the goddess
by the Athenians than by any other people, they were the first after the
Siceliotae to be given the fruit of the wheat; and in return for this gift the citizens
of that city in assembly honored the goddess above all others with the
establishment both of most notable sacrifices and of the mysteries of Eleusis,
which, by reason of their very great antiquity and sanctity, have come to be
famous among all mankind. From the Athenians many peoples received a
portion of the gracious gift of the corn, and they in turn, sharing the gift of the
seed with their neighbors, in this way caused all the inhabited world to abound
with it. And the inhabitants of Sicily, since by reason of the intimate relationship
of Demeter and Kore with them they were the first to share in the corn after its
discovery, instituted to each one of the goddesses sacrifices and festive
gatherings, which they name after them, and by the time chosen for these made
acknowledgment of the gifts which had been conferred upon them. In the case
of Kore, for instance, they established the celebration of her return at about the
time when the fruit of the corn was found to come to maturity, and they
celebrate this sacrifice and festive gathering with such strictness of observance
and such zeal as we should reasonably expect those men to show who are
returning thanks for having been selected before all mankind for the greatest
possible gift; but in the case of Demeter they preferred that time for the sacrifice
when the sowing of the corn is first begun, and for a period of ten days they
hold a festive gathering which bears the name of this goddess and is most
magnificent by reason of the brilliance of their preparation for it, while in the
observance of it they imitate the ancient manner of life. And it is their custom
during these days to indulge in coarse language as they associate one with
another, the reason being that by such coarseness the goddess, grieved
though she was of the Rape of Kore, burst into laughter.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 4)
That the rape of Kore took place in the manner we have described is attested by
many ancient historians and poets. Carcinus the tragic poet, for instance, who
often visited in Syracuse and witnessed the zeal which the inhabitants
displayed in the sacrifices and festive gatherings for both Demeter and Kore,
has the following verses in his writings:
Demeter's daughter, her whom none may name,
By secret schemings Pluton, men say, stole,
And then he dropped into earth's depths, whose light
Is darkness. Longing for the vanished girl
Her mother searched and visited all lands
In turn. And Sicily's land by Aetna's crags
Was filled with streams of fire which no man could
Approach, and groaned throughout its length; in grief
Over the maiden now the folk, beloved
Of Zeus, was perishing without the corn.
Hence honor they these goddesses e'en now.
But we should not omit to mention the very great benefaction which Demeter
conferred upon mankind; for beside the fact that she was the discoverer of
corn, she also taught mankind how to prepare it for food and introduced laws
by obedience to which men became accustomed to the practice of justice, this
being the reason, we are told, why she has been given the epithet
Thesmophoros or Lawgiver. Surely a benefaction greater than these
discoveries of hers one could not find; for they embrace both living and living
honorably.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 5)
But Zeus desired that the other of his two sons might also attain to honor, and
so he instructed him in the initiatory rite of the mysteries, which had existed on
the island since ancient times but was at that time, so to speak, put in his
hands; it is not lawful, however, or any but the initiated to hear about the
mysteries. And Iasion is reputed to have been the first to initiate strangers into
them and by this means to bring the initiatory rite to high esteem.... And
Demeter, becoming enamored of Iasion, presented him with the fruit of the
corn.... To Iasion and Demeter, according to the story the myths relate, was born
Plutus or Wealth, but the reference is, as a matter of fact, to the wealth of the
corn, which was presented to Iasion because of Demeter's association with him
at the time of the wedding of Harmonia. Now the details of the initiatory rite are
guarded among the matters not to be divulged and are communicated to the
initiates alone; but the fame has traveled wide of how these gods appear to
mankind and bring unexpected aid to those initiates of theirs who call upon
them in the midst of perils. The claim is also made that men who have taken part
in the mysteries become both more pious and more just and better in every
respect than they were before. And this is the reason, we are told, why the most
famous both of the ancient heroes and of the demi-gods were eagerly desirous
of taking part in the initiatory rite; and in fact Jason and the Dioscuri, and
Heracles and Orpheus as well, after their initiation attained success in all the
campaigns they undertook, because these gods appeared to them.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 48, 49)
And Demeter since the corn still grew wild together with the other plants and
was still unknown to men, was the first to gather it in, to devise how to prepare
and preserve it, and to instruct mankind how to sow it. Now she had discovered
the corn before she gave birth to her daughter Persephone, but after the birth of
her daughter and the rape of her by Pluton, she burned all the fruit of the corn,
both because of her anger at Zeus and because of her grief over her daughter.
After she had found Persephone, however, she became reconciled with Zeus
and gave Triptolemus the corn to sow, instructing him both to share the gift with
men everywhere and to teach them everything concerned with the labor of
sowing. And some men say that it was she also who introduced laws, by
obedience to which men have become accustomed to deal justly one with
another, and that mankind has called this goddess Thesmophoros after the
laws which she gave them. And since Demeter has been responsible for the
greatest blessing to mankind, she has been accorded the most notable honors
and sacrifices, and magnificent feasts and festivals as well, not only by the
Greeks, but also by almost all barbarians who have partaken of this kind of food.
There is dispute about the discovery of the fruit of the corn on the part of many
peoples, who claim that they were the first among whom the goddess was seen
and to whom she made known both the nature and use of the corn. The
Egyptians, for example, say that Demeter and Isis are the same, and that she
was first to bring the seed to Egypt, since the river Nile waters the fields at the
proper time and that land enjoys the most temperate seasons. Also the
Athenians, though they assert that the discovery of this fruit took place in their
country, are nevertheless witnesses to its having been brought to Attica from
some other region; for the place which originally received this gift they call
Eleusis, from the fact that the seed of the corn came from others and was
conveyed to them. But the inhabitants of Sicily, dwelling as they do on an island
which is sacred to Demeter and Kore, say that it is reasonable to believe that the
gift of which we are speaking was made to them first, since the land they
cultivate is the one the goddess holds most dear; for it would be strange
indeed, they maintain, for the goddess to take for her on, so to speak, a land
which is the most fertile known and yet to give it, the last of all, a share in her
benefaction, as though it were nothing to her, especially since she has her
dwelling there, all men agreeing that the Rape of Kore took place on this island.
Moreover, this land is the best adapted for these fruit, even as the poet also
says:
This, then, is what the myths have to say about Demeter.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 68-69)
This god (Dionysus) was born in Crete, men say, of Zeus and Persephone, and
Orpheus has handed down the tradition in the initiatory rites that he was torn in
pieces by the Titans.
(Diodorus Siculus, V, 75)
Such, then are the myths which the Cretans recount of the gods who they claim
were born in their land. They also assert that the honors accorded to the gods
and their sacrifices and the initiatory rites observed in connection with the
mysteries were handed down from Crete to the rest of men, and to support this
they advance the following most weighty argument, as they conceive it: the
initiatory rite which is celebrated by the Athenians in Eleusis, the most famous,
one may venture, of them all, and that of Samothrace, and the one practiced in
Thrace among the Cicones, whence Orpheus came who introduced them---
these are all handed down in the form of a mystery, whereas at Knossos in
Crete it has been the custom from ancient times that these initiatory rites should
be handed down to all openly, and what is handed down among other people
as not to be divulged, this the Cretans conceal from no one who may wish to
inform himself upon such matters. Indeed, the majority of the gods, the Cretans
say, had their beginning in Crete and set out from there to visit many regions of
the inhabited world, conferring benefactions upon the races of men and
distributing among each of them the advantage which resulted from the
discoveries they had made. Demeter, for example, crossed over into Attica and
then removed from there to Sicily and afterwards to Egypt; and in these lands
her choicest gift was that of the corn and instructions in the sowing of it,
whereupon she received great honors at the hands of these whom she had
benefited.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 77)
Plutus, we are told, was born in Cretan Tripolus to Demeter and Iasion, and
there is a double account of his origin. For some men say that the earth, when it
was sowed once by Iasion and given proper cultivation, brought forth such an
abundance of fruits that those who saw this bestowed a special name upon the
abundance of fruits when they appear and called it plutus (wealth);
consequently it has become traditional among later generations to say that men
who have acquired more than they actually need have Plutus. But there are
some who recount the myth that a son was born to Demeter and Iasion whom
they named Plutus, and that he was the first to introduce diligence into the life of
man and the acquisition and safeguarding of property, all men up to that time
having been neglectful of amassing and guarding diligently any store of
property.
(Diodorus Siculus V, 77)

DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS


What I say is supported by the testimony of Sophocles, the tragic poet, in his
drama entitled Triptolemus ; for he there represents Demeter as informing
Triptolemus how large a tract of land he would have to travel over while sowing
it with the seeds he had given him.
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities I, 12)

      DOURIS THE SAMIAN

The goddess Demeter is coming to celebrate her daughter's Mysteries.
(A fragment of Douris the Samian Mylonas Eleusis p. 239-240)

               EPICTETUS       

But no man sails from a port without having sacrificed to the Gods and invoked
their help; nor do men sow without having called on Demeter; and shall a man
who has undertaken so great a work undertake it safely without the Gods? and
shall they who undertake this work come to it with success? What else are you
doing, man, than divulging the mysteries? You say, "There is a temple at
Eleusis, and one here also. There is an Hierophant at Eleusis, and I also will
make an Hierophant: there is a herald, and I will establish a herald; there is a
torch-bearer at Eleusis, and I also will establish a torch-bearer; there are torches
at Eleusis, and I will have torches here. The words are the same; how do the
things done here differ from those done there?" Most impious man, is there no
difference? these things are done both in due place and in due time; and when
accompanied with sacrifice and prayers, when a man is first purified, and when
he is disposed in his mind to the thought that he is going to approach sacred
rites and ancient rites. In this way the mysteries are useful, in this way we come
to the notion that all these things were established by the ancients for the
instruction and correction of life. But you publish and divulge them out of time,
out of place, without sacrifices, without purity; you have not the garments
which the hierophant ought to have, nor the hair, nor the head-dress, nor the
voice nor the age; nor have you purified yourself as he has: but you have
committed to memory the words only, and you say: "Sacred are the words by
themselves."

You ought to approach these matters in another way; the thing is great, it is
mystical, not common thing, nor is it given to every man.
(Epictetus Discourses III, 21)

              EPIPHANIOS

The next is by Epiphanios who was a bishop of Eleutheroupolis of Palestine
and Konstantia of Kypros and lived 367-403 CE.
The next is by Epiphanios who was a bishop of Eleutheroupolis of Palestine
and Konstantia of Kypros and lived 367-403 CE.
In Alexandria there is the so-called Korion, and it is a very large temple, that is
the temenos of Kore. (The worshippers) having passed the night in vigilance
with songs and flute playing, singing to the idol... After the call of the roosters
they descend with torches in hand to an underground chamber and from it they
bring up on a litter a wooden xoanon, seated, nude, bearing on its forehead
some seal of a cross, covered with gold ... and they carry this xoanon around
seven times, making a circle around the most central temple with flutes and
drums and hymns, and having sang and danced they take it down again to the
underground place ... and they say that at this hour, today the Kore, that is the
Virgin, gave birth to the Aion. (Ibid. p. 302)

                    EURIPIDES

Teiresias: ... Two things there are, young prince, that
hold first rank among men, the goddess Demeter, that is, the earth, call her
which name you please; she it is that feeds men with solid food....
(Euripides The Bacchantes 274)
Through wooded glen, o'er torrent's flood, and ocean's booming waves rushed
the mountain goddess, mother of the gods, in frantic hate, once long ago,
yearning for her daughter lost, whose name men dare not utter; loudly rattled
the Bacchic castanets in shrill accord, what time those maidens, swift as
whirlwinds, sped forth with the goddess on her chariot yoked to wild creatures
in quest of her that was ravished from the circling choir of virgins; here was
Artemis with her bow, and there the grim-eyed goddess, sheathed in mail, and
spear in hand. But Zeus looked down from his throne in heaven, and turned the
issue overwhither. Soon as the mother ceased from her wild wandering toil, in
seeking her daughter stolen so subtly as to baffle all pursuit, she crossed the
snow-capped heights of Ida's nymphs; and in anguish cast her down amongst
the rock and brushwood deep in snow; and, denying to man all increase to his
tillage from those barren fields, she wasted the human race; nor would she let
the leafy tendrils yield luxuriant fodder for the cattle wherefore many a beast lay
dying; no sacrifice was offered to the gods and on the altars were no cake to
burn; yea, and she made the dew-fed founts of crystal water to cease their flow,
in her insatiate sorrow for her child. But when for god and tribes of men alike
she made an end to festal cheer, Zeus spoke out, seeking to smooth the
mother's moody soul, "Ye stately Graces, go banish from Demeter's angry heart
the grief her wanderings bring upon her for her child, and go, ye Muses too,
with tuneful choir." Thereon did Cypris, fairest of the blessed gods, first catch
up the crashing cymbals, native to that land, and the drum with tight-stretched
skin and then Demeter smiled, and in her hand did take the deep-toned flute,
well pleased with its loud note.
(Euripides, Helen 1303-1361)

Heracles: ... After my return at length from the soulless den of Hades and the
maiden queen of hell, I will not neglect to greet first of all the gods beneath my
roof.
Amphitryon: Why, did you in very deed go to the house of Hades, my son?
Heracles: Aye, and brought to the light that three-headed monster.
Amphitryon: Did you worst him fight, or receive him from the goddess?
Heracles: In fair fight; for I had been lucky enough to witness the rites of the
initiated.
Amphitryon: Is the monster really lodged in the house of Eurystheus?
Heracles: The grove of Demeter and the city of Hermione are his prison.
(Euripides, Herakles Mad, 602-614)
Chorus: Daughter of Demeter, goddess of highways, queen as thou art of
haunting powers of darkness,... I blush for that god of song, if this stranger is to
witness the torch-dance, that heralds in the twentieth dawn, around Callichorus'
fair springs, a sleepless rotary in midnight revels, what time the star-lit
firmament of Zeus, the moon, and Nereus' fifty daughters, that trip it lightly o'er
the sea and the eternal rivers' tides, join the dance in honor of the maiden with
the crown of gold and her majestic mother;
(Euripides, Ion, 1048-1049, 1079-1086)
Iphigenia: My purpose is to cleanse them first by purification.
Thoas: In fresh spring water or salt sea-spray?
Iphigenia: The sea washes away from man all that is ill.
Thoas: True, they would then be holier victims for the goddess.
(Euripides, Iphigenia Among the Tauri 1191-1194)
O Demeter, guardian of this Eleusinian land, and you servants of the goddess
who attend her sanctuary, grant happiness to me and my son Theseus, to the
city of Athens and the country of Pittheus.... Now it chanced, that I had left my
house and come to offer sacrifice on behalf of the earth's crop at this shrine,
where first the fruitful corn showed its bristling shocks above the soil. And here
at the holy altar of the twain goddesses, Demeter and her daughter, I wait,
holding these sprays of foliage, a bond that binds not, in compassion for these
childless mothers, hoary with age, and from reverence for the sacred fillets.
(Euripides, The Suppliants 1-4, 30-35)