The Eleusinian Mysteries, are they not the main part of your religion? And the people of Athens, yes, the whole of Greece, gather to celebrate that vanity. Is there not, in the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis, the descent and the solemn meeting of the Hierophant and the priestess, each with the other alone? Are not the torches then extinguished, and does not the vast crowd believe that its salvation depends on what those two act in the darkness? (Asterius of Amasea, Homily on the Holy Martyrs, Sections 10–11, in Asterius of Amasea: Homilies, translated by Charles A. Coulie, Orientalia Christiana Analecta.
