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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Anyone who has seen the mysteries at Eleusis, or has read what are called the works of Orpheus, knows what I mean. (Pausanias. Description of Greece. 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 underground 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. Description of Greece. 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 the 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 umolpus. (Pausanias. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. I, 40:5)
Here, too, is what is called the hall (megaron) of Demeter: they say it was made by King Car. (Pausanias. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. … 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. Description of Greece. VIII, 31:1-2)
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. (Pausanias. Description of Greece VIII, 42:1-11)
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. Description of
Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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 this 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, . Description of Greece. 42:1-7, 11)
When you have crossed the Asopus and are just ten furlongs from the city you come to tthe 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. Description of Greece. 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 ‘goldenreined,’ obviously in reference to the rape of Proserpine. (Pausanias. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. 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. Description of Greece. IX, 30:4-5)
Thou that leadest the dance of the fiery stars, watcher over the nocturnal cry, Zeus-born child, appear, Lord, with thine attendant Thyiads, who all night long in frenzied ecstasy dance thy dance, Iacchos our Master. (Pausanias. Description of Greece 10.4.2; 32.5.)
