Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries

George E. Mylonas*

The Classical Journal, vol. 43, pp. 130-146, 1947
Allied images:   Figure 4     Figure 4a


ELEUSIS lies fourteen miles to the west of Athens by the blue waters of the Aegean and at the extreme southwestern end of the Thriasian plain, a pleasant, verdant valley filled with gardens. Today Eleusis is a small tillage; in antiquity it was one of the most important religious centers of the pagan world. In the mythological past, almost four thousand years ago, around its craggy bill a family drama came to a happy ending, and to that event Eleusis owes its fame and prosperity.

ACCORDING to the tradition so wonderfully related in the Homeric Hymn, Demeter, Goddess of Agriculture and the ordered life, in her quest for Persephone wandered to Eleusis and stopped to rest by the village well. There she was found by the daughters of Keleos, the ruling prince of Eleusis, and was persuaded to stay in the princely palace and to undertake the bringing up of the infant Damophoon. In that palace, when her efforts to make the child immortal were interrupted by the curiosity and the fright of the queen, the goddess disclosed her identity, and ordered the Eleusinians to build a temple and an altar for her below their steep citadel. Shortly afterwards, filled with joy at her reunion with Persephone, Demeter instructed the leaders of Eleusis in the performance of her rites. Thus the cult of Demeter was introduced to Eleusis by the goddess herself.

Unlike other pagan religious rites, the cult of Demeter was not open to the general public, but to the chosen few who were properly initiated following the ritual prescribed by Demeter herself. Consequently, the cult came to be known as the mysteries of Demeter, or the Eleusinian mysteries. A local cult originally, it gradually spread beyond the narrow confines of Eleusis and the Thriasian plain, and in historic times, when the village became part of the Athenian Commonwealth, it became a Panhellenic institution. When later on the cult was adopted by the Romans it enjoyed universal reverence.

The growth in popularity of the cult was naturally followed by a continuous though gradual expansion of the sacred precinct. The original small temple of Demeter gave place to a larger structure and that in turn to others even larger, and their peribolos kept expanding so as to include larger and ever larger areas. Great political leaders, such as Peisistratos, Kimon, Pericles, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and others, erected marble structures in honor of the goddess, and her precinct became crowded with the votive offerings of grateful initiates. Resplendent the sanctuary of Eleusis remained until the immortal gods were expelled from Olympos by the rising faith of our Saviour, and until Zeus laid his head for eternal rest on the stony summit of Mount Juctas in Crete. It was then, perhaps at the beginning of the sixth century of our era, that its walls were razed to the ground, that its monuments were destroyed by the orders of the early Christian Fathers, who considered the sanctuary as the very seat of Satan. A portion of its area was then transformed into a cemetery, but even that was soon abandoned to its fate and the sanctuary was buried below a deep accumulation of debris and mud.

Forgotten the temenos of Demeter remained for centuries and until 1882, when the Greek Archaeological Society began to excavate its remains.1 Year after year the Greek excavators labored among its ruins until the entire area was cleared. Through their efforts Eleusis, the great sanctuary of Demeter, indeed has been brought back to light and life; but instead of marble buildings and rich shrines the present-day visitor will find a maze of foundations and broken stones which will bring to his mind the picture of the fallen giants of mythology. Today silence and desolation reign over the area which once resounded with the paeans and the rejoicing of grateful initiates; today the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis seems completely dead.

And yet in the days of the Olympian Gods people from all over the civilized world, men, women, and children—free men and women untainted by crime—even slaves, aspired to be initiated into its mysteries and annually flocked to the sanctuary of Eleusis. Not only simple peasants but even the leaders of thought and politics were anxious to take part in the rites. A preliminary initiation of the mystae to the "minor mysteries" at Agrae, a suburb of Athens, preceded by six months their participation in the Eleusinian rites. For those rites a number of days were spent at Athens in earnest preparation. On the fourteenth day of Boedromion (September), in the famous Poecile Stoa of Athens, the great priest of Eleusis, the hierophant, read the "proclamation," an event that marked the, beginning of the telete (initiation). "Everyone who has clean hands and intelligible (Greek) speech," "he who is pure from all pollution and whose soul is conscious of no evil and who has lived well and justly," the proclamation stated, could proceed with the initiation; the rest should abstain.

Then followed lustrations and purifications in the sea (the famous cry of "Halade, Mystae—to the sea, O Mystae" became emblematic of the Eleusinian rites), the purification and sacrifice of a sucking pig whose blood was sprinkled on the candidates purifying them further, fasting, and some indoctrination. Finally, in the forenoon of the nineteenth day of Boedromion, the initiates were started on their procession from the Pompeion of Athens. That procession was one of the most spectacular religious events of the ancient world, and in many respects it resembled the processions through the streets of modern Athens on the night of Good Friday. Dressed in festal clothes, crowned with wreaths, and holding great torches, the initiates, led by the priests of Eleusis and the Eleusinian sacra, left Athens and, following the Sacred Way, marched to Eleusis singing and rejoicing. The outer court of the sanctuary at Eleusis was not reached until midnight, because many a stop had to be made on the way before the altars, shrines, and sanctuaries which flanked the Sacred Way. Outside the sanctuary area a multitude of booths, hostelries, baths, etc., stood ready to cater to the needs of the initiates.

Remains of these establishments were brought to light in the excavations of 1930-1931. In the same year we excavated the oldest-known settlement of Eleusis. It is located on the southern slope of the Eleusinian hilt and belongs to the Middle Helladic period, i.e. to the Middle Bronze Age.2 Foundations of apsidal houses, graves, and a multitude of small objects were uncovered, proving that by 2000 B.C. the Eleusinian hill was already inhabited. From that remote date to the present people have lived uninterruptedly on this pine-clad hill.

However, no evidence was uncovered proving that the rites of Demeter were celebrated in the Middle Helladic era, and it seems that these rites were introduced in the ensuing Late Helladic period. In that period the settlement was moved to the top of the Eleusinian hill, and in its extreme northeastern end its remains were uncovered in 1934.

(Fig. 1: Frontispiece). The most important of these remains—foundations of houses, perhaps even of the palace of the ruling prince, graves, and pottery—belong to the Late Helladic II and III periods (to the Mycenean Age from c. 1500-1100 B.C.), and to the years during which, according to the Eleusinian tradition, the goddess visited Keleos and stayed in his palace; in other words, to the years when the cult of Demeter was introduced. The Mycenaean settlement of Eleusis was naturally surrounded by fortification walls which have not survived, but which apparently followed the brow of the hill around the point on which the Chapel of Panaghitsa now stands.

Below the line of the fortification walls and against the eastern slope of the hill over a projecting spur the remains of a megaron belonging to the Late Helladic II period were brought to light in 1931-32.3 The megaron is long and narrow as usual, with a single row of columns running along its longitudinal axis, oriented almost east and west, with its porticoed entrance to the east. In front of that portico or prodomos projects a platform rising above the level of the court and approached by two narrow stairways placed symmetrically between it and the projecting walls of the portico. The Court in front of the megaron and the building itself were surrounded by a peribolos wall. No finds proving its nature were made within the structure, but from a great deal of circumstantial evidence it can be deduced that it was the earliest temple of Demeter thus far uncovered at Eleusis. It corresponds completely to the description of that temple preserved in the Homeric Hymn; it stands on a projecting spur below the fortification walls of the Mycenaean settlement, it has a platform on which the altar of the goddess stood, and it was built at a time which could be equated with that of the introduction of Demeter’s rites at Eleusis.

In 1933 a false-necked amphora was discovered bearing on its shoulder an inscription in prehistoric, pre-Greek characters.4 If the reading of that inscription which we offered in 1936 is correct, this vase proves that the Eleusinian rites had already assumed a very advanced form by 1200 B.C., the date of the amphora. For in that inscription we find reference to the Kykeon, the sacramental potion known to have been used during the initiation in historic times. And so it seems certain that the Mycenaean Megaron was the earliest temple of Demeter where the mysteries were celebrated, the earliest-known Telesterion, as the temple of Demeter was called, because within it the mysteries were held and the initiation was consummated. The discovery of this temple brought about a great change in our theories as to the origin and the beginnings of the cult, which until the excavations of 1931 had been assigned to the end of the eighth century. Now we know that the cult was already active at Eleusis in the fifteenth century. The growing popularity of the cult even in prehistoric-Mycenaean times is proved by the fact that two extension wings were added to the original megaron in Late Helladic III times, or around 1300 B.C.

The Megaron so enlarged was used to the end of the prehistoric era. Over its remains was found a fragment of an elliptical or apsidal building constructed in the Geometric period (Fig. 2). This fragment apparently belonged to the temple of Demeter or to the protohistoric Telesterion of Eleusis. In spite of the unevenness of the ground the Geometric temple was constructed over the area that was occupied by the Mycenaean megaron, an area which had become sacred in prehistoric times. Because of the slope of the hill an artificial terrace had to be constructed to support the building. Remains of the walls of this terrace had been discovered by Philios in an earlier excavation, and now can be interpreted correctly and be put into their proper place in the picture of the evolution of the sanctuary.

The Geometric temple was replaced, perhaps in the seventh century B.C., by an early Archaic structure constructed in polygonal masonry on an artificially-retained terrace built over the remains of the Mycenaean megaron and of the Geometric temple (Figs. 2, 3). The southeast corner of this Archaic temple or Telesterion is well preserved, and until recently it was believed that it was the earliest temple of Demeter at Eleusis. Now we can prove that the Archaic temple was built almost 800 years after the introduction of Demeter’s cult. The terrace walls of this Archaic temple were cleared by Dr. Kourouniotes and his collaborators, who found extensive remains of sacrificial pyres near the southern approach to the terrace. Among the ashes of the pyres were found numerous offerings such as vases and terra-cotta figurines, which had been brought to the temple by the initiates.

The Archaic building was much larger than either the Mycenaean or the Geometric temple and yet in time it proved inadequate to provide for the growing numbers of initiates. And so Peisistratos, the sixth-century tyrant of Athens, replaced it by a monumental temple, the remains of which are well preserved (Figs 4, 4A). It had an almost square shape and on the east side it was fronted by a portico. Five rows of columns, five columns in each row, supported the roof of the Peisistrateian temple and its interior walls were lined with steps from which the initiates could witness the rites. Strong retaining walls supported the artificial terrace on which stood the temple, and within that terrace the remains of the earlier temples of Demeter were carefully encased (Figs 2, 3, 4A). Eleusis, however, in the days of Peisistratos was not only a religious center, but also an outpost of the Athenian Commonwealth. And so the sanctuary and its courts were not surrounded by mere peribolos walls, but by thick fortification walls of polygonal masonry surmounted by a mud brick body with strong towers (indicated in Fig. 4 by a thick black band) and well-guarded gates. Two such gates led to the fortified sanctuary; the main gate toward Athens was placed on the north side, and a secondary entrance gate toward the sea, following the ancient established pattern, was opened on the south side. Peisistratos further surrounded the city of Eleusis with fortification walls, large portions of which were discovered in the excavations of 1931.

Through these Peisistrateian walls broke the Persians in 480-479 B.C., to sack the sanctuary and burn its great temple. When the Persians were forced out of Greece, after the battle of Salamis, waged at a short distance and in full view of Eleusis, and the battle of Plataca, the sanctuary of Eleusis as well as the sacred buildings of Athens had to be restored to their former glory. The great Kimon was first to repair and enlarge the fortification walls of Eleusis and to lay the foundations of a new and larger Telesterion. But, as was the case with the Kimonian Parthenon, the Telesterion he began was not completed by 450 B.C. Then Pericles was in charge of the fortunes of Athens and the chief exponent of her cultural and artistic world mission. He could not overlook such a great religious center as Eleusis, and after the Acropolis he turned his attention and care to that city.

At his command Iktinos, one of the architects of the Parthenon, designed a new temple for the initiations, a new Telesterion, and began its construction (Figs 4, 5). That Telesterion was to be the largest yet constructed, and its western part was cut out of the living rock. It had an almost square shape (54 meters in length) and its vast space was broken by forty-two large columns placed in six rows of seven. These columns did not reach to the ceiling of the hall, but supported a second row of columns that rose to the rafters. Thus the interior space was divided into two stories, a lower main floor and an upper or mezzanine. Light and air were introduced by means of a lantern placed in the middle of the roof. Through that open space, at the climax of the initiation service, lights shone so brilliantly that they could be seen from a great distance. The great hail was surrounded by tiers of steps, cut in the living rock on the west side, and on those steps the initiates stood during the celebration of the rites. On each of the north, east and south sides two doors were cut. The center of the hail was set apart, perhaps by movable partitions, and it was known as the anaktoron or palace of the goddess; there were kept the most sacred objects of Eleusis and the statues of the goddesses. Iktinos designed a portico for the eastern front of the temple, but this was never completed. A smaller portico fronted by twelve columns was erected instead by Philo in the fourth century. As a matter of fact it is not certain how much of the original plan was carried out by Iktinos himself, since the construction of the temple was completed by the architects Koroebos, Metagenes, and Xenokles.

The great Pericleian Telesterion, completed in the fourth century, stood for centuries and proved adequate to the ever-increasing need for space in the sanctuary. It was repaired in Roman Imperial times and most of the remains to be seen today belong to those times. The architects of Pericles extended the court around the Telesterion by moving further to the east and south its fortification walls. New stretches of strong stone walls and new towers were then added to the Kimonian peribolos. The Pericleian extension was not final and in the fourth century Lykourgos (330 B.C.) extended the peribolos further and added walls and towers of exquisite workmanship. One of these towers, the round tower built at the extreme south eastern end, is a perfect example of stone masonry (Fig. 6). These fortification walls were strengthened further in Roman times so that the sanctuary had the appearance of a strong, impregnable fort.

During Roman times the old northern gate to the sanctuary area was replaced by a marble structure known as the Lesser Propylaea (Figs. 4, 7). It was built over the older Peisistrateian gate by Appius Claudius Pulcher, a Roman noble and friend of the great Cicero, about 40 B.C. It consisted of two porticoes, inner and outer, placed on either side of a central wide entrance flanked by two side entrances. Two Corinthian columns supported the roof of the outer portico, while that of the inner portico was supported by two Caryatid busts. One of these was carried by the Dilettanti to the British Museum, while the other is housed in the museum of Eleusis. Instead of capitals the Caryatids were bearing the "ho1y cist" or pyxis of Demeter.

At a short distance to the northwest of the Lesser Propylaea, Emperor Antoninus Pius, perhaps, erected another gateway known as the Greater Propylaea (Figs. 4, 7). It was built of Pentelic marble and in imitation of the Great Propylaea of the Acropolis of Athens. At the northeastern corner of tile Greater Propylaea was left to be seen the Kallichoron well of Eleusis, one of the famous landmarks of the Eleusinian story (Fig. 4). According to that story around it the women of Eleusis danced in honor of the goddess. The great outer court of the sanctuary, paved in Roman times, stretched before the Greater Propylaea (Fig. 8). Almost in the middle of that court stood a temple dedicated to Artemis and Poseidon, and beyond it a sacrificial altar. The limits of the court to the east and the west were indicated by two monumental arches erected by Hadrian.

The Sacred Way from Athens entered the court at its northeastern end and through the Greater and the Lesser Propylaea ascended to the great temple of Demeter or the Telesterion where it came to its end (Figs. 4, 9). Within the sanctuary area the Sacred Way, paved in Roman times, was flanked by rich votive monuments the splendor of which can be imagined from the fragments of altars, inscriptions, and statues which have been discovered and are now kept in the Museum of Eleusis. It will indeed be too long to discuss these art objects; perhaps it will prove sufficient to state that every aspect of the Greek artistic achievement throughout the ages is excellently represented in the Eleusinian finds.

But we should note that within the sanctuary area and immediately beyond the Lesser Propylaea there exists a small grotto in which once stood the temple of Pluto, God of the Nether World and husband of Persephone (Figs 4, 9). That was the only temple not dedicated to Demeter and Persephone to be found in the sacred precinct. Within the large area of that precinct, however, were to be seen a good number of non-religious, secular buildings such as storehouses, where the tithes were stored, cisterns, quarters for the priests, colonnades and even a bouleuterion (Fig. 9). Thus the great temple of Demeter was surrounded by courts and various buildings of religious and non-religious nature. We should fail, indeed, to picture for ourselves that great temple and its precinct were we to ignore the magnificent votive offerings with which the courts of the temple were crowded, offerings dedicated to the goddess by grateful initiates.

Those initiates we have left in the outer court of the sanctuary and the adjoining hostelries on the night of the procession. Their initiation was continued the next morning, when they visited the sanctuary, and was consummated later in the great Telesterion (Fig. 10). What happened in the Telesterion, what was the initiation and what the tests, what were the mysteries which were revealed to the mystae, are questions that cannot be answered even today; the ancient Eleusinians kept their secret well. How strict they were in keeping secret the oral tradition of the rites could be indicated by the prosecution of Alcibiades and by the story of Pausanias. We would naturally expect to find a description of the sanctuary at Eleusis in the writings of Pausanias, the tourist with literary ambitions, who has given us an account of Greece in the second century of our era. As a matter of fact he described minutely the monuments which were to be seen along the Sacred Way, and even those in the outer court of the sanctuary of Demeter. But then his story ends, for, as he states, the goddess in a dream forbade him even to mention the buildings within her sacred precinct.

It is true that in the oratorical writings of some early Christian fathers we find numerous remarks about the mysteries. On the basis of those remarks have been advanced a number of theories as to the nature of the Eleusinian mysteries, and the assumption was established that the mysteries were of a licentious, orgiastic nature. However, the latest excavations at Eleusis have proved that the statements of the Fathers were based upon sentiment and imagination rather than upon truth. The Fathers speak of subterranean chambers in which the orgies were held. The sanctuary area and its surroundings have been cleared to the rock level every where, but no subterranean chambers were brought to light. Such chambers never existed, and naturally the orgies that presumably were held in them never took place. We find no other enlightening information in the writings of contemporary or later authors. A thick, impenetrable veil indeed still covers securely the rites of Demeter and protects them from the curious eyes of the modern student. How many days and nights have been spent over books, inscriptions, and works of art by eminent scholars in their effort to lift the veil! How many wild and ingenious theories have been advanced in superhuman efforts to explain the mysteries! How many nights have I spent standing on the steps of the Telesterion, flooded with the magic silver light of a Mediterranean moon, hoping to catch the mood of the initiates, hoping that the human soul might get a glimpse of what the rational mind could not investigate! All in vain—the ancient world has kept its secret well, and the mysteries of Eleusis remain unrevealed.5

The few details which we know are inadequate to give us a complete understanding of the rites. What do we know about those rites? We know that different degrees of initiation existed—the most advanced of which was known as the epopteia. We know that the mysteries were of three parts: the dromena, the things which were enacted; the deiknymena, the things which were shown; and the legomena, the things which were explained. We may assume that the pageant of the wanderings of Demeter, the story of Persephone, and the reunion of mother and daughter formed the main part of the dromena; that it was a passion play which aimed not only to unfold the life of the goddess to the initiates, but also to make those initiates take part in the experiences of the goddess, to share with her the distress, the travail, the exaltation, and the joy which attended the loss of Persephone and her reunion with the mother. "With burning torches Proserpina is sought, and when she is found, the rite is closed with general thanksgiving and a waving of torches," writes Lactantius (Institutiones Divinae, Epitome, 23). We may accept as a fact that the fortunes of Demeter and Persephone symbolized life, death, and even immortality; that they gave to the initiates confidence to face death and a promise of bliss in the dark domain of Hades. But beyond that we cannot proceed. Whether or not the passion play concluded the dromena cannot be definitely established. As a matter of fact the sacramental Kykeon, the drinking of the potion of Demeter, and even a sacramental meal, may very well have been part of the dromena. And what the deiknymena and the legomena were we are in no position to know.


Joy and Happiness

Actually then our knowledge of the real nature of the mysteries has remained very scanty in spite of the recent excavations. However uncertain we may be as to the nature of the mysteries, of one thing we must be, and we are, very certain: the initiates returned from their pilgrimage to Eleusis full of joy and happiness, with the fear of death diminished, and with strengthened hope of a better life in the world of shadows. "Thrice happy are those of the mortals who having seen those rites depart for Hades; for to them alone is it granted to have true life on the other side. To the rest all there is evil," exclaims Sophocles (frag. 719 ed. Dindorf). And to this Pindar responds with equal exaltation (frag. 121 ed. Oxford).

When we read these and other similar statements written by the great or nearly great of the ancient world, by the dramatists and the thinkers, when we picture the magnificent buildings and monuments constructed at Eleusis by great political figures like Peisistratos, Kimon, Pericles, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and others, we cannot help feeling that the mysteries at Eleusis were not an empty, childish affair devised by shrewd priests to fool the peasant and the ignorant, but a philosophy of life which possessed a deep and great meaning and which perhaps imparted a modicum of truth to the yearning human soul. And that feeling is strengthened when we read in Cicero, De Legibus 2.14, that Athens had given nothing to the world more excellent or divine than the Eleusinian mysteries!

How important those elements might have been can be inferred from the fact that the advanced degree of initiation, the epopteia, was attained solely by the inspection—followed by contemplation—of the Eleusinian sacra, exhibited to the initiates by the hierophant in a striking manner. As a matter of fact the title of that high dignitary of Eleusis, hierophant, means he who displays the sacra, the sacred objects. From a rhetorical fragment preserved under the name of Sopatros we can get a glimpse of the importance of the legomena. In that fragment we read of a youth who is dreaming that he is being initiated into the mysteries: he followed the passion play with care but was unable to hear the legomena of the hierophant and because of that he did not consider himself properly initiated (Rhetores Graeci, 8.110). The importance of the deiknymena and the legomena may further be inferred from the ritual acts, exhibits, and doctrines we find in the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches of our day. (Indeed it is highly possible that ritual acts and exhibits, like the elevation of the sacred host, of the Christian mysteries, were borrowed directly from the Eleusinian rites.)


Death of Demeter

 Let us recall again that the rites of Elcusis were held for more than two thousand years: that for two thousand years civilized humanity was sustained and ennobled by those rites. Then we shall be able to appreciate the meaning and the importance of Eleusis and of the cult of Demeter in the pre-Christian era. When Christianity conquered the Mediterranean world, the rites of Demeter, having perhaps fulfilled their mission to humanity, came to an end. The "bubbling spring" of hope and inspiration that once existed by the Kallichoron Well became dry and the world turned to other living sources for sustenance. A doctrine which inspired the world for so long was gradually forgotten, and its secrets were buried with its last hierophant. After all, this seems to be the eternal law: one source succeeds another, and a doctrine must die so that another nay be born. Yet the story of Demeter and her cult at Eleusis will live forever in the memories of man, because it belongs to the cycle of popular myths that can never die.


Figure 4 (Map of Eleusis)

Figure 4a (Map of the Peisistrateian Telesterion and earlier remains)


Notes
* George E. Mylonas, a graduate of the University of Athens, first swam into Western ken as secretary of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. He took part in several excavations, including the neolithic deposit of Professor David M. Robinson’s site of Olynthus, became a competent and painstaking prehistoric archaeologist, took his Ph.D. at The Johns Hopkins University with Dr. Robinson, taught at Washington University, then at the University of Illinois, and eventually returned to Washington University, where he holds the chair of Archaeology and History of Art, while engaging in public services too numerous to mention. Professor Mylonas is no stranger to readers of The Classical Journal; his most recent article, "The Eagle of Zeus," appeared in our February 1946 (45.5.203-207) issue. Here lie tells of his work with the Greek Archaeological Society in reexcavating the site of the mystery-worship of Eleusis.

1) In 1812, the site was identified and visited for the first time by members of the Society of the Dilettanti who made some preliminary investigations and carried to England one of the Karyatides of the Lesser Propylea. Additional investigations were carried out by Lenormant in 1860. They were followed by the systematic excavations of the Greek Archaeological Society. D. Philios directd those excavations from 1882 to 1892. He was succeeded by A. Skias, who worked at Eleusis from 1894 to 1907. From 1917 to 1939 K. Kourouniotes conducetd extensive excavations at the site assisted by G. E. Mylonas.

2) G. E. Mylonas, "Eleusis in the Bronze Age", AJA, 36(1932) 104-117; Prehistoric Eleusis, 192 (in Greek).

3) The basic publications on the earlier excavations at Eleusis to 1917 are: D. Philios, Fouilles d’Eleusis, 1889; F. Noack, Eleusis: die baugeschichtliche Entwickelung des Heilingtums, 1927; articles in the Archaeologike Ephemeris, 1886-1890, 1892, 1894-1899, 1901, 1912. On the later excavations: K. Kourouniotes, Eleusis, 1934; "Das Eleusinische Heiligtum von den Anfängen bis zur vorperikleischen Zeit", Archiv für Religionswiss., 32, 52 ff. Deltion, 1930-1931, 1931-1932. Kourouniotes-Travlos, Deltion, 1934-1935, 54 ff. G.E. Mylonas, The Hymn to Demeter and Her Sanctuary at Eleusis, 1942.

4) G. E. Mylonas, "Eleusiniaka", AJA, 40 (1936), 415 ff.

5) It will be too long to enumerate the articles and books that have been published on the subject. The more important of these are: C.A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, 1829, I, 1-228. L.R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, 1907, III, 127-278. P. Foucart, Les Mystères d’Éleusis, 1914. H.R. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, 1929, 36-67. V. Magnien, Les Mystères d’Éleusis, 1938.