Know Your Rites: The Eleusinian Mysteries (by Scott Chastain)
Topic:
The Eleusinian Mysteries
General
Purpose:
To inform
Specific
Purpose:
To inform the Communications 101 class about the Eleusinian Mysteries
Thesis Statement:
The Eleusinian Mysteries were a social drama which is best explored
through a historical,
practical and social impact perspective.
Introduction
I.
As you sit on the cold marble steps, aching from your fourteen-mile
journey, you notice it’s so quiet you can hear the sounds of the ocean
crashing not too far off, when your silent reverie is
shattered by the thundering peal of a gong and the brilliant flash of
light, from which the god Dionysus himself emerges, welcoming you to Eleusis.
II.
What you just experienced were the rites of Demeter; a sacred tradition
held in Greece at the end
of every September which commanded the attention of slaves, freemen,
kings and emperors alike.
III.
My name is Scott Chastain, and I have been studying ancient mystery
religions including Eleusis
for the past eight years.
IV.
The rites at Eleusis (which means “place of the happy arrival”) have
a significant place in history,
were well organized and faithfully attended, and affected the Greeks and
Romans on both the social and personal level.
V.
To more fully appreciate how these rites produced these effects, it is
vital we approach the matter from a historical, practical and an influential
perspective.
Transition: Let us first
travel back in time to the beginning of these Mysteries.
Body
I.
The history of the rites at Eleusis was far better documented than the
secret rites themselves.
A.
The rites were held continuously for over 2000 years, with only one
interruption: when Alexander the Great sacked Thebes.
1.
Scholars differ on when the rites were actually founded, although some
archaeological
evidence
uncovered by Dr. Kourouniotes places the rites as early as the 15th
century BCE.
2.
The rites came to a violent close in the year 396 CE under the anti-pagan
laws of the Roman Emperor Theodosius.
B.
The rites which were destroyed were the re-enactment of the myth of
Demeter and her daughter
Persephone.
1.
According to the myth Persephone picked a narcissus flower, which is the opium poppy, and the earth opened
revealing Hades, the god of the underworld, who swept her up in his chariot and
carried her to his realm.
2.
Demeter searched everywhere for her daughter, and on her travels she was
taken in by the Eleusinians, whom she taught her Mysteries to after, by starving
the world, she convinced Zeus to release Persephone.
Transition:
These myths were not stories, but living information encoded into Greek
society, played out in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
II.
The practice of the rites at Eleusis involved an initiation, or telete,
based on these myths which symbolized the death and spiritual rebirth of the
initiates, or mystae.
A.
The telete, a Greek word for ’death’, began in Athens,
14 miles east of Eleusis, with a proclamation by the hierophant (high priest), a
cleansing, and then the march west.
1.
Before the procession, the mystae were ritually purified in the
sea, a process called the
katharsis, along with piglets, which to the Greeks represented the power
to remove evil.
2.
The pigs were then ritually sacrificed, and their blood was sprinkled on
the mystae for further purification.
3.
The mystae would then process, with songs and dances, to Eleusis.
B.
Upon arriving at Eleusis, the mystae would be directed into the
temple of Demeter; a building called the Telesterion.
1.
The Telesterion was a square building where the actual telete was
performed.
a.
Only the hierophant, his assistants, and mystae were
allowed within this sanctuary, and they were sworn to secrecy, under pain
of death or exile, about what occurred there.
b.
Within the Telesterion was the Anaktoron, where the sacred
objects of the rites, called the kistai were stored.
(1)
Only the hierophant was allowed within the Anaktoron.
(2)
The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was the only lay person
who was allowed into the Anaktoron as an exception.
(a)
The Telesterion was destroyed in 170 CE by the
Persians.
(b)
Marcus Aurelius, who you may recall as a character in the motion
picture Gladiator, funded the
rebuilding, which earned him the
singular honor of
entering the Anaktoron.
2.
The telete was divided into three central parts.
a.
The first step was the dromena , or things enacted.
b.
The second step was the legomena, or things spoken.
c.
The last step was the deiknymena or things shown.
Transition:
Whatever occurred exactly during these rites is unknown, but what is
known is the impact they had on Greek and Roman culture.
III.
The social impact of the rites at Eleusis did not only affect the
Greco-Roman world, but our own as well.
A.
The Mysteries were the axis upon which the Greco-Roman world revolved.
1.
Cicero, a Roman statesman,
explains that “These Mysteries have brought us from rustic
savagery to a cultivated and refined
civilization.”
2.
The philosopher Plato describes the Mysteries as “beatific visions …
calm, happy, simple, eternal visions, resplendent
in pure light.”
B. The
highest authorities considered the Mysteries as essential, sacred, and not
something to be undermined.
1.
Plato quotes his teacher, Socrates, as commenting about the necessity of
the order of the mysteries by saying: “I
envy you, Callicles, for having been initiated into the great mysteries before
you were initiated into the lesser. I
thought that this was not allowed.”
2.
The Roman historian Suetonius explained how even the tyrant Caesar Nero
had refused his own initiation out of guilt for murdering his mother.
C. With this
atmosphere of ultimate authority, the rites allowed for both the psychological
and spiritual growth of the mystae.
1.
Each mystae was initiated individually, giving the strongest
impression that the
god Dionysus was conveying these rites upon him or her personally.
2.
This personal initiation had a life-changing effect on the participants.
a.
The Greek historian Zosimos informs us that the “sacred Mysteries hold
the whole human race together,” and without them “life would be
unbearable.”
b.
Sopatros, himself an initiate, had this to say about what he experienced:
“I came out of the Mystery Hall feeling like a stranger to myself.”
D.
The Mysteries are still replayed in many of our modern dramatic works.
1.
The blockbuster film, The Matrix, interweaves many of these
themes.
a.
The death and rebirth of the new initiate, Neo, resembles the rebirth of
Dionysus after his crucifixion.
b.
The concepts of personal awareness explored in the film mirror to some
extent the new perception the mystae would receive.
2.
The film, Bless the Child, also entwines certain Eleusinian
concepts.
a.
The abduction of the virgin by the dark lord in the film is similar to
the abduction of Persephone by Hades.
b.
The death and resurrection of the virgin’s aunt seems to be a mixture
of both Persephone emerging from the underworld and Demeter saving her own
daughter.
Transition:
It is clearly evident from all the historical evidence which has turned
up over the last sixteen hundred years, that these rites, although seemingly
foreign to many of us, have left a lasting influence upon any society which was
or is connected with the ancient Greeks.
Conclusion
I.
Now, we have arrived at the end of our own initiation of better
understanding of the Greco-Roman
world, we have acquired some knowledge of the history of these rites, the
means by which they were conducted, and the impact they had on the individual
and Greek and Roman society.
II.
While they began humbly about 3600 years ago, and ended over 1600 years
ago, we can still hear the songs of the mystae and
the prayers of the hierophant if we quiet ourselves just enough, and look
with more critical eyes at our own culture’s versions of the rites today.
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Visual
aids only:
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Gage, T.
(2002). Eleusis Map.
Retrieved September 18, 2002 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.humboldt.edu/~teg1/dio_cave/eleusmap.JPG
Garrison, M. (January 12,
2002). The Greek View of the
Afterlife and the Underworld: The
Eleusinian
Mysteries. Retrieved
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http://www.trinity.edu/mgarriso/Myth/MythEleusis.html
