12 Facts About Eleusinian Mysteries

Eleusinian Mysteries were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece.

The Eleusinian Mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the descent, the search, and the ascent, with the main theme being the ascent () of Persephone and the reunion with her mother.

Eleusinian Mysteries's was obliged to remain with Hades for six or four months and lived above ground with her mother for the rest of the year.

One line of thought by modern scholars has been that the Eleusinian Mysteries were intended "to elevate man above the human sphere into the divine and to assure his redemption by making him a god and so conferring immortality upon him".

Some scholars argued that the Eleusinian Mysteries cult was a continuation of a Minoan cult, and that Demeter was a poppy goddess who brought the poppy from Crete to Eleusis.

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Eleusinian Mysteries was one of her original priests, along with Diocles, Eumolpos, Polyxeinus, and Triptolemus, Celeus' son, who had supposedly learned agriculture from Demeter.

Under Peisistratos of Athens, the Eleusinian Mysteries became pan-Hellenic, and pilgrims flocked from Greece and beyond to participate.

Discovery of fragments of ergot in a temple dedicated to the two Eleusinian Mysteries goddesses excavated at the Mas Castellar site provided legitimacy for this theory.

Julian attempted to restore the Eleusinian Mysteries and was the last emperor to be initiated into them.

The Eleusinian Mysteries Relief, from the late 5th century BC, displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is a representative example.

Eleusinian Mysteries is standing near the omphalos while an unknown female sat nearby on the kiste, holding a scepter and a vessel filled with kykeon.

Discovery of fragments of ergot in a temple dedicated to the two Eleusinian Mysteries Goddesses excavated at the Mas Castellar site (Girona, Spain) provided legitimacy for this theory.