![]() ![]() They were each accompanied by a sponsor who had already undergone initiation rites initiates were known as the epoptai or "those who see." In the procession, participants danced and shouted rhythmically while swinging bundles of branches. Following this, those seeking initiation - referred to as the mystai or "those who close their eyes" - took part in a procession along the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis. Each participant bathed in the sea together with a piglet, which he or she later sacrificed at Eleusis. It began with a period of fasting and purification. ![]() The ceremony of the mysteries took place before the fall harvest. It was also very democratic in that anyone could become an initiate, including those without power in that society: women, the lower classes, and slaves. The Eleusinian mysteries was the most important of the Greek mystery cults: at one period, it seems that a majority of Athenians were initiates. The exact relationship between the poem and the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries remains a matter of speculation. ![]() The cult was named after the town of Eleusis, 14 miles west of Athens. BCE) and certainly by the 8th century BCE. ![]() The Hymn to Demeter is considered our earliest testament to the existence of a "mystery cult" known as the Eleusinian Mysteries which existed in Greece possibly as early as the Mycenean Age (c. Demeter, enthroned and extending her hand in a benediction toward the kneeling Metaneira, who offers wheat, c. 340 BCE. ![]()
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