The sacred officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries

About this book

"This Athenian religious festival was held in honor of the grain and fertility goddess Demeter, her name is purely Greek, meaning "spelt mother" (spelt is a hardy variety of wheat.) The cult held this important festival at the town of Eleusis, 15 miles northwest of Athens, in the heart of the wheat and barley growing region. Each year, when it was time for the crops to be sown, in the month of Boedromion (September), this was the time of year for the Mysteries to be held. It all stems from the myth of Demeter and Persephone, when Hades, took Persephone (Kore -"maiden") down into the underworld. Demeter searched the world looking for her daughter, and while she searched Demeter neglected her duties and let the earth go barren. The gods were worried and Zeus, who had witnessed the abduction, intervened. Before she went back to the world of the living, Hades gave Persephone a pomegranate to eat, thus she would always be connected to his realm and had to stay there one-third of the year. This symbolic death and rebirth is the time the seed lies in the earth and then comes to life, reborn, as was Persephone. This was the basis of the cult, a fulfilling and happy afterlife."--http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/eleusinian_mysteries.html.