Editing Elefsina (section)

==== Mythology and Proto-history ====

It appears to have derived its name from the supposed advent (ἔλευσις) of Demeter, though some traced its name from an eponymous hero Eleusis.<ref name="Cite Pausanias|1|38|7">{{Cite Pausanias|1|38|7}}</ref> It was one of the 12 independent states into which Attica was said to have been originally divided.<ref>{{Cite Strabo|ix. p.397}}</ref>

"When Athens had only just become Athens, it went to war with another city built thirteen miles away: Eleusis," [[Roberto Calasso]] wrote of the ancient provenance of the relationship between temple-city and the [[Attica|Attic]] seat of power.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Calasso|first=Roberto|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1114975938|title=The celestial hunter|date=2020|others=Richard Dixon|isbn=978-0-241-29674-5|location=[London], UK|pages=361|oclc=1114975938}}</ref> "It was a war usually described as mythical, since it has no date. And it was a theological war, since Athens belonged to [[Athena]] and Eleusis to [[Poseidon]]. [[Eumolpus]] and [[Erechtheus]], the founding kings of the two cities, both died in it."<ref name=":0" />

It is related that in the reign of [[Eumolpus]], king of Eleusis, and [[Erechtheus]], king of Athens, there was a war between the two states, in which the Eleusinians were defeated, whereupon they agreed to acknowledge the supremacy of Athens in everything except the celebration of the mysteries, of which they were to continue to have the management.<ref>{{Cite Thucydides|2.15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Pausanias|1|38|3}}</ref> Eleusis afterwards became an Attic deme, but in consequence of its sacred character it was allowed to retain the title of ''[[polis]]'' (πόλις)<ref>{{Cite Strabo|ix. p.395}}</ref><ref name="Cite Pausanias|1|38|7" /> and to coin its own money, a privilege possessed by no other town in Attica, except Athens. The history of Eleusis is part of the history of Athens. Once a year the great Eleusinian procession travelled from Athens to Eleusis, along the [[Sacred Way]].