Editing Elefsina (section)

==== Eleusinian Mysteries ====

{{Main|Triptolemus}}
[[File:Great Eleusinian relief fragments Met 14.130.9 n01.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Great Eleusinian Relief]] (c 430 BC) depicting the ritual of the Mysteries, Athens museum]]

[[File:Large relief, marble, torso, Hades and Persephone, 100-90 BC, AM Eleusis, 081148.jpg|thumb|The large [[Lacrateides Relief]], 100-90 BC]]

[[File:Bust of Eubouleus (4th cent. B.C.) from Eleusis at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens on 15 September 2018.jpg|thumb|200px|Eubuleus (4th c. BC) from Eleusis (Athens Museum)]]

[[File:Eleusis (15986825818).jpg|alt=|thumb|280x280px|Roman relief with inscription and wheat decorations from the archeological site]]

Eleusis was the site of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], or the Mysteries of [[Demeter]] and [[Persephone|Kore]], which became popular in the Greek-speaking world as early as 600 BC, and attracted initiates during Roman Empire before declining mid-late 4th century AD.<ref name="CurtaHolt2016">{{cite book | author1=Florin Curta | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dgF9DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 | title=Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History | publisher=ABC-CLIO | date=28 November 2016 | author2=Andrew Holt | page=64 | isbn=978-1-61069-566-4}}</ref> These Mysteries revolved around a belief that there was a hope for life after death for those who were initiated. Such a belief was cultivated from the introduction ceremony in which the hopeful initiates were shown a number of things including the seed of life in a stalk of grain. The central [[Greek mythology|myth]] of the Mysteries was Demeter's quest for her lost daughter (Kore the Maiden, or [[Persephone]]) who had been abducted by [[Hades]]. It was here that Demeter, disguised as an old lady who was abducted by pirates in [[Crete]], came to an old well where the four daughters of the local king [[Keleos]] and his queen [[Metaneira]] ([[Kallidike]], [[Kleisidike]], [[Demeter|Demo]] and [[Kallithoe]]) found her and took her to their palace to nurse the son of Keleos and Metaneira, [[Demophon of Eleusis|Demophoon]]. Demeter raised Demophoon, anointing him with nectar and ambrosia and placing him at night in the fire in order to endow him with immortality, until Metaneira found out and insulted her. Demeter arose insulted, and casting off her disguise, and, in all her glory, instructed Meteneira to build a temple to her. Keleos, informed the next morning by Metaneira, ordered the citizens to build a rich shrine to Demeter, where she sat in her temple until the lot of the world prayed to [[Zeus]] to make the world provide food again.

The Great Eleusian relief which was famous in antiquity and was copied in the Roman period, is the largest and most important votive relief found and dates to 440-430 BC. It represents the Eleusinian deities in a scene depicting a mysterious ritual. On the left Demeter, clad in a [[peplos]] and holding a sceptre in her left hand, offers ears of wheat to Triptolemos, son of Eleusinian king Keleos, to bestow on mankind. On the right Persephone, clad in chiton and mantle and holding a torch, blesses Triptolemos with her right hand. The original marble relief was found at the sanctuary of Demeter, the site of the Eleusinian mysteries. A number of Roman copies also survive.<ref>[[Gisela M. A. Richter]]. “A Roman Copy of the Eleusinian Relief.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 11, 1935, pp. 216–221. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3255443</ref>