Introduction

 

For we believe that there is nothing more important
for man to receive,
or more ennobling for God of his grace to grant,
than the truth."

Plutarch Isis and Osiris

 

"Beautiful indeed is the mystery given us by the blessed gods:
death is for mortals no longer an evil, but a blessing."
Inscription found at Eleusis

"Blessed is he who has seen these things
before he goes beneath the earth;
for he understands the end of mortal life,
and the beginning (of a new life) given of God."
Pindar Fragment 102

"For among the many excellent and indeed divine institutions
which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to human life,
none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries.
For by their means we have been brought out
of our barbarous and savage mode of life
and educated and refined to a state of civilization;
and as the rites are called "initiations,"
so in very truth we have learned from them the beginnings of life,
and have gained the power not only to live happily,
but also to die with a better hope."
Cicero Laws II, xiv, 36

"But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world;
they may have seen them for a short time only,
or they may have been unfortunate in their earthly lot,
and, having had their hearts turned to injustice
through some corrupting influence,
they may have lost the memory
of the holy things which once they saw.
Few only retain an adequate remembrance of them;
and they when they see here any image of that other world,
are rapt in amazement;
but they are ignorant of what this rapture means,
because they do not clearly perceive.
For there is no light of justice or temperance
or any of the higher ideas which are precious to souls
in the earthly copies of them:
they are seen through a glass dimly;
and there are few who, going to the images,
seen in them the realities, and these only with difficulty.
There was a time when with the rest of the happy band
they saw beauty shining in brightness,---
we philosophers following in the train of Zeus,
others in company with other gods;
and then we saw the beatific vision
and were initiated into a mystery
which may be truly called most blessed,
celebrated by us in our state of innocence,
before we had any experience of evils to come,
when we were admitted to the sight of apparitions
innocent and simple and calm and happy,
which we saw shining in pure light,
pure ourselves and not yet enshrined in that living tomb
which we carry about, now that we are imprisoned in the body,
like an oyster in his shell."
Socrates in Plato Phaedrus 250

"There we must ascend again towards the good,
desired of every soul.
Anyone who has seen this, knows what I intend
when I say it is beautiful.
Even the desire of it is to be desired as a good.
To attain it is for those who will take the upward path,
who will set all their forces towards it,
who will divest themselves of all
that we have put on in our descent:---
so, to those who approach the Holy Celebrations of the Mysteries,
there are appointed purifications
and the laying aside of the garments worn before,
and the entry in nakedness---
until, passing on the upward way,
all that is other than the God,
each in the solitude of oneself
shall see that solitary-dwelling existence,
the apart, the unmingled, the pure,
that from which all things depend,
for which all look and live and act and know,
the source of life and of intellection and of being."
Plotinus First Ennead VI, 7

In humility and with due reverence for their sacred character, may we attempt to penetrate those mysteries which have been hidden from human view for many centuries and inevitably draw closer to those greater mysteries of which no mortal has knowledge, for the true comprehension of them would imply immortality. First I speak of the secret mystical rites practiced in antiquity releasing from their minds the fear of death, and giving them a glimpse at understanding the eternal regeneration of the spiritual life. Of the greater mysteries I may only speculate as to the sojourn of the soul through many incarnations and the inner realms leading to God.

The aim of this essay is to present before the reader translations of the ancient writings relating to the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece. No modern scholars could justly impose their opinion of these most mysterious and holy rites on the contemporary reader as too little is known to give a complete and well-informed picture in summary. The strict secrecy, though practiced for two thousand years, has not been significantly violated, and we shall never know, save through clairvoyance transcending centuries, what the initiates actually experienced in the final beatific vision. Therefore we are forced to rely on the obscure statements of those who were initiated and the ignorant and often prejudiced judgments of those who were not initiated.

For the sake of clarity all quotations from ancient sources will be set off from the main body of the essay, while all quotations from modern scholars will be placed in quotations marks amidst the words of the author. I have relied mostly on the extensive scholarship and research of George Mylonas and C. Kerenyi and gratefully acknowledge their work.

Though history, archaeology, and art have been taken into consideration, the approach of this essay is phenomenological, concentrating on the experience of the initiates and the nature of the deities. By itself this essay is clearly incomplete and ideally would be complemented with a film showing the site at Eleusis, statues, paintings, vases, inscriptions, etc. The reader is advised to consult Mylonas, Kerenyi, and Erich Neumann's The Great Mother for black-and-white plates.

The Eleusinian Mysteries (and also those of Isis) seem to have been set apart from the primordial mother cults of archaic cultures by their highly evolved spiritual connotations, though they may very well have evolved out of primitive forerunners. Neumann states that the feminine mysteries of Eleusis are more connected with proximate realities of everyday life than the more abstract male mysteries.

Because of how little is known about these mysteries, their great importance in the ancients' lives seems to have been passed over by most historians. In many ways the mysteries of Eleusis stand behind Greek religion bound in their secret hearts and veiling their true understanding of death from our notice. Heraclitus said:

The real constitution of things is accustomed to hide itself.

Heraclitus, Fragments (Diels 211)

The inner realms of consciousness are hidden from our physical senses, yet their reality may be greater. Though the physical changes form in a natural process, the spiritual lives eternally.