Sacra Eleusinia

Tabula votiva, Eleusine in sanctuario reperta, elementa sacrorum Eleusiniorum (medio saeculo IV a.C.n.) depingit.

Triptolemus, triplicem tritici fasciculum praebens, benedictiones Demetris et Persephones accipit. Caelatura saeculi quinti a.C.n., in Museo Mationali Archaeologico Athenarum conservatum.

Demeter, in regali solio sedens, Metaniram genibus nitentem manu benedicit, quae triticum triplicem porrigit, permanens arcanorum signum (Pictor Varrese, hydria figurarum rubrarum ca. 340 a.C.n., ex Apulia).

Sacra Eleusinia^[1][2] sive mysteria Eleusina,^[3][4] (Graece Ἐλευσίνια μυστήρια)^[5][6] saepe aliter appellata,^[7][8][9] fuerunt initia Demetris et Persephones quotannis habita, Eleusine in Atticae antiquae oppido notissimo condita. Quae sacra inter ceteras caerimonias apud antiquos celebrata maximi momenti habebantur.

Constat Eleusinia sacra fuisse in vetere cultu agrario posita, qui a tempore Mycenaeo (c. 1600–1100 a.C.n.) originem trahere videtur. Notio immortalitatis, quae in religionibus syncretisticis antiquitatis comparet, antiquitate exeunte introducta est.^[10] Mysteriis illis Persephone a Plutone rege inferorum (Ἀίδης) ex manibus Demetris matris abducta repraesentabatur. Qui mythus, dispositus circulo tripartito qui in descensu (propter amissionem) et indagatione et adscensu consistebat, praecipue de adscensu Persephones eiusque cum matre reconciliatione narrabat. Mysteria Eleusina fuerunt feriae maioris momenti aetate Hellenistica celebratae, quae postea Romam manaverunt.^[11] Eleusin, nomen oppidi, prae-Graecum esse videtur. Sunt qui putent huic nomini cognationem esse cum Elysio (Graece Ἠλύσιον) et Ilithyia (Graece Εἰλειθυία).^[12]

Ritus, caerimoniae, fides fuerunt res absconditae, perpetuo celatae et custoditae. Qui initiati erant credebant sese in vita posteriore compensationem accepturos esse.^[13] Hodie multae picturae fragmentaque figlinae sunt quae varios arcanorum aspectus describunt. Quia arcana imaginum visiones et vitae posterioris praestigias comprehendebant, nonnulli eruditi hodierni putant potestatem et longaevitatem mysteriorum Eleusinorum ex rebus psychedelicis emanavisse.^[14]

Mythologia Demetris et Persephones

Mysteria ad mythum de Demetre pertinent, dea agriculturae et fertilitatis, ut in uno ex Hymnis Homericis (ca. 650 a.C.n.) narratur. Secundum hymnum, Persephone Demetris filia (etiam Kore 'Virgo' appellata), cum ea et amicae flores conligerent, ab Hade, deo mortis infernique Graeci, capta est; qui eam ad suum regnum subterraneum abstulit. Demeter conturbata filiam ubique petebat. Ob suam miseriam, adque cogendum Iovem ut sineret Persephonem redire, terribilem effecit siccitatem, quo homines dolore adfecti fameque confecti sunt; quo deos sacrificiis et veneratione privaret. Evenit ut Zeus molliens Persephonem sivit ad matrem redire.^[15]

Ex mytho, Demeter indagans procul errat, cum multa patret incepta minora. Verum aliquando tamen Triptolemum arcanis agriculturae docet.^[16] Ad extremum, Iove consulto, Demeter filiam sibi coniungit, ac tellus in priorem viriditatem prosperitatemque primo autumno restituitur.

Zeus, a ploratibus hominum pressus qui fame periebant aliorumque deum qui mortalium exaudiebant angorem, Hadem ut Persephonen remitteret coegit. Erat autem regula Fatorum quod quicumque cibum vel potionem in inferno consumpsit aeternitatem ibi degere debuit. Antequam Persephone est Hermi liberata (qui ad eam recuperandam missus erat), Hades fraude ac dolio fecit ut ea semina mali granati ederet, sex vel quattuor, secundum auctorem; quo facto, in infernos nonnullos menses quotannis redire debuit, cum Hade sex vel quattuor menses (cuique semini singulo mense), cum matre super terram aequale tempore commorari. Filia diu absente, mater tristis terram cultam neglegere coepit; filia autem ad superficiem reducta, mater laetabilis vegetationem telluris denuo curabat.

Nexus interni

Arcana Dionysia Ascalabus Bacchoi Cabiri Campus Rharianus

Ceres (dea) Daduchus Dea papaverum Eleusinium Eleusis (ludus)

Iambe Orphismus (religio) Prorrhesis Via Sacra (Attica)

Notae

1. "Sacra Eleusinia": Suetonius, De vita Caesarum, "Claudius" 25; Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 11.6.5.
2. "Eleusinis sacris" (abl. pl.): Suetonius, De vita Caesarum "Nero" 34.4; Historia Augusta, "Alexander Severus" 18.2.
3. "Mysteria Eleusina . . . Cereris sacrificia, quae ad Eleusin Oppidum Atticae celebrabantur." Ludovicus Vives, Dialogos de Juan Luis Vives, a Christoval Coret y Peris Hispanice conversus, ed. 7a (Valentiae: 1780), p. 322.
4. "Haud dubie posse concludi, mysteria eleusina vim habuisse in paulina de coena Domini sententia." Carolus Guilelmus Rudolphus Schaefer, "De Quatuor quae in Novo Testamento de coena Domini extant relationum natura ac indole," dissertatio theologica inauguralis (Gueterslohae: Literarum Universitas Albertina, 1894), p. 36.
5. "Ἐλευσίνια μυστήρια": Suda s.v. "Socrates"
6. Alibi "τὰ κατ' Ἐλευσῖνα μυστήρια": Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 3.12.4
7. "Arcana Eleusina": "Hinc factum est, ut ex antiquis nullo pacto eruditi potuerint eruere arcana Eleusina, & Orphica." Prosperus ab Aquila, Dictionarium Theologicum Portatile (1769), p. 157.
8. "Sacra Cereris": Cicero, Pro Balbo 55
9. De nomine adiectivo, vide "tardaque Eleusinae matris volventia plaustra," Vergilius, Georgica 1.163. Sed confer Eleusinia in "anaglyphum ad mysteria Eleusinia" in Bibliotheca Classica Latina sive Collectio auctorum classicorum, vol. 18 (1819), pp. 232–233, et apud alios auctores.
10. Martin Nilsson, The Greek popular religion: The cult of Eleusis, pp. 42–44.
11. Ouvaroff, M. (ex Francica a J. D. Price conversus) Essay on the Mysteries of Eleusis (Londinii: Rodwell and Martin, 1817). Reimpressio: Kessinger Publishing, 2004). Secundum Ouvaroff, scire tempus primorum mysteriorum Eleusinorum multas quaestiones habere.
12. "Elysion: The island of the happy dead (Hesiod: Works and days 166ff). Eileithyia. A Minoan goddess of childbirth and divine midwifery." F. Schachermeyer, Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta (Stuttgartiae: W. Kohlhammer, 1967), pp 141–142.
13. Antonia Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, November 2001), pp. 16–21.
14. Wasson, R. Gordon, Ruck, Carl, Hofmann, A., The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1978.
15. Helene P. Foley, The Homeric "Hymn to Demeter" (Princetoniae: Princeton University Press, 1994). Etiam Steck Vaughn, Demeter and Persephone (Steck Vaughn Publishing, June 1994).
16. William Smith, A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography, vol. 2 (Kessinger Publishing, 2006).

Bibliographia

• Apud Clementem Alexandrinum, Exhortation to the Greeks (Meyer 1999:18).
• Apollodorus. Apollodorus: The Library, conversus ab Iacobo Georgio Frazer Equite. 2 voll. Loeb Classical Library. Cantabrigiae Massachusettae: Harvard University Press; Londinii: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Vol. 1: ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Vol. 2: ISBN 0-674-99136-2.
• Boardman, Griffin, et Murray. 1986.The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxoniae: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-872112-3.
• Bowden, Hugh. 2010. Mystery Cults of the Ancient World. Princetoniae: Princeton University Press.
• Brisson, Luc, et Catherine Tihanyi. 2004. How Philosophers Saved Myths: Allegorical Interpretation and Classical Mythology. Sicagi: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-07535-4.
• Burkert, Walter. 1987. Ancient Mystery Cults. Cantabrigiae Massachusettae: Harvard University Press.
• Cicero. De Legibus, 2.14.36.
• Clinton, Kevin. 1974. "The Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries", Transactions of the American Philosophical Societyː 1-143
  • 1994. "The Epidauria and the Arrival of Asclepius in Athens" in Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence. Ed. R. Hägg. Holmiae. ISBN 91-7916-029-8.
• Evans, Nancy A. 2002. "Sanctuaries, Sacrifices, and the Eleusinian Mysteries", Numenː 227-254
• Gagné, Renaud. 2009 "Mystery Inquisitors: Performance, Authority, and Sacrilege at Eleusis", Classical Antiquityː 211-247
• Goblet d’Alviella, Eugène, comte. 1903. The mysteries of Eleusis : the secret rites and rituals of the classical Greek mystery tradition.
• Greene, William C. 1946. "The Return of Persephone." In Classical Philology. Sicagi: University of Chicago Press.
• Keller, Mara Lynn. 1988. "The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone: Fertility, Sexuality, and Rebirth", Journal of Feminist Studies in Religionː 27-54
• Kerényi, Karl. 1991. Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter. Princetoniae: Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-01915-0.
• Metzner, Ralph. 1997. The Reunification of the Sacred and the natural. Eleusis 8:3–13.
• McKenna, Terence. 1993. Food of the Gods: Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-37130-4.
• Meyer, Marvin W. 1999. The Ancient Mysteries, a Sourcebook: Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1692-X
• Moore, Clifford H. 1916. Religious Thought of the Greeks. Reimpressio: Kessinger Publishing Aprili 2003. ISBN 0-7661-5130-1.
• Mylonas, George Emmanuel. 1961. Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princetoniae: Princeton University Press. Et iam 1947 The Classical Journalː 130-146
• Nilsson, Martin P. 1940. Greek Popular Religion.
• Rassias, Vlasis. 2000. Demolish Them. Ed. 2a. (Graece.) Athenis. ISBN 960-7748-20-4.
• Riu, Xavier. 1999. Dionysism and Comedy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.. Reimpressio Martio 2002. ISBN 0-8476-9442-9.
• Robertson, Noel D. 1998. "The Two Processions to Eleusis and the Program of the Mysteries", The American Journal of Philologyː 547-575
• Rohde, Erwin. 1925. Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Belief in Immortality among the Greeks. Ed. 8a. A W. B. Hillis conversus. Routledge & Kegan Paul. Reimprssio Routledge.
• Shulgin, Alexander, ET Ann Shulgin. 1997. TiHKAL. Transform Press.
• Smith, William. 2006. A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography. 2 voll. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. ISBN 1-4286-4561-6.
• Smith, William. 175. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Londinii.
• Taylor, Thomas. 1790. The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries: a dissertation. Amstelodami (i.e., Londinii). Editio quarta, 1891.
• Tripolitis, Antonia. 2001. Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-4913-X.
• Vaughn, Steck. 1994. Demeter and Persephone. Steck Vaughn Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8114-3362-4.
• Wasson, R, Carl Ruck, et Albert Hofmann. 1978. The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-177872-8.
• Willoughby, Harold R. 2003. "The Greater Mysteries at Eleusis,"^{[nexus deficit]} caput 2, ex Pagan Regeneration: A Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World.^{[nexus deficit]} Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 0-7661-8083-2.

Nexus externi

Vicimedia Communia plura habent quae ad Mysteria Eleusina spectant.

• Edward A. Beach, "The Eleusinian Mysteries," www.uwec.edu
• Thomas R. Martin, "The Eleusinian Mysteries," web.archive.org (ex An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander)
• Imagines Inscriptionum Arcanorum Eleusinorum, eleusis.library.cornell.edu (Cornell University Library)
• R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, et Carl A. P. Ruck, Praefatio et caput primum ex libro The Road to Eleusis, www.psychedelic-library.org
• Rosicrucian Digest, vol. 87, www.rosicrucian.org