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Mystery religions, mystery cults, sacred mysteries or simply mysteries (Greek: μυστήρια), were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates (mystai). The main characteristic of these religious schools was the secrecy associated with the particulars of the initiation and the ritual practice ...
A votive plaque known as the Ninnion Tablet depicting elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries, discovered in the sanctuary at Eleusis (mid-4th century BC). The Eleusinian Mysteries (Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, romanized: Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece.
According to ancient Greek mythology, Kore (Ancient Greek: κόρη), whose name translates to "Maiden", was the first born daughter of Demeter. Following the abduction of Kore by the Underworld God, Hades, Demeter went in desperate search for her lost daughter, who would later come to be known as Persephone (Ancient Greek: Περσεφονη ...
Sacred prostitution, also known as temple or cult prostitution, involved various activities in ancient times, many of which that occurred in Greece were in some way related to the Greek Goddess Aphrodite and the Greek city of Corinth. In ancient times women’s bodies were viewed as more sexually desirable than men’s because of their ...
After the huge Roman conquests beyond Greece, new cults from Egypt and Asia became popular in Greece as well as the western empire. Suppression and decline The initial decline of Greco-Roman polytheism was due in part to its syncretic nature, assimilating beliefs and practices from a variety of foreign religious traditions as the Roman Empire ...
The oldest religious Amphictyonic League was known as Anthelian because it was centered on the cult of the chthonic goddess Demeter at Anthela. The twelve delegates were entitled Pylagorai (gate-assemblers), perhaps a reference to the local Gates of Hades, since Demeter was a chthonic goddess in her older local cults.
The history of biology traces the study of the living world from ancient to modern times. Although the concept of biology as a single coherent field arose in the 19th century, the biological sciences emerged from traditions of medicine and natural history reaching back to Ayurveda, ancient Egyptian medicine and the works of Aristotle, Theophrastus and Galen in the ancient Greco-Roman world.
Greek hero-cults were distinct from the clan-based ancestor worship from which they developed, [3] in that as the polis evolved, they became a civic rather than familial affair, and in many cases none of the worshipers traced their descent back to the hero any longer: no shrine to a hero can be traced unbroken from Mycenaean times.