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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.
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 ...
The cult originated in southern Italy (part of Magna Graecia) and was probably based on the Thesmophoria, a mystery cult dedicated to Demeter and Persephone as "Mother and Maiden". It arrived along with its Greek priestesses, who were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with ...
There is a museum at the archaeological site called the Archaeological museum of Lykosoura, housing small finds as well as part of the cult group, while the remains of the cult statues of Despoina and Demeter are displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The most significant artifact among its collection is the veil of Despoina ...
One particularly distinctive epithet she bore was Demeter Melaina (Ancient Greek: Δημητηρ Μελαινα), meaning “Black Demeter” and referring to an Arcadian version of her mythology. The ancient Greek travel writer Pausanias records a myth where, whilst searching for her lost daughter Kore, Demeter was pursued by the god Poseidon .
Unlike many of the cults in the Ancient Greek world, the cult of Demeter kept its rites a secret except for a chosen few, thus warranting the name the Eleusinian Mysteries. [3] While at first the cult of Demeter remained small, it eventually grew quite large after Eleusis was incorporated into Athens during the Archaic period.
By the 1st-century BC, Demeter suckling Iacchus had become such a commonplace, that the Latin poet Lucretius could use it as an apparently recognizable example of a lover's euphemism. [61] A scholiast on the 2nd-century AD Aristides, explicitly names Demeter as Iacchus' mother. [62] By other accounts apparently, Iacchus was the husband of ...
The cult was based on the women-only Greek Thesmophoria, which was a part public and part mystery cult to Demeter and Persephone as "Mother and Maiden". It arrived in Rome along with its Greek priestesses, who were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil ...