Eleusis, AtticaSPYRIDON MICHALEAS

An Athenian suburb and municipality, Eleusis

was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries

(see ELEUSIS, MYSTERIES OF) and the homeland of

the great tragic poet AESCHYLUS (525–456 BCE).

Located near the northernmost end of the

SARONICGULF, Eleusis occupied part of the fertile

plain of Thria, about 23 km west of Athens,

opposite the island of Salamis; the Kifissos

River waters the plain, which is highly pro-

ductive of grain. Eleusis was independent

until the seventh century BCE, when Athens

annexed the city and made the Eleusinian

Mysteries a major Athenian religious festival.

Flourishing settlements, fortifications, and

spaces of religious worship developed here

during the whole of antiquity and also in

modern times. This persistence is easily

explained by the favorable situation of the

town, a vital point where main road arteries

pass out of Attica and connect to the rest of

Greece. At the same time, its harbor, secure

from the winds in a closed gulf, constitutes

a locus of marine communication and a node

of transit trade.

Eleusis was one of the five most important

sacred cities in Greece for almost two thous-

and years (1600 BCE – 400 CE). The Eleusinian

Mysteries attracted pilgrims from all over the

ancient world. Its mythological history begins

in the reign of the mythical king Keleos

(1500–1425), said to have constructed the

first temple of DEMETER following the construc-

tion of the sanctuary. The early Geometric

period saw here, as in the rest of Greece, a

dramatic reduction of population, sometimes

attributed to the legendary “Movement of the

Herakleidae” but now usually attributed to the

collapse of the Mycenaean world.

Eleusis came under Athenian control as

part of the synoecism that created the Athenian

polis. In 632, when Kylon attempted to become

a ruler of Athens, Eleusis regained its indepen-

dence, but by 600 it was subject once again to

the Athenians. The sanctuary’s importance

grew during the tyrannies of PEISISTRATOS.

During the last decade of the sixth century BCE,

with the democratic reforms of Kleisthenes

(508–504) and the administrative division of

the city of Athens into ten tribes, Eleusis was

included in the tribe Hippothoontida and from

then constituted one of the municipalities of

this tribe.

The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrate the god-

dess Demeter and her daughter Persephone

(Kore) (see PERSEPHONE, KORE). According to

the myth, the mysteries were held at Eleusis

because it was here that Demeter found her

daughter after her abduction by Hades.

Although the ceremonies began much earlier,

they obtained a distinctive place in the religious

life of Athens during the Classical period. One

important aspect of this place was the donation

to Demeter and Kore at Eleusis of a tithe of

the annual grain harvest, which took place in

late spring. The term “Eleusinian Mysteries”

is connected with two Greek words: eleusis,

meaning “arrival,” and mysterion, “secrecy”;

celebrants came to perform secret rites. The

mysteries were held in absolute secrecy; per-

sons who violated the requirement by talking

about them faced the death penalty.

Under Athenian sovereignty, the Mysteries

were divided into the Greater and Lesser

Mysteries. The Greater Mysteries were cele-

brated in Athens and in Eleusis, while the Lesser

Mysteries were celebrated in Agra, a suburb of

Athens, near Ardetos hill, on the shores of the

Ilissos River. The Lesser Eleusinia served as pre-

requisite for the Greater Mysteries; they took

place during the month of Anthesteria, roughly

modern January–February, in honor of

Persephone. The celebration of the Greater

Mysteries was carried out every year during

the month of Boedromion, roughly modern

September.

The DIONYSIA at Eleusis formed one of the

major celebrations of the Rural Dionysia;

indeed, they were the most renowned such

festival in Attica, although the sanctuary of

DIONYSOS at Eleusis, with its theater, has

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 2369–2371.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah14094

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not yet been found. Unlike the sanctuary of

Demeter, which belonged to the Athenian

state, that of Dionysos belonged to the demos

of Eleusis and was their most important sanc-

tuary. It was there that they normally set

up their decrees (IG II2 1185, 1186, 1188).

SOPHOCLES and ARISTOPHANES put on perfor-

mances there from ca. 468 to 405 (IG II2

3090). During the Classical and Hellenistic

periods, the deme center of the Eleusinians

was one of the most important in Attica,

contributing eleven members to the boule

(see DEMES, ATTIC). The deme collected income

from the agricultural products of the plain and

from the quarries of Eleusinian stone.

During the Persian wars, the soldiers of

Xerxes and Mardonius, perhaps in 479, ruined

the sanctuary. In the second half of the fifth

century, the sanctuary seems to have been

included in the building plans of PERIKLES.

During the PELOPONNESIAN WAR, the enemies of

Athens respected it, and no damage is known

from this period. At the time of the Athenian

civil war (404–403), when the Thirty Tyrants

and their supporters found shelter in the sanc-

tuary, Eleusis acquired its independence from

Athens again. However, when the Thirty

Tyrants were overthrown, Eleusis rejoined the

Athenian state (see THIRTY TYRANTS, AT ATHENS).

In the second half of the fourth century,

as Athens recovered some of the political influ-

ence lost as a result of its defeat in the

Peloponnesian War, building activity in the

sanctuary increased. In the Hellenistic period,

a Macedonian garrison was placed in it. The last

prosperous moments of the Eleusinian sanctu-

ary fell in Roman times. The emperors Hadrian,

Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius com-

pleted its monumental shape with buildings

such as the large and small propylaea. In

170 CE, the invasion of the Costoboci caused

serious damage to the sanctuary which, how-

ever, was restored.

With the dissemination and domination of

Christianity, the ancient ceremonies were for-

bidden by decree of THEODOSIUS I, and the

Demeter Mysteries fell into decline. The

invasion of the VISIGOTHS of Alaric (395 CE)

left the sanctuary in ruins. In the years of

JUSTINIAN I its walls were repaired in order to

intercept the attacks of the northern barbarian

intruders.

The sanctuary was excavated continuously

between 1882 and the 1950s. Bronze coins of

Eleusis (dated between the fourth and third

centuries BCE) represent Demeter drawn by

dragons or serpents, and bear the inscription

ΕLΕΥSΙ(ΝΙOΝ) or ΑYΕ within a wreath of

ears of corn. A piglet, the favorite animal of the

goddess and central to her worship, was

depicted on the obverse. The symbols of

a shell, a ram head, an ivy branch with leaves,

a dolphin, a boukranion, a grapevine, a fly, and

an astragal are also present.

SEE ALSO: Dorians.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Beschi, L. (1988) “Demeter.” LIMC 4: 844–92.

Zurich.

Clinton, K. (1971) “Inscriptions from Eleusis.”

Archaiologike Ephemeris 110: 81–136.

Clinton, K. (1992) Myth and cult: the iconography

of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Stockholm.

Clinton, K. (2005) Eleusis: the inscriptions on stone.

Documents of the Sanctuary of the Two Goddesses

and public documents of the deme, 2 vols. Athens.

Kroll, J. H. and Walker, A. (1993) The Greek coins:

the Athenian agora, vol. 26. Princeton.

Leventi, I. and Mitsopoulou, C., eds. (2010) Ιerάkai latreίeς tZς DήmZtraς stοn ΑrwaίοΕllZnikό kόsmο. Volos.

Mylonas, G. (1960) “Εleusίς kai Diόnusος.”Archaiologike Ephemeris 99: 68–118.

Papageli, K. (2002) Εleusίna: Ο arwaiοlοgikόςwώrος kai tο mοuseίο. Athens.

Preka-Alexandri, K. (1997) Εleusίς. Athens.

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