At Eleusis stood the most important temple of Demeter, the Greek goddess of the crops and fertility. The mysteries there were famous. But what happened there?
Needless to say there is a load of hogwash available in printed and web form averring that it was all exactly like a Christian ceremony, or maybe slightly like, or some other form of anachronistic drivel. It would seem that some US scholars even encourage this kind of mental confusion, which tells us something about the state of US universities. So where do we start, to get hold of reliable information?
As ever, the first thing to do, if we want to examine the question, is to look at the primary sources.
It seems that a website has collected all the primary sources, mingled with ancient testimonia about the myth of Demeter (which bulks them out a bit). They are here:
The site is not a scholarly one, but the author has gone to some trouble to collect these materials, and deserves our gratitude. The labour must have been considerable!
UPDATE: It looks as if the sources have been copied from elsewhere, and perhaps derive from George Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, Princeton, 1961. Apparently this is a compilation of data, and was the life’s work of the author. I couldn’t find a PDF, tho – anyone got one?
The “mystery” aspect is completely overblown making these rites become all things to all people. To medieval Christians it was an abomination. To the Victorians it was a proto-Christianity. To 60’s scholars it was Woodstock with Greeks tripping balls like Joe Rogan via spiked kykeon. It’s Jonestown! It’s Burning Man!
Most everything in the ancient world is a mystery. Of the thousands of Greek plays written we have just 42. Do we append “mystery” to the genre? No. There are endless details of ancient life and religion about which we know very little. Frankly, given this was a mass civic cult like Roman imperial cult, we know MORE about it than other cults. Its endurance for so long was not because of some magical peep show, “born again” drama, or psychedelic dope, but because Athens incorporated the area and took responsibility for the festival and did what Athenians do: made it a civic duty (We are talking about a culture that passed a law PAYING people to attend the theater. Buying votes at its best). Why was attendance encouraged? Because it made money. There was a hustle to it. There was a wide range of fees and taxes underlying these “mysteries” and even slaves had to pay. Let’s demystify the “mysteries” and show what they really were: a money-making operation by the city fathers:
We know that two slaves in 329 BC had to pay fifteen drachmas each to attend. If that was the flat rate and the Telesterion seated 3000, then that’s 45,000 drachmas per performance. For perspective, fifteen drachmas was two weeks’ wages for an Athenian worker. That blows the lid off the “inclusive” nature of these rites. They were EXCLUSIVE. “But sir, my parents died and I don’t have the money but I want to be a pious Athenian with all my heart!” F@#k you, pay me.
The two hieropoioi appointed by the city received a half-obol each, or 250 drachmas per day assuming the slave-rate above, or 2500 drachmas for the 10-day “Greater Mysteries.” That was MONEY.
The priestess of Demeter was paid an obol per initiate for each day of the “Lesser Mysteries” which came to about 1000 drachmas. Like the hieropoioi I can only assume she rented a house on the Amalfi coast during the off season.
The Eumolpaidae and Kerykes – the two families that organized the events and paid for these officials – were paid five obols per each male initiate, females had to pay three. That comes to 2000 drachmas give or take, depending on the gender makeup.
Then we have the Renaissance Faire, carnival aspect of it: grilled lamb on a stick, fried goat cheese, ancient hot dogs and soda, baubles, gift shops, t-shirts, etc. Let’s just say the food wasn’t free. More on that below.
Thousands of people who never even attended had to pay! Let me explain…
The Athenians issued a series of decrees in the fifth and fourth centuries forcing its Delian League “allies” (READ: vassal states) to pay tribute to the rites by sending grain payments of 1/600th their annual output of barley and 1/1,200th their annual of output of wheat to Eleusis. These people never even saw Eleusis much less the peep show inside the Telesterion yet they had to load up ships with part of their annual caloric intake and pay the piper. That’s 330 member states!
All fees were deposited in the Athenian Acropolis which, as any good ancient scholar knows, functioned as a bank, just as all the temples did.
Six Athenian officials were selected as epistatai in charge of the finances at the temple of Eleusis. They organized the festivals to become more expensive and more elaborate every year. Just their annual maintenance costs for the year 329-328 BC (repairs, food, expansion) was 40,000 drachmas. Fees were paid into a dropbox that was a kind of ancient safe called a thesauri which required a skilled worker to open and we know that dude was paid 4 drachmas for his services. The ancient bicycle messengers (the spondophoroi) who had to run all over the city-states announcing the festivals (remember, no telephone/internet/mail) doubled as construction workers and we have evidence of them being paid 240 drachmas to build a wall for the festival that cost 2,641 drachmas.
Each initiate was required to sacrifice a piglet and these people did not have piglets. Like 99.99% of everyone in the ancient world, they were illiterate vegetarians (not by choice) and only ate meat at the religious festivals. Ergo, they paid the sanctuary for each piglet (up to 3000 piglets) and more money was required of the proper animals – the sheep, goats, bulls (the goddesses were entitled only to those) . In 328 BC, each god received an average of 5 animals, and there were a pile of gods associated with Eleusis. The sacrifice of just 6 bulls would provide over a ton of meat, enough to feed every initiate. It was dinner and a show. A similar hustle was performed at Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem during Passover. Why is Jesus crucified? Because he throws a hissy fit that the temple has become a foreign exchange bank. And indeed it was! But it always had been.
This all explains the draconian capital punishment levied by the city on those who gave away the peep show. It’s no different than the gag order/review embargo that movie studios put on critics and test audiences of advanced screenings. They needed to manage public perception of the event and keep it a Houdini act. You never expose the Wizard of Oz as some old man working the bellows of afflatus. You just tell people “I can’t talk about it” and they need to go see it for themselves, there was no SPOILER ALERT. The real “mystery” of the Eleusinian Rites is right in front of everyone’s face. Just follow the yellow brick road.