He was reckoned by some ancient authors as one of the Seven Sages of Greece, and it is said that he was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries of the Great Goddess, a privilege denied to those who did not speak fluent Greek.

Andocides ' defense against the charge of impiety in attending the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who had been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, a cult to Demeter based in his hometown of Eleusis.

Iakhos later became an attendant of Demeter and the leader of Eleusinian Mysteries.

After having been given the task, Heracles went to Eleusis to be initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries so that he could learn how to enter and exit the underworld alive, and in passing absolve himself for killing centaurs.

She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon.

* Eleusinian Mysteries: Persephone, Demeter, Baubo

* Glaucus ( sophist ), hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries

Among Christian heresiologists, the concept of false gnosis was used to denote different Pagan, Jewish or Christian belief systems ( e. g. the Eleusinian Mysteries or Glycon ) and their various teachings of what was deemed

* Taylor, Thomas, A Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, 1791.

Sources also identify Ictinus as architect of the Telesterion at Eleusis, a gigantic hall used in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

While there, Julian became acquainted with two men who later became both bishops and saints: Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Great ; in the same period, Julian was also initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which he would later try to restore.

The cemetery was also where the Ηiera Hodos ( the Sacred Way, i. e. the road to Eleusis ) began, along which the procession moved for the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Category: Eleusinian Mysteries

* During a voyage to Greece, Hadrian is initiated in the ancient rites known as the Eleusinian Mysteries.

They reached Eleusina, near Athens, and destroyed the temple of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

The most famous mysteries of Greco-Roman antiquity were the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were of considerable antiquity and predated the Greek Dark Ages.

They reached Eleusis, near Athens, and destroyed the temple of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

* c. 1500 BC — Eleusinian Mysteries start in Ancient Greece.

The Eleusinian Mysteries () were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece.

Since the Mysteries involved visions and conjuring of an afterlife, some scholars believe that the power and longevity of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from psychedelic agents.

The Eleusinian Mysteries are believed to be of considerable antiquity, deriving from religious practice of the Mycenaean period and thus predating the Greek Dark Ages.

Under Pisistratus of Athens, the Eleusinian Mysteries became pan-Hellenic and pilgrims flocked from Greece and beyond to participate.

Four categories of people participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries:

* Taylor, Thomas, The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries: a dissertation.

* Thomas Taylor, The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, 1791.

He emphasized the Eleusinian mysteries which had been practiced by so many during the Republic.

Her Eleusinian mysteries were open to initiates of any gender or social class.

and the Lady were connected with a cult which was transmitted later to the Eleusinian mysteries.

Persephone as a vegetation goddess ( Kore ) and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon, and promised to the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death.

In the Eleusinian mysteries her return is the symbol of immortality and hence she was frequently represented on sarcophagi.

The cults of Persephone and Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries and in the Thesmophoria were based on very old agrarian cults.

However the idea of immortality which appears in the syncretistic religions of Near East did not exist in the Eleusinian mysteries at the very beginning.

Elysion is probably counterpart with Eleusis, the city of the Eleusinian mysteries, and it may have been offered like a reward to the initiated.

Cult of Demeter and the Maiden is found at Attica, in the main festivals Thesmophoria and Eleusinian mysteries and in a lot of local cults.

The Eleusinian mysteries | Eleusinian trio: Persephone, Triptolemus and Demeter on a marble bas-relief from Eleusis, 440-430 BC.

The Eleusinian Relief, from late 5th century BC, displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is a representative example.

Some scholars have proposed that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the kykeon's functioning as a psychedelic agent.

* Cephissus ( Eleusis ), a tributary of the Saronic Gulf from the Eleusinian plain

The Thesmophoria were the most widespread festivals and the main expression of the cult of Demeter, aside from the Eleusinian Mysteries.

A great hall in Eleusis, Telesterion (" Initiation Hall " from Gr. τελείω, to complete, to fulfill, to consecrate, to initiate ) was one of the primary centers of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

In the Eleusinian Mysteries, the bakchoi were the branches that initiates carried during their procession along the Sacred Way, the twenty-one kilometer hike from Athens to Eleusis.

One of the experts was one of the Eumolpidae, the ancient family from whose members the hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries had been chosen since before history, and the other was the scholarly Egyptian priest Manetho, which gave weight to the judgement both for the Egyptians and the Greeks.

Phryne, the hetaera from 4th century BC Greece and famed for her beauty, appeared before the Areopagus accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries.

American author John Grigsby contends that the presence of ergot in the stomachs of some of the so called ' bog-bodies ' ( Iron Age human remains from peat bogs N E Europe such as Tollund Man ) is indicative of use of ergot in ritual drinks in a prehistoric fertility cult akin to the Eleusinian Mysteries cult of ancient Greece.

Kykeon, the beverage consumed by participants in the ancient Greek cult of Eleusinian Mysteries, might have been based on hallucinogens from ergot, and lysergic acid diethylamide ( LSD ) is a potent hallucinogen, which was first synthesized from ergot alkaloids by the Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann, in 1938.

Archaic and Classical Greek hero-cults became primarily civic, extended from their familial origins, in the sixth century ; by the fifth century none of the worshipers based their authority by tracing descent back to the hero, with the exception of some families who inherited particular priestly cult, such as the Eumolpides ( descended from Eumolpus ) of the Eleusinian mysteries, and some inherited priesthoods at oracle sites.

For example, though he is angered by his exclusion from governing by the Eleusinian Queen Persephone and threatens force to obtain what he believes is the respect and honor due him, he never actually undertakes any personal revenge upon her, sparing her life and letting her freely leave Eleusis despite at least four separate attempts by her or her agents to kill him.

Worship of Mother Dia also inspires the sacrifices of the Eleusinian king, and people always pray to the gods for relief from famine, disease, or danger.

He blasphemed by making public the Eleusinian Mysteries and discouraging people from being initiated.