The Archeological Museum of Eleusis is a museum in Eleusis, Attica, Greece. The museum is located inside the archaeological site of Eleusis. Built in 1890, by the plans of the German architect Kaverau, to keep the findings of the excavations, and after two years (1892) was extended under the plans of the Greek architect J. Mousis.
The city of Elefsina and the Eleusinian Mysteries are the two main themes of the museum's displays. [1] There is a collection of objects dating from the 5th century BC, when the reputation of the temple was panhellenic, and the number of believers who moved there in order to attend the ceremonies of the Eleusinian mysteries had increased significantly.
Many of the findings are associated with these ceremonies. The Votive piglet reminds the sacrifice of these animals for the purgation of the believers at Phaleron, which took place in some of the preparatory stages of the ceremonies, and the kernos , a ceremonial vessel which was used at the sacrifices and at the offerings made to the altars and the temples, during the return of the sacred symbols through the Holy Road from the Ancient Agora back again to the Sanctuary for the final initiation.
Among the most important exhibits of the museum are included: the monumental protoattic amphora [2] from the middle of the 7th century BC, with the depiction of Medusa's beheading by Perseus, the famous "fleeing kore" [3] from the archaic period, that probably comes from the architectural design of the Sacred House, the large headless statue of the goddess Demeter, probably the work of Agorakrito's school - a student of Pheidias-, and the Caryatid from the roof of the small Propylaea, bringing on her head the ciste, the container holding the sacred articles of the ceremony, with a relief appearance of the symbols of the Eleusinian cult, which are: the ear of grain, the poppies, the rozetes and the kernos.
The two most important findings of Eleusis have been transferred to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and at the Museum of Eleusis exist only their copies. The first is the relief of the 5th century BC, height 2.20 m, showing Demeter, the Kore and the King of Eleusis Triptolemos, who is preparing to teach agriculture to the world, according to the instructions of the goddess. The second is the clay table known as the Ninnion Tablet with a gable, dedicated by Ninnion, from the 4th century BC, with scenes from the ceremonies at the temple of Demeter, which its significance consists in the information that provides on the strict secret rituals of the Eleusinian mysteries.
In addition, the museum houses a full collection of pottery, dating from Middle Helladic Era (2000 or 1950-1580 BC) to the early Christian times, written tables, metal items, inscriptions and reliefs, including the important votive relief of Rheitoi, with Demeter, the Kore, Athena and an Eleusinian man, which at the bottom has instructions for bridging the lake of Rheitoi (Koumoundourou lake).
In 2023 February, the Museum has reopened to the public following the conclusion of restoration works. [4]
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although she is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld. She is also called Deo. In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Like her other siblings but Zeus, she was swallowed by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus.
Hades, in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed joint rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his helm with Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side.
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone, also called Kore or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by and marriage to her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece. They are considered the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". Their basis was a Bronze Age agrarian cult, and there is some evidence that they were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenean period. The Mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the descent (loss), the search, and the ascent, with the main theme being the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spread to Rome. Similar religious rites appear in the agricultural societies of the Near East and in Minoan Crete.
Triptolemus also known as Buzyges, was a hero in Greek mythology, central to the Eleusinian Mysteries. He was either a mortal prince and the eldest son of King Celeus of Eleusis, or according to Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca (I.V.2), either the divine son of Gaia and Oceanus, or the grandson of Hermes through Eleusis. He was the ancestor to a royal priestly caste of the Eleusinian Mysteries, who claimed to be Buzygae (Βουζύγαι), that taught agriculture and performed secret rites and rituals, of which Pericles was its most famous descendant.
Eleusinion, also called the City Eleusinion was a sanctuary on the lower part of the north slope of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, dedicated to Demeter and Kore (Persephone). It was the central hub of Eleusinian Mysteries within Athens and the starting point for the annual procession to Eleusis, in the northwest of Attica. Religious activity is attested in the area from the 7th century BC and construction took place throughout late Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. The sanctuary was enclosed within the new city walls built after the Herulian sack of Athens in AD 267 and it remained in use until the late fourth century AD.
The Telesterion was a great hall and sanctuary in Eleusis, one of the primary centers of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The hall had a fifty-five yard square roof that could cover three-thousand people, but no one revealed what happened during these events beyond there being "something done, something said, and something shown". This building was built in the 7th century BCE and was an important site until it was destroyed in the 4th century CE. Devoted to Demeter and Persephone, these initiation ceremonies were the most sacred and ancient of all the religious rites celebrated in Greece.
Elefsina or Eleusis is a suburban city and municipality in Athens metropolitan area. It belongs to West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is located in the Thriasio Plain, at the northernmost end of the Saronic Gulf. North of Elefsina are Mandra and Magoula, while Aspropyrgos is to the northeast.
Baubo is a minor figure in Greek mythology who does not appear in surviving sources before the fourth century CE. A fragment from Asclepiades of Tragilus states that she is the wife of Dysaules, who was said to be autochthonous, that they had two daughters - Protonoe und Nisa - and that the couple welcomed Demeter into their house.
Despoina or Despoena was the epithet of a goddess worshiped by the Eleusinian Mysteries in Ancient Greece as the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon and the sister of Arion. Surviving sources refer to her exclusively under the title Despoina alongside her mother Demeter, as her real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated into her mysteries and was consequently lost with the extinction of the Eleusinian religion. Writing during the second century A.D., Pausanias spoke of Demeter as having two daughters; Kore being born first, before Despoina was born, with Zeus being the father of Kore and Poseidon as the father of Despoina. Pausanias made it clear that Kore is Persephone, although he did not reveal Despoina's proper name.
Haloa or Alo (Ἁλῶα) was an Attic festival, celebrated principally at Eleusis, in honour of Demeter, protector of the fruits of the earth, of Dionysus, god of the grape and of wine, and Poseidon, god of the seashore vegetation. In Greek, the word hálōs (ἅλως) from which Haloa derives means “threshing-floor” or “garden.” While the general consensus is that it was a festival related to threshing—the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain after harvest—some scholars disagree and argue that it was instead a gardening festival. Haloa focuses mainly on the “first fruits” of the harvest, partly as a grateful acknowledgement for the benefits the husbandmen received, partly as prayer that the next harvest would be plentiful. The festival was also called Thalysia or Syncomesteria.
The Ninnion Tablet, dated to approximately 370 BC, is a red clay tablet depicting the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries. It was rediscovered in Eleusis, Attica in 1895, and is kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
The Sacred Way, in ancient Greece, was the road from Athens to Eleusis. It was so called because it was the route taken by a procession celebrating the Eleusinian Mysteries. The procession to Eleusis began at the Sacred Gate in the Kerameikos on the 19th Boedromion.
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Eubuleus is a god known primarily from devotional inscriptions for mystery religions. The name appears several times in the corpus of the so-called Orphic gold tablets spelled variously, with forms including Euboulos, Eubouleos and Eubolos. It may be an epithet of the central Orphic god, Dionysus or Zagreus, or of Zeus in an unusual association with the Eleusinian Mysteries. Scholars of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have begun to consider Eubuleus independently as "a major god" of the mysteries, based on his prominence in the inscriptional evidence. His depiction in art as a torchbearer suggests that his role was to lead the way back from the Underworld.
A ploutonion is a sanctuary specially dedicated to the ancient Greek god Plouton. Only a few such shrines are known from classical sources, usually at locations that produce poisonous emissions and were considered to represent an entrance to the underworld.
The Eleusinian Mysteries hydria from Capua is a 4th-century BCE ancient Greek red-figure hydria, showing the reunion of Demeter and Persephone at the start of each spring. It was used to celebrate the Eleusinian Mysteries and the rebirth of nature in the secret cult of the two goddesses. The vase was found in 1883, along with another large vase, in a tomb in the Santa Maria necropolis in Capua in southern Italy. It dates back to between 375 BCE and 350 BCE. It is theorized that the vase had been buried with a former pilgrim to Eleusis. It is painted in the Kerch style and is held by the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon.
The Priestess of Demeter and Kore, sometimes referred to as the High Priestess of Demeter, was the High Priestess of the Goddesses Demeter and Persephone (Kore) in the Telesterion in Eleusis in Ancient Athens. It was one of the highest religious offices in Ancient Athens, and its holder enjoyed great prestige. It was likely the oldest priesthood in Athens, and also the most lucrative priesthood in all of Attica.
The Arcadian Cults of the Mistresses are ancient cults that were practised in the region of Arcadia. Religious cults across Greece took on regional characteristics according to their location. As such, though the Arcadian Mistresses, Demeter and Kore, were worshipped elsewhere in Greece, their worship in Arcadia was distinctive to the region, with the third Arcadian Mistress, Despoina, being a goddess whose cults were geographically limited to Arcadia.
The Great Eleusinian Relief is a large marble relief kept in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens in Greece. It depicts a scene of the Eleusinian Mysteries with the principal deities, Demeter, Persephone and the hero Triptolemus.
In antiquity, two large Caryatids from the Lesser Propylaea adorned the sanctuary of the Greek goddess of agriculture Demeter at Eleusis in Greece as architectural support taking the place of columns. Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire, one of the Caryatids was dubbed Saint Demetra by the locals and worshipped as patron saint of agriculture and crops. The Caryatid was removed from Eleusis in 1801 by Englishman Edward Daniel Clarke, who later donated it to the University of Cambridge; it remains on display in the Fitzwilliam Museum.
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