The Eleusinian mysteries & rites. - The Masonic Trowel

28 ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES AND RITES
celebration, even through ignorance or genuine
error.
The Mysteries were divided into two parts—the
Lesser Mysteries and the Greater Mysteries. The
Lesser Mysteries were said to have been instituted
when Hercules, Castor, and Pollux expressed a desire
to be initiated, they happening to be in Athens
at the time of the celebration of the Mysteries by
the Athenians in accordance with the ordinance
of Demeter. Not being Athenians, they were in-
eligible for the honour of initiation, but the diffi-
culty was overcome by Eumolpus, who was desirous
of including in the ranks of the initiated a man of
such power and eminence as Hercules, foreigner
though he might be. The three were first made
citizens, and then as a preliminary to the initiation
ceremony as prescribed by the goddess, Eumolpus
instituted the Lesser Mysteries, which then and
afterwards became a ceremony preliminary to the
Greater Mysteries, as they then became known,
for candidates of alien birth. In later times this
Lesser Festival, celebrated in the month of Anthes-
terion at the beginning of spring, at Agra, became a
general preparation for the Greater Festival, and
no persons were initiated into the Greater Mysteries
until they had first been initiated into the Lesser.
With regard to Hercules, there is a legend that
on a certain time Hercules wished to become a
member of one of the secret societies of antiquity.