The Eleusinian mysteries & rites. - The Masonic Trowel

THE RITUAL OF THE MYSTERIES 45
scenes that were enacted ;
Aristides says that what
was seen rivalled anything that was heard. Another
writer has declared :
"
Many a wondrous sight
may be seen and not a few tales of wonder may be
heard in Greece ; but there is nothing on which
the blessing of God rests in so full a measure as
the rites of Eleusis and the Olympic games." For
nine centuries—that period of time being divided
almost equally between the pre-Christian and
Christian eras—they were the Palladium of Greek
Paganism. In the latter part of their history,
when the restrictions as to admission began to be
relaxed, and in proportion to that relaxation, their
essential religious character disappeared, they
became but a ceremony, their splendour being their
principal attraction, until finally they degenerated
into a mere superstition. Julian strived in vain to
infuse new life into the vanishing cult, but it was too
late—the Eleusinian Mysteries were dead.
The Athenians were pious in the extreme, and
throughout the period that initiation was limited
to that race the reputation of Eleusis was maintained,
although pilgrims from various and remote parts
of the world visited it at the season of the Mysteries.
When the Eleusinian Mysteries were taken to Rome,
as they were in the reign of Hadrian, they contracted
impurities and degenerated into riot and vice
the spirituality of their teachings did not accompany
the transference or it failed to be comprehended
;