The Eleusinian mysteries & rites. - The Masonic Trowel

PROGRAMME OF GREATER MYSTERIES 61
spilt upon the ground as a libation. The first of
these formulae was directed towards the sky as a
praj^er for rain, and the second to the earth as
a prayer for fertility.
The words used by the hierophant to denote the
termination of the celebration of the Mysteries
Conx Om Pax :
—
" Watch and do no evil "—are said
to have been Egyptian, and were the same as those
used at the conclusion of the Mysteries of Isis. This
fact is sometimes used as an argument in favour
of the Egyptian origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Tenth Day.—On the tenth day the majority of
the people returned to their homes, with the excep-
tion of every third and fifth year, when they remained
behind for the Mystery Plays and Sports, which
lasted from two to three days.
The Eleusinian Games are described by the rheto-
rician Aristides as the oldest of all Greek games.
They are supposed to have been instituted as a
thank-offering to Demeter and Persephone at the
conclusion of the corn harvest. From an inscription
dating from the latter part of the third century B.C.
sacrifices were offered to Demeter and Persephone
at these games. They included athletic and musical
contests, a horse race, and a competition which
bore the name of the Ancestral or the Hereditary
Contest, the nature of which is not known, but
which it is thought may have had its origin in a
contest between the reapers on the sacred Rharian