The Eleusinian mysteries & rites. - The Masonic Trowel

84 ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES AND RITES
an oath and foreswore himself. . . . And
next a
breathing of flutes shall be wafted around you, and
you shall see a very beautiful light, even as in this
world, and myrtle groves, and happy choirs of
men and women, and a loud clapping of hands.
Dionysos. And who are these people, pray ?
Heracles. The initiated.
It was regarded as permissible to describe certain
scenes of the initiation, and this has been done by
many writers, but a complete silence was demanded
as to the means employed to realize the end, the
rites and ceremonies in which the initiate took part,
the emblems which were displayed, and the actual
words uttered, and the slightest contravention of
this rule rendered the offender liable to the strongest
possible condemnation and chastisement.
In the course of the ceremony the hierophant
asked the candidates a series of questions, to which
written answers had been prepared and committed
to memory by the candidates. The holy Mysteries
were revealed to them from a book called Petroma,
a word derived from petra, 3. stone, and so called
because the writings were kept between two cemented
stones which fitted in to each other. The Pheneatians
used to swear by and on the Petroma. The domed
top held within it a mask of Demeter which the
hierophant wore at the celebration of the Mysteries,
or during part of the ceremonial. The garments
worn by the initiates during the ceremony were
accounted sacred and equal to incantations and