Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

238 ELEUSINIAN
ELEUSINIAN
and made mystical allusions to events in
the life of both, and of the infant Iacchus .
These processions were made in the daytime,
but the initiation was nocturnal, and was
reserved for the nights of the sixth and
seventh days .
The herald opened the ceremonies of initiation
into the greater mysteries by the proclamation,
Zads, &dS, f0'-r€ Slpnaoi, "Retire,
0 ye profane ." Thus were the sacred
precincts tiled . The aspirant was clothed
with the skin of a calf . An oath of secrecy
was administered,, and he was then asked,
"Have you eaten bread?" The reply to
which was, "I have fasted ; I have drunk the
sacred mixture ; I have taken it out of the
chest; I have spun - I have placed it in the basket,
and from the basket laid it in the chest ."
By this reply, the aspirant showed that he
had been duly prep ared by initiation into the
lesser mysteries ; for Clement of Alexandria
says that this formula was a shibboleth, or
password, by which the mystEe, or initiates,
into the lesser mysteries were known as such,
and admitted to the epopteia or greater
initiation . The gesture of spinning wool, in
imitation of what Demeter did in the time of
her affliction, seemed also to be used as a sign
of recognition .
The aspirant. was now clothed in the sacred
tunic, and awaited in the vestibule the
opening of the doors of the sanctuary .
What subsequently took place must be
left in great part to conjecture, although
modern writers have availed themselves of
all the allusions that are to be found in the
ancients. The temple consisted of three
parts : the megaron, or sanctuary, corresponding
to the holy place of the Temple of Solomon
; the anactoron, or holy of holies, and a
subterranean apartment beneath the temple.
Each of these was probably occupied at a different
portion of the initiation . The representation
of the infernal regions, and the
punishment of the uninitiated impious was
appropriated to the subterranean apartment,
and was, as Sylvestre de Sacy says (Notes to
St. Crbiz, i ., 360), an episode of the drama
which represented the adventures of Isis,
Osiris, and Typhon, or of Demeter, Persephone,
and Pluto . This drama, the same
author thinks, represented the carrying away
of Persephone, the travels of Demeter in
search of her lost daughter, her descent into
hell ; the union of Pluto with Persephone, and
was terminated by the return of Demeter into
the upper world and the light of day . The
representation of this drama commenced
immediately after the profane had been sent
from the temple. And it is easy to understand
how the groans and wailings with which
the tem ple at one time resounded might symbolize
the sufferings and the death of man,
and the subsequent rejoicin gs at the return of
the goddess might be typical of the joy for the
restoration of the soul to eternal life . Others
have conjectured that the drama of the mysteries
represented, in the deportation of Persephone
to Hades by Pluto, the departure, as
it were, of the sun, or the deprivation of its
vivific power during the winter months, and
her reappearance on earth, the restoration of
the prolific sun in summer . Others again tell
us that the last act of the mysteries represented
the restoration to life of the murdered
Zagreus, or Dionysus, by Demeter. Diodorus
says that the members of the body of
Zagreus lacerated by the Titans was represented
in the ceremonies of mysteries, as well
as in the Orphic hymns- but he prudently
adds that he was not al]owed to reveal the
details to the uninitiated . Whatever was the
precise method of symbolism, it is evident
that the true interpretation was the restoration
from death to eternal life, and that the
funereal part of the initiation referred to a
loss, and the exultation afterward to a recovery
. Hence it was folly to deny the coincidence
that exists between this Eleusinian
drama and that enacted in the Third Degree
of Masonry . It is not claimed that the one
was the uninterrupted successor of the other
but there must have been a common ideal
source for the origin of both . The lesson,
the dogma, the symbol, and the method of instruction
are the same . Having now, as
Pindar sa y s, "descended beneath the hollow
earth, and beheld those mysteries," the initiate
ceased to be a mystes, or blind man, and
was thenceforth called an epopt, a word signifying
he who beholds .
The Eleusinian mysteries, which, by their
splendor, surpassed all contemporary mstitutions
of the kind, were deemed of so much
importance as to be taken under the special
protection of the state, and to the council of
five hundred were entrusted the observance
of the ordinances which regulated them. By
a law of Solon, the magistrates met every
year at the close of the festival, to pass sentence
upon any who had violated or transgressed
any of the rules which governed the
administration of the sacred rites . Any attempt
to disclose the esoteric ceremonies of
initiation was punished with death. Plutarch
tells us, in his Life of Alcibiades, that
that votary of pleasure was indicted for
sacrilege, because he had imitated the mysteries,
and shown them to his companions in
the same dress as that worn by the Hierophanti
and we get from Livy (xxxi . 14), the
followin g relation :
Two Acarnanian youths, who had not been
initiated, accidentally entered the temple of
Demeter during the celebration of the mysteries
. They were soon detected by their
absurd questions, and being carried to the
managers of the temple, although it was evident
that their intrusion was accidental, they
were put to death for so horrible a crime . It
is not, therefore, surprising that, in the account
of them we should find such uncertain
and even conflicting assertions of the ancient
writers, who hesitated to discuss publicly so
forbidden a subject .
The qualifications for initiation were maturity
of age and purity of life. Such was
the theory, although in practise these qualifi-