The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

Chapter II. Demeter And Persephone. 49vanishes with her daughter to heaven. The revelation of themysteries is the triumphal close of the piece. This conclusionis confirmed by a more minute examination of the poem, whichproves that the poet has given, not merely a general account ofthe foundation of the mysteries, but also in more or less veiledlanguage mythical explanations of the origin of particular riteswhich we have good reason to believe formed essential features [038]of the festival. Amongst the rites as to which the poet thusdrops significant hints are the preliminary fast of the candidatesfor initiation, the torchlight procession, the all-night vigil, thesitting of the candidates, veiled and in silence, on stools coveredwith sheepskins, the use of scurrilous language, the breakingof ribald jests, and the solemn communion with the divinity byparticipation in a draught of barley-water from a holy chalice. 137But there is yet another and a deeper secret of the mysteries Revelation of awhich the author of the poem appears to have divulged under137 Hymn to Demeter, 47-50, 191-211, 292-295, with the notes of Messrs.Allen and Sikes in their edition of the Homeric Hymns (London, 1904). Asto representations of the candidates for initiation seated on stools draped withsheepskins, see L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, iii. (Oxford, 1907)pp. 237 sqq., with plate xv a. On a well-known marble vase there figured thestool is covered with a lion's skin and one of the candidate's feet rests on a ram'sskull or horns; but in two other examples of the same scene the ram's fleece isplaced on the seat (Farnell, op. cit. p. 240 note a), just as it is said to have beenplaced on Demeter's stool in the Homeric hymn. As to the form of communionin the Eleusinian mysteries, see Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. 21, p. 18ed. Potter; Arnobius, Adversus nationes, v. 26; L. R. Farnell, op. cit. iii. 185sq., 195 sq. For discussions of the ancient evidence bearing on the Eleusinianmysteries it may suffice to refer to Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus (Königsberg,1829), pp. 3 sqq.; G. F. Schoemann, Griechische Alterthümer, 4 ii. 387 sqq.;Aug. Mommsen, Heortologie (Leipsic, 1864), pp. 222 sqq.; id., Feste derStadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 204 sqq.; P. Foucart, Recherchessur l'Origine et la Nature des Mystères d'Eleusis (Paris, 1895) (Mémoires del'Académie des Inscriptions, xxxv.); id., Les grands Mystères d'Eleusis (Paris,1900) (Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xxxvii.); F. Lenormant andE. Pottier, s.v. “Eleusinia,” in Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des AntiquitésGrecques et Romaines, ii. 544 sqq.; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greekreaped ear of cornthe crowning act ofthe mysteries.