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

88 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[072]era we learn that at the Great Eleusinian Games sacrifices wereoffered to Demeter and Persephone. 250 Further, we gather froman official Athenian inscription of 329 B.C. that both the Greatand the Lesser Games included athletic and musical contests,a horse-race, and a competition which bore the name of theAncestral or Hereditary Contest, and which accordingly may wellhave formed the original kernel of the games. 251 Unfortunatelynothing is known about this Ancestral Contest. We might betempted to identify it with the Ancestral Contest included inthe Eleusinian Festival of the Threshing-floor, 252 which wasprobably held on the Sacred Threshing-floor of Triptolemushonours decreed to a man who had sacrificed to Demeter and Persephone atthe Festival of the Threshing-floor. See Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική, 1884, coll.135 sq.250 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 2 No. 246, lines 25 sqq.The editor rightly points out that the Great Eleusinian Games are identical withthe games celebrated every fourth year, which are mentioned in the decreeof 329 B.C.{FNS (Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 2 No. 587,lines 260 sq.).251 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 2 No. 587, lines 259 sqq.From other Attic inscriptions we learn that the Eleusinian games comprised along foot-race, a race in armour, and a pancratium. See Dittenberger, op. cit.No. 587 note 171 (vol. ii. p. 313). The Great Eleusinian Games also includedthe pentathlum (Dittenberger, op. cit. No. 678, line 2). The pancratium includedwrestling and boxing; the pentathlum included a foot-race, leaping, throwingthe quoit, throwing the spear, and wrestling. See W. Smith, Dictionary of Greekand Roman Antiquities, Third Edition, s.vv. “Pancratium” and “Pentathlon.”252 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 2 No. 246, lines 46 sqq.;Ch. Michel, Recueil d'Inscriptions Grecques, No. 609. See above, p. 61.The identification lies all the nearer to hand because the inscription recordsa decree in honour of a man who had sacrificed to Demeter and Persephone