Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries

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Crosses scratched by Early Christians on the marble pavements of the great Temple of Demeter at Eleusis symbolized the triumph of a new religion over a cult that endured for almost 2000 years & embraced the entire civilized world. The extraordinary & central fact of this cult for our times is that the initiates, sworn to secrecy concerning the rites of initiation, remained faithful to their pledge. The vast rubble field of marble & stone marking the destruction of the Sanctuary by the hordes of Alaric offers no key to the Mysteries, the final rites of initiation, which the Goddess herself had decreed "no one may in any way transgress or pry into or utter." Beginning with the legendary arrival of Demeter at Eleusis, the author traces the history of the cult in the archeological remains, from the first signs of habitation at the site to its final grandeur & decay in Imperial Roman times.