ECHO, a daughter of the Air and Tellus, who chiefly resided in the vicinity of the Cephissus. She was once one of Juno's attendants; but, having offended that goddess by her deception, she was deprived, in a great measure, by her, of the power of speech. Juno declared, that in future she should have but little use of her tongue; and immediately she lost all power of doing any more than repeat the sounds which she heard. Echo happening to see the beautiful youth Narcissus, became deeply enamoured of him. But, her love be-issues from the Lake of Ostrovo, represents this aning slighted, she pined away till nothing remained of her but her voice and bones. The former still exists, the latter were converted into stone. (Ovid, Met., 3, 341, seqq.) ECTENES, a people who, according to Pausanias, first inhabited the territory of Thebes, in Boeotia. Ogyges is said to have been their first king. They were exterminated by a plague, and succeeded by the Hyantes. (Compare Strabo, 401.-Pausan., 9, 5.Lycophr., v. 433.) opened the royal tombs in hopes of finding treasure EDETANI, a people of Spain, south of the Iberus. They occupied what corresponds with the northern half of Valencia, and the southwestern corner of Aragon. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 1, p. 426. — Ukert, vol. 2, p. 413, seqq.) The EETION, the father of Andromache, and king of Hypoplacian Thebe in Troas. (Hom., Il., 6, 396.)—II. The commander of the Athenian fleet, conquered by the Macedonians under Clitus, near the Echinades. (Diod. Sic., 18, 15.) EGERIA, a nymph of Aricia in Italy, the spouse and instructress of Numa. (Vid. Numa.) Some regard ed her as one of the Camœnæ. According to the old legend, when Numa died, Egeria melted away in tears into a fountain. Niebuhr places the grove of Egeria below S. Balbina, near the baths of Caracalla. (Ro EDESSA, I. a city of Mesopotamia, in the district of Osroene, on the banks of a small river called Scirtus. It lay northeast of Zeugma, and southeast of Samosata, and, according to the Itin. Ant., nine geographical miles from the Euphrates and Zeugma (ed. Wesseling, p. 185). Procopius (Pers., 2, 12) places it a day's journey from Batnæ; and an Arabian writer cited by Wesseling (ad Itin. Ant., l. c.), about six parasangs or four miles. Edessa is said to have been one of those numerous cities which were built by Seleucus Nicator, and was probably called after the city of the same EDONI OF EDŌNES, a people of Thrace, on the left name in Macedonia. It was once a place of great ce- bank of the Strymon. It appears from Thucydides lebrity, and famous for a temple of the Syrian goddess, (2, 99), that this Thracian clan once held possession which was one of the richest in the world. During of the right bank of the Strymon as far as Mygdonia, the intestine broils which greatly weakened the king- but that they were ejected by the Macedonians. dom of Syria, Augurus or Abgarus seized on this city name of this tribe is often used by the poets to express and its adjacent territory, which he erected into a the whole of the nation of which they formed a part. kingdom, and transmitted the royal title to his poster-(Soph., Ant., 955.-Eur., Hec., 1153.) ity. We learn from St. Austin that our Saviour promised Abgarus that the city should be impregnable; and Euagrius (Hist. Eccles., 4, 27) observes, that although this circumstance was not mentioned in our Lord's letter, still it was the common belief; which was much confirmed when Chosroes, king of Persia, after having set down before it, was obliged to raise the siege. This is all, however, a pious fable.-Edessa was called Callirhoe, from a fountain contained within it. (Plin., 5, 24.) The sources of this fountain still remain, and the inhabitants have a tradition that this is the place where Abraham offered up his prayer pre-man History, vol. 1, p. 202, Cambr. transl.) Wagvious to his intended sacrifice of Isaac. (Compare Niebuhr, vol. 2, p. 407.- Tavernier, lib. 2, c. 4.) In later times it was termed Roha, or, with the article of the Arabs, Orrhoa, and by abbreviation Orrha. This appellation would seem to have arisen from the circumstance of Edessa having been the capital of the district Osroene, or, as it was more probably called, Orrhoene. The modern name is Orrhoa or Orfa. (Chron. Edess. in Assemanni Bibl. Orient., vol. 1, p. 388.) The Arabians revere the spot as the seat of learned men and of the purest Arabic. (Abulpharag., Hist. Dynast., p. 16, ed. Wesseling, ad loc.)-II. A city of Macedonia, called also dessa and Ege, situate on the Via Egnatia, thirty miles west of Pella. According to Justin (7, 1) it was the city occupied by Caranus on his arrival in the country, and it continued apparently to be the capital of Macedonia, until the seat of government was transferred to Pella. Even after this event it remained the place of sepulture for the royal family, since we are told that Philip and Eurydice, the king and queen of Macedon, who had been put to death by Olympias, were buried here by Cassander. (Athen., 4, 41.) Pausanias (1, 6) states, that Alexander was to have been interred here; and when Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, had taken and plundered the town, he left there a body of Gauls, who ner, in a dissertation on this subject, is in favour of the valley of Caffarella, some few miles from the present gate of Saint Sebastian. (Wagner, commentatio de Egeria fonte, et specu ejusque situ.-Marbourg, 1824.) EGESTA. Vid. Ægesta. EGNATIA, a town of Apulia, on the coast, below Barium. It communicated its name to the consular way that followed the coast from Canusium to Brundisium. (Strabo, 282.) Its ruins are still apparent near the Torre d'Agnazzo and the town of Monopoli. (Pratilli, Via Appia, lib. 4, c. 16.-Romanelli, vol. 2, p. 143.) Pliny states (2, 107), that a certain stone was shown at Egnatia, which was said to possess the property of setting fire to wood that was placed upon it. It was this prodigy, seemingly, which afforded so much amusement to Horace (Sat., 1, 5, 98), and from the expression limine sacro employed by the poet, the stone in question would appear to have been placed in the entrance of a temple. serving for an altar. What Horace, however, regarded as a mere trick, has been thought to have had more of reality about it than the poet supposed. Some commentators imagine that the stone was placed over a naphtha spring, with an aperture in it for the flame to pass through; a simple contrivance which the priests would not fail to turn to good account. So La Lande found in Italy, on a hill | Athenians. The alarm and consternation produced at near Pietra Mala, not far from Firenzuola, flames Athens by his approach is finely described by Demosthebreaking forth from the ground, the vapour from which nes in his Oration de Corona (p. 284.-Compare Esresembled petroleum in smell. (Voyage d'un Franchin. in Ctes., p. 73.—Strab., 424). Some years after, çois en Italie, vol. 2, p. 134.-1765.) Compare also Elatea made a successful defence against the arms of the remarks of Salmasius on the account given by So- Cassander. It was, however, reduced by Philip, son 'inus of a volcanic hill near Agrigentum in Sicily. of Demetrius, who bribed the principal inhabitants. Solin., c. 5.-Salmas., ad loc., p. 89, seqq.) (Pausan., l. c.) During the Macedonian war, this EION, a port at the mouth of the Strymon, twenty-town was besieged by the Roman consul, T. Flamifive stadia from Amphipolis, of which, according to Thucydides (4, 102), it formed the harbour. This historian affirms it to have been more ancient than Amphipolis. It was from Eion that Xerxes sailed to Asia, according to Herodotus, after the battle of Salamis. (Herodot, 8, 118.) Boges was left in command of the town on the retreat of the Persian armies, and made a most gallant resistance when besieged by the Grecian forces under Cimon. On the total failure of all means of subsistence, he ordered a vast pile to be raised in the centre of the town, and having placed on it his wives, children, and domestics, he caused them to be slain; then, scattering everything of value in the Strymon, he threw himself on the burning pile and perished in the flames. (Herodot., 7, 107.-Thucyd., 1, 98.) After the capture of Amphipolis, the Spartans endeavoured to gain possession of Eion also, but in this design they were frustrated by the arrival of Thucydides with a squadron from Thasus, who repelled the attack. (Thucyd., 4, 107.) Cleon afterward occupied Eion, and thither the remains of his army retreated after their defeat before Amphipolis. (Thucyd., 5, 10.) This place is mentioned by Lycophron (v. 417). In the middle ages a Byzantine town was built on the site of Eion, which now bears the name of Contessa. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 1, p. 295, seqq.) ELEA, the port of the city of Pergamus. According to some traditions, it had been founded after the siege of Troy, by the Athenians, under the command of Mnestheus. (Strab., 622.) Elæa was distant 12 stadia from the mouth of the Caïcus, and 120 from Pergamus. (Strab., 615.) The modern name is Ialea or Lalea. Smith places the ruins of this city at no great distance from Clisiakevi, on the road from Smyrna to Berganat. (Account of the Seven Churches of Asia, p. 7.-Liv., 36, 43.-Pausan., 9, 5.) ELAGABALUS, I. the surname of the sun at Emesa. -II. The name of a Roman emperor. (Vid. Emesa and Heliogabalus.) ninus, and taken by assault. (Liv., 32, 18, seqq.-Polyb., 5, 26.—Id., 18, 26.) An attack subsequently made on Elatea by Taxilus, general of Mithradates, was successfully repelled by the inhabitants; in cor. sequence of which exploit they were declared free by the Roman senate. (Pausan., l. c.) Strabo speaks of its advantageous situation, which commanded the entrance into Phocis and Boeotia. Other passages relative to this place will be found in Plutarch (Vit. Syll.), Appian (Bell. Mithrad.), Theophrastus (Hist. Plant., 8, 8, 2), and Scylax (p. 23). Its ruins are to be seen on a site called Elephta, on the left bank of the Cephissus, and at the foot of some hills which unite with the chains of Cnemis and Eta. Sir W. Gell, in his Itinerary, notices the remains of the city walls, as well as those of the citadel, and the ruins of several temples (p. 216.-Compare Dodwell, vol. 2, p. 140). At the distance of about twenty stadia to the east was the temple of Minerva Cranæa, described by Pausanias: its remains were discovered by Sir W. Gell and Mr. Dodwell. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 2, p. 179.) ELAVER, a river of Gaul, rising in the same quarter with the Liger, and, after pursuing a course almost parallel with it, falling into this same stream below Nevers. It is now the Allier. (Cæs., B. G., 8, 34 and 53.-Mannert, Geogr., vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 119.) ELEA, a city of Lucania. (Vid. Velia.) ELECTRA, I. one of the Oceanides, wife of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus by Jupiter. (Ovid, Fast., 4, 31.)-II. A daughter of Atlas and Pleione, and one of the Pleiades. (Vid. Pleiades.)--III. One of the daughters of Agamemnon. Upon the murder of her father, on his return from Troy, Electra rescued her brother Orestes, then quite young, from the fury of Egisthus, by despatching him to the court of her uncle Strophius, king of Phocis. There Orestes formed the well-known attachment for his cousin Pylades, which, in the end, led to the marriage of Electra with that prince. According to one account, Electra had ELAPHEBOLIA, a festival in honour of Diana the previously been compelled, by Ægisthus, to become Huntress. In the celebration a cake was made in the the wife of a Mycenean rustic, who, having regarded form of a deer, hapos, and offered to the goddess. It her merely as a sacred deposite confided to him by the owed its institution to the following, circumstance. gods, restored her to Orestes on the return of that When the Phocians had been severely defeated by the prince to Mycenae, and on his accession to the throne Thessalians, they resolved, by the persuasion of a cer- of his ancestors. Electra became, by Pylades, the tain Deiphantus, to raise a pile of combustible materi- mother of two sons, Strophius and Medon. Her story als, and burn their wives, children, and effects, rath-has formed the basis of two plays, the one by Sophoer than submit to the enemy. This resolution was cles, the other by Euripides. (Soph., Electr.-Eurip, unanimously approved of by the women, who decreed Electr.) Deiphantus a crown for his magnanimity. When everything was prepared, before they fired the pile, they engaged their enemies, and fought with such desperate fury, that they totally routed them, and obtained a complete victory. Ir. commemoration of this unexpected success, this festival was instituted to Diana, and observed with the greatest solemnity. (Athen., 14, p. 646, e.- -Castellanus, de Fest. Græc., p. 115.) ELECTRIDES, islands fabled to have been in the Adriatic, off the mouths of the Padus or Po, and to have abounded with amber (electrum), whence their name. (Vid. Eridanus.) ELECTRYON, Son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Mycena. He was the father of Alcmena. Electryon undertook an expedition against the Teleboans in order to avenge the death of his sons, whom the sons of Taphius, king of the Teleboans, had slain in an encounter. Returning victorious, he was met by Amphitryon, and killed by an accidental blow. (Apollod., 2, 4, 6.-Vid. Alemena.) ELEI, the people of Elis in Peloponnesus. (Vid. Elis.) ELATEA, the most considerable and important of the Phocian cities after Delphi, situate, according to Pausanias (10, 34), one hundred and eighty stadia from Amphicæa, on a gently rising slope, above the plain watered by the Cephissus. It was captured and burned by the army of Xerxes (Herodot., 8, 33), but, being ELEPHANTINE, an island of Egypt, in the Nile, with afterward restored, it was occupied by Philip, father of a city of the same name, about a semi-stadium distant Alexander, on his advance into Phocis to overawe the | from Syene. Pliny (5, 9) calls it Elephantis Insula The per It is of small size, being, according to the French tion. Such as were guilty of murder, though against measurement, 700 toises long and 200 broad. The their will, and such as were convicted of impiety island was remarkable for its fertility, and it is there- or any heinous crime, were not admitted; and the fore easy to believe, that, in early ages, when, accord- Athenians suffered none to be initiated but those ing to Manetho, Egypt was divided into several dynas- that were members of their city. This regulation, ties, one of these had its capital on this island. The which compelled, according to the popular belief, Hercataracts of the Nile are not far distant, and hence El- cules, Castor, and Pollux to become citizens of Athephantine became the depôt for all the goods that were ens, was strictly observed in the first ages of the instidestined for the countries to the south, and that re- tution, but afterward all persons, barbarians excepted, quired land-carriage in this quarter in order to avoid were freely initiated. The festivals were divided into the falls of the river. The Nile has here a very con- the greater and less mysteries. The less were institusiderable breadth, and it is natural to suppose, that, on ted from the following circumstance: Hercules passed its entrance into Egypt, the inhabitants were desirous near Eleusis while the Athenians were celebrating the of ascertaining the rise of the stream at the period of mysteries, and desired to be initiated. As this could its annual increase. Hence we find a Nilometer here, not be done because he was a stranger, and as Eumolon the banks of the river. (Strabo, 817.) In the pus was unwilling to displease him on account of his time of the Pharaohs, the garrison stationed on the great power, and the services which he had done to frontiers against the Ethiopians had their head-quar- the Athenians, another festival was instituted without ters at Elephantine. In the Roman times, however, violating the laws. It was called μikpú, and Hercules the frontiers were pushed farther to the south. In the was solemnly admitted to the celebration, and initiated. fourth century, when all Egypt was strongly guarded, These minor mysteries were observed at Agræ near the the first Cohors Theodosiana was stationed in this isl- Ilissus. The greater were celebrated at Eleusis, from and, according to the Notitia Imperii.-It is surpri- which place Ceres has been called Eleusinia. In later sing that merely the Greek name for this island has times the smaller festivals were preparatory to the come down to us, since Herodotus was here during greater, and no person could be initiated at Eleusis the Persian sway, when Grecian influence could by without a previous purification at Agræ. This purifino means have been strong enough to supplant the cation they performed by keeping themselves pure, original name by one which is evidently a mere trans- chaste, and unpolluted during nine days, after which lation of it. The modern name of Elephantine is they came and offered sacrifices and prayers, wearing Gezyret Assuan, "the Island of Syene." There are garlands of flowers, called touɛpa or iuepa, and havsome ruins of great beauty remaining, and, in particu- ing under their feet Aids Kádiov, Jupiter's skin, which lar, a superb gate of granite, which formed the entrance was the skin of a victim offered to that god. of one of the porticoes of the temple of Cnepht. son who assisted was called údpavós, from bdwp, wa(Mannert, Geogr., vol. 10, pt. 1, p. 323, seqq.) ter, which was used at the purification; and they themELEPHANTIS, an impure poetess. Consult Martial selves were called vorai, the initiated. A year after (Ep., 12, 43, 4), Suetonius (Vit. Tib., 43), and the the initiation at the less mysteries they sacrificed a remarks of the commentators on each of these places. sow to Ceres, and were admitted into the greater, and ELEPHANTOPHAGI, a people of Ethiopia. (Consult the secrets of the festivals were solemnly revealed to remarks under the article Ethiopia, page 72, col. 1.) them, from which they were called έφοροι and ἐπόπε ELEUSINIA, a great festival observed every fourth rat, inspectors. The institution was performed in the year by the Celeans, Phliasians, as also by the Phencata, following manner; the candidates, crowned with myrLacedæmonians, Parrhasians, and Cretans; but more tle, were admitted by night into a place called μvoriparticularly by the people of Athens every fifth year, Koç onкós, the mystical temple, a vast and stupendous at Eleusis in Attica, where it was said to have been building. As they entered the temple, they purified introduced by Eumolpus, B.C. 1356. It was the most themselves by washing their hands in holy water, and celebrated of all the religious ceremonies of Greece, received for admonition that they were to come with whence it is often called, by way of eminence, uvo- a mind pure and undefiled, without which the cleanliTipia, the mysteries. It was so superstitiously ob- ness of the body would be unacceptable. After this served, that if any one ever revealed it, it was sup- the holy mysteries were read to them from a large posed that he had called divine vengeance upon his book called Térрwua, because made of two stones, head, and it was unsafe to live in the same house with Terpat, fitly cemented together; and then the priest, him. Such a wretch was publicly put to an ignomin- called iɛpopúvτns, proposed to them certain questions, ious death. This festival was sacred to Ceres and to which they readily answered. After this, strange Proserpina; everything contained a mystery; and and fearful objects presented themselves to their sight; Ceres herself was known only by the name of ux- the place often seemed to quake, and to appear sudDeia, from the sorrow (ax0oç) which she suffered for denly resplendent with fire, and immediately covered the loss of her daughter. This mysterious secrecy with gloomy darkness and horror. Sometimes flashes was solemnly observed, and enjoined on all the vota- of lightning appeared on every side. At other times ries of the goddess; and if any one ever appeared at thunder, hideous noises, and howlings were heard, and the celebration, either intentionally or through igno- the trembling spectators were alarmed by sudden and rance, without proper introduction, he was immediately dreadful apparitions. This was called αὐτοψία, intuipunished with death. Persons of both sexes and all tion. When these ceremonies were ended, the word ages were initiated at this solemnity, and it was looked Koy was uttered by the officiating priest, which imupon as so heinous a crime to neglect this sacred part plied that all was ended, and that those present might of religion, that it was one of the heaviest accusations retire. In the common text of Hesychius, the words which contributed to the condemnation of Socrates. кóуs oμлağ are said to have been uttered on this ocThe initiated were under the more particular care of casion (Κόγξ, όμπαξ· ἐπιφώνημα τετελεσμένοις), and the deities, and therefore their lives were supposed to various explanations have been attempted to be given. be attended with more happiness and real security than Wilford, for example, makes the words in question to those of other men. This benefit was not only granted have been Koys, "Ou, Ilús, and maintains that they are during life, but it extended beyond the grave, and they pure Sanscrit, and used this day by the Brahmins, at were honoured with the first places in the Elysian the conclusion of sacred rites! (Asiatic Researches, fields, while others were left to wallow in perpetual vol. 5, p. 297.) Münter, Creuzer, Ouvaroff, and othfilth and ignominy. As the benefits of expiation were ers, have adopted the opinion of Wilford. (Münter, so extensive, particular care was taken in examining Erklärung einer griech. Inschrift., p. 18 —Creuzer, the character of those who were presented for initia- Symbe ik, vol. 4, p. 573.- Ouvaroff, Essai sur les Myst. d'Eleusis, p. 26, seqq. — Schelling, über die Gottheit. von Samothrak, p. 91.) The speculations of all these writers, as well as the opinion of Von Hammer, who derives the word 'Ounas from the Persian Cambaksch, which denotes, according to him, "voti sui compos," have been very unceremoniously put to flight by Lobeck. This able and judicious critic has emended the text of Hesychius so as to read as follows: Κόγξ, ὁμοίως πάξ, ἐπιφώνημα τετελεσμένοις, and thus both kóуs and wús are nothing more than mere terms of dismission. The former of these is borrowed from the language of the Athenian assemblies for voting. The pebble or ballot was dropped into the urn through a long conical tube; and as this tube was probably of some length, and the urn itself of considerable size, in order to enable several hundred persons to vote, the stone striking against the metal bottom made a sharp, loud noise. This sound the Athenians imitated by the monosyllable κóy. Hence the term koy came to denote that all was ended, that the termination of an affair was reached; and hence Hesychius assimilates it to the form was, which appears to have had the same force as the Latin interjection pax. (Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 776, seqq. — Philol. Museum, No. 2, p. 425, not.)-But to return to the mysteries: the garments in which the new-comers were initiated were held sacred, and of no less efficacy to avert evils than charms and incantations. From this circumstance, therefore, they were never left off before they were totally unfit for wear, after which they were appropriated for children, or dedicated to the god-day were sports, in which the victors were rewarded dess. The chief person that attended at the initiation with a measure of barley, as that grain had been was called iɛpopávτns, the revealer of sacred things. first sown in Elensis. The eighth day was called He was a citizen of Athens, and held his office during 'Enidavpiov huépa, because once Esculapius, at his life, though, among the Celeans and Phliasians, it was return from Epidaurus to Athens, was initiated by limited to the period of four years. He was obliged the repetition of the less mysteries. It became custo devote himself totally to the service of the deities; tomary, therefore, to celebrate them a second time and his life was to be chaste and single. The Hiero- upon this, that such as had not hitherto been initiaphant had three attendants; the first was called dadoù- ted might be lawfully admitted. The ninth and last xos, torch-bearer, and was permitted to marry; the day of the festival was called manuoxóai, earthen vessecond was called knρvž, a crier; the third adminis- sels, because it was usual to fill two such vessels with tered at the altar, and was called ó έñì ßwu. There wine, one of which being placed towards the east, and were, besides these, other inferior officers, who took the other towards the west, which, after the repetition particular care that everything was performed accord- of some mystical words, were both thrown down, and ing to custom. The first of these, called ẞaoikeus, the wine being spilled on the ground, was offered as a was one of the archons; he offered prayers and sac- libation. The Eleusinian mysteries lasted about eighrifices, and took care that there was no indecency or teen hundred years, and were finally abolished by irregularity during the celebration. Besides him there Theodosius the Great.-Various opinions, as may well were four others, called έñueλñτai, curators, elected be supposed, have been entertained by modern scholby the people. One of them was chosen from the sa- ars respecting the nature and end of the Eleusinian cred family of the Eumolpidæ, the other was one of mysteries. The following are some of the results of the Ceryces, and the rest were from among the citi- the inquiries of the learned and judicious Lobeck. zens. There were also ten persons who assisted at (Aglaophamus, p. 3, seqq.)—In the very early ages of this and every other festival, called iɛpoñоioi, because Greece and Italy, and probably of most countries, the they offered sacrifices.--This festival was observed in inhabitants of the various independent districts into the month Boedromion or September, and continued which they were divided had very little communicanine days, from the 15th till the 23d. During that tion with each other, and a stranger was regarded as time it was unlawful to arrest any man, or present any little better than an enemy. Each state had its favourpetition, on pain of forfeiting a thousand drachmas, or, ite deities, under whose especial protection it was held according to others, on pain of death. It was also un- to be, and these deities were propitiated by sacrifices lawful for those who were initiated to sit upon the and ceremonies, which were different in different cover of a well, to eat beans, mullets, or weazels. If places. It is farther to be recollected, that the Greeks any woman rode to Eleusis in a chariot, she was obli- believed their gods to be very little superior in moral ged, by an edict of Lycurgus, to pay 6000 drachmas. qualities to themselves, and they feared that if promThe design of this law was to destroy all distinction ises of more splendid and abundant sacrifices and offerbetween the richer and poorer sort of citizens.-The ings were made to them, they might not be able to first day of the celebration was called άyvpμóç, assem-resist the temptation. As the best mode of escaping bly, as it might be said that the worshippers first met the calamity of being deserted by their patrons, they together. The second day was called añade μvorai, to the sea, you that are initiated, because they were commanded to purify themselves by bathing in the sea. On the third day sacrifices, and chiefly a mullet, were offered; as also barley from a field of Eleusis. These oblations were called Oúa, and held so sacred that the priests themselves were not, as in other sacrifices, permitted to partake of them. On the fourth day they made a solemn procession, in which the kahúðɩov, holy basket of Ceres, was carried about in a consecrated cart, while on every side the people shouted, xaïpe, Anunrep, hail, Ceres! After these followed women, called Kioropópot, who carried baskets, in which were sesamum, carded wool, grains of salt, a serpent, pomegranates, reeds, ivy-boughs, certain cakes, &c. The fifth was called ý rov haμrúdov nμépa, the torch-day, because on the following night the people ran about with torches in their hands. It was usual to dedicate torches to Ceres, and contend which should offer the largest in commemoration of the travels of the goddess, and of her lighting a torch at the flames of Mount Etna. The sixth day was called 'laxyos, from lacchus, the son of Jupiter and Ceres, who accompanied his mother in her search after Proserpina, with a torch in his hand. From that circumstance his statue had a torch in its hand, and was carried in solemn procession from the Ceramicus to Eleusis. The statue, with those that accompanied it, called 'laxyayoyoi, was crowned with myrtle. In the way nothing was heard but singing and the noise of brazen kettles, as the votaries danced along. The way through which they -issued from the city was called iɛpà ódós, the sacred way; the resting-place, iɛpà ovкn, from a fig-tree which grew in the neighbourhood. They also stopped on a bridge over the Cephissus, where they derided those that passed by. After they had passed this bridge, they entered Eleusis by a place called voTiKn εloodos, the mystical entrance. On the seventh adopted the expedient of concealing their names, and of excluding strangers from their worship. Private families, in like manner, excluded their fellow-citizens from their family-sacrifices; and in those states where ancient aerolites and such like were preserved as national palladia, the sight of them was restricted to the magistrates and principal persons in the state. (Agla oph., p. 65, 273, 274.) We are to recollect, that Eleusis and Athens were long independent of each and ceremonies which took place in the Eleusinian other. (Aglaoph., p. 214, 1351.-Müller, Dorians, mysteries. The stranger, dazzled and awed by his vol. 1, p. 201.) The worship of Ceres and Proser-own conception of the sacredness and importance of pina was the national and secret religion of the Eleu- all he beheld, conceived that nothing there could be sinians, from which the Athenians were of course ex-without some mysterious meaning. What this might cluded, as well as all other Greeks. But when Eleusis be he inquired of the officiating ministers, who, as variwas conquered, and the two states coalesced, the Athe-ous passages in Herodotus and Pausanias show, were nians became participators in the worship of these seldom without a legend or Sacred Account (iɛpòs deities; which, however, remained so long confined to λóyor), as it was called, to explain the dress or cerethem, as to have given rise to a proverb ('ATTIKOì Tà mony, which owed, perhaps, its true origin to the ca'Eλevoívia), applied to those who met together in se- price or sportive humour of a ruder period. Or if the cret for the performance of any matter. (Aglaoph, initiated person was himself endowed with inventive p. 271.) Gradually, with the advance of knowledge, power, he explained the appearances according, in genand the decline of superstition and national illiberality,eral, to the system of philosophy which he himself had admission to witness the solemn rites celebrated each embraced. (Aglaoph., p. 180, scq.) It was thus that year at Eleusis was extended to all Greeks of either Porphyry conceived the Hierophant to represent the sex and of every rank, provided they came at the prop- Platonic Demiurgus or creator of the world; the torcher time, had committed no inexpiable offence, had per-bearer (dadouxos) the sun; the altar-man (ó ènì ßwμ) formed the requisite previous ceremonies, and were the moon; the herald (pv) Hermes; and the other introduced by an Athenian citizen. (Aglaoph., p. 14, ministers the inferior stars. These fancies of priests 28, 31.) These mysteries, as they were termed, were and philosophers have been formed by modern writers performed with a considerable degree of splendour, at into a complete system, and Saint-Croix in particular the charge of the state, and under the superintendence describes the Eleusinian mysteries with as much miof the magistrates; whence it follows, as a necessary nuteness as if he had been actually, himself initiated. consequence, that the rites could have contained no- (Compare Warburton's Div. Legation.-Saint-Croix, thing that was grossly immoral or indecent. (Agla- Recherches sur les Mystères, &c.)-It is to be oboph, p. 116.) There does not appear to be any valid served, in conclusion, with respect to the charges of reason for supposing, as many do, that a public dis- impiety and immorality brought against the Eleusinian course on the origin of things and that of the gods, mysteries by some Fathers of the Church, that this and on other high and important matters, was de- arose from their confounding them with the Bacchic, livered by the Hierophant, whose name would rather Isiac, Mithraic, and other private mysteries, mostly imseem to be derived from his exhibiting the sacred ported from Asia, which were undoubtedly liable to things, ancient statues probably of the goddesses, that imputation. It must always be remembered, that which were kept carefully covered up, and only shown those of Eleusis were public, and celebrated by the on these solemn occasions. The delivery of a public state. (Aglaoph., p. 116, 197, 202, 1263.-Müller, discourse would, in fact, have been quite repugnant to Proleg., p. 248, seq.-Keightley's Mythology, p. 181, the usages of the Greeks in their worship of the gods; seqq.) and the evidence offered in support of this supposition ELEUSIS OF ELEUSIN, I. an ancient city of Boeotia, .s extremely feeble. But the singing of sacred hymns, which stood, according to tradition, near Cope and n honour of the goddess, always formed a part of the the Lake Copais, and was, together with another anservice. (Aglaoph., p. 63, 193.—Muller, Prolegom., cient city, named Athenæ, mundated by the waters of p. 250, seq.) The ancient writers are full of the prais-that lake. (Strab., 407.) Stephanus of Byzantium rees of the Eleusinian mysteries, of the advantage of being initiated, i. e., admitted to participate in them, and of the favour of the gods in life, and the cheerful hopes in death, which were the consequence of it. Hence occasion has been taken to assert, that a system of religion little inferior to pure Christianity was taught in them. But these hopes, and this tranquillity of mind and favour of heaven, are easy to be accounted for without having recourse to so absurd a supposition. Every act performed in obedience to the will of Heaven is believed to draw down its favour on the performer. The Mussulman makes his pilgrimage to the Kaaba at Mecca, the Catholic to Loretto, Compostella, or elsewhere; and each is persuaded that, by having done so, he has secured the divine favour. (Aglaoph., p. 70, seq.) So the Greek who was initiated at Eleusis (the mysteries of which place, owing to the fame in which Athens stood, and the splendour and magnificence with which they were performed, eclipsed all others) retained ever after a lively sense of the happiness which he had enjoyed, when admitted to view-Id. ibid., 356.-Id. ibid., 474.) Some etymologists the interior of the illuminated temple, and the sacred suppose that Eleusis was so called, because Ceres, relics which it contained, when, to his excited imagi- after traversing the whole world in pursuit of her nation, the very gods themselves seemed visibly to de- daughter, came here (2e0w, venio), and ended her scend from their Olympian abodes, amid the solemn search. Diodorus Siculus (5, 69) makes the name hymns of the officiating priests. Hence there natu- Eleusis to have been given this city, as a monument rally arose a persuasion, that the benign regards of the to posterity, that corn and the art of cultivating it were gods were bent upon him through after life; and, as man brought from abroad into Attica; or, to use the words can never divest himself of the belief of his continued of the historian, "because the person who brought existence after death, a vivid hope of enjoying bliss in thither the seed of corn came from foreign parts." At the life to come. It was evidently the principle alone period Eleusis was powerful enough to contend ready stated, of seeking to discover the causes of re- with Athens for the sovereignty of Attica. This was markable appearances, which gave origin to most of in the time of Eumolpus. The controversy was ended the ideas respecting the recondite sense of the actions by a treaty, wherein it was stipulated that Eleusis ports, that when Crates drained the waters which had overspread the plains, the city of Athenæ became visible (s. v. 'A0vat). Compare Müller, Gesch. Hellenisch. Stämme und Städte, vol. 1, p. 57, seqq.-II. A city of Attica, equidistant from Megara and the Piræus, and famed for the celebration of the mysteries of Ceres. According to some writers, it derived its name from a hero, whom some affirmed to be the son of Mercury, but others of Ogyges. (Pausan., 1, 38.—— Compare Aristid., Rhet. Eleus., vol. 1, p. 257.) Its origin is certainly of the highest antiquity, as it appears to have already existed in the time of Cecrops (Strabo, 387), but we are not informed by whom, or at what period, the worship of Ceres was introduced there. Eusebius places the building of the first temple in the reign of Pandion (Chron., 2, p. 66); but, according to other authors, it is more ancient. (Clem. Alex., Strom., 1, p. 381.-Tatian, ad Græc., c. 61.) Celeus is said to have been king of Eleusis when Ceres first arrived there. (Hom., Hymn. in Cer., 96. |