For two thousand years, the most prestigious parties of antiquity took place in Eleusis. Closed - but we have passages.
Any ancient Greek who wanted to be modern was necessarily initiated into some mysteries - regular services of certain cults. One of the later mysteries was firmly entrenched in the Russian language - bacchanalia, an orgiastic festival in honor of Dionysus, the magic substance of which was good old ethanol. Bacchanalia differed from the annual, quite official and universal libations - Dionysius - in the main thing - a secret. This is how "mystery" is translated from Greek.
Devoured by the Minotaur
“Well equipped is he who descends into the grave, knowing the truth of Eleusis.
He knows the outcome of earthly life and its new beginning - the gift of the gods. - Pindar. Odes. 5th century BC e.
Many mysteries were built on "acting out" plots that later became known to us as Greek myths. Thus, the legend of the Minotaur was the basis of the "mystery in the Labyrinth" on the island of Crete. As Dieter Lauenstein writes, this mystery was a fight between a man and a bull “on a round platform surrounded by a high wall, where about three dozen young people could stand. Playing with the bull required skill, determination and dexterity. The Knossos court was probably even happy about breakdowns and accidents; the rest of the applicants thus realized the seriousness of what was happening. Like the Egyptian culture, the culture here was not compassionate; this spiritual strength humanity acquired only in the last pre-Christian millennium. In the event of a fatal outcome, the homeland was reported: devoured by the Minotaur."
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Mysteries were popular on about. Samothrace. Plutarch in his Comparative Biographies writes about Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great: “It is reported that Philip was initiated into the Sacraments of Samothrace at the same time as Olympias, when he himself was still a boy, and she was a girl who had lost her parents. Philip fell in love with her and married her, having obtained the consent of her brother Aribba. What is important, not only men and women took part in the mysteries on an equal footing, but also, as studies indicate, even personally not free people.
More and more mysteries appeared at the end of the Hellenistic world: foreign cults penetrated into Greece. The "program" of the mysteries of the Asia Minor (Phrygian) goddess Cybele included ritual pouring of bull's blood and bringing oneself to ecstasy (by what means is unknown); in Greece and then in the Roman Empire, Mithraism spread with its mysteries, which included tests by fire and ritual infliction of pain. By the way, Mithraism was actively supported by the Roman emperors as a counterbalance to Christianity and Christians, who, we recall, at the same time also sent their services secretly, being in an illegal position. In general, there were enough cults - and what made the Eleusinian Mysteries special?
Inherited Mystery
“I will broadcast to those who are allowed.
Close the doors for the uninitiated.”- A verse recited before the beginning of the mysteries. From the scholia to Elius Aristide.
Plutarch (46 - 127 BC), known as the author of Comparative Biographies, one of the most significant sources on the history of Ancient Greece, mentions one notable drinking drink of Alcibiades (450 - 404 BC), a prominent Athenian military leader and a statesman.
Speech about "other statues of the gods" is not without reason - that night in 415 BC. e. in Athens, someone mutilated the sacred images of Hermes, and then a denunciation of Alcibiades arrived. His property was confiscated, the Eleusinian priests from the Eumolpid family put him under a curse, and Alcibiades fled from Athens - though not forever. Subsequently, as the commander-in-chief of the Athenian army, he will arrange a huge celebration of the Eleusinian shrines in order to make amends for past guilt.
For divulging the secrets of Eleusis in Athens, the death penalty was imposed. The 19th century historian Nikolai Novosadsky cites a story from Titus Livy about how two young men “once entered the temple of Demeter during the performance of the mysteries, without having been previously initiated; there, with their inappropriate questions, they soon gave themselves away; they were taken to the hierophant and immediately executed according to his sentence. Even the famous playwright Aeschylus, writes Novosadsky, “was accused of the fact that in some of his tragedies there were allusions to the teachings of the hierophants of Demeter; he was in great danger, and only after proving that, without taking initiation into the mysteries, he did not know their teachings, the great tragedian was saved from death.
Nevertheless, according to ancient literature, it seems that everyone knew about the Eleusinian mysteries. In Aristophanes' comedy "Frogs", Hercules tells Dionysus, who descended to Hades, that he will soon see "a wondrous light, like an overground day," he will hear "flutes of breath" host of husbands and wives, and innumerable splashing hands. " When asked who they are, Hercules answers - "initiates." Cicero (106 - 43 BC) - "On the Laws", book. II - we read: “the best - those mysteries, thanks to which we, wild and cruel people, were re-educated in the spirit of humanity and gentleness, were admitted, as they say, to the mysteries and truly learned the basics of life and learned not only to live with joy, but and die hoping for the best. " To the epigraph to this chapter,a verse widely known among the Greeks, Plato himself (427 - 347 BC) makes a reference in the famous dialogue "Feast": "As for the servants and all other uninitiated ignoramuses, let them shut their ears with large gates."
Novosadsky does not mention "teaching" for nothing. It was he who was forbidden to divulge - the very fact of the mysteries, as well as certain parts of them that were held in public, were not a secret. Only what was happening in Telesterion, the temple of the mysteries, remained secret. It was there, at the end of the sacrament, that the initiates accepted the kykeon, a magical drink that caused visions, which, according to the Greeks, made it possible to experience death during life and communicate with the gods. Actually, on that unfortunate evening, Alcibiades was guilty not only of disfiguring the statues of the gods and portraying someone there. His servants served the guests a real kykeon, apparently stolen or deceived from the priests. The recipe for the drink was kept secret for all two thousand years that mysteries existed - at least it was relatively reconstructed only in our time.
Mixing Kykeon
The mysterious drink, the effect of which apparently explained the strength of the impressions of the participants in the mysteries, attracted special attention of researchers to them. It was especially exciting that the kykeon was prepared on the basis of ergot-affected barley - namely, from ergot, Albert Hoffman obtained lysergic acid.
In the Middle Ages, ergot-infected cereals used for food could become the cause of mass insanity, religious hysteria and other monstrous manifestations of human nature. It can be assumed that the Greeks knew how to prepare a psychedelic drug that did not cause madness, but European society has lost this secret. Whole generations of scientists have tried to uncover it, including Hoffman himself, who in 1978 co-authored the book The Road to Eleusis.
Hoffman and his associates suggested that the source of the psychoactive substance was the mushroom Claviceps purpurea, affected by which barley was soaked in water. In modern research, the historian, biologist, and chemist have taken a close look at the problem and this is where they come to.
Ergot.
First of all, Alcibiades would not need to steal either the Kykeon or its recipe if it were so easy to make. It was the fact that Alcibiades, outside the Mysteries, used the real kykeon, the recipe for which was kept in such a secret, that infuriated the Athenians - and especially the Eumolpides, who were the keepers of the secret. Hence, the kykeon could not be prepared in no time.
At the same time, if it was prepared for two thousand years, and the mysteries were regular and obeyed a strict order, this means that the effect of the kykeon was precisely known, there were volumetric measures, methods for extracting the active substance from raw materials, and so on. Moreover, the drink had to be prepared by very simple means - the Greeks did not have chemical laboratories.
Hoffman's hypothesis has been seriously challenged. First, the alkaloids that can be obtained from C. purpurea are very weak. Adults, according to critics, could not experience severe intoxication. In addition, the by-substances contained in the fungus cause severe discomfort, and in women it provokes miscarriages - sources about Eleusis do not contain a single mention of either one or the other. Finally, the only recipe for kykeon contained in the Homeric hymn to Demeter is simply water, barley, and mint. If you soak the barley affected by the fungus in water and drink, it will simply be poisoned.
The authors of the study take the criticism apart piece by piece. First of all, such strong psychoactive drugs as opium and psilocybin are excluded from the possible ingredients of kykeon - it was impossible to obtain and store them in the required amount regularly in Greece. Barley was convenient for harvesting in the right quantities, and it is harvested in August-September - just on the eve of the Mysteries. Now it remains to understand how the Greeks managed to make the product non-toxic.
The author of the first part of the above study reports on his own experiments, which proved that the extraction of the necessary alkaloids from C. purpurea can be carried out by hydrolysis. In the 1930s, it was discovered that by hydrolysis of ergotoxine (roughly speaking, a mixture of alkaloids contained in C. purpurea) with potassium hydroxide (potash) as a base, psychoactive ergine and lysergic acid can be obtained, and the higher the temperature, the more than the second component. For advice, the authors turned to the famous chemist Daniel Perrin, the author of the book "The Chemistry of Mind-Changing Substances."
According to Perrin, a drink containing the psychoactive ergine could indeed have been created in the conditions of ancient Greece. Until now, clinical experiments with ergine, conducted independently by psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond and Albert Hoffman, have been considered one of the serious arguments against this hypothesis.
Results - "fatigue, apathy, a sense of unreality and meaninglessness of the world around." Perrin's arguments are stronger. Ergin is also obtained from the plant Turbina corymbosa, which for thousands of years has had ritual significance in South America and has helped shamans enter states of religious meditation. Of course, writes Perrin, taking a substance in a clinic setting by an experienced experimenter familiar with the effect of much stronger substances differs from taking it in the course of a religious mystery, after many days of fasting and a grueling walk from Athens to Eleusis.
Finally, from a chemical point of view, Perrin experimentally and with formulas confirms the possibility of obtaining a psychoactive drink by "boiling ergot for several hours in water, to which the ash of a tree or other plant material, possibly barley, is added." A mixture of ash and water was used in Greek society for both washing and medicine. At the same time, symbolically ash, the ashes of a tree, is an attribute of Demeter - as we will see below, according to the myth, Demeter immerses Demophon, the son of Queen Metanyra, into the flame of the hearth in order to grant him immortality; every year during the Mysteries, one of the noble Athenian boys played the role of Demophon. In general, it all fits together.
The reception of the Kykeon, as the authors of the study explain, took place in Eleusis itself - the drink in a sacred vessel was carried there during a procession from Athens. They drank it from separate cups inside the Eleusinian temple - and, one must assume, given the approximately number of participants (about 1000 people), they were previously diluted with water in some more voluminous vessels. After the reception, the mystas participated in a ritual with dances and songs, and at the end of the mysteries the remainder of the kykeon was symbolically poured onto the ground (on the last day of the mysteries, "plimohoi"). But in order to understand why the kykeon was taken at all, it is necessary to consider the course of the mysteries themselves.
By the grain
The reception of the Kykeon was preceded by long and magnificent ceremonies, comparable in significance for the Greeks to the Olympics - during the time of Eleusinius, all wars and strife also ceased. Just as the mysteries of the Minotaur on Knossos emerged from first a real, and then a ritual primitive occupation - corraling and killing a bull - so Eleusis is a prayer for fertility that is complicated and turned into a ceremony.
It is not my task here to describe the entire complex ceremonial of the Mysteries - for those interested, I refer to Lauenstein's book The Eleusinian Mysteries. Let us designate only the main stages, especially since over two thousand years the mysteries have been changed and supplemented so many times that the description of all this as a whole will make the text almost unreadable (which is the reason for the unpopularity and obscurity of Lauenstein's book. This is literally a guide to how not to write history books).
The appearance of the Eleusinian Mysteries dates back to about 1500 BC. e. - the period of the so-called Mycenaean culture. They ended in 396 after the destruction of Eleusis by the Visigoth king Alaric, and thus lasted about 2 thousand years, with the exception of three years, in which, apparently, it was impossible not to fight.
Demeter.
The basis for the mysteries was the myth of Demeter, her daughter Persephone and the ruler of the underworld, Hades. An unexpected detail - the main ancient Greek source about the mysteries, the so-called "Homeric hymns" were found in 1777 in Moscow. In the depths of the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the German paleographer Christian Friedrich Mattei discovered a manuscript that included the Odyssey, the Iliad and 33 hymns to various gods. Mattei, who was also a well-known freemason and shameless thief, took apart the manuscript, separating the hymns, and, having lied that these sheets were sold to him by a petty Moscow official, he sold them to the Dresden Library, from where they then ended up in Leiden. As it was established at the end of the 19th century, the manuscript originally came to Moscow from Constantinople, where it belonged to Archimandrite Dionysius. That is, the provenance of the source indirectly indicated its authenticity.
It is interesting that the hymns are called "Homeric" only because they are written in the same way as the Iliad and the Odyssey, in a dactylic hexameter. Thucydides attributed them to Homer, but they were created somewhat later than the Homeric epic. This is how the hymn about Demeter describes the myth on which the mysteries were built.
Demeter, the "mother of the fields", has a daughter named Persephone (or Cora, "girl"). She, with her friends Artemis and Athena, plays in a flowering meadow. From there, Hades kidnaps her and takes her to her underground palace, where she becomes the queen of the dead. For nine days Demeter wanders the earth in search of her daughter. At dawn on the tenth day, Hecate (Moon) advises her to question Helios (Sun), the all-seeing solar titan. From him, Demeter learns about the kidnapper.
Angry at the gods who committed an evil deed, Demeter wanders in the world of people, taking on the appearance of an ancient old woman. One evening she sits at the city well in Eleusis, and here the four daughters of King Keleus come for water. The old woman introduces herself as a nanny and the girls' mother, the local queen Metanira, invites the newcomer to be a nanny to her newborn son Demophon.
When the old woman enters, Metanira treats her guest with wine, but the old woman asks for kykeon, a drink from the field and toasted barley flour. Raising a child, the nanny does not give him any milk or other human food, but the baby grows and gets stronger. Metanira spies on the old woman at night and sees how she, like a torch, plunges the child into the fire of the hearth. This is how the divine essence of the old woman is revealed. All night long, Methanira and her daughters pray to the goddess in fright. Then the Eleusians build on the hill a sacred abode, Anaktoron, the House of the Lady. Demeter, in anger and anguish, leaves for the temple. For a whole year, she does not allow the seeds to sprout, and finally the gods, in fear for all living things, send Mercury to Hades - to ask the subterranean ruler to release the kidnapped spouse from the darkness into the light. Hades releases Cora, but first lets her swallow a tiny pomegranate seed.
hiccuping, Cora returns to her mother. She immediately asks: “My daughter, [did you eat] food in Hades … If you did, you will go back and within a year you will spend a third part in the depths of the underworld. The other two are with me, as well as with other gods."
Demeter's anger against the gods is appeased, and she humbles her anger against people herself, having established sacred ordinances. She instructs her first myst, Triptolemus, in great detail on how these orgies should be celebrated. And when the Eleusinian rulers, under the leadership of Triptolemus, send the sacraments, barley grows in the fields again, most dear to the goddess. Following Triptolemus, the first mystics were Diocles, Eumolpus and Polyxenes: “I myself will institute the sacraments in it, so that in the future, performing the sacred rite according to the rite, you will bow my spirit to mercy. About them [the sacraments] no one should make any inquiries, nor give an answer to inquiries: happy are those of the earth-born people who have seen the sacraments. The one who is not involved in them, until death, will never have a share like this in the darkened kingdom of the underground,”says the goddess.
In the image of the Bark, we see the very grain that is lowered into the ground, spends three months in it and is born again, repeating its cycle every year. Accordingly, the mysteries were divided into "small", held in the spring, and autumn "big" or "great".
Hierophants, Dadukhs and Kiriks
To take part in the mysteries, you first had to pass initiation. The condition for admission to initiation was non-participation in murders (war was not considered, of course), it was impossible to be on trial, and to be a sorcerer; knowledge of the Greek language was necessary (otherwise it would not be possible to understand the meaning of the speeches of the Eleusinian priests) and the citizenship of Athens. Some Athenian families "registered" guests. In the mysteries, the Romans Sulla and Atticus (a friend of Cicero), the emperors Augustus, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius were dedicated, and even extraordinary mysteries were held for the consecration of Octavian. Subsequently, the mysteries were allowed to initiate slaves and getters.
Anyone who wanted to join the myst was looking for a mystagogue - any initiate could be. The mystagogues had to explain to the neophytes the basic rules and rituals. The first initiation took place in February, during the small mysteries that were celebrated in Agras, part of Athens. The future mystics received here the symbolic cleansing of fire, water and incense. These initiations were attended by priests representing the gods. The main goal of this part was to prepare the neophytes for the situation of the great mysteries, when everything that will be seen in Telestrion must remain secret. The future mystics were reminded of this more than once and even practiced vows of silence.
The Great Mysteries began in September. First of all, all the mystics accepted the fast - they abstained from meat, wine and beans. Before the beginning of the Great Mysteries, as well as the Small Mysteries, special priests-officials - spondophores, "bearers of [the message] of libation" - were sent throughout Greece announcing the end of wars and strife.
With the beginning of the Great Mysteries, the leading priest, the hierophant, began to play the main role. He was elected only from the Eumolpid family (originating according to legend, from one of the first myst Demeter, Eumolpus). The Hierophant received a special sacred name during the Mysteries, which was not made public during his lifetime. After becoming a hierophant, it was forbidden to have sexual intercourse and marriage for the rest of their lives, so they usually became respected elderly people with a loud voice.
During the Mysteries, he wore chic purple clothes (purple is the color of death; we will not lose sight of the coincidence - or maybe not the coincidence - of the name of the mushroom Claviceps purpurea and the color of the hierophant's clothes) and, like all mystics, a myrtle wreath. In the sacred theatrical performance, it was the hierophant who played the role of Zeus. He also held civil authority in Eleusis as a city.
The second significant priest-official was the dadukh - the torch bearer. There is evidence that in the performance he portrayed Helios. The third - kirik, "herald", who announced the beginning of the sacred rite to the mystics, played the role of Mercury, "the messenger of the gods." These three priests were enough for conducting the mysteries (there were also hierophantida and dadukhinya, but the Kirik did not find a female parallel).
In addition to these, there were many lower priestly positions that served the sacrifices and the organization of performance. The idran priest served the purification; Fadints cleaned statues of deities; Iachagogues carried the statue of Iacchus during processions; Panagami, apparently, were called “stage workers”, people who had the right to move sacred objects (statues of gods and machines for producing sound and light effects); the pyrphors wore hearths with sacred fires dedicated to the gods. cystophores carried baskets with sacred objects; singers, singers and actors in particular took part in the performance in cameo roles. In a word, it was a whole show business, in which it was a great honor to take part in the role of service personnel. Undoubtedly, the noble Athenians fought for these places.
Initiation into the Great Mysteries could be passed only by those who had already taken initiation into the Small, but not in the same year, but in the next. The last degree of initiation - epoptia - was accepted only by those who participated in the Great Mysteries more than twice, and very rarely for the third time. The more different mysteries became in Greece, the more difficult it was to become an bishop - very many were torn. At the end of the Mysteries, in the 3rd century AD. e., as Tertullian reports, the interval could be up to five years!
The main part of the Great Mysteries lasted 9 days. The exact location of the parts of the mysteries still differs from day to day, only the order of actions is more or less known.
Ruins of Eleusis.
The first day. General meeting. Archon (Athenian king) hierophant, daduch and kirik read out the rules of the mysteries. In the evening, the procession goes to Eleusis for the statues of Demeter and Persephone.
Second day. The statues are brought to Athens. The Victim of Democracy is the celebration of the state and social order in Greece. Cleansing ablution of the myst in the Eleusinian estuary. They entered the water themselves and washed in it the piglet brought with them, which they sacrificed to Zeus in the evening; they also slaughtered a sheep in the name of Demeter and a ram - Persephone.
Day three. Sacrifices to Iacchus and other gods in Athens.
Day four. Epidavria - sacrifices to Asclepius, the god of medicine.
Day five. The procession leaves Athens with statues of the gods and a jug of kykeon, and went to Eleusis along the Sacred Road. At each stop, prayers, rituals and ritual dances were performed. Lauenstein describes it as follows:
In the evening of that day, the procession arrived at Eleusis - and the very secret part of the mysteries, about which it was forbidden to talk, began. The procession, led by the hierophant, brought the statue of Iacchus into the temple and the doors closed behind them. From that moment on, animal sacrifices ceased - it was forbidden to kill inside Demeter's house. What could have happened next is perfectly described by Novosadsky. On this day, the marriage of Demeter and Zeus and the birth of Iacchus were performed.
Sixth day. Started late as the previous night had been given over to the presentation of the birth of Iacchus. On the evening of the sixth day, the abduction of Persephone by Pluto was enacted. The program included a torchlight procession symbolizing Demeter's search for her daughter.
Seventh day. The evening of this day was busy playing out the return of Persephone from the afterlife, the reconciliation of Demeter with the gods and the establishment of agriculture. Either on this or on the previous day, the kykeon was received. In conclusion, the hierophant solemnly showed the myst an ear of corn - a symbol of fertility and life. On the seventh day, the "holy nights" - the main part of the mysteries - ended.
Days eight and nine. Due to serious discrepancies in the sources and literature, it is not yet fully understood how the events were distributed in the last days of the Mysteries. However, the following is known for sure: the last day was called plimohoi. Earthen jugs were called Plimokhoi, from which the priests poured water on the ground, symbolically fertilizing it. Also, at the end of the mysteries in Eleusis, agons took place - competitions between athletes, tragedians and musicians. Contrary to custom, the awards in these competitions were not money and expensive items, but the grains of the sacred wheat.
On the morning of the day following the last day at Eleusis, the mystics, dressed in black robes, returned along the Sacred Road to Athens. At the end of the Great Mysteries, a council convened in Athens, in which the hierophant judged those who insulted the mystery of the mysteries by their behavior, and appointed rewards to those who, on the contrary, distinguished themselves during the holiday.
After that, the Athenians returned to ordinary life, the guests went home, and the declared truce ended - until the next small mysteries.
Boris Zamedin