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99-527: At Eleusis , the ploutonion was near the north entrance to the sacred district ( temenos ). It was built by Peisistratos in the 6th century BC and rebuilt two centuries later, when the Eleusinian mysteries were at the height of their influence. The cave was the traditional site of the birth of the Divine Child Ploutos . The Greek geographer Strabo mentioned three sites as having a ploutonion. One

198-582: A Linear B ( Mycenean Greek ) inscription ( PY En 609); the word 𐀅𐀔𐀳 , da-ma-te , probably refers to "households". On the other hand, 𐀯𐀵𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 , si-to-po-ti-ni-ja , " Potnia of the Grain", is regarded as referring to her Bronze Age predecessor or to one of her epithets . Demeter's character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name meter ( μήτηρ ) derived from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *méh₂tēr (mother). In antiquity, different explanations were already proffered for

297-417: A Greek interpretation, but not necessarily an Indo-European one. Demeter was frequently associated with images of the harvest, including flowers, fruit, and grain. She was also sometimes pictured with her daughter Persephone. However, Demeter is not generally portrayed with any of her consorts; the exception is Iasion , the youth of Crete who lay with her in a thrice-ploughed field and was killed afterward by

396-501: A belief that there was a hope for life after death for those who were initiated. Such a belief was cultivated from the introduction ceremony in which the hopeful initiates were shown a number of things including the seed of life in a stalk of grain. The central myth of the Mysteries was Demeter's quest for her lost daughter (Kore the Maiden, or Persephone ) who had been abducted by Hades . It

495-485: A cave to mourn and to purify herself. She was consequently depicted with the head of a horse in this region. A sculpture of the Black Demeter was made by Onatas . In the earliest conceptions of Demeter she is the goddess of grain and threshing, however her functions were extended beyond the fields and she was often identified with the earth goddess ( Gaia ). Some of the epithets of Gaia and Demeter are similar showing

594-518: A dream forbade me to describe. Under the Romans Eleusis enjoyed great prosperity, as initiation into its mysteries became fashionable among the Roman nobles. Hadrian was initiated into the Mysteries in about 125 and raised embankments in the plain of the river in consequence of a flood which occurred while he was spending the winter at Athens. To the same emperor most likely Eleusis was indebted for

693-567: A form of agrarian magic. Theocritus described one of Demeter's earlier roles as that of a goddess of poppies: For the Greeks, Demeter was still a poppy goddess Bearing sheaves and poppies in both hands. Karl Kerényi asserted that poppies were connected with a Cretan cult which was eventually carried to the Eleusinian Mysteries in Classical Greece . In a clay statuette from Gazi,

792-560: A grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld . She is also called Deo ( Δηώ Dēṓ ). In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the Titans Rhea and Cronus , and sister to Hestia , Hera , Hades , Poseidon , and Zeus . Like her other siblings except Zeus, she was swallowed by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus. Through her brother Zeus, she became

891-462: A horse's head holding a dove and dolphin, perhaps to symbolize her power over the Underworld, the air, and the water. The cult of Demeter in the region was related to Despoina , a very old chthonic divinity. Demeter shares the double function of death and fertility with her daughter Persephone. Demeter and Persephone were called Despoinai (the mistresses) and Demeters . This duality was also used in

990-625: A jealous Zeus with a thunderbolt. Demeter is assigned the zodiac constellation Virgo, the Virgin, by Marcus Manilius in his 1st-century Roman work Astronomicon. In art, the constellation Virgo holds Spica, a sheaf of wheat in her hand and sits beside constellation Leo the Lion. In Arcadia, she was known as "Black Demeter". She was said to have taken the form of a mare to escape the pursuit of her younger brother, Poseidon, and having been raped by him despite her disguise, she dressed all in black and retreated into

1089-680: A natural opening along a wall of travertine , leading to a grotto in which streams of hot water gushed forth to release a noxious exhalation". This site was also associated with a dream oracle; the Neoplatonist Damascius dreamed that he was Attis in the company of the Great Mother . Strabo further records that Lake Avernus in Italy had been taken as a ploutonion because the gases it produced were so noxious that they overwhelmed birds flying overhead. According to earlier sources, he says, this

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1188-478: A new plant arises from buried seed. This was most likely a belief shared by initiates in Demeter's mysteries, as interpreted by Pindar : "Blessed is he who has seen before he goes under the earth; for he knows the end of life and knows also its divine beginning." In Arcadia Demeter had the epithets Erinys (fury) and Melaina (black) which are associated with the myth of Demeter's rape by Poseidon. The epithets stress

1287-665: A privilege possessed by no other town in Attica, except Athens. The history of Eleusis is part of the history of Athens. Once a year the great Eleusinian procession travelled from Athens to Eleusis, along the Sacred Way . Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries , or the Mysteries of Demeter and Kore , which became popular in the Greek-speaking world as early as 600 BC, and attracted initiates during Roman Empire before declining mid-late 4th century AD. These Mysteries revolved around

1386-551: A supply of good water by means of the aqueduct, completed in about 160 AD. Apart from satisfying the need for drinking water, it also enabled the construction of public fountains and baths. It was fed by springs in Mount Parnitha and used mainly underground tunnels. It crossed the Thriasian Plain and turned abruptly towards the south at the outskirts of Eleusis. The best visible remains are on the east side of Dimitros Street. It

1485-587: Is a suburban city and municipality in Athens metropolitan area. It belongs to West Attica regional unit of Greece . It is located in the Thriasio Plain , at the northernmost end of the Saronic Gulf . North of Elefsina are Mandra and Magoula , while Aspropyrgos is to the northeast. It is the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the birthplace of Aeschylus . Today, Elefsina is a major industrial centre, with

1584-588: Is also mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Artemis ; it appears to have been in the neighbourhood of the city; but its site cannot be determined. It appears to have derived its name from the supposed advent (ἔλευσις) of Demeter, though some traced its name from an eponymous hero Eleusis. It was one of the 12 independent states into which Attica was said to have been originally divided. "When Athens had only just become Athens, it went to war with another city built thirteen miles away: Eleusis," Roberto Calasso wrote of

1683-562: Is organized in honor of Aeschylus , who was born in Eleusis, from whom it derives its name. It includes stage productions, art exhibitions and installations, concerts, and dance events. Elefsina has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Csa ), bordering on a hot semi-arid climate ( BSh ) for the 1958-2010 period, according to the meteorological station operated by the Hellenic National Meteorological Service . Elefsina

1782-464: Is particularly hot during the summer, with an average July maximum of 33.2 °C (91.8 °F). According to Kassomenos and Katsoulis (2006), based on 12 years of data (1990–2001), the industrialization of west Attica , where at least 40% of the industrial activity of the country is concentrated, could be the cause of the warm climate of the zone. On June 4, 2024 the WMO station in the port of Elefsina broke

1881-476: Is sometimes swollen to such an extent as to spread itself over a large part of the plain. Demosthenes (384 – 322 BC) alludes to inundations at Eleusis; Pausanias ( c.  110  – c.  180 AD ) has left us only a very brief description of Eleusis; The Eleusinians have a temple of Triptolemus , another of Artemis Propylaea, and a third of Poseidon the Father, and a well called Callichorum, where

1980-437: Is the mother and the giver of food generally. This view is shared by British scholar Jane Ellen Harrison , who suggests that Démeter's name means Grain-Mother , instead of Earth-Mother . An alternative Proto-Indo-European etymology comes through Potnia and Despoina , where Des- represents a derivative of PIE *dem (house, dome), and Demeter is "mother of the house" (from PIE *dems-méh₂tēr ). R. S. P. Beekes rejects

2079-538: The Edict of Thessalonica and banned paganism throughout the Roman Empire , people throughout Greece continued to pray to Demeter as "Saint Demetra", patron saint of agriculture . Around 1765–1766, the antiquary Richard Chandler , alongside the architect Nicholas Revett and the painter William Pars , visited Eleusis and mentioned a statue of a caryatid as well as the folklore that surrounded it, they stated that it

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2178-617: The Great Mother Rhea - Cybele who was worshipped in Crete and Asia Minor with the music of cymbals and violent rites. It seems that poppies were connected with the cult of the Great Mother. In epic poetry and Hesiod 's Theogony , Demeter is the Grain-Mother, the goddess of cereals who provides grain for bread and blesses its harvesters. In Homer 's Iliad , the blonde Demeter with

2277-610: The Minoan poppy goddess wears the seed capsules, sources of nourishment and narcosis, in her diadem. According to Kerényi, "It seems probable that the Great Mother Goddess who bore the names Rhea and Demeter, brought the poppy with her from her Cretan cult to Eleusis and it is almost certain that in the Cretan cult sphere opium was prepared from poppies." In an older tradition in Crete

2376-402: The "queens" (wa-na-ssoi). Both Homer and Hesiod, writing c. 700 BC, described Demeter making love with the agricultural hero Iasion in a ploughed field during the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia . According to Hesiod, this union resulted in the birth of Plutus . According to Diodorus Siculus , in his Bibliotheca historica written in the 1st century BC, Demeter and Zeus were also

2475-515: The Athenian rhetorician Isocrates , Demeter's greatest gifts to humankind were agriculture which gave to men a civilized way of life, and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife. These two gifts were intimately connected in Demeter's myths and mystery cults. Demeter is the giver of mystic rites and the giver of the civilized way of life (teaching the laws of agriculture). Her epithet Eleusinia relates her with

2574-540: The Eleusinian mysteries, however at Sparta Eleusinia had an early use, and it was probably a name rather than an epithet. Demeter Thesmophoros (law-giving) is closely associated to the laws of cereal agriculture. The festival Thesmophoria was celebrated throughout Greece and was connected to a form of agrarian magic. Near Pheneus in Arcadia she was known as Demeter- Thesmia (lawfull), and she received rites according to

2673-507: The Eleusinian women first instituted a dance and sang in honour of the goddess. They say that the Rharian plain was the first place in which corn was sown and first produced a harvest, and that hence barley from this plain is employed for making sacrificial cakes. There the so-called threshing-floor and altar of Triptolemus are shown. The things within the wall of the Hierum [i.e., the temple of Demeter]

2772-502: The Grecian mysteries down to the fall of paganism. Eleusis stood upon a height at a short distance from the sea, and opposite the island of Salamis . Its situation possessed three natural advantages. It was on the road from Athens to the Isthmus of Corinth ; it was in a very fertile plain; and it was at the head of an extensive bay, formed on three sides by the coast of Attica, and shut in on

2871-570: The Hellenistic and mainly Roman eras the road was used for the exhibition of wealth and social power, with costly burial monuments being erected all along it. The road was in use until at least the 6th century AD. It is indicative that writers of the Byzantine era refer to it as a "small village", and shortly before the Ottoman domination the area was deserted by wars, raids and captives. During this period

2970-599: The Homeric "Mother Earth arοura " who gave the gift of cereals ( zeai or deai ). Most of the epithets of Demeter describe her as a goddess of grain. Her name Deo in literature probably relates her with deai a Cretan word for cereals. In Attica she was called Haloas (of the threshing floor) according to the earliest conception of Demeter as the Corn-Mother. She was sometimes called Chloe (ripe-grain or fresh-green) and sometimes Ioulo (ioulos : grain sheaf). Chloe

3069-566: The Illyrian god Dei-paturos ( dei- , "sky", attached to - paturos, "father"). The Lesbian form Dō- may simply reflect a different colloquial pronunciation of the non-Greek name. Another theory suggests that the element De - might be connected with Deo , an epithet of Demeter and it could derive from the Cretan word dea ( δηά ), Ionic zeia ( ζειά )—variously identified with emmer , spelt , rye , or other grains by modern scholars—so that she

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3168-524: The King": wa-na-ssoi , wa-na-ka-te ). The "Two Queens" may be related to Demeter and Persephone or their precursors, goddesses who were no longer associated with Poseidon in later periods. In Pylos potnia (mistress) is the major goddess of the city and "wanax " in the tablets has a similar nature with her male consort in the Minoan cult. Potnia retained some chthonic cults, and in popular religion these were related to

3267-530: The Linear B inscription E-ne-si-da-o-ne , "earth-shaker". John Chadwick also argues that the dā element in the name of Demeter is not so simply equated with "earth". M. L. West has proposed that the word Demeter, initially Damater , could be a borrowing from an Illyrian deity attested in the Messapic goddess Damatura , with a form dā- ("earth", from PIE *dʰǵʰ(e)m- ) attached to - matura ("mother"), akin to

3366-532: The Pessinuntian Mother of the gods; ... the ancient Eleusinians Actaean Ceres; ... and the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning, honour me with the worship which is truly mine and call me by my true name: Queen Isis. Alongside the rest of her siblings, with the exception of her youngest brother Zeus, she was swallowed as a newborn by her father due to his fear of being overthrown by one of his children; she

3465-564: The Thesmophoria. Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries , a religious tradition that predated the Olympian pantheon and which may have its roots in the Mycenaean period c.  1400 –1200 BC. Demeter

3564-609: The Thriassio General Hospital, located 3.9 km north of the city centre. Elefsina hosts the multi-sport club Panelefsiniakos with successful sections in football and basketball. Another historical club of Elefsina is Iraklis Eleusis , founded in 1928. Elefsina is twinned with: [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Smith, William , ed. (1854–1857). "Eleusis". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography . London: John Murray. *Not included

3663-562: The Underworld by Hades . At the Aventine, the new cult took its place alongside the old. It did not refer to Liber, whose open and gender-mixed cult played a central role in plebeian culture as a patron and protector of plebeian rights, freedoms and values. The exclusively female initiates and priestesses of the new " greek style " mysteries of Ceres and Proserpina were expected to uphold Rome's traditional, patrician -dominated social hierarchy and traditional morality . Unmarried girls should emulate

3762-413: The ages, highest of the gods, queen of the shades, first of those who dwell in heaven, representing in one shape all gods and goddesses. My will controls the shining heights of heaven, the health-giving sea winds, and the mournful silences of hell; the entire world worships my single godhead in a thousand shapes, with divers rites, and under many a different name. The Phrygians, first-born of mankind, call me

3861-449: The altar were called "ompniai" and in Attica the goddess was known as Ompnia (related to corns). These cakes were oferred to all gods. In some fests big loafs ( artoi ) were offered to the goddess and in Boeotia she was known as Megalartos (of the big loaf) and Megalomazos (of the big mass, or big porridge). Her function was extended to vegetation generally and to all fruits and she had

3960-515: The ancient Sacred Way over the Kephissus river is visible about 1 km from the Sanctuary of Demeter. The bridge is in very good condition and is an outstanding example of ancient bridge building. It consists of a central 30 m-long main bridge with 4 arches and 10 m-long sloping access on either side. The Sacred Way was the main road from Athens and led to Demeter's sanctuary, and was also the road used by

4059-491: The ancient provenance of the relationship between temple-city and the Attic seat of power. "It was a war usually described as mythical, since it has no date. And it was a theological war, since Athens belonged to Athena and Eleusis to Poseidon . Eumolpus and Erechtheus , the founding kings of the two cities, both died in it." It is related that in the reign of Eumolpus , king of Eleusis, and Erechtheus , king of Athens, there

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4158-430: The annual Aeschylia Festival is held in honor of the great tragic poet Aeschylus. Elefsis Shipyards is located here. There is a military airport a few kilometers east of Elefsina. Elefsina Airfield played a crucial role in the final British evacuation during the 1941 Battle of Greece , as recounted by Roald Dahl in his autobiography Going Solo . Elefsina is home to the football club Panelefsiniakos F.C. , and

4257-591: The basketball club Panelefsiniakos B.C. Established in 1975, the Aeschylia Festival in Eleusis in Western Attica is the currently the longest standing cultural event organized by an Attica Municipality . It is held annually at Palaio Elaiourgeio, a former soap factory by the seafront that functions as an open theatre. The festival usually is running at the end of August and during all of the September. The event

4356-537: The chastity of Proserpina, the maiden; married women should seek to emulate Ceres, the devoted and fruitful mother. Their rites were intended to secure a good harvest and increase the fertility of those who partook in the mysteries. Beginning in the 5th century BCE in Asia Minor , Demeter was also considered equivalent to the Phrygian goddess Cybele . Demeter's festival of Thesmophoria was popular throughout Asia Minor, and

4455-441: The classical period ( Thesmophoroi , Double named goddesses ) and particularly in an oath: "By the two goddesses". In the cult of Phlya she was worshipped as Anesidora who sends up gifts from the Underworld. In Sparta, she was known as Demeter- Chthonia (chthonic Demeter). After each death the mourning should end with a sacrifice to the goddess. Pausanias believes that her cult was introduced from Hermione , where Demeter

4554-408: The darker side of her character and her relation to the dark underworld, in an old chthonic cult associated with wooden structures (xoana). Erinys had a similar function with the avenging Dike (Justice). In the mysteries of Pheneus the goddess was known as Cidaria . Her priest would put on the mask of Demeter, which was kept secret. The cult may have been connected with both the Underworld and

4653-469: The earliest Amphictyony centred on the cult of Demeter at Anthele (Ἀνθήλη), lay on the coast of Malis south of Thessaly, near Thermopylae. Mysian Demeter had a seven-day festival at Pellené in Arcadia. The geographer Pausanias passed the shrine to Mysian Demeter on the road from Mycenae to Argos and reports that according to Argive tradition, the shrine was founded by an Argive named Mysius who venerated Demeter. Even after Theodosius I issued

4752-489: The end of the Second Punic War . The cult originated in southern Italy (part of Magna Graecia ) and was probably based on the Thesmophoria, a mystery cult dedicated to Demeter and Persephone as "Mother and Maiden". It arrived along with its Greek priestesses, who were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil intention". The new cult

4851-414: The epithets eukarpos (of good crop), karpophoros (bringer of fruits), malophoros (apple bearer) and sometimes Oria (all the fruits of the season). These epithets show an identity in nature with the earth goddess. The central theme in the Eleusinian Mysteries was the reunion of Persephone with her mother, Demeter when new crops were reunited with the old seed, a form of eternity. According to

4950-400: The fire in order to endow him with immortality, until Metaneira found out and insulted her. Demeter arose insulted, and casting off her disguise, and, in all her glory, instructed Meteneira to build a temple to her. Keleos, informed the next morning by Metaneira, ordered the citizens to build a rich shrine to Demeter, where she sat in her temple until the lot of the world prayed to Zeus to make

5049-519: The first element of her name. It is possible that Da ( Δᾶ ), a word which corresponds to Gē ( Γῆ ) in Attic, is the Doric form of De ( Δῆ ), "earth", the old name of the chthonic earth-goddess, and that Demeter is "Mother-Earth". Liddell & Scott find this "improbable" and Beekes writes, "there is no indication that [ da ] means "earth", although it has also been assumed in the name of Poseidon found in

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5148-577: The form of a snake, explaining the origin of the symbol on Hermes ' staff. Their daughter is said to be Persephone, whom Zeus, in turn, mates with to conceive Dionysus . According to the Orphic fragments, "After becoming the mother of Zeus, she who was formerly Rhea became Demeter." There is some evidence that the figures of the Queen of the Underworld and the daughter of Demeter were initially considered separate goddesses. However, they must have become conflated by

5247-676: The goddess Demeter. In Greek religion potniai (mistresses) appear in plural (like the Erinyes) and are closely related to the Eleusinian Demeter. Major cults to Demeter are known at Eleusis in Attica, Hermion (in Crete), Megara , Celeae, Lerna , Aegila , Munychia , Corinth , Delos , Priene , Akragas , Iasos , Pergamon , Selinus , Tegea , Thoricus , Dion (in Macedonia) Lykosoura , Mesembria , Enna , and Samothrace . Probably

5346-457: The goddess of childbirth, who was involved with the annual birth of the divine child. Elements of this early form of worship survived in the Eleusinian cult, where the following words were uttered: "the mighty Potnia had born a strong son." Tablets from Pylos of c.  1400  – c.  1200 BC record sacrificial goods destined for "the Two Queens and Poseidon" ("to the Two Queens and

5445-473: The heart of both festivals were myths concerning Demeter as the mother and Persephone as her daughter. In the Roman period, Demeter became conflated with the Roman agricultural goddess Ceres through interpretatio romana . The worship of Demeter has formally merged with that of Ceres around 205 BC, along with the ritus graecia cereris , a Greek-inspired form of cult, as part of Rome's general religious recruitment of deities as allies against Carthage, towards

5544-462: The help of the wind separates the grain from the chaff. Homer mentions the Thalysia a Greek harvest-festival of first fruits in honour of Demeter . In Hesiod, prayers to Zeus-Chthonios (chthonic Zeus ) and Demeter help the crops grow full and strong. This was her main function at Eleusis , and she became panhellenic. In Cyprus , "grain-harvesting" was damatrizein . Demeter was the zeidoros arοura ,

5643-428: The identity of their nature. In most of her myths and cults, Demeter is the "Grain-Mother" or the "Earth-Mother". In the older chthonic cults the earth goddess was related to the Underworld and in the secret rites (mysteries) Demeter and Persephone share the double function of death and fertility. Demeter is the giver of the secret rites and the giver of the laws of cereal agriculture. She was occasionally identified with

5742-456: The industries in the region. Industrial activity, however, developed anarchically on the antiquities and next to the residential area. Environmental pollution has taken on large dimensions. During the 20th century, at the time of sustainable development, archaeological discoveries and industrial formation shaped the image of contemporary Eleusis. In 1962, a large house of priests from the Roman era

5841-787: The largest oil refinery in Greece as well as the home of the Aeschylia Festival , the longest-lived arts event in the Attica Region. On 11 November 2016, Elefsina was named the European Capital of Culture for 2021, which became effective in 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic postponement. The word Eleusis first appears in the Orphic Hymn to Eleusinian Demeter : «Δήμητρος Ελευσινίας, θυμίαμα στύρακα ». Also Hesychius of Alexandria reports that

5940-424: The local version. Demeter's emblem is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among the barley. In addition to her role as an agricultural goddess, Demeter was often worshipped more generally as a goddess of the earth, from which crops spring up. Her individuality was rooted to the less developed personality of Gaia (earth). In Arcadia Demeter Melaina (the black Demeter) was represented as snake-haired with

6039-549: The main industrial centers of the Modern Greek state with concrete factory TITAN , Charilaou Soap Factory as well as the distilleries of Botrys and Kronos being established in the area. Arvanitika is still spoken in the village, with the locals qualifying their dialect more "noble" and "refined" than those of rural Arvanites. Many Greek families of Asia Minor settled in Elefsina after the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe and created

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6138-410: The most parts of Athens urban area Demeter In ancient Greek religion and mythology , Demeter ( / d ɪ ˈ m iː t ər / ; Attic : Δημήτηρ Dēmḗtēr [dɛːmɛ́ːtɛːr] ; Doric : Δαμάτηρ Dāmā́tēr ) is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture , presiding over crops , grains , food , and the fertility of the earth. Although Demeter is mostly known as

6237-517: The mother of Persephone , a fertility goddess and resurrection deity . One of the most notable Homeric Hymns , the Homeric Hymn to Demeter , tells the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades and Demeter's search for her. When Hades, the King of the Underworld, wished to make Persephone his wife, he abducted her from a field while she was picking flowers, with Zeus' leave. Demeter searched everywhere to find her missing daughter to no avail until she

6336-461: The municipal unit has an area of 18.455 km (7.126 sq mi). Eleusis was a deme of ancient Attica , belonging to the phyle Hippothoöntis . It owed its celebrity to its being the chief seat of the worship of Demeter and Persephone , and to the mysteries celebrated in honour of these goddesses, which were called the Eleusinia , and continued to be regarded as the most sacred of all

6435-450: The myth of Persephone and Adonis in many ways mirrors the myth of Cybele and Attis . Some late antique sources syncretized several "great goddess" figures into a single deity. For example, the Platonist philosopher Apuleius , writing in the late 2nd century, identified Ceres (Demeter) with Isis, having her declare: I, mother of the universe, mistress of all the elements, first-born of

6534-463: The older name for Eleusis was Saesara (Σαισάρια). Saesara was the mythic daughter of Celeus (king of Eleusis when Demeter arrived for the first time) and granddaughter of Eleusinus, the first settler of Eleusis. The municipality of Elefsina was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following two former municipalities, that became municipal units: The municipality has an area of 36.589 km (14.127 sq mi), and

6633-491: The parents of Dionysus. Diodorus described the myth of Dionysus' double birth (once from the earth, i.e. Demeter, when the plant sprouts) and once from the vine (when the fruit sprouts from the plant). Diodorus also related a version of the myth of Dionysus' destruction by the Titans ("sons of Gaia "), who boiled him, and how Demeter gathered up his remains so that he could be born a third time (Diod. iii.62). Diodorus states that Dionysus' birth from Zeus and his older sister Demeter

6732-420: The potnia of the labyrinth da-pu-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja . Poseidon was often given the title wa-na-ka ( wanax ) in Linear B inscriptions in his role as King of the Underworld, and his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne indicates his chthonic nature. He was the male companion (paredros) of the goddess in the Minoan and probably Mycenean cult. In the cave of Amnisos , Enesidaon is associated with the cult of Eileithyia ,

6831-436: The procession every year of the celebration of the Great Mysteries escorting the sacred objects back to Eleusis. Its course is visible in some places and has been accurately traced by rescue excavations and ran parallel to its namesake in the modern city only a few metres to the south. Roadside cemeteries from different periods throughout antiquity are found next to it and prehistoric graves witness its existence by 1600 BC. During

6930-458: The record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Greece for the first 10 days of June from the National Observatory of Athens network. Until 2021, Elefsina was one of the areas in the Athens Metropolitan Area (the other one was Tatoi ) which held the record of the highest ever officially recorded temperature in Europe for 44 years with a reading of 48.0 °C (118.4 °F) on 10 July 1977. Elefsina has only one general hospital

7029-438: The right Persephone, clad in chiton and mantle and holding a torch, blesses Triptolemos with her right hand. The original marble relief was found at the sanctuary of Demeter, the site of the Eleusinian mysteries. A number of Roman copies also survive. During the Greco-Persian Wars , the ancient temple of Demeter was burnt down by the Persians in 484 BC; and it was not until the administration of Pericles that an attempt

7128-532: The settlement of Upper Elefsina, doubling its total population and enriching the region culturally and economically. During the Axis occupation of Greece (1941–1945), strong resistance developed within the city, the factories and the military airport, which once stationed Squadron 80, the squadron that Roald Dahl was assigned to in the RAF. After World War II , workers from all parts of Greece moved to Elefsina to work in

7227-480: The south by the island of Salamis. The town itself dates from the most ancient times. The caves on the coast of Eleusis are home to a mythological place for the Greek world. There is a cave said to be the very spot where Persephone was abducted by Hades himself and the cave was considered a gateway to Tartarus. At the spot of this abduction was a sanctuary ( Ploutonion ) dedicated to Hades and Persephone. The Rharian plain

7326-488: The temple underwent subsequent building phases. Much of that visible today is of the Classical era (5th century BC). Its portico of 12 columns was added in the time of Demetrius Phalereus , about 318 BC, by the architect Philo . When finished, it was considered one of the four finest examples of Grecian architecture in marble. Modifications were also carried out in Roman times (2nd c. AD). The Roman bridge that carried

7425-723: The time of Hesiod in the 7th century BC. Demeter and Persephone were often worshipped together and were often referred to by joint cultic titles. In their cult at Eleusis, they were referred to simply as "the goddesses", usually distinguished as "the older" and "the younger"; in Rhodes and Sparta , they were worshipped as "the Demeters"; in the Thesmophoria, they were known as "the thesmophoroi" ("the legislators"). In Arcadia they were known as "the Great Goddesses" and "the mistresses". In Mycenaean Pylos, Demeter and Persephone were probably called

7524-471: The vegetation cult was related with the deity of the cave. During the Bronze Age, a goddess of nature dominated both in Minoan and Mycenean cults. In the Linear B inscriptions po-ti-ni-ja (potnia) refers to the goddess of nature who was concerned with birth and vegetation and had certain chthonic apects. Some scholars believe that she was the universal mother goddess. A Linear B inscription at Knossos mentions

7623-454: The world provide food again. The Great Eleusian relief which was famous in antiquity and was copied in the Roman period, is the largest and most important votive relief found and dates to 440-430 BC. It represents the Eleusinian deities in a scene depicting a mysterious ritual. On the left Demeter, clad in a peplos and holding a sceptre in her left hand, offers ears of wheat to Triptolemos, son of Eleusinian king Keleos, to bestow on mankind. On

7722-435: The year between her mother and her husband, explaining the seasonal cycle as Demeter does not let plants grow while Persephone is gone. Her cult titles include Sito ( Σιτώ ), "she of the Grain", as the giver of food or grain, and Thesmophoros ( θεσμός , thesmos : divine order, unwritten law; φόρος , phoros : bringer, bearer), "giver of customs" or "legislator", in association with the secret female-only festival called

7821-469: Was a war between the two states, in which the Eleusinians were defeated, whereupon they agreed to acknowledge the supremacy of Athens in everything except the celebration of the mysteries, of which they were to continue to have the management. Eleusis afterwards became an Attic deme, but in consequence of its sacred character it was allowed to retain the title of polis (πόλις) and to coin its own money,

7920-433: Was associated with Hades . In a local legend a hollow in the earth was the entrance to the underworld, by which the souls could pass easily. In Elis she was called Demeter- Chamyne (goddess of the ground), in an old chthonic cult associated with the descent to Hades. At Levadia the goddess was known as Demeter- Europa and she was associated with Trophonius , an old divinity of the underworld. The oracle of Trophonius

8019-524: Was connected to the local cult of Cybele . Inhaling its vapors was said to be lethal to all living things except the Galli , the goddess's eunuch priests. During the Roman Imperial era , the cult of Apollo subsumed existing religious sites there, including the ploutonion. Archaeological excavations in the 1960s showed that the ploutonion had been located within the sacred precinct of Apollo : "it consisted of

8118-455: Was considered sacred by the locals because it protected their crops. They called the statue "Saint Demetra", a saint whose story had many similarities to the myth of Demeter and Persephone, except that her daughter had been abducted by the Turks and not by Hades . The locals covered the statue with flowers to ensure the fertility of their fields. This tradition continued until 1865, when the statue

8217-551: Was destroyed by Alaric I in 396 AD, and from that time disappears from history. The Telesterion , or temple of Demeter, was the largest in all Greece, and is described by Strabo as capable of containing as many persons as a theatre. The building was initially designed by Ictinus , the architect of the Parthenon at Athens; but it was many years before it was completed, and the names of several architects are preserved who were employed in building it. During its long history,

8316-452: Was discovered. Pollution thanks to citizens' struggles gradually has fallen. Today, the city has become a suburb of Athens , to which it is linked by the A6 motorway and Greek National Road 8 . Eleusis is nowadays a major industrial area, and the place where the majority of crude oil in Greece is imported and refined. The largest refinery is located on the west side of town, right beside where

8415-461: Was famous in the antiquity. Pindar uses the rare epithet Chalkokrotos (bronze sounding). Brazen musical instruments were used in the mysteries of Demeter and the Great-Mother Rhea - Cybele was also worshipped with the music of cymbals. In central Greece Demeter was known as Amphictyonis (of the dwellers-round), in a cult of the goddess at Anthele near Thermopylae (hot gates). She

8514-578: Was forcibly removed by Edward Daniel Clarke and donated to the University of Cambridge . The statue is now located in the Fitzwilliam Museum , the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. Demeter's two major festivals were sacred mysteries . Her Thesmophoria festival (11–13 October) was women-only. Her Eleusinian mysteries were open to initiates of any gender or social class. At

8613-424: Was here that Demeter, disguised as an old lady who was abducted by pirates in Crete , came to an old well where the four daughters of the local king Keleos and his queen Metaneira ( Kallidike , Kleisidike , Demo and Kallithoe ) found her and took her to their palace to nurse the son of Keleos and Metaneira, Demophoon . Demeter raised Demophoon, anointing him with nectar and ambrosia and placing him at night in

8712-415: Was informed that Hades had taken her to the Underworld. In response, Demeter neglected her duties as goddess of agriculture, plunging the earth into a deadly famine where nothing would grow, causing mortals to die. Zeus ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother to avert the disaster. However, because Persephone had eaten food from the Underworld, she could not stay with Demeter forever, but had to divide

8811-472: Was installed in the already ancient Temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera , Rome's Aventine patrons of the plebs ; from the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter's temple at Enna, in Sicily , was acknowledged as Ceres' oldest, most authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognized as Proserpina, Roman equivalent to Persephone. Their joint cult recalls Demeter's search for Persephone after the latter's abduction into

8910-438: Was later freed when Zeus made Cronus disgorge all of his children by giving him a special potion. Demeter is notable as the mother of Persephone, described by both Hesiod and in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as the result of a union with her younger brother Zeus. An alternate recounting of the matter appears in a fragment of the lost Orphic theogony, which preserves part of a myth in which Zeus mates with his mother, Rhea , in

9009-516: Was made to rebuild it. When the power of the Thirty Tyrants was overthrown after the Peloponnesian War , they retired to Eleusis, which they had secured beforehand, but where they maintained themselves for only a short time. The town of Eleusis and its immediate neighbourhood were exposed to inundations from the river Cephissus , which, though almost dry during the greater part of the year,

9108-502: Was often considered to be the same figure as the Anatolian goddess Cybele , and she was identified with the Roman goddess Ceres . Demeter may appear in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents ( AR Zf 1 and 2, and KY Za 2), all three dedicated to religious situations and all three bearing just the name ( i-da-ma-te on AR Zf 1 and 2). It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in

9207-546: Was on a hill between Tralleis and Nysa . Its precinct encompassed a sacred grove , a temple dedicated to Plouton and Persephone , and an adjoining cave called the Charonion, after the ferryman of the dead . According to Strabo, it "possesses some singular physical properties" and served as a shrine for healing and a dream oracle ( incubation ). Pluto's Gate , the ploutonion at Phrygian Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale in Turkey),

9306-412: Was said to be the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon. According to Pausanias, a Thelpusian tradition said that during Demeter's search for Persephone, Poseidon pursued her. Demeter turned into a horse to avoid her younger brother's advances. However, he turned into a stallion and mated with the goddess, resulting in the birth of the horse god Arion and a daughter "whose name they are not wont to divulge to

9405-514: Was settled by Arvanites . European travelers during the Ottoman domination described Eleusis as having few inhabitants and many ancient ruins. In 1829, after the Greek War of Independence , Elefsina was a small settlement of about 250 inhabitants. By the late 19th century Elefsina changed drastically as new buildings were erected by the new merchant settlers. Also during that period Eleusis became one of

9504-430: Was somewhat of a minority belief, possibly via conflation of Demeter with her daughter, as most sources state that the parents of Dionysus were Zeus and Persephone, and later Zeus and Semele. Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) describes Demeter as the second daughter of Cronus and Rhea , and the sister of Hestia , Hera , Hades , Poseidon , and Zeus . In Arcadia, a major Arcadian deity known as Despoina ("Mistress")

9603-536: Was the oracle of the dead ( nekumanteion ) sought by Odysseus in Book 11 of the Odyssey ; Strabo, however, seems not to have himself regarded Avernus as a ploutonion. There was a Ploutonion at Acharaca . Eleusis Elefsina ( Greek : Ελευσίνα , romanized :  Elefsína ) or Eleusis ( / ɪ ˈ l j uː s ɪ s / ih- LEW -siss ; Ancient Greek : Ἐλευσίς , romanized :  Eleusís )

9702-452: Was the goddess of young corn and young vegetation and "Iouloi" were harvest songs in honour of the goddess. The reapers called Demeter Amallophoros (bringer of sheaves) and Amaia (reaper). The goddess was the giver of abundance of food and she was known as Sito (of the grain) and Himalis (of abundance ). The bread from the first harvest-fruits was called thalysian bread ( Thalysia ) in honour of Demeter. The sacrificial cakes burned on

9801-400: Was the patron goddess of an ancient Amphictyony . Thermopylae is the place of hot springs considered to be entrances to Hades , since Demeter was a chthonic goddess in the older local cults. The Athenians called the dead "Demetrioi", and this may reflect a link between Demeter and the ancient cult of the dead, linked to the agrarian belief that a new life would sprout from the dead body, as

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