Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 8, ELE-FOR

Eleuftnia.
biggeft
E L E [16
in commemoration of the travels of the god-
defs, and of her lighting a torch in the flames of Mount
/Etna. The fixth day v.ras called I*:*:;/«?, from lacchus,
the fon of Jupiter and Ceres, who accompanied his
mother in her fearch after Proferpine with a torch in
his hand. From that circumftance his Itatue had a
torch in his hand, and was carried in folemn proceflion
from the Ceramicus to Eicufls. The ftatue with
thofe that accompanied it, called laK^nyxyov^ was
crowned with myrtle. In the way nothing was heard
but finging and the noife of brazen kettles as the vo¬
taries danced along. The way through which they
iffued from the city was called the [acred way,
the retting place Tsg* from •& fig-tree which grew in
the neighbourhood. They alfo flopped on a bridge
over the Cephifus, where they derided thofe that patted
by. After they had patted this bridge, they entered
Eleufls by a place called y-vw/i the myfiical en¬
trance. On the feventh day were fports, in which the
vihiors were rewarded with a meafure of barley, as that
grain had been firft fown in Eleutts. The eighth day
was called T.Ttrtoav^tuiv becaufe once /Efculapius at
liis return from Epidaurus to Athens was initiated by
the repetition of the lefs myfteries. It became cuftom-
ary therefore to celebrate them a fccond time upon
this, that fuch as had not hitherto been initiated might
be lawfully admitted. The ninth and laft day of the
feftival was called n>.r:u.nyjxi, earthen v fife Is, becaufe it
was ufual to fill two luch veflels with wine } one of
them being placed towards the eaft, and the other to¬
wards the weft ; which, after the repetition of feme
mytticAl words, were both thrown down, and the wine
being fpilt on the ground, was ottered as a libation.
The ftory of Ceres and Proferpine, the foundation of
the Eleufinian myfteries, was partly local. It was both
verbally delivered, and reprefented in allegorical fhow.
Proferpine was gathering flowers when fhe was ftolen by
Pluto. Hence the proceflion of the holy bafket, which
was placed on a car dragged along by oxen, and follow¬
ed by a train of females, fome carrying the myftic chefts,
lhouting, Hail, Ceres ! At night a proceflion wTas made
with lighted torches, to commemorate the goddefs
fearching for her daughter. A meafure of barley, the
grain which, it was believed, fhe had given, was the re¬
ward of the vicious in the gymnic exercifes j and the
tranfaclion at the temple had a reference to the le¬
gend. A knowledge of thefe things and places, from
which the profane were excluded, was the amount of
initiation ; and the mode of it, which had been devifed
by craft, was fkilfully adapted to the reigning fuper-
ftitions. The operation was forcible, and the effcdl
in proportion. The priefthood flouriftied as piety in-
creafed. The difpenfation was corrupt, but its ten¬
dency not malignant. It produced fanftity of man¬
ners and an attention to the focial duties 5 defire to
be as difdnguifhed by what was deemed virtue as by
filence.
Some have fuppofed the principal rites at this fefti¬
val to have been obfeene and. abominable, and that
from thence proceeded all the myfterious fecrecy. They
were carried from Eleufis to Rome in the reign of
Adrian, where they were obferved with the fame ce¬
remonies as before, though perhaps with more free¬
dom and licentioufnefs. They lafted about 1800
] E L E
years, and were at laft abolished by Thecdofius the Eleufinia,
Great. Eleufis,
ELEUSIS, in Ancient Geography, a town in Atti- * ^
ca, between Megara and the Piraeus, celebrated for the
feftivals of Ceres. See the preceding article.—1 hofe
rites were finally extinguifhed in Greece upon the inva-
fion of Alaric the Goth. Eleufis, on the overthrow
of its goddefs and the Ceflation of its gainful traffic,
probably became foon an obfeure place, without cha¬
racter or riches. For fome ages, however, it was not
entirely forfaken, as is evident from the vaft confump-
tion of the ancient materials, and from the prefent re¬
mains, of which the following account is given by l)r
Chandler *. “ The port was fmall and of a circular * Travels
form. The Hones of one pier are ft en above wx\ex, into Greece,
and the correfpending fide may be traced. About half?' lS9*
a mile from the fficre is a long hill, which divides the
plain. In the fide next the fea are traces of a theatre,
and on the top are cifterns cut in the rock. In the way
to it, fome mattes of wall and rubbifh, partly ancient,
are Handing; with ruined churches 5 and beyond, a
long broken aqueduil crofles to the mountains. The
Chriftian pirates had infefted the place fo much, that in
1676 it was abandoned. It is now a fmall
village
at
the eaftern extremity of the rocky brow,-on which was
once a eaftle j and is inhabited by a few Albanian fa¬
milies, employed in the culture of the plain, and fuper-
intended by a Turk, who refides in an old fquare tower.
The proprietor was Achmet Aga, the primate or prin¬
cipal perfon of Athens.
“ The myftic temple at Eleufis was planned by
Idlinus, the architefl of the Parthenon. Pericles was
overfeer of the building. It was of the Doric order ;
the cell fo large as to admit the company of a theatre.
The columns on the pavement within, and their capi¬
tals, were raifed by Coreebus. Mentagenes of Xypete
added the architraves and the pillars above them, which
fuftained the roof. Another completed the edifice.
This was a temple in antis, or without exterior columns,
which would have occupied the room required for the
viciims. The afpedt was changed to Prcfiylos under
Demetrius the Phalerean; Philo, a famous architeft,
eredling a portico, which gave dignity to the fabric,
and rendered the entrance more commodious. The
file was beneath the brow, at the eaft; end, and eneom-
paffed by the fortrefs. Some marbles, which are un¬
commonly maflive, and fome pieces of the columns,
remain on the fpot. The breadth of the cell is about
1 50 feet *, the length, including the prenaos and por¬
tico, is 216 feet; the diameter of the columns, which
are fluted, 6 inches from the bottom of the (hafts, is 6
feet and more than 6 inches. The temple was a do-
caftyle, or had 10 columns in the front, which was to
the eaft. The peribolus or inclofure, which furround-
ed it on the north-eaft and on the feuth fide, m'eafures
387 feet in length from north to fouth, and 328 feet
in breadth from eaft to weft. On the weft fide it join¬
ed the angles of the weft end of the temple in a ftraight
line. Between the weft wall of the incloftire and temple
and the wall of the citadel was a paffzge of 42 feet 6
inches wide, which led to the fummit of a high rock
at the north-weft angle of the inclofure, on which are
vifible the traces of a temple in antis, in length 74 feet
6 inches from north to fouth, and in breadth from the
eaft