The Homeric Hymn to Demeter illustrates the grim character of Hades, his methods of obtaining a wife, and provides the mythological reasons for Hecate's prominence as a goddess of the underworld. Hades' basic character as a fertility god is evident from the location of his realm, the violence of his nature, and his link with horses. He is thus a god of agricultural wealth (compare his names, Pluto, or Dis for the Romans) but he should not be confused with Plutus (Wealth) mentioned in the last lines of the hymn, another deity of agricultural plenty and prosperity (and then wealth in general), the offspring of Demeter and Iasion. Triptolemus, who also appears in the concluding lines of the Hymn, is generally depicted as the messenger of Demeter when she restored fertility to the ground. He is the one who taught and spread her arts of agriculture to new lands at that time and later, often traveling in a magical car drawn by winged dragons, a gift of Demeter. He is sometimes merged in identity with the infant Demophoon (variant spelling is Demophon) of the Hymn or said to be his brother; in Plato, Triptolemus is a judge of the dead. This hymn to Demeter is of major importance, not only for its intrinsic artistic value, its general elucidation of a myth, and its illustration of the character of the deities involved. It provides in addition the most significant evidence that we have for the nature of the worship of Demeter at Eleusis. Eleusis is a town about fourteen miles west of Athens; the religion and ceremony that developed in honor of Demeter and her daughter had its center here, but the city of Athens too was intimately involved. This religion was of a special kind, not the general prerogative of everyone, but open only to those who wished to become initiates; these devotees were sworn to absolute secrecy and faced dire punishments if they revealed the secret rites.

This does not imply that initiation was confined to a select few. In early times membership was inevitably limited only to the people of Eleusis and Athens, but soon participants came from all areas of the Hellenic world and eventually the Roman Empire as well. This religion was not restricted to men only; women, children, and even slaves could participate. But an understanding of Greek was required, presumably for the necessary comprehension of the higher ceremonies. Appropriately the religious celebration that was evolved was given the name of the Eleusinian mysteries. Demeter, then, along with other Hellenic deities, is the inspiration for a kind of worship that is generally designated as the mystery religions (compare Dionysus and Apollo in the religion of Orpheus, or aspects of the devotion to Aphrodite and Adonis or Cybele and Attis). In fact Orpheus himself is credited with originating the mysteries. Although there must have been differences among the various mystery religions (some of them probably quite marked) obvious to the ancient world, we have difficulty today in distinguishing among them precisely. It seemed fairly certain that the one major common denominator is the belief in man's immortal soul and future life. The mysteries at Eleusis were kept secret, and scholars are by no means agreed about what we can say with any certainty, particularly about the highest and most profound elements of the worship. The sanctuary at Eleusis has been excavated and buildings connected with the ceremonies have been found, most important among them being a Telesterion, the temple of Demeter, where the final revelation of the mysteries was celebratede3 But no evidence has been unearthed that might dispel the secrecy with absolute certainty once and for all. The priests in charge of the rites presumably transmitted orally what Demeter was said to have taught. It is impossible to know just how much of the ritual is revealed in the Homeric Hymn. It would be presumptuous to imagine that the most profound secrets are here for all to read, and we cannot be sure how much may be inferred from what is directly stated. That elements of the ceremonies are indicated cannot be denied, but presumably these are only the elements that were witnessed or revealed to all, not only to the initiated.

Thus we have prescribed by the text such details as an interval of nine days, fasting, the carrying of torches, the exchange of jests, the partaking of the drink Kykeon, the wearing of a special dress, for example, the veil of Demeter; even precise geographical indications (e.g., the Maiden Well and the site of the temple) are designated. The emotional tone of the poem too might set the key for a mystic performance in connection with the celebrations. The anguish of Demeter, her frantic wanderings and search, the traumatic episode with Demophoon, the miraculous transformation of the goddess, the ecstatic reunion between mother and daughter, the blessed return of vegetation to a barren earth, are some of the obvious emotional and dramatic highlights. The literary, epigraphical, and archaeological evidence yields the following tentative outline of the basic procedures in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries; ultimate revelation and meaning are matters of more tenuous conjecture and dispute. Two major compulsory stages had to be undertaken: (1) participation in the Lesser Mysteries involving preliminary steps in initiation; (2) advancement to the Greater Mysteries (the teletai proper), which entailed full initiation into the cult. A third stage, the highest of all, not required but possible, entailed participation in rites known as the Epopteia. It is immediately apparent that these mysteries are basically different from the festivals celebrated in the panhellenic sanctuaries, such as that of Apollo at Delphi, which were open to all, without secrecy or initiation or a fundamental mystic philosophy, however religious the tone that oracular response and devotion to a god might set.   Two major priestly families were connected with Eleusis: the Eumolpids, whose ancestor Eumolpus, according to the Hymn, received the mysteries from Demeter herself, and the Kerykes.

Among the many important priesthoods and assistant officials, the highest was that of the Hierophant; this priest alone could reveal to the worshipers the ultimate mysteries that entailed the showing of the sacred objects (the Hiera)-his title means "he who reveals the Hiera." Prominent too was the priestess of Demeter who lived in a sacred house. Many of the priests received a fixed sum of money from each initiate as a fee for their services. The initiate (the mystes) was sponsored and directed by a patron called the mystagogos. The Lesser Mysteries were held in Athens usually once a year, in early spring. Precise details are unknown, but the general purpose was certainly the preliminary preparation of the initiate for subsequent advancement to higher things. Ceremonies probably focused upon ritual purification, involving sacrifices, prayer, fasting, and cleansing by water. The Greater Mysteries were held during the months of September and October annually (every fourth year the celebration was particularly splendid). A holy truce was declared for a period of fifty-five days and heralds were sent to issue invitations to states, which would respond with tithes and special delegations. Both Athens and Eleusis were involved in the festivities. Preliminary to the festival proper was the day on which the Hiera were taken out of the Anactoron of the Telesterion (i.e., the holy of holies of the temple of Demeter) in Eleusis and brought to Athens amid great pomp and ceremony. The splendid procession, headed by the priests and priestesses who carried the Hiera in sacred caskets bound by ribbons, was met officially in Athens and escorted in state to the Eleusinion, the sanctuary of Demeter in the city.

The next day following these preliminaries was the first of the formal celebration of the Greater Mysteries, which continued through eight days, the ceremonies culminating in Eleusis, with a return to Athens on the ninth. The first day saw the people summoned to an assembly in the Stoa Poikile (the Painted Colonnade) in the Athenian agora; those who were pure and knew Greek were invited by proclamation to participate in the Mysteries. On the second day all participants were ordered to cleanse themselves in the sea; the initiates rushed into the water with cries of "To the sea, 0 Mystai." Each carried a little pig that also needed to be purified and which was subsequently sacrificed. The following day (the third) was probably devoted to sacrifices and prayers on behalf of the individuals participating as well as for the various states involved, including the city of Athens. The fourth day was spent in honoring Asclepius, who according to tradition had in previous times arrived late for initiation. So on this day other latecomers could enroll and make up the requirements they had missed. The festivities in Athens culminated on the fifth day in a brilliant procession back to Eleusis. Priests and laymen wended their prescribed way, crowned with myrtle and carrying the mystic bacchus (myrtle branches tied with wool strands). Clothes and supplies for the stay in Eleusis were borne on staffs and on pack animals. Heading the procession was a wooden statue of Iacchus (very likely another name for the god Dionysus) escorted in a carriage. At some stages of the journey abuse, jest, insults, and scurrilous language were exchanged, perhaps in part to instill humility in the throng. Similar practices may have been part of the subsequent ceremony at Eleusis. Prayers were chanted and hymns sung; torches were carried and lit as night fell, and the sacred procession reached the sanctuary of Demeter in Eleusis. Here the participants would find rest in hostels or camps or the homes of friends. Perhaps singing and festivities went on far into the night upon arrival in Eleusis; it has been suggested that at this time the women danced with the mystic kernoi (sacred vessels) on their heads.

Certainly the sixth and seventh days brought the initiates to the secret core of the mysteries, and it seems safe to assume that much of the ritual was performed in remembrance of the episodes described in the Homeric Hymn. Thus there was a fast (certain foods, such as pomegranates, beans, and some kinds of fish, were prohibited) and a vigil; probably the fast was ended by the drinking of the prescribed drink, the Kykeon, whatever its significance. The heart of the ceremonies apparently involved three stages: a dramatic enactment (dromena), the revelation of sacred objects (deiknymena), and the uttering of certain words (legomena). The center of these activities was the Telesterion proper and the inner sanctuary (Anactoron) of the temple. What were the themes of the dramatic pageant? Probably it focused upon incidents from the story of Demeter and her wanderings and other episodes recorded in the Hymn, all designed to elicit a religious catharsis. Some have suggested scenes of an Orphic character involving a simulated trip to the Underworld with fabricated apparitions of terror and sublimity as the action moved from Hell (Tartarus) to Paradise (Elysium). That no underground chambers have been found in the excavations does not necessarily invalidate this theory. We do not know whether the initiates merely witnessed the drama or actually participated in it. Eventually the culmination was the awesome exhibition (deiknymena) by the Hierophant himself of the holy objects, bathed in a radiant light in front of the Anactoron as he delivered his mystic utterances (legomenu). The Epopteia, the highest stage of all, was not required for full initiation; it entailed further revelation of some sort. The eighth day concluded the ceremonies; the ninth brought the return to Athens, this time with no organized procession.

The following day the Athenian council of five hundred heard a full report on the conduct of the ceremonies. Conjectures about the exact nature of the highest mysteries in terms of the literary, epigraphical, and archaeological evidence have been legion. Comments by the Church Fathers have been brought to witness, but their testimony has been rightly viewed with the gravest suspicion as rooted in prejudice stemming from ignorance and hostility. No one of them had ever been initiated into the mysteries, and surprisingly enough, Christian converts who had been initiated seem to have continued to take their pledges of secrecy very seriously. The ultimate revelation has been claimed to be connected with the transformation of the Eleusinian plain into a field of golden grain (as in the Hymn); the heart of the mysteries consisted of the showing of an ear of grain to the worshipers. Thus we actually do know the secrets, or, if you like, they are really not worth knowing at all in terms of serious religious thought. Others insist upon an enactment of the holy marriage in connection with the ceremonies, imagining not a spiritual but a literal sexual union between the Hierophant and the Priestess of Demeter. The Hiera too might be the female pudenda, and, since Dionysus may be linked with Demeter and Kore, the male phallus as well. These holy objects were witnessed or even manipulated by the initiates in the course of the ritual. But there is no good reason to argue for such orgiastic procedures, however much they may belong to other cults in other places. The Hiera, as has been conjectured, could be merely sacred and antique relics handed down from the Mycenaean Age. It is difficult, however, to agree with those who would exclude Dionysus completely from the worship of Demeter at Eleusis. lacchus has good claims to be Dionysus. And the myth of Zagreus- Dionysus that provides the biblical authority for Orphism has Persephone as his mother. Any spiritual message in the cult at Eleusis must have in common with Dionysiac belief the immortality of the soul and redemption. If a doctrine similar to that of Orphism then is also involved it need not spring directly from Orphism.

The confusion arises because all the mystery religions did in fact preach certain things in common, whatever the precise interrelation. The Eleusinian mysteries need not have remained uncontaminated by similar religions in the ancient world, nor for that matter must any of the others have remained pure. The death and rebirth of vegetation as deified in Demeter and Kore surely suggest a belief in the afterlife. After all this is the promise of the Hymn: "But the one who is not initiated into the holy rites and has no part never is destined to a similar joy when he is dead in the gloomy realm below." If at some future time only obscure evidence remained for the ritual of the Christian Mass, scholars might imagine all sorts of things and miss completely the religious and spiritual doctrine upon which it rests. The words uttered by the Hierophant could have ordained spiritual direction and hope. But there was no church body as such for the followers of Demeter in the sense that they must return each year; we know of no sacred writings like those, say, of Orphism. Mylonas' conclusions after years of study and thought are worthy of the deepest respect: Whatever the substance and meaning of the Mysteries was, the fact remains that the cult of Eleusis satisfied the most sincere yearnings and the deepest longings of the human heart. The initiates returned from their pilgrimage to Eleusis full of joy and happiness, with the fear of death diminished and the strengthened hope of a better life in the world of shadows: "Thrice happy are those of mortals, who having seen those rites depart for Hades; for to them alone is it granted to have true life there; to the rest all there is evil," Sophocles cries out exultantly.

And to this Pindar with equal exultation answers: "Happy is he who, having seen these rites goes below the hollow earth; for he knows the end of life and he knows its god-sent beginning." When we read these and other similar statements written by the great or nearly great of the ancient world, by the dramatists and the thinkers, when we picture the magnijicent buildings and monuments constructed at Eleusis by great political figures like Peisistratos, Kimon, Perikles, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and others, we cannot help but believe that the Mysteries of Eleusis were not an empty, childish affair devised by shrewd priests to fo.01 the peasant and the ignorant, but a philosophy oJlge that possessed substance and meaning and imparted a modicum of truth to the yearning human soul. That belief is strengthened when we read in Cicero that Athens has given nothing to the world more excellent or divine than the E leusinian Mysteries. Let us recall again that the rites of Eleusis were held for some two thousand years; that for two thousand years civilized humanity was sustained and ennobled by those rites. Then we shall be able to appreciate the meaning and importance of Eleusis and of the cult of Demeter in the pre-Christian era. When Christianity conquered the Mediterranean world, the rites of Demeter, having perhaps fuljilled their mission to humanity, came to an end. The "bubbling spring" of hope and inspiration that once existed by the Kallichoron well became dry and the world turned to other living sources for sustenance. The cult that inspired the world for so long was gradually forgotten, and its secrets were buried with its last Hierophant. Finally, a word of caution about the usual generalizations put forth concerning the dichotomy between the mystery religions and the state religions of antiquity. The argument runs something like this. The formal state religions were sterile or very soon became so; the hope and faith of men lay only in the very real experience offered by the mysteries. Whatever the general truth of this view, it must be noted that for classical Greece, at any rate, the lines are not so distinct. Ceremonies connected with Demeter at Eleusis are tied securely to the policies of the Athenian state. The archon basileus (an Athenian official in charge of religious matters in general) directed the celebrations for Demeter in Athens. The Athenian council as a political body was very much concerned about the festival. The pomp and procession involved are startingly similar to the pageant connected with the Panathenaic festival in honor of Athena, a civic function, whatever its spiritual import. The "church" at Eleusis and the Athenian state were, to all intents and purposes, one.