The Athenians initiated their children of both sexes very early into these mysteries, and would have thought it criminal to have let them die without such an advantage. It was their general opinion, that this ceremony was an engagement to lead a more virtuous and regular life; that it recommended them to the peculiar protection of the goddesses (Ceres and Proserpine,) to whose service they devoted themselves; and procured to them a more perfect and certain happiness in the other world: whilst, on the contrary, such as had not been initiated, besides the evils they had to apprehend in this life, were doomed, after their descent to the shades below, to wallow eternally in dirt, filth, and excrement. Diogenes the Cynic believed nothing of the matter,[71] and when his friends endeavoured to persuade him to avoid such a misfortune, by being initiated before his death—“What,” said he, “shall Agesilaus and Epaminondas lie amongst mud and dung, whilst the vilest Athenians, because they have been initiated, possess the most distinguished places in the regions of the blessed?” Socrates was not more credulous; he would not be initiated into these mysteries, which was perhaps one reason that rendered his religion suspected.
Without this qualification none were admitted to enter the temple of Ceres;[72] and Livy informs us of two Acarnanians, who, having followed the crowd into it upon one of the feast-days, although out of mistake and with no ill design, were both put to death without mercy. It was also a capital crime to divulge the secrets and mysteries of this feast. Upon this account Diagoras the Melian was proscribed, and had a reward set upon his head. It very nearly cost the poet Æschylus his life, for speaking too freely of it in some of his tragedies. The disgrace of Alcibiades proceeded from the same cause. Whoever had violated this secresy, was avoided as a wretch accursed and excommunicated.[73] Pausanias, in several passages, wherein he mentions the temple of Eleusis, and the ceremonies practised there, stops short, and declares he cannot proceed, because he had been forbidden by a dream or vision.[74]
This feast, the most celebrated of profane antiquity, was of nine days' continuance. It began the fifteenth of the month Boëdromion. After some previous ceremonies and sacrifices on the first three days, upon the fourth in the evening began the procession of “the Basket;” which was laid upon an open chariot slowly drawn by oxen,[75] and followed by a long train of the Athenian women. They all carried mysterious baskets in their hands, filled with several things, which they took great care to conceal, and covered with a veil of purple. This ceremony represented the basket into which Proserpine put the flowers she was gathering when Pluto seized and carried her off.
The fifth day was called the day of “the Torches:” because at night the men and women ran about with them in imitation of Ceres, who having lighted a torch at the fire at mount Ætna, wandered about from place to place in search of her daughter.
The sixth was the most famous day of all. It was called Iacchus, which is the same as Bacchus, the son of Jupiter and Ceres, whose statue was then brought out with great ceremony, crowned with myrtle, and holding a torch in its hand. The procession began at the Ceramicus, and passing through the principal places of the city, continued to Eleusis. The way leading to it was called “the sacred way,” and lay across a bridge over the river Cephisus. This procession was very numerous, and generally consisted of thirty thousand persons.[76] The temple of Eleusis, where it ended, was large enough to contain the whole of this multitude; and Strabo says, its extent was equal to that of the theatres, which every body knows were capable of holding a much greater number of people.[77] The whole way reechoed with the sound of trumpets, clarions, and other musical instruments. Hymns were sung in honour of the goddesses, accompanied with dancing, and other extraordinary marks of rejoicing. The route before mentioned, through the sacred way, and over the Cephisus, was the usual one: but after the Lacedæmonians, in the Peloponnesian war, had fortified Decelia, the Athenians were obliged to make their procession by sea, till Alcibiades reestablished the ancient custom.
The seventh day was solemnized by games, and the gymnastic combats, in which the victor was rewarded with a measure of barley; without doubt because it was at Eleusis the goddess first taught the method of raising that grain, and the use of it. The two following days were employed in some particular ceremonies, neither important nor remarkable.
During this festival it was prohibited, under very great penalties, to arrest any person whatsoever, in order to their being imprisoned, or to present any bill of complaint to the judges. It was regularly celebrated every fifth year, that is, after a revolution of four years: and history does not mention that it was ever interrupted, except upon the taking of Thebes by Alexander the Great.[78] The Athenians, who were then upon the point of celebrating the great mysteries, were so much affected with the ruin of that city, that they could not resolve, in so general an affliction, to solemnize a festival which breathed nothing but merriment and rejoicing. It was continued down to the time of the Christian emperors.[79] Valentinian would have abolished it, if Prætextatus, the proconsul of Greece, had not represented, in the most lively and affecting terms, the universal sorrow which the abrogation of that feast would [pg xxxvii] occasion among the people; upon which it was suffered to subsist. It is supposed to have been finally suppressed by Theodosius the Great; as were all the rest of the Pagan solemnities.
Of Auguries, Oracles, &c.
Nothing is more frequently mentioned in ancient history, than oracles, auguries, and divinations. No war was made, or colony settled; nothing of consequence was undertaken, either public or private, without having first consulted the gods. This was a custom universally established amongst the Egyptian, Assyrian, Grecian, and Roman nations; which is no doubt a proof, as has been already observed, that it was derived from ancient tradition, and that it had its origin in the religion and worship of the true God. It is not indeed to be questioned, but that God, before the deluge, did manifest his will to mankind in different methods, as he has since done to his people, sometimes in his own person and vivá voce, sometimes by the ministry of angels or of prophets inspired by himself, and at other times by apparitions or in dreams. When the descendants of Noah dispersed themselves into different regions, they carried this tradition along with them, which was every where retained, though altered and corrupted by the darkness and ignorance of idolatry. None of the ancients have insisted more upon the necessity of consulting the gods on all occasions by auguries and oracles than Xenophon; and he founds that necessity, as I have more than once observed elsewhere, upon a principle deduced from the most refined reason and discernment. He represents, in several places, that man of himself is very frequently ignorant of what is advantageous or pernicious to him; that, far from being capable of penetrating the future, the present itself escapes him; so narrow and short-sighted is he in all his views, that the slightest obstacles can frustrate his greatest designs; that the Divinity alone, to whom all ages are present, can impart a certain knowledge of the future to him: that no other being has power to facilitate the success of his enterprises; and that it is reasonable to believe he will enlighten and protect those, who adore him with the purest affection, who invoke him at all times with greatest constancy and fidelity, and consult him with most sincerity and integrity.