The Eleusinian mysteries

• Perhaps the best known and best recorded of all mystery cults in ancient Greece
• They have attracted attention from ancient times to the modern day
• This is partly because they were unlike any other Greek religious festival
• They were incorporated into Athenian civic religion as a regular part of the sacred calendar from the late 6th c. onwards 
• Anyone could be initiated, whether man or woman, free or slave, old or young, Greek, or non-Greek, as long as they spoke Greek and hadn’t been involved in murder (or other serious crimes)
• This was unique for a Greek festival 
• Every participant able to pay a contribution could take part in an individual initiation after which, his or her status was changed from being uninitiated to initiated
• This status lasted for life 
• The initiated were not allowed to speak about what happened, in particular the revelation of the secret
• This created a distinction between those who knew and those who didn’t 
• The secret has been kept more or less over the years
• The only thing for certain is that the secret was shared in a ceremony at the end of the festival but never actually revealed by the uninitiated 
• Revealing the secret to the non-initiated, or and speaking about it in public was a capital crime with the death penalty 
• The Athenian leader Alcibiades was accused of mocking the mysteries in his home together with friends and some uninitiated people 
• Despite the fact he never went to court to defend himself, he was convincted (Thucydides 6.27-63; Andocides 1 [On the Mysteries])
• This shows not only the importance of the festival itself but also its status as a religious institution in Athens