ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF ELEUSIS

This 8-hectare site (Αρχαιολογικός Χώρος Ελευσίνας/Archéologique Choros Elefsinas) is home to the important remains of the ancient sanctuary of Demeter, where the Elefsinas Mysteries, a set of strange, secret initiatory and esoteric rites, took place. Religious rites were performed here from the Mycenaean period (1650-1100 BC) until the end of the ^4th century AD. In ancient times, the main deity honored was Demeter, goddess of Fertility, Wheat and Cultivated Earth. The site was also linked to the myth of the abduction of her daughter Persephone by Hades, god of the Underworld. According to legend, it was here that Demeter came to fetch her daughter, before agreeing to Persephone's marriage to the "Master of the Underworld". More broadly, the Eleusis mysteries were associated with the deities of the earth and the dead, including Dionysus, Poseidon and Artemis.

Roman courtyard and sacred well. Pilgrims entered the site via the Roman courtyard (^2nd century AD), where the Sacred Way from Athens ended. This paved esplanade (65 x 40 m) features the steps of the ancient temple of Artemis Propylea ("before the gate") and Poseidon Pater ("Father"). To the south, you'll find the Grand Propylea (main entrance during the Roman period), with elements of the pediment on the floor (including the bust of an emperor), and the Kallichoron well (late ^6th century BC). The latter marked the place where Demeter waited for her daughter and where ritual dances took place. To the south, to the left of the Little Propylaeum (^1st century BC), stand the columns and walls of the siroi, warehouses built from the ^6th century BC onwards to store wheat and barley offered to Demeter. On the other side of the Petit Propylée, three cavities and the remains of two temples (^6th and ^4th centuries BC) mark the site of the Ploutonion, where Hades (Pluto to the Romans) abducted Persephone

Telesterion and psychotropic drink. On the right, the processional path skirts the remains of the temple of Sabina, wife of the emperor Hadrian, who was deified after his death (137 AD), while on the hill stands the chapel of Panagia Mesosporitissa ("of the mid-season of seeds"), a Byzantine edifice remodeled in the ^18th century. The ancient custom of Polysporia, inherited from Antiquity, still takes place here: every November 20, an Orthodox priest blesses bread and legumes, which are then distributed to the faithful. Below are the ruins of the temple of Faustina the Elder, a Roman importer who died in 140 and was worshipped in the same way as Demeter. We then reach the heart of the sanctuary: the Telesterion (^5th century BC), destroyed by the Visigoths in 396. It was in this great "initiation hall" that the Eleusis mysteries were held in autumn. The greatest secrecy surrounded the ceremonies. But it is known that, after a period of fasting, pilgrims drank cyceon here, a drink made from honey, wine and barley with psychotropic properties, which was supposed to rid them of their fear of death. The southern section houses the museum and remains of a Mithra temple. Belief in this god of the Iranian world spread to the Roman Empire from the ^2nd century onwards, and was also accompanied by a mystery cult.