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Cults of Demeter Eleusinia and the Transmission of Religious Ideas

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09518960701539182

1743-940X

Hugh Bowden,

Biblical Studies and Interpretation

Abstract Cults of Demeter Eleusinia, and cults claimed to have been established from Eleusis, are found quite widely spread across central and southern Greece and Asia Minor. Earlier explanations of how they acquired this particular cult title have started from accounts of their supposed origins early in the archaic period. This paper suggests that titles of this kind did not necessarily date back to the cults' foundations. It argues that visiting religious experts familiar with mystery cults from across the Greek world (including, amongst others, Herodotos and Pausanias) might have influenced the way local officiants understood their own cults, and hence how they came to describe them. Keywords: GreeceReligionMystery CultEleusisDemeter Notes [1] Ancient: e.g., Collar, this volume; CitationRutherford, this volume. Modern: e.g., CitationHirst, ‘Social Networks’. [2] For this as a feature of Herodotos's approach, see CitationBowden, ‘Herakles, Herodotos’. [3] CitationFarnell, Cults, 3.198–213; CitationSfameni Gaspasso, Misteri e culti. [4] The absence of two areas of the Greek world from Table 1 deserves explanation. At least two Cretan poleis, Biannos and Olos, as well as the island of Thera, named their months Eleusunios or Eleusinios. This makes it highly likely that these communities celebrated a festival called the Eleusinia or Eleusunia. It is, however, not known whether they had sanctuaries dedicated to Demeter Eleusinia. On this, see CitationParker, ‘Demeter’. Magna Graecia is an area particularly associated with the cult of Demeter and Kore. However, there is no evidence at all for the cult title ‘Eleusinia’, or indeed for any sanctuary-based initiatory cult of the goddesses (CitationHinz, Der Kult von Demeter), and no other evidence linking the sanctuaries specifically with Eleusis. In Attica there was an Eleusinion at Phaleron, as well as one in the city and the sanctuary at Eleusis. It is clear that these were all part of the same cult complex, as they were administered together (IG i3, 32). Inscriptions from Marathon, Paiania and Phrearrhioi refer to an Eleusinion, but there is no other evidence for local sites of that name, and all the inscriptions could be referring to the city Eleusinion. Although nothing is certain, there seems no good reason for supposing the existence of local cults in addition to that at Eleusis. On Attica in general see CitationParker, Polytheism, 327–68, esp. 332–33. [5] The fact that an inscription from Milesian colonies in the Black Sea includes the name ‘Eleusinios’ has been taken as evidence for a cult of Eleusinian gods from an early date in Miletos itself (CitationGraf, Nordionische Kulte, 274 n. 18; LGPN IV s.v. ). However, it is not safe to assume that, even if Eleusinios were a direct descendent of one of the original colonists, his ancestor was a Milesian citizen: Milesian ‘colonies’ would have had a Milesian oikist, and no doubt the blessing of Apollo at Didyma, but the settlers themselves may have come from further afield—thus enabling Miletos to be metropolis of so many settlements in a relatively short time. [6] ‘Timotheum Atheniensem e gente Eumolpidarum, quem ut antistitem caerimoniarum Eleusine exciverat.’ Cf. Schol. Callim. In Cer. 1. [7] Cf. CitationJost, Sanctuaires et cultes; ‘Mystery Cults’. [8] Discussion in CitationBowden, Classical Athens, 125–29; CitationCavanaugh, Eleusis and Athens, 29–95. [9] CitationSpawforth and Walker, ‘World of Panhellenion’, 100. [10] Discussed in CitationGraf, Nordionische Kulte, 274–77. See also Parker, ‘Demeter’, 101–2. [11] CitationJost, ‘Mystery Cults’. [12] CitationJost, ‘Grandes Déesses’; ‘Nouveau regard’. [13] CitationMylonas, Eleusis, 244. [14] CitationChaniotis, ‘Ritual Dynamics: Boiotian Festival’; ‘Ritual Dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean’; ‘Statusänderung’. [15] CitationChaniotis, ‘Ritual Dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean’, 162. [16] CitationBowden, ‘Oracles for Sale’. [17] On religion in Herodotus in general: CitationHarrison, Divinity and History; CitationMikalson, Herodotus and Religion. [18] CitationRutherford, ‘Tourism’; CitationElsner, ‘CitationPausanias’. [19] CitationChaniotis, ‘Ritual Dynamics: Boiotian Festival’, 39–40. [20] As witnessed for example by CitationJones, Greek City. [21] Pausanias himself reinforces this perception through his imitation of Herodotos. See e.g., CitationHutton, Describing Greece, 190–213. [22] For Pausanias's reliance on Rhianos see 4.6.1–3. On his method in Book 4 see Musti and Torelli, Pausania. [23] Cf. CitationOgden, Aristomenes, 89–103. [24] CitationGuarducci, ‘I culti’; CitationRobertson, ‘Melanthus, Codrus’; CitationZunino, Hiera Messeniaka; Graf, ‘Lesser Mysteries’.