volumes read to him, if in such a condition he was capable of hearing at all. These nocturnal rites were attended with many disorders, which the severe law of silence imposed on the persons initiated, prevented from coming to light, as St. Gregory Nazianzen observes. What cannot superstition effect upon the mind of man, when once his imagination is heated? The president in this ceremony was called Hierophantes. He wore a peculiar habit, and was not admit per ted to marry. The first who served in this function, and whom Ceres herself instructed, was Eumolpus; from whom his successors were called Eumolpides. He had three colleagues; one who carried a torch; another an herald," whose office it was to pronounce certain mysterious words; and a third to attend at the altar. Besides these officers, one of the principal magistrates of the city was appointed to take care that all the ceremonies of this feast were exactly observed. He was called the king, and was one of the nine Archons. His business was to offer prayers and sacrifices. The people gave him. four assistants," one chosen from the family of the Eumolpides, a second from that of the Cerycians, and the two last from two other families. He had, besides, ten other ministers to assist him in the discharge of his duty, and particularly in offering sacrifices, from whence they derived their name.* The Athenians initiated their children of both sexes very early into these mysteries, and would have thought 3. Οίδεν Ελευσιν ταύτα, και οι των σιατωμένων και σιωπής TITI. Orat. de sacr. lumin. • Κηρύξ. οντων αξίων 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, to whose service they devoted themselves; and was the means to a more perfect and certain happiness in the other world. While, on the contrary, such as had not been initiated beside 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, 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; and Livy informs us of two Arcanians, 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. He intended to have made the Diogen. Laert. 1. vi. p. 389. 2 Liv. 1. xxxi. n. 14.. secret cost the poet Eschylus his life, from speaking too freely of it in some of his tragedies. The disgrace of Alcibiades proceeded from the same cause. Who ever had violated the secret, was avoided as a wretch accursed and excommunicated. 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 forbid by a dream or vision. This feast, the most celebrated of profane antiquity, was of nine days continuance. It began the fifteenth of the month Boedromion. 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, and followed by great numbers 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 of Mount Etna, wandered about from place to place in search of her daughter. a Est et fideli tuta silentio Merces: Vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum Sit trabibus, fragilemque mecum Solvat phaselum............................................................................................ Lib. i. p. 26, & 71. ...HOR. OD. II. 1. iiî. Tardaque Eleusina matris volventia plaustra. VIRG. GEOR. lib. i. ver. 163. The sixth was the most famous day of all. It was called Iacchus, the name of Bacchus, 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 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. The temple of Eleusis, where it ended, was large enough to contain the whole 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. The whole way resounded with the sound of trumpets, clarions, and other musical instruments. Hymns were sung in honour of the goddesses, accompained with dancing, and other extraordinary marks of rejoicing. The rout before mentioned, through the sacred way, and over the Cephisus, was the usual way. But after the Lacedemonians in the Peloponnesian war had fortified Decilia, 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. d Her. 1. viii. c. 65. l. ix. p. 395. 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 cele brated every fifth year, that is, after a revolution of four years; and no history observes that it was ever interrupted, except upon the taking of Thebes by Alexander the Great. 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; and Valentinian would have abolished it, if Pretextatus, the proconsul of Greece, had not represented, in the most lively and affecting terms, the universal sorrow which the abrogation of that feast, would 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 AUGURS, ORACLES, &C. Nothing is more frequently mentioned in ancient history, than oracles, augurs, and divinations. No war was made, or colony settled; nothing of consequence was undertaken, either public or private, with, out the gods being first consulted. This was a custom universally established among the Egyptian, Assy rian, Grecian, and Roman nations; which is no doubt *Plut. in vit. Alex. p. 671. VOL. I. 8 Zosim. hist. l. iv. |