James Frazer - The Golden Bough - A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 07 of 12)

The date of the Eleusinian Mysteries in September would have been a very appropriate time for a Sacred Marriage of the Sky God with the Corn Goddess or the Earth Goddess.

One thing, however, which we may say with a fair degree of probability is that, if such a marriage did take place at Eleusis, no date in the agricultural year could well have been more appropriate for it than the date at which the Mysteries actually fell, namely about the middle of September. The long Greek summer is practically rainless and in the fervent heat and unbroken drought all nature languishes. The river-beds are dry, the fields parched. The farmer awaits impatiently the setting-in of the autumnal rains, which begin in October and mark the great season for ploughing and sowing. What time could be fitter for celebrating the union of the Corn Goddess with her husband the Earth God or perhaps rather with her paramour the Sky God, who will soon descend in fertilising showers to quicken the seed in the furrows? Such embraces of the divine powers or their human representatives might well be deemed, on the principles of homoeopathic or imitative magic, indispensable to the growth of the crops. At least similar ideas have been entertained and similar customs have been practised by many peoples; 241 241 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings , ii. 97 sqq. and in the legend of Demeter's love-adventure among the furrows of the thrice-ploughed fallow 242 242 Homer, Odyssey , v. 125 sqq. we seem to catch a glimpse of rude rites of the same sort performed in the fields at sowing-time by Greek ploughmen for the sake of ensuring the growth of the seed which they were about to commit to the bosom of the naked earth. In this connexion a statement of ancient writers as to the rites of Eleusis receives fresh significance. We are told that at these rites the worshippers looked up to the sky and cried “Rain!” and then looked down at the earth and cried “Conceive!” 243 243 Proclus, on Plato, Timaeus , p. 293 c, quoted by L. F. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States , iii. 357, where Lobeck's emendation of ὔε, κύε for υἶε, τοκυῖε ( Aglaophamus , p. 782) may be accepted as certain, confirmed as it is by Hippolytus, Refutatio Omnium Haeresium , v. 7, p. 146, ed. Duncker and Schneidewin (Göttingen, 1859), τὸ μέγα καὶ ἄρρητον Ἐλευσινίων μυστήριον ὔε κύε. Nothing could be more appropriate at a marriage of the Sky God and the Earth or Corn Goddess than such invocations to the heaven to pour down rain and to the earth or the corn to conceive seed under the fertilising shower; in Greece no time could well be more suitable for the utterance of such prayers than just at the date when the Great Mysteries of Eleusis were celebrated, at the end of the long drought of summer and before the first rains of autumn.

The Eleusinian games distinct from the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Eleusinian games of later origin than the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Eleusinian games sacred to Demeter and Persephone. Triptolemus, the mythical hero of the corn.

Different both from the Great Mysteries and the offerings of first-fruits at Eleusis were the games which were celebrated there on a great scale once in every four years and on a less scale once in every two years. 244 244 As to the Eleusinian games see August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum , pp. 179-204; P. Foucart, Les Grands Mystères d'Éleusis (Paris, 1900), pp. 143-147; P. Stengel, in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft , v. coll. 2330 sqq. The quadriennial celebration of the Eleusinian Games is mentioned by Aristotle ( Constitution of Athens , 54), and in the great Eleusinian inscription of 329 b. c., which is also our only authority for the biennial celebration of the games. See Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum , 2 No. 587, lines 258 sqq. The regular and official name of the games was simply Eleusinia (τὰ Ἐλευσίνια), a name which late writers applied incorrectly to the Mysteries. See August Mommsen, op. cit. pp. 179 sqq. ; Dittenberger, op. cit. No. 587, note 171. That the games were distinct from the Mysteries is proved by their periods, which were quadriennial and biennial respectively, whereas the Mysteries were celebrated annually. Moreover, in Greek epigraphy, our most authentic evidence in such matters, the games and the Mysteries are clearly distinguished from each other by being mentioned separately in the same inscription. 245 245 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum , 2 No. 246, lines 25 sqq. ; id. No. 587, lines 244 sq. , 258 sqq. But like the Mysteries the games seem to have been very ancient; for the Parian Chronicler, who wrote in the year 264 b. c., assigns the foundation of the Eleusinian games to the reign of Pandion, the son of Cecrops. However, he represents them as of later origin than the Eleusinian Mysteries, which according to him were instituted by Eumolpus in the reign of Erechtheus, after Demeter had planted corn in Attica and Triptolemus had sown seed in the Rarian plain at Eleusis. 246 246 Marmor Parium , in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum , ed. C. Müller, i. 544 sq. This testimony to the superior antiquity of the Mysteries is in harmony with our most ancient authority on the rites of Eleusis, the author of the Hymn to Demeter , who describes the origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries, but makes no reference or allusion to the Eleusinian Games. However, the great age of the games is again vouched for at a much later date by the rhetorician Aristides, who even declares that they were the oldest of all Greek games. 247 247 Aristides, Panathen. and Eleusin. vol. i. pp. 168, 417, ed. G. Dindorf. With regard to the nature and meaning of the games our information is extremely scanty, but an old scholiast on Pindar tells us that they were celebrated in honour of Demeter and Persephone as a thank-offering at the conclusion of the corn-harvest. 248 248 Schol. on Pindar, Olymp. ix. 150, p. 228, ed. Aug. Boeckh. His testimony is confirmed by that of the rhetorician Aristides, who mentions the institution of the Eleusinian games in immediate connexion with the offerings of the first-fruits of the corn, which many Greek states sent to Athens; 249 249 Aristides, ll.cc. and from an inscription dated about the close of the third century before our era we learn that at the Great Eleusinian Games sacrifices were offered to Demeter and Persephone. 250 250 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum , 2 No. 246, lines 25 sqq. The editor rightly points out that the Great Eleusinian Games are identical with the games celebrated every fourth year, which are mentioned in the decree of 329 b. c. (Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum , 2 No. 587, lines 260 sq. ). Further, we gather from an official Athenian inscription of 329 b. c. that both the Great and the Lesser Games included athletic and musical contests, a horse-race, and a competition which bore the name of the Ancestral or Hereditary Contest, and which accordingly may well have formed the original kernel of the games. 251 251 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum , 2 No. 587, lines 259 sqq. From other Attic inscriptions we learn that the Eleusinian games comprised a long foot-race, a race in armour, and a pancratium. See Dittenberger, op. cit. No. 587 note 171 (vol. ii. p. 313). The Great Eleusinian Games also included the pentathlum (Dittenberger, op. cit. No. 678, line 2). The pancratium included wrestling and boxing; the pentathlum included a foot-race, leaping, throwing the quoit, throwing the spear, and wrestling. See W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities , Third Edition, s. vv. “Pancratium” and “Pentathlon.” Unfortunately nothing is known about this Ancestral Contest. We might be tempted to identify it with the Ancestral Contest included in the Eleusinian Festival of the Threshing-floor, 252 252 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum , 2 No. 246, lines 46 sqq. ; Ch. Michel, Recueil d'Inscriptions Grecques , No. 609. See above, p. 61 . The identification lies all the nearer to hand because the inscription records a decree in honour of a man who had sacrificed to Demeter and Persephone at the Great Eleusinian Games, and a provision is contained in the decree that the honour should be proclaimed “at the Ancestral Contest of the Festival of the Threshing-floor.” The same Ancestral Contest at the Festival of the Threshing-floor is mentioned in another Eleusinian inscription, which records honours decreed to a man who had sacrificed to Demeter and Persephone at the Festival of the Threshing-floor. See Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική, 1884, coll. 135 sq. which was probably held on the Sacred Threshing-floor of Triptolemus at Eleusis. 253 253 See above, p. 61 . If the identification could be proved, we should have another confirmation of the tradition which connects the games with Demeter and the corn; for according to the prevalent tradition it was to Triptolemus that Demeter first revealed the secret of the corn, and it was he whom she sent out as an itinerant missionary to impart the beneficent discovery of the cereals to all mankind and to teach them to sow the seed. 254 254 Diodorus Siculus, v. 68; Arrian, Indic. 7; Lucian, Somnium , 15; id. , Philopseudes , 3; Plato, Laws , vi. 22, p. 782; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca , i. 5. 2; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium , 28, p. 53, ed. C. Lang; Pausanias, i. 14. 2, vii. 18. 2, viii. 4. 1; Aristides, Eleusin. vol. i. pp. 416 sq. , ed. G. Dindorf; Hyginus, Fabulae , 147, 259, 277; Ovid, Fasti , iv. 549 sqq. ; id. , Metamorph. v. 645 sqq. ; Servius, on Virgil, Georg. i. 19. See also above, p. 54. As to Triptolemus, see L. Preller, Demeter und Persephone (Hamburg, 1837), pp. 282 sqq. ; id. , Griechische Mythologie , 4 i. 769 sqq. On monuments of art, especially in vase-paintings, he is constantly represented along with Demeter in this capacity, holding corn-stalks in his hand and sitting in his car, which is sometimes winged and sometimes drawn by dragons, and from which he is said to have sowed the seed down on the whole world as he sped through the air. 255 255 C. Strube, Studien über den Bilderkreis von Eleusis (Leipsic, 1870), pp. 4 sqq. ; J. Overbeck, Griechische Kunstmythologie , iii. (Leipsic, 1873-1880), pp. 530 sqq. ; A. Baumeister, Denkmäler des classischen Altertums , iii. 1855 sqq. That Triptolemus sowed the earth with corn from his car is mentioned by Apollodorus, Bibliotheca , i. 5. 2; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium , 28, pp. 53 sq. , ed. C. Lang; Hyginus, Fabulae , 147; and Servius, on Virgil, Georg. i. 19. At Eleusis victims bought with the first-fruits of the wheat and barley were sacrificed to him as well as to Demeter and Persephone. 256 256 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum , 2 No. 20, lines 37 sqq. ; E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, Introduction to Greek Epigraphy , ii. (Cambridge, 1905), No. 9, p. 24. In short, if we may judge from the combined testimony of Greek literature and art, Triptolemus was the corn-hero first and foremost. Even beyond the limits of the Greek world, all men, we are told, founded sanctuaries and erected altars in his honour because he had bestowed on them the gift of the corn. 257 257 Arrian, Epicteti Dissertationes , i. 4. 30. His very name has been plausibly explained both in ancient and modern times as “Thrice-ploughed” with reference to the Greek custom of ploughing the land thrice a year, 258 258 Scholiast on Homer, Iliad , xviii. 483; L. Preller, Demeter und Persephone , p. 286; F. A. Paley on Hesiod, Works and Days , 460. The custom of ploughing the land thrice is alluded to by Homer ( Iliad , xviii. 542, Odyssey , v. 127) and Hesiod ( Theogony , 971), and is expressly mentioned by Theophrastus ( Historia Plantarum , vii. 13. 6). and the derivation is said to be on philological principles free from objection. 259 259 So I am informed by my learned friend the Rev. Professor J. H. Moulton. In fact it would seem as if Triptolemus, like Demeter and Persephone themselves, were a purely mythical being, an embodiment of the conception of the first sower. At all events in the local Eleusinian legend, according to an eminent scholar, who has paid special attention to Attic genealogy, “Triptolemus does not, like his comrade Eumolpus or other founders of Eleusinian priestly families, continue his kind, but without leaving offspring who might perpetuate his priestly office, he is removed from the scene of his beneficent activity. As he appeared, so he vanishes again from the legend, after he has fulfilled his divine mission.” 260 260 J. Toepffer, Attische Genealogie (Berlin, 1889), pp. 138 sq. However, the Eleusinian Torchbearer Callias apparently claimed to be descended from Triptolemus, for in a speech addressed to the Lacedaemonians he is said by Xenophon ( Hellenica , vi. 3. 6) to have spoken of Triptolemus as “our ancestor” (ὁ ἡμέτερος πρόγονος). See above, p. 54 . But it is possible that Callias was here speaking, not as a direct descendant of Triptolemus, but merely as an Athenian, who naturally ranked Triptolemus among the most illustrious of the ancestral heroes of his people. Even if he intended to claim actual descent from the hero, this would prove nothing as to the historical character of Triptolemus, for many Greek families boasted of being descended from gods.