Tag: Demeter

The Eschara and the Original Meaning of the Word Holocaust

Posted C. LaVielle3 CommentsPosted in Goddess, Greece

Continued from previous posts…. Towards the front of the site at Elefsina, before you even get to what’s left of the Great Propylaia there is what looks like a large, brick barbecue. And that is precisely what it is. Except it is unlikely that any living soul got to taste the meat that was cooked on it. It is an eschara, a sacrificial altar. “But wait,” you say, “didn’t the Greeks get to eat most of the meat from their sacrifices?” They did. According to Hesiod*, the Greeks had Prometheus to thank not only for fire, but also for the privilege of reserving the best cuts of the sacrificial animal for themselves. The story begins back in the mists of time, back before Prometheus had stolen the divine fire and given it to mortals, back when the gods still came down from Olympus to dine with humans. Prometheus was having his first meal with Zeus and took it upon himself to portion out the sacrificial… Read More »

The Temple of Demeter and The Curse of Eleusis

Posted C. LaVielle8 CommentsPosted in Greece

Continued from the three previous posts…. This painting by Joseph Gandy, British artist and visionary architect, gives us his idea of what the site at Eleusis might have looked like around 200CE at the beginnings of the end of the Roman Empire. The Temple of Demeter is that big building in the center. The Temple and its grounds had two propylaia, or massive entryways, at this time. The outer, newer one is the Great Propylaia, built around 150CE by either Emperor Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius or both. It’s that large, columned  building/gate to the right. The tiny building to the far right is probably the Temple of Artemis. The smaller gate with three entryways that’s closer to the temple is the Small Propylaia, built around 50BCE In the site museum, which is quite nice, there is a statue of a woman with what looks like it might be a basket on her head. But this wasn’t just any woman. When I looked up into her… Read More »

Power Points of Eleusius: The Ploutonion

Posted C. LaVielle9 CommentsPosted in Greece

We left the Demeter Well and headed up the steps, thinking that we were headed for the Site Museum, but we were waylaid once again. Just before the entrance to the Temple of Demeter, where the final part of the Eleusinian Mysteries took place, we came upon a sign that said “Ploutonion”. It also said that this was the spot where Hades abducted Persephone as she was picking flowers. A Ploutonion is a sanctuary or shrine dedicated to Hades, god of the underworld. They are built at entrances to the underworld, and are, fortunately, rare. Strabo* identifies the only other ones I could find. Both were in Anatolia (modern Turkey), one outside Caria and one near Phrygia, and both had vents that released mephitic (noxious) vapors, and both were dream oracles. There is another sort of sanctuary of Hades called a necromanteion. This is also an opening to the underworld, but it is an oracle of the dead. People go here to speak with the… Read More »

Power Points of Eleusius: The Demeter Well

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Goddess, Greece

At last. Against all odds (see previous post), we were standing on the site where the Eleusinian Mysteries were performed. Like good little tourists, we decided to hike straight up to the Site Museum and get oriented and then come down and go over the ruins. This was not to be. First we were attracted to the remains of what had once been a stoa, a long Greek porch, where pilgrims probably rested after their long walk from Athens. Then, as we headed for a huge set of steps that were on the way to the museum we were drawn to their lower left-hand corner. The source of the attraction was a Demeter Well. I had seen these before in Sicily at Agrigento and a particularly powerful one at the Rock of Ceres (the Roman Demeter) in the central town of Enna. The Rock of Ceres is another well-situated site. It overlooks the Goddess’s wheat fields and the place where the Sicilians say Hades nabbed… Read More »