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Eumolpid
The Eumolpidae (, ''Eumolpidai'') were a family of priests at Eleusis who maintained the Eleusinian Mysteries during the Hellenic era. As hierophants, they popularized the cult and allowed many more to be initiated into the secrets of Demeter and Persephone. The legendary genealogy of the Eumolpidae cast them as descendants of Eumolpus, one of the first priests of Demeter at Eleusis, through his second son, Herald-Keryx. Eumolpus, "untainted by blame" is named among the archaic leaders of Eleusis in the '' Homeric Hymn to Demeter'' 149–156. Through Eumolpus, they were supposedly related to either Poseidon or Hermes. The last legitimate hierophant at Eleusis, just before the extinguishing of the mysteries at the time of Alaric's invasion in 396 CE, traced his descent from Eumolpos.Eunapios' biography of Maximos the Neoplatonist is the source, quoted at length by Carl Kerenyi, ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter'' 1967:17. The other family with a hereditary Eleu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries () were initiations held every year for the Cult (religious practice), cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece. They are considered the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". Their basis was a Bronze Age Agrarianism, agrarian cult, and there is some evidence that they were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenean Greece, Mycenean period.Dietrich (1975) ''The origins of Greek Religion''. Bristol Phoenix Press pp. 166, 167Walter Burkert. (1985)''Greek Religion''. Harvard University Press. p. 285 The Mysteries represented the myth of the Persephone#Abduction myth, abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the ''descent'' (loss), the ''search'', and the ''ascent'', with the main theme being the ''ascent'' () of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eumolpus
In Greek Mythology, Eumolpus (; Ancient Greek: Εὔμολπος ''Eúmolpos'', "good singer" or "sweet singing", derived from εὖ ''eu'' "good" and μολπή ''molpe'' "song", "singing") was a legendary king of Thrace. He was described as having come to Attica either as a bard, a warrior, or a priest of Demeter and Dionysus. Family Eumolpus was the son of Poseidon (Neptune in Roman tradition) and Chione. In the legend he is described as neither Greek, nor Thracian or Roman, but Libyan and a native of North Africa, though his mother Chione is said to be a Thracian princess. An alternative genealogy also stated that Eumolpus was born to the god Apollo and the nymph Astycome. He was the father of Immarados by the Oceanid Daeira. Mythology Early years According to the mythographer Apollodorus, Chione, daughter of Boreas and the heroine Oreithyia, pregnant in secret with Eumolpus by Poseidon, was frightened of her father's reaction so she threw the baby into the ocean af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hierophant
A hierophant () is a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed ''holy''. As such, a hierophant is an interpreter of sacred mysteries and arcane principles. The word comes from ancient Greece, where it was constructed from the combination of ' (''ta hiera'', 'the holy') and ' (''phainō'', 'to reveal'). Greek priesthood ''Hierophant'' was the title of the chief priest at the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Attica. It was an office inherited within the genos of the Eumolpidae, one of the two main clans which managed the Eleusinian cult - the other being the Cerycids. Occasionally from the late fourth century BC and consistently from the first century BC, hierophants practised "hieronymy", which means that they were referred to during their lifetime as "hierophant" instead of their personal name. The known hierophants at Eleusis are: * Zacorus, early 5th century BC * Theodorus, before 415 - after 408 BC * Archias, ca. 379 BC * Lacrateides, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herald-Keryx
In Greek mythology, Ceryx ( ''Kērux'', literally "herald") was a member of the Athenian royal family as the son of Hermes by either the princesses, Pandrosus or Agraulus. Mythology Ceryx was, like his father, a messenger. But the ''kêryx'' career began as a humble cook for the tribe, a skill Hermes demonstrates in his cooked meat offerings on the Twelve Gods Altar set in place in 522 BC by Peisistratos III in Athens. The Homeric ''Hymn to Hermes'' 128 recalls the young god cutting out and laying up twelve steaks on a flat rock or ''platamoni'', the 12 Gods altar.'' According to Pausanias, Ceryx was the youngest son of Eumolpus, one of the first priests of Demeter at Eleusis and a founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries. He founded the two families of high priests in Eleusis: the ceryces (or Ceryces), a family of priests in Athens, and the Eumolpidae. Ceryces In Homer’s time, ceryx was a profession of trusted attendants or retainers of a chieftain. The role of ceryces expa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerykes
The kerykes or ceryces (, pl. of , ''Keryx'') of Bronze Age Pylos 1200 BC, home to the aged Homeric hero Nestor and the Neleides, are listed in the Linear B tablets as ''ka-ru-ke'' serving the ''ra-wa-ko-ri'', the commander of armed forces. In Athens, this office became ceremonial, functioning from the Leokoreion, a building site at the Dipylon Gate. Linear B tablets that refer to the ''keryx'' mention the office in context with ''e-ma-a2'' (''e-ma-ha'') ''a-re-ja'', '' Hermes Areias'', meaning either the Warrior, or the Curser (''aras''). Overview In ''Iliad'', the Homeric epic, heralds serve heroic nobility in humble tasks, as cooks, fire-kindlers, wine-pourers, and waiters during feasts and symposia, as scavengers of corpses on the battlefield for cremation or as umpires during funeral games, as messengers between enemies, allies, and warriors during battle, as announcers of public assembly and as language translators (''hermeneus''), and in other odd jobs that earned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleusis
Elefsina () or Eleusis ( ; ) is a suburban city and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Athens metropolitan area. It belongs to West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is located in the Thriasio Plain, at the northernmost end of the Saronic Gulf. North of Elefsina are Mandra, Greece, Mandra and Magoula, Attica, Magoula, while Aspropyrgos is to the northeast. It is the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the birthplace of Aeschylus. Today, Elefsina is a major industrial centre, with the largest oil refinery in Greece as well as the home of the Aeschylia Festival, the longest-lived arts event in the Attica Region. On 11 November 2016, Elefsina was named the European Capital of Culture for 2021, which became effective in 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic postponement. Etymology The word ''Eleusis'' first appears in the ''Orphic Hymn to Eleusinian Demeter'': «Δήμητρος Ελευσινίας, θυμίαμα στύρακα». Also Hesychius of Alexand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hellenistic Greece
Hellenistic Greece is the historical period of Ancient Greece following Classical Greece and between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the classical Greek Achaean League heartlands by the Roman Republic. This culminated at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC, a crushing Roman victory in the Peloponnese that led to the destruction of Corinth and ushered in the period of Roman Greece. Hellenistic Greece's definitive end was with the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, when Octavian defeated Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony, the next year taking over Alexandria, the last great center of Hellenistic Greece. The Hellenistic period began with the wars of the Diadochi, armed contests among the former generals of Alexander the Great to carve up his empire in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The wars lasted until 275 BC, witnessing the fall of both the Argead and Antipatrid dynasties of Macedonia in favor of the Antigonid dynasty. The era was al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demeter
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility (soil), fertility of the earth. Although Demeter is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Greek underworld, Underworld. She is also called Deo ( ''Dēṓ''). In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the Titans Rhea (mythology), Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Like her other siblings except Zeus, she was swallowed by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus. Through Zeus, she became the mother of Persephone, a fertility goddess and Dying-and-rising deity, resurrection deity. One of the most notable ''Homeric Hymns'', the ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', tells the story of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Persephone ( ; , classical pronunciation: ), also called Kore ( ; ) or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the Greek underworld, underworld after her abduction by her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld, who would later take her into marriage. The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the underworld, and her cyclical return to the surface represents her functions as the embodiment of spring and the personification of vegetation, especially grain crops, which disappear into the earth when sown, sprout from the earth in spring, and are harvested when fully grown. In Art in ancient Greece, Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a wikt:sheaf, sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades. Persephone, as a vegetation deity, veg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homeric Hymn To Demeter
The ''Homeric Hymns'' () are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns and one epigram. The hymns praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell mythological stories, often involving a deity's birth, their acceptance among the gods on Mount Olympus, or the establishment of their cult. In antiquity, the hymns were generally, though not universally, attributed to the poet Homer: modern scholarship has established that most date to the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, though some are more recent and the latest, the ''Hymn to Ares'', may have been composed as late as the fifth century CE. The ''Homeric Hymns'' share compositional similarities with the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', also traditionally attributed to Homer. They share the same artificial literary dialect of Greek, are composed in dactylic hexameter, and make use of short, repeated phrases known as formulae. It is unclear how far writing, as opposed to oral composition, was involved in their crea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poseidon
Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cities and colonies. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, Poseidon was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes, with the cult title "earth shaker"; in the myths of isolated Arcadia, he is related to Demeter and Persephone and was venerated as a horse, and as a god of the waters.Seneca quaest. Nat. VI 6 :Nilsson Vol I p.450 Poseidon maintained both associations among most Greeks: he was regarded as the tamer or father of horses, who, with a strike of his trident, created springs (the terms for horses and springs are related in the Greek language).Nilsson Vol I p.450 His Roman equivalent is Neptune. Homer and Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the sea when, following the overthrow of his father Cronus, the world was divided ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermes
Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quickly and freely between the worlds of the mortal and the divine aided by his winged sandals. Hermes plays the role of the psychopomp or "soul guide"—a conductor of souls into the afterlife. In myth, Hermes functions as the emissary and messenger of the gods, and is often presented as the son of Zeus and Maia, the Pleiad. He is regarded as "the divine trickster", about which the '' Homeric Hymn to Hermes'' offers the most well-known account. Hermes's attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster, the tortoise, satchel or pouch, talaria (winged sandals), and winged helmet or simple petasos, as well as the palm tree, goat, the number four, several kinds of fish, and incense. However, his main symbol is the ''caduceus'', a wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
