Greek Mystery

The words, Greek and Mystery, are eternally fascinating to me. Together, they form one of the most profound and spellbinding events of history. 

 Thousands of years ago, people from all over the ancient world flocked to a site outside of the city of Athens for a nine day event known as the Mysteries of Eleusis. Was it a festival, you may ask? An opportunity to meet other people? 

No one truly knows what happened at the Mysteries. But there are clues, many clues. 

As an archaeologist, I appreciate the important of the physical evidence that has been uncovered regarding the Mysteries of Eleusis, an annual ritual commemorating the abduction of the goddess Persephone into the Underworld by Hades and the subsequent search by the goddess Demeter for her lost daughter. Over the multiple days of the ceremony, archaeological evidence and literary sources tell us that special potions were imbibed, sacred objects were revealed, powerful incantations were proclaimed and a nighttime spectacle was viewed by thousands of attendees with a focus on death, rebirth and the afterlife. Yet participants in the ceremony were sworn to secrecy, and the penalty for breaking this rule was death.

So what actually happened during these ceremonies? Many theories have been advanced, and books written stating that the people who attended the Mysteries took a drug of one form or another in order to have an ecstatic awareness or opening of consciousness. 

This may be true. But what interests me more than this, is why? Why did so many go to the trouble of making the annual pilgrimage to Eleusis, and why did so many drink a concoction which was possibly hallucinogenic? 

The question of whether they took drugs or not, I will leave to others. The question that most interests me is: 

What where they hoping to achieve? 

Is it possible to draw a parallel between these ancient seekers and modern pilgrims? And is it possible that what they were looking for back then, is the same thing many millions of modern seekers are still hoping to find? 

I believe the people who made this annual trek, and who were sworn to secrecy about what they learned, were in search of something universal. I hope to explore this and other questions in future posts.