Location: East of the Panathenaic Way, south of the Southeast Stoa. J.M. Camp, The Athenian Agora. Excavations in the Heart of Classical Athens (London & New York 1986) 16-17, pl. 5 (no. 7).
1. Introduction
The Eleusinion en astei was a particularly important sanctuary in the religious life of the Athenians. It was an adjunct to the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis and featured prominently in the preparatory stages of the rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The mysteries took place every year during the Boedromion month (roughly corresponds with the modern month of September). The rituals were performed in memory of the wanderings of goddess Demeter as she searched for Persephone (the ‘Kore’) who was abducted and taken to the Underworld. The initiates secured the favour of the chthonic deities in their afterlife. While initially the mysteries were intended only for Greeks (men and women alike), Greek-speaking foreigners were later also admitted.
The Eleusinion en astei featured in other Athenian celebrations as well, such as the Thesmophoria (a ‘female’ festival, also in honour of Demeter and Kore).
2. Description
The Eleusinion occupies, in its still visible section, an area measuring approx. 40 × 50 m along the slope uniting the Agora with the hill of the Acropolis; certain ancient sources also describe it as the “under the Acropolis Eleusinion” (cf. Clem. Al. Protr. 3.45). The terrain divides the area of the sanctuary in three terraces which extend stepped along the Panathenaic Way (the northernmost is the one standing lower, the southernmost the one standing taller). Only the eastern side of the sanctuary has not been excavated (and as a result its extent to the east is unknown), for it is overlaid by modern buildings. It appears that the first establishment of an Eleusinian sanctuary in the area occurred with the final unification of Athens with Eleusis in the late 7th cent. BC, or soon after, in Solon’s time (early 6th cent. BC), thus completing the synoikismos (=confederation) of Attica, which was mythologically dated to Theseus’ era. This part of Acropolis’ north slope, with its abundant water supply and the natural protection in offered, was one of the earliest settlement areas in Athens. The Clepsydra spring was already in use since the Prehistoric period, together with a large number of wells that had been dug into the rock by the inhabitants (already by the Neolithic period, during which people mostly lived in the caves of the Acropolis’ northern slope). A large number of private residences, dating from the Prehistoric period to the late 6th century BC, were gradually replaced by the ever expanding sanctuary and the various structures it comprised.
3. Bibliography
K. Clinton, The Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Philadelphia 1974).
K. Clinton, Myth and Cult: The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Stockholm 1992).
S.G. Cole, "Demeter in the Ancient Greek City and Its Countryside," in Placing the Gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred Spaces in Ancient Greece, S.E. Alcock and R. Osborne, eds. (Oxford 1994), 199-216.
Ν. Eschbach, Statuen auf panathenäischen Preisamphoren des 4. Jhs. v. Chr. (Mainz am Rhein 1986).
M. Miles, The City Eleusinion. Agora 31 (Princeton 1998).
H.A. Thompson, and R.E. Wycherley, The Agora of Athens. Agora 14(Princeton 1972).
J. Travlos, The Pictorial Dictionary of Athens (New York 1971) 198-99.
R.E. Wycherley, Literary and Epigraphical Testimonia. Agora 3 (Princeton 1957).
