The tribulations of the 3rd cent. BC are observable in the Eleusinion as well, as the Athenians made no attempts to beautify the sanctuary during this period.
1. The Hellenistic Propylon
A new Propylon was constructed in the Eleusinion during the 2nd cent. BC along the west side of the peribolos, very close to its south edge, replacing an earlier entrance at this spot (Miles 1998, 70 pl. 9). The foundations of the Propylon are capped by a layer of azure Hymettus marble. The structure was shaped like an oblong rectangular, measuring 6.10 × 4.75 m, and intersected crosswise with the peribolos of the sanctuary, with its west half projecting on the Panathenaic Way and the eastern one penetrating the area of the sanctuary.
2. The Hellenistic stoa
During the same period, the sanctuary was expanded to the south with the construction of a stoa along the old south peribolos, which it replaced, acting from now own as the sanctuary’s border on that side. The stoa faced north, towards the Temple of Triptolemus, and provided shelter to the visitors of the sanctuary -and the spectators of the sacred rites- as well as to the numerous votive offerings and inscriptions set up in the sanctuary’s area.
The stoa’s width was 8.90 m on the outside and 5.90 m on the inside (so it was a single-storey building). Its exact length is unknown, as its eastern edge has not been excavated; its surviving length is 25.40 m. The main building material of the stoa was yellow poros stone, its crepidoma and stylobate were made up off Hymettian marble, while the epistyle and the columns were of Pentelic marble. Today only the poros members survive, mainly the orthostatai and some blocks from the marble stylobate. Although no identifiable members of the epistyle or the columns have been discovered, it is thought that the building was in the Doric order (Miles 1998, 77-78).
Although earlier studies dated the stoa to the 1st or 2nd cent. AD, excavational evidence suggests a dating in the Hellenistic period, and more specifically to the 2nd cent. BC. Excavationally the building’s destruction is dated to the 4th cent. AD, probably during the invasion of the Visigoths in 396 AD.
3. The ‘Ploutoneion’
South of the stoa, 17.20 m off the rear wall to the peripheral way of the Acropolis the foundation of a small circular building has been unearthed (Miles 1998, 15 pl. 3). The internal diameter of the building is estimated to 7.75-8.00 m based on the arrangement of the surrounding ground, while some poros slabs of the superstructure survive in three rows. These slabs originate from an earlier (and larger), also circular, building, possibly of the Archaic period, whose site remains unknown (Miles 1998, 81-83).
At the centre of the building, placed with geometric accuracy, a fragment of a circular stone has been discovered (its original diameter 1.35 m) as well as an unfluted column drum, which is apparently structurally unrelated to the building, as it seems it featured no colonnade. A large number of altars discovered close to the circular building confirms, according to Miles, its religious character.
The circular structure dates to the 2nd cent. BC, but it was rebuilt, using the same plan, in the late 1st or early 2nd cent. AD, and was partially demolished in the late 2nd or 3rd cent. AD.
Similarly to the Tholos, it is possible that this circular building at the edge of the Eleusinion was used as a dining place. The altars that have been discovered, as well as the inscriptions, where ritual diners in honour of Pluto are mentioned, render probable the identification of the building as a ‘Plutoneion’.
Plutoneion
Stoa
