Phlya

The mysteries at Phlya
David G Rice and John E Stambaugh, Sources for the study of Greek Religion, Scholars Press, 1979
p. 169
Hippolytus, Refutation od all Heresies V.20.5
The rites (orgia) of the so-called Great Goddess at Phlias are prior to the Eleusinian mysteries

Phlya on the East Coast of Attica, a local cult to the Earth Goddess of the Lykomedai, through the classical period  and into the second C A D when there was an addition of Orphic hymns

Plutarch Life of Themistocles 1.4.
It is clear that Themistocles belonged to the clan of the Lykomedai: when the 
initiation hall at Phlya, which was the common property of the Lykomedai, had been burnt by the barbarians [in 480 BC] he repaired it himself and decorated it with paintings, as Simonides says.

 Pausanias, Description of Greece IX.30.12
Whoever has done research on poetry knows that each of the hymns of Orpheus is very short and that the total is not a very large number. The Lykomedai know them and chant them at their ceremonies.

 Pausanias, Description of Greece IV. 1. 5. 7 
The Athenians say that Phlyos himself was the son of the Earth. The hymn to Demeter which was written for the Lykomedai by Musaeus, agrees with them.... Methapos was an Athenian by race, an offical and founder of all sorts of rites (orgia). He established the initiation rites of the Kabeiroi at Thebes, and int he chapel of the Lykomedai he dedicated a statue with an inscription which lend conviction to my account: I sanctified houses of Hermes and paths of sacred Demeter and Kore Protogona where they say Messene established a festival competition for the Great Goddesses, instructed by Kaukon the descendant of glorious Phlyo's son. I wondered that Lykos, the man of Pandion set the holy acts of Attica in precious Andania

 Pausanias, Description of Greece I. 31.4
 At Phlya and Myrrhinos are altars of Apollo Dionysodotos, Artemis Selasphoros (Bringer of Radiance), Dionysos Anthios ( of the flowers), the Ismenian Nymphs, and Earth, whom they call the Great Goddess. Another temple has altars of Demeter Anesidora ( who sends up gifts), Zeus Ktesios, Tithrone Athens, Kore Protogona ( First-born) and the goddesses called Semnai ( Reverend).

CHALANDRI (Phlya) Attica, Greece.

Once a village, now part of the almost unbroken urban development from Athens to Kephissia (and beyond), Chalandri lies slightly N of the N limits of both Hymettos and Tourkovouni, midway between them, and 4 km S of Marousi, the ancient deme of Athmonon. Thus it once occupied an important position in the Athenian plain alongside roads leading N to Pendeli and E to the Mesogaia. Many antiquities have been found in this area, for example, graves from Late Classical and Hellenistic times, an archaistic relief of Dionysos, and a Roman tomb of the 2d c. A.D., besides inscriptions and reused architectural blocks. The tomb has its vaulting intact, and, with the addition of an apse, now serves as the Church of the Panagia Marmariotissa.
Despite the lack of more specific evidence, it seems obvious that Chalandri has inherited the location of an ancient village. Because it is known that the demes of Athmonon and Phlya were in part contiguous (IG II² 2727.48-49), and because all the demes around Marousi have been identified except to the S, scholars agree that Chalandri must therefore be the site of Phlya. As such, it possessed a telesterion restored by Themistokles (Plut. Them. 1.3), had a tradition of mystic rites older than those at Eleusis (Hippol. Haer. 5.20), and was visited by Pausanias (1.34.1), who recorded several other cults.   C.W.J. ELIOT

The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Stillwell, Richard. MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. 1976.

A gnostic Christian writer (called 'Sethian' by the author of the Refutation of All Heresies) describes a painting showing an old man with an erect penis chasing a dogshaped or dog-faced woman (Refutation 5.20.7). For a long time in scholarship the old man has been identified with the Orphic god Phanes. In contrast, this paper presents evidence for identifying him as a form of Hermes. In turn, the woman (called 'περεη Phikola') is identified with a Thessalian version of the goddess Hekate (Einodia). Accordingly, it is suggested that περεη should be emended to φερα&#943η, the Pheraian goddess. The sexual encounter of the Thessalian Hekate and Hermes (the 'Word') proved useful for depicting the Word's entry into the dark and watery womb in Sethian soteriology.Phikola, a Mysterious Goddess at Phlya:

• June 2016,  
• DOI: 
• 10.1628/219944616X14655421286211,  
M. David Litwa. Waiting to get a copy of this paper.

PAUSANIAS, Description of Greece, Loeb Classical Library   Harvard University Press, 

p 173 He states that he got this from Honer's lines

p 175

In the catalogue of those who came to Troy he enumerated Pylos..

The first rulers of this country were Polycaon the son of Lelex, and Messene his wife. It was to her that Caucon, the son of Celaenus, son of Phlyus brought the rites of the Great Goddessses from Eleusis. Phlyus himself is said  byt he Athenians to have been the son of  Earth and the hymn of Musaus to Demeter made for the Lycomidae agree. but the mysteries of the Great Goddess es were raised to greater honour many years later than Caucon by Lycus the son of Pandion, an oak-wood, where he purified the celebrants being still called Lycus' wood.

p 177 Methapus, who made certain improvements on the mysteries, was an Athenian by nirth, an expert in the mysteries  and founder of all kinds f rites. It was he who established the mysteries  of the Cabiri at Thebes and dedicated in the hut  of the Lycomidae a statue with an inscription

“I sanctified houses of Hermes and paths of holy Demeter and Kore her firstborn, where they say that Messene established the feast of the Great Goddesses, taught by Caucon, sprung from Phlyus’ noble son. And I wondered that Lycus, son of Pandion, brought all the Attic rite to wise Andania.”

p 181 Lycus the son of Pandion also came to Arene, when he too was driven from Athens by his brother Aegeus, and revealed the rites of the Great Goddesses to Aphareus and his children and to his wife Arene; but it was to Andania that he brought the rites and revealed them there, as it was there that Caucon initiated Messene.