Plato's use of Eleusinian Mystery motifs Farrell, Anne Mary. The University of Texas at Austin, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1999.

Plato's use of Eleusinian Mystery motifs

Farrell, Anne Mary.The University of Texas at Austin, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1999. 

The Eleusinian Mysteries are religious rituals that include rites of initiation, purification, and revelation. The high point of these Mysteries is the moment when a priest reveals the secret of the Mysteries to the newly initiated. Plato frequently uses language and motifs from the Mysteries in his dialogues,

Mystery motifs that Plato employs in the Ladder of Eros at Symposium 209e212a, in the middle books of the Republic, including the Myth of the Cave at Republic 509a-518d, and in the Myth of the Soul at Phaedrus 246a-253c,

p 11 Plato employs the five Mystery motifs of progressing through a sequence of stages, purification, being led by a mystagogos, experiencing the epopteia, and achieving eudaimonia in order to explicate these aspects.
 

p 2 The Mysteries were characterized by secrecy and the promise of the blessing of a god or goddess. Their rituals involved rites of purification, initiation, and, in some cases, the cultivation of ecstatic states. Initiation is the most central of these rituals. Through initiation an individual gained membership into the select group of the cult and became distinguished by knowledge of its secrets.2

p3 The most prominent ancient Mysteries are the Mysteries of Eleusis, the Bacchic Mysteries or Mysteries of Dionysus, the Mysteries of Cybele, which include the Korybantic Mysteries, and the Mysteries of Orpheus. Plato makes reference to each of these M ysteries. p12 The Lesser Mysteries We know very little about what went on during the Lesser Mysteries. They served to purify the initiates and prepare them for what would occur during the Great Mysteries. An inscription attests that in the first half of the 5th century B.C. the rites of myesis were held in the courtyard of the Telesterion.22 However, we have other evidence indicating that later the purificatory rites of the Small Mysteries were conducted in the Ilissos23 and that these rites were connected to the rites at Agrai held along the Ilissos.24 The rites at Agrai, according to one source, were “an imitation of the events concerning Dionysus.”25 According to myth, the Small Mysteries were founded in order to permit Herakles to be initiated.36 After killing the Centaurs, Herakles was in need of purification of blood guilt. Several sources record that the rites were held in honor of Persephone.27

The Greater Mysteries The Great Mysteries began in Athens, ended in Eleusis, and lasted for nine days during the month of Boedromion.

p 31 In this passage Plutarch compares the experiences of the soul at death to the experiences of an initiate: Thus we say that the soul that has passed thither is dead, in regard to its complete change and conversion. In this world it is without knowledge, except when it is already at the point of death; but when that time comes it suffers something (pasxei pathos) like what those who participate in the great initiations (teletai) suffer. Hence even the word dying (teleutan) is like the word to be initiated (teleisthai), and the act (of dying) is like the act of being initiated. In the beginning there is straying (planai) and wandering (peridromai), the weariness of running around in a circle and suspicious journeys (hupoptoi poreiai) through the darkness that reach no goal, and then immediately before the end (telous) every possible terror (deina), and shivering (phrike), and trembling (tro m o s) and sweating (idros) and amazement (thambos). But after this a marvelous light meets the wanderer, and open country and meadowlands welcome him; and in that place there are voices and dancing and the solemn majesty of sacred music and holy visions. And amidst these, he walks at large in new freedom, now perfect (pantelaes) and fully initiated Cmemuaemenos), celebrating the sacred rites, a garland on his head, and converses with pure and holy men; he surveys the uninitiated, unpurified mob here on earth, the mob of living men who, herded together in muck and deep mire, trample one another down in their fear of death and cling to their ills, since they disbelieve in the good things there.

p 34.  

1. Purification Purification served at least three purposes in the Eleusinian Mysteries. First, it imparted sanctity or a state of purity upon a person about to encounter the sacred. In the later stages of the Mysteries, the initiates would be entering a sacred place and coming into contact with sacred objects, so they would need to be free of any miasma or pollution. In this way, rites of purification served to indicate that the initiates were approaching something of value and significance. The rites marked a transition between the realm of the common and the realm of the sacred.85 Second, in the epoptic revelation the initiates gained knowledge of the secrets of the Mysteries, and the reliefs depicting the initiation of Herakles suggest that one of the purposes of purification was to put the initiate in a state of unknowing or ignorance prior to the revelation, in order to prepare him to experience a new kind of seeing through which he will be able to contemplate the divine. The third purpose is also connected to the depictions of the purification of Herakles. Herakles was being purified from blood guilt resulting from the murder of the centaurs, and many of the elements of his purification are elements of purification from homicide. In addition to purificatory rituals during the course of the Mysteries, there were also specific purificatory practices observed by the initiates. These included restrictions, such as the avoidance of certain foods and natural pollutants,89 fasting,90 and keeping to one’s house for a day91

p 38 2. The m ystagogoi were members of an official body who performed several different functions during the initiation rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries. As their name indicates, they served to lead the initiates during the initiation rites.97 They also may have examined initiates concerning their eligibility for initiation, conveyed preliminary information to the initiates, and accompanied initiates during purificatory rites.

Epopteia We have four different kinds of evidence that a visual revelation played a role in the Mysteries: 1) references to a stage called epopteia (from the Greek ephorao, to observe); 2) the name hierophant (he who shows the holy things) for one of the priests of the Mysteries; 3) a description of the initiates moving out of darkness and into a lighted area where they see the holy things of the Mysteries; 4) the claim that those who have seen the things of the Mysteries have achieved a blessed state

p51 : Hierophants Another word that suggests that seeing played a role in the Eleusinian Mysteries is hierophant, the title of one of the most important priests in the Mysteries. This term is usually translated “he who shows holy things.” Kerdnyi objects that this would be hierodeiktes in Greek, and instead he translates hierophant as “he who makes the holy things appear121 In either case, however, we have the notion that the hierophant is presenting the holy things of the Mysteries so that they can be seen

p 53  Torchlight an d the Anaktoran We have evidence that there was an official called the hierophant as early as the fifth century, but the primary evidence we have concerning how and where he revealed the holy things is later, and because the holy things were the secret objects of the Mysteries, we know very little about just what they were. The accounts we have indicate that the hierophant revealed the holy things to the initiates in or near the initiation building at Eleusis as they moved from darkness into bright light provided by torches. 

The Secret o f the Mysteries Because of the proscription against revealing the secrets of the Mysteries, one of the aspects of the Eleusinian Mysteries we know the least about is what the sacred objects were. Before the festival of the Great Mysteries, the hiera were transported from Eleusis to Athens in a procession.1'*0 They were carried in kistai, cylindrical baskets with close fitting covers that were tied with specially dyed ribbons.141 It may be the case that some of the holy things were seen during the preliminary initiation into the Great Mysteries.