Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/234

</02 HISTORY OF GREECE. lemus, Diokles, Polyxeinus and Dolichus : Keleos is the king, or principal among these chiefs, the son or lineal descendant of the eponymous Eleusis himself. To these chiefs, and to the three daughters of Keleos, the goddess Demeter comes in her sorrow for the loss of her daughter Persephone : heing hospitably enter- tained by Keleos she reveals her true character, commands that a temple shall be built to her at Eleusis, and prescribes to them the rites according to which they are to worship her. 1 Such seems to have been the ancient story of the Eleusinians respect- ing their own religious antiquities: Keleos, with Metaneira his wife, and the other chiefs here mentioned, were worshipped at Eleusis, and from thence transferred to Athens as local gods or heroes. 2 Eleusis became incorporated with Athens, apparently not very long before the time of Solon ; and the Eleusinian wor- ship of Demeter was then received into the great religious solemnities of the Athenian state, to which it owes its remarkable subsequent extension and commanding influence. In the Atti- cized worship of the Eleusinian Demeter, the Eumolpids and the Kerykes were the principal hereditary functionaries : Eumolpus, the eponym of this great family, came thus to play the principal part in the Athenian legendary version of the war between Athens and Eleusis. An oracle had pronounced that Athens could only be rescued from his attack by the death of the three daughters of Erechtheus ; their generous patriotism consented to the sacrifice, and their father put them to death. He then went forth confidently to the battle, totally vanquished the enemy, and 1 Homer, Hymn, ad Cerer. 153-475. 'H 6e Kiovaa tfe^toroTro/loff fiaaikevai lf//^ re, At6/cA re nA.T/i-i'inry, ty, Ke/Uu i9' r)yr)-opi Aativ, vrjv epuv. Also v. 105. TTJV 6s ISov KeAecuo ' Ehevaividao fivyaTpef. The hero Eleusis is mentioned in Pausanias, i. 38, 7 : some said that he was ttie son of Hermes, others that he was the son of Ogygus. Compare Hygin. f. 147. 3 Keleos and Metaneira were worshipped by the Athenians with divino honors ( Athenagoras, Legat. p. 53, ed. Oxon.) : perhaps he confounds divino and heroic honors, as the Christian controversialists against Paganism were disposed to do. Triptolemus had a temple at Ele&nU (Pausan. i. 38, 6 )