longing for the mother also includes the producing mother (first devouring, then birth-giving). Concerning the real contents of the mysteries, we learn through the testimony of Bishop Asterius, about 390 A.D., the following:
"Is not there (in Eleusis) the gloomiest descent, and the most
solemn communion of the hierophant and the priestess; between
him and her alone? Are the torches not extinguished, and does
not the vast multitude regard as their salvation that which takes
place between the two in the darkness?"[36]
That points undoubtedly to a ritual marriage, which was
celebrated subterraneously in mother earth. The Priestess
of Demeter seems to be the representative of the earth
goddess, perhaps the furrow of the field.[37] The descent
into the earth is also the symbol of the mother's womb,
and was a widespread conception under the form of
cave worship. Plutarch relates of the Magi that they
sacrificed to Ahriman, [Greek: ei)s to/pon a)nê/lion].[1] Lukian lets
the magician Mithrobarzanes [Greek: ei)s chôri/on e)/rêmon kai\
y(lô~des kai\ a)nê/lion],[2] descend into the bowels of the earth.
According to the testimony of Moses of the Koran, the
sister Fire and the brother Spring were worshipped in
Armenia in a cave. Julian gave an account from the
Attis legend of a [Greek: kata/basis ei)s a)/ntron],[3] from whence
Cybele brings up her son lover, that is to say, gives birth
to him.[38] The cave of Christ's birth, in Bethlehem
('House of Bread'), is said to have been an Attis
spelæum.
