Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/72

ELEUSIS boDonr ti thoa goddcsMs, which not caHsd tba £lea»ni>, mud contiiioed to ba nguded m the most •acred of *ll the Greciin mjrittrieii down to the f>U of paguuBin. As an acsKUit of these mjst«ries, iiTtd of th« Ugendi napecting theii institatioD, ii f^ven «li«- frhen(i>ict. 0/ Ant. tn. Eltumia), it ODjjremiiins now to apeak of the topognph; uid hiattnj of the ElenuB stood apon ■ hdglit at a abort distance fnim the sea, and oppoaile the island of Silaniii. Its aituatioD possessed three natonl advantages. It was on the road from Athens to the Isthmus ; it wu ic a Teij fertile plain ; and it was at the head 1^ an extensive haj, fonned on three siiles b; the coast of Attica, and shot in on the awth b; the isUnd of Sahimis. A desciiptiDD of the Eleauoian Sk' called the Thriisian) plain, and of the rirer phissDS, which Hoired throngh it, ia giren onder AincA. The town itself dates from Che most ancient times. It appeora to hare derived its name baa the sapposed advent (fAivaii) of Demeler, though some tiaced itt name from an eponymous hen Eleosia. (Pans. i. 38. § 7.) It waa one of the IS independent states into which Attia waa aaid to have been origioall; divided. (Stnib. 11. p. 397.) It ms related thai m the reign of Eamolpos, king of Ekosis, and Ercchthena, king of Athens, there was a wai between the two states, in which the Elenainions were defealed, wherenpon the; agreed to acknowledge the supremacy of Athens in everr UiinK except the celebration of the mjsteriea, of which they were to continue to have (be manage menL (Thucyd. ii. I.l; Paoa. i. 38. § 3.) Eleusis afterwards became an AtlJc demna, bnt in qnence of its eacied character it was allowed to Um title of T^Aii (StraK ii. p. 399 ; Paua. § 7), and to coin its own money, a privilege pos- ■eased by no other town in Attica, except Athens The histocj of Eleusis is part of the histor; of Athens. Once a year the great Elenainian proces- sion travelled from Athens to Eleusis, along thi Sacred Way, which his been already descritwd at length. [Attica, p. 337, s«q.] The ancient tem pte of Demeter at Elenaia was bunt by the Persians uiB.o.4e4(Herod. ii.p.39S); and it was not till the adminiiitratian of Pericles that an attempt made to rebuild it (sea below). When the po of the Thirty was overthrown after the Pelopm lian War, they retired (0 Eleuids, which they had iocnred befoiduad, bnt where they mainCainod th< ■eirn for only a short thne. (Xen. BtU. ii. 4. §g seq., 43) Under the Bomons Eleusia enjoyed gr iisperily, as initiation int prospei Itwi Stroyed by Alaric in A.D. 396, and from .disappears fron history. When Spon and Whele Tisitod the sits in 167^, it was entirely deserted. In the following centory it waa agun inikabited, and ii now a email village called Anfrira, which ia on! a carmption of the andent name. " Elenaia waa boilt at the eastern end of a la rocky height, a mile in length, which lies parallel to the sea-ehore, and ia aeporated to the the Ula of Uonnt Cerata by a narrow brij plain. Tbe eastern eatremily of the hill was levelled artificially for the nceptton of the Hierum of De- ineter and the other aacred buildings. Above theae are the rains of an acropolia. [' Castelli imminet, et circnmdatum eat tempto,' S9.J A triangnlai Sface of abont 900 yards each tide, lying between the hill and the shore, was occn- ELEUSIS. 813 pied by tbs town of Elenaia. On the eaatem aids the town wall ia baud alcaig the snmmit of an arti- ficial embankment, canieJ acrcfis tlw marshy gronnd from soma heights war the Hiemm, on one of which stands a caatle (built during the middle ages of the Byianline empire). This wall, according to a com- mon piactico in lbs military architecture of tha Greeks, was prolonged into the sea, so as to (brm a mole ehellering a harbonr, which wss entirely arti- ficial, and was fonned by thia and two other longer moles which project about 100 yards into the sea. There are many remains of walls and buildings almg the shore, aa well as in other farts of the town and ' odel ; hut they art mere foundations, the Hierum ma preserving any considerable rsnains." (Leake.) Pausanias baa 1^ ua only a very brief descripticn oC Eleusis (i. 38. g S): " Tbe Eleuainiana have a temple of Triptolemus, another of Artemis Propf- laea, and a third of Poseidon (be Father, and a well called Callichomm, where the Eleusinian women Gnt instituted a dance and Bang in honour of the god- dess. They aay that the Rharian plain was tba firet place in whlchcom wss sown and first produced a harvest, and that hence barley &oin this plain i* employed for making sacrificial cakes. Then the sn-called threshing-fioor and altar of Triptulemna an shewn. Tbe things irithin the wall of the Hierum [i. e. the temple 5 Demeler] ■ dnam fbrhoda ma