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DEMETRIUS. 121 ceremony, from first to last, without delay. This was ab- solutely contrary to the rules, and a thing which had never been allowed before ; for the lesser mysteries were celebrated in the month of Anthesterion, and the great solemnity in Boedromion, and none of the novices were finally admitted till they had completed a year after this latter. Yet all this notwithstanding, when in the public assembly these letters of Demetrius were produced and read, there was not one single person who had the courage to oppose them, except Pythodorus, the torch-bearer. But it signified nothing, for Stratocles at once proposed that the month of Munychion, then current, should by edict be reputed to be the month of Anthesterion ; which being voted and done, and Demetrius thereby admitted to the lesser ceremonies, by another vote they turned the same month of Munychion into the other month of Boedro- mion ; the celebration of the greater mysteries ensued, and Demeti-ius was fully admitted.* These proceedings gave the comedian, Philippides, a new occasion to exer- cise his wit upon Stratocles, whose flattering fear Into" one month hath crowded all the year. And on the vote that Demetrius should lodge in the Parthenon, Who turns the temple to a common inn, And makes the Virgin's, house a house of sin. Of all the disreputable and flagitious acts of which he • Literally, became an Epop- Novice. The Great Mysteries fol- tes, an initiate, adept, or communi- lowed in six months' time ; and a cant. The Lesser Mysteries, which complete year having elapsed after were celebrated in Athens, and these, the Novices, at the next cele- called (as Plutarch in the original bration of them, were conducted to calls them here) the Mysteries at Eleusis, and admitted to the inner Agra, or Agroe, a spot on the Lis- sanctuary. sus, gave the rank of Mystes, or