διαφέρει ὁ δᾷδας ἔχων ἁπλῶς
καὶ ὁ ἐν τοῖς κατ΄ Ἐλευσῖνα μυστηρίοις δᾳδοῦχος
—Eustathius, ad. Il. A, 279
The role of light and lighting equipment in the festivals of Demeter, especially in the Eleusinian Mysteries, is usually deduced from the importance of light in the Homeric Hymn dedicated to the goddess, in contrast to the dark realm of Hades. Light has therefore been interpreted through an eschatological projection on the Mysteries, partly originating in the late sources on the subject, such as Christian polemicist writers or philosophers using the initiation into the Mysteries as a metaphor for the initiation into philosophy. Methodological problems arise with the interpretation of the Hymn as the aetiological myth of the Mysteries. To resolve this problematic relationship some scholars have associated the poem with the Thesmophoria. They assume the greater antiquity of this cult1 and an evolution of the Mysteries giving the precedence first to Kore and then to Demeter.2 These constructions necessarily lead to the tricky connection of myth with rite, whose theoretical frames lie beyond our scope.
Regarding the association regularly assumed between the Hymn and the ritual, various sequences of the poem have often been considered as an aition, and as an illustration of the Mysteries, more particularly of the preliminary stages of the festival that were publicly performed.3 The search for Demeter’s daughter in the light of torches (47–48) has been related to a ‘mystic drama.’ The ‘epiphanies’ of the goddess, when she first arrives in the palace of Keleos and later, when she reveals her divine nature to Metaneira (188–90 and 261275–80), could be an allusion to the grades of the initiation.4 The attempt to immortalize Demophon is believed to correspond to the foundation myth of the mystic initiation.5 Further, some details that may not be relative to the narrative, such as the motivation for Demeter’s journey to Eleusis or the Demophon episode, are explained by a close relationship to the ritual practice. As Jenny Strauss Clay states, one passage of the poem appears to be clearly aetiological (192–211).6 Demeter’s silence, her fasting, her sitting on a stool covered with a fleece, drinking the kykeon, each gesture of the goddess in the myth seems to be repeated by the initiates. The speech becomes indirect (ἔφασκε, 207) and the action seems veiled; later on, the poem returns to the epic mode of narration.7 Even though we are able to recognize an aetiological part in the Hymn, it is a construction insufficient to assert that what was true for the Hymn was necessarily true for the ritual. Besides, the prohibition against revealing the Mysteries is expressed and therefore respected (478–79). Consequently, it is useless to try to discover the secret of the Mysteries in the poem. Even if the Hymn culminates in the setting of the Mysteries,8 it is far from being their ‘official story’ as it is sometimes considered.9 We must recall the episodes concerning various images of light in the Hymn and try to determine if they precisely coincide with any known ritual. We also have to take into account other sources thought to reflect the ritual, as well as some of the archaeological findings of ritual objects or offerings that may show the issue from another angle.
In the Hymn, darkness is related to the realm of death and to the sorrow of the goddess. When Demeter becomes aware that her daughter has been abducted, she manifests signs of human mourning: she tears the veil over her hair and throws a dark (κυανός) cloak on her shoulders10 that she will keep later on, while remaining in her newly constructed temple (319). The dark cloth (442) contrasts to Hekate (438) and Rhea (458) ‘of the bright headband.’11 As Kore plucked the narcissus, a marvellous and bright flower (θαυμαστὸν γανόωντα, 10), ‘the ground gaped from beneath’ (429–30) and Hades, the ‘Dark-haired’ (κυανοχαῖτα, 347) appeared and carried her away ‘below the earth’ (431), ‘into the misty darkness’ (ὑπὸ ζόφον ἠερόεντα, 80),12 ‘into the depths of the earth’ (340).13 In contrast, while Kore returns to her mother and to the upper world, Hermes leads her back ‘into the daylight’ (ἐς φάος, 338). Light is commonly associated with the gods and with divine epiphanies without any mystic connotation. When Demeter reveals her true nature changing her appearance from an old woman to that of a divinity (278–80), light (φέγγος) shone from her skin and the house filled with a brilliance (αὐγή) like lightning (ἀστεροπῆς ὥς). The first time she steps into the palace of Keleos, ‘she filled the doorway with divine light’ (σέλαος θείοιο, 189). Metaneira, although impressed, does not suspect her to be a goddess,14 but she recognizes in her a ‘godlike’ person (θεοείκελος, 159), a ‘nobly born’ woman, with ‘dignity and charm’ (αἰδὼς καὶ χάρις, 214–15). Although gods are noticeably associated with brightness, they may also be portrayed in dark colors, as is Zeus ‘with his dark clouds’ (κελαινεφής, 91).15
Lighting equipment in the Hymn has been broadly commented upon. The role of torches in the Eleusinian Mysteries does not come into question but their regular interpretation through the mystic paradigm needs to be reconsidered.16 In the poem, they are held by the goddesses. As no one answered when Demeter asked about her daughter, ‘then for nine days mighty Deo wandered over the earth, holding burning torches (αἰθομένας δαΐδας) in her hands’ (47–48). She did not eat, drink or bathe; ‘but when the tenth enlightening dawn had come (ἐπήλυθε φαινόλις’ Ἡώς), Hekate met her holding a light (σέλας) in her hands’ (51–53). Some scholars linked Demeter’s nine-day abstention from food and washing with the Eleusinian ritual, even though any mention of these practices is entirely lacking.17 Those nine days could represent a period of transition signifying a change on the tenth day,18 or may otherwise be purely poetical.19 Contrary to what Eva Parisinou thinks, torches in the Hymn are not exactly a ‘mortal’ characteristic or ‘a reflection of the limited knowledge and vulnerability of gods, who, in this particular myth, can neither predict nor prevent death.’20 The appearance of light denotes a progression in the narrative: after Demeter was continuously searching night and day,21 Hekate’s approach ‘holding a light’ introduces the next step in the progressive discovery of her daughter.22
One of the key moments relating to fire and to the image of torches is Demophon’s nursing:23 ‘at night, she (Demeter) would bury him like a brand in the fire’s might’ (κρύπτεσκε πυρὸς μένει ἠΰτε δαλόν, 239–40). Hiding in fire is part of the process that rendered the child immortal: Demeter anointed him with ambrosia, breathed sweetly upon him and held him close to her bosom. Fire is intended in this instance to purge, to ‘burn off mortality.’24 As Jenny Strauss Clay remarks, Demeter’s adoption of a mortal child defies the authority of Zeus separating mortals from gods.25 On the other side, this episode leads to the epiphany of Demeter. After the failure of the immortality process, rites and honors are attributed to Demophon,26 the goddess gives instructions for the celebration of her cult and institutes the rites alleviating death.
Many parallels have been sought in the Eleusinian ritual for the torches carried by Demeter during her search.27 Their ritual significance is assured by the fact that the Dadouchos was named after their use.28 Light seems important throughout the preliminary rites, from the torchlight procession leading to Eleusis until the following pannychis.29 The procession described in the Frogs, where the celebration of the Mysteries and their ideal projection in a mystic meadow seem to interfere with each other,30 is not the one of the candidates for initiation, but rather that of the dead initiate continuing to celebrate the Mysteries in the afterlife.31 Iacchos heads the procession as a bright star (φωσφόρος ἀστήρ, 342), holding ‘shining torches’ (λαμπάδι φέγγων, 351), and the candidates walk in a ‘brightly blazing meadow’ (φλογὶ φέγγεται δὲ λειμών, 344).
Clement refers to a ritual reenactment, a mystic drama celebrating the wandering, the abduction and the mourning with torches.32 Even though his assertions must be taken with caution, the initiates are supposed to imitate the experiences of the goddess. Lactantius as well claims that ‘during the night they search for Persephone with torches lit, and when they find her the whole ritual ends with celebration and waving of torches.’33 Thus torches seem to intervene at various moments, during the search and at the end of the ceremony. That this search belongs to the drama is uncertain,34 although other late authors refer to the ‘imitation’ of the goddess’s deeds.35 The question of the reliability of these sources remains open and the mystic drama, so-called only by Clement, a much-disputed question. Despite these uncertainties, modern scholars assert that ‘surely every initiate had a torch, mourned, wandered, searched.’36
Although the purifying power of torches is not clearly attested,37 other interpretations of their use pertain to the purifying qualities attributed to fire.38 The gesture of shaking torches, as Iacchos does leading the procession,39 has been interpreted as a means of purification.40 Otherwise, it has been connected with a fertility rite.41 The latter interpretation is based on the numerous red figure vases illustrating the departure of Triptolemos bringing agriculture to mankind: a goddess pours a libation while torches shed light on the scene.42 In some cases, two torches are held, one upright and the other lowered toward the ground. This up-and-down gesture performed by Hekate, Persephone and Demeter could be connected to the prosperity of the earth.43 The Dadouchos acts similarly. If we consider the procession to Eleusis as being essentially a reenactment of the wandering of Demeter, funerary connotations are attributed to the gesture. In a circular reasoning this latter is associated with purificatory and apotropaic practices, repelling pollution from death.44 However, the procession is joyful, even comical if one thinks of the insults against important citizens,45 and the shaking of torches sometimes appears as taking place at the happy ending, when Persephone is found.46 A close connection obviously appears between happiness and light in the torch-dances, the music of flutes and songs.47 The initiates of the Frogs form a happy thiasos dancing on their way to Eleusis (326–27, 335–36). In fact, Herakles tells Dionysos that the guilty remain plunged in filth and dung while the initiates enjoy the breath of flutes and light and myrtle-groves and revel in the underworld.48 Another obvious association is the one between happiness and initiation: ‘happy (ὄλβιος) is the mortal on earth who has seen them, but the uninitiated in the rites or the one who has no share in them never has the same lot once dead in the nether world darkness.’49 In the Frogs, ἐποπτεύειν once appears in the sense of ‘being entranced’ (745), and the sun shines over those who have been initiated and behave piously.50 Plato also explains this happy state as a metaphor for ‘virtuous.’51 Τwo different criteria appear thus to be necessary to attain happiness, initiation and piety.52
Torches as lighting implements are related to the emergence of light and to the mystic illumination in darkness.53 Plutarch alludes to this contrast as he compares the initiation of a young philosopher to that of a Mystes, their mood changing as they see a great light (μέγα φῶς).54 In a fragment usually connected with the search of Kore, Plutarch states that at the moment of death, the soul (psyche) suffers in the same way as do the initiated in the Mysteries. After wanderings through the darkness, ‘a marvellous light (φῶς τι θαυμάσιον) meets the wanderer.’55 Light appears during the wandering. In the same way, Lucian shows two men commenting on the obscurity in Hades (ζόφος), where everything is ‘invisible (ἀφανῆ) and submerged in the same darkness (σκότος).’56 One of them, initiated in the Mysteries, compares them to Hades; they then see the apparition of a torch-bearing woman. This would suggest torch-bearing figures, perhaps religious officials, meeting the initiates in the darkness.57
Although the particular moment when light intervened is unknown, the great fire is usually identified with the torch flare at the climax of the ceremony,58 referring to the white, bright nights when the anaktoron was opened.59 It implies the final revelation and the showing of the sacred objects as part of the vision of the mysteries while light erupts in the Telesterion.60 Leaving aside the obvious problem of the so-called sacred objects, even though τὰ ἱερά should sometimes be translated as ‘rites,’ and the question of their presence or exhibition during the key moments of the festival,61 the importance of light is clearly stated, wherever it came and whatever it showed.62
To turn to a different kind of evidence, marble torches that may be considered as offerings or as parts of sculptural decoration have been found both at Athens and Eleusis.63 As for the torches in the inventories, it is impossible to settle their nature. They might be listed among dining or cult equipment,64 and some sources mention the offering of torches during the Mysteries.65 Others seem to belong to the sanctuary: a law from the Athenian Eleusinion concerning the Mysteries states, among other prohibitions, that it is not permitted to take the torches away.66
Torches are the only lighting equipment appearing in the Hymn, and the actual ritual instruments are those held by the goddess.67 On vase paintings68 and Eleusinian monuments69 both goddesses may carry them. There is, however, no exclusive relationship between torches and the two goddesses, since other deities hold them as well.70 Lamps, that Athenaeus declared to be a recent invention compared to torches,71 could be part of the temple furniture, illuminating the cult statue.72 They are not mentioned in the texts referring to Demeter’s rituals. To explain their particular frequency in her sanctuaries,73 their function has been likened to that of torches, as being ‘another manifestation of this connexion of fire and light with the cult of Demeter.’74 We may notice however that they appear in various contexts, religious and secular,75 but not in that of the Mysteries. Moreover, they do not appear in vase paintings nor are they held by the figurines found in sanctuaries.
As for the ritual use of lamps, some types (one-or two-nozzled lamps) could have been fitted onto a stick and carried lit in processions,76 although this is a practice unknown in Eleusis. Otherwise, they are often found in fills and deposits from the sanctuaries along with various types of objects. They are usually considered as necessary equipment for nocturnal rites, and illumination is the only explanation of their great quantity found in sanctuaries.77 According to Eva Parisinou, the absence of appropriate shapes for this lighting device indicates that the offering was the light effect rather than the container.78 Some terra-cotta lamps indeed show traces of use, as would be expected if light was the main concern. The great number of lamps that do not bear these traces79 indicates that they did not necessarily have a lighting purpose. Merely their presence was sufficient to fulfill the role assigned to them, whatever this could be. Eva Parisinou attributes, on the other hand, a particular significance to multi-nozzled lamps because of their circular shape, suggesting that they had a cult purpose.80 However, in Eleusis where light has a noteworthy role, the most common type consists of the simple single-nozzled lamps,81 some bearing dedicatory graffiti.82 In addition, considering the variety of materials and shapes, from simple to multiple-nozzled lamps, the container appears to be significant.
Lamps have been found in ritual contexts, for example at San Biagio near Agrigento and at the ‘Santuario ctonio,’ in and around hollow altars.83 At Iasos, one-and two-nozzled lamps have been found in a hearth altar together with other offerings.84 At Eleusis, lamps had been thrown and thus consecrated in the pyres situated near the gates of the temple terrace.85
The lamps in the hollow altars were found along with a quantity of other material and thus did not have a specific position of their own. Their recurrent presence among sacrificial remains, banquet pottery and knives suggests their use during sacrifices and dinners.86 The lamps used to illuminate or required for the accomplishment of the rite87 were probably left in the sanctuary with other remains.88 Their ritual function can thus be equated with that of other finds, and their use did not solely consist in illumination.
The importance of light in the Mysteries is clearly stated in the sources even though we cannot precisely settle the moments of its appearance. But its explanation through aetiological and late sources leads to a tricky paradigm. The various forms of light in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter are mostly associated with the gods or with the progression of the plot, and cannot be used to denote the importance of light in the ritual. The use of the same myth for the aetiology of the Thesmophoria proves that it must be considered as a construction and used with caution. Although our sources are not sufficient to reconstruct the ritual, the luminous part of the ceremony inspired a mystic interpretation of the lighting equipment in the sanctuaries of Demeter. Torches convey an imaginary dimension, and their recurrent presence in the Mysteries rendered them a characteristic implement producing the distinctive flare of the festival. This dimension is presumably not comparable to that of lamps. Light is an image of the happiness of the initiates and of their pious behavior. Its symbolism is closely associated with the ‘most mystic air of torches’89 commemorating the goddesses’ deeds and does not seem to extend to other implements or festivals.
1. K. Clinton, Myth and Cult. The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The M.P. Nilsson Lectures on Greek Religion, delivered 19–21 November 1990 at the Swedish Institute at Athens (Stockholm, 1992), 28ff.
2. A. Suter, The Narcissus and the Pomegranate. An Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Ann Arbor, 2002), 5.
3. N. J. Richardson, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Oxford, 1974), 22–23. For a summary, cf. C. Calame, “L’ hymne homérique à Déméter comme offrande: regard rétrospectif sur quelques catégories de l’anthropologie de la religion grecque,” Kernos 10 (1997): 120; J. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus. Form and meaning in the major homeric hymns (Princeton, New Jersey, 1989), 203ff.
4. Richardson, Demeter, 207, 252.
5. Richardson, Demeter, 232ff.
6. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 233ff.
7. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 236.
8. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 261.
9. T. W. Allen, W. R. Halliday, and E. E. Sikes, The Homeric Hymns (Oxford, 1936, repr. 1980), 118, consider the Hymn as ‘the most ancient document bearing on the Eleusinian mysteries.’ Also, Richardson, Demeter, 165, followed by A. C. Brumfield, The Attic Festivals of Demeter and their Relation to the agricultural Year (New York, 1981), 200. Contra, K. Clinton, “The Author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter,” OAth 16 (1986): 43, whose expression I use here. He notices that the Hymn does not even mention the name of the Mysteries, or those of the deities such as used by the Athenians, and that it does not assign Triptolemos, Eumolpos and the Kerykes the particular role and status they have in other sources. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 231, explains these treatments as a means of deemphasizing of local cult in the interest of a broader Pan-Hellenic perspective.
10. Homeric Hymn to Demeter 40–42. Also 182–83, 319, 360, 442. As H.P. Foley (ed.), The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Translation, Commentary and Interpretive Es- says (Princeton, New Jersey, 1994), 37, observes, ‘dark clothing was not exclusively associated with mourning the dead… it may suggest vengeful wrath as well.’
11. Hekate: 25, 438; Rhea: 459. For the motif of the κρήδεμνον, cf. C. Segal, “Orality, Repetition and Formulaic Artistry in the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter,” in I poemi epici rapsodici non omerici e la tradizione orale. Atti del convegno di Venezia 28–30 settembre 1977, ed. C. Brillante, M. Cantilena and C. O. Pavese (Padova, 1981), 135ff.
12. See also Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 337, 402, 446, 464.
13. See also Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 398, 415.
14. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 232.
15. See also Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 396, 468.
16. For example, a place on the Eleusinian bay was called ‘Torches’ (Soph. O.C. 1048). Could the name really ‘allude to the procession with torches,’ as J. C. Kamerbeek, The Plays of Sophocles, VII. The Oedipus Coloneus (Leiden, 1984), 149, confirms? One should also notice that the French translation of P. Mazon (CUF) refers to the ‘torches saintes.’
17. Richardson, Demeter, 165–67.
18. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 217, n. 60, for examples in the epic. Foley, Demeter, 37, associates the duration with rites of transition.
19. Richardson, Demeter, 166 for instances of ἐννῆμαρ μὲν... δεκάτη δέ.
20. E. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods. The Role of Light in Archaic and Classical Greek Cult (Duckworth, 2000), 61.
21. Apollod. Bibl. I. iv. 5.
22. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 217.
23. For the association of light with fire, cf. C. Mugler, “La lumière et la vision dans la poésie grecque,” REG 73 (1960): 44.
24. The expression concerns Achilles in Apollon. Rh. Argon. IV. 869–70 and Apollod. Bibl. III. 13. 6. Cf. also the story of Isis nursing the son of the king of Byblos, Plut. Isid. 357 a, and the death of Herakles on the pyre at Oeta, cf. Diod. Sic. Bibl. IV. 38. 3ff. Fire could release the divine part in man, cf. Iamb. Myst. 5. 12. 4.
25. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 226.
26. Hom. Hymn Dem. 263 (τιμὴ ἄφθιτος).
27. For example Richardson, Demeter, 165–68.
28. G. E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (Princeton, New Jersey, 1961), 232; K. Clinton, The Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries (TAPhS, 64, 3, Philadelphia, 1974), 68. Another official was called pyrphoros, ‘bearer of fire’; cf. Clinton, The Sacred Officials, 94–95; P. Roussel, “Un nouveau document concernant le génos des Κήρυκες,” AIPhO 2 (1934): 819–34. His function was probably to maintain the sacrificial fire of altars and hearths.
29. Aristoph. Frogs 340–52, 445–46; Eurip. Ion 1074–80. As Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus, 203 notices, it is unlikely that the all-night vigil held by thewomen of the house of Keleos to propitiate the angry goddess is related to the pan- nyuchis at Eleusis (cf. Richardson, Demeter, 256).
30. A. Motte, “Nuit et lumière dans les Mystères d’Éleusis,” in Symbolisme et ex- périence de la lumière dans les grandes religions. Actes du colloque tenu à Luxem- bourg du 29 au 31 mars 1996, ed. J. Ries and C.-M. Ternes (Homo Religiosus II 1, 2002), 92.
31. A. M. Bowie, Aristophanes. Myth, Ritual and Comedy (Cambridge, 1993), 229.
32. Clem. Al. Protr. II. 12. 2. In another passage (II. 20. 1) he refers to the prohibition against the initiates of imitating the goddess by sitting at a well.
33. Lact. Epit. 18. 7. Elsewhere (Inst. I. 21. 24), he points out the fact that because Ceres, after having her torches lit in the craters of Aetna, sought for her daughter in Sicily (cf. also Diod. Sic. Bibl. V. 4. 3), her mysteries are celebrated by waving lit torches.
34. C. Sourvinou-Inwood, “Festival and Mysteries. Aspects of the Eleusinian Cult,” in Greek Mysteries. The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults, ed. M. B. Cosmopoulos (London, New York, 2003), 31.
35. Ovid, Fasti IV. 493–494, states explicitly the connection between Demeter’s torch in the myth and the use of torches in rituals. Tert. Nat. II. 7, refers to the abduction of the priestess of Ceres, ‘because Ceres suffered the same thing.’ If he is suggesting imitation, it is because he accuses pagans of putting faith in the poets and arranging their rituals according to the poems. Cf. also Greg. Naz. Or. 39. 4.
36. K. Dowden, “Grades in the Eleusinian Mysteries,” RHR 197 (1980): 426.
37. L. Moulinier, Le pur et l’impur dans la pensée et la sensibilité des Grecs jusqu’à la fin du IVe s. av. J.-C. (Paris, 1950), 131.
38. E. Parisinou, “Artificial Illumination in Greek Cult Practice of the Archaic and the Classical Periods: Mere Practical Necessity?,” Thetis 4 (1997): 102; S. Eitrem, Opferritus und Voropfer der Griechen und Römer (Hildesheim, 1915, repr. New York, 77), 178ff; L. Deubner, Attische Feste (Berlin, 1932), 78. Indeed the ‘purifying fire’ was part of many ceremonies, cf. Eurip. Hel. 869; Herak. 937.
39. Aristoph. Frogs 340.
40. The preliminary purification rites are identified on the Torre Nova sarcophagus. The central scene shows presumably Herakles, barefoot, seated on a stool over which a lion’s skin is draped, his head covered by a cloak, and a female figure standing behind him with lowered torches, cf. Mylonas, Eleusis, 207, fig. 84; D. Jordan, “Two descriptions of myêsis,” in Myth and Symbol, II. Symbolic phenomena in an- cient Greek culture, ed. Synnøve des Bouvrie. Papers from the second and third international symposia on symbolism at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, September 21–24, 2000 and September 19–22, 2002 (Bergen, 2004), 243, for the Lovatelli urn. Although the scene is always recognized as representing the purification ritual, we may also consider it as the admission of the candidate to a new status ‘by raising him up from his humble posture,’ cf. R. Parker, Miasma. Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford, 1983), 285.
41. Allen, Halliday, and Sikes, The Homeric Hymns, 137, ad dem 48, think of stimulating the warmth necessary for the crops by the use of fire.
42. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 124ff.
43. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 62ff.
44. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 65.
45. Hesych. s.v. γεφυρίς, γεφυρισταί.
46. Lact. Epit. 18 (23). 7. Cf. Foley, Demeter, 38.
47. Aristoph. Frogs 154, 312. Torchlight dances also took place during the Thesmophoria, cf. Thesm. 101–103, 280–81, 1150–52.
48. Aristoph. Frogs 145–58.
49. Hom. Hymn Dem. 480–82. For the translation of ὄλβιος as ‘happy,’ cf. P. Lévêque, “Ὄλβιος et la félicité des initiés,” in Rayonnement grec. Hommages à Charles Delvoye, ed. L. Hadermann-Misguich and G. Raepsaet (Bruxelles, 1982), 113–26.
50. Frogs 455–57. For the association of the happy with the virtuous, cf. K. Dover, “The limits of allegory and allusion in Aristophanes,” in Law, Rhetoric, and Comedy in Classical Athens. Essays in Honor of Douglas M. MacDowell, ed. D. L. Cairns and R. A. Knox (Swansea, 2004), 247. Cf. also Diod. Sic. Bibl. I. 96. 5.
51. Plato, Phaedo 69 c.
52. The importance of ritual can be inferred from the objections brought against initiation by Diogenes the Cynic, cf. Diog. Laert. Lives of em. phil. VI. 39.
53. Foley, Demeter, 38, asserts that all three associations, illumination, fertility rite and purification are possible in the case of the Hymn.
54. Plut. Progress in virtue 81 E.
55. Plut. fr. 178 (Sandbach). According to Mylonas, Eleusis, 265, the fragment should not be connected with the Eleusinian Mysteries, since we cannot know where assumption ends and where reality begins. F. Graf, Eleusis und die orphische Dich- tung Athens in vorhellenistischer Zeit (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorar- beiten, 33, Berlin, New York, 1974), 135, argues convincingly that there is no comparison between the dead and the initiates, but rather a description of the dead using the Eleusinian imagery.
56. Lucian, Kataplous 22.
57. Sourvinou-Inwood, “Festival and Mysteries,” 33–34.
58. Richardson, Demeter, 27. The Thesmophoria also include light and revelation of orgia. Aristophanes pictures the devotion of the Athenian women raising the orgia (Thesm. 948) shown by the light of torches (1150–52), once qualified as hierai (101). Orgia may also mean ‘sacred objects,’ cf. A. Motte and V. Pirenne-Delforge, “Le mot et les rites. Aperçu des significations de Ὄργα et de quelques dérivés,” Kernos 5 (1992): 124ff.
59. IG II2, 3811, l. 1–2 (A.D. 215–220; Clinton, Eleusis, n° 637); cf. also Clinton, Eleusis, n° 585.
60. Cf. Clem. Al. Protr. II. 22. 7.
61. C. Brechet, “À la recherche des objets sacrés d’Éleusis: langage et mystères,” in Objets sacrés, objets magiques de l’Antiquité au Moyen Age, ed. C. Delattre (Paris, 2007), 30, points out the difficulty of considering τὰ ἱερά, in most literary testimonia, as objects, and the improbable character of the construction concerning the hierophant showing these objects at the climax of the festival.
62. For the displayed mysterion being an ear of corn, cf. Hippol. Ref. omn. haer. V. 8. 39ff, or a phallos, cf. Tert. Valent. 1. Clem. Al. Protr. II. 22. 4, describes the secret objects contained in the mystic kistai, various cakes and food along with the symbols of Themis.
63. M. M. Miles, The City Eleusinion. The Athenian Agora 31 (Princeton, New Jersey, 1998), 68; Mylonas, Eleusis, 204. The terra-cotta torches and torch-holders found at Troizen were probably offerings, found among various objects and small lamps, some of which bear traces of use, cf. Ph.-E. Legrand, “Antiquités de Trézène. Notes de topographie,” BCH 29 (1905): 302; V. Hinz, Der Kult von Demeter und Kore auf Sizilien und in der Magna Graecia. Palilia 4 (Wiesbaden, 1998), 32, n. 134, 198, n. 1178, about crossed torches of sheet bronze at Santa Maria d’Anglona, with a dedicatory inscription to Demeter; 197, n. 1164, for crossed torches painted on vases at Oria near Tarant.
64. IG II2, 1541 (356/5), a torch-holder (l. 15: λαμπαδεῖον) appears among baskets (l. 8: κανᾶ), strainers and small pots (l. 9: ἠθμοί, χυτρίδια μικρά), a bowl for the blood (l. 11: σφαγεῖον), iron lamps (l. 18: λυχνεῖα σιδηρᾶ), small spits (l. 19: ὀβελίσκοι). IG II2, 1543 (337/6), is a list with the same types of objects, among which a torch-holder (l. 17). A cult calendar from Miletus, dated before 500, mentions a λαμπάς and a δᾷδα among the offerings, probably destined to Dionysus (?), cf. LSAM, 41, l. 4–5. According to Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 137, the term λαμπάς must have described torches of a solid type, set into a form of stand, or more simply a torchholder. Δαΐς would have been a simpler variety.
65. Theophr. Char. iii. 4: δᾷδα ἔστησεν.
66. K. Clinton, “A Law in the City Eleusinion concerning the Mysteries,” Hespe- ria 49 (1980): 265, B a, l. 10 (Clinton, Eleusis, n° 138): μ[ή]δ΄ ἑλεῖν ἐξεῖναι δᾶιδ[α. Clinton (“A Law in the City Eleusinion,” 286) comments that the initiates carried torches during the festival, but the prohibition probably pertains to the sanctuary possessions. At the Thesmophoria torches appear also as cult implements, for instance at Cholargos where the two archousai give to the priestess various food ingredients and a torch (δᾶιδ[α); cf. IG II2, 1184 (= LSS, 124, middle of the 4th c. B.C.), l. 15.
67. Paus. Per. II. 22. 3 notes that lit torches were thrown into a bothros in honor of Kore at Argos.
68. Cf. H. Metzger, “Sur la valeur de l’attribut dans l’interprétation de certaines figures du monde éleusinien,” in ΕΙΔΩΛΟΠΟΙΙΑ. Actes du colloque sur les problèmes de l’image dans le monde méditerranéen classique, ed. E. Giraud (Rome, 1985), 173–178.
69. Mylonas, Eleusis, 167.
70. Parisinou, “Artificial illuminations,” 102, mentions Artemis, Hekate and Themis.
71. Athen. Deipn. XV. 700 E.
72. Parisinou, “Artificial Illumination,” 17ff. It is especially the case of marble lamps.
73. Parisinou, “Artificial Illumination,” 13ff and 139–45 mentions the sanctuaries of Eleusis, Acrocorinth, Malophoros, Predio Sola and Bitalemi at Gela, Agrigento; cf. also C. G. Simon, The Archaic Votive Offerings and Cults of Ionia, Ph. D. (University of California, 1986), 337ff .
74. Simon, Ionia, 337. M. P. Nilsson, “Lampen und Kerzen im Kult der Antike,” Opusc. archaeol. 6 (1950): 110, concluding this article, the first one to demonstrate the extensive use of lighting in cult, wrote that in the Classical period lamps were only offerings; he related their great number in the sanctuaries of Demeter to the cultual significance of light in her festivals. He also called attention to other fire-carriers, such as kernoi and amphiphontes. Even though the main use of kernoi was not illumination, a scholion to Nicander (Alex. 217) seems to have influenced these interpretations (for example R.H. Howland, Greek Lamps and their Survivals. The Athenian Agora 4 (Princeton, New Jersey, 1958), 52, n° 191.
75. Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazousae opens with a hymn to the lamp Praxagora is carrying. The ‘bright eye’ fit the sun seeing everything, model for the eye (Aristoph. Thesm. 17), and v. 5 is explicit: ‘you perform the bright duties of the sun.’ These verses refer to an erotic interior and have no mysteric or religious connection. Cf. Bowie, Aristophanes, 255.
76. Parisinou, “Artificial illuminations,” 100; Howland, Greek Lamps, 24.
77. Parisinou, “Artificial illuminations,” 95–96.
78. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 19, 140.
79. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 140, 143.
80. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 196, n. 20. She also assigns strong solar connotations to circular radiant lamps although she does not speak directly of sun-symbolism. These lamps are conventionally called ‘sanctuary lamps,’ defining thus a specific type, the oversize corona with multiple nozzles (Howland, Greek Lamps, 128ff, type 41), rather than describing a ritual purpose.
81. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 141.
82. Κ. Κόκκου Βoριδή, Πρώιμες πυρὲς θυσιῶν στὸ Τελεστήριο τῆς Ἐλευσῖνος
(Αθήνα, 1999), 93; G 27–28.
83. San Biagio (miniature and multiple-nozzled lamps): P. Marconi, Agrigento arcaica. Il santuario delle divinità chtonie e il tempio detto di Vulcano (Rome, 1933), 66–67; “Santuario ctonio”: Hinz, Der Kult von Demeter, 84.
84. D. Levi, “Gli scavi di Iasos,” ASAA 45–46 (1967–1968): 569, fig. 39.
85. One of them bore traces of use. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 149, notices that ‘a limited number of fragments seem to bear traces of burning on their broken sides, while some single-nozzled plain flat-based lamps from the site are burnt on their undersides, suggesting that they were placed on hot ashes, possibly after use.’ For the ritual held at the pyres, cf. I. Patera, “Vestiges sacrificiels et vestiges d’offrandes dans les purai d’Éleusis,” in Le sacrifice antique. Vestiges, procédures et stratégies, ed. P. Brulé and V. Mehl (Rennes, 2008), 13–25.
86. On Acrocorinth, for example, lamps have been found in the banqueting halls and in the sacrificial area. Lamps from the Eleusinian inventories seem to be listed with items belonging to dining rooms, cf. M. B. Cavanaugh, Eleusis and Athens. Documents in Finance, Religion and Politics in the Fifth Century B.C. (Atlanta, 1996), 185, for IG I3, 386 (408/7), col. III, l. 142; IG I3, 387 (407/4), col. III, l. 167: λυχ[νείο σιδερό]; cf. also IG II2, 1541 (356/5), l. 18.
87. Τhe sacred law of the sanctuary of Despoina at Lykosoura requires a lamp for the sacrificial ritual (IG V 2, 514 = LSCG, 68, l. 16: λυχνίοις).
88. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods, 145, 198, n. 53.
89. Aristoph, Frogs, 313–14.
Allen, T. W., W. R. Halliday and E. E. Sikes, The Homeric Hymns. Oxford, 1936, repr. 1980.
Bowie, A. M. Aristophanes. Myth, Ritual and Comedy. Cambridge, 1993.
Brechet, C. “À la recherche des objets sacrés d’Éleusis: langage et mystères,” Pp. 23–51 in Objets sacrés, objets magiques de l’Antiquité au Moyen Age, edited by C. Delattre . Paris, 2007.
Brumfield, A. C. The Attic Festivals of Demeter and their Relation to the agricultural Year. New York, 1981.
Calame, C. “L’ hymne homérique à Déméter comme offrande: regard rétrospectif sur quelques catégories de l’anthropologie de la religion grecque,” Kernos 10 (1997): 111–33.
Cavanaugh, M. B. Eleusis and Athens. Documents in Finance, Religion and Politics in the Fifth Century B.C. Atlanta, 1996.
Clinton, K. The Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries. TAPhS 64, 3. Philadelphia, 1974.
———. “A law in the City Eleusinion concerning the Mysteries,” Hesperia 49 (1980): 258–88.
———. “The Author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter,” OAth 16 (1986): 43–49.
———. Myth and Cult. The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The M.P. Nils- son Lectures on Greek Religion, delivered 19–21 November 1990 at the Swedish Institute at Athens. Stockholm, 1992.
———. Eleusis. The Inscriptions on Stone. Documents of the Sanctuary of the Two Goddesses and Public Documents of the Deme. Athens, 2005. Deubner, L. Attische Feste. Berlin, 1932.
Dover, K. “The limits of allegory and allusion in Aristophanes,” Pp. 239–249 in Law, Rhetoric, and Comedy in Classical Athens. Essays in Honor of Douglas M. Mac- Dowell, edited by D. L. Cairns and R. A. Knox. Swansea, 2004.
Dowden, K. “Grades in the Eleusinian Mysteries,” RHR 197 (1980): 409–427.
Eitrem, S. Opferritus und Voropfer der Griechen und Römer. Hildesheim, 1915, repr. New York, 1977.
Foley, H. P. (ed.) The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Translation, Commentary and In- terpretive Essays. Princeton, New Jersey, 1994.
Graf, F. Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens in vorhellenistischer Zeit. Reli- gionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten 33. Berlin, New York, 1974.
Hinz, V. Der Kult von Demeter und Kore auf Sizilien und in der Magna Graecia. Palilia 4. Wiesbaden, 1998.
Howland, R. H. Greek Lamps and their Survivals. The Athenian Agora 4. Princeton, New Jersey, 1958.
Jordan, D. “Two descriptions of myêsis,” Pp. 243–278 in Myth and Symbol, II. Sym- bolic phenomena in ancient Greek culture, edited by Synnøve des Bouvrie. Papers from the second and third international symposia on symbolism at the Norwegian institute at Athens, September 21–24, 2000 and September 19–22, 2002. Bergen, 2004.
Kamerbeek, J. C. The Plays of Sophocles, VII. The Oedipus Coloneus. Leiden, 1984.
Κόκκου Βυριδή, Κ. Πρώιμες πυρὲς θυσιῶν στὸ Τελεστήριο τῆς Ἐλευσῖνος. Αθήνα, 1999.
Legrand, Ph.-E. “Antiquités de Trézène. Notes de topographie,” BCH 29 (1905): 269–318.
Leveque, P. Ὄλβιος et la félicité des initiés,” Pp. 113–126 in Rayonnement grec. Hommages à Charles Delvoye, edited by L. Hadermann-Misguich and G. Raepsaet. Bruxelles, 1982.
Levi, D. “Gli scavi di Iasos,” ASAA 45–46 (1967–1968): 537–90.
Marconi, P. Agrigento arcaica. Il santuario delle divinità chtonie e il tempio detto di Vulcano. Rome, 1933.
Metzger, H. “Sur la valeur de l’attribut dans l’interprétation de certaines figures du monde éleusinien,” Pp. 173–78 in ΕΙΔΩΛΟΠΟΙΙΑ. Actes du colloque sur les problèmes de l’image dans le monde méditerranéen classique , edited by E. Giraud. Rome, 1985.
Miles, M. M. The City Eleusinion. The Athenian Agora 31. Princeton, New Jersey, 1998.
Motte, A. “Nuit et lumière dans les Mystères d’Éleusis,” Pp. 91–104 in Symbolisme et expérience de la lumière dans les grandes religions. Actes du colloque tenu à
Luxembourg du 29 au 31 mars 1996, edited by J. Ries and C.-M. Ternes (Homo Religiosus II, 1). 2002.
Motte, A. and V. Pirenne-Delforge, “Le mot et les rites. Aperçu des significations de ὄργα et de quelques dérivés,” Kernos 5 (1992): 119–40.
Moulinier, L. Le pur et l’impur dans la pensée et la sensibilité des Grecs jusqu’à la fin du IVe s. av. J.-C. . Paris, 1950.
Mugler, C. “La lumière et la vision dans la poésie grecque,” REG 73 (1960): 40–72.
Mylonas, G. E. Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princeton, New Jersey, 1961.
Nilsson, M. P. “Lampen und Kerzen im Kult der Antike,” Opusc. archaeol. 6 (1950): 96–111.
Parisinou, E. “Artificial Illumination in Greek Cult Practice of the Archaic and the Classical Periods: Mere Practical Necessity?” Thetis 4 (1997): 95–108.
———. The Light of the Gods. The Role of Light in Archaic and Classical Greek Cult. London, 2000.
Parker, R. Miasma. Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion. Oxford, 1983.
Patera, I. “Vestiges sacrificiels et vestiges d’offrandes dans les purai d’Éleusis,” Pp. 13–25 in Le sacrifice antique. Vestiges, procédures et stratégies, edited by P. Brulé and V. Mehl. Rennes, 2008.
Richardson, N. J. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Oxford, 1974.
Roussel, P. “Un nouveau document concernant le génos des Κήρυκες,” AIPhO 2 (1934): 819–34.
Segal, C. “Orality, Repetition and Formulaic Artistry in the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter,” Pp. 107–60 in I poemi epici rapsodici non omerici e la tradizione orale. Atti del convegno di Venezia 28–30 settembre 1977, edited by C. Brillante, M. Cantilena and C. O. Pavese. Padova, 1981.
Simon, C. G. The Archaic Votive Offerings and Cults of Ionia, Ph. D., University of California, 1986 .
Sourvinou-Inwood, C. “Festival and Mysteries. Aspects of the Eleusinian Cult,”
Pp. 25–49 in Greek Mysteries. The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults, edited by M. B. Cosmopoulos. London, New York, 2003. Strauss Clay, J. The Politics of Olympus. Form and meaning in the major homeric hymns. Princeton, New Jersey, 1989.
Suter, A. The Narcissus and the Pomegranate. An Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Ann Arbor, 2002.