Saturday, June 17, 2017

Eleusis and Corinth

Our group in front of the archaic temple of Apollo at Corinth
The second of these sites may be familiar to many of you, but the first is probably not, unless you are a classicist or really interested in ancient mystery religions. Still, both we great sites to visit and so much easier to handle than sites in Athens, which is a busy, often difficult city in which half of the entire population of Greece lives.

As is required by Greek law for formal tours, we needed to have a Greek guide. Her name was Sophia Gridaki, and she was very good. She is a trained archaeologist and a licensed guide. She was happy to have me make comments as we visited sites, and we worked quite well together.


Elesusis


The remains of the ancient city of Eleusis have been engulfed by the modern industrial center of Elefsina. As a result, only with difficulty can we imagine that this was once a medium-sized Greek town used to site in the fertile agrarian area of the Thriasian Plain. In the early Archaic Period, Eleusis was an independent city-state, but neighboring Athens conquered it and incorporated it, and its important religious shrine, into greater Attica.

Caryatid (column in the form of a woman) portraying either Demeter or her daughter Persephone. Eric Huntsman © 2017 for educational purposes only.

The all-important Earth Mother Goddess was worshiped at Eleusis since early in the Bronze Age. After the Mycenean Period, she was assimilated with the Greek goddess Demeter, the patron of grain and fertility. Her worship here was different than most other forms of Greek worship, which focused on sacrifice outside of a temple (which was mostly the "house" of the cult statue) and took the form of offerings, part of which were burnt on the altar in front of the temple so the smoke could ascend to the gods and the rest roasted or boiled and eaten as part of a communal sacred meal.

Kaitlyn and Rachel in front of the Eschara, or place of chthonic sacrifices. We had read an article in ANES 332 last fall about the archaeology of this site and how piglets were sacrificed here.
Here, however, the fertility aspects of Demeter's cult mandated chthonic (from the Greek chthonos for "earth") sacrifice, where the blood of sacrifice was poured into a sacrificial pit so that it could seep down down to the Underworld deities that governed the cycle of birth, life, death, and potentially rebirth. In addition, rather than being a civic cult where worship guaranteed the prosperity of the community as a whole in this life, Demeter's Eleusinian worship aimed at individual salvation, or a better condition in the next life.

The sacred well by which Demeter was believed to have sat grieving as she searched the world for her abducted daughter, Persephone.
This worship was based upon the story of the abduction of Demeter's daughter Persephone by Hades, the god of the Underworld. This story is told in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which I had my students read before we came.  It tells of Demeter's search for her daughter and how she succeeded in having her return to the upper world for part of the year, which is spring and summer, while Persephone needed to return to Hades, her new husband, for the rest of the year, which is fall and winter. This myth is a metaphor for birth, death, and rebirth.

Like the worship of Isis, Osiris, and Horus in Egypt or a parallel system of Dionysus worship in Greece, this kind of after-life-focused-individual-cult took the form of a mystery religion where the story of the death and rebirth of a god together with special rituals prepared initiates for a happy life in the world to come.

Mysteria is a Greek word that means something like "the shut your mouth things" or the sacred and secret things known only to initiates. Because the ancients were better about preserving such sacred mysteries than many modern people are, we do not know that much about the Eleusinian Mysteries. In fact, most of what we know comes from later Christians and other opponents of the mysteries who were intent on portraying the mysteries in a negative light. Some ancient references, however, refer to "things done, things shown, and things said."

The entrance to the Underworld, in case you were wondering where it was.
 Some of the initiatory rites are better known. Potential initiates gathered in Athens to prepare themselves. They then began a religious procession along the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis (the modern road we took to Eleusis today actually followed that same route). There was fasting, a purifying bath of the initiates and their sacrifices in the sea, prayer, and special clothing. When they arrived at Eleusis, they entered the sacred precinct through the First Propylaea, or gateway, and sacrificed piglets in a sacred pit or chthonic altar. Only former or new initiates could pass through the Second Propylaea, where they passed the cave that represented the opening to the underworld. They then came to the Telesterion, which was the temple of Demeter and Persephone.



Unlike other Greek temples, where worshipers (other than the priests) usually remained outside, this was intended for initiates and initiated, which numbered as many as 3,000 at a time in the Roman period, to gather for the mysteries. Some scholars speculate that the mysteries consisted of a ritual drama where the story of Persephone was performed for the worshipers before they "saw and heard" the secrets that would grant them a blessed after life.

My students with Sophia, our local guide in the hat front left, in the corner of the Telesterion. In its largest form in the Roman period, it could hold over 3,000 worshipers who would gather to watch the mysteries.
 



Interesting, huh?

The Eleusis Archaeological Site also has a small museum that we spent some time in.

Giant geometric funerary vase (an entire body was placed in it!). The neck portrays the famous story of Odysseus and his men blinding the cyclops Polyphemus. Below the snake-headed Gorgons chase the hero Perseus for killing their sister Medusa. Eric Huntsman © 2017 for educational purposes only.
Demeter and Persephone flanking the figure of Triptolemus, whom they taught the art of cultivating and reaping grain. He may be a type of the initiate in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Eric Huntsman © 2017 for educational purposes only.

Model of the Telesterion in the Roman Period.
By the way, Sophia said that we were the first English-speaking group that she had brought to Eleusis. It just is not on most people's radar, but I am, well, really interested in religion.

The museum at Eleusis has a great view of Salamis. Told the story of the battle, especially Artemesia's role, with Xerxes' exclamation, "My men have become women, and my women have become men." It's all in Herodotus if you want to look it up.

Corinthian Canal, Cencherae, Lunch


We drove from Eleusis towards Corinth, crossing over the isthmus or "narrow neck of land" that connects central Greece with the Peloponnesus in the south. We made a stop along the way so that we could take pictures of the eighteenth century Corinthian Canal (with a ship coming through it). Nero tried to build one here in the first century but failed.


Next we made a brief stop at Cenchrea, the eastern port of Corinth, where the apostle Paul would have sailed in and out of Corinth (see Acts 18) and where the deaconess Phoebe lived (see Romans 16:1-2).


We then had lunch by the southeastern terminus of the canal by a funky bridge that submerges when a ship needs to pass.









Corinth

Corinth was the second largest city and often the commercial rival of Athens in the Archaic and Classical Periods. She was usually allied with Sparta, the strongest Greek land power (Athens was dominant on the sea) to counter the influence of her rival.  The city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C. but rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. At the time of Paul, it was a busy, rich, and worldly cosmopolitan center and the capital of the Roman province of Achaea. He spent 18 months here and established a large, but often fractious, Christian congregation.

We began our visit by driving up as far as we could on the the side of the Acrocorinth, the mountain citadel that overlooks the ancient city. The fortress of the Corinthians themselves in the Archaic and Classical Periods, it was garrisoned and held in succession by the Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Turks, Venetians, Turks again, and then the freedom fighters of modern Greece.

The Akrokorinth above the site of ancient Corinth.
Many of us then hiked as far as we could before it closed midafternoon. From here there are amazing views of the Gulf of Corinth to the north, the isthmus, the Saronic Gulf to the southeast, and Arcadia in the Peloponnese to the southwest.



We spent the rest of the afternoon in the archaeological site of Corinth, including a mini devotional about Paul at the site of his trial before the Roman governor Gallio. After a break, we went down to the theater, largely unexcavated, where we saw the site (and a replica) of the Erastus Inscription, which provides material evidence of a New Testament figure.

The archaic temple of Apollo, which survived many destructions of Corinth.


The synagogue inscription in the upper right, which is material evidence of the Jewish community here.


The students and Sophia in front of the bema, where Paul was tried before Gallio (see Acts 18).

A cast of the original Erastus Inscription, which documents in Latin the important career of a local Corinthian official who seems to be the same as the figure mentioned in Acts 19:22, Romans 16:23, and 2 Timothy 4:20.

So, that was quite a day, no?

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