On the Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries are believed to be of considerable antiquity, deriving from religious practice of the Mycenaean period and thus predating the Greek Dark Ages. One line of thought by modern scholars has been that the Mysteries were intended "to elevate man above the human sphere into the divine and to assure his redemption by making him a god and so conferring immortality upon him." 

Comparative study shows parallels between these Greek rituals and similar systems — some of them older — in the Near East (see Religions of the Ancient Near East). These cults are the mysteries of Isis and Osiris in Egypt, the Adoniac of Syrian cults, the Persian mysteries, and the Phrygian Cabirian mysteries. Some scholars argued that the Eleusinian cult was a continuation of a Minoan cult, probably affected by the Near East.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

The word ‘cult’ in ancient times did not carry the pejorative overtones of today. It simply referred to the particular rites and worship customs dedicated to specific gods by the worshippers of that time and place.

The cult of the Two Goddesses, centered on the Greater Mysteries of Eleusis, was one of the longest lasting cults in history. Its origins stretch back into Mycenaean pre-history, and it endured until the late 4th century BCE. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of initiates took part in the ritual and witnessed the Mysteries, yet there is no record of any breaching the oath of silence surrounding what they experienced.