Private Tour to Elefsina: Mysteries in Ancient times
Athens, Greece
Trip Type: Private Sightseeing Tours
Duration: 4 hours
During your stay in Athens, don’t lose the opportunity to discover Elfsina, a site not easy to reach by a tourist! Elefsina is world-famous for the Eleusinian Mysteries and it is also the birthplace of Aeschylus, one of the three great tragedians of antiquity.
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During your stay in Athens, don’t lose the opportunity to discover Elfsina, a site not easy to reach by a tourist! Elefsina is world-famous for the Eleusinian Mysteries and it is also the birthplace of Aeschylus, one of the three great tragedians of antiquity.Our guide and driver will pick up in the morning from your hotel and drive Northwest of Athens to reach Elefsina (Eleusis). We will follow the route of Iera Odos, a street that during ancient times connected Athens with Eleusina and later on was named Iera (Sacred) because the Greater Eleusinan Mysteries procession was passing by this road.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were performed every year in the honor of the goddess Dimitra. The Mysteries were based on a legend revolving around Demeter. Her daughter Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, the god of death and the underworld. Demeter was the goddess of life, agriculture and fertility. She neglected her duties while searching for her daughter; causing a dry season (summer in Greece) in which people starved - today, we associate this with the first winter. During this time Demeter taught the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemus. Finally Demeter was reunited with her daughter and the earth came back to life - the first spring. Persephone was unfortunately unable to stay permanently in the land of the living, because she had eaten six seeds of a pomegranate that Hades had given her. Those that eat the food of the dead may not return.
A compromise was worked out and Persephone stayed with Hades for one third of the year (winter, as the Greeks only recognized three seasons, skipping autumn) and with her mother the remaining eight months.The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated Persephone's return, for it was also the return of plants and of life to the earth. She had eaten the six pomegranate seeds (symbols of lives) while in the underworld (underground, like seeds in the winter) and her rebirth is therefore symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life during the spring and, by extension, all life on Earth.
Nowadays, in the archaeological site of Elefsina you will admire the Roman courtyard where is the temple of Artemis Propylaea, the remains of a fountain and two triumphal arches. Then you will enter to the precincts of the sanctuary of Greater Propylaea, next to which is preserved the Kallichoro Frear. Then passes from the Lesser Propylaea, having on the right the cave Ploutoneio and reaches the main temple of Demeter the Telesterion.
The biggest religious center during antiquity continues to hold the secret of the mysteries, which were attended even by slaves, children and women – a great show of democracy for the time. The figures of Demeter, Persephone and Cronus and the rites for the coming of spring continue to enchant visitors today, and it is even said that the spring’s first wildflowers appear in Elefsina before they do in any other part of Greece thanks to its privileged relationship with the gods.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were performed every year in the honor of the goddess Dimitra. The Mysteries were based on a legend revolving around Demeter. Her daughter Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, the god of death and the underworld. Demeter was the goddess of life, agriculture and fertility. She neglected her duties while searching for her daughter; causing a dry season (summer in Greece) in which people starved - today, we associate this with the first winter. During this time Demeter taught the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemus. Finally Demeter was reunited with her daughter and the earth came back to life - the first spring. Persephone was unfortunately unable to stay permanently in the land of the living, because she had eaten six seeds of a pomegranate that Hades had given her. Those that eat the food of the dead may not return.
A compromise was worked out and Persephone stayed with Hades for one third of the year (winter, as the Greeks only recognized three seasons, skipping autumn) and with her mother the remaining eight months.The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated Persephone's return, for it was also the return of plants and of life to the earth. She had eaten the six pomegranate seeds (symbols of lives) while in the underworld (underground, like seeds in the winter) and her rebirth is therefore symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life during the spring and, by extension, all life on Earth.
Nowadays, in the archaeological site of Elefsina you will admire the Roman courtyard where is the temple of Artemis Propylaea, the remains of a fountain and two triumphal arches. Then you will enter to the precincts of the sanctuary of Greater Propylaea, next to which is preserved the Kallichoro Frear. Then passes from the Lesser Propylaea, having on the right the cave Ploutoneio and reaches the main temple of Demeter the Telesterion.
The biggest religious center during antiquity continues to hold the secret of the mysteries, which were attended even by slaves, children and women – a great show of democracy for the time. The figures of Demeter, Persephone and Cronus and the rites for the coming of spring continue to enchant visitors today, and it is even said that the spring’s first wildflowers appear in Elefsina before they do in any other part of Greece thanks to its privileged relationship with the gods.
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