Triptolemos, The Hero Of Eleusis, And Demeter, The Earth-Mother

Twelve miles to the west of Athens is a beautiful hill which ends abruptly close to the sea. It is the acropolis or highest point of Eleusis and is covered with splendid blocks of marble, the ruins of wonderful temples which stood there in ancient times. The greatest of these temples was called The Temple of the Mysteries. Demeter, the Earth-Mother, was worshipped there.

The principal road leading to the acropolis of Eleusis begins at the acropolis at Athens and is called The Sacred Way. Over this road, thousands of years ago, went the stately processions of loose-robed Greeks, their beautiful garments fluttering in the winds. Their heavy chariot-wheels left deep prints in the rocks, and there they are at the present time. There are ruins of temples to the gods along The Sacred Way, and the little lambs and kids skip playfully about among them.

A narrow pass between the hills admits you into a flowery meadow. It was here that Persephone played when a child. There are two salt lakes in the plain in which only priests were allowed to fish in the olden times. There, too, is a well where you stop for a cup of water as people have done through the long ages.

The plain of Eleusis is separated from Attica by a range of low hills clad with fields of wheat and barley. At the foot of the acropolis is the sickly little village of Eleusis, but the Island of Salamis rises across the blue waters of the bay like a fairyland shining through a delicate atmosphere of violet tint. This was the kingdom of Keleos and his son Triptolemos, the Hero of Agriculture, and it was the scene of the story of Demeter and Persephone, the story which brings us to the Hero of Eleusis.

It is said that Kronos and Rhea were the father and mother of the greatest of the gods, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades or (Pluto) and their sister Demeter, the mother of fertility. Though men might plough the fields and the rain moisten the swelling seed-grains, it was Demeter who gave the vital touch which caused the new life to spring up.

Demeter had one beloved daughter, Persephone, on whom she bestowed all the tenderness of her divine mother-heart. One day Persephone went out into the blooming meadows to play with her companions. The fields were gay with roses, violets, and lilies. The yellow crocus, the asphodel, and the purple and pink narcissus made bank and by-path seem like a soft carpet and filled the air with sweet fragrance.

Persephone stooped to pluck a flower of unusual beauty, when the earth suddenly opened and Hades appeared with a splendid chariot drawn by fiery black horses. He seized Persephone, and placing her on his chariot, drove away to his kingdom under the earth. Persephone uttered piercing cries, praying to the gods and imploring men to come to her rescue. But all in vain. Zeus looked on with approval, for he knew that his good brother ought not to be condemned to reign alone in the dread realms of darkness.

Now there was a goddess of the night, a torch-bearer who lived in a dark cave. Her name was Hekate and she knew the secrets of lonely forests and cross-roads and the gloomy underground world. She heard the shrieks of the maiden when Hades seized her; and Helios, too, the sun-god who sees everything, saw him bear her away.

The mother, Demeter, also, heard the cries of her daughter, and an unspeakable grief took possession of her. She wandered from place to place, taking neither food nor sleep, beseeching everyone to tell her where she could find her child. But no one could give her any information. She yoked her winged snakes to her car and drove with lighted torch through every country. Wherever she went she was received gladly by the people, for she stopped to teach them something of agriculture and left her blessing with them when she departed.