Orationes 19
Orationes 19 Imperial Aelius Aristides GreekO Eleusis, once long ago a sweeter thing for me to sing—what Orpheus, or Thamyris, or what Eleusinian dweller Musaeus will suffice for so great a matter? With what citharas or lyres shall the common fall, the common loss of the earth, be bewailed? What theme is this, O Zeus, that you have set before us? For even as I bring myself to the discourse I grow numb, and I turn back, and I am forced to say this one thing only, that I cannot keep silent. For who of the Greeks or of the barbarians is so dull or so deaf, or who is so utterly outside the earth or the gods, or—to put it in a word—so insensible of fair things, except those most wretchedly doomed who did these deeds, that he did not consider Eleusis to be a common sanctuary of the earth, and, of all things divine for men, at once the most awe-inspiring and the most radiant? What other of places or of legends have report and rumour hymned more marvellously, or what had a greater amazement in its rites, or more came to be a match,
for the ears, in the things that were seen? How many things worthy of beholding have countless generations of blessed men and women seen, in the unspeakable visions! But what poets and tellers of tales and all the historians hymn into the public hearing is this: that the daughter of Demeter became invisible for a certain time, and that Demeter went over all the earth and the sea seeking her daughter; and that for a while she was not able to find her, but, coming to Eleusis, gave the name to the place, and, having found her daughter, established the mysteries; and that the grain came to the Athenians from the two goddesses, and from the Athenians to the Greeks and the barbarians; —and with these Celeus and Metaneira and Triptolemus are named, and the winged chariots of serpents borne over all the earth and sea;— and that of strangers the first to be initiated were Heracles and the Dioscuri, and that a gymnastic contest was first held at Eleusis in Attica, and that the prize was of the fruit that had appeared, while men made trial how much they had advanced in strength from the cultivated nourishment; and that the Greeks too bring first-fruits of their crops on each occasion to Athens, as to the mother-city both of themselves and of the crops, to the city of the Athenians. And the Eumolpidae and the Heralds, tracing their descent to Poseidon and to Hermes, furnished the one the hierophants, the other the torch-bearers.
And the things belonging to legend are such. But for what came later: when the Heraclidae had returned to the Peloponnese and time had passed, the Dorians campaigned against Athens. And when they came to Eleusis, being put to shame—or, if one must say it, also afraid—they departed and went off by the same road. And that movement of theirs then settled Ionia among us. And when the Median armament came, and they had seized the greatest affairs and dangers, controlling not only Greece but all that was outside
the Persian dominion, many of the temples among the Greeks were burned, and besides, the summit of Greece, the city of the Athenians; but to Eleusis there was so great an abundance that not only did it survive unsacked, so to speak, but, as the naval battle was joining, Iacchus went forth to take part in the sea-fight, and a cloud, setting out from Eleusis and rising high above the ships, swooped down upon the ships of the barbarians together with the mystic chant. And Xerxes, struck with panic, fled, and the affairs of the Medes were destroyed. And when war befell the Greeks against one another, a great war, and all things were turned upside down, Eleusis alone, in a certain way, was at peace; and neither the cavalry of the Boeotians nor the invasions of the Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians touched its precinct, nor did they see the temple with eyes other than was fitting. Again, when Sphodrias afterward set out from Thebes, the torches, appearing, sufficed to quench his daring. Again, the other truces were transgressed: now, during the Pythian games, the Cadmeia was seized; now, to the Isthmian games, the Argives led the same sacred embassy, and the Corinthians led it, the one party mastering the other by arms. And the battle at the Alpheus I pass over in silence, except in so far as here too a token not slight stood forth from Zeus—the daring and victory of those who were being robbed. But the mystery-truces alone preserved the name, and for the Eleusinians alone Greece was in health. And most clearly this festival was a purgation both of madnesses and of every absurd disaster. And why need one go through each thing in detail? But Philips and Alexanders and Antipaters and all that catalogue of the later dynasts, though they stirred up countless of the affairs among the Greeks, considered Eleusis alone truly something untrodden and stronger than themselves. And I pass over the Celts who last burst in revel upon Greece, and whatever such thing one might add: in all these the sanctuary escaped unharmed.
This alone, then, was left as a memorial both of the ancient prosperity and at the same time of the august dignity, both to the city and to Greece. For sea-battles and land-battles and laws and constitutions and high spirits and tongues and all things, so to speak, had failed, but the mysteries held out. Again, the other festivals are filled up every fifth and every third year, but that of the mysteries alone prevailed to be of every year. And the greatest and most divine thing: for this alone of festivals one house, gathering it in, contained, and the filling of the city and of the Eleusinian sanctuary were one and the same. As for the modelled figures and the paintings and this ornament all round, who would not have been gladdened seeing it even at the crossroads, much less when he saw it as an addition to the more august things? But indeed the gain of the festival was not so much as the present good cheer, nor the releases and deliverances from the difficulties of the former time, but also to hold sweeter hopes about death, that one will pass on better, and will not lie in darkness and mire, which indeed await the uninitiated. These things, then, until the cruel day; but what the deity has now handed over for us to see and to hymn—what Argive dirge, what singers of the Egyptians or Phrygians shall be commensurate? What Eleusinian Aeschylus shall sing to the chorus? What "fire-fraught snares of Nauplius," as Sophocles said, is it worth comparing to this conflagration? O torches, by what manner of men you were quenched! O dread and lightless day, that took away the light-bearing nights! O fire, in what manner you appeared at Eleusis, in what manner instead of what! O cloud and gloomy darkness, that now hold Greece! O Demeter, who long ago found your daughter there, but now it remains for you to seek the temple! And indeed the mysteries are approaching, O earth and gods. But this Boedromion now needs another cry, not such as when Ion came to the aid of Athens. O proclamation, O catalogue of the sacred days and nights,
to what a day you have come at last! For which is it worth groaning the more? For the uninitiated, or for the initiated? For the one have been robbed of what they saw, the others of the fairest things which they had to see. O you who have danced out the mysteries in evil fashion! O you who have shown forth the unshown, common enemies of the gods below the earth and above the earth! O you who, long ago indeed and now in very truth, are children, you Greeks, who looked on while so great an evil drew near! Will you not, O marvellous men, now at least be something in your own selves? Will you not at least preserve Athens itself?