Chapter Nine, Lecture Two

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Chapter Nine, Lecture Two

• The Eleusinian Mysteries
• Ancient Parallels

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The Eleusinian Mysteries

• Mystês
• Initiates
• Forbidden to disclose what went on the in
  Telesterion
• Fall ceremony to promote the growth of grain
• Presided over by the Eumolpids
• The hierophant (hiera)

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The Eleusinian Mysteries

• All who could speak Greek and hadnt committed
  murder could participate in the eight day
  ceremony
• Inside the telesterion, a sacred building, the
  Anaktoron was the center of a performance and
  (perhaps) a light show
• Perhaps a reenactment of the Demeter/Korê myth

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The Eleusinian Mysteries

• Initiates not given immortality per se, but
  guaranteed a blessed afterlife
• Advanced no more doctrine
• Closed in the 4th century AD along with many
  other pagan centers

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Ancient Parallels
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Eastern Fertility Myths

• Babylonian Inanna and Dumuzi
• Egyptian Isis and Osiris
• Phrygian Cybele and Attis
• Aphrodite and Adonis

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Concepts to Observe

• Pattern of the dying divinity
• The grieving of the consort
• The quest
• Rebirth

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Inanna and Dumuzi

• Inanna goddess of sex and war
• Dumuzi her shepherd consort

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Inanna in the Underworld

• Inanna goes into the underworld to visit her
  sister Ereshkigal, the Queen of the underworld
• She must strip naked before she is allowed in
• Shes put on trial and condemned to death by the
  Annunaki gods hung on a hook as a piece of
  decaying meat

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Her Escape

• While shes there, the earth is barren
• Ninshubur follows her instructions and eventually
  goes to Enki
• Enki fashions beings, who trick Ereshkigal into
  releasing her with their weeping for the death of
  children
• But unless she can find someone to die for her,
  she must return

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Dumuzi

• Dumuzi is seen not mourning her death enough
• Inanna tells the demons to take him
• He is allowed to return to earth one day each
  year to receive ritual honors.

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The Phrygian Adaptation
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The Birth of Adgestis

• Zeus impregnates a rock near Cybele
• The hermaphrodite Agdestis is born so powerful
  and wild, that the other gods fear him
• Dionysus gets him drunk and sets a snare that
  tears off his male sexual organ the pomegranate
  tree springs from the genitals

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Birth of Attis

• A local princess, Nana, picks up the fruit and
  puts it into her dress
• She becomes pregnant
• Her father, disgraced, tries to prevent the birth
  by locking her up and starving her
• She is supported by Cybele
• Attis is born

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Death of Attis

• Attis is about to marry, but Agdestis, his
  companion, drives the guests insane
• One guest, Gallus, slices off his own genitals
• Maddened, Attis also cuts off his own genitals to
  spite Agdestis and dies

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Death of Attis

• His intended kills herself where he died, and
  Cybele buries them in a common grave
• Zeus allows Attiss hair and one finger to live
  on

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Egyptian Isis and Osiris

• Isis becomes the central Egyptian goddess
• The Greeks equated her with Demeter
• Key political charter myth -- the Pharaoh is
  justified in the myth

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The Myth

• Isis and Osiris were fraternal twins
• They married and become king and queen of Egypt
• They brought features of civilized life to Egypt
• Osiris travelled to teach other nations

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Osiriss Murder

• The monster Typhoeus kills Osiris with the coffin
  trick
• It floats out the Nile and to Byblos in Phoenicia
• A tree grew around it
• The king of Byblos cut down the tree for his
  palace and brought the coffin with it

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Osiris Returned

• In her quest, Isis comes to Byblos
• Stops by a well and is met by the daughters of
  the king and queen
• She cares for their son -- burning away the
  mortal parts by night while flying above it as a
  swallow
• Discovered, she reveals herself and demands the
  coffin back

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Osiris Back in Egypt

• Typhoeus finds where Isis has hidden the coffin
  and tears the corpse up into fourteen pieces
• Isis finds all the pieces but one, the penis, and
  builds where each one was found
• She fashions a wooden phallus as a replacement

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Birth of Horus

• While bringing the coffin back from Byblos, Isis
  reanimated the penis and became pregnant while
  flying over it as a hawk
• Now the hawk god Horus is born

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Battle with Typhoeus

• Horus defeats Typhoeus and his allies
• But Isis lets him go
• Angered, Horus assaults Isis and tears off her
  crown
• Isis is visited by Osiris and another Horus (the
  baby) is born

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Aphrodite and Adonis
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Birth of Adonis

• Pygmalion and Galatea
• Paphos
• Cinyras
• Myrrha
• Adonis born from the myrrha tree

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Aphrodite

• Adonis becomes the love-object of Aphrodite
• Killed in a hunt
• Becomes the anemone flower

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Summary

• Female power central
• Males are discardable
• The Greek variation has perplexing
  inconsistencies
• There is no dying male consort
• Does it date back to before the sexual fertility
  of the female was completely understood?

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End