Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/84

 70 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY originally at Athens), she was worshiped in public and in secret ceremonies ('Mysteries 7 ). Dionysus was here considered sometimes the son of Demeter, and again of Core and the Zeus of the lower world, i.e. Hades. The two goddesses were together termed ' honorable/ or ' mistresses.' In the month Boedromion (September- October) of each year the people of Athens marched along the sacred road to Eleusis in a festal procession, in which sheaves of grain were carried in token of thanks that the promise of the harvest was fulfilled. Here, in the darkness of the night, a torchlight pro- cession took place, which probably stood originally for the renewal of the light in spring, but was at a later period explained by the idea that Demeter had searched for her stolen daughter by torchlight. The sacred sym- bols of the goddess were exhibited to the initiated (Mystae) ; and to remind them of the beneficence shown by her toward men in distributing grain, there was offered them after long fasting a drink, or pap, of water and meal seasoned with pennyroyal, the form in which, at least in the earliest times, the gifts of Demeter had been enjoyed. (Cf. the puls of the Romans.) Finally water was poured out (as a charm for rain), while, with eyes looking toward the heavens, they cried, vt ('rain!'); and, looking toward the ground, Kvt (' conceive ! '). As a preliminary to these greater Mysteries, the lesser Mysteries were celebrated in Athens itself in the flower- ing month Anthesterion (February-March), an occasion on which those that were to be received as members of the religious community in the fall had a provisional initiation.