Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/204

 i6o Otitlhies of European History Sappho individual singers. Among them the poetess Sappho was the earliest woman to gain undying fame in literature. In Sicily Stesichorus Fig. 8o. Ruins of the Hall of the " Mysteries " at Eleusis Very little of the building survives ; femnants of the columns once supporting the roof are seen on the left ; on the right are the seats cut from the solid rock, on which the initiates (p. 162) sat while watching the sacred ceremonies of the " Mysteries," the spring and autumn feasts celebrated here. Especially at the autumn feast, after five days' preparation, multitudes came out from Athens, seventeen miles distant, along the Sacred Way, and spent five days more here at Eleusis. Em- blems of the undying life of the earth, like heads of grain, displayed at these ceremonies, suggested the immortal life promised to all initiates (compare the similar Osirian beliefs, pp. 27-28). In the distance we see the Bay of Eleusis and beyond it the heights of the northern part of the Island of Salamis (Fig. 86 and map, p. 146) the poet Stesichorus developed a kind of country festival songs (the dithyramb), sung by peasant choruses as they marched in procession at many a picturesque harvest or spring feast. These songs told the stories of the gods from the old myths. They