Thursday, March 25, 2010

Show and Telesterion


A few thousand years ago, there were quite a few buildings at site of Eleusis. The largest was the Telesterion of Demeter. It served as the initiation Hall and Temple for the Eleusinian Mysteries. Built, destroyed, and rebuilt a number of times over the years, in its largest incarnation it could seat 3000.

That seems like a lot of folks to keep a secret.

It was sure big enough, (8 tiers of seats on 4 sides divided by openings for 2 entrances on each of 3 sides) for a good show. Oooops, I meant Telesterion. Telesterion, not Telestrion... comes from the greek > for initiation, equiv. to teles-, s. of teleîn to fulfill, initiate (see tele-2) + -tērion neut. n. suffix denoting place.


Maybe it was the ancient place to go for a tele-vision? Or at least a vision of death. Going through the rites was supposed to help you transcend any fear of death or afterlife... Sophocles wrote : " Oh, thrice blessed the mortals, who, having contemplated these Mysteries, have descended to Hades ; for those only will there be a future life of happiness — the others there will find nothing but suffering."
I found this text by Dudley Wright THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES & RITES

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