Misc. selections from ancient literature about Persephone
Misc. selections from ancient literature about Persephone
or about the Eleusinian Mysteries
Theogony 767
There, in front [1], stand the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound guards the house in front ... keeps watch and devours whomsoever he catches going out of the gates of strong Hades and awful Persephone.
Greek Lyric V Scolia Frag 885
I sing of the mother of Ploutos [2], Demeter Olympia, in the garland-wearing season, and of you, Persephone, child of Zeus: greetings, both! Tend the city well.
Plato Cratylus 404c-d
People dread the name of Pherephatta as they dread the name of Apollo – and
with as little reason. The fear, if I am not mistaken, only arises from their
ignorance of the nature of names, but they go changing the name into
Phersephone, and they are terrified at this, whereas the new name means only
that the goddess is wise. For seeing that all things in the world are in
motion, that principle which embraces and touches and is able to follow them
is wisdom. And therefore the goddess may be truly called Pherepapha, or some
name like it, because she touches that which is in motion, herein showing her
wisdom. And Hades, who is wise, consorts with her, because she is wise. They
alter her name into Pherephatta nowadays, because the present generation care
for euphony more than truth.
Diodorus Siculus 4.4.1
Some writers of myth, however, relate that there was a second Dionysos [3] who was much earlier in time than the one we have just mentioned. For according to them there was born of Zeus and Persephone a Dionysos who is called by some Sabazios and whose birth and sacrifices and honours are celebrated at night and in secret, because of the disgraceful conduct which is a consequence of the gatherings.
Silvae 2.1.145
Tis the seventh day [4], and already those eyes are dull and cold, and Juno of the Underworld [5] hath clasped him and seized in her hand the lock of hair.
Hyginus Fabulae 220
When Cura [6] was crossing a certain river, she saw some clayey mud. She took it up thoughtfully and began to fashion a man. While she was pondering on what she had done, Jove [7] came up; Cura asked him to give the image life, and Jove readily grant this. When Cura wanted to give it her name, Jove forbade, and said that his name should be given it. But while they were disputing about the name, Tellus [8] arose and said that it should have her name, since she had given her own body. They took Saturnus [9] for judge; he seems to have decided for them: Jove, since you gave him life ... let her [10] receive his body; since Cura fashioned him; let her [11] posses him as long as he lives, but since there is controversy about his name, let him be called homo, since he seems to be made from humus.
Aeneid 6.138
[The Sibyl speaks to Aeneas:] ‘Between [the path from Earth to Haides], there lies a forest, and darkly winds the river Cocytus round the place. But if so great your love is, so great your passion to cross the Stygian waters twice and twice behold black Tartarus, if your heart is set on this fantastic project, here’s what you must do first. Concealed in a tree’s thick shade there is a golden bough – gold the leaves and the tough stem – held sacred to Proserpine [12]: the whole wood hides this bough and a dell walls it round as it were in a vault of shadow. Yet none is allowed to enter the land which earth conceals save and until he has plucked that gold-foil bough from the tree. Fair Proserpine ordains that it should be brought to her as tribute. When a bough is torn away, another gold one grows in its place with leaves of the same metal. So keep your eyes roving above you, and when you have found the bough just pull it out: that branch will come away quite easily if destiny means you to go; otherwise no amount of brute force will get it, nor hard steel avail to hew it away.
Pindar Dirges Frag 133
But, as for those from whom Persephone shall exact the penalty of their pristine woe, in the ninth year she once more restoreth their souls to the upper sun-light; and from these come into being august monarchs, and men who are swift in strength and supreme in wisdom; and, for all future time, men call them sainted heroes. [13] It must, however, return twice again to earth, and suffer two more deaths of its body. Finally Persephone releases it and returns it to earth to inhabit the body of a king, a hero, or a sage. Now it is free from the necessity of further wanderings and passes at once to the Islands of the Blest.
Pindar Dirges Frag 137
Blessed is he who goes under the earth after seeing these things[14] . He knows
the consummation of life; he knows its Zeus-given beginnings.
Strabo 8.3.14
Minthe, who, according to myth, became the concubine of Haides, was trampled under foot by Kore [15], and was transformed into garden-mint, the plant which some call Hedyosmos.
Seneca, Quaestiones naturals VII 30.6
There are holy things that are not communicated all at once: Eleusis always
keeps something back to show those who come again.
Crinagoras of Mytilene, A.P. 11.42
Even if your life is sedentary and you never sailed the sea or walked the
highways of the land, go nevertheless to Attica to see those nights of the great
Mysteries of Demeter: your heart shall become free of care while you live and
lighter when you go to the realm of the majority.
Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus II.22
The sacred formula of the Eleusinian mysteries is: "I have fasted, I have drunk
the kykeon, I have taken from the chest, I have done my task and placed
in the basket and from the basket into the chest." ...The mystic chests are such
as these - for I must strip their sanctities naked and speak aloud their
ineffabilities--: are their contents not
sesame-sweets, cakes shaped like pyramids and balls, or covered with navels,
lumps of salt, and a serpent, the ritual sign of Dionysos Bassaros? And are
there not pomegranates in addition, and sprigs of fig,
fennel and ivy, and also cheese-cakes and poppies? These are their sanctities!
Tertullian, Against the Valentinians, 1
Even the famous Eleusinia, that heresy of Attic superstition, is a shameful
thing about which they keep quiet, in fact they impose torture before they
certify the admission [of an initiate]. They start the epoptai off
five years before so that they may build up their expectation by withholding
knowledge and so that they may seem to reveal something of a grandeur equivalent
to the greed which they have heaped up. Following this there is an
obligation of silence. This is kept assiduously because it is leaned at a
late stage. However, the entire godhead in the innermost sanctuary, the
entire source of breathless adulation is the epoptai,
the entire secret token of their tongues, is revealed to be an image of the
male organ.
Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, V.8.39
The Athenians, when they conduct the Eleusinian mysteries, reveal in
silence to the epoptai the great, wonderful, most perfect initiation
mystery, the epoptikon, an ear of grain. This ear of grain is for
the Athenians the great initiatory light-bringer from that which is unformed [acharakteriston],
as when the hierophant himself ... at night in Eleusis beneath a hug fire,
celebrating the great and unspeakable mysteries, cries aloud, "The Lady Brimo
has brought forth a holy son, Brimos." [16]
Lactantius, Epitome of the Divine Institutes, 23.7
Similar to the other mysteries is that of Ceres[17]; in it Proserpina is sought
with lighted torches through the night, and when she has been found the whole
rite ends with expressions of joy and brandishing of torches.
Aristotle, in Synesius, Dio, 10
Initiates do not need to understand anything; rather, they undergo an
experience and a disposition – become, that is, deserving.
Notes:
1. that is, at the end of the earth
2. Ploutos = Wealth
3. Dionysos = Zagreos
4. the 7th day after death
5. Juno of the Underworld = Persephone
6. Cura = Persephone
7. Jove = Zeus
8. Tellus = Gaia
9. Saturnus = Kronos
10. that is, Persephone
11. that is, Gaia
12. Proserpine = Persephone
13. Pindar’s belief here appears to be as follows: after the death of the body, the soul is judged in Hades, and, if accounted guiltless in its life on earth, passes to the Elysium in Hades.
14. that is, the Eleusinian Mysteries
15. Kore = Persephone
16. Brimo = Persephone
17. Ceres = Demeter
Misc. selections from ancient literature about Persephone