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The Purification of Herakles This is meant to accompany an article titled "The Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis" which can be found on this website.
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This shows all the scenes on the urn, depicting the several stages of the purification process. The images should be "read" from right to left.
Image reproduced from W.K.C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion, Princeton Univ. Press, 1993, Pl. 11 |
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Detail of the urn's first scene. This shows Herakles offering a pig and cakes, while the priest pours a libation, and holds an offering tray.
Image reproduced from Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard Univ. Press, 1987, Fig. 2 |
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Here we see the second scene, with Herakles sitting veiled on a low seat. A priestess holds a winnowing fan over his head.
Image reproduced from Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard Univ. Press, 1987, Fig. 3 |
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This shows Herakles after the purification rituals have been completed. He is approaching Demeter, who looks away. Herakles reaches out to touch the snake, symbolic of mysteries in general.
Image reproduced from Carl Kerényi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, Princeton Univ. Press, 1967, Fig. 12c, p. 57 |
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Final scene shows Demeter looking back at Persephone. Demeter serves to keep the initiate Herakles from Persephone, because he has not yet been initiated into the Greater Mysteries.
Image reproduced from Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard Univ. Press, 1987, Fig. 4 |
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Compare the scenes on this sarcophagus to the above urn. They are almost identical.
Image reproduced from Carl Kerényi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, Princeton Univ. Press, 1967, Fig. 11, p. 54 |
