Ancient Eleusis

· Elefsina /Eleusis is built around the ancient Temple of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. According to mythology, Demeter arrived in the city of Eleusis disguised as an old woman as she searched for her beautiful daughter, Persephone, who had been abducted by Pluto, the god of the underworld. When her divine identity was revealed, Demeter convinced the city’s king to build a temple in her honor, where she retired to mourn the loss of her daughter. Her sadness prevented the land from flourishing, prompting Zeus to intervene and force Pluto to release the maiden so she could spend two-thirds of the year on Earth and the remainder in the underworld. Wanting to thank the people of Eleusis for their hospitality, Demeter taught them how to worship and cultivate the land.
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Ancient Eleusis is located 17 km (approximately 11 miles) from Athens, in the same area as the modern town with the same name. It was the location of a very important sanctuary where the Eleusinian Mysteries took place every year around the end of what we now call September.
The Eleusinian mysteries were an initiation ceremony to the cult of Demeter and revolved around the myth of Persephone. The mysteries lasted nine days. The mysteries took place in the Archaic Era but acquired special significance in Classical and Hellenistic times. Eleusis and the mysteries retained their importance during the Roman era, and the site was occupied even in Byzantine times, as the archaeological record shows.