عنوان

SANCTUARIES, SACRIFICES, AND THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES

Number

LA122465

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

SANCTUARIES, SACRIFICES, AND THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES

General Material Designation

[Article]

First Statement of Responsibility

Nancy Evans

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

Modern scholars studying Eleusis have consistently made some assumptions about the sanctuary and the famous rites that took place there throughout antiquity. Although we have no evidence for altars within the sanctuary walls, archaeologists continue to produce plans with altars in the courtyard before the temple, while historians of religion propose narratives for the Mysteries that feature scenes of animal sacrifice. While precise details of the famous nocturnal teletai may remain unknown to us, we can infer other significant details about the festival from the evidence that we do have. This essay argues that the type of animal sacrifice known as thusia that regularly took place at public altars in ancient Greece was deliberately excluded from the interior of the sanctuary at Eleusis. Beginning with a review of the development of the sanctuary, the essay focuses on the Anaktoron and Telesterion, and then turns to important features that were consistently located outside the sanctuary walls. Objects were dedicated both within the sanctuary walls and outside them. The analysis of the locations where the dedications were made suggests that mediation with the divine during the nocturnal teletai was not accomplished by priests officiating over animal sacrifices. Altars were absent from the interior of the sanctuary because the Mysteries entailed a more egalitarian experience of the gods than did the traditional customs of thusia. Modern scholars studying Eleusis have consistently made some assumptions about the sanctuary and the famous rites that took place there throughout antiquity. Although we have no evidence for altars within the sanctuary walls, archaeologists continue to produce plans with altars in the courtyard before the temple, while historians of religion propose narratives for the Mysteries that feature scenes of animal sacrifice. While precise details of the famous nocturnal teletai may remain unknown to us, we can infer other significant details about the festival from the evidence that we do have. This essay argues that the type of animal sacrifice known as thusia that regularly took place at public altars in ancient Greece was deliberately excluded from the interior of the sanctuary at Eleusis. Beginning with a review of the development of the sanctuary, the essay focuses on the Anaktoron and Telesterion, and then turns to important features that were consistently located outside the sanctuary walls. Objects were dedicated both within the sanctuary walls and outside them. The analysis of the locations where the dedications were made suggests that mediation with the divine during the nocturnal teletai was not accomplished by priests officiating over animal sacrifices. Altars were absent from the interior of the sanctuary because the Mysteries entailed a more egalitarian experience of the gods than did the traditional customs of thusia.

Date of Publication

2002

Physical description

227-254

Title

Numen

Volume Number

49/3

International Standard Serial Number

1568-5276

Nancy Evans

Call Number

10.1163/156852702320263927

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y