The Eleusinian Mysteries are coming to UCO on the fifteenth day
of Boedromion, aka Friday,
September 16. Come one, come all… and don't forget your piglet.The Eleusinian Mysteries are coming to UCO on the fifteenth day
of Boedromion, aka Friday,
September 16. Come one, come all… and don't forget your piglet.
Our citizen Mystagogoi, leaders of the Mysteries, are as follows:
Hierophantes (revealer of ta hiera): Dr. Spencer Hierokeryx (herald): Cody Dadoukhos (torch bearer): Amber Iakkhagogos (priest of Iakkhos): Dann Krokidai (descendants of Krokon): Marlo, Josh Napier, Richie, and Matthew Hypokritai (actors): Tyler, Michelle, and Jerica
All Mystai who manage to complete all steps of the initiation will become official initiates. To understand where the steps are coming from, please see the photocopied excerpt from Matthew Dillon's Pilgrims and Pilgrimages in Ancient Greece.
If you don't complete all the steps on both Wednesday and Friday you won't
be an official initiate, but you can still participate on Friday if
you're so inclined and you haven't incurred any blood guilt in the interim. So if your roommate is making you crazy and you're
considering murder, try to hold off until the end of the week. For the Epidauria
on Wednesday, you may or may not take the Asclepius Quiz,
as you choose. If you do complete the quiz you will receive 10 extra-credit citizenship points. As proof of
completion, note the Secret Phrase that will appear at the end of the tenth question and inscribe it either in an e-mail message or on
your Hades Deity of the Week quiz on Wednesday morning. The deadline to receive the extra credit is 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday,
September 14, presumably about the time we'll be wrapping up the Hades quiz in the classroom.
The steps of the ritual:
Before we begin the ceremony proper, we must complete the Agyrmos, or Assembly. On Monday the Hierokeryx, accompanied by the Dadoukhos, will issue the prorrhesis, the proclamation inviting participation in the Mysteries. Prepare to testify to your purity of heart and to swear you're not a murderer... or be prepared to face the penalty.
To the sea, Mystai! On the second day of the
ritual, in our case Tuesday,
the Mystai marched from Athens to the sea for the purpose of purifying their piglets and (one assumes) themselves.
Remember, the definition of what you're calling your piglet is up to you, but if you seriously want to replicate the ritual and
partake fully in the experience you really ought to walk several miles in sandals and immerse pig and self in a cold body of salt water.
Or take it into the shower with you. Or pull out a bottle of Purel or something. The Athenians marched in a body together but since
it's a Tuesday I know *I* haven't got any plans for doing anything in a body together that day; go ahead and wash your pig on
your own schedule.
It is now Wednesday.
Did you purify your pig yesterday? What do you mean, no? All right, then. Let's operate under
the assumption that the non-participants in Tuesday's assignment are all late arrivals to the Mysteries, so they'll start with the Epidauria.
This would ordinarily be the third or fourth day of the festival, but as Dillon points out,
we're not sure which. We're assuming it's the third because that would be Wednesday, which
just happens to be a class day.
Like Asclepius himself, would-be initiates from
far-flung areas didn't always make it for the first day so they got a
chance to get caught up during and after the Epidauria/Asclepia
festival. On that day, Mystai stayed indoors and meditated on the miraculous qualities of Asclepius, which is just what
we intend to do. In honor of that great healer, you have the opportunity to succor your grade a bit by working your way through the Asclepius quiz. Keep at it until you get 100%. If you really want to maximize your
healing potential, pick all the wrong answers as well; you'll find that the wrong answers include educational content and additional
information about Asclepius. "Hither the Victims." If the Epidauria is on Wednesday, then Dillon thinks the mass pig sacrifice ought to be on Thursday, since one of these events occurred on the third day and
the other on the fourth. But since we don't meet tomorrow... into the pit they go! (Don't worry; you'll be able to
retrieve your pig afterwards, and we won't even eat it. Well, not unless you want us to). Friday: March to
Eleusis. Led by our fearless Hierophantes (that's me) and
our official Iakkhagogos, brandishing the statue of Iakkhos and leading us in the Iakkos hymn,
we will proceed to the Rheitoi. The Rheitoi (singular: rheitos) were a series of shallow lakes near Eleusis. Archaeologists have
recovered a stele, or plaque, known as the Rheitos Bridge Decree, which commemorates the construction of a bridge by the Athenian government for the purpose of
accommodating the Mystai.
Once we've reached the Broncho Rhetoi, the Krokidai will outfit each Mystes with a kroke before we proceed to the "bridge of jests" over the river Kephisos.
At the Kephisos river we will meet up with those pesky gephyrismoi, with whom we will share a tasty kernos. Since the kernos consumption took place at
night, we will now consider it night time, and the Iakkhagogos will be
replaced at the head of the procession by the torch-bearing Dadoukhos. Final Initiation: We will now head
to the Telesterion, conveniently relocated in LAR 128, to consume the holy drink kykeon and to engage in the Dromena
(things acted), Legomena (things said), and lastly and most importantly,
the Deicymena (things shown), at while point ta Hiera will be removed from
the kistai and revealed to all participants. This is the secret part! No photography allowed after this point! Plemokhoai (pouring out of plenty): We offer
up a libation, and we're done!