Cornell University Library Digital Collections
Mysteries at Eleusis: Images of Inscriptions
About the project
The Mysteries at Eleusis: Images of Inscriptions collection consists of images of ancient inscriptions on stone from Eleusis. The images were created by Professor Kevin Clinton (Department of Classics) as well as the institutions holding the items. Unless otherwise noted, images in this collection are believed to be in the public domain. Digital reproductions in this collection are provided by Cornell University Library for private study, scholarship and research use only. In accordance with Greek and EU laws, additional permissions from the holding institution and/or The Hellenic Republic Ministry of Culture and Sports may be required for any reuse. For more information about these items, please contact Professor Kevin Clinton (Department of Classics) at kmc1@cornell.edu. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.
All the photographs will be printed in Professor Clinton's edition of all documents of the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore and the public documents of the deme, currently being published by the Archaeological Society at Athens. See Eleusis, The Inscriptions on Stone: Documents of the Sanctuary of the Two Goddesses and Public Documents of the Deme, Volume IA (Text) and IB (Plates), Athens 2005 (ISSN 1105-7785, Set 960-8145-48-1, The Archaeological Society at Athens, Panepistimiou 22, Athens 106 72). Volume II (Commentary) is in press.
Significance of the collection for digital scholarship
The documents are all from the sanctuary of the Eleusinian Mysteries, at Eleusis, a town belonging to Athens. "The Mysteries," as they were officially called, are usually recognized today, as they were in ancient times, as one of the most important religious cults in ancient Greece. Walter Burkert, for example, wrote: "The words mystical, mystery, mysterious are still common today. Their origins are in the ancient Greek cult, in particular the most famous one, the Eleusinian Mysteries" (Homo Necans, 248).
The festival culminated in secret rites within the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis, which was located about fourteen miles west of Athens. Hundreds of people from all over the Greek world converged annually on Athens and Eleusis to take part in the sacred rites over the course of a week, and they were pledged to secrecy on penalty of death. Cicero said of the Mysteries that Athens had given to mankind "nothing finer..., and as they are called an initiation (initia), so indeed do we learn in them the basic principles of life, and from them acquire not only a way of living in happiness but also a way of dying with greater hope" (De legibus, 2.36).
Several Roman emperors, including Augustus, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius, made the journey to Eleusis and became initiates. By the end of antiquity the Mysteries had left their mark on Christianity, certainly in terminology, such as "mystery" (the word for "sacrament" in the Greek Orthodox Church), "mystagogue," "mystic," and probably in other significant ways, which remain a subject of debate. Thus mystery ritual constitutes a tradition that extends, in varying form, from Archaic Greece to our own day.
References
| Full name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Other corpus | |
| Corpus inscriptionum graecarum | CIG |
| Corpus inscriptionum latinarum | CIL |
| Graindor, Paul. Marbres et textes antiques d'epoque impériale, Ghent, 1922. | Graindor, Marbres |
| Document number in Eleusis, The Inscriptions on Stone: Documents of the Sanctuary of the Two Goddesses and Public Documents of the Deme, Athens 2005 | IE |
| Inscriptiones graecae | IG |
| Inscriptiones Italiae | II |
| Clinton, Kevin. The Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 64.3), Philadelphia, 1974. | Sacred Officials |
| Supplementum epigraphicum graecum | SEG |
| Other journal | |
| American Journal of Archaeology | AJA |
| Annual of the British School at Athens | BSA |
| Annuario della Scuola archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni italiane in Oriente | ASAtene |
| Archaiologike Ephemeris | AE |
| Bulletin de correspondance hellénique | BCH |
| Deltion | Deltion |
| Eleusiniaka | Eleusiniaka |
| Hellenika | Hellenika |
| Hesperia. Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. | Hesperia |
| Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts | JdI |
| Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung | AM |
| Philistor | Philistor |
| Polemon | Polemon |
| Praktika | Praktika |
| Revue des études grecques | REG |
| Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik | ZPE |
Project credits
The original internet database was produced in 1997-99 largely through the assistance of Nora Dimitrova and Gregory Clinton, with the support of a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. The data in the non-image fields have been drawn from a database compiled by K. Clinton.
Digitization and Image Migration
Danielle Mericle, Rhea Garen, Mira Basara
Metadata Design and Conversion
Nancy Holcomb, Marty Kurth, Greg Nehler, Rick Silterra, Nancy Solla
Luna Database Creation and Collection Development
Gale Halpern, Rick Silterra, David Jones
Web Design
Melissa Kuo
Copyright
Fiona Patrick
Project Management
Danielle Mericle
This project has been made possible by the Faculty Grants for Digital Library Collections: Advancing E-Scholarship program.
Contact
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