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!