Qualla
(en) The great hall in Eleusis, Telesterion ("Initiation Hall" from Gr. τελείω, to complete, to fulfill, to consecrate, to initiate) was one of the primary centers of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Devoted to Demeter and Persephone, these initiation ceremonies were the most sacred and ancient of all the religious rites celebrated in Greece. At some point in the 5th century BC, Iktinos, the great architect of the Parthenon, built the Telesterion big enough to hold thousands of people. In about 318 BC, Philon added a portico with twelve Doric columns. The site of the Telesterion is believed to have had some temple since the 7th century BC, or the time of the Homeric Hymns to Demeter (650-550 BC); the Telesterion had ten different building phases. The Athenians used several calendars, each for different purposes. The festival of Eleusinia was celebrated each year in Eleusis and Athens for nine days from the 15th to the 23rd of the month of Boedromion (in September or October of the Gregorian calendar); because the festival calendar had 12 lunar months, the celebrations were not strictly calibrated to a year of 365 days. During the festival, Athens was crowded with visitors. As the climax of the ceremonies at Eleusis, the initiates entered the Telesterion where they were shown the sacred relics of Demeter and the priestesses revealed their visions of the holy night (probably a fire that represented the possibility of life after death). This was the most secretive part of the Mysteries and those who had been initiated were forbidden to ever speak of the events that took place in the Telesterion. It was destroyed by the Persians after the Battle of Thermopylae, when the Athenians withdrew to Salamis in 480 BC and all of Boeotia and Attica fell to the Persian army, who captured and burnt Athens. After the defeat of the Persians, the Telesterion was rebuilt some time later by Pericles. In AD 170, during the rule of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, an ancient tribe called the Costoboci launched an invasion of Roman territory south of the Danube, entering Thracia and ravaging the provinces of Macedonia and Achaea (Greece). The Costoboci reached as far south as Eleusis, where they destroyed the Telesterion. The emperor responded by despatching general Vehilius Gratus Iulianus to Greece with emergency reinforcements, who eventually defeated the Costoboci. Marcus Aurelius then had the Telesterion rebuilt. In AD 396, the forces of Alaric the Visigoth invaded the Eastern Roman Empire and ravaged Attica, destroying the Telesterion, which was never to be rebuilt. (fr) La grande salle d'Éleusis, le Télestérion ("salle d'initiation", du grec τελείω "accomplir, initier") était l'un des principaux centres des mystères d'Éleusis. Consacrées à Déméter et Perséphone, ces cérémonies d'initiation étaient le plus sacré et le plus ancien de tous les rites religieux célébrés en Grèce. Au Ve siècle avant J.-C., Ictinos, le grand architecte du Parthénon, construisit le Télestérion, grande salle capable d'accueillir des milliers de personnes. Vers -318, Philon ajouta un portique à douze colonnes doriques. Le site du Télestérion a probablement abrité un temple dès le VIIe siècle avant J.-C., à l'époque des Hymnes homériques à Déméter (vers -650 / -550). Le Télestérion a connu dix phases de construction différentes. Les Athéniens avaient plusieurs calendriers, chacun à des fins différentes. La fête des Éleusinies était célébrée chaque année à Éleusis et à Athènes pendant neuf jours, du 15 au 23 du mois de boedromion (en septembre ou octobre du calendrier grégorien) : le calendrier des fêtes ayant 12 mois lunaires, les célébrations ne correspondaient pas strictement à une année de 365 jours. Durant les Éleusinies, Athènes était envahie de visiteurs. Au point culminant des cérémonies, les initiés pénétraient dans la Télestérion où leur étaient présentées les reliques sacrées de Déméter, et les prêtresses révélaient leurs visions de la sainte nuit (probablement un feu qui représentait la possibilité d'une vie après la mort). C'était la partie la plus secrète des mystères et il était interdit aux initiés de rien révéler des rites ayant lieu dans le Télestérion. Celui-ci fut détruit par les Perses après la bataille des Thermopyles, quand les Athéniens se retirèrent à Salamine, en -480, alors que la Béotie et l'Attique étaient tombées aux mains de l'armée perse, qui prit et incendia Athènes. Après la défaite des Perses, la Télestérion fut reconstruit par Périclès. En l'an 170, sous le règne de l'empereur romain Marc Aurèle, une ancienne tribu appelée Costoboci lança une invasion du territoire romain au sud du Danube, entrant en Thrace et ravageant les provinces grecques de Macédoine et d'Achaïe. Les Costoboci atteignirent Éleusis et détruisirent le Télestérion. L'empereur répliqua en expédiant en Grèce le général Vehilius Gratus Iulianus avec des renforts, qui vint à bout des Costoboci. Marc-Aurèle reconstruisit encore le Télestérion. En l'an 396, les armées du Wisigoth Alaric envahirent l'Empire romain d'Orient et ravagèrent l'Attique, détruisant à nouveau Télestérion, cette fois de manière définitive.
(en) The great hall in Eleusis, Telesterion ("Initiation Hall" from Gr. τελείω, to complete, to fulfill, to consecrate, to initiate) was one of the primary centers of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Devoted to Demeter and Persephone, these initiation ceremonies were the most sacred and ancient of all the religious rites celebrated in Greece. At some point in the 5th century BC, Iktinos, the great architect of the Parthenon, built the Telesterion big enough to hold thousands of people. In about 318 BC, Philon added a portico with twelve Doric columns. The site of the Telesterion is believed to have had some temple since the 7th century BC, or the time of the Homeric Hymns to Demeter (650-550 BC); the Telesterion had ten different building phases. The Athenians used several calendars, each for different purposes. The festival of Eleusinia was celebrated each year in Eleusis and Athens for nine days from the 15th to the 23rd of the month of Boedromion (in September or October of the Gregorian calendar); because the festival calendar had 12 lunar months, the celebrations were not strictly calibrated to a year of 365 days. During the festival, Athens was crowded with visitors. As the climax of the ceremonies at Eleusis, the initiates entered the Telesterion where they were shown the sacred relics of Demeter and the priestesses revealed their visions of the holy night (probably a fire that represented the possibility of life after death). This was the most secretive part of the Mysteries and those who had been initiated were forbidden to ever speak of the events that took place in the Telesterion. It was destroyed by the Persians after the Battle of Thermopylae, when the Athenians withdrew to Salamis in 480 BC and all of Boeotia and Attica fell to the Persian army, who captured and burnt Athens. After the defeat of the Persians, the Telesterion was rebuilt some time later by Pericles. In AD 170, during the rule of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, an ancient tribe called the Costoboci launched an invasion of Roman territory south of the Danube, entering Thracia and ravaging the provinces of Macedonia and Achaea (Greece). The Costoboci reached as far south as Eleusis, where they destroyed the Telesterion. The emperor responded by despatching general Vehilius Gratus Iulianus to Greece with emergency reinforcements, who eventually defeated the Costoboci. Marcus Aurelius then had the Telesterion rebuilt. In AD 396, the forces of Alaric the Visigoth invaded the Eastern Roman Empire and ravaged Attica, destroying the Telesterion, which was never to be rebuilt. (fr) La grande salle d'Éleusis, le Télestérion ("salle d'initiation", du grec τελείω "accomplir, initier") était l'un des principaux centres des mystères d'Éleusis. Consacrées à Déméter et Perséphone, ces cérémonies d'initiation étaient le plus sacré et le plus ancien de tous les rites religieux célébrés en Grèce. Au Ve siècle avant J.-C., Ictinos, le grand architecte du Parthénon, construisit le Télestérion, grande salle capable d'accueillir des milliers de personnes. Vers -318, Philon ajouta un portique à douze colonnes doriques. Le site du Télestérion a probablement abrité un temple dès le VIIe siècle avant J.-C., à l'époque des Hymnes homériques à Déméter (vers -650 / -550). Le Télestérion a connu dix phases de construction différentes. Les Athéniens avaient plusieurs calendriers, chacun à des fins différentes. La fête des Éleusinies était célébrée chaque année à Éleusis et à Athènes pendant neuf jours, du 15 au 23 du mois de boedromion (en septembre ou octobre du calendrier grégorien) : le calendrier des fêtes ayant 12 mois lunaires, les célébrations ne correspondaient pas strictement à une année de 365 jours. Durant les Éleusinies, Athènes était envahie de visiteurs. Au point culminant des cérémonies, les initiés pénétraient dans la Télestérion où leur étaient présentées les reliques sacrées de Déméter, et les prêtresses révélaient leurs visions de la sainte nuit (probablement un feu qui représentait la possibilité d'une vie après la mort). C'était la partie la plus secrète des mystères et il était interdit aux initiés de rien révéler des rites ayant lieu dans le Télestérion. Celui-ci fut détruit par les Perses après la bataille des Thermopyles, quand les Athéniens se retirèrent à Salamine, en -480, alors que la Béotie et l'Attique étaient tombées aux mains de l'armée perse, qui prit et incendia Athènes. Après la défaite des Perses, la Télestérion fut reconstruit par Périclès. En l'an 170, sous le règne de l'empereur romain Marc Aurèle, une ancienne tribu appelée Costoboci lança une invasion du territoire romain au sud du Danube, entrant en Thrace et ravageant les provinces grecques de Macédoine et d'Achaïe. Les Costoboci atteignirent Éleusis et détruisirent le Télestérion. L'empereur répliqua en expédiant en Grèce le général Vehilius Gratus Iulianus avec des renforts, qui vint à bout des Costoboci. Marc-Aurèle reconstruisit encore le Télestérion. En l'an 396, les armées du Wisigoth Alaric envahirent l'Empire romain d'Orient et ravagèrent l'Attique, détruisant à nouveau Télestérion, cette fois de manière définitive. — Photo: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany | CC BY-SA 2.0

Telesterion

Eleusinian MysteriesTemples of DemeterTemples of Persephone7th-century BC religious buildings and structuresDestroyed Greek templesPersecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire
4 min read

No one ever told. For nearly a thousand years, initiates gathered in this hall by the thousands — emperors, philosophers, generals, ordinary Athenians — and underwent rites so sacred that revealing them was punishable by death. The secret held. We know that something was done, something was said, and something was shown. We know the hall went dark, and then flooded with sudden light. We know that people emerged changed. Beyond that, the Eleusinian Mysteries kept their name honestly: they remain a mystery. What survives at Eleusis is the building that held all of it — the Telesterion, the Hall of Initiation.

Built for Thousands

The Telesterion was not a temple in the familiar Greek sense — a columned exterior housing a cult statue. It was a gathering hall, designed to hold a congregation. Evidence places the earliest structure here in the 7th century BC, and the building was already established by the time of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, composed sometime between 650 and 550 BC. The hall that ultimately stood on this site, rebuilt under the influence of Pericles and designed by Iktinos — the same architect who built the Parthenon — covered a roughly square plan. Its roof, spanning some fifty-five yards on each side, could shelter approximately three thousand people at once. Around the walls ran tiers of stepped seating, cut into the rock and later built up, all facing inward toward the center where the hierophant, the high priest of the Mysteries, performed the rites.

Darkness, Sound, Light

The Telesterion was engineered for experience. Its stone walls were resonant, amplifying and reflecting sound between the speakers at the center and the thousands seated in the darkness around them. Internal columns broke lines of sight, preventing initiates from seeing clearly what was happening at the center — the partial obstruction was intentional. When the moment came, a sudden burst of light from the hierophant's torch overwhelmed eyes that had been adjusted to darkness, making what was revealed simultaneously visible and impossible to see clearly. The stepped seating packed people in close proximity, creating the physical conditions for what scholars today call group cohesion: thousands of bodies sharing a single experience in the dark. Whatever the Mysteries communicated, the Telesterion delivered it through architecture as much as through words.

Destroyed, Rebuilt, Destroyed Again

The building's history is one of repeated catastrophe and renewal. The Persians burned it in 480 BC, when the Athenians evacuated to Salamis and all of Attica fell. After the Greek victory, Cimon planned to rebuild it, but the reconstruction was left to Pericles and Iktinos. In 170 AD, the Costoboci — a tribe from north of the Danube — raided south through Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, reaching as far as Eleusis, where they destroyed the Telesterion. The emperor Marcus Aurelius responded by sending an army under general Vehilius Gratus Iulianus to defeat the raiders, then had the hall rebuilt larger than before. It was not the last time. In 396 AD, the forces of Alaric the Visigoth swept through Attica and destroyed the Telesterion for the final time. It was never rebuilt.

What the Ruins Hold

At about 318 BC, the architect Philon added a twelve-column Doric portico to the hall's facade — the last major addition before the Roman era transformed the site into a tourist destination as much as an active cult center. Roman emperors were initiated; the Emperor Hadrian was among the famous initiates of antiquity. In myth, Heracles himself was said to have undergone the Mysteries as part of his labors, descending afterward to capture Cerberus from the underworld, guided by what he had seen in the hall. What stands at Eleusis today are the foundations and tumbled stones of a structure rebuilt and destroyed across more than a thousand years. The stepped seating ledges are still visible, cut into the rock. The plan of the hall can be traced. It is not hard, standing here, to imagine the darkness.

From the Air

The Telesterion at Eleusis sits at approximately 38.041°N, 23.539°E, on the low coastal plain west of Athens where the ancient sanctuary of Demeter occupied a rocky outcrop above the sea. Flying west from LGAV (Athens International Eleftherios Venizelos) at 2,000–4,000 feet, the industrial port of Elefsina appears ahead, with the ancient site visible at the edge of the modern town. The Strait of Salamis lies to the south, Salamis Island beyond. The Elefsina refinery and bay are prominent landmarks. Distance from LGAV is approximately 30 km.

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