There are wild shouts, dances, jests, songs,[*] postures.  As the marchers pass the several sanctuaries along the road there are halts for symbolic sacrifices.  So the multitude slowly mounts the long heights of Mount Aegaleos, until—­close to the temple of Aphrodite near the summit of the pass—­the view opens of the broad blue bay of Eleusis, shut in by the isle of Salamis, while to the northward are seen the green Thrasian plain, with the white houses of Eleusis town[+] near the center, and the long line of outer hills stretching away to Megara and Boeotia.

[*]We do not possess the official chant of the Myste used on their march to Eleusia.  Very possibly it was of a swift riotous nature like the Bacchinals’ song in Euripides “Bacchinals” (well translated by Way or by Murray).

[+]This was about the only considerable town in Attica outside of Athens.

The evening shadows are falling, while the peaceful army sweeps over the mountain wall and into Eleusis.  Every marcher produces a torch, and bears it blazing aloft as he nears his destination.  Seen in the dark from Eleusis, the long procession of innumerable torches must convey an effect most magical.

201.  The Mysteries of Eleusis.—­What follows at Eleusis?  The “mysteries” are “mysteries” still; we cannot claim initiation and reveal them.  There seem to be manifold sacrifices of a symbolic significance, the tasting of sacred “portions” of food and drink—­a dim foreshadowing of the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist; especially in the great hall of the Temple of the Myste in Eleusis there take place a manner of symbolic spectacles, dramas perhaps one may call them, revealing the origins of Iacchus, the mystical union of Persephone and Zeus, and the final joy of Demeter.

This certainly we can say of these ceremonies.  They seem to have afforded to spiritually minded men a sense of remission of personal sin which the regular religion could never give; they seem also to have conveyed a fair hope of immortality, such as most Greeks doubted.  Sophocles tells thus the story:  “Thrice blessed are they who behold these mystical rites, ere passing to Hades’ realm.  They alone have life there.  For the rest all things below are evil."[*] And in face of imminent death, perhaps in hours of shipwreck, men are wont to ask one another, “Have you been initiated at Eleusis?”

[*]Sophocles, “Frag.” 719.

202.  The Greater Dionysia and the Drama.—­Again we are in Athens in the springtime:  “The eleventh of Elaphebolion” [March].  It is the third day of the Greater Dionysia.  The city has been in high festival; all the booths in the Agora hum with redoubled life; strangers have flocked in from outlying pars of Hellas to trade, admire, and recreate; under pretext of honoring the wine god, inordinate quantities of wine are drunk with less than the prudent mixture of water.  There is boisterous frolicking, singing, and jesting everywhere.  It is early blossom time.  All whom you meet wear huge flower crowns, and pelt you with the fragrant petals of spring.[*]