Ch 14 CLAS 315

hierophant

The "one who displays the sacred things," the officiating priest.

Misenus

Dead comrade of Aeneas who must be given proper burial before Aeneas can journey to the Underworld.

Great Mother

the Greeks associated with the fertility of the world, child birth, animal birth and fertility of the soil.

Lesser Mysteries

took place at Athena, usually one a year in early spring. Its purpose was the preliminary preparation (ritual purification) for advancement to the higher level.

Anchises:

Father of Aeneas; in the Underworld Anchises describes to his son the journey of the soul and shows him a procession of famous future Romans.

Triptolemus

Figure who is given the commission to spread Demeter's arts; he becomes a judge in the Underworld; he merges with the figure of Demophoön.

Thanatos

God of death

Hecate

Goddess of the occult and the power of vengeance; worshiped at crossroads, she becomes Trivia, a triune goddess (Hecate, Artemis, and Selene); she shares associations with the Furies; in Vergil's Aeneid it is Hecate who has instructed the Sibyl in the secrets of Tartarus, enabling her to describe this realm to Aeneas.

Cabiri

Gods of Samothrace, usually referred to as the "great gods" and sometimes identified with the Dioscuri.

Hades (Pluto, Dis) and Persephone (Proserpina)

Hades ("the unseen one") is the brother of Zeus and Poseidon and king of the Underworld; his wife and queen is Persephone; to the Romans he is known as Pluto or Dis.

Odysseus (Ulysses):

Hero of Homer's Odyssey, who, in his journey from Troy to his home in Ithaca, travels to the far shore of Ocean and the land of the dead to speak with the seer Tiresias

Achilles:

Hero of the Iliad whom Odysseus meets in the Underworld.

Lethe

"River of forgetfulness."

Cocytus

"River of wailing."

Acheron

"River of woe."

Orpheus

A figure of legend; a singer of song; his central myth involves his unsuccessful attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the Underworld; after his failure, he is dismembered by a band of Thracian women (sometimes maenads), whom he has spurned; the traditional tale contains both Apollonian and Dionysian elements. This figure of Orpheus was also considered the founder of a religion, and a prophet, who offered direction for living in harmony with the world and a hope for a blessed afterlife.

mystery religion (cult)

A religious observance in the ancient world, fundamentally different from the traditional, civic worship of a god or goddess; it requires a decision by the worshiper to submit to a process of initiation, through which a greater religious insight is gained and the initiate stands in a new relationship with god; it often speaks to a hope for a blessed afterlife.

Iacchus

A statue of Iacchus (likely another name for Dionysus), which was carried in procession to Eleusis; "Iacche!" was also a ritual cry in the mystery cult of Dionysus.

Dromena

A term used in mystery cults that refers obliquely to the rituals performed; it literally translates as "things done."

legomena

A term used in mystery cults that refers obliquely to the words that are uttered; it literally translates as "things said."

Elpenor

Comrade of Odysseus who dies without receiving proper burial; Odysseus meets him in the land of the dead and begs Odysseus to give his body a proper burial, so that he may enter the realm of Hades.

Elysium:

Also known as the Elysian Fields; it is the Field of the Blessed in the Underworld

Phanes

Being who arises from the cosmic egg; identified with Eros

Vergil's "Book of the Dead"

Book 6 of Vergil's Aeneid, in which the hero Aeneas journeys to the Underworld to speak with his father, Anchises.

Horus (Harpocrates)

Child of Isis and Osiris.

Demeter (Ceres) and Persephone

Demeter is the goddess of fertility of the earth and grain, she is often depicted with her daughter Persephone. Persephone is abducted by Hades, in Demeter's grief she wanders the world, searching, she goes to Eleusis. In anger of at Zeus' collusion in the abduction, she absents herself from the company of the gods and stops the fertility of the earth; Zeus will eventually relent and allow Persephone to return. Persephone, however, has eaten of the pomegranate, which will forever root her to two worlds, the upper and the lower realms. While Persephone is below, the earth sleeps and does not produce; when she returns to the upper world, the earth erupts with fertility. This story is the foundation myth for the rites of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis. Demeter's counterpart among the Romans is Ceres; Persephone's counterpart is Proserpina; sometimes Persephone is simply called Kore ("girl").

Isis

Egyptian goddess of fertility, worshipped in a mystery cult. Her myth tells of her search for her husband and brother, Osiris, who had been dismembered by the evil god Seth; in Apuleius' Golden Ass, the hero Lucius receives her aid and becomes a devotee.

Plato's "myth of Er"

Famous story related in the Republic of a man who dies and comes back to life to speak about the nature of the soul and the things that he saw on the other side.

Osiris

Husband Brother of isis

chronus

In Orphic cosmogony, Chronus ("time") was the first principle and from him come Aether, Chaos, and Erebus.

Aristaeus

In a variant tradition of the story (Vergil's Georgics, Book 4), Eurydice fled from Aristaeus and was bitten by a snake and died; in this version Aristaeus has to atone for his crime.

Dionysus/Zagreus (Orphic)

In another version of Dionysus' birth, Zeus mated with Persephone, who bore Zagreus (Dionysus); Hera, in a jealous rage, has the Titans dismember the baby and consume everything but the heart, which is saved and swallowed by Zeus. Zeus then fathers the child on Semele; in his wrath, Zeus destroyed the Titans with his thunderbolt and from their ashes human beings arise.

Dante

Italian poet (1265-1321) who wrote the epic La Divina Comedia or The Divine Comedy; the poem is in three parts, the first of which describes Dante's imagined journey through Hell and is entitled the Inferno; Dante has Vergil serve as his guide, and the poem as a whole shows the profound influence of Vergil's Aeneid.

syncretism

Literally "growing together"; in terms of the varied mystery cults of the ancient world, it refers to the harmonizing of the different cults and myths into some sort of unity.

Anticlea

Mother of Odysseus, who encounters her in the Underworld unexpectedly

Musaios

Musaios means 'of the Muses'. He was said to be one of the oldest and greatest poets, and was sometimes called the son of Orpheus. No other myths or stories arose around him, but he was greatly respected, and valued theological poems, including some orphic poems and some of those used in the Elusinian mysteries, were attributed to him. Ancient oracles collected by the Athenian chresmologists or 'oracle-gatherers' were also attributed to him.

Sisyphus

One of the damned in the Underworld; he attempted to cheat death and was punished with having to roll a stone up a hill, only to have it roll back down as he neared the top.

Salmoneus

One of the damned in the Underworld; he attempted to impersonate Jupiter and was struck by a thunderbolt.

Tityus

One of the damned in the Underworld; he attempted to rape Leto and was punished with having his liver feasted on by a vulture for eternity

Tantalus

One of the damned in the Underworld; he tried to feed the gods human flesh and was punished by perpetual hunger and thirst, with food and drink just out of reach.

Ixion

One of the eternally damned in Tartarus; he attempted to rape Nephele ("cloud"), whom Zeus had transformed into the likeness of his wife Hera; Ixion is condemned to a fiery wheel.

Rhadamanthys/Rhadamanthus

One of the three judges in the Underworld

Aeacus:

One of the three judges in the Underworld.

Minos

One of the three judges in the Underworld.

Mithra/Mithras

Persian god of light and truth, worshiped in a mystery cult; at the center of his myth was the tauroctony or the "slaying of the bull."

taurobolium

Ritual shedding of the blood of the bull, associated with the worship of Cybele

Phlegethon

River of fire

Styx

River of hate

Apuleius' Metamorphoses or Golden Ass

Roman novel of the 2nd century a.d. in Latin, which tells of the transformation of its hero Lucius into an ass and his misadventures; he eventually returns to human form and is initiated into the mysteries of Isis.

Helius

Sees Persephone's abduction by Hades

Aeneas

Son of Venus and Anchises; hero of Vergil's Aeneid, who becomes the founder of the Roman line; in Book 6 of the poem he journeys to the Underworld to talk with his father.

Atargatis/Dea Syria

Syrian goddess, joined with Hadad (a god of thunder) in a sacred marriage and thus associated with other sky-gods (Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter, and Syrian Baal)

Erinyes/Furies/Eumenides

The Erinyes were chthonic powers of vengeance in the Underworld; their Roman name is the Furies. The Greek term Eumenides means "kindly ones."

Tiresias

The Theban prophet whom Odysseus journeys to the Underworld to consult.

tauroctony

The central motif in the representation and worship of the Persian Mithras, the tauroctony is the "slaying of the bull."

Erebus:

The darkness that pervades Tartarus

kykeon

The drink with which Demeter broke her fast at Eleusis, as reenacted in the rituals at Eleusis; it is a mixture of barley and water.

Charon

The ferryman who transports souls across the river Styx to Hades.

Danaïds

The fifty daughters of Danaüs; all but one murder their husbands on their wedding night and are punished in the Underworld with the endless toil of trying to draw water with a sieve.

Hermes

The god who escorts Persephone back from the underworld

Eleusis

The kingdom of Celeus and Metaneira, where Demeter comes in her wanderings; it is the site of the most important of the Greek mystery religions, commemorating Demeter's search and the return of Persephone to the upper realm; the rituals of Eleusis were administered by Athens.

Tartarus:

The place where the damned are confined in the Underworld.

Cumaean Sibyl:

The prophetess of Apollo who serves as Aeneas' guide in the Underworld.

Dido

The queen of Carthage; she falls so in love with Aeneas that when he is compelled to leave her realm and seek his ultimate destiny, she vows undying hatred between her descendants and his, and in the end she will take her own life. In the Underworld Aeneas will meet her for the last time, but she refuses to speak to him

Iambe

The servant of Celeus and Metaneira, whose jests lighten Demeter's grief

Demophoon

The son of Celeus and Metaneira; Demeter tries to immortalize him, but refuses to continue when interrupted by Metaneira, who thinks the goddess meant to harm her son. Demophoön is sometimes confused with Triptolemus, who is given the great commission to spread the rites of Demeter to the world

Telesterion

The special sacred enclosure at Eleusis, in which the Greater Mysteries are prerformed; it literally means "the place for the rites."

Cerberus

The three-headed hound of Hades.

Hades

The world of the dead and the god who rules that realm; literally the word means "the unseen one."

Nekuia

Title refers to Homer's Odyssey Book 11, which details Odysseus' journey to the land of the dead; Nekuia was the rite by which the dead were summoned and questioned about the future.

hiera

Translated literally as "sacred things," it can refer to any ritual offering or implement; in the mystery cult, especially at Eleusis, it refers to the final revelation of god in the ritual.

mithraeum

Underground chapels for the worship of the Persian Mithras

Orphism

is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices[1] originating in the Ancient Greek and Hellenistic world,[2] as well as by the Thracians,[3] associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into the Greek underworld and returned

Eurydice

Wife of Orpheus who died but was permitted to return, provided Orpheus did not look upon her while they were ascending to the upper world; unfortunately Orpheus looks back, and Eurydice must return to the Underworld

orcus

another word for underworld in latin "the place that confines"

Serapis

is a Graeco-Egyptian god. The cult of Serapis was introduced during the 3rd century BC on the orders of Ptolemy I of Egypt[1] as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his realm. The god was depicted as Greek in appearance, but with Egyptian trappings, and combined iconography from a great many cults, signifying both abundance and resurrection

seth

is a god of the desert, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Sēth (Σήθ).

Cybele ("Great Mother of the Gods") and Attis

was the ancient Phrygian Mother of the Gods, a primal nature goddess worshipped with orgiastic rites in the mountains of central and western Anatolia. The Greeks identified her with their own mother of the gods--the Titaness Rhea.

Greater Mysteries

were held annually during the months of September and October and involved various festivities and a procession to the town of Eleusis, about 14 miles west of Athens. Thus began a formal ceremony lasting 9 days and ending with a return home to Athens.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

were the religion and ceremonies centered around the worship of Demeter and her daughter Kore or Persephone. The death and rebirth of vegetation is seen as a metaphor for spiritual resurrection and, as deified in the Two Goddesses, suggests a belief in an afterlife. Thus the Mysteries promised a happy afterlife to its initiates. All those who could speak Greek (except murderers) were eligible to become initiates. Initiates included women and slaves as well as some Roman emperors.