Links between the City Eleusinion and the Sanctuary at Eleusis

Besides the physical link of the Sacred Way, the ritual link between the City Eleusinion in central Athens and the sanctuary at Eleusis resulted in administrative and architectural links. The two sanctuaries were administered by the same Eleusinian officials throughout their history, so that in effect the branch in Athens “belonged” to Eleusis, and preserved financial accounts (where expenditures in both places are sometimes recorded in one account) and many other inscriptions attest to their close relationship. In some instances, two copies of important inscriptions were made, one to be set up at Eleusis and the other in the City Eleusinion; this is attested in the inscriptions themselves.21

In Agora XXXI, I described what has been uncovered so far of the City Eleusinion, excavated mostly in the 1930s and 1950s. A series of successive walls and doors set apart the forecourt of the sanctuary from the Panathenaic Way. In the center of the forecourt area is an Ionic Temple of Triptolemos, built in the first half of the fifth century B. C.E. On the south side was a Hellenistic stoa, perhaps a gift from a devotee in the second century B. C.E. When that stoa was constructed a new, modest propylon from the Panathenaic Way into the forecourt was also constructed. The main part of the sanctuary extends to the east under modern Plaka and remains unexcavated, although its eastern limit was found in recent excavations of the Street of the Tripods.22 The forecourt area was publicly accessible and a place where inscriptions were posted, and some dedications set up.

What I have concluded from studying the excavated remains in Athens is that the history of architectural construction in one of the sanctuaries is often mirrored in the other, since the prosperity or donation that allowed embellishment of one often naturally extended to the other. After the fifth century b. c.e., only in the period of Roman domination of Greece did the sanctuaries at Eleusis and Athens receive such concentrated embellishment and new architectural features. Such appreciation of the by then very old and venerable shrines and traditional ceremonies shows a heightened sense of respect and desired connection with the distant classical past in a period marked by cultural nostalgia for the fifth century b. c.e.

The ornamental propyla built in the Roman period at each end of the route for the Eleusinian procession functioned as marked transitional zones, from the freely accessible (public roads) to the highly limited inner sanctuaries. While all propyla in Greek sanctuaries perform this function to some degree, because of the intense secrecy and security surrounding the Eleusinian sanctuaries, the propyla for the City Eleusinion and Eleusis took on heightened functions of control. As in other propyla, the timing of the flow of visitors and devotees was controlled, and the entrance gate reminded them of the transition into the deity’s property, along with necessary restrictions on behavior. In addition, the Eleusinian propyla barred many people, since only those initiated or about to be initiated could pass through, on pain of death.23 The two propyla of the Roman period were decorated on their outer, publicly visible faces with items emblematic of the Mysteries that were used in rituals and carried in the procession, and hence could be shown.