CHAP. XV. LESSER MYSTERIES, 325 



and Pollux desired to be initiated, they were first 

 made citizens of Athens.* Nor were they ad- 

 mitted to the greater mysteries^ but only to the 

 less, which were sacred to Proserpine, and were 

 instituted for this purpose, in order that the laws 

 might not be violated by the admission of Her- 

 cules." They were not celebrated, like the former, 

 in the month Boedromion, at Eleusis (an Attic 

 borough, from which Ceres was called Eleusinia), 

 but at Agrse, a place near the river Ilissus, in the 

 month Anthesterion. " In latter times, the lesser 

 festival was used as a preparative to the greater ; 

 for no persons were initiated in the greater, unless 

 they had been purified at the lesser. The manner 

 of the purification was this : — having kept them- 

 selves chaste and unpolluted nine days, they came 

 and offered sacrifices and prayers, wearing crowns 

 and garlands of flowers, which were called la-ix.sf^a, 

 or ijOLspa. They had also, under their feet, Aiog 

 xcohov, ' Jupiter's skin,' which was the skin of a 

 victim offered to that God. The person that as- 

 sisted them herein was called vofiuvog, from uocup, 

 * water,' which was used at most purifications ; 

 and they themselves were named [jLua-rai, or per- 

 sons ' initiated.* 



" About a year after, having sacrificed a sow to 

 Ceres, they were admitted to the greater mysteries, 

 the secret rites of which, some few excepted 

 (being reserved for the priests alone), were frankly 

 revealed to them ; whence they were. called s'pof'Oi, 



* " Plut. in Thes." 



Y 3 



