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Modern Description: The archaeological site is visitable during normal site hours. There is a small museum atop the hill. The Eleusinian cult probably dates back to the Mycenaean age (1500-1400 BC) and as time passed it acquired an increasingly official and organized character.
The sanctuary is entered today, as in antiquity, through a large paved court (2nd century AD) where three roads terminated: the Sacred Way (Hiera Hodos) from Athens, the road from Megara and the road from the harbour. The court was bounded by two porticoes and two triumphal arches, copies of Hadrian's Arch in Athens. In the middle of the court are the surviving crepis of the Doric temple of Artemis Propylaia and Poseidon Pater (2nd century BC) and the marble altars to them. The formal entrance to the sanctuary was the Great Propylaia, a copy of the Propylaia on the Acropolis at Athens. Beside it is the Kallichoron well (6th century BC), around which cult dances were performed. People entered the sanctuary proper via a smaller court and the Lesser Propylaia, which is distinguished for its refined decoration. To the W of these various ancillary buildings have been revealed, such as a granary area (6th century BC), the Roman Prytaneion and the sacred house of the Kerykes (2nd century AD).
In the sanctuary proper the triangular peribolos of the Plutoneion, with a small temple of the 4th century BC overlying an earlier one of the 6th century BC, survives. Next to it is a stepped exedra for rituals and the foundations of the temple of Hekate, cut in the bedrock. In the same area is the so-called 'mirthless stone', a rocky outcrop on which tradition has it that the sorrowful Demeter sat down to rest. The site is dominated by the most important building in the sanctuary, the Telesterion. This is a square edifice with 42 interior columns to uphold the roof and steps all round the walls to accommodate the initiates attending the Mysteries. At the centre was the palace (anaktoron) with the sacred symbols of the goddess. The ruins visible today belong to the 4th-century BC Telesterion, but its Archaic and Classical phases have been found in excavation. Important architects are known to have worked on its design at various times, such as Iktinos, Koroibos, Metagenes and Xenokles. In the 4th century BC a hypostyle stoa was added by the architect Philon. Other buildings that have been excavated are the bouleuterion (4th century BC), the gymnasium, different stoas, storerooms, a temple in honour of Empress Faustina and a Mithraion. Baths, hospices, fountains and cisterns have been found outside the sanctuary. Graves of various period have been investigated (the finds are in the local museum).
The sanctuary was pillaged by the Kostovoks in AD 170 and almost totally destroyed by the Goths under Alarich in AD 395.
Wikidata ID: Q94299853
Trismegistos Geo: 10345

Info: Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean

(Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean, Ministry of the Aegean)

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