Trivia Question For Classicists

‘The presence of the peplos at the centre of the east frieze flanked by the gods seems to indicate that the procession is that of the Panathenaic festival. Outside this central image, however, it could be argued that the procession is a generic one with no specific reference to any one festival. The horsemen, chariots and various pedestrian figures could be collectively emblematic of all Athenian festivals; and the presence of all the major gods suggests that such a general, abstract idea of celebration was intended. Attempts to see it otherwise and to make the frieze a pictorial record of the Panathenaic procession will always show up a mismatch between the procession of the frieze and that of the collected literary sources that document the festival.’ [Ian Jenkins, Greek Architecture and Its Sculpture (2006), 105]

I’m only up on the major authors, and the only locus I recall that might bear on this question is in Herodotus VIII, 65. A bit before the battle of Salamis, a group of philomede Greeks is riding near Eleusis when they see a great cloud of dust, such as might be raised by an army of 30,000 marching across the plain, coming at them from Eleusis. They hear as well the sound of many voices coming out of this cloud. The Athenian exile in the group interprets this as a portent, and it’s presented as the obvious interpretation that would occur only to the Athenian in this group. The sound is the Iacchus Song, which is what the initiates sing on their way back from Eleusis. The portent is that whichever direction the cloud goes — towards the isthmus where the Persian army has marched, or towards Athens and Salamis where the Persian fleet has gone — that Persian force is doomed.

This ties in to one of the little pet theories with which Herodotus litters the Histories. He later makes a point that the battles at Plataea and Mycale, with which he ends his account of the Persian expulsion from Greece, both occur right next to temple grounds of the Eleusinian Demeter. This goddess seems to have a serious case of the ass against the Persians, or at least Persians invading Greece. Note to self — if you ever invade Greece, be careful to avoid ground sacred to the Eleusinian Demeter.

To get back to the point after an anecdotal excursion in the style of Herodotus, we have a huge procession from Eleusis, that is part of a festival, but which festival is not specified. It’s not even clear the procession always goes from its origin in Eleusis to Athens, as at least the portent version can go either towards the Isthmus or in the other direction towards Athens. It’s also not clear to me that the Mysteries and the Panathenaic festival or procession go together, as I’m not sure that the Mysteries weren’t esoteric, and therefore something you would not make part of a public celebration. Of course, the mention of a dust cloud that might be raised by a procession of 30,000 makes you think that maybe the Mysteries weren’t so esoteric, if there were really that many initiates every year — but perhaps the monstrously large number is intended as one of the strange and terrifying aspects of the portent. The final objection is that this anecdote Herodotus tells doesn’t make it seem like being on the receiving end of this procession is a good thing, so it’s not something you would make part of a civic event. But I guess that’s a professional hazard of dealing with chthonic goddesses, and maybe it’s only bad juju if you’re a foreigner invading the scared soil, but good juju if you’re Athens.

Carol is correct, the procession started at the Pompeion by the Dipylon Gate.

On the general subject of trudging (since I couldn’t tell if that was part of your query, and in any case, folks might be interested): people used to walk a lot, including distances that today most of us couldn’t imagine walking unless rambling/hiking for pleasure. For instance, Andocides in On the Mysteries explains how a certain Diocleides happened to witness in the pre-dawn hours a conspiratorial group meeting in the Theater of Dionysus (the translation is by Maidment, via Perseus):
“[38]
Diocleides’ tale was that he had had to fetch the earnings of a slave of his at Laurium.1 He arose at an early hour, mistaking the time, and started off on his walk by the light of a fuIl moon. As he was passing the gateway of the theatre of Dionysus, he noticed a large body of men coming down into the orchestra from the Odeum.2 In alarm, he withdrew into the shadow and crouched down between the column and the pedestal with the bronze statue of the general upon it. He then saw some three hundred men standing about in groups of five and ten and, in some cases, twenty. He recognized the faces of the majority, as he could see them in the moonlight.”

I quote more than necessary because it’s such a great story. Anyway, here’s a prosperous Athenian preparing to walk 60 km to Laurion (the distance Wikipedia’s Laurium article gives, and that sounds right to me — it’s a serious bus ride today), or about 37 miles. There’s lots of other anecdotal evidence of this sort in surviving Greek and Latin literature (and in the bible, too): people walked great distances by today’s standards. (Evidence for same in rural New England as recently as a hundred years ago, btw.)

Which is to say, whichever directions and from whatever precise starting points various religious processions made their way, it seems likely that large numbers of people, and not just token groups of worshippers, would have processed, most of them on foot, distances that seem absurdly long to us today. (You can imagine why the idea of “stations” developed — places to stop and rest along the way.)

*Sheepishly raising hand* I wrote that article, and checking sources it seems you’re quite right I’ve erroneously conflated the Elusian way with the Panathenaic way. Robertson Athena’s Shrines an Festivals in Neils Worshipping Athena p.58 identifies the mustering point as “a city gate at the northwest” – probably the Dipylon gate from the late archaic onwards. The early archaic parade and the procession of myth may have taken another route.

The article could do with an overhaul, preferably by someone fresher from the books.

“… as I’m not sure that the Mysteries weren’t esoteric, and therefore something you would not make part of a public celebration.” The rites for Demeter at Eleusis were not esoteric if “esoteric” supposes that only a few people participated in them or learned the secrets associated with them. For many centuries, large numbers of Greeks (male, female, free, slave), not least Athenians, were initiated into the Eleusinian cult at least at the basic level, so whatever “secrets” the initiates became privy to were open secrets shared with many others. The Athenian state, in cooperation with officials and priests at Eleusis, oversaw/managed the Eleusinian cult, as it did related cults whose rites were conducted at other times of the year, often in different places. Same true for other Greek cities. Same true for other “mystery” cults (e.g., for Dionysus, for Demeter in the Thesmophoria). The modern confusion caused by the use of the term “mystery” has led some scholars to suggest we avoid the term altogether.

Meredith,

While the existence of the Mysteries was definitely no secret, there clearly were mysteries to it that the initiated were definitely not supposed to reveal to the uninitiated, on pain of death. Even if Athens had public ceremonies connected to various stages of the annual rites connected to the cult, it’s not clear to me that this mystery cult of a chthonic deity would have been something the ancients would have felt comfortable mixing in with the exoteric worship of the Panathenaion.

Not that I feel at all confident making such judgments on their behalf. I’m a New Orleanian, and the weird cult practices people feel comfortable grafting onto Mardi Gras parades still surprises me despite growing up with the whole Creole gemisch.