If the Athenians excelled at something, it was the introduction of new cults in Athens and their transformation into eminently Athenian religious experiences. The local cult of Dionysus in Eleutherae, on the bo…
The Hymn to Demeter is a typical example of the basic structure of Orphic poems. In contrast to the Homeric Hymn, the poem is short and avoids references to the rape of Persephone and the founding of the Myster…
For those heading to Eleusis, the Thriasian Plain stretches to the right of the Sacred Way. It is a large and fertile plain enclosed by Mount Pateras to the west, Cithaeron to the north, and Parnitha to the nor…
The northern entrance of the precinct has always been the main access point to the sanctuary of Demeter. In the Roman period, when there was a general trend of architectural grandeur and impressive decoration o…
When Demeter arrived at the palace of Celeus, her hosts offered red wine. This was considered the quintessential civilised drink, while nectar was the paramount refreshment of the gods. While struggling with th…
Eumolpus was the son of Poseidon and Chione, daughter of Oreithyia, who was a daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens. Boreas, the north wind, carried off Oreithyia from Athens to Thrace. According to Apollodoru…
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is one of the largest of its kind and the oldest surviving text referring to the primordial worship of the goddess. It is a long poem that narrates the actions and adventures of Deme…
Zeus is the most famous ancient Greek deity. King of gods and humans, he is also the god of the sky, law, order, fate, and protector of kings. His beard, lightning bolt, and eagle make him a familiar divine fac…
At the edge of the hill above the Telesterion, next to the church of Panagia Mesosporitissa, stood another temple for which essential information is scarce. It is conventionally known as Temple L110 or the Temp…
The Greater Propylaea
The Greater Propylaea is a copy of the monumental propylaea designed by Mnesikles for the Acropolis of Athens. The only essential differences (apart from the quality in the construction, w…
The celebration of the Greater Mysteries began on the 14th of Boedromion with the official conveyance of the sacred objects of the cult from Eleusis to Athens. The sacred objects remained for most of the year i…
In the early 360s, the Armenian Christian teacher and rhetorician Prohaeresius asked the hierophant in Eleusis to predict the duration of the measures adopted by Emperor Julian against the Christians. There is …
It is almost impossible today to appreciate the impression that Elaionas gave once upon a time. It was a seemingly vast forest of olive trees to the west of the city (from today's Peristeri to Faliro) with exte…
Heracles was the quintessential hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene. He was the greatest Greek hero, founder of royal houses and defender of order against many chthonic monsters that threatened…
In the fourth century, worshippers began dedicating reliefs showing themselves and their families in the presence of the goddesses of Eleusis. The relief of Lacrateides is a typical example and one of the fasci…
The Lesser Mysteries was a religious celebration held in the month of Anthesterion (February-March) at the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore in Agra. According to the mythological tradition, the festival was establ…
The outer courtyard of the sanctuary is, in essence, the end of the Sacred Way and a place where a large number of visitors could gather to attend events open to the uninitiated. It has an irregular shape with …
myEleusis' virtual museum is primarily aimed at three user groups.
Browsing the virtual museum:
Visitors to myEleusis can browse the 3D exhibits of the Eleusis archaeological museum. They can learn about and in…
The team from the "Athena" Research Center presented the design, content, and architecture of the serious game "Three gods in Eleusis" in a paper presented at the PCI2021 conference.
Using WebGL technology, the…
At the point where the Sacred Way emerges from the narrow pass of Daphni, travellers and mystai came upon the Rheitoi lakes, the traditional border between Eleusis and Athens. The Rheitoi lakes were supplied by…
It is the 20th of Boedromion in the year 160 CE. It's late at night, following the celebration of the arrival of the initiates from Athens to Eleusis at the Demeter and Kore sanctuary. Claudius the Phaidyntes, …
Could the Eleusinian Mysteries be contained on a single website? Yes, and we know because we're making it happen! myEleusis.web aspires to include everything we know about the Eleusinian cult, archaeological di…
Hades was the god of the dead. He was the son of Kronos and Rhea and the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. The three brothers divided the universe into three parts. Zeus received the vast heavens, Poseidon inherite…
Since the beginning of the modern world, people have been using the tools at their disposal for historical and archaeological research, for the documentation, preservation or restoration purposes and to represe…
Aeschylus was born in 525 BCE in Eleusis. According to tradition, his father, Euphorion, was a priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries and other family members served as hereditary priests. Aeschylus fought bravely …
General description
myEleusis.GA is a playful navigation application at the archaeological site of Eleusis developed by Communications & Information Technologies Experts S.A. (CITE) for myEleusis. myEleus…
What was Straton’s monument, how is it related to Aspropyrgos, and why was it built there?
Who was Pythioniki and who built an extravagant cenotaph in her honour? What did Pausanias have to say about it?
The El…
The Kallichoron well is one of the oldest landmarks of Eleusis. According to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, after wandering for ten days searching for Persephone, the goddess arrived in Eleusis disguised as an ol…
The virtual museum, developed for myEleusis by the “Athena” Research Centre, is a unique and innovative system that will provide users with various possibilities. The main quality that resides in the experience…
The Greek historian Plutarch revealed that the Athenians celebrated three annual sacred ploughings. The first took place upon a spot called Scirum or Skiron, the second in the Rharian field near Eleusis, and th…
The subsystem myEleusis.Repo is based on similar projects -national and international- on which the researchers of “Athena” Research Centre have worked in the past. State of the art technology regarding digital…
In 415 BCE, Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, was at the height of his power and influence. An extraordinary soul and an embodiment of the pursuit of worldly power, according to Plato, Alcibiades was a prominent Ath…
“Three Gods in Eleusis”, a serious game developed for myEleusis by the "Athena" Research Centre, turns players into digital visitors of the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, as well as the archaeological site and …
The oldest confirmed settlement of Eleusis was founded around 2000 BCE on the top of the hill, which rises above the sanctuary of Demeter. The buildings were elongated megaron-type or rectangular, vaulted const…
The sanctuary of Aphrodite in the district known as Aphaia Skaramangas is, without a doubt, one of the most impressive and recognisable monuments preserved along the Sacred Way. It is located about 1500 metres …
Designing a website is not a simple task. A website, today, needs to meet certain criteria in order to be - not only user friendly - but, also, comprehensible, informative, attractive and aesthetically pleasing…
The hierophant was the chief priest of the cult of Demeter and the only mortal who had the right to enter the Anaktoron. His appointment was for life, but only members of the family of Eumolpidae were eligible …
The “Athena” Research Center team is developing myEleusis.AR, which is utilising augmented reality technologies, for the in situ digital reconstruction of the monuments of the archaeological site of Eleusis.
Th…
The statue of the Fleeing Maiden depicts a female figure moving forcefully to the left. Made of Pentelic marble, the statue was found in 1924 near the Sacred House. The figure is smaller than life-size since it…
myEleusis.GA is a playful navigation application at the Archaeological Site of Eleusis developed by Communications & Information Technologies Experts S.A. (CITE) for myEleusis project. Modern programming la…
An absolute veil of secrecy covered the Mysteries. According to the Homeric Hymn, goddess Demeter instructed the people of Eleusis not to investigate or violate or publicise the content of the ceremonies she ta…
What makes an interactive map a success?
Interactive maps are increasingly entering the field of culture, adding new value to sites of contemporary cultural production and cultural heritage.
Within myEleusis, M…
The crushing defeat of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War (404 BCE) ushered into a long period of political and social unrest. Eleusis found itself at the centre of a civil war between the supporters of…
The virtual museum myEleusis.VM, which is being implemented within myEleusis project, includes the exhibits of the archaeological Museum of Eleusis in 3D digitized form.
myEleusis.VM utilizes text and multimed…
The Ninnion Tablet is the only original extant work of art that definitely represents the Eleusinian Mysteries’ initiation rites. The torches, the branches of myrtle tied with strands of wool (bakchoi), the myr…
The digital repository, myEleusis.Repo, was designed by the “Athena” Research Centre team in Xanthi. It is implemented by Kostas Stavroglou, head of the ΙΤ Department (Xanthi branch), and scientific associate M…
The antithesis of light and shadow defines the path of Demeter and Persephone to a great degree in the myth. The light introduces gods to the world and announces their arrival, epiphany, or departure. When Deme…
Within the myEleusis.SG subsystem, the team of the “Athena” Research Centre (researchers specializing in computer science and archaeologists) in collaboration with the archaeologists of the Ephorate of Antiquit…
The pomegranate belongs to the essential symbols of the Eleusinian Mysteries and is intimately identified with Persephone. When Zeus ordered Hades to allow Kore to return to her mother Demeter, the one with the…
The myEleusis.PS digital experience, developed by the Narralive team of the “Athena” Research Center, takes place in ancient Eleusis in 160 CE. The story begins on the night of the arrival of the Sacred Process…
Famine was a constant threat hanging over the leads of ancient agricultural communities. Lousy weather, war and plunder, or a severe pandemic could destroy the crops and condemn the citizens of a town or region…
In recent decades, new technologies have been more and more applied in every aspect of our daily lives. The sciences - the hard ones as well as the humanities - have not remained unaffected.
The field of cultu…
The term Augmented Reality refers to the enrichment of the real (physical) world with synthetic/virtual information (texts, multimedia, 3D objects etc), which is digitally produced. To put it simply, the user c…
Entering the Telesterion was a stunning moment for the initiates. After all these weeks of preparation, it was finally time to become acquainted with the most profound secrets of Demeter’s rituals. Unfortunatel…
myEleusis.GA is a playful navigation application at the archaeological site of Eleusis developed by Communications & Information Technologies Experts SA. (CITE). It is an alternative to the well-known treas…
The quest of Demeter for her daughter lasted for days. It was exhausting and pointless. Nobody seemed to know what had happened to Persephone. Finally, after nine days of a fruitless search, the goddess came to…
myEleusis.MAP is an application that is implemented within the myEleusis project, seeking to transfer the passer-by or the visitors of the area to the atmosphere of the Eleusinian Mysteries era. Following the r…
Virtual Reality (VR) is a simulated experience, created via computers and technological means, in which users may immerse themselves and perform actions that were previously impossible. Virtual Reality technolo…
The Mithraeum to the south of the Sacred House commemorates a period of religious crisis throughout the Roman Empire. Since the establishment of the sanctuary, Demeter and Persephone were the sole recipients of…
What is a digital repository and what is it used for in a digital archeology project such as myEleusis, which is being developed for the archeological site of the sanctuary of Demeter in Eleusis?
In order to an…
“Its shape is peculiar and its use not at all clear”. Thus did the archaeologist Dimitrios Philios attempt to describe to the readers of the Archaeologiki Ephimeris (Archaeological Gazette) a series of strange …
The myEleusis research project aims to introduce a wide audience to the Eleusinian Mysteries. A lot of effort goes into reaching people who do not normally visit an archeological site or are not aware of the ar…
The myEleusis.PS digital experience will be available through the Story Player interactive digital storytelling software, developed by the “Athena” Research Center Narralive team.
An “Interactive” narrative en…
Sound-minded Triptolemus is among the most prominent protagonists of the myths associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries. He is also one of the most elusive. His genealogy is ambiguous, with various ancient writ…
As we waited anxiously for the fall to finally arrive and bring some relief from the brutal summer we experienced, the team of myEleusis gathered at the MENTOR offices in Eleusis for the project’s first annual …
