/on-some-mystifying-language-used-by-pausanias-in-referring-the-eleusinian-mysteries/


Pausanias's drōmena at Eleusis are at least vaguely reminiscent of the drama mystikon "mystic drama" at Eleusis mentioned by Clement of Alexandria in section 2.12 of his Protrepticus:

“[Demeter] and Kore have become by now a mystic drama, and Eleusis holds the torch over the wanderings and the rape and the grief of the two”.

If the connection between Pausanias's and Clement's texts were correct, the drōmena which Pausanias refrains from describing may be identified with the dramatic representation described by Clement and other Christian authors, who did not share Pausanias's respect for the secrecy of the mysteries, see:

– Gregory of Nazianzus, Orationes 39.4

“Among us (Christians) Kore is not carried off, nor does Demeter wander and bring in Celeus’es and Triptolemus’es and snakes, and perform some acts and undergo others"

– Lactantius, Divinae institutiones, Epitome, 18.7

"Persephone is sought with lighted torches, and when she is found the whole rite concludes with celebration and throwing of torches".

For an overview of the scholarship on the "mystic drama" at Eleusis, see for instance:

– Chapter 15 "Eleusinian festivals" (from which the translations of the Christian authors quoted above are adapted) of Parker, R. 2005. Polytheism and Society at Athens. Oxford.

– Chapter 1 "Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries" of Bremmer, J. N. 2014. Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World. Berlin/Boston.