Eleusinian mysteries

American  

plural noun

1. the mysteries, celebrated annually at Eleusis and Athens in ancient times, in memory of the abduction and return of Persephone and in honor of Demeter and Bacchus.

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Eleusinian mysteries British  

plural noun

1. a mystical religious festival, held in September at Eleusis in classical times, in which initiates celebrated Persephone, Demeter, and Dionysus

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Etymology

Origin of Eleusinian mysteries

First recorded in 1635–45

Example Sentences

This most female of novels is calculated to make the male reader feel like an involuntary voyeur, as if he had blundered into a contemporary version of the Eleusinian mysteries.

From Time Magazine Archive

To most credit users the operations of the Fed are as incomprehensible as the Eleusinian mysteries.

From Time Magazine Archive

Greece, Scene of the famed Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece lies 14 miles northwest of Athens.

From Time Magazine Archive

Initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, he was admitted into the college of the Eumolpidae and became hierophant.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 8 "Ethiopia" to "Evangelical Association" by Various

The twelve labours imposed upon Heracles appear in a higher light when we remember that before the last and most difficult one, he is initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries.

From Christianity As Mystical Fact And The Mysteries of Antiquity by Collison, Harry