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

See Examples For:

Eleusinian mysteries

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

During the 5th and 4th centuries b.c. the office of daduchus or torch-bearer at the Eleusinian mysteries was the hereditary privilege of the family till its extinction.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 1 "Calhoun" to "Camoens" by Various

No great cultic association like the Eleusinian mysteries was created in connection with it, but the echo of the conception appears in the great rôle later assigned to Isis.

From Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV by Jastrow, Morris