ELEUSIS, a small city of Attica about fourteen miles north-west of Athens, occupying the eastern part of a rocky ridge close to the shore opposite the island of Salamis. Like most of the other cities of Greece, its origin is ascribed to various fabulous characters, and, among these, to Ogyges, a fact which at least proves it to be of the highest antiquity. In the earlier period of its history it seems to have been an independent rival of Athens, and it was afterwards reckoned one of the twelve Old Attic cities. A considerable portion of its small territory was •occupied by the plains of Thria, noticeable for their fertility, though the hopes of the husbandmen were not unfrequently disappointed by the blight of the south wind. To the west was the Campus Rharius, ∏∈δiov ’ Pαpιov, or Rharian Plain, where Demeter is said to have sown the first seeds of corn; in the midst of the Campus was the Kαλλiχopov φpiap, a well rouud which the Eleusinian matrons are said at first to have danced in honour of the goddess; and on its confines was the field called Orgas, planted with trees consecrated to Demeter and Proserpine. To the traveller approaching by the Sacred Way from the east the first building that presented itself was the temple of Triptolemus, the site of which is now occupied by the little church of St Zacharias; and next came a temple dedicated to Artemis Propylaea and Poseidon, constructed entirely of Pentelic marble. Entrance into the outer peribolos, or inclosure, of the great temple of the mysteries was obtained by means of a portico built in imitation of the propylaea of the Athenian citadel; into the inner peribolos by another dedicated by the consul Appius Claudius Pulcher, in 54 b.c., and executed by his nephew Claudius Pulcher and Marcius Rex. The ...