PLATE L
Mystic Rites at Eleusis
The proper order of analysis of this scene proceeds from left to right. First, one observes a gnarled and twisted tree, the sacred laurel which keeps evil influences away from the sanctuary. Next, there is an altar from which rises a flame surrounded by a circle of fruits. The first two human figures are the youthful Iakchos and Demeter, the latter seated on a fawn-skin spread over the so-called mystic chest, about which a serpent has wound its coils. The headless female figure next in order is Kore, in the rôle of divine hierophant, who with lowered torches is cleansing the soil just as Demeter purifies the air with a flame held aloft. On the throne of expiation sits the initiate with veiled head and resting his feet on the sanctifying fleece of a ram, while before him a male hierophant bows over a low altar on which the flesh of the ram is being burned, and with his right hand pours water on the fire. On the opposite side stands Dionysos grasping a torch, and at the same time pouring a liquid, probably wine, from a kantharos upon the flame of the altar. Behind the god is a female divinity who is doubtless to be identified as Hekate. From a relief on a marble sarcophagus found at Torre Nuova (RMitt. xxv, Plate I). See pp. 231-32.
