Re-crafting the Past: The Complex Relationship between Myth and Ritual in the Contemporary Pagan Reshaping of Eleusis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v10i2.230Keywords:
Neopaganism, Eleusis, myth, ritual,Abstract
Modern Pagans belonging to different traditions re-craft the Eleusinian mysteries and the myth of Demeter and Persephone on the Web. The author suggests that there may exist, in contemporary Paganism, a close, nuanced, and complex relationship between mythical narrative and rituals— in other words, between symbolic system (myth, gods, symbols), and embodied knowledge (gained through ritual and personal life experience). In the paper, such close relationship is uncovered by exploring how the myth of Demeter and the initiation at Eleusis are presented by the ancient sources, how recent academic and literary studies have reshaped them, and how the myth and the ritual are re-told and talked about on contemporary Pagan websites.References
Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America Today. New York: Beacon, 1986.
Brelich, Angelo. Paides e Parthenoi. Roma: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1969.
———. “Aspetti religiosi del dramma greco.” Dioniso 39 (1965): 82-94.
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion Archaic and Classical. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985.
Campbell, Joseph. Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. New York: Viking Press, 1959.
Caputi, Jane. “On psychic Activism: Feminist Myth Making.” In The Feminist Companion to Mythology, edited by Carolyne Larrington, 425-438. London: Pandora Press, 1992.
Christ, Carol P. “Why Women need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections.” In The Politics of Women’s spirituality, edited by Charlene Spretnak, 71-86. New York: Doubleday, 1982.
Cross, Amanda. An Imperfect Spy. Virago Press, 1996.
Debrida, Bella. “Drawing from Mythology in Women’s Quest for Selfhood.” In The Politics of Women’s spirituality, edited by Charlene Spretnak, 138-151. New York: Doubleday, 1982.
Eliade, Mircea, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1986, s.v. “Sacrifice. Sacrifice as Re-enactment of Primordial Events” by Joseph Henninger.
Eliade, Mircea. A History of religious Ideas Vol.1, From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian mysteries. London: Collins, 1979-Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Foley, Helene P. “A Question of Origins: Goddess Cults Greek and Modern.” Women’s Studies23.3 (1994): 193-215.
Gadon, Elinor. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time. Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1990.
Griffin, Wendy. “The Embodied Goddess: Feminist Witchcraft and Female Divinity” Sociology of Religion 56.1 (1995 ): 35-48. doi:10.2307/3712037
Ingram, Penelope, “From Goddess Spirituality to Irigaray’s Angel: the Politics of the divine.” Feminist Review66 (Autumn 2000): 46-72. doi:10.1080/014177800440239
Jung, Carl Gustav and Carl Kerenyi. Introductionto a Science of Mythology: The myth of the divine Child and the mysteries of Eleusis. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951.
Keller, Mara Lynn. “The Eleusinian mysteries: Ancient Nature Religion of Demeter and Persephone.” In Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, edited by Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, 41-51. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1990.
Lefkowitz, Mary R. “The New Cults of the Goddess.” American Scholar .2 (1993): 261-268.
MacWilliams, Mark W. “Virtual Pilgrimages on the Internet.” Religion33.4 (2002): 315-335. doi:10.1006/reli.2002.0408
Martin, Luther H. Hellenistic Religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Thomas R. Martin. An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander Athenian Religious and Cultural Life in the Golden Age: The Outlines of Greek Religion in the Classical Period. 1998-2006. Perseus Digital Library, http://www. perseus.tufts.edu/Secondary/TRM_Overview/readers.
Monaghan, Patricia. The Goddess Path: Myths, Invocations & Rituals. St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 1999.
Parker, Robert. Athenian Religion A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
Pike, Sarah M. Earthly Bodies Magical Selves Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
———. Review of The Narcissus and the Pomegranate: An Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, by Ann Suter. The Pomegranate 7.1 (2005): 108-111.
Purkiss, Diane. “Women’s Rewriting of Myth.” In The Feminist Companion to Mythology, edited by Carolyne Larrington, 441-457. London: Pandora Press, 1992.
Ruck, Carl A. Albert Hofmann, R. Gordon Wasson, Jeremy Bigwood, Jonathan Ott, Carl A. P. Ruck, Huston Smith, and Danny Staples. The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.
Sabbatucci, Dario. Il Mito, il Rito e la Storia. Roma: Bulzoni, 1978.
Smith, Barbara. “Greece.” In The Feminist Companion to Mythology, edited by Carolyne Larrington, 65-101. London, Pandora Press, 1992.
Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of early Greece: a collection of pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992, 1984, c1978.
Stehle, Eva. “Thesmophoria and Eleusinian Mysteries: The Fascination of Women’s Secret Ritual.” In Finding Persephone: Women’s Rituals In The Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Maryline Parca and Angeliki Tzanetou, 165-88, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Suter, Ann. The Narcissus and the Pomegranate: An Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Tupman, Tracy W. Theatre Magick: Aleister Crowley and the Rites of Eleusis. PhD dissertation, Ohio State University, 2003. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view. cgi?acc_num=osu1054580207.
West, Martin L. trans. Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Lives of Homer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Young, Glenn. “Reading and Praying online. The continuity of Religion Online and Online Religion in Internet Christianity,” In Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, edited by Lorne L. Dawson and Douglas E. Cowan, 93-105. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Voyatzis, Mary E. “From Athena to Zeus: An A-Z Guide to the Origins of Greek Goddesses,” In Ancient Goddesses The Myths and the Evidence, edited by Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris, 132-147. London: British Museum Press, 1998.
Brelich, Angelo. Paides e Parthenoi. Roma: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1969.
———. “Aspetti religiosi del dramma greco.” Dioniso 39 (1965): 82-94.
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion Archaic and Classical. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985.
Campbell, Joseph. Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. New York: Viking Press, 1959.
Caputi, Jane. “On psychic Activism: Feminist Myth Making.” In The Feminist Companion to Mythology, edited by Carolyne Larrington, 425-438. London: Pandora Press, 1992.
Christ, Carol P. “Why Women need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections.” In The Politics of Women’s spirituality, edited by Charlene Spretnak, 71-86. New York: Doubleday, 1982.
Cross, Amanda. An Imperfect Spy. Virago Press, 1996.
Debrida, Bella. “Drawing from Mythology in Women’s Quest for Selfhood.” In The Politics of Women’s spirituality, edited by Charlene Spretnak, 138-151. New York: Doubleday, 1982.
Eliade, Mircea, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1986, s.v. “Sacrifice. Sacrifice as Re-enactment of Primordial Events” by Joseph Henninger.
Eliade, Mircea. A History of religious Ideas Vol.1, From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian mysteries. London: Collins, 1979-Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Foley, Helene P. “A Question of Origins: Goddess Cults Greek and Modern.” Women’s Studies23.3 (1994): 193-215.
Gadon, Elinor. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time. Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1990.
Griffin, Wendy. “The Embodied Goddess: Feminist Witchcraft and Female Divinity” Sociology of Religion 56.1 (1995 ): 35-48. doi:10.2307/3712037
Ingram, Penelope, “From Goddess Spirituality to Irigaray’s Angel: the Politics of the divine.” Feminist Review66 (Autumn 2000): 46-72. doi:10.1080/014177800440239
Jung, Carl Gustav and Carl Kerenyi. Introductionto a Science of Mythology: The myth of the divine Child and the mysteries of Eleusis. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951.
Keller, Mara Lynn. “The Eleusinian mysteries: Ancient Nature Religion of Demeter and Persephone.” In Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, edited by Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, 41-51. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1990.
Lefkowitz, Mary R. “The New Cults of the Goddess.” American Scholar .2 (1993): 261-268.
MacWilliams, Mark W. “Virtual Pilgrimages on the Internet.” Religion33.4 (2002): 315-335. doi:10.1006/reli.2002.0408
Martin, Luther H. Hellenistic Religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Thomas R. Martin. An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander Athenian Religious and Cultural Life in the Golden Age: The Outlines of Greek Religion in the Classical Period. 1998-2006. Perseus Digital Library, http://www. perseus.tufts.edu/Secondary/TRM_Overview/readers.
Monaghan, Patricia. The Goddess Path: Myths, Invocations & Rituals. St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 1999.
Parker, Robert. Athenian Religion A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
Pike, Sarah M. Earthly Bodies Magical Selves Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
———. Review of The Narcissus and the Pomegranate: An Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, by Ann Suter. The Pomegranate 7.1 (2005): 108-111.
Purkiss, Diane. “Women’s Rewriting of Myth.” In The Feminist Companion to Mythology, edited by Carolyne Larrington, 441-457. London: Pandora Press, 1992.
Ruck, Carl A. Albert Hofmann, R. Gordon Wasson, Jeremy Bigwood, Jonathan Ott, Carl A. P. Ruck, Huston Smith, and Danny Staples. The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.
Sabbatucci, Dario. Il Mito, il Rito e la Storia. Roma: Bulzoni, 1978.
Smith, Barbara. “Greece.” In The Feminist Companion to Mythology, edited by Carolyne Larrington, 65-101. London, Pandora Press, 1992.
Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of early Greece: a collection of pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992, 1984, c1978.
Stehle, Eva. “Thesmophoria and Eleusinian Mysteries: The Fascination of Women’s Secret Ritual.” In Finding Persephone: Women’s Rituals In The Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Maryline Parca and Angeliki Tzanetou, 165-88, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Suter, Ann. The Narcissus and the Pomegranate: An Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Tupman, Tracy W. Theatre Magick: Aleister Crowley and the Rites of Eleusis. PhD dissertation, Ohio State University, 2003. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view. cgi?acc_num=osu1054580207.
West, Martin L. trans. Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Lives of Homer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Young, Glenn. “Reading and Praying online. The continuity of Religion Online and Online Religion in Internet Christianity,” In Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, edited by Lorne L. Dawson and Douglas E. Cowan, 93-105. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Voyatzis, Mary E. “From Athena to Zeus: An A-Z Guide to the Origins of Greek Goddesses,” In Ancient Goddesses The Myths and the Evidence, edited by Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris, 132-147. London: British Museum Press, 1998.
Published
2009-04-20
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Bittarello, M. B. (2009). Re-crafting the Past: The Complex Relationship between Myth and Ritual in the Contemporary Pagan Reshaping of Eleusis. Pomegranate, 10(2), 230-255. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v10i2.230
