Eleusis
Eleusis(see map: Greece and the Aegean world), the most famous deme (local district: see democracy, Athenian) in Athens after Piraeus, on a land-locked bay with a rich plain, was a strong prehistoric settlement but merged with Athens sometime before the 7th cent. bc. Its hill (called Akris) and sanctuary were enclosed by fortification walls in the late 6th cent., and it became one of the three main fortresses for the defence of western Attica (with Panakton and Phyle). There was an important theatre of Dionysus there, and the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore (see Persephone) was the site of many festivals of local or national importance (Eleusinia, Thesmophoria, Proerosia, Haloa, Kalamaia), but the fame of Eleusis was due primarily to the annual festival of the mysteries, which attracted...
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