Eleusinian Mysteries

Part 4.

The Gift of Agriculture and the Eleusinian Mysteries And all-seeing Zeus sent a messenger to them, rich-haired Rhea, to bring dark-cloaked Demeter to join the families of the gods, and he promised to give her what rights she could choose among the deathless gods and agreed that her daughter should go down for the third part of the circling year to darkness and gloom.

before the two parts should live with her mother and the other deathless gods.

Thus he commanded, and the goddess did not disobey the message of Zeus.

It is harvest time.

It is time for all initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries to come forward.

This song offers release.

It is a tale of growth.

Book number one, part two.

Be now the weapons in order due rehearsed, Which, if he lack, the sturdiest husband's man, Sows not, nor gathers, the massy plough the first, The Eleusian mother's labouring van, Rollers and sledges meet for the threshing-floor, And the mattock's cruel weight, and, furthermore, All the light wicker stuff by Celsius wrought, Hurdles of our bute, and, for the winnowing, hyacus mystic fan with long forethought these various tools do thou together bring if that thou wouldst the country's life divine worthily live and call its honours thine but earlier yet even in the forest thou shalt choose a growing elm and mightily bend till thou ishaped a plough-beam for thy plough the eight-foot pole then fastened on to its end the mould boards twain set firm upon either side where the stout beam the sheer head doth divide and sure the linden light thou hast long since felled for the yoke and the lofty beech in its turn laid low for the handle so that from behind impelled thy rusty chariot may freely come and go for hung in the searching smoke this beech and wood winnoweth the vigour hardly to be withstood full many a precept given by them of yore might i deliver would men but hear nor scorn so trivial cares and first of a threshing-floor smooth shall it be by heavy rollers worn and skilfully wrought and packed with cretan clay that never a grass-blade through its chinks find way for the pests that mock thee are manifold small mice build house and granary safely underground owls have their nooks blind moles a couch devise and earth's most villanous creatures most abound the weevil swarms in the stacks and the busy ant toiling and moiling against a winter of want again the forest searched for the walnut tree in the time of bursting leaves and odorous bloom if many flowers have set thou shalt verily see a marvellous threshing after the fierce heats come but if the shadow of leaves alone be thrown the fruit of thy threshing-floor shall be chaff alone there be who plant not till they have steeped their seeds in olive's bitter juices or in lye for so the yield of the dubious pulse exceeds and cooks by a lesser fire yet seen have i the fruit of long and diligent labour lost that which thou gatherest year by year bears most but evermore under a fixed decree waste all things and decline and backwards glide even as far-spent oarsmen thou mayst see holding his boat against an unfriendly tide till the tense arm relax and the current strong hurrieth the unresisting bark along be

it

ours to study with intent as keen arcturus and the glittering dragon and the twin kids dartling weather as e'er hath been theirs who through wild seas come to their own land face gales of pontus or attempt the strait of purple peopled abydos infatuate when libra sways the firmament and hath made equal our slumbering and our waking hours parting the world midway between light and shade ye men of the soil expend your oxen's powers putting in barley till hard upon the time when stubborn winter bringeth its rain and rime and so of the flax and the poppy of seri's love dry the plough briskly cover the grains with mould while the land is dry while the rains yet linger above thee too lucerne the furrow that shall unfold must fallow be and crumbling to dust away while beans are sown ere the ending of the may thy millet be newly planted year by year at the season when the white bull of the gilded horn leads off the signs and sirius doth appear Being by a hostile star of glory shorn, But if thou ask of the land its richer grains, And the bearded wheat alone reward thy pains, The daughter of Atlas ere the dawn shall hide, And the nosean star of the burning crown decline, Or ever the furrow's claim be satisfied, The seed to embrace all undue haste of thine, Trust the year's hope to a soil unready yet, Many there be who will plant ere may a set, but the so desired harvest mocks their wont with hollow ears yet haply if thou dost deign the vetch or the humble kidney bean to plant or the lentil of pelisium signal plain setting booties doth in heaven's display so then until hoary winter's midmost day lo hear the cause wherefore the resplendent sun dividing the dominion of the sky through twelve great signs his high career doth run the zones of heaven are five incessantly one gloweth ruddy under the torrid flame of the flashing orb on either side the same far to the uttermost left and right extend realms darksome with cerulean ice and rain yet the gods willing poor mortals to befriend award them generously midway these twain other twin regions which the sidelong march of the mighty zodiac doth overarch and this our world its scythia ward doth rise as though the dizzy rheapean peaks to climb forth away to the south where afric lies high over the north ascends one pole sublime but the main's tread under foot the neither pole and the inky stygian waters over it roll and there the mighty dragon of many coils winding about like a river of fire doth seem to take the twin bears in his terrible toils the bears who shrink with fear from the ocean stream but here they say there is darkness infinite no change no sound but a rayless timeless night or else may happen when fair aurora saith here her farewell withdrawing the daylight thus she seeks those realms but when the earliest breath of the orient's quivering steeds moves over us once more then vesper star of the rosy face beameth her last on that mysterious place so it is that we seek our weather law in a fitful sky see time and harvest learn and when on treacherous deeps to ply the oar when lorts a full-rigged craft when timely return forestward for the felling of the pine not vainly then the year's fourfold design we ponder nor the stars rising nor its decline but if cold rain impels the churl forsooth then is the time each indoor task to speed against brightening weather then the plough's blunted tooth is sharpened and for the vineyard's day of need hollowed are trees for troughs and branded plain are the cattle and numbered all the sacks of grain there are forked props to be cut the vines to bear and amarian willow ties for the tender sprays and bramble twigs to be wrought into wickerware and corn to be roasted and ground on these dull days for the laws of the gods and men alike allow even upon holy days these tasks i due reverence ne'er forbade thee drain thy field fence crops ne'er birds nor kindle the brian tis clear nor the bleating flock to the healthful streams to yield with apples and oil no less the muleteer may saddle his plodding beast and bid depart black pitch to bring and millstones from the mart with varying influence o'er tasks like these hath luna each her following days endued shun i the fifth for then the eumenides were born and pallid orchis and earth's fell brood caeces eapetus and tiophanus dire brethren who dared against high heaven conspire for thrice huge ossa did they essay to lift on pelion and leafy olympus on the twain but thrice the father launching his lightning swift levelled the pile on the seventeenth morn again thy vines are set thy bollock shall broken be and the leash is put to thy warp but the ninth shall see thy runaway thief overtain and thy slave go free there may be many labours meet for the cool night season or the dewy hours while yet the morn is new then is light subtle reeked and with equal reason sair meadow lands where never doth healing dew quite fail the darkness and one man well i know who tarrieth late by his winter's fireside glow feathering the wooden torch with dexterous knife while singing singing to lighten her long toil plieth her comb at the web the busy wife who set as her sweet must over the flame to boil skimming the liquor with the vine's gathered leaves what time the very brazen vessel heaves Whether it's