The Plutonium of Hierapolis and the Descent of Christ
into the ‘Lowermost Parts of the Earth’ (Ephesians 4,9)

 

In a recent commentary on the epistle to the Ephesians I suggested that the letter was originally intended for the Christian congregation at Hierapolis within the region of Phrygia in Asia Minor and that it was written by an unnamed disciple of Paul who was a member of the church at Colossae ¹. It may well be that this disciple was given special responsibility for the neighbouring congregation of Hierapolis by his home church in Colossae ². This proposed scenario offers a new way of reading the epistle as a whole, and opens up the possibility of interpreting the letter as one in which the inter-church relationships between the three congregations in the Lycus valley (those in Hierapolis, Colossae, and Laodicea) are all being addressed by the Writer. In short, the suggestion is that the church at Hierapolis is a daughter-church of the church at Colossae, a scenario which means that many of the other perplexing features of the letter we now know as Ephesians can be explained. One such passage on which this proposed scenario may throw some light is the curious declaration contained in 4,9-10. This parenthetical aside is one of the most enigmatic passages in Ephesians; it is generally agreed that the couplet is intended to explain the quotation of Psalm 68,18 (LXX 67,19) which appears in 4,8. In the commentary I suggested that 4,9-10 is a veiled reference to the Plutonium of Hierapolis, a small subterranean cavern situated next to the temple of Apollo in the centre of the city and commonly regarded as a passageway to the underworld. In other words, I take it that the reference to Christ descending ‘into the lowermost parts of the earth’ (ei0j ta_ katw/tera

 

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me/rh th=j gh=j) is a remark which builds upon this well-known geological feature of Hierapolis and as such would have been perfectly understandable to the members of the congregation to whom the letter was addressed, even if it is something of a puzzle for us today ³. The declaration in 4,9-10 that Christ descended into the underworld and then ascended far above the heavens therefore stands as a powerful expression of his conquering the forces of death and triumphantly claiming the city of Hierapolis as his own.

        The suggestion that something as obscure as the Plutonium in Hierapolis may provide us with the hermeneutical key to unlock the mystery surrounding the original setting of the epistle is admittedly a novel idea, but it is not as far-fetched as it may at first appear. The site was a well-known tourist attraction within the ancient world ⁴, and it is mentioned by several writers of antiquity including Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Dio Cassius, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Damascius of Alexandria ⁵. Within this short study I would like to add one small piece of evidence in support of this proposed way of reading the passage in Ephesians, evidence which to my knowledge has not been marshalled before in any discussion of the provenance of the epistle ⁶. I speak of numismatic issues from the city of Hierapolis itself. These coins depict a well-known story from Graeco-Roman mythology, namely the abduction of Persephone by Hades, the god of the underworld. They are clearly associated with the Plutonium insofar as it was taken to be an entrance to Hades’ realm. However, before we proceed to examine the coin evidence,

 

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it might be worthwhile to review the substance of the mythological story itself.

 

        I. The Abduction of Persephone by Hades in Mythology

        The abduction of Persephone by Hades (or Pluto, as he is otherwise known) is a frequent theme within Graeco-Roman mythology ⁷. Persephone, also known simply as Kore (the Maiden), was the daughter of the earth-goddess Demeter, and the story of a mother’s anguished search for, and eventual reunion with, her abducted daughter gave rise to a religious cult widely practised in the ancient world. The most important centre for worship of Demeter and Persephone (Kore) was at Eleusis, fourteen miles west of Athens, home of the famous Eleusinian mysteries. In addition, many ancient sites sacred to the two goddesses have been identified, including one in Corinth dating back to the sixth century BCE ⁸.

        The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, generally dated to circa 650-550 BCE ⁹, is the most important literary expression of the Demeter-Persephone myth, although facets of the basic story are alluded to within a number of ancient writings. The abduction of Persephone by Hades is mentioned in Hesiod Theogony 914, Diodorus Siculus Library of History 5:4:1 and 5:68:2, Apollodorus The Library 1:5:1, Ovid Fasti 4:417-454 and Metamorphoses 5:385-408, Apuleius Metamorphoses 6:2, Cicero Against Verres 2:4:48, and Pausanias Guide to Greece 8:42:2 and 9:23:2. Towards the end of the classical period, the late fourth-century CE writer Claudian even composed a full-length version of the myth, suitably altering the name of the central character for his Latin audience; we know this work as The Rape of Proserpina.

        Most agree that at some level the story of Demeter and

 

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Persephone is an agricultural myth in which the cycle of the seasons and crop production are symbolically represented ¹⁰. Persephone lives and rules as Hades’ queen in the underworld for four months out of the year, corresponding to the barren winter months ¹¹; in the spring she returns to her mother Demeter in the world above, thereby assuring the annual growth of crops and the fruitfulness of life. In this sense, the cosmology surrounding the Demeter/Persephone myth is central to the drama that is enacted in their story ¹². Although the Homeric Hymn to Demeter describes Hades’ ascent from the underworld and his abduction of Persephone as taking place on the plains of Nysia, it does not mention the place at which he descends back to the underworld with his newly captured prize. A number of geographical sites are identified within the

 

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mythological tradition as the place of the descent back to the realm of Hades ¹³. The place most frequently mentioned in this regard is Eleusis in Attica, no doubt as a result of the close association with Demeter and the Eleusinian mysteries which had been celebrated there for centuries. A good example of this is the Orphic Hymn to Pluto (18:11-15):

o#j ktate/eij qnhtw=n qana/tou xa/rin, w] polude/gmwn

Eu3boul0, a0gnopo/lou Dhmh/teroj o3j pote pai=da

numfeu/saj leimw=noj pospadi/hn dia\ po/ntou

tetpw/roij i3ppoisin u9p 0 Atqi/doj h1gagej a1ntron

dh/mou 0Eleusi=noj, to/qi per pu/lai ei1s 0 0Ai/dao.

All-Receiver, with death at your command, you are master of mortals;

Euboulos, you once took pure Demeter’s daughter as your bride

when you tore her away from the meadow and through the sea

upon your steeds you carried her to an Attic cave,

in the district of Eleusis, where the gates to Hades are ¹⁴.

 

        Similarly, the second-century CE travel-writer Pausanias describes Eleusis as the place where Hades/Pluto descended to the underworld after he had carried off the virgin Persephone ¹⁵. The identification of Eleusis as the site of Hades’ return to the realm of the dead is supported by the presence of a subterranean passage near

 

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the entrance to the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore. This small passage is located in the Plutonium, a grotto built into the base of the rocky hill overlooking the temple complex in Eleusis. The subterranean opening is still visible today, as are the foundations of a small temple to Hades (Pluto) which stands nearby. There remains some debate about the precise role that the so-called Plutonium played within the Eleusinian rites, but the fact that there was an underground passageway is beyond doubt ¹⁶. Perhaps it served some purpose during the re-enactment of the annual return of Persephone from the realm of the dead ¹⁷. The precise relationship between the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Eleusinian mystery-cult is also a matter of great debate ¹⁸. Despite the fact that the setting of the

 

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story of the abduction of Persephone in Eleusis may be somewhat uncertain, the subsequent journeys of Demeter in search of her lost daughter have long been associated with the town through the mystery cult based there ¹⁹.

        However, there is another strand of the myths surrounding the cult of Demeter and Persephone which associates them with Sicily ²⁰. Some ancient sources even state that Sicily was sacred to Demeter and Persephone, and that the island was given by Zeus to his brother Hades as a wedding present when Hades married Persephone ²¹. A number of ancient sources set Hades’ abduction of Persephone in Sicily, usually near the village of Henna in the centre of the island ²², although the spring of Cyane in the city of Syracuse on the coast is another site sometimes so mentioned ²³. The site of a cave or an underground cavern is a frequent feature in the locating of such legends. Thus, Diodorus Siculus Library of History 5:3:3 associates the story of Hades’ abduction of Persephone with the village of Henna due to the fact that there is nearby ‘a large cave which contained an underground entrance’ (sph/laion eu0me/geqej ei2xon xa/sma kata/geion).

        In short, there were a number of places within the ancient world which claimed to be the actual site where Hades descended to the underworld with his plundered maiden Persephone. It appears that the only requirements needed to substantiate such a claim were a cave or some unusual opening into the earth and a desire to anchor

 

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the mythology to a given local setting ²⁴. Is there any evidence that the city of Hierapolis, with its famous Plutonium, was also associated with the Demeter-Persephone mythology? We turn now to consider the numismatic evidence which appears to support precisely such an association.

 

        II. The Depiction of the Abduction of Persephone by Hades on Coinage from Hierapolis

        Given that the story of the abduction of Persephone has such a prominent place within the mythology of the ancient world, artistic representations of the scene are to be expected. One of the most striking of these is to be found on a red-figure krater which is within the British Museum collection. This superb piece of Apulian pottery, which stands 2 feet 9˝ inches high, is dated to circa 360-350 BCE. The central figures depicted on the vase are Persephone and Hades, speeding away in a chariot drawn by a team of four horses. The bearded Pluto looks admiringly at his captured prize Persephone, who is dressed in bridal gear and veil, avoiding his gaze and looking down demurely. To the right is the figure of Hecate, leading the way to the underworld with a four-flamed torch; to the left, behind the chariot, we see a depiction of the god Hermes wearing his familiar helmet and winged shoes (Figure #1) ²⁵. This basic depiction of the abduction of Persephone by Hades is very stylized and is an image frequently repeated in Graeco-Roman art. It also serves as the basic pattern for the coin issues which form our main concern within this study.

        A number of coins from Hierapolis contain subject matter associated with the cult of the mother-goddess Demeter, or Cybele, as she was perhaps better known in the region of Phrygia ²⁶.

 

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Included among these are coins which depict the abduction by Hades of Demeter’s daughter, Persephone. For example, we note a bronze coin ²⁷ which has on its obverse the head of a young Dionysos, crowned with ivy and facing right, surrounded with a border of dots and the inscription TWN IERAPOLEI in the field (Figure #2). The reverse of the coin shows a depiction of Hades, wearing a chlamys and brandishing a sceptre in his left hand; he rides within a chariot pulled by four galloping horses. Persephone is beside Hades in the quadriga; he supports her with his right hand and she is bent backwards, as if she has fainted, her hair flowing in the wind behind her. Another example ²⁸ shows the same reverse scene along with the words IERA POLE ITWN surrounding the scene above, NEWKO in exergue, and R WN in the field (Figure #3). The Hades and Persephone reverse is also featured on a number of other bronze coins, some of which bear the obverse bust of Boule and some of which bear the bust of the city-goddess of Hierapolis. It is difficult to date these coins precisely, but they were in all likelihood struck before the Roman imperial period, and thus can be regarded as local issues of the city of Hierapolis itself.

        However, the reverse depicting Hades and Persephone is also found on a number of Imperial provincial issues from the city of Hierapolis. Coins bearing the obverse portraits of Nero (54-68 CE), Caracalla (198-217 CE), and Otacilia Severa (244-?249 CE) are all extant. The fact that the same basic scene is used by several generations of moneyers (covering a period of three hundred years or so!) demonstrates something of the longevity of the reverse type. It also testifies to the longstanding association of the city of Hierapolis with the legend of Hades and Persephone. No doubt this association was fostered by the presence of the Plutonium in the city and the identification of the local Phrygian cult of Cybele with that

 

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of the mother-goddess Demeter ²⁹. The coins issued under Nero are of particular importance for our purposes in that the early portraiture suggests that they would have been issued during the first few years of his reign as Emperor. Thus, these coins may have been struck within twenty-five years or so of the writing of the document we now know as the epistle to the Ephesians. The most interesting of these is a small bronze coin ³⁰ which depicts the draped bust of a youthful Nero facing to the right with the word NERWN in the field on the left and the word KAISAR in the field on the right. The reverse scene gives us the standard picture of Hades and Persephone in a chariot, although this time it is a biga, perhaps due to the difficulty of portraying four horses on so small a surface. The scene is surrounded by an unusual inscription MAGUTHES NEETEROS IERAPOLEITWN (‘Magutes the Younger, of the Hierapolitans’), probably a reference to a local magistrate from the city responsible for the minting of the coin issue. Interestingly, a companion coin was also issued at the same time which carries the exact same reverse inscription ³¹. The obverse of this coin has a draped bust of Agrippina the Younger, Nero’s mother, facing to the right with the word AGRIPPEINA in the field on the left and the word SEBASTH in the field to the right. The reverse image is of the goddess Demeter, seated on a throne and facing left while holding an ear of corn and poppies, symbolic emblems of her role as goddess of agriculture. This second coin not only reinforces the association between the city and the fertility cult of the mother-goddess Demeter, but also helps to date the coins to the beginning of Nero’s reign. Agrippina the Younger fell out of favour with her son Nero, who arranged for her murder in 59 CE; thus both coins were issued in the first five years of Nero’s reign (between 54 and 59 CE). The coins testify to the importance of Hierapolis as a centre for the worship of the mother-goddess, and prompt us to consider what connection there might be to the most celebrated expression of that cult in antiquity, the Eleusinian mysteries.

 

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        III. The Demeter/Persephone Myth and the Church at Hierapolis

        The substance of the Eleusinian rites was a celebration of the movement from sorrow to joy. Demeter’s sadness at being separated from Persephone is transformed into happiness at being reunited with her daughter as Persephone ascends from the underworld ³². In one sense, it is not difficult to see how the underlying idea of Persephone’s return from Hades might be viewed as something of a parallel to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The parallels are even stronger when we consider the localized Phrygian expression of the mother-goddess cult, namely, the worship of Cybele. Here the focus of comparison is on the figure of Attis, the lover and consort of Cybele, who is murdered and after three days rises from the dead ³³. Similarities to the basic Christian story of the death of Christ and his resurrection from the dead after three days are obvious, even if a clear explanation as to how they come about is not.

        Not surprisingly, some early Christian writers took it upon themselves to distance the claims of Christianity from what they perceived to be superstitious myths and cultic worship of these pagan deities, whether it was associated with the figures of Demeter and Persephone or Cybele and Attis. The classic case in point is Clement of Alexandria, whose Exhortation to the Greeks 2 contains a vitriolic attack on the Hellenistic mystery cults, including a condemnation of celebrations associated with the ‘mystic drama’ (dga=ma mustiko/n) of Demeter and Persephone enacted at Eleusis ³⁴. Clement’s

 

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response is generally regarded as reactionary and extreme, conducting something of a smear campaign against his opponents when he makes accusations about sexual improprieties in the course of his argument. Yet his writing illustrates that, among some late first-century Christians at least, the Eleusinian cult was perceived to be a threat to the Christian faith ³⁵.

        This is certainly not the place to discuss the complex matter of the relationship between early Christianity and the so-called ‘mystery religions’; that debate has been going on for a long time and no doubt will continue for many years to come ³⁶. Most of the evidence suggests that the formal clash between the Hellenistic mystery religions and Christianity takes place in the second, third and fourth centuries CE – much too late for the letter to the Ephesians to be a major factor in the scholarly discussion.

        However, it is certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility that Ephesians 4,9 may have something to contribute to the discussion about the role that Hellenistic religions played in the development of early Christianity ³⁷. This is particularly true if, as is here being proposed, the cryptic reference to Jesus Christ descending into the ‘lowermost parts of the earth‘ is a deliberate allusion to the Plutonium of Hierapolis on the part of the unnamed writer of the letter. It is reasonable to assume that he was aware of the close

 

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connection of the site with the story of the abduction of Persephone and that he wished to present the Christian message as somehow challenging, or transcending, the mysteries associated with the local expression of the Demeter/Persephone cult. We can also assume that he would have known of the identification of Demeter with Cybele, and that the cult of Cybele and Attis would have been familiar to the local population, given that this was originally a Phrygian religion and both Colossae and Hierapolis were in Phrygia. In short, what we have in Ephesians 4,9 may be an instance of the direct engagement of Christian thinking with the popular religious myths which prevailed in the Lycus valley. Perhaps there was even within the church at Hierapolis a need for an apologia along these lines as those new to the faith were attempting to move from pagan darkness into the light of Christian truth, from childish obsession with empty myths to full maturity in the faith (see 2,1-7; 4,11-14. 17-18; 5,6-14). This unknown disciple of Paul thus makes a christological assertion about the power of the risen Lord who holds the keys to life and death, who has descended into the very bowels of the earth and has returned to claim the city of Hierapolis in triumph ³⁸.

 

Regent’s Park College The University of Oxford Oxford, OX1 2LB

Larry J. Kreitzer

 

Summary

After a general discussion of the myth regarding Demeter, Persephone and Hades/Pluto, the author discusses, in the light of coins of the early Neronian period (54-59 AD), the likelihood that the Plutonium of Hierapolis is the geographical spot the author wants his readers to imagine when they read in the Letter to the Colossians that Christ entered the lowermost parts of the earth.

 

Click here to see the figures

Fig. 1  A red-figure Apuleian krater. 
British Museum (F-277)

Fig. 2 Phrygia, Hierapolis
British Museum (BMC 38)

Fig. 3 Phrygia, Hierapolis
British Museum (BMC 87)

By courtesy of the British Museum

 

¹ See my Ephesians (Epworth Commentary; London 1997). In this regard I am building upon, and refining, the work of A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC 42; Dallas 1990), who argues that the original destination was the churches in Laodicea and Hierapolis, a suggestion which is based partly on an imaginative reconstruction of the awkward syntax of the Greek text of verse 1,1 and the absence of the words 0Efe/sw| in most early manuscripts.

² The suggestion that the writer of Ephesians was a member of the church at Colossae and that he therefore had access to the letter to the Colossians accounts for the obvious literary dependence of Ephesians upon Colossians.

³ A recent comprehensive study of the passage is W. Hall Harris, III The Descent of Christ: Ephesians 4:7-11 & Traditional Hebrew Imagery (Leiden 1996). Harris offers a thorough survey of critical scholarship on these cryptic verses and concludes that the author had Christ’s subsequent descent from heaven at Pentecost in mind when writing 4,9-10.

⁴ L. Casson, Travel in the Ancient World (London 1974) 232, lists Hierapolis as one of the sites that people travelled to see in antiquity, describing it as one of ‘the impressive curiosities nature offers’.

⁵ These texts are discussed in my "The Plutonium of Hierapolis: A Geographical Solution for the Puzzle of Ephesians 4:9-10", EPI TO AUTO: Studies in Honour of Petr Pokorný on his Sixty-fifth Birthday, J. Mrazek – R. Dvorákova – S. Brodsky (eds.) (Prague 1998) 218-233.

⁶ There has been something of a reluctance on the part of NT specialists to turn to numismatic evidence as a window through which to gain valuable glimpses into the first-century world. I have attempted to address this matter in my Striking New Images. (JSNTSS 134; Sheffield 1996).

⁷ For general introductions to the story see C. Kerényi, The Gods of the Greeks (Harmondsworth 1958) 205-212; R. Graves, The Greek Myths: 1 (Harmondsworth 1960, revised edition) 89-96; M. Senior, Greece and Its Myths: A Traveller’s Guide (Southampton 1978) 58-78; T. Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources (Baltimore 1993) 63-73; M. Mavromataki, Greek Mythology and Religion (Athens 1997) 68-75.

⁸ N. Bookidis – R.S. Stroud, Demeter and Persephone in Ancient Corinth (Princeton, NJ 1987).

⁹ C. Kerényi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter (Princeton, NJ 1967) 13, suggests that the Hymn may be from as early as the eighth century BCE.

¹⁰ See, A. C. Brumfield, The Attic Festivals of Demeter and Their Relation to the Agricultural Year (Salem, NH 1981); B. Dietrich, "The Religious Prehistory of Demeter’s Eleusinian Mysteries", La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell’ impero romano (eds. U. Bianchi – M.J. Vermaseren) (Leiden 1982) 445-471. Alternatively, some recent feminist interpreters have seen the myth of Demeter and Persephone as a commentary on the various stages of life for women within ancient Greek society. In this sense the rape of Persephone by Hades represents a woman’s initiation into marriage, the woman’s formal rite of passage from daughter to wife. For more on this way of interpreting the myth, see: M. Arthur, "Politics and Pomegranates: An Interpretation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter", Arethusa 10 (1977) 7-47; B. Lincoln, "The Rape of Persephone: A Greek Scenario of Women’s Initiation", HTR 72 (1979) 223-235; R.S. Kraemer, Her Share of the Blessings. Women’s Religions Among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World (Oxford 1992) 22-29; H. P. Foley, "Female Experience in the Hymn to Demeter", The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Translation, Commentary, and Interpretative Essays (ed. H.P. Foley) (Princeton, NJ 1994) 103-104; D.F. Sawyer, Women and Religions in the First Christian Centuries (London 1996) 59-61.

¹¹ Ovid, Metamorphoses 5:564, lengthens the time spent in the underworld to six months.

¹² The spatial geography of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter is discussed in L.J. Alderink, "Mythological and Cosmological Structure in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter", Numen 29 (1982) 1-16. At the same time, it is important to note that there is also a personal dimension, an interest in relationships, which takes the myth beyond the strict realms of a cosmological geography. Thus, J. Strauss Clay, The Politics of Olympus: Form and Meaning in the Major Homeric Hymns (Princeton, NJ 1989) 208, remarks: "Spatially, the Hymn to Demeter embraces the three domains of the cosmos: Olympus, the earth, and the underworld. It explores the relations among these three realms as well as the possibilities of movement and communication between them". (Emphasis added.)

¹³ N.J. Richardson, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Oxford 1974) 146-149, discusses this question.

¹⁴ A.N. Athanassakis, The Orphic Hymns. Text, Translation and Notes (Missoula 1977) 28-29.

¹⁵ Guide to Greece 1:38:5. Pausanius appears to have had quite an interest in Hades/Pluto and the realm of the underworld. In 2:36:7 he also mentions the town of Lerna, on the Gulf of Argos, as another site for Hades’ descent, and in 6:21:1 a legend associating the city of Olympia with the place of Hades’ ascent/descent is recorded. Meanwhile 2:35:10 mentions a chasm in the earth (gh=j xa=sma) near Hermione on the gulf of Argos out of which Heracles was said to have brought Cerberus, the Hound of Hell, from the underworld. In 6:25:2-3 Pausanias says that the town of Elis had a temple dedicated to Hades and that the Eleans were the only people in the world that he knew of who worshipped the god. He also mentions that the temple was opened only once a year and speculates that this may be due to the fact that human beings only go to the realm of the dead once.

¹⁶ For more on the role of the Plutonium in the Eleusinian rites, see: G. E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (Princeton, NJ 1961) 146-148; K. Clinton, "The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis", Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches (eds. N. Marintos – R. Hägg) (London 1993) 110-124.

¹⁷ The secondary literature on the Graeco-Roman mystery religions in general, and the Eleusinian mysteries in particular, is vast, as B. M. Metzger, "A Classified Bibliography of the Graeco-Roman Mystery Religions 1924-1973, with a Supplement 1974-1977", ANRW II, 17.3 (1984) 1259-1423, testifies. Among the more helpful discussions on the subject of the Eleusinian mysteries are: L.R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, III (Oxford 1907); H.R. Willoughby Pagan Regeneration. A Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World (Chicago 1929) 36-67; M.P. Nilsson Greek Popular Religion (New York 1940) 42-64; G.E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (Princeton, NJ 1961); C. Kerényi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter (Princeton, NJ 1967); M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, I (Munich ⁵1967) 469-477; G. Wagner, Pauline Baptism and the Pagan Mysteries (London 1967) 69-88; J. Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire (Ithaca, NY 1970) 99-101; G. D’Alviella, The Mysteries of Eleusis (Wellingborough 1981); W. Burkert, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth (Berkeley 1983) 248-297; L.H. Martin, Hellenistic Religions: An Introduction (Oxford 1987) 58-72; L.J. Alderink, "The Eleusinian Mysteries in Roman Imperial Times", ANRW II 18.2 (1989) 1457-1498; K. Clinton, "The Eleusinian Mysteries: Roman Initiates and Benefactors, Second Century BC to AD 267", ANRW II 18.2 (1989) 1499-1539; H.P. Foley, "Background: The Eleusinian Mysteries and Women’s Rites for Demeter", The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Translation, Commentary, and Interpretative Essays (ed. H.P. Foley) (Princeton, NJ 1994) 65-75; R. Parker, Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford 1996) 98-101; J. Finegan, Myth & Mystery. An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World (Grand Rapids 1989) 172-179.

¹⁸ See F. R. Walton, "Athens, Eleusis, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter", HTR 45 (1952) 105-114; N.J. Richardson, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 6-11; K. Clinton, "The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis", Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches (eds. N. Marinatos – R. Hägg) (London 1993) 110-124.

¹⁹ See R. Parker, "The Hymn to Demeter and the Homeric Hymns", Greece and Rome 38 (1991) 1-17, who argues that the link with Eleusis as an original setting for the hymn is much more central than is generally accepted. J. Travlos, "Eleusis: the Origins of the Sanctuary", Temples and Sanctuaries of Ancient Greece (ed. E. Melas) (London 1973) 74-87, is also worth consulting on the subject.

²⁰ G. Züntz Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia (Oxford 1971), offers an exhaustive exploration of the Sicilian roots of the mythology surrounding Persephone.

²¹ Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5:2:3. In 5:77:3 he also speaks of the Cretan origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

²² Ovid, Metamorphoses 5:412-424; Fasti 4:417-454; Cicero, Against Verres 2:4:48; Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5:2:3; Claudian, The Rape of Proserpina 5:4.

²³ Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5:3:4.

²⁴ Dietrich, Religious Prehistory, 452.

²⁵ For a full description of the piece, see H.B. Walters Catalogue of Greek and Etruscan Vases, 4 (London: The British Museum Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1896) 131-132. The vase is assigned catalogue number F-277. A similar Apuleian vase, again from the fourth century BCE, is part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (#07.128.1).

²⁶ For more on the relationship between the cult of Cybele and the cult of Demeter, see: M.J. Vermaseren, The Legend of Attis in Greek and Roman Art (Leiden 1966); J. Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire (Ithaca, NY 1970) 26-31; G. Sanders, "Kybele und Attis", in M.J. Vermaseren (ed.) Die Orientalischen Religionen im Römerreich (Leiden 1981) 264-297; G. Thomas, "Magna Mater and Attis", ANRW II 17.3 (1984) 1500-1535; A.T. Fear, "Cybele and Christ", Cybele, Attis and Related Cults Essays in Memory of M.J. Vermaseren (ed. E. N. Lane ) (Religion in the Graeco-Roman World #131; Leiden 1996) 37-50; R. Turcan, The Cults of the Roman Empire (Oxford 1996) 28-74.

²⁷ B.V. Head, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phrygia (London 1906) 233, lists this coin as #38 (Plate XXIX 12).

²⁸ Head, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phrygia, 242, lists this coin as #87 (Plate XXX 10).

²⁹ L. Weber, "The Coins of Hierapolis in Phrygia", The Numismatic Chronicle 13 (1913) 145, notes that among Phrygian coins the depiction of the rape of Persephone by Hades is found only on coins from Hierapolis.

³⁰ A. Burnett – M. Amandry – P.P. Ripollčs, Roman Provincial Coinage: 1 (London 1992), 486 lists this as #2982.

³¹ Burnett, Roman Provincial Coinage, 486, lists this as #2983.

³² The Homeric Hymn to Demeter concludes with a promise of post-mortem blessings to the initiated and a threat of eternal punishment for the uninitiated. See N.J. Richardson, "Early Greek Views About Life After Death", Greek Religion and Society, P.E. Easterling – J.V. Muir (eds.) (Cambridge 1985) 50-66.

³³ Catullus, Poem 63 explores the devotion of Attis to the goddess Cybele. For a helpful introduction to the cult of Attis and Cybele as expressed in Catullus’ Poem, see S. A. Takács, "Magna Deum Mater Idaea, Cybele, and Catullus’ Attis", Cybele, Attis and Related Cults: Essays in Memory of M.J. Vermaseren (ed. E.N. Lane) (Religion in the Graeco-Roman World #131; Leiden 1996) 367-386.

³⁴ Precisely what these celebrations involved has been a matter of considerable speculation. One of the most controversial interpretations put forward is that of R. G. Wasson – A. Hoffmann – C. A. P. Ruck, The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries (New York 1978). They contend that the initiation celebrations of Eleusis included a ritual drinking of the kykleon which was laced with an hallucinogenic substance similar to LSD (it is not without significance that the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffmann is the man responsible for the discovery of the drug LSD).

³⁵ G. E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (Princeton, NJ 1961) 288-316, offers a discussion.

³⁶ H.A.A. Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery-Religions (London 1915); G. C. Ring, "Christ’s Resurrection and the Dying and Rising Gods", CBQ 6 (1944) 216-229; B.M. Metzger, "Considerations of Methodology in the Study of the Mystery Religions and Early Christianity", HTR 48 (1955) 1-20; D.H. Wiens, "Mystery Concepts in Primitive Christianity and in its Environment", ANRW, II 23:2 (1980) 1248-1284; W.R. Halliday, Pagan Background of Early Christianity (London 1925) 234-280; H. Rahner, Greek Myths and Christian Mystery (London 1963); G. Wagner, Pauline Baptism and the Pagan Mysteries (London 1967); A.J.M. Wedderburn, "Paul and the Hellenistic Mystery-Cults: On Posing the Right Questions", La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell’ impero romano, U. Bianchi – M.J. Vermaseren (eds) (Leiden 1982) 817-833.

³⁷ Nor should one overlook the interaction between Hellenistic religion and first-century Judaism. See W.C. Van Unnik, "Flavius Josephus and the Mysteries", Studies in Hellenistic Religions, (ed. M.J. Vermaseren) (Leiden 1979) 244-279.

³⁸ Interestingly, according to Plutarch, De facie quae in orbe lunae apparet (‘The Face on the Moon’) 943b the Athenians of old described the dead as Dhmhtreioi (‘those who belong to Demeter’). Such claims of ownership, presuming they had a counterpart in the Demeter cult at Hierapolis, could not go unchallenged by a Christian writer committed to belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.