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.