The mystery of Eleusis was one of the best kept secrets of the ancient world. For almost two millennia, until the destruction of the temple in the 3rd century, pilgrims made their way from Athens to Eleusis every September along the Sacred Road, fasting and dancing around the fountain dedicated to the goddess Demeter in the forecourt of the sanctuary. They spent the night in the Hall of Mysteries. Priests prepared a "sacred potion" that the participants drank together - and then it happened. An experience so immediate and inexpressible that it could only be "looked at" but not spoken. For over two millennia, those initiated at Eleusis - including the philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as the tragedian Sophocles - have adhered to it. Best-selling author Mathias Bröckers condenses in this red-hot essay - in September 2021 Eleusis was to be named European Capital of Culture, but due to corona it has now been postponed until 2023 - the role of the Eleusinian Mystery Games, in which participants were administered the psychoactive potion kykeon, an entheogen that presumably consisted of ergot alkaloids, among other things.

Publisher Nachtschatten Verlag

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