Editing Telesterion (section)

{{short description|Great hall and sanctuary in Greece associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries}}
{{For|the album|Telesterion (album)}}
{{Refimprove|date=December 2009}}
[[File:Overall view of the Telesterion, the "place for initiation", Eleusis (16177191605).jpg|thumb|247x247px|General view of the site of the Telesterion in [[Eleusis]]]]
[[File:General view of sanctuary of Demeter and Kore and the Telesterion (Initiation Hall), center for the Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusis (8191841684).jpg|thumb|200x200px|Another View of Telesterion (Initiation Hall), Center for the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], [[Eleusis]]]]
The '''Telesterion''' ("Initiation Hall" from Gr. τελείω, "to complete, to fulfill, to consecrate, to initiate") was a great hall and sanctuary in [[Eleusis]], one of the primary centers of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]]. The hall had a fifty-five yard square roof that could cover three-thousand people, but no one revealed what happened during these events beyond there being "something done, something said, and something shown".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander, Athenian Religious and Cultural Life in the Golden Age|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0009:chapter=10&highlight=telesterion|access-date=2021-11-01|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> This building was built in the 7th century BCE<ref name=":3">Translated by Nagy, Gregory. "Homeric Hymn to Demeter".</ref> and was an important site until it was destroyed in the 4th century CE. Devoted to [[Demeter]] and [[Persephone]], these [[initiation ceremonies]] were the most sacred and ancient of all the religious rites celebrated in Greece.<ref name="Antiq">{{cite book|author=((Smith, Sir William, ed.))|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities|chapter=Eleusinia|edition=2nd|year=1859|location=Boston|publisher=Little, Brown, and Company|page=452|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LscPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA452}}</ref>