Editing Telesterion (section)

== History ==
It is disputed when the site of the Telesterion is believed to have been originally built. There is evidence to suggest that the temple was created in the 7th century BCE, but historians know that it was created at least by the time of the [[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn]] to Demeter (650–550 BCE).<ref name=":3" /> The construction of Telesterion took place in ten different phases.<ref>Wilson, Nigel Guy, ed. (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece''. pp.&nbsp;255–257.</ref>

It was destroyed by the [[Persian Empire|Persians]] after the [[Battle of Thermopylae]], when the Athenians withdrew to [[Salamis Island|Salamis]] in 480 BCE and all of [[Boeotia]] and [[Attica]] fell to the Persian army, who captured and burnt Athens. After the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece|defeat of the Persians]], the Telesterion was intended to be reconstructed by [[Cimon|Kimon]], but it was instead rebuilt some time later due to [[Pericles|Pericles']] influence.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203958766|title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece|date=2013-10-31|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780203958766 |isbn=978-0-203-95876-6|editor-last=Wilson|editor-first=Nigel}}</ref>

At some point in the 5th century BCE, [[Iktinos]], the great architect of the [[Parthenon]], built the Telesterion big enough to hold thousands of people. In about 318 BCE, [[Philon]] added a portico with twelve [[Doric order|Doric columns]].

The Telesterion continued to see use throughout the Roman period.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Colomo|first=Daniela|date=2004|title=Herakles and the Eleusinian Mysteries: P. Mil. Vogl. I 20, 18-32 Revisited|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20191838|journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik|volume=148|pages=87–98|jstor=20191838 |issn=0084-5388}}</ref> In 170 CE, during the rule of Roman emperor [[Marcus Aurelius]], an ancient tribe called the [[Costoboci]] launched an invasion of Roman territory south of the Danube, entering [[Thracia (Roman province)|Thracia]] and ravaging the provinces of [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Macedonia]] and [[Achaea (Roman province)|Achaea]] (Greece). The Costoboci reached as far south as Eleusis, where they destroyed the Telesterion. The emperor responded by dispatching general [[Lucius Julius Vehilius Gratus Julianus|Vehilius Gratus Iulianus]] to Greece with emergency reinforcements, who eventually defeated the Costoboci. Marcus Aurelius then had the Telesterion rebuilt bigger than it had been before. Then only a few hundred years later in 396 CE, the forces of [[Alaric I|Alaric the Visigoth]] invaded the Eastern Roman Empire and [[Alaric I#In Greece|ravaged Attica, destroying the Telesterion]], which was never to be rebuilt.<ref name=":2" />
===Religious use===
[[File:Plan of Eleusis, 081170.jpg|alt=Map of the Eleusis site|thumb|Plan of [[Eleusis]]|231x231px]]The Athenians used several calendars, each for different purposes. The festival of Eleusinia was celebrated each year in Eleusis and Athens for nine days from the 15th to the 23rd of the month of [[Attic calendar|Boedromion]] (in September or October of the [[Gregorian calendar]]); because the festival calendar had 12 [[Lunar month|lunar months]], the celebrations were not strictly calibrated to a year of 365 days. During the festival, Athens was crowded with visitors.<ref name="Antiq" />

At the climax of the ceremonies at Eleusis, the initiates entered the Telesterion where they were shown the sacred relics of [[Demeter]] and the priestesses revealed their visions of the holy night (probably a fire that represented the possibility of [[Afterlife|life after death]]). This was the most secretive part of the Mysteries and those who had been initiated were forbidden to ever speak of the events that took place in the Telesterion.<ref name=":1" />[[File:Terracotta votive plaque from Eleusis, 450 BC, NAMA, 190873.jpg|alt=Plaque showing people from Eleusis|thumb|[[Terracotta]] Votive Plaque From [[Eleusis]], 450 BCE (NAMA)|258x258px]]

The origin of the ritual of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Eleusinia]] is from the myth of [[Persephone]] being abducted by [[Hades]] to the underworld, while her mother [[Demeter]] frantically seeks her in the mortal world. After she learns that [[Zeus]] allowed the kidnapping to happen, she turns herself into an old women and wanders the world until she reaches Eleusis, where she is taken in by the King's daughters. She is overcome with grief, but is given Queen Metanira's latest born child, Demophoon to nurse. He grows more than any other child, but his mother is afraid when he is put over a flame before he can be made fully immortal. Demeter gets angry, and tells her that since she robbed her son of immortality and angered her, the people of Eleusis must create a temple to her where they would do things to gain back her favor. Even after Demeter got her daughter back from Hades for part of the year, the Eleusinian Mysteries continued.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Eleusinia|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=eleusinia-harpers&highlight=telesterion|access-date=2021-11-15|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

It was said in myth that [[Heracles|Herakles]] partook in the Eleusian Mysteries as part of the [[Labours of Hercules]]' twelfth labor in which he captured [[Cerberus]], and during which he saw visions of both Persephone and Demeter.<ref name=":4" />

Some temple use ceased during the [[persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire]], when all non-Christian sanctuaries were ordered closed by laws initiated by the Christian emperors. However, it was not until the anti-pagan decree of Theodosius in around 390 CE that there was an end to all religious use of the temple.<ref name=":2" />