186 i Flora Unveiled
thought to place the individual in direct contact with the divine, and initiates swore never
to reveal the details of the proceedings.
So scrupulously did the initiates adhere to their vows of silence that the actual
events of the Eleusinian Mysteries remain obscure. However, rituals similar to the
Eleusinian Mysteries were practiced throughout the Mediterranean region, and pos-
sible scenarios have been pieced together from a few fragmentary accounts and from
descriptions of these other festivals. Greeks, as polytheists, were generally receptive to
foreign deities, and they readily incorporated many aspects of foreign religions into
their own.
Festivals in honor of the Phrygian goddess Cybele were held in Greek city- states in Ionia
on the west coast of Anatolia as early as the seventh century bce. Cybele was known as the
“Great Mother,” or simply as “Meter,” by the Ionian Greeks. A cult of Meter was established
on the mainland in southern Thessaly in 464 bce, and this foreign goddess soon came to
(a)(b)Figure 7.2 Multiple breasts as symbol of fertility and abundance. A. Relief of Zeus Labrandeus,
c. 350 bce, with six breasts arranged in an inverted triangle on his chest. British Museum, London.
B. Statue of Artemis of Ephesus.
A is from Delcourt, M. (1961) Hermaphrodite: Myths and R ites of the Bisexual Figure in Classical Antiquity,
trans. Jennifer Nicholson. Studio Books.