The historical supremacy of the Eleusinian Mysteries

The long history of the European, Mediterranean, and Near Eastern religious experience, since the most remote ages, has been characterized by the presence and diffusion of mystery religions. These were marked by a common order, a general rule, consisting in the fact that all the beliefs of the cult, the foundational myths, the religious practices, and the nature of the teachings and the revelatory message of the Gods, they all had to be reserved, with different ranks, to the initiates, who have become part of an exclusive community of new men. Thus, the initiated were distinguished from the uninitiated, those who could not have access to the Mysteries. The initiated, as such, had to keep a solemn oath and were obliged to make a vow of silence, they could not reveal the secrets, which had to remain unspeakable. Many were the mystery religions, but, historically, the primacy and superiority of Eleusinian Mysteries can be well summarized by a passage offered by Plutarch: «…and all the men whose land he visited, how he met with holy writings and was initiated into all the mysteries, it would take more than one day to enumerate as he did, well and carefully in all details...».