Agelastos petra

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Plutonion in Eleusis with later stems
Demeter sits on the Agelastos petra . (Marble relief from the Hieron of Eleusis)

Agelastos petra ( Ἀγέλαστος πέτρα ), the "stone without laughter", is a stone or rock formation near Eleusis on which the goddess Demeter is said to have rested from her desperate search for the daughter Persephone , who was stolen by Hades , the god of the underworld .

Otto Rubensohn took the view that the Agelastos petra was not a single stone, but a rock formation and at the same time the entrance to the underworld. This corresponds to the three wells or sources ( Anthion or Parthenion or Callichoron ), also known as resting places , since the entrance through which Hades and the stolen Persephone come into the underworld, in some versions of the robbery of Persephone also a spring or a Well is, e.g. B. in the Metamorphoses of Ovid the source of the nymph Kyane . Rubensohn now suspected that the Agelastus petra was identical with the Plutonion of Eleusis. This thesis has recently been taken up again by Kevin Clinton.

Rubensohn interpreted a fragment of a relief made of Pentelic marble found in the Hieron of Eleusis as a representation of Demeter lying on the Agelastos petra , in front of which a group of adorers stands, with a servant shown on the left carrying the mystical ciste .

The Greek documentary film director Philippos Koutsaftis chose "Agelastos petra" (English title: "Mourning rock") as the title of his documentary about the ongoing destruction of ancient Eleusis.

swell

literature

  • Kevin Clinton: Myth and cult. The iconography of the Eleusinian mysteries. Martin P. Nilsson lectures on Greek religion, delivered 19-21 November 1990 at the Swedish Institute at Athens. Åström, Stockholm 1992, ISBN 91-7916-025-5 , pp. 22-26
  • Otto Rubensohn: Eleusinian contributions. In: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologische Institut, Athenian Department (1899), pp. 46–54 digitized

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See illustration. Plate VIII in Rubensohn's article.