Telesterion

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Remnant of the Telesterion of Eleusis

Telesterion ( Greek  τελεστήριον "place of initiation") generally referred to a mystery temple or a consecration place of the Eleusinian gods Demeter , Persephone and Dionysus in ancient Greece .

It was named after the Telesterion of Eleusis , in which the mysteries of Eleusis , famous in the ancient world, took place every year . Already in Mycenaean times there was a place of consecration in the form of a megaron , which was built around 600 BC. Was replaced by a larger building facing north.

Around 525 BC The Peisistratids erected a 27 × 27 meter cult building, which integrated the previous building as an anaktoron ( ἀνάκτορον , "palace"), the Holy of Holies, in its northwest corner . After its destruction by the Persians under Xerxes I , a new building of the Eleusinian sanctuary under Kimon was started , but not completed. In the time of Pericles a new building was planned and started under the direction of Iktinos , but after changes to the plan, it was not until his successors in the last third of the 5th century BC. BC completed. It was a square, cult building measuring around 54 × 54 meters with a flat roof supported by 6 × 7 Ionic columns, as well as a large interior that was accessed by six doors and accommodated around 7,000 visitors. There were rows of seats around the walls for spectators to watch the mysteries. In the middle was the Anaktoron , which, like the previous buildings, was a narrow rectangular stone building to which only the priests had access. The holy objects of Demeter were kept in the anaktoron. Around 330 BC The complex was extended by Philon of Eleusis to include a vestibule with 12 Doric columns.

After the invasion of the Kostoboks in AD 170 and its destruction, the temple was last restored true to the original before the Goths under Alaric I finally devastated the sanctuary in 395/96, after the cult celebrations by the emperor Theodosius I in 392 . had been banned. However, the cult continued into the 5th century.

Further telesteries are attested

literature

  • Gottfried Gruben : Greek temples and sanctuaries , 5th edition, Hirmer, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7774-8460-1 , pp. 235–246
  • Christoph Höcker : Metzler Lexicon of Ancient Architecture. 2nd edition Metzler, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-02294-3 . P. 238
  • Andrea Jördens : IG II 2 1682 and the building history of the Eleusinian Telesterion in the 4th century BC Chr. In: Klio 81 (1999) pp. 359-390
  • Ernst Meyer : Eleusis. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, Col. 245 f.
  • Tommaso Serafini: Telesterion : contributo alla definizione di una tipologia architettonica e funzionale. In: Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente. Volume 97, 2019, pp. 130-156 ( online ).
  • John Travlos : Bildlexikon zur Topographie des antique Attika , Wasmuth, Tübingen 1988, pp. 91–143