엘레우시스 비의의 기원: 아테네 왕 에렉테우스와 이집트

Abstract

The aim of this article is to pursue the origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) in combination with documentary, archaeological and linguistic proofs. It will be suggested that the Mysteries were established in Eleusis in the reign of Erechtheus the Athenian king in the first half of the fourteenth century. The Mysteries, which pursued the happy life after death, is the ritual for Demeter. It has been generally agreed that the time of the establishment of the Mysteries in Eleusis dated back to the Mycenaean age. But there are several opinions about the country of origin of the Mysteries: Greece, Thracia, Crete, and Egypt are all included. However, Paul Foucart insisted in his book, Les Mystères d’Éleusis (1914) that the ancient Greek writers who said that the country of origin of the Mysteries was Egypt can not be denied. A century has flown by since the publication of his book. I try to suggest in the light of new archeological and linguistic proofs that the reports of the ancient Greek writers about the country of origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries are reliable. According Diodorus (1.29.2), “he [Erechtheus] instituted the initiatory rites of Demeter in Eleusis and established the mysteries(τὰ μυστήρια), transferring their ritual from Egypt.” There are the reports of the ancient Greek writers that support Diodorus directly or indirectly. Parian Marble says “[From when Eumolpus _____] instituted the mysteries in Eleusis and made known the works of the [father of M]ousaios, [11______, when Erechthe]us son of Pandion [was king of Athens].” We can deduce the time of the institution of the Mysteries as the first half of the fourteenth century BC in the context of the Parian Marble. Both Diodorus (1.29.4) and Herodotus (2.156.5) say that Demeter was the Egyptian goddess of Isis. Herodotus (2.171.3) says that “The daughters of Danaus were those who brought this rite (the rite of Demeter which the Greeks call Thesmophoria) out of Egypt and taught it to the Pelasgian women”. According to the Parian Marble, Danaus and his daughters arrived in Greece from Egypt in the year 1511/10 BC. Archaeologically, Egyptian scarabs and a symbol of Isis were found in a tomb at Eleusis of the ninth or eighth century BC, which supports the report of the ancient Greek writers that Demeter is Isis. It is generally accepted that the etymology of μυστήριον (mystery) is the Indo-European root ‘mu’, which means “to close the lips” or stay “mute”, and there is a Greek verb μύω, which means “intr. close, be shut, of the eyes, trans. close, shut.” However, According to the specialist on Egyptian religion S. Mayassis, the word comes from the Egyptian root √st3 (cognate to the Semitic root √str “cover, veil, hide”). If the locative preposition m- is added to the root, m st3 (m str) “in secret” is attested. (According to Martin Bernal, the 3 “double aleph” was originally pronounced as a liquid r or I, and the process through which 3 lost these consonantal values was not complete until the middle of the New Kingdom.) Egyptians expelled the Hyksos around 1530 BC and Thutmose III expanded their influential region beyond Egypt. According to the inscriptions of his achievements, Crete (Kftỉwu) and the Aegean (Ḥɜw nbwt) paid tributes to Egypt. The pharaoh, about the time when the Eleusinian Mysteries was established, was Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC). According to the inscriptions on the base of his statues from his funerary temple, the pharaoh sent his ambassadors to the Aegean cities, and faience plaques with the cartouche of Amenhotep III have been discovered in Cnossos, Phaistos, and Mycenae. Putting documentary, linguistic, and archaeological proofs together, it is highly probable that Erechtheus instituted the Eleusinian Mysteries, transferring their ritual from Egypt.