This text is part of:
[28]
Now, first of all, that which was the first necessity of man's nature was provided by our city; for even though the story1 has taken the form of a myth, yet it deserves to be told again. When Demeter came to our land, in her wandering after the rape of Kore, and, being moved to kindness towards our ancestors by services which may not be told save to her initiates, gave these two gifts, the greatest in the world—the fruits of the earth,2 which have enabled us to rise above the life of the beasts, and the holy rite3 which inspires in those who partake of it sweeter hopes4 regarding both the end of life and all eternity,
1 For the story of Demeter and Persephone （here called Kore, “the maiden”） see HH Dem.; Ovid, Fasti iv. 393-620, and Metamorphoses v. 385 ff.; Claudian, De raptu Proserpinae, and Walter Pater, “Demeter and Persephone” in his Greek Studies.
2 Cf. Plat. Menex. 237e; Lucret. vi. 1 ff.
3 For the Eleusinian Mysteries see Lobeck, Aglaophamus, vol. i; Gardner and Jevons, Manual of Greek Antiquities, pp. 274 ff.; Gardner's New Chapters in Greek History, xiii; Diehl, Excursions in Greece viii.
4 Quoted in Isoc. 8.34. For the blessedness of the Mystics see HH Dem. 480 ff.; Pindar, Fr. 102; Sophocles, Fr. 753 Nauck.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
