ΧΑΪΔΑΡΙ ΧΑΪΔΑΡΙ - ΣΥΝΑΝΤΗΣΗ ΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ | Page 72

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Epilogue: Arrival at Eleusina
After Reitoi, Pausanias came across a river, called
Kephisos, like the main Athens river. Today it is dry and
known as Sarantapotamos. It used to be a torrent river,
flooding the Thriasian field. Pausanias crossed over a
stone bridge built by emperor Hadrian, preserved until
today.
Pausanias arrived at Eleusina about 1 km after the
Kephisos bridge. As an initiate under oath he did
not disclose anything of the ritual happenings, which
constitute a general gap of information in the ancient
texts, exactly due to the oath of the initiates. Excavation
has filled this gap partly, as it has exposed the
Telesterion, the main ritual building, as well as ceremonial
paraphernalia and relief representations of the worhipped
deities. As mentioned above, the Eleusinian Mysteries
were in honour of Demeter and her daughter Persephone
coming from Hades. Thus, rituals were related to fertility
and the regeneration of earth. The procession and the
initiation of new members was the most important event
of this cult.
Kleisthenes’ reformations
and the Hermos deme
In the 8th century BC, power in Athens was in the
hands of few aristocratic land owners. Despite Solo’s
legislation (594 BC), which created the basis for the
Athenian democracy, through the abolition of debts and
wider access to state offices, tension between rich and
poor continued. This allowed Peisistratos first and then
his sons, Hipparchos and Hippias, to become tyrrants in
the mid 6th century BC and until 510 BC. After their fall
Kleisthenes of the Alkmeonides prevailed in the power
struggle between wealthy families and reformed the
Athenian state through his legislation (508 BC).
Aiming to economic, social and religious integration,
he divided the Athenians into ten tribes of strictly local
significance and divided the land into three zones: urban,
coastal and middle. Each tribe should include demes
from all three zones, while the demes of the tribe within
the same zone comprised a trittys. Tribes and demes had
local authorities and their own treasuries and property.
The deme also kept the registries, and organized its
own ritual ceremonies. In order to break up aristocratic
descent, Kleisthenes obliged people to be called after
their residence deme.
The Hermos deme belonged to the urban trittys of the
Akamantis tribe and elected two Boule members. It was
probably situated within Chaidari and Arpokration mentions a
river Hermos, a stream below Daphni and into Kephisos river.
The ancient settlement should lie around Daphni and at the
hill of Phrophitis Ilias. Hermos was probably a rural deme with
few residents, as indicated by its few Boule members.