ABSTRACT
This study explores the experience of initiates into the cult of Demeter at Eleusis. It takes a sensory approach to the material, tracing the practices of initiation and considering them in light of the literary and archaeological evidence. By identifying the multiple sources of sensory stimuli at play during the ceremonies, it considers how these coalesced to induce an ecstatic experience and divine revelation, which permanently altered the initiates’ concepts of life and death. It concludes that ecstasy was a central and critical component of initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries and only through this epiphanic experience were participants “reborn” as initiates of the cult.
