Bronze Age Eleusis and the origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries /

In a very readable text, Cosmopoulos (Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis) has produced a nice summary of all scholarship to date on Eleusis. The title is a bit misleading in that the focus is on all historical periods when the site was in use, not just the Bronze Age. The book as a whole is a very good and thorough summary of over a century of excavation, research, and analysis of the cult itself, not just the archaeological site. Along the way, the author politely but quite firmly rejects the need to bring in the "sites of memory" debate for Eleusis, since common sense dictates that the theory is merely common sense. Cosmopoulos also is happy to confirm, after careful analysis, that George Mylonas (Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, 1961) was correct to identify the origin of the cult at Eleusis as indigenous, not introduced. One caveat is that the author's stated purpose of focusing on the Bronze Age is negated by the fact that the book addresses the time period in only half the text; much of the rest is a refresher on the myth, ritual, and archaeology of the site. The text is liberally illustrated; the bibliography and notes are impressive in their completeness. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries. --Dorothy Anne Slane, University of Maryland University College