[Opinion] Kykeon: How an Ancient Greek Drink Conquered the Fear of Death

Kykeon: How an Ancient Greek Drink Conquered the Fear of Death

The Ancient Greek kykeon was a sacred, potentially hallucinogenic beverage drunk during the Eleusinian Mysteries to induce transformative visions and bridge the gap between mortal existence and the divine. Credit: Aberdeen Painter, Public Domain The ancient drink kykeon holds the secrets of the ancient world at the bottom of its cup, and those secrets shaped some of the most profound religious experiences in Greek history. Far from being an ordi…

On the Eleusinian Mysteries

by Gary Borjesson Among the many excellent and indeed divine institutions which Athens has brought forth and contributed to human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries. For by their means we have been brought out of our barbarous and savage mode of life and educated and refined to a state of civilization; and as the rites are called “initiations,” so in very truth we have learned from them the beginnings of life, and have gai…