a mystical religious festival, held in September at Eleusis in classical times, in which initiates celebrated Persephone, Demeter, and Dionysus
Eleusinian mysteries in American English
plural noun
the mysteries, celebrated annually at Eleusis and Athens in ancient times, in memory of the abduction and return of Persephone and in honor of Demeter and Bacchus
Word origin
[1635–45]This word is first recorded in the period 1635–45. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: adjustment, federal, gradient, naturalism, reaction