day 5 part two: gephyrismoi at kephisos: Hadrians Bridge

As the procession got much closer to the telesterion and the temple complex, there was a sense of almost heightened mania, and zeal given the extent and physical exhaustion of the procession for almost 16 miles at this point. On the bridge across the ancient river kephisos near Eleusis the remains of Hadrians bridge, so named for the Roman emperor, can be seen among the infrastructure of the modern era. At this point in procession this exhaustion and zeal would have given way to confusion of the social orders and reversals and here across the bridge, all initiates became equal as they shared insults, jeers and jests from onlookers and each other. The young against the respected old, slave against master, women against men, and the forlorn against the wealthy. This reversal in social role could only have been enacted in specific conditions, but here on this bridge for almost a thousand years it stood as a reminder that according to the mother and the maiden, all were equal in worship for a time.