A lot has been written about the Eleusinian Mysteries, even by respected professors and authoritative historians of religions, but few have truly understood the meaning of this extraordinary religious mysterical tradition. What almost all modern historians miss is the very survival and perpetuation of the Eleusinian Mystery Tradition. They even struggle to consider, in their studies and researches, the considerable period of time (sixteen centuries!) of uninterrupted activity of the Mother Sanctuary of Eleusis and its institutions (which absolutely makes it the most long-lived place of worship in human history). Therefore, we should not be surprised if they do not understand the dynamics of such survival and the enormous influence that the Eleusinian Mystery Tradition had during Humanism and into the development of the Renaissance, with its great artistic, architectural, scientific and literary expressions. An influence that has also determined most of the major historical events that took place in Italy and in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The Italian Renaissance was the main and most obvious show of force of this tenacious Tradition. In fact, that extraordinary season known as the Renaissance, shows Eleusinity and Mystery Tradition in all its various expressions: from Art to Literature, from Philosophy to Architecture to Science.