Richard Sheppard

The Mysteries - the Dadouchos: a Novel of Ancient Eleusis Richard Sheppard

The Mysteries, A Novel of Ancient Eleusis is a trilogy set in ancient Greece at the time of the Persian invasion. Historians constantly remind us that in 480 BC, when the great Persian Empire invaded Greece, King Xerxes planned to expand his dominion to the Atlantic Ocean, and if Greece hadn't repulsed the invasion, Western Civilization, together with its democratic institutions, would not exist. Today we would be Oriental. Much has been written about the invasion, but little concerning heroic women. According to Herodotus, feminine influence in the form of the goddess Demeter was a deciding factor in the famous battles of Salamis, Plataea, and Mykale. Thus, the female spirit played an unheralded role in the salvation of democracy. The Dadouchos Volume 2 of The Mysteries, concerns this feminine influence as personified by the priestess of Demeter and her daughter. They represent the essence of the great Mysteries of Eleusis, the spiritual underpinning of the ancient Greek religion.