Sacred Way between Athens and Eleusis

E105651

ancient road processional route religious route

The Sacred Way between Athens and Eleusis was the ancient ceremonial road along which initiates traveled during the famed Eleusinian Mysteries, one of the most important religious rites in classical Greece.

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All labels observed (6)

Label	Occurrences
Sacred Way	2
Athens–Eleusis road	1
Sacred Way between Athens and Eleusis canonical	1
Sacred Way from Athens	1
Sacred Way to Eleusis (urban section)	1
Ἱερὰ Ὁδός (Hiera Hodos)	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T897011 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Sacred Way between Athens and Eleusis
Context triple: [Eleusinian Mysteries, processionRoute, Sacred Way between Athens and Eleusis]

A. Sacred Way at Delphi
The Sacred Way at Delphi is the ancient processional road that winds through the sanctuary of Apollo, lined with treasuries, monuments, and votive offerings left by Greek city-states and pilgrims visiting the famous oracle.
B. Sacred Way
Sacred Way is the ceremonial stone pathway lined with statues that forms the grand processional approach to the Ming Tombs near Beijing, China.
C. Sacred Way
Sacred Way is the ancient processional road at the sanctuary of Delphi in Greece, once lined with treasuries, statues, and monuments used by pilgrims approaching the Temple of Apollo.
D. The Royal Road
The Royal Road is a historic route name traditionally used for important long-distance roads that connected major cities or regions under royal or imperial authority.
E. Telesterion at Eleusis
The Telesterion at Eleusis was the great initiation hall and central sanctuary of the Eleusinian Mysteries, one of ancient Greece’s most important religious cult centers.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Sacred Way between Athens and Eleusis
Target entity description: The Sacred Way between Athens and Eleusis was the ancient ceremonial road along which initiates traveled during the famed Eleusinian Mysteries, one of the most important religious rites in classical Greece.

A. Sacred Way at Delphi
The Sacred Way at Delphi is the ancient processional road that winds through the sanctuary of Apollo, lined with treasuries, monuments, and votive offerings left by Greek city-states and pilgrims visiting the famous oracle.
B. Sacred Way
Sacred Way is the ceremonial stone pathway lined with statues that forms the grand processional approach to the Ming Tombs near Beijing, China.
C. Sacred Way
Sacred Way is the ancient processional road at the sanctuary of Delphi in Greece, once lined with treasuries, statues, and monuments used by pilgrims approaching the Temple of Apollo.
D. The Royal Road
The Royal Road is a historic route name traditionally used for important long-distance roads that connected major cities or regions under royal or imperial authority.
E. Telesterion at Eleusis
The Telesterion at Eleusis was the great initiation hall and central sanctuary of the Eleusinian Mysteries, one of ancient Greece’s most important religious cult centers.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (49)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	ancient road ⓘ processional route ⓘ religious route ⓘ
associatedWithDeity	Demeter ⓘ Persephone ⓘ
category	Ancient Greek religion ⓘ Ancient Greek roads ⓘ Eleusinian Mysteries ⓘ
ceremony	Eleusinian initiation rites ⓘ Greater Eleusinian Mysteries ⓘ linked to: Eleusinian Mysteries Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries ⓘ linked to: Eleusinian Mysteries
connects	Athens ⓘ Eleusis ⓘ
country	Ancient Greece ⓘ linked to: Greek Antiquity
crosses	Cephisus River ⓘ linked to: Cephissus River
culturalSignificance	central to Eleusinian cult practice ⓘ one of the most important sacred roads in ancient Greece ⓘ
endingPoint	Sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis ⓘ linked to: Telesterion at Eleusis
feature	boundary markers ⓘ bridges ⓘ roadside altars ⓘ shrines ⓘ tombs ⓘ wayside sanctuaries ⓘ
follows	Cephisus River valley ⓘ linked to: Cephissus River
GreekName	Ἱερὰ Ὁδός (Hiera Hodos) ⓘ linked to: Sacred Way between Athens and Eleusis
languageOfName	Ancient Greek ⓘ
locatedIn	Attica ⓘ
modernCountry	Greece ⓘ
nearbyModernCity	Athens ⓘ
nearbyModernTown	Elefsina ⓘ
partiallyPreservedAs	archaeological remains ⓘ
passesThrough	Daphni ⓘ Thriasian Plain ⓘ linked to: Thriasio Plain
religion	ancient Greek religion ⓘ
ritualActivity	hymns and chants ⓘ processions with sacred objects ⓘ ritual stops at shrines ⓘ
startingPoint	Kerameikos in Athens ⓘ
timePeriod	Archaic Greece ⓘ Classical Greece ⓘ Hellenistic period ⓘ Roman period ⓘ
usedBy	Athenian citizens ⓘ foreign pilgrims ⓘ initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries ⓘ
usedFor	Eleusinian Mysteries ⓘ pilgrimage ⓘ religious processions ⓘ

How these facts were elicited