Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Eumolpus.
The gallery
Eumolpus among the Eleusinian gods (Makron skyphos)
Makron (potter: Hieron), c. 490 BC
Attic red-figure skyphos in the British Museum (1873,0820.375; Cat. Vases E140), signed by the potter Hieron and painted by Makron: Triptolemos sits in his winged chariot amid the Eleusinian circle, and the name ΕΥΜΟΛΠΠΟΣ is inscribed beside the sweet-singing founder of the Mysteries. Demeter, Persephone, Eleusis, Zeus, Dionysos, Amphitrite and Poseidon complete the gathering — Eumolpus already cast as Poseidon's son and cult singer decades before Euripides' Erechtheus. Found at Santa Maria di Capua; Beazley ARV² 459.3.
Poseidon and a Young Warrior (Eumolpus) — Lucanian Red-Figure Pelike
Attributed to the Karneia Painter, c. 420–400 BC
On this Lucanian red-figure pelike, found at Heraclea in Lucania and now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Siritide in Policoro (inv. 35304), the sea-god Poseidon rides forward accompanied by a young, beardless warrior who is generally identified as his son Eumolpus; the reverse shows Athena in a chariot, casting the pair as the opposed champions of Poseidon's Eleusis and Athena's Athens. Eumolpus, the Thracian leader and reputed founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries, fell in that war when Erechtheus killed him in battle, whereupon Poseidon avenged his son by striking the Athenian king down with his trident. Standing at his divine father's side, the youthful figure on this vase is the principal ancient image cited for Eumolpus himself, and it heads his own entry in the visual record. The pelike, about 45 cm tall, was excavated at Policoro in 1963.
Eumolpos with Demeter and Persephone (Athens NAM 1341)
Manner of the Jena Painter, c. 420–400 BC
Attic red-figure three-handled skyphos in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens (inv. 1341 / CC 1355), attributed to the manner of the Jena Painter (Beazley ARV² 1517.10): a torch-bearing male stands between Demeter and Persephone in an Eleusinian night scene. The figure is generally read as Eumolpos — the Mysteries' ancestral singer — though some scholars prefer Iakchos; either way the vase places a young cult hero inside Demeter's torchlit circle at Tanagra's findspot. High Classical pottery keeping the founder of Eleusis among the goddesses he served.