Agelasta

Agelastos petra ( Ἀγέλαστος πέτρα ), the "stone without laughter ", is a stone or a rock formation at Eleusis, where the goddess Demeter is said to have rested from their desperate search of Hades, god of the underworld, abducted daughter Persephone.

Otto Rubensohn took the view that the Agelastos petra would be no single stone, but a rock formation, while the entrance to the underworld. This corresponds to the three fountains and springs also referred as resting places ( Anthion or Parthenion or Kallichoron ) as the input, through Hades with the stolen Persephone enters the underworld, in some versions of the rape of Persephone also a source or a well is, for example, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, the source of the nymph Kyane. Rubensohn suspected now that the Agelastos petra is identical with the Plutonion of Eleusis. This thesis has been revived in modern times by Kevin Clinton.

A found in Hiero of Eleusis Fragment of a relief of Pentelic marble pointed Rubensohn as a representation of the overlapping on the Agelastos petra Demeter, stands in front of a group of worshipers, being a servant leftmost shown wearing on his head the mystic cist.

The Greek documentary film director Philippos Koutsaftis chose " Agelastos petra " (English title: " Mourning rock" ) as the title of his documentary on the still ongoing destruction of ancient Eleusis.

Swell

• Libraries of Apollodorus 1.5.1
• Hesychius of Alexandria see v. Agelastos petra
• Suda see v. Salaminos
• Scholium to Aristophanes The Knights 5.785