Today, Elefsina is a major industrial centre, with the largest oil refinery in Greece as well as the home of the Aeschylia Festival, the longest-lived arts event in the Attica Region.

The word Eleusis first appears in the Orphic Hymn to Eleusinian Demeter: «Δήμητρος Ελευσινίας, θυμίαμα στύρακα[4]».

It was on the road from Athens to the Isthmus of Corinth; it was in a very fertile plain; and it was at the head of an extensive bay, formed on three sides by the coast of Attica, and shut in on the south by the island of Salamis.

[9] The Rharian plain is also mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Artemis;[10] it appears to have been in the neighbourhood of the city; but its site cannot be determined.

[14][15] Eleusis afterwards became an Attic deme, but in consequence of its sacred character it was allowed to retain the title of polis (πόλις)[16][11] and to coin its own money, a privilege possessed by no other town in Attica, except Athens.

Such a belief was cultivated from the introduction ceremony in which the hopeful initiates were shown a number of things including the seed of life in a stalk of grain.

The central myth of the Mysteries was Demeter's quest for her lost daughter (Kore the Maiden, or Persephone) who had been abducted by Hades.

Demeter raised Demophoon, anointing him with nectar and ambrosia and placing him at night in the fire in order to endow him with immortality, until Metaneira found out and insulted her.

[18] During the Greco-Persian Wars, the ancient temple of Demeter was burnt down by the Persians in 484 BC;[19] and it was not until the administration of Pericles that an attempt was made to rebuild it.

When the power of the Thirty Tyrants was overthrown after the Peloponnesian War, they retired to Eleusis, which they had secured beforehand, but where they maintained themselves for only a short time.

Demosthenes (384 – 322 BC) alludes to inundations at Eleusis;[21] Pausanias (c. 110 – c. 180 AD) has left us only a very brief description of Eleusis;[22] The Eleusinians have a temple of Triptolemus, another of Artemis Propylaea, and a third of Poseidon the Father, and a well called Callichorum, where the Eleusinian women first instituted a dance and sang in honour of the goddess.

Hadrian was initiated into the Mysteries in about 125[23] and raised embankments in the plain of the river in consequence of a flood which occurred while he was spending the winter at Athens.

[24] To the same emperor most likely Eleusis was indebted for a supply of good water by means of the aqueduct, completed in about 160 AD.

The Telesterion, or temple of Demeter, was the largest in all Greece,[citation needed] and is described by Strabo as capable of containing as many persons as a theatre.

The Roman bridge that carried the ancient Sacred Way over the Kephissus river is visible about 1 km from the Sanctuary of Demeter.

Its course is visible in some places and has been accurately traced by rescue excavations and ran parallel to its namesake in the modern city only a few metres to the south.

During the Hellenistic and mainly Roman eras the road was used for the exhibition of wealth and social power, with costly burial monuments being erected all along it.

It is indicative that writers of the Byzantine era refer to it as a "small village", and shortly before the Ottoman domination the area was deserted by wars, raids and captives.

After World War II, workers from all parts of Greece moved to Elefsina to work in the industries in the region.

During the 20th century, at the time of sustainable development, archaeological discoveries and industrial formation shaped the image of contemporary Eleusis.

The largest refinery is located on the west side of town, right beside where the annual Aeschylia Festival is held in honor of the great tragic poet Aeschylus.

Elefsina Airfield played a crucial role in the final British evacuation during the 1941 Battle of Greece, as recounted by Roald Dahl in his autobiography Going Solo.

The event is organized in honor of the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus, who was born in Eleusis, and derives its name from him.