 Priestesses in charge of official cults such as that of Athena Polias in ancient Athens were paid well, were looked upon as role models, and wielded considerable social and political power.In the important Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greece, men, women, children and slaves were admitted and initiated into its secrets on a basis of complete equality.These rites, which were of great antiquity, lasted until the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius I had them forcibly closed in 392 AD.