In Eleusis players try to get rid of their cards by playing them onto a discard pile, however the rule which dictates which cards are legal to play is not known to the players. Instead, it is invented by the dealer before play begins. The other players have to try and guess the rule by observing which plays are legal.
The original version of Eleusis was invented by Robert Abbott in 1956, and was published in Martin Gardner's column in the Scientific American in June 1959. It subsequently appeared in Gardner's 2nd Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions and in Robert Abbott's book Abbott's New Card Games (Stein & Day 1963).
In the 1970's Robert Abbott made some major improvements to Eleusis, including the option for a player to become a prophet and try to predict whether each play would be called legal or illegal. This current version The New Eleusis was published in the Scientific American in October 1977. There is also a booklet about it, obtainable from the inventor, which gives a fascinating account of the development of the game, as well as the rules.
- David Matuszek maintains a web page for The New Eleusis at
http://www.netaxs.com/people/nerp/eleusis0.html- I have archived some of Dave's pages on eleusis in the NomicFtpRepository
ftp://ftp.cse.unsw.edu.au/pub/users/malcolmr/nomic/other_games/index.html
Winning Moves (http://www.winning-moves.com/) has, I have been told, published a commercial version of this game called Genius Rules (although it may be out of print, as it doesn't appear on their web site). Apparently it has the rules printed on cards for your convenience (which removes the point of the game, if you ask me).