DEMETER

(CERES)
THE GODDESS OF AGRICULTURE
 Ever wondered whom you should thank for the invention of cereal?
Well, for the ancient Greeks, that would be Demeter. As the
goddess of grain and agriculture, among other things, Demeter
brought life to crops and blessed her worshippers with a bountiful
harvest.
 Demeter and her myths also represent many different types of
cycles. The most obvious is the cycle of the seasons: from summer
to autumn to winter to spring… and back again. One of her major
myths is the story of Demeter’s loss of her daughter. In this
example, the cycle is one from grief to acceptance, showing how
grief can return and fade away again and again. Demeter’s myth is
also a type of mother story, describing the inevitability of a child
“leaving the nest”.
 WHO IS DEMETER?
 between Kronos and Rhea: Hestia was the eldest sister, then came Hera, then Demeter
. After the sisters were born, then came the brothers: first Hades, then Poseidon, and
finally the youngest, Zeus.
 This was quite the dysfunctional family. Kronos decided to eat all of his children for
fear of their potential power in the future, but Rhea managed to trick him by giving
him a swaddled stone instead of Zeus. Zeus was raised in secret, and when strong
enough, he came back to save his siblings from the stomach of their ravenous father.
He gave Kronos a magical concoction that forced him to barf up his siblings. Zeus’
brothers and sisters sprung out, fully grown, and ready for revenge.
 Together, Demeter and her siblings overthrew Kronos, and Zeus was established as
the new leader of the immortals. The age of the Titans was over, and the age of the
gods began. Soon after this, the gods received their titles. Demeter became the
goddess of agriculture. She taught humans how to plant, plow, and nurture the earth to
provide food. Her Roman name was Ceres, which is where we get the word “cereal”
from.beginning of Demeter’s storyline is shared with her siblings. She was born of the union
TEACHING HUMANS: TRIPTOLEMOS & DEMETER’S FAVOR

 Demeter is often depicted in art as a mature woman, and her myths illustrate
her as a maternal and generous goddess. Her attributes are a plentiful
cornucopia, sheaves of wheat, and a torch. The beginning of humankind’s
adventures in gardening and agriculture began with Demeter’s favorite hero:
Triptolemos. Demeter gifted Triptolemos with her knowledge so that he could
impart it to his fellow humans.
 When Demeter was grieving the loss of her daughter, she wandered around
Greece from town to town in search of her. She eventually came to Eleusis.
Demeter was traveling in the guise of an old woman, her grief represented by
her aging and weak form. Here, she was greeted and comforted by the kind-
hearted Triptolemos, a young prince. To show her appreciation for his
hospitality, she taught him how to work the land.
A MOTHER’S LOSS: DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
 Demeter’s myths have a sense of familiarity to them for many people. One of her most well-
known myths is the one in which Persephone, her daughter, is taken by the Lord of the Dead,
Hades. The myth is an allegory for the experience of mothers in ancient Greece who had to
give up their daughters to marriages, over which they had no control.
 The myth begins with Persephone in a meadow picking flowers. As the daughter of Demeter
and Zeus, she was an immortal being herself. Persephone was the goddess of springtime, and
her connection to agriculture meant that she was worshipped alongside her mother in the
Eleusinian Mysteries. This was a secret cult that would perform as yet still unknown rituals in
honor of the goddesses.
 As Persephone was choosing flowers, the god Hades burst forth from the earth below and took
her back to his kingdom in the Underworld. When the news of Persephone’s disappearance
reached her, Demeter was aghast: she knew not who had taken her daughter and so she spent
many months searching the earth for her. Demeter held a torch throughout her entire search,
and so this became the symbol of the weary and grieving traveler.
THE FATHER OVERRIDE & DEMETER’S GRIEF
 For many women in ancient Greece, Demeter and Persephone’s myth could easily be
empathized with. It was an illustration of how a daughter was given in marriage by a
father to another man. Unbeknownst to Demeter, Hades had in fact asked Zeus,
Persephone’s father, for Persephone as his bride. This was in keeping with ancient Greek
culture and practice. Zeus had agreed, but he believed Demeter would not be pleased
with her marrying the Lord of the Dead. To Demeter, Hades’ domain was a dark and
damp land where nothing could grow and thrive. This was the opposite of Demeter’s
spirit.
 When Persephone was taken, Zeus and the other gods who knew the culprit behind
Persephone’s abduction were too fearful and trepid to tell Demeter. Demeter was
distraught at the absence of Persephone and began to affect the earth. The land, which
was once bountiful, began to grow hard and increasingly infertile. The sun began to
weaken, and cold blustery winds and freezing temperatures prevented crops from
growing. This was the change from summer to autumn, and finally to winter.
 Eventually, Helios and Hecate came to Demeter’s aid and told her that it was Hades who
had taken Persephone and that he had had the permission of Zeus. Demeter in anger
continued the famine. She traversed from town to town for many days, punishing those
who rejected her and blessing those who took her in.
DEMETER’S POWER
 As time went on, Zeus began to fear for the human race, as
they could not grow any food. He summoned Demeter to
Olympus and demanded that she stop her effect on the
land. Demeter vowed that she would only stop the famine
and cold weather if her daughter was returned to her.
 Zeus had no choice but to try and meet Demeter’s demand.
Her power and influence on the earth was too powerful to
ignore. Her flaming torches were a sight to behold, too.
POMEGRANATES AND TIME SHARED
 So, Zeus relented and relayed the message to Hades. Hades agreed to let Persephone return to
her mother, for the sake of humankind. However, during their final time together before
Persephone left the Underworld, Hades gave Persephone a pomegranate.
 Now, it was common knowledge to the immortals that to eat anything from the Underworld
would mean that the consumer would never be able to leave. Persephone — some say she
knew about this magic, some say she did not — ate a third of the pomegranate. Did she want
to stay with Hades? Did she enjoy life as Queen of the Underworld rather than a nymph of the
forest? Perhaps she chafed under her mother? Or perhaps she missed the life of the living, but
also enjoyed the Underworld? Or was Persephone cruelly tricked to remain in her prison? It’s
open to interpretation.
 In any case, Persephone had eaten the pomegranate. Demeter managed to argue her daughter’s
case and bargained with Zeus. The outcome was this: Persephone would return to and stay in
the Underworld with her husband every year, for a third of the year. For the rest of the year,
she could be with her mother and the land of the living. It is safe to say, Demeter and her son
in law did not have the best relationship.
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
 These cycles — a mother and daughter reunited and separated over and over, the re-
occurrence of grief to acceptance, the descent into the land of the dead, and the ascent
to the land of the living — represented Demeter and the seasons’ cyclical nature.
When Persephone is in the Underworld, winter descends. Slowly, as Demeter grows
happier at her daughter’s impending return, we step into spring. Summer blooms as
mother and daughter are reunited. Autumn begins to creep in again as Demeter
gloomily relinquishes her daughter to the Underworld again.
 The Eleusinian Mysteries were huge for Demeter’s worshipers and their rituals. The
Mystery ritual would involve a re-enactment of the cycle: Persephone’s abduction,
“the descent”, then the “search” and finally the reunion or the “ascent” from the
Underworld. Not much is known about the Mysteries other than that any citizen who
was invited to join must keep the practices of the Mysteries a secret. The first rule
about the Mysteries: Don’t talk about the Mysteries. To tell was punishable by death.
DEMETER & HER WRATH
 Demeter was sometimes taken for granted, as she was not seen as a militant goddess like
Athena, or as malicious as the Queen of the Gods, Hera. Most of the time, she was kind but
instructive, helping humans with their farming tasks.
 A man named Erysichthon underestimated her composed nature. He destroyed one of
Demeter’s sacred groves by chopping down all the trees. Not only this but there was a time
when the axmen refused to cut down the final tree. On this tree were symbolic wreaths for
every favor Demeter had ever bestowed on humans. Erysichthon foolishly took an ax and
chopped the tree down. Inside the tree was a dryad, a tree spirit… as the spirit died, she cursed
the foolish man.
 More than happy to do so, Demeter took up the dryad’s curse and chose to enact it. Using her
powers as a goddess, she affected his body so that he had an insatiable hunger. The more he
ate, the hungrier he felt. Eventually, after spending all his money, selling all his belongings,
and even selling his own daughter into slavery, he finally ate his own body!
 Demeter was hardly underestimated or insulted in such a way again. She was one of the most
worshipped immortals because her power and influence was necessary for the survival of
humankind.