Demeter

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture. She watches over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Demeter is also linked to health, birth, and marriage, and she has ties to the Underworld. She is sometimes called Deo.

Demeter is the daughter of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and the sister of Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. She is the mother of Persephone, a goddess who connects life and renewal. One famous story tells how Persephone was taken to the Underworld by Hades, and how Demeter’s search for her caused plants to stop growing. This explains why plants grow in some seasons and not in others.

Demeter was honored in many ways, including a special festival called the Thesmophoria. She and Persephone were important in the Eleusinian Mysteries, which gave people hope for a good life after death. Demeter is also linked to the Anatolian goddess Cybele and the Roman goddess Ceres.

Etymology

Demeter's name may have appeared in very old writings as da-ma-te. Scholars think this could be linked to her role in ancient religions.

The word "Demeter" includes meter, meaning "mother" in ancient languages. Many ideas exist about the first part of her name, Da. Some think it means "earth," making her "Mother-Earth." Others think it might come from a different language or refer to her role in giving food, meaning she could be called "Grain-Mother."

Iconography

Demeter was often shown with symbols of the harvest, like flowers, fruit, and grain. She was also sometimes shown with her daughter Persephone. In art, the constellation Virgo is linked to her, and it shows a sheaf of wheat, representing her connection to crops.

In one region, she was called "Black Demeter" and was shown with the head of a horse, telling a story of her trying to escape and then dressing in black.

Description

In the earliest stories, Demeter is known as the goddess of grain and farming. Over time, her role grew to include the earth itself. She is often linked with the earth goddess Gaia, sharing similar qualities. In many tales and rituals, Demeter is called the "Grain-Mother" or the "Earth-Mother." In some secret rites, she and her daughter Persephone were connected to both life and the underworld.

As the goddess of farming, Demeter gives grain for food and blesses those who harvest it. She was important at Eleusis and became known throughout Greece. In Cyprus, people spoke of "grain-harvesting" in relation to her. Demeter was called the "Mother Earth" who provided grains. Many names and titles describe her role with grain, such as "bringer of sheaves" and "reaper." She was seen as the source of food and plenty, known as "of the grain" and "of abundance."

The central idea in the Eleusinian Mysteries was the reunion of Persephone with Demeter, linking new crops with old seeds, a symbol of eternity. Demeter’s great gifts to people were farming, which led to a settled way of life, and the Mysteries, which gave hope for life beyond this world. These gifts were closely tied together in her stories and rituals. She is also linked with the Eleusinian mysteries and the laws of farming life. Her symbol is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among barley.

In addition to farming, Demeter was also seen as a goddess of the earth where crops grow. Her identity was linked to the earth goddess Gaia. In Arcadia, Demeter Melaina was shown with a horse’s head and snake hair, holding symbols of the underworld, air, and water. She and Persephone shared roles of both life and death. In some places, she was called Anesidora, sending gifts up from the underworld.

In Sparta, she was known as Demeter-Chthonia, and people made sacrifices to her after deaths. Some stories said a hole in the ground was an easy path for souls to the underworld. In Elis, she was called Demeter-Chamyne, linked to old beliefs about the underworld. At Levadia, she was known as Demeter-Europa and tied to Trophonius, an ancient underworld figure.

Pindar used the name Chalkokrotos for her, and bronze instruments were used in her mysteries. In central Greece, she was called Amphictyonis, and was the patron goddess of an ancient group of nearby towns. The Athenians called the dead "Demetrioi," showing a link between Demeter and beliefs about death and new life from the earth.

In Arcadia, Demeter had names like Erinys and Melaina, linking her to darker themes and the underworld. In Pheneus, she was known as Cidaria, and her priest would wear a secret mask of the goddess.

Theocritus described Demeter as a goddess of poppies, showing sheaves and poppies in her hands. Karl Kerényi thought poppies were part of a Cretan worship that later became part of the Eleusinian Mysteries in Classical Greece. A small statue from Gazi shows a poppy goddess wearing poppy seed capsules, used for food and other purposes. Kerényi believed the Great Mother Goddess, known as Rhea and Demeter, brought poppies from Crete to Eleusis, where opium may have been made from them.

Epithets

See Category:Epithets of Demeter

• Antaea: A name meaning "A goddess whom man may approach in prayers". This name was used for Demeter as well as for other goddesses like Rhea and Cybele.
• Amphictyonis: A special form of Demeter honored at Anthela because it was where leaders from Thermopylae would meet. Sacrifices were offered to her when these meetings began.
• Azesia: This name was used in many old Greek sayings. One saying, "Amaia looked for Azesia", referred to Demeter’s long search for her daughter after she was taken away. It meant looking for something for a very long time.
• Chloe: Meaning "Blooming" or "fresh green growth", this name celebrated the time of year when plants begin to grow again. A festival called Chloeia was held in Athens in spring to honor her, with happy celebrations and a goat sacrifice.
• Chrysaoros: This name meant "Lady of the Golden Blade", referring to the golden blades of wheat.
• Chthonia: Meaning "Of the earth", this name was used for Demeter and other earth-connected goddesses like Hecate and Nyx.
• Daduchos: Meaning "torch-bearer", this name reminded us of Demeter searching for her lost daughter with a torch. It was also a title for priests at important ceremonies in Rhodes Island, Greece.
• Rharias or Rarias: From the Rarian Field.

Worship

In Crete

In Crete, people honored a goddess of nature who cared for growth and birth. This goddess had strong ties to the earth and the underworld. She was seen as a powerful mother figure. The people believed she was connected to caves and nature.

On the Greek mainland

Many cities in Greece held special ceremonies for Demeter. These ceremonies were very important to the people because Demeter was the goddess of crops and food. The city of Eleusis was especially known for its ceremonies honoring Demeter.

Probably the earliest group of cities joined together around the worship of Demeter was at Anthele, near Thermopylae.

Mysian Demeter had a seven-day festival at Pellené in Arcadia. The writer Pausanias passed the shrine to Mysian Demeter and reports that it was founded by an Argive named Mysius who honored Demeter.

"Saint Demetra"

Main article: Caryatids of Eleusis

Even after rules changed and people were not allowed to follow old traditions, many in Greece still prayed to Demeter, calling her "Saint Demetra". They believed she helped their crops grow. In the past, people placed flowers at a special statue to keep their fields fertile. This practice stopped when the statue was moved to a museum.

Festivals

Main articles: Eleusinian Mysteries and Thesmophoria

Demeter had two big festivals. One was called Thesmophoria and was only for women. The other was the Eleusinian mysteries, where anyone could join. Both festivals told stories about Demeter and her daughter Persephone.

Conflation with other goddesses

Later, Demeter was linked with the Roman goddess Ceres. This happened around 205 BC when Rome was trying to get help from different gods. The festivals for Demeter and Ceres were very similar, and both focused on growing good crops and having healthy families.

Demeter was also sometimes seen as the same as Cybele, a goddess from Phrygia. The stories about Demeter and Persephone were similar to stories about Cybele and Attis.

Some stories from long ago mixed many great goddesses together into one. The writer Apuleius said that Ceres, whom we know as Demeter, was really the same as Isis, a goddess honored by the Egyptians.

Mythology

Hesiod’s Theogony describes Demeter as the second child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and the sister of Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Along with her sisters and brothers, except her youngest brother Zeus, Demeter was swallowed as a newborn by her father because he feared being overthrown by one of his children. She was later freed when Zeus made Cronus disgorge all of his children. Zeus then led his siblings in a war against their father and the other Titans. Cronus was supplanted by this new generation of deities, and Demeter became one of the Olympian gods, the new rulers of the cosmos, alongside her brothers and sisters.

Demeter is known as the mother of Persephone, described as the result of a union with Zeus. An alternate version appears in a fragment of the lost Orphic theogony, which preserves part of a myth in which Zeus mates with his mother, Rhea, in the form of a snake. Their daughter is said to be Persephone, whom Zeus mates with to conceive Dionysus. According to the Orphic fragments, after becoming the mother of Zeus, Rhea became Demeter.

There is some evidence that the figures of the Queen of the Underworld and the daughter of Demeter were initially considered separate goddesses. However, they became connected by the time of Hesiod in the 7th century BC. Demeter and Persephone were often worshipped together and were referred to by joint titles. In their cult at Eleusis, they were called “the goddesses,” usually distinguished as “the older” and “the younger.” In Rhodes and Sparta, they were worshipped as “the Demeters.” In the Thesmophoria, they were known as “the thesmophoroi.” In Arcadia they were known as “the Great Goddesses” and “the mistresses.” In Mycenaean Pylos, Demeter and Persephone were probably called the “queens.”

According to Diodorus Siculus, in his Bibliotheca historica written in the 1st century BC, Demeter and Zeus were also the parents of Dionysus. Diodorus described the myth of Dionysus’s double birth and how Demeter gathered up his remains so that he could be born a third time. Diodorus states that Dionysus’s birth from Zeus and his older sister Demeter was a minority belief, as most sources state that the parents of Dionysus were Zeus and Persephone, and later Zeus and Semele.

In Arcadia, a major Arcadian deity known as Despoina (“Mistress”) was said to be the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon. According to Pausanias, a Thelpusian tradition said that during Demeter’s search for Persephone, Poseidon pursued her. Demeter turned into a horse to avoid her younger brother’s advances. However, he turned into a stallion and mated with the goddess, resulting in the birth of the horse god Arion and a daughter whose name they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated. Elsewhere, he says that the Phigalians assert that the offspring of Poseidon and Demeter was Despoina, “as the Arcadians call her.”

In Orphic literature, Demeter seems to be the mother of the witchcraft goddess Hecate.

Both Homer and Hesiod, writing around 700 BC, described Demeter making love with the agricultural hero Iasion in a ploughed field during the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia. According to Hesiod, this union resulted in the birth of Plutus.

Demeter took Mecon, a young Athenian, as a lover; he was at some point transformed into a poppy flower.

The following is a list of Demeter’s offspring, by various fathers. Beside each offspring, the earliest source to record the parentage is given, along with the century to which the source (in some cases approximately) dates.

Abduction of Persephone

Main article: Rape of Persephone

Demeter searched for her missing daughter Persephone for nine days, worried and sad. Hecate told her that while she had not seen what happened to Persephone, she heard her cries. Together the two goddesses went to Helios, the sun god, who witnessed everything that happened on earth. Helios then told Demeter that her brother Hades, god of the Underworld, had taken Persephone to be his wife with the permission of Zeus, the girl’s father. Demeter was very upset, and so the seasons stopped and all living things began to die. To save all life on earth, Zeus sent his messenger Hermes to the Underworld to bring Persephone back to her mother. Hades agreed to release her if she had eaten nothing while in his realm, but Persephone had eaten a small number of pomegranate seeds. This bound her to Hades and the Underworld for certain months of every year, most likely the dry Mediterranean summer, when plant life is threatened by drought. There are several versions on the basic myth; the earliest account, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, relates that Persephone is secretly given a pomegranate seed by Hades.

The myth of the capture of Persephone seems to be pre-Greek. In the Greek version, Ploutos represents the wealth of the corn that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (pithoi). Similar subterranean pithoi were used in ancient times for funerary practices. At the beginning of the autumn, when the corn of the old crop is laid on the fields, she ascends and is reunited with her mother, Demeter, for at this time, the old crop and the new meet each other.

In the Orphic tradition, while she was searching for her daughter, a mortal woman named Baubo received Demeter as her guest and offered her a meal and wine. Demeter declined them both because she mourned the loss of Persephone. Baubo then lifted her skirt and showed her genitalia to the goddess, simultaneously revealing Iacchus, Demeter’s son. Demeter was delighted and accepted the food and wine. This tale survives in the account of Clement of Alexandria, an early Christian writer who wrote about pagan practices and mythology.

Demeter at Eleusis

Demeter’s search for her daughter Persephone took her to the palace of Celeus, the King of Eleusis in Attica. She assumed the form of an old woman and asked him for shelter. He took her in, to nurse Demophon and Triptolemus, his sons by Metanira. To reward his kindness, she planned to make Demophon immortal; she secretly anointed the boy with ambrosia and laid him in the hearth’s flames to gradually burn away his mortal self. But Metanira walked in, saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright. Demeter abandoned the attempt. Instead, once Persephone returned from the underworld, she and Demeter taught Triptolemus the secrets of agriculture, and he, in turn, taught them to any who wished to learn them. Thus, humanity learned how to plant, grow and harvest grain. The myth has several versions; some are linked to figures such as Eleusis, Rarus and Trochilus.

Demeter and Iasion

Homer’s Odyssey contains perhaps the earliest direct references to the myth of Demeter and her consort Iasion, a Samothracian hero whose name may refer to bindweed, a small white flower that frequently grows in wheat fields. In the Odyssey, Calypso describes how Demeter, “without disguise,” made love to Iasion. “So it was when Demeter of the braided tresses followed her heart and lay in love with Iasion in the triple-furrowed field; Zeus was aware of it soon enough and hurled the bright thunderbolt and killed him.” However, Ovid states that Iasion lived to old age as the husband of Demeter. In ancient Greek culture, part of the opening of each agricultural year involved the cutting of three furrows in the field to ensure its fertility.

Hesiod expanded on the basics of this myth. According to him, the liaison between Demeter and Iasion took place at the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia in Crete. Demeter, in this version, had lured Iasion away from the other revellers. Hesiod says that Demeter subsequently gave birth to Plutus.

Demeter and Poseidon

In Arcadia, located in what is now southern Greece, the major goddess Despoina was considered the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios (“Horse-Poseidon”). In the associated myths, Poseidon represents the river spirit of the Underworld, and he appears as a horse, as often happens in northern European folklore. The myth describes how he pursued his older sister, Demeter, who hid from him among the horses of the king Onkios, but even in the form of a mare, she could not conceal her divinity. Poseidon caught and mated with his older sister in the form of a stallion. Demeter was furious at Poseidon’s actions; in this furious form, she became known as Demeter Erinys. Her anger at Poseidon drove her to dress all in black and retreat into a cave to purify herself, an act which was the cause of a universal famine. Demeter’s absence caused the death of crops, livestock, and eventually of the people who depended on them. Demeter washed away her anger in the River Ladon, becoming Demeter Lousia, the “bathed Demeter.”

“In her alliance with Poseidon,” Kerényi noted, “she was Earth, who bears plants and beasts, and could therefore assume the shape of an ear of grain or a mare.” Moreover, she bore a daughter Despoina (Δέσποινα: the “Mistress”), whose name should not be uttered outside the Arcadian Mysteries, and a horse named Arion, with a black mane and tail.

At Phigaleia, a xoanon (wood-carved statue) of Demeter was erected in a cave which, tradition held, was the cave into which Black Demeter retreated. The statue depicted a Medusa-like figure with a horse’s head and snake-like hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, which probably represented her power over air and water.

Demeter and Erysichthon

Another myth involving Demeter’s anger resulting in famine is that of Erysichthon, king of Thessaly. The myth tells of Erysichthon ordering all of the trees in one of Demeter’s sacred groves to be cut down, as he wanted to build an extension of his palace and hold feasts there. One tree, a huge oak, was covered with votive wreaths, symbols of the prayers Demeter had granted, so Erysichthon’s men refused to cut it down. The king used an axe to cut it down, killing a dryad nymph in the process. The nymph’s dying words were a curse on Erysichthon. Demeter punished the king by calling upon Limos, the spirit of unrelenting and insatiable hunger, to enter his stomach. The more the king ate, the hungrier he became. Erysichthon sold all his possessions to buy food but was still hungry. Finally, he sold his daughter, Mestra, into slavery. Mestra was freed from slavery by her former lover, Poseidon, who gave her the gift of shape-shifting into any creature to escape her bonds. Erysichthon used her shape-shifting ability to sell her numerous times to make more money to feed himself, but no amount of food was enough. Eventually, Erysichthon ate himself.

In a variation, Erysichthon tore down a temple of Demeter, wishing to build a roof for his house; she punished him the same way, and near the end of his life, she sent a snake to plague him. Afterwards, Demeter put him among the stars (the constellation Ophiuchus), as she did the snake, to continue to inflict its punishment on Erysichthon.

In the Pergamon Altar, which depicts the battle of the gods against the Giants (Gigantomachy), survive remains of what seems to have been Demeter fighting a Giant labelled “Erysichthon.” Demeter is also depicted fighting against the Giants next to Hermes in the Suessula Gigantomachy vase, now housed in the Louvre Museum. Usually, ancient depictions of the Gigantomachy tend to exclude Demeter due to her non-martial nature.

Wrath myths

According to Ovid, Demeter gave the Sirens, the companions of Persephone, wings to search for her daughter when she was abducted by Hades. However, the Fabulae of Hyginus has Demeter cursing the sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone.

While travelling far and wide looking for her daughter, Demeter arrived exhausted in Attica. A woman named Misme took her in and offered her a cup of water with pennyroyal and barley groats, for it was a hot day. Demeter, in her thirst, swallowed the drink clumsily. Witnessing that, Misme’s son Ascalabus laughed, mocked her, and asked her if she would like a deep jar of that drink. Demeter then poured her drink over him and turned him into a gecko, hated by both men and gods. It was said that Demeter showed her favour to those who killed geckos.

Demeter pinned Ascalaphus under a rock for reporting, as sole witness, to Hades that Persephone had consumed some pomegranate seeds. Later, after Heracles rolled the stone off Ascalaphus, Demeter turned him into a short-eared owl instead. In other versions, Persephone was the one who transformed Ascalaphus into the bird by sprinkling him with water of the river Phlegethon.

Before Hades abducted Persephone, he had kept Minthe as his mistress. But after he married Persephone, he set Minthe aside. Minthe would often brag about being lovelier and more queenly than Persephone and say Hades would soon come back to her and kick Persephone out of his halls. Demeter, hearing that insult towards her daughter, grew angry and trampled Minthe; from the earth then sprang a lovely-smelling herb named after the nymph. In other versions, Persephone herself is the one who kills and turns Minthe into a plant.

In an Argive myth, when Demeter travelled to Argolis, a man named Colontas refused to receive her in his house, whereas his daughter Chthonia disapproved of his actions. Colontas was punished by being burnt along with his house, but Demeter took Chthonia to Hermione, where she built a sanctuary for the goddess.

Once, the Colchian princess Medea ended a famine that plagued Corinth by making sacrifices to Demeter and the nymphs.

Favour myths

During her wanderings, Demeter came upon the town of Pheneus; to the Pheneates that received her warmly and offered her shelter, she gave all sorts of pulse, except for beans, deeming it impure. Two of the Pheneates, Trisaules and Damithales, had a temple of Demeter built for her. Demeter also gifted a fig tree to Phytalus, an Eleusinian man, for welcoming her in his home.

Demeter gave Triptolemus her serpent-drawn chariot (one of the serpents that drew this chariot was Kykreides) and seed and bade him scatter it across the earth (teach humankind the knowledge of agriculture). Triptolemus rode through Europe and Asia until he came to the land of Lyncus, a Scythian king. Lyncus pretended to offer what’s accustomed of hospitality to him, but once Triptolemus fell asleep, he attacked him with a dagger, wanting to take credit for his work. Demeter then saved Triptolemus by turning Lyncus into a lynx and ordered Triptolemus to return home airborne. Hyginus records a very similar myth, in which Demeter saves Triptolemus from an evil king named Carnabon who additionally seized Triptolemus’s chariot and killed one of the dragons, so he might not escape; Demeter restored the chariot to Triptolemus, substituted the dead dragon with another one, and punished Carnabon by putting him among the stars holding a dragon as if to kill it.

When her son Philomelus invented the plough and used it to cultivate the fields, Demeter was so impressed by his good work that she immortalized him in the sky by turning him into a constellation, the Boötes.

In the tale of Eros and Psyche, Demeter, along with her sister Hera, visited Aphrodite, raging with fury about the girl who had married her son. Aphrodite asks the two to search for her; the two try to talk sense into her, arguing that her son is not a little boy, although he might appear as one, and there’s no harm in him falling in love with Psyche. Aphrodite took offence at their words. Sometime later, Psyche in her wanderings came across an abandoned shrine of Demeter, and sorted out the neglected sickles and harvest implements she found there. As she was doing so, Demeter appeared to her and called from afar; she warned the girl of Aphrodite’s great wrath and her plan to take revenge on her. Then Psyche begged the goddess to help her, but Demeter answered that she could not interfere and incur Aphrodite’s anger at her, and for that reason, Psyche had to leave the shrine or else be kept as a captive of hers.

Hierax, a man of justice and distinction, set up sanctuaries for Demeter and received plenteous harvests from her in return. When the tribe neglected Poseidon in favour of Demeter, the sea god destroyed all of her crops, so Hierax sent them instead his own food and was transformed into a hawk by Poseidon.

Besides giving gifts to those who were welcoming to her, Demeter was also a goddess who nursed the young; all of Plemaeus’s children born by his first wife died in a cradle; Demeter took pity on him and reared herself his son Orthopolis. Plemaeus built a temple to her to thank her. Demeter also raised Trophonius, the prophetic son of either Apollo or Erginus.

Other accounts

Demeter seems to have accompanied Dionysus when he descended into the Underworld to retrieve his mother Semele in order to visit her now married daughter, and perhaps lead her back to the land of the living for the remainder of the year. In many vases from Athens Dionysus is seen in the company of mother and daughter.

Once Tantalus, a son of Zeus, invited the gods over for dinner. Tantalus, wanting to test them, cut his son Pelops, cooked him and offered him as a meal to them. They all saw through Tantalus’s crime except Demeter, who ate Pelops’s shoulder before the gods brought him back to life.

Genealogy

In the stories about the gods, Demeter is the daughter of two very important gods: Cronus and Rhea. She is also the sister of other powerful gods, including Zeus, who rules the heavens. Demeter has several children, the most well-known being Persephone, who spends part of each year with her in the world below the earth.