Demeter (Ceres)

De = Earth or Tamer or Barley

Meter = Mother

Near Eastern Parallel

Duttur searches for her son Damu in the underworld

1-32: A description of how Persephone was carried off by Hades, with the consent of Zeus. She was gathering flowers with the nymphs on the plain of Nysa when the earth gaped and hades sprang forth and carried her away on his chariot. Her cries for help were heard by no one except Hecate and Helios and Zeus was far away.

33-90: Finally Demeter hears her and is stricken with grief. For nine days she wanders in search of her, with burning torches, fasting and without washing herself. On the tenth day, Hecate and Helios tell her that Hades carried off her daughter.

91-117: Angry, Demeter leaves the gods and wanders on earth, disguised as an old woman. She comes to Eleusis, where she sits beside the well Parthenion. There, the four daughters of Celeus, king of Eleusis meet her.

118-68: Demeter tells them a false story about having been abducted by pirates and asks to be made the nurse or housekeeper of the family. They offer her a position as nurse and take her home.

169-211: Demeter returns with the daughters to the palace to meet their mother Metaneira. When she enters she briefly shows her divine form, but Metaneira does not realize. She is offered a stool by the maid, but refuses to drink wine, only barley and water.

212-304: Demeter is welcomed in the family as the nurse and given responsibility of Demophon, Metaneira’s son. Secretly she annoints him with ambrosia and at night dips him into the fire. But Metaneira suspects something and spies on her. She cries out when she sees her son placed in the fire and screams. Demeter reveals herself as a goddess, stops short of making Demophon immortal because of his mother’s folly; she does, however, give him an animal ceremony in his honour. She commands that a temple be built for her in Eleusis, where she sits and grieves for her daughter. She promises to teach the Eleusinians her rites.

305-45: Demeter causes a great famine, which threatens the existence of mankind and the sacrifices made to the gods. Zeus and Iris, then all the gods, try to convince her to turn away from her anger.

346-74: Finally, Hermes asks Hades to let her go. He consents, and tells her to return, promising that she will have great honours as his wife, both in heaven and below the earth. He gives her a pomegranate-seed to eat, secretly, which binds her to return to him.

375-458: Hermes takes her back to earth and she is reunited with her mother. She tells her what happened. Zeus invites them to Olympus and promises that Persephone will live there for two-thirds of the year, while for the final third (winter) she will live in the underworld.

459-95: Demeter consents. She makes life return to the fields, and teaches her rites to the princes of Eleusis, rites whose secrecy is absolute, and which guarantee to the initiate alone a happy fate after death. The goddesses go up to Olympus and the hymn ends.

A dream forbade me to write a description of the things within the wall of the sanctuary. It is obvious, I suppose, that the uninitiated have no right to learn of the things which they are prevented from seeing.

Pausanias

Religious Festivals of Demeter

Eleusinian Mysteries

Thesmophoria

Demeter gave humans two gifts….the fruits of the field which make it possible for us to live not like animals, and the initiation, and those who partake of the initiation have sweeter hopes about the end of life and all eternitDemeter gave humans two gifts….the fruits of the field which make it possible for us to live not like animals, and the initiation, and those who partake of the initiation have sweeter hopes about the end of life and all eternity.

Isocrates, 4th century B.C.

• Onto the threshold stepped the goddess: the beam of the roof She touched with her head, and filled the doorway with heavenly light. Metaneira was seized with reverence, awe, and pallid fear; She surrendered her chair to the goddess, and on it she urged her to sit. But Demete, Bringer of Seasons, Bestower of Splendid Gifts, had no desire to sit upon the gleaming chair, But continued to wait in silence, her beautiful eyes cast down Till Iambe who knew her duties set a compact stool Beside he, and over it threw a fleece of dazzling white. Then, sitting down, the goddess hid herself under her veil; For a long time bereft of speech she sat full of woe on the stool. To no one did she give greeting with either a word or sign; She had no laughter within her, no hunger for food and drink; But with longing pining away for her deep-girdled daughter, she sat, Till Iambe who knew her duties with jokes and by mocking induced Queenly and holy Demeter to smile and laugh and be kind; And Iambe has pleased her temper then too in later times. Metaneira proffered a goblet that brimmed with honey-sweet wine; With an upward nod she refused it – it was not permitted, she said, For her to drink red wine – but bad her to give her instead a draught of barely and water mixed with tender mint.

Hymn to Demeter, lines 188 ff.

Mysteries

1) Fasting2) Jesting and mockery (known as

aischrologia)3) The drinking of the mixture of

barley, water and mint (the kykeon)

The goddess Demeter then went and showed to the doom-dealing kings-to Triptolemos, chariot-driving Diokles, Eumolpos the strong, and Celeus leader of peoples-the way to perform her rites, And disclosed sacred actions to all that can be in no way [transgressed], Learnt, or divulged, for the tongue is curbed by the gods’ great awe. Their foundation is celebrated, but so is their secrecy.

Hymn to Demeter, lines 482ff.