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DEMETER

DEMETER

Demeter was the middle daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She was the Ancient Greek goddess of corn and agriculture, one of the original Twelve Olympians.

Demeter is usually portrayed as a fully-clothed and matronly-looking woman, either enthroned and regally seated or proudly standing with an extended hand.

She was one of the six children of Cronus and Rhea, their middle daughter, and their second child overall – born after Hestia, but before Hera and her brothers: Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Just like all of her siblings, she was swallowed and later, following an intervention by Zeus, regurgitated by her father.

The goddess didn't have many partners, but the noteworthy ones are Iasion, Poseidon, and Zeus.

Demeter fell in love with the mortal Iasion early in her life. She seduced him at the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia and lay with him in a thrice-plowed field. Zeus didn't think appropriate for such a respected goddess to have a relationship with a mortal, so he struck Iasion with a thunderbolt. It was already too late, though, as Demeter was pregnant with twins: Ploutos and Philomelus, the former the god of wealth, and the latter, the patron of plowing.

Later on, Poseidon forced himself upon her (once transformed into a stallion), and the goddess, once again, became pregnant with two children: Despoena, a nymph, and Arion, a talking horse.

Finally, Demeter became Zeus' fourth wife. From their union, Demeter's most well-known child was born, Persephone, the goddess of spring. The two were incredibly close. The goddesses – as they were endearingly called – even share the same attributes and symbols: scepter, cornucopia, ears of corn, a sheaf of wheat, torch, and occasionally, a crown of flowers.

One day, as she was gathering flowers with her girlfriends, Persephone was seduced towards the underworld. It was then that she taken down and came across Hades. The two fell in love with each other, unbeknownst to Demeter. Some myths give versions of Persephone being kidnapped by Hades. (See Persephone)

Demeter was inconsolable. She walked the earth far and wide for a whole nine days to find her daughter – but she didn't. On the tenth day, Hecate came to her. She'd witnessed Persephone disappearing into the underworld, and Helios, the All-Seeing God of the Sun, confirmed her story. It was then that Demeter became not only broken-hearted, but furious. She was most angry with Zeus, who, the rumors claimed so, had approved Persephone remaining with Hades.

So, Demeter left Mount Olympus and went to grieve the absence of her daughter among the mortals, disguised as an old woman. She ended up at the court of King Celeus of Eleusis, where his wife Metanira hired her to be the nurse to her baby son, Demophon. Iambe, the old servant woman of the house, cheered her with her jokes, and Demeter laughed for the first time in many weeks. In gratitude for the kindness, Demeter devised a plan to make Demophon immortal.

She started the ritual by anointing him with ambrosia and then burning his mortal spirit in the family hearth. One night, though, Metanira witnessed the ritual and, not realizing what was happening, started screaming in panic and alarm. This disturbed Demeter's strategy, so she revealed herself at once and told Metanira that the only way that the Eleusinians will ever win her kindness back is by building a temple and establishing a festival in her glory.

King Celeus did just that, and Demeter spent a whole year living in her newly built temple, grieving. In the process, she neglected all her duties as a goddess of fertility and agriculture. As a consequence, the earth turned barren, and people started dying out of hunger. After unsuccessfully sending all the gods, one by one, to Demeter with gifts and pleas, Zeus realized that he would have to bring Persephone back to her mother if he didn't want to see humanity wiped out from the planet.

So, he sent Hermes to Hades, and the divine messenger fetched back Persephone to her mother. However, the gods soon realized that Demeter's daughter had already eaten six seeds of pomegranate in the Underworld, which obliged her to remain there. Knowing that Demeter wouldn't allow such thing to happen, Zeus proposed a compromise: because of the six seeds she had eaten, Persephone would spend six months of the year with Hades and the other six months with Demeter.

The former, the period during which Demeter is grieving, corresponds to the winter months of the year when the earth is infertile and bare; the latter, when she rejoices, overlaps with the abundant months of our springs and summers. The myth likewise explains the growth cycle of the plants. The grain, just like Persephone, must die and be buried under the earth in order to bear much fruit above it.