Goddess of harvest
Goddess of grain
Goddess of corn
Mother of Persephone
Daughter of Cronus and Rhea
Brother of Zeus
"The 'mysteries' are so called because their secrets have been very well guarded. Was the symbolic task the search for a rudimentary mill for grinding corn - seen as a step in the progress of civilization - or, indeed, the performance of sexual acts? It is still not known.
The second phase of the initiation was a spiritual experience. Aristotle expressed it clearly: 'The initiates were not meant to learn anything, but rather, to experience certain emotions and moods.'’
(Fragment 15; ed. Rose)
Demeter was the goddess of harvest and grain. She is also sometimes referred to as the goddess of corn. She was the sister of Zeus, and daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Demeter was one of the most important gods in the lives of mortals. For without her, human kind would have starved to death.
Demeter’s life was full of tragedy, starting with her daughter Persephone: Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She grew up playing with Zeus’s other daughters, Athena and Artemis. One day, while the girls were picking flowers, Hades, the love stricken lonely god of the underworld, rose from the depths and kidnapped Persephone.
Demeter heard her daughter’s cries, and frantically ran to the rescue but she was too late. She didn’t find out who the abductor of her daughter was either, so she searched the entire world non-stop. While searching, the devastated Demeter didn’t tend to her fields and crops. Soon, the food of the world started dying and famine took over. Zeus, worried, called to his brother, Hades, to return Persephone. But it wasn’t that easy, while in the underworld, Persephone had eaten four seeds of a pomegranate fruit—the food of the dead. So a deal was made with Hades and Demeter: for four months out of the year (one for each seed), Persephone would have to remain in the underworld and be the queen of Hades.
Every year, during those four demoralizing months, Demeter is miserable and therefore never tends to her crop and fields. This is why we have our winter…when all is dead. The rest of the year, when Persephone joins Demeter on the sun loving earth, Demeter is overwhelmed with joy, and she starts to tend to her fields.
Demeter is often noted as a kind and pleasurable goddess. She is rarely ever considered vindictive. She is often thought to be sad and serious. But every god or goddess must have his or her bad days.
One time, while she was in search of her daughter, Persephone was extremely thirsty. She stopped at a spring, which had cool, clean water. She gulped down the water without hesitation. A man, Ascalabus, laughed as he watched her drink the water down so rapidly. Demeter, already being quite upset, ran out of her temper and changed him into a gecko.
There was also one time where a man named Erysichthon cut down an oak tree sacred to her. She was so upset that she cast a curse upon him—a curse that made him famished all the time. Soon, when Erysichthon could not find anything else to eat, he ate himself up and died!
The Eleusian Mysteries was a festival held every five years in the honor of Demeter. All participants were sworn to secrecy therefore little is known about these festivities. During this festival, all mortals were considered equals—no matter if they were black, white, rich, or poor.
**Ares**
**Hera**
**Poseidon**
**Hades**
**Athena**
**Apollo**
**Artemis**
**Dionysus**
**Aphrodite**
**Hephaestus**
**Hermes**
**Zeus**
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