In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter (dɪˈmiːtər; Attic: «Δημήτηρ» Dēmḗtēr dɛːmɛ́ːtɛːr; Doric: «Δαμάτηρ» Dāmā́tēr) is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although Demeter is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld. She is also called Deo («Δηώ» Dēṓ).
In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the TitansRhea and Cronus, and sister to Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Like her other siblings except Zeus, she was swallowed by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus. Through Zeus, she became the mother of Persephone, a fertility goddess and resurrection deity. One of the most notable Homeric Hymns, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, tells the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades and Demeter's search for her. When Hades, the King of the Underworld, wished to make Persephone his wife, he abducted her from a field while she was picking flowers, with Zeus's leave. Demeter searched everywhere to find her missing daughter to no avail until she was informed that Hades had taken her to the Underworld. In response, Demeter neglected her duties as goddess of agriculture, plunging the earth into a deadly famine where nothing would grow, causing mortals to die. Zeus ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother to avert the disaster. However, because Persephone had eaten food from the Underworld, she could not stay with Demeter forever, but had to divide the year between her mother and her husband, explaining the seasonal cycle as Demeter does not let plants grow while Persephone is gone.
Her cult titles include Sito («Σιτώ»), "she of the Grain", as the giver of food or grain, and Thesmophoros («θεσμός», thesmos: divine order, unwritten law; «φόρος», phoros: bringer, bearer), "giver of customs" or "legislator", in association with the secret female-only festival called the Thesmophoria. Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law and the cycle of life and death. She and Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a happy afterlife. This religious tradition was based on ancient agrarian cults of agricultural communities and predated the Olympian pantheon, probably having its roots in the Mycenaean period –1200 BC.
Demeter was often considered to be the same figure as the Anatolian goddess Cybele, and she was identified with the Roman goddess Ceres.
Demeter may appear in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents (AR Zf 1 and 2, and KY Za 2), all three dedicated to religious situations and all three bearing just the name (i-da-ma-te on AR Zf 1 and 2). It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in a Linear B (Mycenean Greek) inscription (PY En 609); the word «», da-ma-te, probably refers to "households". On the other hand, «», si-to-po-ti-ni-ja, "Potnia of the Grain", is regarded as referring to her Bronze Age predecessor or to one of her epithets.
Demeter's character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name meter («μήτηρ») derived from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *méh₂tēr (mother). In antiquity, different explanations were already proffered for the first element of her name. It is possible that Da («Δᾶ»), a word which corresponds to Gē («Γῆ») in Attic, is the Doric form of De («Δῆ»), "earth", the old name of the chthonic earth-goddess, and that Demeter is "Mother-Earth". Liddell & Scott find this "improbable" and Beekes writes, "there is no indication that da means 'earth, although it has also been assumed in the name of Poseidon found in the Linear B inscription E-ne-si-da-o-ne, "earth-shaker". John Chadwick also argues that the dā element in the name of Demeter is not so simply equated with "earth".
M. L. West has proposed that the word Demeter, initially Damater, could be a borrowing from an Illyrian deity attested in the Messapic goddess Damatura, with a form dā- ("earth", from PIE *dʰǵʰ(e)m-) attached to -matura ("mother"), akin to the Illyrian god Dei-paturos (dei-, "sky", attached to -paturos, "father"). The Lesbian form Dō- may simply reflect a different colloquial pronunciation of the non-Greek name.
Another theory suggests that the element De- might be connected with Deo, an epithet of Demeter and it could derive from the Cretan word dea («δηά»), Ionic zeia («ζειά»)—variously identified with emmer, spelt, rye, or other grains by modern scholars—so that she is the mother and the giver of food generally. This view is shared by British scholar Jane Ellen Harrison, who suggests that Démeter's name means Grain-Mother, instead of Earth-Mother.
An alternative Proto-Indo-European etymology comes through Potnia and Despoina, where Des- represents a derivative of PIE*dem (house, dome), and Demeter is "mother of the house" (from PIE *dems-méh₂tēr). R. S. P. Beekes rejects a Greek interpretation, but not necessarily an Indo-European one.
Demeter on a Didrachme from Paros island, struck at the Cyclades. Demeter was frequently associated with images of the harvest, including flowers, fruit, and grain. She was also sometimes pictured with her daughter Persephone. However, Demeter is not generally portrayed with any of her consorts; the exception is Iasion, the youth of Crete who lay with her in a thrice-ploughed field and was killed afterward by a jealous Zeus with a thunderbolt.
Demeter is assigned the zodiac constellation Virgo, the Virgin, by Marcus Manilius in his 1st-century Roman work Astronomicon. In art, the constellation Virgo holds Spica, a sheaf of wheat in her hand and sits beside constellation Leo the Lion.
In Arcadia, she was known as "Black Demeter". She was said to have taken the form of a mare to escape the pursuit of her younger brother, Poseidon, and having been raped by him despite her disguise, she dressed all in black and retreated into a cave to mourn and to purify herself. She was consequently depicted with the head of a horse in this region.
A sculpture of the Black Demeter was made by Onatas.
In the earliest conceptions of Demeter she is the goddess of grain and threshing, however her functions were extended beyond the fields and she was often identified with the earth goddess (Gaia). Some of the epithets of Gaia and Demeter are similar showing the identity of their nature. In most of her myths and cults, Demeter is the "Grain-Mother" or the "Earth-Mother". In the older chthonic cults the earth goddess was related to the Underworld and in the secret rites (mysteries) Demeter and Persephone share the double function of death and fertility. Demeter is the giver of the secret rites and the giver of the laws of cereal agriculture. She was occasionally identified with the Great MotherRhea-Cybele who was worshipped in Crete and Asia Minor with the music of cymbals and violent rites. It seems that poppies were connected with the cult of the Great Mother.
Demeter, enthroned and extending her hand in a benediction toward the kneeling Metaneira, who offers the triune wheat () In epic poetry and Hesiod's Theogony, Demeter is the Grain-Mother, the goddess of cereals who provides grain for bread and blesses its harvesters. In Homer's Iliad, the light-haired Demeter with the help of the wind separates the grain from the chaff. Homer mentions the Thalysia a Greek harvest-festival of first fruits in honour of Demeter . In Hesiod, prayers to Zeus-Chthonios (chthonic Zeus) and Demeter help the crops grow full and strong. This was her main function at Eleusis, and she became panhellenic. In Cyprus, "grain-harvesting" was damatrizein. Demeter was the zeidoros arοura, the Homeric "Mother Earth arοura" who gave the gift of cereals (zeai or deai).
Most of the epithets of Demeter describe her as a goddess of grain. Her name Deo in literature probably relates her with deai a Cretan word for cereals. In Attica she was called Haloas (of the threshing floor) according to the earliest conception of Demeter as the Corn-Mother. She was sometimes called Chloe (ripe-grain or fresh-green) and sometimes Ioulo (ioulos : grain sheaf). Chloe was the goddess of young corn and young vegetation and "Iouloi" were harvest songs in honour of the goddess. The reapers called Demeter Amallophoros (bringer of sheaves) and Amaia (reaper). The goddess was the giver of abundance of food and she was known as Sito (of the grain) and Himalis (of abundance ). The bread from the first harvest-fruits was called thalysian bread (Thalysia) in honour of Demeter. The sacrificial cakes burned on the altar were called "ompniai" and in Attica the goddess was known as Ompnia (related to corns). These cakes were offered to all gods.
Megalartos (of the big loaf) and Megalomazos (of the big mass, or big porridge). Her function was extended to vegetation generally and to all fruits and she had the epithets eukarpos (of good crop), karpophoros (bringer of fruits), malophoros (apple bearer) and sometimes Oria (all the fruits of the season). These epithets show an identity in nature with the earth goddess.
The central theme in the Eleusinian Mysteries was the reunion of Persephone with her mother, Demeter when new crops were reunited with the old seed, a form of eternity.
According to the Athenian rhetoricianIsocrates, Demeter's greatest gifts to humankind were agriculture which gave to men a civilized way of life, and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife.
These two gifts were intimately connected in Demeter's myths and mystery cults. Demeter is the giver of mystic rites and the giver of the civilized way of life (teaching the laws of agriculture). Her epithet Eleusinia relates her with the Eleusinian mysteries, however at SpartaEleusinia had an early use, and it was probably a name rather than an epithet. Demeter Thesmophoros (law-giving) is closely associated to the laws of cereal agriculture. The festival Thesmophoria was celebrated throughout Greece and was connected to a form of agrarian magic. Her epithet Damia (Greek mythology) (as paired with Auxesia for Persephone) was the center of the festival called the Lithobolia. Near Pheneus in Arcadia she was known as Demeter-Thesmia (lawfull), and she received rites according to the local version.
Demeter's emblem is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among the barley.
Pelike. Plouton with a cornucopia and Demeter with a sceptre and plough. By the Orestes Painter. 440-430 BC.National Archaeological Museum, Athens In addition to her role as an agricultural goddess, Demeter was often worshipped more generally as a goddess of the earth, from which crops spring up. Her individuality was rooted to the less developed personality of Gaia (earth). In Arcadia Demeter Melaina (the black Demeter) was represented as snake-haired with a horse's head holding a dove and dolphin, perhaps to symbolize her power over the Underworld, the air, and the water. The cult of Demeter in the region was related to Despoina, a very old chthonic divinity. Demeter shares the double function of death and fertility with her daughter Persephone. Demeter and Persephone were called Despoinai (the mistresses) and Demeters. This duality was also used in the classical period (Thesmophoroi, Double named goddesses) and particularly in an oath: "By the two goddesses".
In the cult of Phlya she was worshipped as Anesidora who sends up gifts from the Underworld.
In Sparta, she was known as Demeter-Chthonia (chthonic Demeter). After each death the mourning should end with a sacrifice to the goddess. Pausanias believes that her cult was introduced from Hermione, where Demeter was associated with Hades. In a local legend a hollow in the earth was the entrance to the underworld, by which the souls could pass easily. In Elis she was called Demeter-Chamyne (goddess of the ground), in an old chthonic cult associated with the descent to Hades. At Levadia the goddess was known as Demeter-Europa and she was associated with Trophonius, an old divinity of the underworld. The oracle of Trophonius was famous in the antiquity.
Pindar uses the rare epithet Chalkokrotos (bronze sounding). Brazen musical instruments were used in the mysteries of Demeter and the Great-Mother Rhea-Cybele was also worshipped with the music of cymbals.
Attic white calyx crater 440-430 BC. Two female figures, probably Demeter and Persephone. Archaeological Museum of Agrigento. In central Greece Demeter was known as Amphictyonis (of the dwellers-round), in a cult of the goddess at Anthele near Thermopylae (hot gates). She was the patron goddess of an ancient Amphictyony. Thermopylae is the place of hot springs considered to be entrances to Hades, since Demeter was a chthonic goddess in the older local cults.
The Athenians called the dead "Demetrioi", and this may reflect a link between Demeter and the ancient cult of the dead, linked to the agrarian belief that a new life would sprout from the dead body, as a new plant arises from buried seed. This was most likely a belief shared by initiates in Demeter's mysteries, as interpreted by Pindar: "Blessed is he who has seen before he goes under the earth; for he knows the end of life and knows also its divine beginning."
In Arcadia Demeter had the epithets Erinys (fury) and Melaina (black) which are associated with the myth of Demeter's rape by Poseidon. The epithets stress the darker side of her character and her relation to the dark underworld, in an old chthonic cult associated with wooden structures (xoana). Erinys had a similar function with the avenging Dike (Justice). In the mysteries of Pheneus the goddess was known as Cidaria. Her priest would put on the mask of Demeter, which was kept secret. The cult may have been connected with both the Underworld and a form of agrarian magic.
Drawing of a gold ring found at Mycenae showing a seated goddess bearing three poppy seedcases Theocritus described one of Demeter's earlier roles as that of a goddess of poppies: Karl Kerényi asserted that poppies were connected with a Cretan cult which was eventually carried to the Eleusinian Mysteries in Classical Greece. In a clay statuette from Gazi, the Minoan poppy goddess wears the seed capsules, sources of nourishment and narcosis, in her diadem. According to Kerényi, "It seems probable that the Great Mother Goddess who bore the names Rhea and Demeter, brought the poppy with her from her Cretan cult to Eleusis and it is almost certain that in the Cretan cult sphere opium was prepared from poppies."
Antaea (Ancient Greek: Ἀνταία): 'A goddess whom man may approach in prayers'. The epithet belongs not only to Demeter but also to Rhea and Cybele.
Amphictyonis (Ancient Greek: Ἀμφικτυονίς): A form of Demeter worshiped at (presumably) Anthela because it was a meeting place for the amphictyons of Thermopylae, where sacrifices were offered to her at the start of every meeting.
Azesia (Ancient Greek: Ἀζησία): This epithet was the subject of several ancient Greek proverbs. One was "Amaia looked for Azesia", with "Amaia" being an epithet for Demeter, and Azesia in this instance indicating Persephone, and referring to Demeter's long search for her daughter after she had been kidnapped by Hades. It was used to refer to someone who took a long time to do something. Similarly, "Amaia has found Azesia" was an expression used to indicate that something greatly missed and sought after has been found.
Chloe (Greek: Χλόη): "Blooming", "fertility", "young, green foliage" or "shoots of plants in spring". The festival Chloeia or Chloia (Χλόεια or Χλοιά), was held in Athens in honor of her and she had a sanctuary near the Acropolis. It was celebrated in the spring, on the sixth day of Thargelion, and marked the beginning of the blooming season. The celebration included the sacrifice of a goat and was characterized by joyful festivities and merrymaking.
Chrysaoros (Greek: Χρυσαόρος): Demeter's epithet as "Lady of the Golden Blade", a reference to golden blades of wheat.
Chthonia (Ancient Greek: Χθονία). 'Of the earth'. It was an epithet of Demeter and several other chthonic goddess, such as Hecate, Nyx.
Daduchos (Ancient Greek): δᾳδοῦχος "torch-bearer", from δᾶις+ἔχω): An epithet of Demeter seeking her lost daughter Persephone with a torch. It was also an epithet of Hecate and Artemis, two goddesses associated with torches. It was also the title of the second priest (ranking after the Hierophant) at the Eleusinian Mysteries. This title was given in the Rhodes Island in Greece.
Rharias or Rarias (Ῥαριάς), from the Rarian Field.
In an older tradition in Crete the vegetation cult was related with the deity of the cave. During the Bronze Age, a goddess of nature dominated both in Minoan and Mycenean cults. In the Linear B inscriptions po-ti-ni-ja (potnia) refers to the goddess of nature who was concerned with birth and vegetation and had certain chthonic aspects. Some scholars believe that she was the universal mother goddess. A Linear B inscription at Knossos mentions the potnia of the labyrinth da-pu-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja. Poseidon was often given the title wa-na-ka (wanax) in Linear B inscriptions in his role as King of the Underworld, and his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne indicates his chthonic nature. He was the male companion (paredros) of the goddess in the Minoan and probably Mycenean cult. In the cave of Amnisos, Enesidaon is associated with the cult of Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, who was involved with the annual birth of the divine child. Elements of this early form of worship survived in the Eleusinian cult, where the following words were uttered: "the mighty Potnia had born a strong son."
Demeter of Knidos, Hellenistic marble sculpture, around 350 BC Tablets from Pylos of BC record sacrificial goods destined for "the Two Queens and Poseidon" ("to the Two Queens and the King":wa-na-ssoi, wa-na-ka-te). The "Two Queens" may be related to Demeter and Persephone or their precursors, goddesses who were no longer associated with Poseidon in later periods. In Pylos potnia (mistress) is the major goddess of the city and "wanax " in the tablets has a similar nature with her male consort in the Minoan cult. Potnia retained some chthonic cults, and in popular religion these were related to the goddess Demeter. In Greek religion potniai(mistresses) appear in plural (like the Erinyes) and are closely related to the Eleusinian Demeter.
Probably the earliest Amphictyony centred on the cult of Demeter at Anthele (Ἀνθήλη), lay on the coast of Malis south of Thessaly, near Thermopylae.
Mysian Demeter had a seven-day festival at Pellené in Arcadia. The geographer Pausanias passed the shrine to Mysian Demeter on the road from Mycenae to Argos and reports that according to Argive tradition, the shrine was founded by an Argive named Mysius who venerated Demeter.Azes coin in India, with Demeter and Hermes, 1st century BC ===="Saint Demetra"====
Eleusinian Mysteries Demeter's two major festivals were sacred mysteries. Her Thesmophoria festival (11–13 October) was women-only. Her Eleusinian mysteries were open to initiates of any gender or social class. At the heart of both festivals were myths concerning Demeter as the mother and Persephone as her daughter.
Terracotta plaque relief of Demeter in profile wearing ears of corn, 1st century BC–AD, Archaeological Museum of Amorgos, Greece. In the Roman period, Demeter became conflated with the Roman agricultural goddess Ceres through interpretatio romana. The worship of Demeter has formally merged with that of Ceres around 205 BC, along with the ritus graecia cereris, a Greek-inspired form of cult, as part of Rome's general religious recruitment of deities as allies against Carthage, towards the end of the Second Punic War. The cult originated in southern Italy (part of Magna Graecia) and was probably based on the Thesmophoria, a mystery cult dedicated to Demeter and Persephone as "Mother and Maiden". It arrived along with its Greek priestesses, who were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil intention". The new cult was installed in the already ancient Temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera, Rome's Aventine patrons of the plebs; from the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter's temple at Enna, in Sicily, was acknowledged as Ceres's oldest, most authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognized as Proserpina, Roman equivalent to Persephone.
Their joint cult recalls Demeter's search for Persephone after the latter's abduction into the Underworld by Hades. At the Aventine, the new cult took its place alongside the old. It did not refer to Liber, whose open and gender-mixed cult played a central role in plebeian culture as a patron and protector of plebeian rights, freedoms and values. The exclusively female initiates and priestesses of the new "greek style" mysteries of Ceres and Proserpina were expected to uphold Rome's traditional, patrician-dominated social hierarchy and traditional morality. Unmarried girls should emulate the chastity of Proserpina, the maiden; married women should seek to emulate Ceres, the devoted and fruitful mother. Their rites were intended to secure a good harvest and increase the fertility of those who partook in the mysteries.
Beginning in the 5th century BCE in Asia Minor, Demeter was also considered equivalent to the Phrygian goddess Cybele. Demeter's festival of Thesmophoria was popular throughout Asia Minor, and the myth of Persephone and Adonis in many ways mirrors the myth of Cybele and Attis.
Some late antique sources syncretized several "great goddess" figures into a single deity. For example, the Platonist philosopher Apuleius, writing in the late 2nd century, identified Ceres (Demeter) with Isis, having her declare:
I, mother of the universe, mistress of all the elements, first-born of the ages, highest of the gods, queen of the shades, first of those who dwell in heaven, representing in one shape all gods and goddesses. My will controls the shining heights of heaven, the health-giving sea winds, and the mournful silences of hell; the entire world worships my single godhead in a thousand shapes, with divers rites, and under many a different name. The Phrygians, first-born of mankind, call me the Pessinuntian Mother of the gods; ... the ancient Eleusinians Actaean Ceres; ... and the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning, honour me with the worship which is truly mine and call me by my true name: Queen Isis.
German illustration (ca. 1890) of a Pompeiian fresco of Demeter as a mother goddess and goddess of agriculture. Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) describes Demeter as the second child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and the sister of Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Alongside the rest of her sisters and brothers with the exception of her youngest brother Zeus, Demeter was swallowed as a newborn by her father due to his fear of being overthrown by one of his children; she was later freed when Zeus made Cronus disgorge all of his children by giving him an emetic. 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 thus became one of the Olympian gods, the new rulers of the cosmos, alongside her brothers and sisters.
Demeter is notable as the mother of Persephone, described by both Hesiod and in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as the result of a union with Zeus. An alternate recounting of the matter 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, explaining the origin of the symbol on Hermes's staff. Their daughter is said to be Persephone, whom Zeus, in turn, mates with to conceive Dionysus. According to the Orphic fragments, "After becoming the mother of Zeus, she who was formerly Rhea became Demeter."
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