Demeter is a mother- or earth-goddess whose precedents date back to the Bronze Age. It's assumed she has a connection with the ancient POTNIA ('of the Grain'), though this is recorded later simply as another of her epithets, or alternate names. Later mythmakers such as Homer and Hesiod fitted her Mycenian, Arcadian and Minoan heritage into the Greek pantheon: she becomes the daughter of CRONUS and RHEA and the mother of PERSEPHONE or KORE. She is the goddess responsible for the harvest and agriculture, but she is also the goddess who brings and maintains law and order and controls the cycle of life and death. The harvest theme, and the basis of the mystery cults attached to her name, is that a goddess mourns the loss of a loved one, who personifies the vegetation (usually the staples wheat and barley) that dies in autumn and winter. As her daughter Persephone (by ZEUS) is gathering flowers the earth opens and PLUTO/HADES captures her, driving her down into the underworld and marrying her. Her mother Demeter, in grief, retires to Eleusis and does not allow the crops to grow. Zeus, concerned that he and the gods will therefore receive no sacrifices, sends either HERMES or HECATE to oblige Pluto/Hades to deliver Demeter to her mother for two thirds of the year. He can keep her as Queen of the Underworld one third of the year, in autumn and winter. The Mycaenians had her (equinely-inclined) male companion as WANAX, another name for POSEIDON, and their and the Arcadians' myths persistently link her with this god of the sea – which in turn give her a link to the Minoans' Great Goddess CYBELE. Homer has her as a blonde goddess who sifts wheat from chaff. Hesiod has her parents as Cronus and Rhea, and has her luring IASION, son of ELEKTRA, away from a wedding feast for sex in a field; the resultant son is PLOUTUS. In the mystery cults she has a secret daughter, DESPOINA, 'the Mistress', who is horse-headed; in some stories Despoina is just another name for Demeter. The link here takes us back to Poseidon, who the Greeks detected in the froth of waves as sea-horses; Demeter is depicted as having a horse's head and carrying a dolphin in one hand and a dove in the other, symbolising her control of sea and air together. The myth of Demeter and Persephone is very similar to that of APHRODITE and ADONIS, which originated in Syria; the Phrygian story of CYBELE and ATTIS; Egypt’s ISIS and OSIRIS; and the Mesopotamian and Hittite/Hurrian legends of INANA and DUMUZI, HEBAT and TELEPINU. The Romans knew Demeter as CERES and her mother as PROSERPINE. A lover of Demeter is IASION, son of ELEKTRA. An ancient Greek festival, the Eleusinia, was held in her honour every two years, and has no connection with the Eleusinian mysteries. Her epithets give a picture of the powers and attributes she held: AGANIPPE or 'night-mare'; POLNIA, 'mistress'; Despoina, 'mistress of the house'; THESMOPHORUS, 'giver of customs'; ERINYS, 'implacable, retribution'; CHLOE, 'green shoot'; CHTHONIA, 'in or from the ground'; ANESIDORA, 'gifting from earth'; and EUROPA, 'broad-faced or broad-eyed'. Demeter was worshipped as AMPHIKTYONIS at Anthela in Thermopylae
Found something wrong? Please let us know.