Greetings fans of Greek and Roman mythology! After having recently written about the twins Zeus and Hera, I would now like to continue with their sister Demeter (Roman Ceres, root of our word "cereal"). Demeter, coming from the Greek word meter: "mother," was the goddess of the Earth. Her forerunner was Gaia, the original Mother Earth (it was Gaia and Ouranos, the Sky God, who gave birth to twelve Titans, including Cronus and Rhea, the mother of Demeter, not to mention the three Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes, and Arges; and the three Hecatoncheires, or 100-handed ones: Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges).
Most of the stories centering around Demeter included her mystery cult (the Eleusinian Mysteries) and her daughter Persephone (Roman: Proserpina), the Goddess of Spring. Demeter loved Persephone very much, but one day she went missing. Demeter, unaware that her brother Hades (you'll recall that the original six Olympians, all children of Cronus and Rhea, were Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, and Hestia) had kidnapped Persephone and taken her down to the Underworld to be his wife, became very sad because she missed her daughter so much. Due to her absence, Demeter forgot about her duties towards the Earth, the life on which began to slowly die. People had never experienced death and cold prior to this capture of Persephone, and were bewildered about what to do.
Zeus, when he saw people beginning to starve because they had no food (no one had learned the art of storing up food or really even harvesting it because it was always the growing season), was very upset because he knew that soon all the humans would die, and that no one would be left to worship him! Secondary in Zeus's mind was the fact that Persephone was his daughter as well. So he got together with Demeter, and they engaged Hecate, the original ruler of the Underworld (she had 3 bodies and 3 heads: a lion, dog, and mare; she was between 90 to 105 feet tall, and was the original master of Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld) to help find the lost Persephone. Hecate forced Helios, the god of the sun (Apollo was the god of the light of the sun, but Helios was the god who drove the chariot of the sun) to tell her what had happened to Persephone (Helios, of course, would see everything that happens on Earth below).
Helios told Hecate who told Demeter and Zeus that Hades had kidnapped Persephone in his black chariot drawn by black dragons when she was innocently out picking poppies. Enraged by this untoward cheeky and brazen behavior on the part of Hades (who could blame Uncle Hades for such asocial behavior? You hang around in the dark for centuries with only dead mute people, the manes, walking around and see how sparkling your personality becomes!!) Zeus sped down to the Underworld to demand Persephone back as people continued to die on Earth ... those prayers weren't wafting up very quickly and in such large numbers any more! Hades, of course, liked being not so lonely, and Persephone certainly was beautiful, although she did tend to cry quite a bit and screech about missing her mother, which was getting on his nerves a little bit. Zeus demanded her back; Hades countered that since Persephone had eaten food in the Underworld, namely a pomegranate, she would have to remain there for eternity. Zeus and Hades argued contentiously, until finally a compromise was reached: since Persephone had eaten 6 seeds of the pomegranate, she would remain for 6 months each year in the Underworld, but after those 6 months she would spend the other 6 on Earth.
The Greeks explained the cycles of the seasons (Horae: originally Thallo, Auxo and Carpo, then Dike, Eunomia, Eirene; daughers of Zeus and Themis, one of the original twelve Titans) in the following way: Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, would cause spring to happen when she returned from the Underworld since her mother Persephone would no longer be so upset and therefore neglectful of her duties towards bringing life to the Earth. Demeter would rejoice in the presence of her daughter all spring and summer; but, when the dreadful contract was due for the eating of the Underworld fruit, Persephone would have to descend once again to the grim realm of her husband Hades, throwing Demeter into mourning, a state which would make her forget all about bringing life to the planet, hence precipitating the slow death of plant life, which we know as autumn; winter would be the worst of it, as Demeter would simply be in a horrible depression as she felt that her beloved daughter would never return.
Mythology Book Corner: This book corner suggests great mythology reads. I've already recommended (highly) both The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan; this wonderful series continues with book 3, The Titan's Curse.
My next post will discuss a supremely horrific monster from the Land of the Hyperboreans: Medusa and her lovely Gorgonic sisters.
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