Demeter Ceres

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Demeter (Ceres)

• De Earth or Tamer or Barley
• Meter Mother

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Near Eastern Parallel

• Duttur searches for her son Damu in the
  underworld
  

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• 1-32 A description of how Persephone was carried
  off by Hades, with the consent of Zeus. She was
  gathering flowers with the nymphs on the plain of
  Nysa when the earth gaped and hades sprang forth
  and carried her away on his chariot. Her cries
  for help were heard by no one except Hecate and
  Helios and Zeus was far away.

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• 33-90 Finally Demeter hears her and is stricken
  with grief. For nine days she wanders in search
  of her, with burning torches, fasting and without
  washing herself. On the tenth day, Hecate and
  Helios tell her that Hades carried off her
  daughter.

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• 91-117 Angry, Demeter leaves the gods and
  wanders on earth, disguised as an old woman. She
  comes to Eleusis, where she sits beside the well
  Parthenion. There, the four daughters of Celeus,
  king of Eleusis meet her.

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• 118-68 Demeter tells them a false story about
  having been abducted by pirates and asks to be
  made the nurse or housekeeper of the family. They
  offer her a position as nurse and take her home.

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• 169-211 Demeter returns with the daughters to
  the palace to meet their mother Metaneira. When
  she enters she briefly shows her divine form, but
  Metaneira does not realize. She is offered a
  stool by the maid, but refuses to drink wine,
  only barley and water.

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• 212-304 Demeter is welcomed in the family as the
  nurse and given responsibility of Demophon,
  Metaneiras son. Secretly she annoints him with
  ambrosia and at night dips him into the fire. But
  Metaneira suspects something and spies on her.
  She cries out when she sees her son placed in the
  fire and screams. Demeter reveals herself as a
  goddess, stops short of making Demophon immortal
  because of his mothers folly she does, however,
  give him an animal ceremony in his honour. She
  commands that a temple be built for her in
  Eleusis, where she sits and grieves for her
  daughter. She promises to teach the Eleusinians
  her rites.

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• 305-45 Demeter causes a great famine, which
  threatens the existence of mankind and the
  sacrifices made to the gods. Zeus and Iris, then
  all the gods, try to convince her to turn away
  from her anger.

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• 346-74 Finally, Hermes asks Hades to let her go.
  He consents, and tells her to return, promising
  that she will have great honours as his wife,
  both in heaven and below the earth. He gives her
  a pomegranate-seed to eat, secretly, which binds
  her to return to him.

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• 375-458 Hermes takes her back to earth and she
  is reunited with her mother. She tells her what
  happened. Zeus invites them to Olympus and
  promises that Persephone will live there for
  two-thirds of the year, while for the final third
  (winter) she will live in the underworld.

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• 459-95 Demeter consents. She makes life return
  to the fields, and teaches her rites to the
  princes of Eleusis, rites whose secrecy is
  absolute, and which guarantee to the initiate
  alone a happy fate after death. The goddesses go
  up to Olympus and the hymn ends.

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• A dream forbade me to write a description of the
  things within the wall of the sanctuary. It is
  obvious, I suppose, that the uninitiated have no
  right to learn of the things which they are
  prevented from seeing.
• Pausanias

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Religious Festivals of Demeter

• Eleusinian Mysteries
• Thesmophoria

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• Demeter gave humans two gifts.the fruits of the
  field which make it possible for us to live not
  like animals, and the initiation, and those who
  partake of the initiation have sweeter hopes
  about the end of life and all eternitDemeter gave
  humans two gifts.the fruits of the field which
  make it possible for us to live not like animals,
  and the initiation, and those who partake of the
  initiation have sweeter hopes about the end of
  life and all eternity.
• Isocrates, 4th century B.C.

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• Onto the threshold stepped the goddess the beam
  of the roof She touched with her head, and filled
  the doorway with heavenly light. Metaneira was
  seized with reverence, awe, and pallid fear She
  surrendered her chair to the goddess, and on it
  she urged her to sit. But Demete, Bringer of
  Seasons, Bestower of Splendid Gifts, had no
  desire to sit upon the gleaming chair, But
  continued to wait in silence, her beautiful eyes
  cast down Till Iambe who knew her duties set a
  compact stool Beside he, and over it threw a
  fleece of dazzling white. Then, sitting down, the
  goddess hid herself under her veil For a long
  time bereft of speech she sat full of woe on the
  stool. To no one did she give greeting with
  either a word or sign She had no laughter within
  her, no hunger for food and drink But with
  longing pining away for her deep-girdled
  daughter, she sat, Till Iambe who knew her duties
  with jokes and by mocking induced Queenly and
  holy Demeter to smile and laugh and be kind And
  Iambe has pleased her temper then too in later
  times. Metaneira proffered a goblet that brimmed
  with honey-sweet wine With an upward nod she
  refused it it was not permitted, she said, For
  her to drink red wine but bad her to give her
  instead a draught of barely and water mixed with
  tender mint.
• Hymn to Demeter, lines 188 ff.

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Mysteries

• Fasting
• Jesting and mockery (known as aischrologia)
• The drinking of the mixture of barley, water and
  mint (the kykeon)

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• The goddess Demeter then went and showed to the
  doom-dealing kings-to Triptolemos,
  chariot-driving Diokles, Eumolpos the strong, and
  Celeus leader of peoples-the way to perform her
  rites, And disclosed sacred actions to all that
  can be in no way transgressed, Learnt, or
  divulged, for the tongue is curbed by the gods
  great awe. Their foundation is celebrated, but so
  is their secrecy.
• Hymn to Demeter, lines 482ff.