Throughout history people around the world have come up with mythical stories and religious
beliefs.
Sometimes as a source of hope in difficult times, Sometimes to explain the complex world
we live in.
Religion can also be a social adhesive, binding a community together..
The cult of Demeter is one of the oldest in Greek culture and displays all of these motives.
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Demeter is one of the original Olympians that Zeus freed from Cronos’ stomach. Like her
grandmother Gaia, Demeter is often seen as a sort of mother figure with a deep connection
to the Earth.
Consequently Demeter’s main area of expertise is fertility or more specifically grain and
harvest. As such she is often shown holding either a bushel of wheat or the cornucopia.
The cornucopia or horn of plenty is a symbol of good harvests and booming economy
in other words well filled stomachs and happy people.
The Greeks observed that instead of moving around to follow growth of plants as many
animals do, humans had tamed nature. Farmers cultivated fields of crops and kept animals
that were useful to them. But how this way of life had come about was a mystery.
Where history failed myth could give answers.
And it was Demeter who provided the explanation for this crucial moment in human history.
Almost all of the myths about Demeter come from one very important story. In which Demeter
wanders the earth in terrible sadness until she finally finds shelter in the
house of Keleus, king of Eleusis. The king invites the goddess to live in his house and
care for his children. It was the caring for the children that brought back a little happiness to the mother goddess.
a sense of happiness.
To reward him for his hospitality Demeter decides to give the king’s son the divine
gift of immortality. But right when she is burning of his mortal soul in the kitchen
fire she is interrupted by the understandably worried mother. So she finds a new way to
thank her hosts and teaches Keleus the secrets of farming. Thus giving the Greeks an explanation
the birth of agriculture.
The reason Demeter is so inconsolably sad in this story is that she has lost her beloved
daughter Persephone.
When Zeus became god of the heavens his two brothers got the two other main positions
with Poseidon ruling the seas and Hades becoming king of the underworld. Although an important
place, the underworld is rather gloomy and especially void of life, and Hades felt lonely
in his kingdom. And what do you do when you are lonely? You kidnap your little niece and
make her your queen, what else?
Demeter did not know of her brother’s role in the disappearance and roamed the earth
searching for her daughter. In her distress she completely neglected her divine tasks
and the plants of the earth withered and all the world went barren.
Zeus, father of Persephone, saw the world deteriorate and pleaded with his brother Hades
to return Persephone to her mother in the land of the living, which eventually reluctantly
Hades agreed to.
As soon as Persephone returned to her mother the plants began to grow again, the world
turned green once more and all life flourished.
But cunning Hades had not let go his queen entirely. Before Persephone left he tricked her into
eating pomegranate seeds, triggering a sacred law that prescribed that those who eat in
the Underworld are bound to return to it. So that each year Persephone had to
keep Hades company for four months, one for each seed she had eaten. Every
time the daughter descends into the underworld her mother sinks into sadness and the world’s
plants lose their leaves. Winter is coming.. Four months later when Persephone returns
to her mother, spring arrives and the plants blossom once again.
In this way the Greeks quite elegantly explained the passing of the seasons.
So far this one myth about Demeter provides an explanation of a natural phenomenon as
well an account of human history.
To many people the most important aspect of religion may be the sense of community, that
binds people together in the same cult. Like Christianity or Islam connects people across
nations so too did Demeter’s cult. Everyone from the Greek world
could participate regardless of what city state they were from.
Remember the king of Eleusis that learned the secrets of agriculture? The supposed location
of his palace became the most important location to the cult of Demeter and Persephone. It
developed into one of the most fascinating elements of Greek religious life known as
the Eleusinian Mysteries. A tradition that was ancient already in what we call Ancient Greece.
Being the mother of all secret societies we
don’t know exactly what happened during the rituals as initiates obviously never wrote
anything down about it. What we do know is that it became a huge event where thousands
upon thousands of people participated coming in from all over the Hellenic world. The cult
spread widely geographically as well as class-wise so that both Athenian slaves and Roman emperors
were initiated..
As Eleusis is close to Athens, the Athenians attended the mysteries en masse and in fact
held a huge procession from Athens to the temple at Eleusis. There is a substory of
the myth we talked about earlier which is quite unlike the chaste religious traditions
we are used to today. It recounts of an old woman that Demeter encounters during her search
for Persephone. Despite Demeter’s sadness the woman manages to cheer the goddess up
by telling her dirty jokes and making rude gestures. This little moment of joy was honoured
by the telling of dirty verses during the mysteries and with religious souvenirs like
these.
The Eleusinian mysteries were very important religious event for the Athenians second only
to the Athenian ‘national’ ritual centered around their patron goddess Athena.
Athena and her city will be the topic of the next video!