Myth Topic 9
Myths of
Fertility: Demeter
“Great Goddess /
Great Mother”
cf. Gaea or Rhea
Demeter –goddess
of grain and rich harvest
and her daughter
Persephone
“the two Demeters”
Names:
Demeter
“(something)-mother”
Persephone: etymology
unclear
(Latin:
Proserpina)
Daughter of Zeus
often
called Kore
“girl”; she is a parthenos
7th Century BC Homeric Hymn to Demeter
(retold/summarized in Ovid Book 5)
Zeus promises
Persephone to his brother Hades,
“who swallows whole armies”
Demeter becomes
human and goes to earth
Eleusis
Is invited to
work for Metaneira, wife of Celeus
she
is sad, until Iambe makes her laugh
Greek iambic
poetry—insult and obscenity
(cf. Norse Skađi and Njorđr –Loki's balls)
Has barley, water,
pennyroyal drink-- kykeon
Is given Metaneira's new son to nurse/raise
she
feed him ambrosia
“I am
Demeter—build me a temple at Eleusis—I will establish the rites”
Zeus sends Hermes
to the underworld
Hades complies
immediately
Hades pleads his
case: I'm not such a bad guy; you rule all sorts of stuff from down here
Hades gives her
back
Reunited: but you
didn't eat anything, did you?
1/3 of the year
in Hades, and 2/3 above
which
promise a peaceful afterlife
OBSERVATIONS
Connected
directly with harvest schedule doesn't work
but
this is how the ancients interpreted it, allegorically
nothing
sprouts in the spring
Powell's
interpretation: parthenos
carries
apple or quince
leaves
mother behind
real
life experience of Greek mothers
Is this a woman's
myth?
Etiological:
Explains the
presence of death in the world
Explains the
connection of death with fertility
Many similar
stories from diff cultures (including other Greek stories), but there it's the
goddess of fertility losing her consort, not her daughter.
Explains the
origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries
c
600 BC—Athens absorbed Eleusis
site
of mysteries since at least 1500bc
mystai
– one who closes
initiate
–one who has gone in
We don't know
what happened there
Pan-Hellenic (and
Roman) festival until 4th century AD
Thousands of participants
entered the Telesterion
drank
kykeon
shown
the hiera
promised
a pleasurable life after death
The supremacy of
a civilized life based on agriculture
No doctrine --
just a sense of community well-being.
Near Eastern
Fertility Myth:
Inanna
and Dumuzi
goddess
of love and war
visits
her sister Ereshkigal in the underworld
Enki
finally agrees to help—
Inanna
must provide a replacement
Dumuzi
is not even mourning –take HIM!
One day a year he
can return to be honored
hieros gamos
– sacred marriage; death required for life
Isis and Osiris
Egyptian story,
transmitted through Greeks and Romans
Cybele and Attis
Phrygian
(Anatolian)
Great Mother
Aphrodite and Adonis
surely
eastern—fits into this pattern of stories
dying
little tree--oh! Adonis
Conclusions
Great Goddesses
of fertility:
Permanent
Male
begetters—temporary and disposable
Demeter story is
one of the most unusual version
daughter
instead of consort
