DEMETER, in Greek mythology, daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of Zeus, goddess of agriculture. Her name has been explained as (I) "grain-mother," from hjai, the Cretan form of 'eLac, "barley," or (2) "earth-mother," or rather "mother earth," 8a being regarded as the Doric form of yrl. She is rarely mentioned in Homer, nor is she included among the Olympian gods.
The central fact of her legend was the story of her daughter Persephone. After her carrying off by Hades (see PERSEPHONE), Demeter revealed to the people of Eleusis, where she had been hospitably received, her secret rites (see TRIPTOLEMUS). This is the legendary origin of the famous Eleusinian mysteries (see MYSTERY) . The Eleusinia, sometimes confused with them, were a distinct festival.
Demeter is a mother-goddess. Besides Zeus, she has a consort Iasion, who "lay with her in a thrice ploughed field" (Homer, Od. v. 125 et seq.), and to whom she bore Plutus (q.v.) "Wealth," (i.e., abundant produce of the soil). The story is com pared by Frazer (Golden Bough, 3rd ed. vii. 207) with the West Prussian custom of the mock birth of a child on the harvest field, the object being to ensure a plentiful crop for the coming year. In Homer the scene is laid in Crete, and may well represent part of the ritual or mythology of the Cretan goddess. Erysichthon ("tearer up of the earth"), son of Triopas or Myrmidon, having cut down the trees in a grove sacred to the goddess, was punished by her with terrible hunger (Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter; Ovid, Metam., viii. 738-878). Of this story no very convincing explanation has yet been put forward; perhaps Erysichthon may be explained as the personification of the labourer, who, by the systematic cultivation and tilling of the soil, endeavours to force the crops instead of allowing them to mature unmolested as in the good old times.
It is as a corn-goddess that Demeter appears most commonly. The name ' IovXc',.) (? at Delos) , from fovXos, "corn-sheaf," has been regarded as identifying the goddess with the sheaf, and as proving that the cult of Demeter originated in the worship of the corn mother or corn-spirit, the last sheaf having a more or less divine character for the primitive husbandman. According to this view, the prototypes of Demeter and Persephone are the corn-mother and harvest maiden of northern Europe, the corn-fetishes of the field (Frazer, Golden Bough, 3rd ed. vii., p. 35 et seq.; but see Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, iii. 35). The influence of Demeter, however, was not limited to corn, but extended to vege tation generally and all the fruits of the earth, with the curious exception of the bean, the use of which was forbidden at Eleusis, and for the protection of which a special patron was invented. In this wider sense Demeter is akin to Ge, with whom she has several epithets in common, and is sometimes identified with Rhea-Cybele ; thus Pindar speaks of Demeter XaXKOKpoTOs ("bronze-rustling"), an epithet obviously more suitable to Rhea Cybele than Demeter (see CORYBANTES).
Another important aspect of Demeter was that of a divinity of the underworld; as such she is XOovia (earth-goddess) at Sparta and especially at Hermione in Argolis where, at the festival Chthonia, a cow (representing, according to Mannhardt, the spirit of vegetation), which voluntarily presented itself, was sacrificed by three old women. Those joining in the procession wore garlands of the flower called huakinthos. The remarkable epithets, 'Epcvvs ("avenger") and ("the black one"), as applied to De meter, were both localized in Arcadia, the first at Thelpusa (or rather Onkeion close by), the second at Phigaleia (see W. Immer wahr, Die Kulte and Mythen Arkadiens, i. 18g 1). According to the Thelpusan story, Demeter, during her wanderings in search of Persephone, changed herself into a mare to avoid the persecu tion of Poseidon. The god, however, assumed the form of a stallion, and the fruit of the union was a daughter of mystic name and the horse Areion or Arion (q.v.). Demeter, at first enraged, afterwards calmed down, and washed herself in the river Ladon by way of purification. An almost identical story was 'current in the neighbourhood of Tilphossa, a Boeotian spring, and a similar one at Phigaleia, where, in a cave still called Mavrospelya ("black cave") , there was an image of the goddess, a female form seated on a rock, but with a horse's head and mane, to which were attached snakes and other wild animals. It was clothed in a black garment reaching to the feet, and held in one hand a dolphin, in the other a dove.
Both p Aatva and Epevin, according to Farnell, are epithets of Demeter as an earth-goddess of the under-world. The first has been explained as referring to the gloom of her abode, or the blackness of the withered corn. According to Farnell, the mean ing of the epithet is to be looked for in the original conception of Erinys, which was that of an earth-goddess akin to Ge, thus nat urally associated with Demeter, rather than that of a wrathful avenging deity.
Various interpretations have been given of the horse-headed form of the Black Demeter : (I) that the horse was one of the forms of the corn-spirit in ancient Greece; (2) that it was an animal "devoted" to the chthonian goddess ; (3) that it is totem istic; (4) that the form was adopted from Poseidon Hippios, who is frequently associated with the earth-goddess and is said to have received the name Hippios first at Thelpusa, in order that Demeter might figure as the mother of Areion (for a discussion of the whole subject see Farnell, Cults, iii. p. 50-62). In any case the association of Poseidon, representing the fertilizing element of moisture, with Demeter, who causes the plants and seeds to grow, is quite natural.
Demeter also appears as a goddess of health, of birth and of marriage ; and a certain number of political and ethnic titles is assigned to her, the most important at Anthela near Thermopylae, as patron-goddess of the Amphictyonic league, subsequently so well known in connection with the temple at Delphi.
Brief mention may here be made of certain agrarian festivals held in honour of Demeter.
I. Haloa, obviously connected with &Acws ("threshing-floor"), begun at Athens and finished at Eleusis, where there was a thresh ing-floor of Triptolemus, in the month Poseideon (December). This date, which is confirmed by historical and epigraphical evi dence, seems inappropriate, and it is suggested (A. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen, p. 365 et seq.) that the festival, originally held in autumn, was subsequently placed later, so as to synchro nize with the winter Dionysia. Dionysus, as the god of vines, and (in a special procession) Poseidon OvraXµeos ("god of vegeta tion") were associated with Demeter. In addition to being a harvest festival, marked by the ordinary popular rejoicings, the Haloa had a religious character. The airapxai ("first-fruits") were conveyed to Eleusis, where sacrifice was offered by a priest ess, men being prohibited from undertaking the duty. A TEAETrI ("initiatory ceremony") of women by a woman also took place at Eleusis, characterized by obscene jests and the use of phallic emblems. The sacramental meal on this occasion consisted of the produce of land and sea, certain things (pomegranates, honey, eggs) being forbidden for mystical reasons. Although the offerings at the festival were bloodless, the ceremony of the presentation of the arapxai was probably accompanied by animal sacrifice; Mommsen, however, considers the offerings to have been pastry imitations. Certain games (iraTpcos aycw), of which nothing is known, terminated the proceedings. In Roman imperial times the ephebi (q.v.) had to deliver a speech at the Haloa.
3. Proerosia, at which prayers were offered for an abundant harvest, before the land was ploughed for sowing. It was also called Proarktouria, an indication that it was held before the ris ing of Arcturus. According to the traditional account, when Greece was threatened with famine, the Delphic oracle ordered first-fruits to be brought to Athens from all parts of the country, which were to be offered by the Athenians to the goddess Deo on behalf of all the contributors. The most important part of the festival was the three sacred ploughings—the Athenian Toro 7r6X cv, the Eleusinian on the Rharian plain, and the Soirian (a com promise between Athens and Eleusis). The festival itself took place, probably some time in September, at Eleusis. In later times the ephebi also took part in the Proerosia.
4. Thalusia, a thanksgiving festival, held in autumn after the harvest in the island of Cos (see Theocritus vii.) 5. The name of Demeter is also associated with the Skirophoria (see ATHENA) . It is considered probable that the festival was originally held in honour of Athena, but that the growing impor tance of the Eleusinia caused it to be attached to Demeter and Kore.
The attributes of Demeter are chiefly connected with her char acter as goddess of agriculture and vegetation—ears of corn, the poppy, the mystic basket (kalathos) filled with flowers, corn and fruit of all kinds, the pomegranate being especially common. Of animals, the pig is her favourite, owing to its productivity and the cathartic properties of its blood. As a chthonian divinity she is accompanied by a snake ; the myrtle, asphodel and narcissus (which Persephone was gathering when carried off by Hades) also are sacred to her.
In Greek art, Demeter resembles Hera, but she is more matronly and of milder expression ; her form is broader and fuller. She is sometimes riding in a chariot drawn by horses or dragons, sometimes walking, sometimes seated upon a throne, alone or with her daughter. The Demeter of Cnidus in the British Museum, of the school of Praxiteles, apparently shows her mourn ing the loss of her daughter.
The Italians identified Demeter with their own Ceres (q.v.).