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DEMETER-MYTHS of FERTILITY
► FEMALE
GAIA (GE)=Mother Earth came
from sexless CHAOS. From Gaia sprang the
world: Sky, Mountains, Sea, and the
Olympians and humans
► No single goddess of fertility (Artemis for
wild life, Aphrodite for sexuality, Hera for
family and marriage, Demeter goddess of
grain and earth fertility)
HOMERIC HYMN TO DEMETER
► Structure
► Demeter-Persephone-abduction
► Return
by Hades
from the Underworld
► Embedded Story of Demeter while looking
for her daughter
► Metaneira, the queen, and Demophoon, the
son.
The Myth of Demeter and
Persephone
Abduction by Hades
Hecate and Helius
Demeter’s grief, anger and retaliation
Demeter comes to Eleusis and the palace of
Celeus.
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The Maiden Well
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Queen Metaneira
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Iambe
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Demeter breaks her fast.
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Demeter Nurses Demphoön.
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Hades and Persephone and her eating of the pomegranate
Demeter’s ecstatic reunion with Persephone
Demeter restores fertility and establishes the
Mysteries.
The Interpretation of the Hymn
Death and rebirth of vegetation
Spiritual metaphor or allegory
Kore (“girl”)
Hades (Pluto or Dis among the Romans)
Interpretation of the Myth
► Allegorical Interpretation- seasons change
► Family experience, the daughter’s marriage
(voluntarily takes the flower, symbol of marriage,
separation from natal family)
► Symbolic interpretation
► Loss from child, as so many children are lost to
war and disease. Lamentation rituals around this
myth. Demeter is mater dolorosa.
► Myth of Demeter becomes the etiology for the
presence of death. Thus the cult becomes an
experience of afterlife.
Eleusinian Mysteries
► Eleusis,
near Athens
► Mystery < Mystes =the one who closes (the eyes,
mouth) Latin translation initiatus (thus, modern
English to initiate)
► Origin of mysteries
► Two families in Charge the EUMOLPIDS,
Eumolpos, the ancestor, mythical ruler of ELEUSIS
received the mysteries from Demeter and the
KERYKES (heralds), descendants of Eumolpus’ son
KERYX (=herald)
► Eleusinian
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Mysteries
Special position of Athens
Initiates
Secrecy of rites
Mystery religions
Connection with Orpheus
Structure of Eleusinian Mysteries
Priest (Hierophant= he who reveals the hiera
sacred things), always a Eumolpid
► From the family of the Kerykes, always the
torchbearer and the herald.
► Priestess of Demeter, who, like the hierophant
lived in the sanctuary
► Time of festival- FALL every year
► The Hiera (=sacred things) removed from
TELESTERION and carried to Athens, Procession.
► All who could speak Greek (Except murderers)
eligible for initiation including women and slaves)
► High
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Rituals- Nine day interval
FastingTorches- Jests
Kykeon: drink of barley and water
Revelation of divinity
Stages of initiation
Lesser Mysteries: preliminary to initiation
Greater Mysteries: full initiation
Participation in the highest mysteries
Procession
Stages of Greater Mysteries
Dramatic enactment of myth
Revelation of sacred objects
Utterance of certain words
The Final revelation: the hiera
ELEUSIS
ARCHITECTURE OF TELESTERION
TELESTERION Temple of Demeter
Unique in Architecture. Ordinary Greek
temple to be viewed from exterior, the
interior was to hold the god’s statue
-THE TELESTERION was built to receive
thousands of people under its roof
MAPS OF telesterion at Eleusis
TRIPTOLEMUS
► One
of the princes of Eleusis to whom
Demeter taught her sacred rites. More
important after the 5th century.
► He was said to have traveled over the world
teaching the art of growing grain. Popular
in art, supporting Athenian claims for
cultural supremacy.
What were the Eleusinian Mysteries?
► Group
experience
► Personal experience (afterlife)
► Ritual purity, fasting
► Magical rite ensuring the growth of grain
► Political significance
Demeter
Demeter and Persephone
Departure of Triptolemos Makron Painter, 490-480 BC. Attic red-figured
skyphos. The eleusinian prince on the chariot. Persephone stands in front of with
a torch and an oinochoe. Behind her nymph Eleusis, and behind Triptolemos,
Demeter.
Detail of previous- departure of Triptolemos, red figure
skyphos,Makron painter
Hades and Persephone
Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Reggio Calabria, Italy. 480-450 BC
Demeter on the left (holding a staff in her left hand, authority emblem,
more restrained)-Triptolemos-Kore
Relief 440 BC- Athens Archaeological Museum
Attic red-figured bell-krater. Hecate with torches leads Persephone accompanied
by Hermes from the underworld while Demeter, holding a sceptre, waits. The
moment of reunion. With Inscriptions to identify figures. C. 440 B.C. (41 cm)
Demeter mosaic
Demeter head of statue
Demeter classical relief
Plaster cast: Height: 51cm. Copy of a fragment of marble relief. 425-400
BC. probably from the Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnous.
was purchased for Munich in 1853 now in Munich, Glyptothek/
Demeter, Kore and Triptolemos, Museum of Arts, Providence Rhode Island
Demeter gives grain to Triptolemus, Harvard
Museum, Polygnotos group
Demeter classical
Demeter, late Roman statue
Hellenistic Painting Abduction of Persephone by Hades (ca. 330), from
Tomb I at Vergina (Pliny mentions such a painting, by Nikomachos)
Demeter
Later Art Representations
Pluto and Proserpina (French Manuscript, 15th century)
The Abduction of Persephone, by Peter Paul
Rubens (1577-1640)
Bernini 1621
Proserpina Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1828-1882). Oil on canvas,
1874- Prerahaelites
The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton
Victorian circa 1890-1
Abduction of Persephone- Benton- American painter, early 20th century
Museum of Art, Kansas Missouri