CLASS 4960 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Kykeon, Eleusinian Mysteries, Pomegranate
Document Summary
Goddess of agriculture, esp. the prosperity of grain crops (wheat, barley) Daughter of cronos and rheia (one of the first olympian gods) Mother (by zeus) of persephone, also a fertility goddess. Lord of many or host of many guests . Zeus advises abducting her while she picks flowers, away from demeter. Demeter is distraught; wanders, torch in hand, for 9 days. Only the goddess hecate heard persephone cry out. Demeter and hecate go to helios, who saw the abduction. Demeter shuns the company of the gods, and walks the earth in disguise. Demeter assumes disguise (as old women named deo ) Demeter wanders to eleusis and meets the four daughters of king celeos and queen metaneira. Celeos and metaneira take demeter into their home as nurse to their newborn son, demophon. Demeter secretly gives demophon ambrosia, puts him in fire at night (burning away mortal essence-making him immortal) Discovered by metaneira, and thus demophon not made immortal.
