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Demeter
Name of Deity: My deity’s is Demeter, but she is also known by her several cults as Sito, which means “she of the grain,” Thesmophoros, which means “law bringer,” and was given the name Ceres in her Roman counterpart. The Name Thesmophoria is also for her festival for women that come from her name of Thesmophoros.
Location of Origin: Demeter was worshiped all throughout the Aegean civilization of Greece, but mostly in Crete and the mainland (Cartwright). The temple of Demeter in Sangri Naxos dates back 530 BC, and is made of marble and built in the classical architectural style. It was made there because of the fertile land in the village of Sangri, and people would bring their sacrifices to Demeter to this temple.
Time Period Worshipped: The earliest representation of Demeter was on the Linear B tablets dating from 1400-1200 BC (Britannica). Demeter was worshiped, as well as many other Greek gods and goddesses, from 2000-1000 BC until the rise of Christianity basically wiped them out. Most temples were converted to chapels or destroyed.
Visual Appearances: The
Usually she is seen with her daughter Persephone, but occasionally with other children such as Lacchus and Pluto (Cartwright). She is also associated with Zeus; mostly because he is the father of Persephone, whom he helped kidnapping into the underworld. Zeus and Hades are both large parts in Demeter’s main myth.
Rituals, Prayers, Festivals, and/or Ceremonies: There are two major festivals associated with Demeter. The first is Thesmophoria, which is celebrated from October 11th – 13th and was for women only. Women would feast, bathe pigs, and eat the pigs, which they thought promoted fertility. The second festival is called the Eleusinian Mysteries, and it was a set of initiations that represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone. The people who participated thought it would reward them in the afterlife.
Myth About
Demeter the daughter of Cronus and Rhea was the goddess of harvest and fertility. The poet, Edith Hamilton, reveals the sorrow of a mother who has lost a child in the mythical "Demeter." The speaker laments on the consequences the natural cycles will receive due to this suffering Demeter is experiencing. Edith uses imagery of dry land and loss to express the agony a mother endures when losing a child. Furthermore, the speaker uses allusion to explain the consequences the society is suffering.
Hades fell in love with Demeter’s daughter, Persephone. Persephone loved to live about in the fields that her mother made. Hades wanted Persephone as his bride. Zeus, the father of Persephone, did not deny but warned that Demeter would be furious. He captured her and forced her to stay in the underworld. To capture her, he arose from the depth with a chariot of horses. He stole her from the flowery field and took her to a dungeon of darkness. Persephone gained the name “core”. This was symbolizing her loss of girlhood. Demeter went looking for her daughter. She could not find her, and she almost came to the extent of barring the whole earth of the vegetation. Zeus could not let this happen, so he sent for Persephone to be received. Persephone would not eat, but Hades would not let her leave until she ate at least one thing. Hades gave her a forbidden fruit. Any fruit that was to be eaten in the underworld, the eater of that fruit must stay in the underworld. Her eating the fruit meant she had to stay in the underworld forever. A compromise was made between Demeter and Hades. Four months of the year Persephone had to stay with Hades and be the queen of the underworld. During this time the Greeks entered a cold and barren time called winter. The other eight months, Persephone spent her year with Demeter. During this time crops and vegetation would be abundant (Peterson and Dunworth 143). These were the times of spring and summer. When it was time for Persephone to rule the underworld, she was in charge of watching the special prisoners. The prisoners were the defeated titans (Calame, 266).
‘Demeter’ is a poem about the story of Demeter. "Demeter was the goddess of harvest and Persephone was the goddess of springtime. Hades, the lord of the underworld, kidnapped Persephone. Hades fell in love with Persephone and asked Zeus to help him kidnap her so she could become his bride. The crops started to wilt and humans couldn't grow crops anymore. However Zeus told Hermes to bring back Persephone and to make sure she didn't eat any food from the Underworld. Hermes fetched Persephone. But before she left, Hades convinced her to eat 6 pomegranate seeds. Hermes made a compromise and said Persephone had to stay in the Underworld as Hades wife for six months. That's why there are seasons. In the fall and winter, Persephone goes down into the Underworld and Demeter mourns. In the summer and spring, she comes back and Demeter rejoices. " (1)
In the Hymn to Demeter, the rape of Persephone starts with her picking flowers and she comes across the hundred headed narcissus which "Gaia made grow as a trick for the blushing maiden" (HHDem. 8-9). This trick is set into motion by Zeus, but since Gaia plays the role of protecting the youngest generation, this is a foreshadowing that Persephone's ordeal will be for a good cause. Hades moves in to take Persephone when the grounds gapes open and she begins to cry aloud. Demeter hears her daughters screams but she is powerless against Hades, hence the separation of distance between them. The grief stricken Demeter goes through an experience which plays out the role of a symbolic death. this is because the relationship between the mother and daughter ends at a wedding.
Festivals, Temples, even a city where named after the goddess. Athena’s key festivals included the Arrephonia, the Scriophonia, and the Panathehea. The A...
In two amazing poems, both poets make allusions to the myth of Persephone. The myth of Persephone tells of her kidnap by Hades, the God of the Underworld. She is then fated to spend one-third of the year in the underworld as Hades’ bride because she consumed pomegranate seeds. This myth appears frequently as a metaphor not only in “The Pomegranate” and “The Bistro Styx,” but in many others as well. In both poems, the myth of Persephone is used to symbolize the mother-daughter relationships.
Aphrodite is one of the most famous figures of Greek mythology, because Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexual rapture. She was desired by nearly all of the Greek gods. Aphrodite was one of the twelve main gods on Mt. Olympus, and she was the most powerful goddess when it came to members of the opposite sex. There are many origins to Aphrodite's birth. Some of them are: She arose full-grown out of the foam of the sea, She is the daughter of Zeus and Dionne, She is the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, which would make her a Titaness, or She is the daughter of Titans Oceanus and Tethys, making her an Oceanid. (Dittus 34-35) “The most common origin of her birth is her being foam-born, which is what her name means” (Parin 45). This origin says that Aphrodite arose nude and full-grown out of the foam of the sea and riding into the shore of Cythera on a scallop shell. She found Cythera to be too small of an island, so she went to live in Paphos, in Cyprus, which is still the principal seat of her worship.
Aphrodite was one of the nine that were known as the Great Goddesses, “an awful and lovely goddess,” according to Hesiod (Theogony), born of the foam that ensued when Kronos cut off Uranos’ genitals and they fell into the sea. She first walked ashore in Cyprus, and was welcomed by the Seasons (Hours):
Persephone, Hades’ wife, is the goddess of spring and the Queen of the underworld. She resides in the underworld for only six months of the year due to Hades kidnapping her. She was told not to eat anything for then she would have to remain in the underworld. While in the underworld, Persephone consumed six pomegranate seeds. Her mother Demeter, goddess of agriculture, threw a fit. Demeter complained to her brother Zeus. To be fair, Zeus stated that Persephone would have to remain in the underworld one month per seed each year. So, Persephone now resides in the underworld six months out of every year.
Zeus the god of the sky who was married to his sister Hera the goddess of marriage and ultimately jealousy. Another one of Zeus’s roles was that of being the lord of justice for the gods. This goes back to the story of Oedipus Rex with the Priest of Zeus represented the people of the plight of Thebes and him asking for justice to be done for the people. Though he is known by being the Lord of Justice he is also known for being very unfaithful to his wife. This unfaithfulness can reverberate back to the way that Oedipus Rex had a love for his mom almost in the way that it relates to inbreeding. In a way that Zeus had many affairs though his most famous was Leto. Leto was one of his first relationships apparently before Zeus was married to Hera. Leto was the...
The worship of the God Apollo established in the 11th to 9th centuries. In the next five centuries, the sanctuary slowly grew in importance and size. During the 8th circa B.C Delphi became internationally known for the Priestess Pythia’s oracle powers.
Gods and goddesses in mythology are used in allusions and often referred to in our daily lives, but do we truly understand them? We may not understand how or why they look the way they do, how they behave, what they are capable of accomplishing, or how they interacted with humans. These super-beings of extremely high status were the heart and soul of prayers and explanations of natural phenomena. They had a variety of natures and were represented in a variety of ways, by different religions.
She is stil worshiped to this day by the Indian people. Her story is quite different from Athena’s, she was not the goddess of war and had nothing to do with violence. Instead she was also the goddess of knowledge helping people learn things such as the Alphabet. The Indian people hold a festival every year in her honor on the fifth day of spring in which the Hindu children are given their first lesson in reading and writing (Das).
life, i.e. birth, harvest, etc. Accompanying the 6 major goddesses (Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Hestia, Demeter and Artemis) we have the lesser divinities such as the Muses, the Graces, the Fates, etc.
According to “Persephone, Demeter, and Hades” It starts off with “Persephone who is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture (farming). Hades who is her uncle, abducts Persephone while she was picking flowers with her companions in a meadow.” According to “Classical Mythology” it states “Hades had other plans for Persephone: he would steal her innocence and virginity and turn her into the dreaded goddess of the Underworld.” It also states how “Persephone was gathering flowers one day on a plain in Sicily. Hades appeared, thundering across the plain in his four-horse chariot. The god then jumped down upon Persephone, and scooped her up with one arm. After abducting her, he carries her off to the Underworld. Demeter who is Persephone’s mother soon came to retrieve her daughter, but was unable to find a trace of Persephone. She traveled to the corners of the earth, searching for nine full days and nights without ever stopping to eat, drink, bathe, or rest. Demeter was in a fury so in retaliation she destroyed lands, crops, and livestock as she complained to the loss of her daughter. She threatened to make the earth unproductive forever and thus destroy all of humankind if she did not find her