Demeter

The bountiful mother

Demeter taught humans to plough, sow and harvest, and her gifts made settled life possible. She was a goddess of the cycle of life and death in the fields, and of the laws and customs that farming communities lived by.

The loss of Persephone

Her best-known story is the abduction of her daughter Persephone by Hades. Searching the earth with flaming torches, Demeter refused to let anything grow, and famine threatened both mortals and the gods who relied on their offerings. Zeus finally ordered Persephone’s return, but because she had eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld she had to spend part of every year there. Her yearly descent explains the barren months of winter, and her return brings the spring.

Key myths

• The search for Persephone
• Her stay at Eleusis disguised as an old nurse
• The gift of agriculture to Triptolemus, who spread it across the world
• The punishment of Erysichthon, who cut down her sacred grove

Worship

At Eleusis near Athens, Demeter and Persephone were honoured in the Eleusinian Mysteries, secret rites that promised initiates a happier fate after death. They were celebrated for nearly two thousand years, and their secrets were never fully revealed. Women across Greece also kept her autumn festival, the Thesmophoria.