This turns the earth into a barren wasteland. As a means of regaining her daughter from Hades, she exploits her power of fertility and stops the seasons. It is at this point in the story that Demeter realizes her full strength. A grand temple is built in Demeter’s honor with attendant rites to conciliate her spirit, but nothing appeases the grieving goddess. Upon discovering that Zeus made the perfidious bargain with Hades, Demeter withdraws from her residence on Mount Olympus, and instead makes her home in an agrarian community populated by mortals. Finally, through information gleaned by the pre-Olympian goddess Hecate, Demeter is informed of Persephone’s rape. No one, god nor mortal, has the courage to tell her what happened. Inconsolable at the loss of her daughter, Demeter roams the earth in search of Persephone. ( CC BY SA 4.0 ) Demeter Mourns and Takes Control ‘The Rape of Proserpine’ (1621-1622) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Persephone shrieks, alerting Demeter to her peril. Mothers, Madness and Music: A Study of the Parallels of Cybele and DionysusĪs a result, one day while Persephone was out picking flowers with her friends, the earth opened and Hades, on a horse drawn chariot, charged out violently, snatching Persephone to be his wife for all eternity in the underworld.The Unshakeable Power of Zeus, Prime Mover of Ancient Greek Deities.Rice Goddesses - Earth Mothers who Influenced Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld.To be sure, his being an absentee father did not stop Zeus from arranging the marriage of his daughter - unbeknownst to either her or her mother - to his brother-Hades, the lord of the underworld. The famous Hymn then begins with the reciting of Zeus’ agreement with Hades in regards to Persephone. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from the 4th century BC. Indeed, Zeus would have been the husband to hundreds if he married everyone he raped.ĭemeter. It starts with Zeus, lord of the gods, who rapes his sister Demeter, and the product of that rape is Persephone. However, the episode beforehand is as important as the story itself. And while there are twenty-two variations of the myth, it is the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (hereafter called the Hymn), composed between 650-550 BC, that is believed to be one of the oldest. The story of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and her daughter Persephone, queen of the underworld, has inspired many.
Who were Demeter and Persephone? And why did their myth resonate so strongly with women of ancient Greece?
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