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Greek mythology and impact
Impacts that Greek mythology had
Mythology and its impact
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Demeter is the greek goddess of corn, wheat, and the harvest, as well as marriage, fertility, and child birth. She is the daughter of the titans Cronus and Rhea. She is the mother of Persephone, whose father is Zeus. Demeter is one of the twelve major deities of the greek pantheon, the others being Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Hermes, and Hestia, who was later replaced by Dionysus. Demeter is the sister of Hestia, Hera, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. She is considered to be one of the most peaceful Greek Gods. Demeter not only was the goddess of the harvest, but she was also originally associated with the four seasons, due to her daughter Persephone. Persephone was stolen by Hades, the ruler of
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.
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.
II. Demeter - also known as Ceres in Rome ( 1, 2, 8 ) A. Domain/ Territory of Control: Agriculture, fertility, harvest. B. Zeus’ sister C. adores her daughter Persephone- very protective of her. III. Hades-also known as Dis (Orcus) in Rome (1, 2, 5, 7, 8 ) A. Domain/ Territory of Control: Underworld, death, wealth.
Zeus’ marriages to Demeter, Leto and Hera yield the gods and goddeses familiar to the Greek world, Persephone, Apollo, Artemis, Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia, and he himself eventually bears Athena (912-24). These are not elements of good rule, but simply the gods of the Greek polis. Demeter and Persephone are worshipped for agriculture, Apollo for his oracular shrine, Artemis for the wilderness and young women, Ares for war. Poseidon as sea god is apart from the polis, but he sires the fearsome Triton (931). Likewise, Ares’ children Phobos and Deimos, two aspects of fear, delineate realms beyond the proper bounds of the polis. Maia bears for Zeus Hermes (938-9), who as herald of the gods moves between realms, between one polis and another.
In Greek mythology, there are many, many gods and goddesses that the people prayed to on a regular basis for everyday things we take for granted. There was usually a different deity for anything a person wanted to pray for: love, money, children, success or almost anything else one could think of or want. People today are amazed at the number of gods there were and how people could remember which god did what. We study these today but still get easily confused, which is understandable. Athena was a very prominent goddess, especially in Athens and she is also featured throughout Homer’s Odyssey. Many confuse her with Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Actually, Athena is known as the goddess of war, practical reason, wisdom, and handicraft. She was also known as the protector of the city of Athens.
the period within the underworld corresponded to the winter season, during which Demeter would create the soils barren due to her grief, while her come back marked the start of the
Goddess Demeter is one of three daughter of Cronus and his wife Rhea. Demeter has a total of five siblings including Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hades ,and Hestia. Demeter was in love with her brother Zeus and "had a beautiful daughter by the name Persephone" (Wickersham, ''Demeter''). Demeter wasn't only a mother to Persephone, she was also a "mother to Pluto by
‘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)
Demeter shows the theme of isolation when she disguises herself as an old woman of no childbearing and lives among the mortals, shunning herself from the gods and turning her grief into anger against Zeus. So when she arrives at Elusis, she take upon the duty of raising the child of Keleus and Meraneria, Demophoön. The part of the myth show Demeter's anger when she attempts to make Demophoön into a god. It symbolizes the fact the she is replacing a female child with a males, meaning...
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Demeter’s grief is demonstrated through the concepts of divinity and humanity being symbolically contrasted with a woman’s purpose and social status as a mother or daughter. While “terrible” is a word we would expect to describe grief, “brutal” is interesting due to its violent connotations (Hymn to Demeter, 90). As a “brutal grief that seized the heart” it lends itself to a comparison with the violent seizing of Persephone, echoed here in Demeter’s emotions about her daughters’ capture, and perhaps denoting that the nature of what causes grief may be reflected in how it is felt (Hymn to Demeter, 90). The words “brutal” and “seized” also portrays grief itself as uncontrollable and forceful, even to the non-human Being described as “like four goddesses” while Demeter herself is divine and yet, unrecognisable as such seems to hark back to their youth and beauty as a divine gift, while Demeter, in her grief, appears to lose divine status (Hymn to Demeter,108, 94-95, 108).
Demeter cares about her daughter. When she notices that Persephone is missing, she panics and immediately looks for her daughter everywhere on the earth. “For nine days, then, over the earth queenly Deo, roamed about, holding blazing torches in her hands, and she never tasted ambrosia or the sweet drink,nectar, as she grieved, nor did she wash her skin with water” (Hymn to Demeter, 47-50). Demeter is so grieved that she even forgets to eat and drink. The only thing she engages in is to find her daughter. Demeter’s tireless searching reflects a mother’s love and worry for her child. We can also find similar evidence that shows Penelope’s love to her husband in The Odyssey. At Odysseus’s house, when the people are listening a song about Troy War (Odyssey 1,379-362), Penelope cries out, “ Break off this
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.
Every culture has some form of higher being, to be a model for their behaviour, as well as to look up to. In Greek times, these were the gods and goddesses who made their home on Mount Olympus. Women identified with the goddesses because they shared some feminine attributes. Goddesses were a “symbol of motherhood and fertility, but also of strength, wisdom, caring, nuturing, temperance, chastity, cunning, trickery, jealousy, and lasciviousness” (Clarke, 1999). However, not all of the goddesses possessed all of these attributes. The goddess Aphrodite, for instance, was not nurturing, nor was she very caring.
Athena was the goddess of war and wisdom. Daughter of Zeus and Metis, but born from only Zeus. Gaea the Earth goddess told Zeus that his child would u...
When I feel sad the plants die. When I am happy the plants live. This could only mean one thing I am the daughter of Demeter. I walked through the farmers field. Most of the crops are dead. They were brown and crunchy. I bent down to pick one, as I did the field burst with color. That’s when I realized I am the daughter of a demigod. I believe I am the daughter of Demeter. I believe this because I have the power of farming, I suffer from depression, and I love children.To start, I have the ability to make dead things grow again. On www.goddess-power.com/demeter.htm , it states, “Demeter's powers are agriculture, Earth, fertility, grows fruits and various grains, and makes the crops grow.” The passage from “ goddess- power” states one of Demeter’s powers are