Demeter
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Demeter is a goddess of agriculture and harvest. She is also associated with controlling the seasons (meaning she can control which seasons the crops will grow). Demeter’s parents are the Titan gods Kronos and Rhea. In fact Demeter is the sister of the gods and goddesses Hades, Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, and Hestia. What Demeter is mostly well known for is for her control over all agriculture throughout the seasons and her love for her daughter. She is the mother of Persephone, Despoina, Arion, Plutus, Philomelus, Eubolus, and Amphitheus.
Relationship With Other Gods:
Demeter is known to have a bad relationship with the god Hades. Demeter had a daughter named Persephone who Hades loved. Due to Persephone’s beauty Hades captured her and partially by force married her. Since Persephone ate while being at hostage to the god Hades, Demeter is only allowed to be with Persephone for nearly half a year. Demeter has a bad relationship to the god Zeus due to the fact that Zeus allowed Hades to marry Demeter’s daughter Persephone without telling her. Demeter also had a shor...
In Hesiod’s Theogony and the Homeric hymns, we see various mothers many of which are gods. Throughout these texts there is a repeated behavior displayed by mothers; by analyzing them and their behavior one can determine what the role of a mother consists of in these texts. The actions of Gaia, the earth, her daughter Rhea, and the goddess Demeter display some of the key characteristics that make up the role of a mother in these ancient texts.
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). Her grief is almost transformative, the lines “men nor… women recognised her when they looked” characterises grief as something that has made Demeter look human (Hymn to Demeter, 94-95). In travelling from Mount Olympus to earth, an action fuelled by her grief, she becomes a metaphor for a step-down in status from deity to mortal (Hymn to Demeter, 92-93). This reflects the implications of women losing their status as mothers and membership to a family in ancient Greece, when they either cannot bear children, or lose their children.
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 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...
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
Both Demeter and Penelope lose a loved one because of the schemes of the gods. In the Hymn to Demeter, Zeus gives Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, as a wife to Hades, who kidnaps her and takes her to the Underworld. When she discovers Persephone’s fate from Helios, Demeter is bereaved. “But a more terrible and savage grief
Life has always been an important theme of literature. As mortals, we are preoccupied with the short amount of time we have available to us. While there are many aspects of life that are important to all living beings, certain themes presented in the texts are the bonds between loved ones and the importance of agriculture. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter presents life as something to be enjoyed and cherished, as it may soon be taken away from us. In the case of hymn, even as a goddess, Persephone was still taken from her mother, the goddess Demeter, to the underworld. As life is short, the text demonstrates that the bond between a mother and her child, as well as a woman and her friends, should be strong. Relationships between the mother and the child are highly emphasized in this text, as Demeter mourns Persephone's descent into the underworld to the point that she is willing to end the lives of humankind by keeping the harvest from growing and causing all vegetation to die. "For mortals she ordained...
Daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, Demeter was one of Cronus and Rhea’s six children, and sister of Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus (Pontikis). He feared that they would overthrow him and take his throne, as he had done to his own father, Uranus (34). Consequently, Cronus adopted the habit of swallowing his children as they were born, so they would never have a chance of overthrowing him (34). Distraught at the loss of her children, Rhea sought her mother Gaia, the earth mother, and asked for advice (Webster). Gaia advised that she give Cronus a stone to swallow in the place of her next child. After the birth of her last child, Zeus, Rhea followed this advice: she hid Zeu...
Hades, the God of the Underworld and Death, also the God of the Riches. Most of Hades and his four siblings life was spent in the stomachs of Cronus his father. Cronus was the Titan God of time and the ages. He was afraid if he had not eaten his children he would be overthrown by one of his sons. If not for Zeus later on Forcing the Cronus to disgorge them Hades would not have had a life at all. Together Zeus and Hades Drove the Titan Gods from the heaven down to a pit and locked them away. Hades gaining control of the Underworld realized he was missing something. A wife, he demanded for his brother Zeus to give away one of his daughters to him. Zeus chose Persephone now the Goddess and queen of the Underworld. Although this did not happen so easily, Zeus knowing his daughter would not accept to marry such a man like Hades he quickly had his own daughter abducted just to please the God of the underworld, but her mother Demeter the Goddess of Agriculture, grain and bread was not happy about this and demanded her daughter back. When she was not given her daughter she put a great dearth upon the earth until she was handed back her child. Hades did send her back from the Underworld only because she had tasted the pomegranate seed and had to return to him a portion of each year. People thought of Hades to be a regal god who was dark haired and held an bird-tipped sceptre ("HADES : Greek King of the Underworld, God of the Dead ; mythology ; pictures : HADES, PLUTO”).
One of the most notorious love affairs of Poseidon involves his sister, Demeter. Poseidon pursued Demeter and to avoid him she turned herself into a mare. In his lust for her, Poseidon transformed himself into a stallion and captured her. Their procreation resulted in a horse, Arion. Poseidon is Greek for "Husband" (possibly of wheat), and therefore it is thought that he and Demeter (goddess of wheat) are a good match because they reign as the god and goddess of fertility.
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.
Legends are diverse in their explications and interpretations. A different explanation of this myth describes that Hades raped and then kidnapped Persephone. Ceres turned this world barren just like what happens in winter .After some time she found her daughter, but until then Persephone ate the seven seeds of pomegranate and that turned her into a fertile woman ready to continue the circle of life on this world. Tatjana Pavlov writes in this context
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.
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
Hades shows himself to Perseus and with the rage of what Hades has done to Perseus, Perseus grabs a lighnting bolt from his sword and throws it at Hades sending him back to the underworld. Saving Andromeda and she offered to make him king and he had refused. Zeus asked if he wanted to join him in Olympus but refused and requested to stay a demi-god but Zeus granted him Io as a companion. In the story according to the Greeks Danae is the daughter of King Acrisius. When he had them put in a box and thrown into the ocean and saved by the fisherman named Dictys they both were still alive and Danae ended up falling in love with Dictys and they were married. Dictys’ brother King Polydectes wanted to take Danae as his wife, Perseus hearing the news he offered to pay any price for his mother not to marry King Polydectes. Sense Polydectes was afraid of Perseus he quickly made an offer that he will allow his mother to stay married to Dictys, only if he brings back the head of Medusa. Bravely, Perseus accepted his