Demeter was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea and a sister of Hera, Hestia, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, and thus she belonged to the family of great Olympian gods. In contrast to Gaea, Rhea and Cybele who represented the Earth as a cosmogonic element, Demeter was the Mother Goddess of the Earth who symbolized the fertile and cultivated soil. She was a deity of agriculture, the Corn Goddess to whom wheat and barley were sacred. Demeter's domain of influence also reached the Underworld, but very soon the role of the Underworld goddess was transferred to her daughter, Persephone.
In myth and cult, Demeter was very closely linked to her daughter Persephone (also called Kore), from her union with Zeus. Persephone grew up among the Nymphs, in company with Athena and Artemis, Zeus' other daughters. The trouble began when her uncle Hades, the master of the Underworld, fell in love with her. With Zeus' approval, he decided to abduct her. One day, when she was picking flowers, the ground opened and Hades appeared. He seized her and dragged her down into the Underworld. Demeter heard Persephone's scream and rushed to help her, but when she came it was too late. Persephone had disappeared. For nine days and nine nights, without any food or drink, Demeter wandered over the world with torches in her hands, trying to find her daughter, but in vain. Nobody could tell the desperate mother where Persephone was. On the tenth day, Demeter went to all-seeing Helios, the god of the Sun, who touched with her suffering, revealed the truth. Then, Demeter decided to abandon her divine role and she left Olympus disguised as an old woman. For a long time she wandered among the cities of men, aimlessly. When she arrived at Eleusis, she rested on a stone that was since then known as a Joyless Stone. She was found by the daughters of the Eleusinian King Celeus, who brought her to the palace. There, a young slave Iambe succeeded in cheering her up with her jokes and tricks. When they started to question her, Demeter told them she was looking for a shelter and she would be glad to work as a servant. It happened that Celeus' wife Metanira had just been delivered a son, so she welcomed the old lady and entrusted the baby Demophon (1) to her care. The goddess wanted to make the boy immortal, so she anointed him with ambrosia and at nighthid him in the fire in order to destroy everything mortal in him. Metanira was curious about what Demeter was doing with the child, because Demophon was progressing extremely good. One night, she saw Demeter placing the child in the fire. She screamed with terror. That made Demeter very angry, and she revealed her real face. In order to calm her down, King Celeus built a temple for her in Eleusis, where the initiated should celebrate her mysteries. Before leaving the King Celeus' palace, Demeter wanted to show the gratitude to her hosts. To Celeus' oldest son Triptolemus, she gave the first grain of corn and a winged chariot harnessed with dragons, and ordered him to travel throughout the world sowing grains of wheat everywhere.
Still in despair because of the loss of her daughter, Demeter retired to her temple at Eleusis. There she forbade the seeds to sprout and trees to bear fruit and soon infertility endangered the mankind. Zeus first sent his messenger Iris, and then all other gods, to persuade the goddess to stop punishing the whole human race, but it was unsuccessful. She said that the earth would never bear any fruit, unless she saw her daughter again. Zeus then sent Hermes to the Underworld to bring Persephone back to her mother. Hades agreed to give up his wife, but before she left Underworld he tempted her to eat a few pomegranate seeds, and thus bound her forever to his dark empire. Hermes took Persephone out of the Underworld, but when she told her mother that she had tried pomegranate, Demeter realized that Persephone would spend only two thirds of the year with her (see Ascalaphus (1)). Before she returned with her daughter to Olympus, Demeter ordered the earth to regenerate itself, then she taught the kings of the earth her divine secrets and initiated them into her sacred mysteries.
This legend explained why each year when the winter came, the earth looked poor, with no flowers in the fields and no leaves on the trees. That was the time when Persephone had to join her husband Hades, and Demeter was in mourning. In the spring, everything started to blossom again, celebrating the return of Persephone.
While Demeter was looking for her daughter, Poseidon tried to become closer to her. To avoid his advances, she hid, in the shape of a mare, among the horses of King Oncus. Poseidon then turned into a stallion and fertilized her. Demeter gave birth to the horse Arion (1), and to a daughter whose name remained concealed and who was known only as the mistress - Despoena.
There is a legend saying that Demeter loved Iasion, whom jealous Zeus struck with a thunderbolt. From the union with Iasion, Demeter had a son, Plutus.
The image of Demeter as the goddess of fertility and all vegetation, especially wheat, started to form probably already in the Neolithic period (6th to 4th millennium BC). Already in Aegean religion (third and second millennium BC), possibly under the influence of Egypt, the cult of the mother and daughter that ruled the world and the underworld, was created: Demeter, as the mother of wheat (the ears of corn), and Persephone, as the daughter of wheat (seed in the ground). Demeter's cult in the Aegean culture is documented on the tablets with linear inscription, from fourteenth and thirteenth century BC. The essential part of Demeter's cult is the idea of the birth and death of vegetation. Therefore, it is understandable that Demeter was not only the goddess of the fertility of the soil, but also the goddess of the Underworld.
The oldest sanctuaries of Demeter were connected to the fertile regions of Greece, above all Boeotia and Thessaly. Demeter was also worshipped in Attica, Arcadia, Argolis, in Crete, in Asia Minor and in Sicily.
The events of disappearance and return of Demeter's daughter Persephone, were the occasion of many festivals in the ancient Greece. The most famous ones were so called Eleusinian mysteries that were part of a secret cult conducted at the temple of Demeter in Eleusis. The rites were based on the idea of death and rebirth, and celebrated the immortality of Persephone. These festivals were celebrated until the fifth century.
The most of Demeter's attributes indicate her roles in the fertility of the soil: the ears of corn that the goddess holds in her hand, and very often poppies, which according to a legend, Demeter found in Sicyon. Other attributes that connect Demeter to fertility are a basket filled with flowers and fruits of all kinds, a pomegranate and a pig. Her sacred bird is a crane. Her character is indicated by torches and serpents. The animal usually sacrificed to her is a cow.
Demeter was seldom shown in the art. Her oldest cult statues were simple, because they were mostly used in sanctuaries in a countryside. Since the fifth century BC, as Eleusinian mysteries became popular, the trinity Demeter, Persephone and Triptolemus was more often shown (relief from Eleusis). During the fourth century BC, Demeter was shown standing or sitting, with her usual attributes, ears of corn, torches or serpent. She was dressed in a long robe and often she was wearing a veil that covered the back of her head.