DEMETER. – A Greek goddess. According to Homer and Hesiod, she is the goddess of farmers, fields, and harvests; her gift is bread, and rural labors are sacred to her. Hesiod calls her the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Both poets recall her love for Iasion, by whom she had Plutus (wealth), and her relationship with Zeus, father of Persephone. In her cult, Demeter is closely linked with her daughter, often referred to with the epithets “the two goddesses,” “the venerable ones,” etc. The foundation of her cult is the abduction of Persephone, a central theme of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Hades, enamored of Persephone, carried her off; Demeter, distraught, wandered the world in search of her. Arriving at Eleusis, she took the form of an old woman and became the nurse of Demophon, the king’s son, but was surprised by his mother while holding him over the fire to grant him immortality. She revealed herself and ordered the establishment of rites in her honor, which she would disclose. Meanwhile, Hades promised to return Persephone to her mother for part of the year, and Demeter restored fertility to the barren earth.
This myth, which is the core of the Eleusinian cult, is considered by some scholars to be pre-Hellenic; others believe it combines three myths—two pre-Hellenic and one Greek. These are merely hypotheses, since it is uncertain whether the Mycenaean structure beneath the Telesterion at Eleusis was already used for cult purposes at that time. Numerous cities in Arcadia preserved legends about Demeter’s wanderings. Especially in Arcadia, there were many and strange cults of Demeter: at Thelpusa, Demeter’s son was said to be a horse; at Phigalia, the goddess’s image had a horse’s head and wore the cloak of Despoina (Persephone), with figures that were partly animal and partly human.