DEMETRA. – Greek goddess. For Homer and Hesiod she is the goddess of peasants, fields, and crops; bread is her gift, and agricultural labors are sacred to her. Hesiod calls her the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Both poets recall her love for Iasione, by whom she had Plutone (wealth), and her relations with Zeus, father of Persefone. In worship, D. is closely associated with her daughter; they are often designated by the appellations “the two goddesses,” “the venerable ones,” etc. The basis of the cult is the abduction of Persefone, the fundamental theme of the Homeric hymn to D.: Ade, enamored of Persefone, abducted her; grieving D. wandered through the world in search of her. Having arrived at Eleusi, she assumed the appearance of an old woman and became the nurse of Demofonte, the king’s son; but when his mother surprised her while she was holding him over the fire in order to confer immortality upon him, she revealed herself to her, commanding her to establish in her honor rites that she would reveal to her. Meanwhile Ade promised to return Persefone to her mother for part of the year, and D. restored fertility to the earth, which had become desolate.
This myth, which is the center of the Eleusinian cult, is considered pre-Hellenic by some scholars; according to others, it would bring together three myths, two pre-Hellenic and one Greek. These are suppositions, because it is not certain that the Mycenaean structure beneath the Telesterion of Eleusi was already used for worship at that time. Numerous cities in Arcadia cultivated legends relating to D.’s wanderings. Particularly in Arcadia there were many strange cults of D.: at Thelpusa, a son of D. was said to have been a horse; at Figalia, the goddess’s image had an equine head and the mantle of Despoina (Persefone), and bore figures that were partly animal and partly human.