Gods,Heroes,Myths Greek Mythology Homer's epics,Expeditions

She was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea, sister of Zeus, with whom she had a daughter, Persephone. Various authors attribute more children to her: Plutus, another daughter, without mentioning her name, and a horse, Areion.

She was the goddess of cereals and agriculture in general. She taught people to cultivate and sow the fields. She was also considered the protector of family.

The main myth about Demeter is the one that talks about the great love she had for her daughter Persephone. Pluto, that is, Hades, once stole Persephone. Demeter wandered around devastated for nine days. She held torches to see and asked all those she met if they had seen her daughter. Finally when she arrived in Eleusis, she disguised as an old woman (Graia) and was hosted in the palace of King Keleos. There she undertook the upbringing of his son Dimofon, whom she tried to make an immortal.That is why she fed him with ambrosia and burned his mortal body in flames. But Metaneira, the mother of the child, saw her, and not knowing that she was a goddess, she got scared and started shouting. Demeter got angry and stopped this process. So Keleos' son remained a mortal. But Demeter, in return for the hospitality, taught the inhabitants of Eleusis the cultivation of the land and the Eleusinian mysteries.

In the meantime, because the goddess was indignant about the abduction of her daughter, she caused infertility, that is, she did not allow for anything to bear fruit on the earth. For this reason Zeus pleaded the goddess to resume her work, as a goddess of agriculture. He also ordered Hades to hold Persephone for three months only in the Underworld. The other nine he should allow her to live on earth with her mother. So it happened.

In honor of the goddess Demeter, the ancient Greeks held many festivals. The most important were the Thesmophorea, where only married women took part, the Little Mysteries in the municipality of Agra in Attica and the Great Eleusinian Mysteries in Eleusis.

Depending on the content of her worship were also the symbols of the goddess: a bundle of sheaves, a basket full of fruits, the poppy flower, the narcissus, the pomegranate, the crane bird.