14. Demeter (Ceres).—Demeter was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Her name signifies Mother Earth, and she is, therefore, an expression of the ancient conception of the earth-goddess, with a special reference to nature and human civilisation. She was also named Deo, and by comparison of these two words, her name has been interpreted as Dawn-Mother, from the same root as Zeus, the sky. The thriving of the crops was ascribed to her influence; she was further regarded as the patroness of all those arts which are more or less intimately connected with agriculture, and which men first learned from her. Demeter thus rises to the rank of a goddess of civilisation. She rescued men by means of agriculture from the lower grades of hunters and shepherds, and brought their former rude and barbarous manners into subjection to law and morality. She thus becomes that “bountiful daughter of Heaven,” who, as Schiller sings in his Lay of the Bell,
“of old
Called the wild man from waste and wold,
And, in his hut thy presence stealing,
Roused each familiar household feeling;
And, best of all the happy ties,
The centre of the social band,—
The instinct of the Fatherland.”
Regarded in this light, she comes into contact with Dionysus, whose beneficial influence on human civilisation and manners we have already described. This accounts for the intimate connection of these two deities in the Eleusinian mysteries, where Dionysus-Iacchus even appears as the son of Demeter and the husband of Cora-Persephone. Owing to the important part she played in the institution of law and order among mankind, she was venerated as the goddess of marriage, marriage being the necessary foundation of civil society. She was also regarded as the tutelary goddess of national assemblies.
Of the numerous legends which are linked with the name of this goddess, none perhaps is more celebrated, or more pregnant with meaning in regard to her worship, than the rape of her daughter Persephone, or Cora. The latter was once playing with the daughters of Oceanus in a flowery meadow, where they were picking flowers and making garlands. Persephone happened to quit her companions for a moment to pluck a narcissus she had perceived, when suddenly the ground opened at her feet, and Pluto, or Hades, the god of the infernal regions, appeared in a chariot drawn by snorting horses. Swift as the wind he seized and carried off the terrified maiden in spite of her struggles, and vanished again into the regions of darkness before her companions were aware of the catastrophe. All this occurred, however, with the knowledge of Zeus, who had, unknown to Demeter, promised her daughter to Pluto. When Demeter missed her darling child, and none could tell her where she had gone, she kindled torches, and during many days and nights wandered in anxiety through all the countries of the earth, not even resting for food or sleep. At length Helios, who sees and hears everything, told Demeter what had happened, not disguising, however, that it had occurred with the consent of Zeus. Full of wrath and grief, the goddess now withdrew from the society of the other gods into the deepest solitude. Meanwhile all the fruits of the earth ceased, and a general famine threatened to extinguish the human race. In vain Zeus sent one messenger after another, beseeching the angry goddess to return to Olympus. Demeter swore that she would neither return nor allow the fruits of the earth to grow until her daughter was restored to her. At length Zeus was fain to consent, and despatched Hermes to the lower world to bring Persephone back. Persephone joyfully prepared to obey this command, but as she was about to depart Hades gave her a pomegranate-seed to eat, whereupon she found herself bound to him and unable to return. By means of Zeus, however, a compact was made by which Persephone was to spend two-thirds of the year in the upper world with her mother, and the remaining portion with her husband. And thus every year at springtide she ascends from her subterraneous kingdom to enjoy herself in her mother’s company, but returns again late in autumn to the regions of darkness and death.