The myth of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades is described in one of the richest works of classical antiquity, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Homeric Hymns are a series of poems that are written in honor of different gods.
Demeter, the goddess of grain and agriculture, had a daughter from Zeus. Her name was Persephone. As the legend goes, Hades rarely ventured out of the underworld. But, the few times he did, he encountered Persephone.
He instantly fell in love with Persephone, but he knew that Demeter would never allow him to take Persephone as his wife to the underground world (Tartaros). Hades made an agreement with Zeus. Zeus had previously promised Hades one of his daughters in marriage. And when Hades told him that he wanted to marry Persephone, Zeus obliged. With Zeus’ permission, Hades seized Persephone while she was gathering flowers. He took her to the underground world.
For nine days and nine nights, Demeter traveled around the world to find his daughter. On the tenth day, she saw Goddess Hekate. Even Goddess Hekate heard Demeter’s screams. Demeter and Hekate decided to consult The God of the Sun, Helios who sees everything throughout the day. Helios said that he saw Persephone kidnapped by Hades. Demeter became so angry that she left the Olympos, disguised herself as an old woman, and started living with mortals.
While she was traveling, she arrived at Attica, Eleusis. She sat under an olive tree to rest. There, four daughters of King Keleos saw the old woman. Demeter told them she is looking for a maid job. She offered her services to the king’s daughters as a nanny for their baby brother, Demophon.
Demophon is a word that is used for a much-desired, late-born son.
This warm place made Demeter happy for the first time since the loss of her daughter. Every day while caring for the demophon, Demeter burns Demophon’s mortal spirit by spreading abrosia over him and laying him on the fire. This way she makes him immortal day by day. One night, his mother saw what Demeter was doing. She started to yell at Demeter. Demeter became angry and threw the child to the ground, declaring that she will no longer make him immortal. The Hymn does not tell us Demophoön’s fate, but Apollodorus and other authors say that he died.
The fact that Demeter tried to create an immortal male child is important and this action has a psychological thing underneath.
A male child cannot be taken from her in any situation because women are obliged to go to men’s houses in patrilocal societies.
Besides just wanting a male child, Demeter wants to overthrow Zeus using this male child because Zeus had allowed Demeter’s daughter to be abducted.
We can clearly see that Demeter does not care for humans. She used the demophon for her benefit and hurt or killed him when she was done with him.
Demeter, who could not stand it anymore, destroyed the fertility of the land because of her grief. Zeus ordered Hades to bring Persephone back so humans would not starve. Before going back to earth, Hades gave her a pomegranate seed to eat. Persephone ate the pomegranate seed. This meant that she could not leave Hades permanently. Under the supervision of Zeus, she had to stay four months with Hades in a year. In the other months, she can go back to earth. These four months are the months that the weather is cold. The other months are the months that are warm and productive for agriculture.
This story has become so famous that, people from Eleusian made rituals about this story to feel her pain. The rituals were so secret that we have little knowledge about the ritual practices. I will be talking about this ritual in the following blog.
Source: The Penguin Book of Classical Myths by Jenny March
