Demeter was the Greek Goddess of the Earth, Fertility and the
Harvest. Her name means "Barley or Grain Mother", and as a Goddess
of Grains in general, this is fitting. Demeter was a popular
goddess, and the Romans knew her as Ceres (this is where we get our
word for "cereal"!).

According to myth, it is because Demeter grieves for the loss of Her
daughter Persephone that we have Autumn and Winter. Persephone was
a beautiful and happy girl, and all who knew Her, loved Her. One
day, Demeter took Her daughter with Her on a trip to earth, and while
frolicking in the flowers, Persephone stopped to pick a particularly
lovely Narcissus, only to be kidnapped by the cold ruler of the
Underworld, Hades.

Demeter search 9 days in vain for Her lost daughter. When She began
to fear that She would never see Her beloved Persephone again,
Demeter questioned Helios, the Sun, whose gaze saw everything.
Helios told Demeter that clouds had blocked his view that day, and
that He could not help Her.

Demeter withdrew Her touch from the land, and soon, the plants
withered and died. Demeter, in the guise of an old woman, came to
the city of Attica, in Eleusis, and was welcomed by the King there.
Demeter became the nurse of the King's 2 young sons, and decided to
make one of them immortal. In a complex ritual, Demeter began to
hold the child over a sacred flame each night. The Queen discovered
the disguised Goddess in the act, and unknowingly broke the spell
with a cry of horror.

With this, the Goddess revealed her true identity to the Queen and
commanded that a temple be built in Her honor in Eleusis. The temple
was built as commanded, and this is where Demeter secluded Herself
from the world.

The gods begged Demeter to reconsider, the people were dying from
lack of food, and the earth cried out from the cold and barrenness.
Finally, Triptolemos, one of the sons of the King in Eleusis went to
Demeter and told Her of a strange thing he had heard. While he was
tending to a flock of sheep on the day of Persephone's disappearance,
the ground nearby opened up and Hades himself had appeared. After
Triptolemos then heard a frightened girl's scream, the Hades
disappeared again, and the ground was closed once more.

When Demeter heard this, she knew at once what had happened to Her
daughter and was enraged. She went to Zeus at once and demanded the
return of Her daughter. After some bits of trickery on Hades part,
Persephone was allowed to return to her mother and all was well in
the world again.

Until Demeter learned that Persephone had tasted the fruit of the
dead, and was therefore required to return once more to the
Underworld. Rather than have the mortals suffer, Zeus came up with a
compromise to the situation - for every seed that Persephone had
tasted, she would spend 1 month in the Underworld with Hades, her
husband.

Thus, each Autumn, when Persephone returned to the Underworld,
Demeter mourned her absence. But, as a reward for his assistance,
Demeter taught Triptolemos the secrets of the grain. The art and
knowledge of agriculture, which allowed man to harvest the grains and
survive the time of mourning.

Festivals

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