XII—DEMETER
PEOPLE of the great pasturelands of South-eastern Europe, the speakers of Aryan tongues who began to wander south and eastward about 2000 B.C., with their wagons and horses, were not unacquainted with agriculture. The group known as Minyans had a pair of supreme deities, ‘Lord Dān’ and ‘Mother Dā’, as we have already observed in the preceding chapter. He was perhaps originally of the sky, she of the earth-grown corn. Both could become horses; and while he became the ‘Earth-shaker’ she became the ‘Com-mother’. Today in Central Europe there are peasants who will say, when the wind sweeps over wheat or rye, that the “horses are in the corn”. The time came when he—’Potei-Dān’—went to sea, became Poseidon, and took another wife, Amphitrite, child of Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea. Meanwhile ‘Dā Mater’, whose cult was spread widely in Greek lands, rose to special importance in one particular place—Eleusis in Attica. Here, however, her worship was imposed upon and merged with a much older cult of the primæval mother-goddess of the pre-Hellenic peoples whose manner of life was founded on matriarchy and polyandry. The story of Hera as one aspect of the goddess has already been told;{107} Damater, or Demeter as the Athenians called her, was really the identical Great Goddess in another form but free from any such association of marriage as was so important a part of the dogma concerning Hera.
She was many times a mother; first among her children by Poseidon were the foals Arion and Pegasus, and a girl identified with Persephone; yet Hesiod said that the last was her child by Zeus. Furthermore, she was the mother of Ploutos, the god of wealth, according to a strange Homeric tale.{108}
Also with Iasion when the fair-tressed goddess Demeter,
Yielding herself to desire, was united in tender embracements,
While in a thrice-ploughed fallow they lay, right quickly perceived it
Zeus; and he cast with blinding bolt of his thunder and slew him.
Ploutos is the wealth of corn in the grain still hidden under-ground, as well as wealth in a buried hoard of gold. It was his ‘undergroundness’ that caused him to be identified with Pluto, a name for Hades, King of the Underworld, who in the myth was to become son-in-law of Demeter when he wedded Persephone.
For Demeter it is obvious that there was no clear answer concerning her husband, and for any mortal like Iasion to consort with a goddess was exceeding dangerous.{109} The important thing for mother-goddesses is that they should be fertile, not that they should be wives.
The primæval mother-goddess and the Minyan corn-goddess were merged into one at Eleusis, where at the same time her daughter Persephone attained to a high divine status. The girl was in reality something like a double of her mother, and they were thought of as permanently together except during those sad months of solitude when the mother was alone. The story, incorporated as a myth in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, is most brilliantly told and deserves ample quotation, but with a few preliminary notes on some unexpected names and labels. Hades, brother of Poseidon and Zeus, was Lord of the Underworld, and was known by various names like Aïdoneus and Pluto, or by titles such as seek to avoid direct allusion to the dead, like ‘Host of Many’, ‘Many-named’, ‘Ruler of Many’, while Demeter herself is sometimes called ‘Dēo’—an Attic form of ‘Dāo’ and a variant of ‘Dā’. When Hades first saw Persephone he desired her for mate and queen and, with the consent of Zeus, planned to capture her.
She was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Okeanos and gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus, which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the Host of Many, to be a snare for the bloom-like girl—a marvellous, radiant flower. It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven above and the whole earth and the sea’s salt swell laughed for joy. And the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to take the lovely toy; but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nysa, and the lord, Host of Many, with his immortal horses sprang out upon her—the Son of Kronos, He who has many names.
He caught her up reluctant on his golden car and bare her away lamenting. Then she cried out shrilly with her voice, calling upon her father, the Son of Kronos, who is most high and excellent. But no one either of the deathless gods or of mortal men heard her voice.
Then bitter pain seized the heart of Demeter, who wandered over the earth seeking her lost child, and at last she found Helios, the sun god, who answered her enquiry:
“Queen Demeter, daughter of rich-haired Rhea, I will tell you the truth; for I greatly reverence and pity you in your grief for your trim-ankled daughter. None other of the deathless gods is to blame, but only cloud-gathering Zeus who gave her to Hades, her father’s brother, to be called his buxom wife. And Hades seized her and took her loudly crying in his chariot down to his realm of mist and gloom...”
But grief yet more terrible and savage came into the heart of Demeter, and thereafter she was so angered with the dark-clouded Son of Kronos that she avoided the gathering of the gods and high Olympus, and went to the towns and rich fields of men, disfiguring her form a long while. And no one of men or deep-bosomed women knew her when they saw her, until she came to the house of wise Keleos who then was lord of fragrant Eleusis. Vexed in her dear heart, she sat near the wayside by the Maiden Well, from which the women of the place were used to draw water, in a shady place over which grew an olive shrub. And she was like an ancient woman who is cut off from childbearing and the gifts of garland-loving Aphrodite, like the nurses of king’s children who deal justice, or like the house-keepers in their echoing halls. There the daughters of Keleos, son of Eleusis, saw her, as they were coming for easy-drawn water, to carry it in pitchers of bronze to their dear father’s house: four were they and like goddesses in the flower of their girlhood...They knew her not—for the gods are not easily discerned by mortals—but standing near her spoke winged words.
“Old mother, whence and who are you of folk born long ago? Why are you gone away from the city and do not draw near the houses? For there in the shady halls are women of just such age as you, and others younger; and they would welcome you both by word and deed.”
Thus they said. And she, that queen among goddesses, answered them saying: “Hail, dear children, whosoever you are of womankind. I will tell you my story; for it is not unseemly that I should tell you truly what you ask. Doso is my name, for my stately mother gave it me. And now I am come from Crete over the sea’s wide back—-not willingly; but pirates brought me thence by force of strength against my liking.”
Presently the girls left her to run home and get permission to bring her to the house of their father Keleos and led her through the portico to where their
queenly mother sat by a pillar of the close-fitted roof, holding her son, a tender scion, in her bosom. And the girls ran to her. But the goddess walked to the threshold: and her head reached the roof and she filled the doorway with a heavenly radiance. Then awe and reverence and pale fear took hold of Metaneira, and she rose up from her couch before Demeter, and bade her be seated. But Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of perfect gifts, would not sit upon the couch, but stayed silent with lovely eyes cast down until careful Iambe placed a jointed seat for her and threw over it a silvery fleece. Then she sat down and held her veil in her hands before her face. A long time she sat upon the stool without speaking because of her sorrow, and greeted no one by word or by sign, but rested, never smiling, and tasting neither food nor drink, because she pined with longing for her deep-bosomed daughter, until careful Iambe—who pleased her moods in aftertime also—moved the Holy Lady with many a quip and jest to smile and laugh and cheer her heart. Then Metaneira filled a cup with sweet wine and offered it to her; but she refused it, for she said it was not lawful for her to drink red wine, but bade them mix meal and water with soft mint and give her to drink. And Metaneira mixed the draught and gave it to the
goddess as she bade. So the great queen Deo received it to observe the sacrament.
This mint-julep made of sacred barley-water and mint was taken as an act of communion and was one of the most important pieces of ritual in the Eleusinian mysteries commemorating the sorrows of the ‘Mater Dolorosa’. After this Metaneira, wife of Keleos, asked the stranger-woman to become nurse to her youngest infant Demophoön.
And the child grew like some immortal being, not fed with food nor nourished at the breast: for by day rich-crowned Demeter would anoint him with ambrosia as if he were the offspring of a god and breathe sweetly upon him as she held him in her bosom. But at night she would hide him like a brand in the heart of the fire, unknown to his dear parents. And it wrought great wonder in these that he grew beyond his age; for he was like the gods face to face. And she would have made him deathless and unageing had not well-girded Metaneira in her heedlessness kept watch by night from her sweet-smelling chamber and spied. But she wailed and smote her two hips, because she feared for her son and was greatly distraught in her heart; so she lamented and uttered winged words:
“Demophoön, my son, the strange woman buries you deep in fire and works grief and bitter sorrow for me.”
Thus she spoke, mourning. And the bright goddess, lovely-crowned Demeter, heard her, and was wroth with her. So with her divine hands she snatched from the fire the dear son whom Metaneira had borne unhoped-for in the palace, and cast him from her to the ground; for she was terribly angry in her heart. Forthwith she said to well-girded Metaneira:
“Witless are you mortals and dull to foresee your lot, whether of good or evil, that comes upon you. For now in your heedlessness you have wrought folly past healing; for—be witness the oath of the gods, the relentless water of Styx—I would have made your dear son deathless and unageing all his days and would have bestowed on him everlasting honour, but now he can in no way escape death and the fates. Yet shall unfailing honour always rest upon him, because he lay upon my knees and slept in my arms. But as the years move round and when he is in his prime, the sons of the Eleusinians shall ever wage war and dread strife with one another continually. Lo! I am that Demeter who has share of honour and is the greatest help and cause of joy to the undying gods and mortal men. But now, let all the people build me a great temple and an altar below it and beneath the city and its sheer wall upon a rising hillock above Kallichoros. And I myself will teach my rites, that hereafter you may reverently perform them and so win the favour of my heart.”
When she had so said, the goddess changed her stature and her looks, thrusting old age away from her: beauty spread round about her and a lovely fragrance was wafted from her sweet-smelling robes, and from the divine body of the goddess a light shone afar, while golden tresses spread down over her shoulders, so that the strong house was filled with brightness as well as with lightning. And so she went out from the palace.
The people of Eleusis built the goddess a temple and raised an altar; but still Demeter grieved for her lost daughter.
Then she caused a most dreadful and cruel year for mankind over the all-nourishing earth: the ground would not make the seed sprout, for rich-crowned Demeter kept it hid. In the fields the oxen drew many a curved plough in vain, and much white barley was cast upon the land without avail. So she would have destroyed the whole race of man with cruel famine and have robbed them who dwell on Olympus of their glorious right of gifts and sacrifices had not Zeus perceived and marked all this in his heart.
At last Zeus perceived that the only solution was to send Hermes down to the underworld with a command to bring Persephone up to earth again so that mother and daughter might be united once more in joy.
And all-seeing Zeus sent a messenger to them, rich-haired Rhea, to bring dark-cloaked Demeter to join the families of the gods: and he promised to give her what rights she should choose among the deathless gods and agreed that her daughter should go down for the third part of the circling year to darkness and gloom, but for the two parts should live with her mother and the other deathless gods. Thus he commanded. And the goddess rushed down from the peaks of Olympus and came to the plain of Rharos, rich, fertile, cornland once, but then in nowise fruitful, for it lay idle and utterly leafless, because the white grain was hidden by design of trim-ankled Demeter. But afterwards, as springtime waxed, it was soon to be waving with long ears of corn, and its rich furrows to be loaded with grain upon the ground, while others would already be bound in sheaves. There first she landed from the fruitless upper air: and glad were the goddesses to see each other and cheered in heart.
So Rhea besought her to increase once more the fruits of the earth.
And rich-crowned Demeter did not refuse but straightway made fruit to spring up from the rich lands, so that the whole wide earth was laden with leaves and flowers. Then she went and to the kings who deal justice, Triptolemos and Diokles, the horse-driver, and to doughty Eumolpos and Keleos, leader of the people, she showed the conduct of her rites and taught them all her mysteries, to Triptolemos and Polyxeinos and Diokles also—awful mysteries which no one may in any way transgress or pry into or utter, for deep awe of the gods checks the voice. Happy is he among men upon earth who has seen these mysteries; but he who is uninitiate and who has no part in them, never has lot of like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and gloom.
But when the bright goddesses had taught them all, they went to Olympus to the gathering of the other gods. And there they dwell beside Zeus who delights in thunder, awful and reverend goddesses. Right blessed is he among men on earth whom they freely love: soon they do send Ploutos as guest to his great house, Ploutos who gives wealth to mortal men.{110}
In this great poem of the seventh century B.C., Persephone, or—as she is often called—Korē, the Girl, stands for the life of the crops, which for a third of the year when the fields are empty rest beneath the earth. It was the Greek custom to store the ripe grain for next year’s sowing in large jars in underground chambers—a kind of refrigeration. For the four months while this was happening Persephone dwelt beneath with Hades her husband.
Eleusis, which is about twelve miles by road from Athens, was incorporated in the Attic state probably between 625 and 600 B.C. Its cult and mysteries were thus taken over by a comparatively large state rapidly rising in importance; and when by the fifth century B.C. the culture of Athens began to dominate the whole of Greece it came to pass that everything which Demeter in Eleusis could give became as pan-Hellenic in value as that which Zeus could give at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi or Delos. In fact, the Eleusinian Mysteries soon became an Athenian affair made to serve the glory of the city and the ends of Athenian nationalism; for by the fifth century Athens claimed that the gods had revealed to the people of Attica alone their two greatest gifts. The first of these was agriculture, which made possible on earth a civilised and happy life; the second was the assurance of a better life after death. It was a token of their generous philanthropy, said the Athenians, that they passed on to the rest of mankind these precious revelations. Such claims as these were not diminished by time, for they were clearly set out in the fourth century B.C. by Isocrates, the most famous orator of his day; and even in 117 B.C. an inscription was set up in Delphi{111} in honour of the Athenian people, who, it is declared,
converted men from the life of beasts to civilization, and contributed to their mutual association by being first to impart the mysteries, and by their means proclaiming to all that the greatest good among men is mutual commerce and good faith. Athens imparted also what the gods have given concerning human laws and education; and likewise the gift of the fruits of the earth, though she had received it for herself alone, yet she granted the use of it to be common to all the Greeks.
It is an important point that initiation into the mysteries was open to every Greek, male or female, bond or free; and many a slave became a mystes with the promise of happiness after death. If a barbaros could not enter in, this was due to no racial barrier, but only to his inabili
ty to speak and understand Greek, for he could not have comprehended the terrifying oath of secrecy imposed on every candidate who came through to the end of initiation at the final rite of ‘the Beholding Responses must be made and the oath taken in language “understanded of the people”.
Indeed, plenty of distinguished people, Roman senators, governors and emperors, Oriental potentates and their subjects, were in later years accepted for initiation; but it was an absolute requisite that they spoke Greek, and were thus no longer barbaroi.
The Eleusinian Festival, and the celebrated procession which led up to it, most probably received its full official form in the reign of the great Peisistratus during the second half of the sixth century B.C. Its institution was perhaps nearly contemporary with the installation in Athens of the cult of Dionysos, which is to be considered in the next chapter. Certain Holy Things belonging to Demeter and to the Saviour Girl—as Persephone was often called—were deposited for a time in their joint shrine near the Acropolis in Athens; and at the right moment were carried with pomp and ceremony in the famous procession along the twelve-mile sacred way from Athens to Eleusis. The Dionysiac cult, with its emotional, orgiastic, and intensely mystical nature, had a kinship with the mystic emotions raised by the Mysteries of Demeter. He, the god of wine and milk and honey, and she, the goddess of corn and vegetables and fruit, had in common given blessings past estimation to mankind. And so it was thought that the god himself accompanied the votaries on the joyous journey along the sacred way. He was hailed not by his usual name of Bacchos, but by a variant title, ‘Iacchos’, and the cry of “Iacche, Iacche” rose from the torchlight procession that wended its way through the lovely groves and flowered meadows which bordered the track that ran from Athens out by the Dipylon Gate, up through the rustic groves of Daphne, down to the Salaminian sea, in which all the neophytes, participants, and initiates bathed in the silver dawn, before the cheerful throng moved on to the great sanctuary at Eleusis.
The Twelve Olympians Page 16