Biography Demeter

Demeter (Dhmhthr) – daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister Zeus held as a goddess of agriculture, civil organization and marriage figure prominently in Greek. mythology. The myth of her and her daughter Persephone is described in detail in one of the referred to. Homeric hymns. Hades, with the consent of Zeus, abducted Persephone, D., after fruitless searches, finds out about this from the Apollo. Angry, she left Olympus, the land becomes infertile, and Zeus, to reassure, D., sends Hermes to the underworld for Persephone, which now could spend the summer with her mother, in winter it was to remain in the underworld by Hades. Then the DA makes the land fertile again and returned to Olympus, after after learning elevzinskih rulers Triptolema, Diocles, Evmolpa and Kehl, offering victims and elevzinskim sacraments. In particular Triptolemos, her favorite, she was appointed to the spread of agriculture and its cult. Elevzin been the main place of worship D. The myth of Persephone and the DA, which is a growing and dying of field crops, planting and harvest, has been the subject then have spread throughout Greece elevzinskih sacraments. The cult of AD was also another symbolic meaning: a woman's fertility, rozhanie and child-rearing, and DI, as the goddess of marriage and family life, especially revered among married women, celebrated in honor of her Thesmophoria.

Cult DA is very old, according to Herodotus, he was still in the days pelazgov distributed in Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica, Megara, Corinth, and from there moved to Sicily, Mal. Asia and other odds Dorians after their resettlement in the Peloponnese, was unfavorable to the peaceful cult D.; revive him strengthen the influence of Ionian tribe. AD has been the subject of worship throughout Greece, on the islands, in Mal. Asia, in Italy (where she was otozhestvlena with Ceres). In her victim sacrificed oxen, cows, pigs especially (because of their fertility), fruits, honeycomb, it focused on corn, poppy seeds, fruit trees, etc. In the ancient time was reputed D. underground goddess in many places appeared in the marriage cohabitation with Poseidon, from whom she gave birth to a horse Apiona. This is her attitude to Poseidon expressed in the ancient arts, as depicted Opata it for Figalii from a horse's head, with a dolphin and dove in his hands. Only later, especially since Praxiteles, the art depicts her with a soft and gentle features, sometimes with a seal of sadness about missing his daughter. It appeared, or standing, or sitting on a throne with a crown of spikes on her head in her hands a torch and a basket of fruit or corn and poppies. Favorite subject for sculptors were outfit D. Triptolema a way to spread its cult (a huge relief in the Athens Museum). Wed Preller, "D. u. Persephone, ein Cyclus mythologischer Untersuchungen" (1837); Forster, "Der Raub u. die Ruckkehr der Persephone" (1874).