The document summarizes the myth of Demeter and Persephone and the Eleusinian Mysteries. It describes how Persephone was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld, causing Demeter to mourn. It also outlines the structure and rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries festival held annually at Eleusis in honor of Demeter and Persephone. The mysteries centered around the myth of Persephone's abduction and incorporated a dramatic reenactment and revelations that were meant to provide insights into the afterlife.

1. DEMETER-MYTHS of FERTILITY
►FEMALE GAIA (GE)=Mother Earth came from
sexless CHAOS. From Gaia sprang the world:
Sky, Mountains, Sea, and the Olympians and
humans
►No single goddess of fertility (Artemis for
wild life, Aphrodite for sexuality, Hera for
family and marriage, Demeter goddess of
grain and earth fertility)

2. HOMERIC HYMN TO DEMETER
►Structure
►Demeter-Persephone-abduction by Hades
►Return from the Underworld
►Embedded Story of Demeter while looking
for her daughter
►Metaneira, the queen, and Demophoon, the
son.

3. The Myth of Demeter and Persephone
► Abduction by Hades
► Hecate and Helius
► Demeter’s grief, anger and retaliation
► Demeter comes to Eleusis and the palace of
Celeus.
► The Maiden Well
► Queen Metaneira
► Iambe
► Demeter breaks her fast.
► Demeter Nurses Demphoön.

4. ►Hades and Persephone and her eating of the pomegranate
► Demeter’s ecstatic reunion with Persephone
► Demeter restores fertility and establishes the Mysteries.
►The Interpretation of the Hymn
► Death and rebirth of vegetation
► Spiritual metaphor or allegory
► Kore (“girl”)
► Hades (Pluto or Dis among the Romans)

5. Interpretation of the Myth
►Allegorical Interpretation- seasons change
►Family experience, the daughter’s marriage
(voluntarily takes the flower, symbol of marriage,
separation from natal family)
►Symbolic interpretation
►Loss from child, as so many children are lost to war
and disease. Lamentation rituals around this myth.
Demeter is mater dolorosa.
►Myth of Demeter becomes the etiology for the
presence of death. Thus the cult becomes an
experience of afterlife.

6. Eleusinian Mysteries
►Eleusis, near Athens
►Mystery < Mystes =the one who closes (the eyes,
mouth) Latin translation initiatus (thus, modern
English to initiate)
►Origin of mysteries
►Two families in Charge the EUMOLPIDS, Eumolpos,
the ancestor, mythical ruler of ELEUSIS received the
mysteries from Demeter and the KERYKES
(heralds), descendants of Eumolpus’ son KERYX
(=herald)

7. ►Eleusinian Mysteries
► Special position of Athens
► Initiates
► Secrecy of rites
► Mystery religions
► Connection with Orpheus

8. Structure of Eleusinian Mysteries
►High Priest (Hierophant= he who reveals the hiera
sacred things), always a Eumolpid
►From the family of the Kerykes, always the
torchbearer and the herald.
►Priestess of Demeter, who, like the hierophant lived
in the sanctuary
►Time of festival- FALL every year
►The Hiera (=sacred things) removed from
TELESTERION and carried to Athens, Procession.
►All who could speak Greek (Except murderers)
eligible for initiation including women and slaves)

9. ►Rituals- Nine day interval
► Fasting- Torches- Jests
► Kykeon: drink of barley and water
► Revelation of divinity
► Stages of initiation
► Lesser Mysteries: preliminary to initiation
► Greater Mysteries: full initiation
► Participation in the highest mysteries
► Procession
► Stages of Greater Mysteries
► Dramatic enactment of myth
► Revelation of sacred objects
► Utterance of certain words
► The Final revelation: the hiera

10. ELEUSIS

11. ARCHITECTURE OF TELESTERION
TELESTERION Temple of Demeter
Unique in Architecture. Ordinary Greek temple
to be viewed from exterior, the interior was
to hold the god’s statue
-THE TELESTERION was built to receive
thousands of people under its roof

12. MAPS OF telesterion at Eleusis

13. TRIPTOLEMUS
►One of the princes of Eleusis to whom
Demeter taught her sacred rites. More
important after the 5th century.
►He was said to have traveled over the world
teaching the art of growing grain. Popular in
art, supporting Athenian claims for cultural
supremacy.

14. What were the Eleusinian Mysteries?
►Group experience
►Personal experience (afterlife)
►Ritual purity, fasting
►Magical rite ensuring the growth of grain
►Political significance

15. Demeter

16. Demeter and Persephone

17. Departure of Triptolemos Makron Painter, 490-480 BC. Attic red-figured skyphos.
The eleusinian prince on the chariot. Persephone stands in front of with a torch and
an oinochoe. Behind her nymph Eleusis, and behind Triptolemos, Demeter.

18. Detail of previous- departure of Triptolemos, red figure
skyphos,Makron painter

19. Hades and Persephone

20. Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Reggio Calabria, Italy. 480-450 BC

21. Demeter on the left (holding a staff in her left hand, authority emblem,
more restrained)-Triptolemos-Kore
Relief 440 BC- Athens Archaeological Museum

23. Attic red-figured bell-krater. Hecate with torches leads Persephone accompanied
by Hermes from the underworld while Demeter, holding a sceptre, waits. The
moment of reunion. With Inscriptions to identify figures. C. 440 B.C. (41 cm)

24. Demeter mosaic

25. Demeter head of statue

26. Demeter classical relief

27. Plaster cast: Height: 51cm. Copy of a fragment of marble relief. 425-400
BC. probably from the Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnous.
was purchased for Munich in 1853 now in Munich, Glyptothek/

28. Demeter, Kore and Triptolemos, Museum of Arts, Providence Rhode Island

29. Demeter gives grain to Triptolemus, Harvard
Museum, Polygnotos group

30. Demeter classical

31. Demeter, late Roman statue

32. Hellenistic Painting Abduction of Persephone by Hades (ca. 330), from
Tomb I at Vergina (Pliny mentions such a painting, by Nikomachos)

33. Demeter
Later Art Representations

34. Pluto and Proserpina (French Manuscript, 15th century)

35. The Abduction of Persephone, by Peter Paul
Rubens (1577-1640)

36. Bernini 1621

37. Proserpina Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882).
Oil on canvas, 1874- Prerahaelites

38. The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton Victorian
circa 1890-1

39. Abduction of Persephone- Benton- American painter, early 20th century
Museum of Art, Kansas Missouri