Demeter is the goddess of agriculture, fertility, and the harvest. Her daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades, god of the underworld, to be his wife. This caused Demeter great sorrow and she refused to let anything grow until Persephone was returned. It was agreed that Persephone would spend part of the year with Hades and part with Demeter, explaining the seasons of growth and dormancy on Earth.

1. DEMETER

2.  CERES is the roman
name of Demeter.
 Goddess of
agriculture, fertility, and
the harvest.
Daughter of Cronus
and Rhea.
 Her daughter by Zeus
was Persephone,
Queen of the
Underworld.
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE

3. Demeter also had a few more children besides
Persephone:
 Despoina and Arion; Poseidon ( God of the sea )
 Plutus and Philomenus; Iasion
( Cretan demi- god related to the harvest )
 Eubuleus and Chrysothemis; Karmanor
 Amphiteus I; Triptolemus
 Dmia; Oceanus

4.  Demeter's emblem is the
poppy, a bright red flower
that grows among the barley.
(In Greek and Roman
myths, poppies were used
as offerings to the dead.
Poppies used as emblems
on tombstones symbolize
eternal sleep.)
 Demeter does not have a
weapon. She is a peaceful
god.
 She is a Goddess of the
Earth.

5. SYMBOLS
WHEAT TORCH

6. SYMBOLS
BREADCORNUCOPIA
CORNUCOPIA - or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance
and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container
overflowing with produce, flowers or nuts.

7. FESTIVALS
 Demeter's two major festivals were sacred
mysteries.
 Her Thesmophoria festival (11–13 October) was
women-only.
 Her Eleusinian Mysteries were open to initiates of
any gender or social class.
 At the heart of both festivals were myths
concerning Demeter as Mother and Persephone as
her daughter

8. The Thesmophoria
commemorated the third
of the year when
Demeter abstained from
her role of goddess of
the harvest and growth;
spending the harsh
summer months of
Greece, when vegetation
dies and lacks rain, in
mourning for her
daughter who was in the
realm of the Underworld.
The Eleusinian
mysteries represented
the myth of the
abduction of Persephone
from her mother
Demeter by the king of
the underworld Hades, in
a cycle with three
phases, the "descent"
(loss), the "search" and
the "ascent", with the
main theme the "ascent"
of Persephone and the
reunion with her mother.

9. DEMETER’S STORY

10. • Zeus decides it's a good idea to give his daughter,
Persephone (or Proserpina), goddess of spring, as a
bride to his brother Hades (or Pluto), god of the
underworld. The king of the gods doesn't bother to tell
Persephone or her mother, Demeter (or Ceres), goddess
of agriculture, of his decision.
• (In some versions of this story, Cupid hits Hades with a
love arrow and makes Hades fall for Persephone.)
• One day, Persephone is picking flowers with some
nymph friends of hers when, all of a sudden, Hades
bursts out of the ground, driving a chariot of black
horses.
• He grabs Persephone and starts dragging her down to
the underworld.
• The girl screams for help.

11. • Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, and Helios, god of the
sun, hear Persephone's cries.
• Her mother, Demeter, also hears her screams, but she's
too far away to do anything about it.
• Demeter is terrified when she hears her daughter's
scream. She asks all around, but nobody can tell her
what happened.
• Demeter wanders all over the earth with torches in her
hands looking for Persephone.
• The goddess is so upset that she doesn't eat or bathe
while she's searching.
• Eventually, Hecate shows up and tells Demeter that she
heard the scream too, but that she doesn't know what
happened either.

12. • Demeter decides to go ask Helios, the sun god, since he's up
in the sky all day and sees pretty much everything.
• Helios ends up telling Demeter the whole deal – Zeus gave
Persephone to Hades and Hades hauled her down to the
underworld.
• The sun god tries to cheer Demeter up by pointing out that
Hades is a good husband for her daughter; after all he's a
pretty important and powerful god.
• Demeter doesn't buy it.
• She is even sadder than she was before, and she's furious
with Zeus.
• Demeter vows that she won't set foot on Mount Olympus and
that she won't let anything grow on earth until she sets eyes
on her daughter again.

13. • A terrible famine assaults the earth, and people are starving
everywhere.
• Seeing this, Zeus sends Hermes, the messenger god, down
to the underworld to order Hades to let Persephone go.
• Hades agrees, but, before Persephone goes, he secretly
slips some pomegranate seeds into her mouth.
• (Note: the number of seeds varies from myth to myth.)
• Hermes and Persephone then fly out of the land of the dead
in Hermes's chariot.
• Demeter is super happy to see her daughter again, but upon
seeing her, she immediately asks Persephone if she ate
anything while in the underworld.
• It turns out that, if you eat something while you're down
there, you have to stay there forever.

14. • Persephone tells her mom how Hades tricked her into
eating the pomegranate seeds.
• Demeter is totally ticked off and says that nothing will
grow on earth ever again.
• Just then, Hecate shows up and consoles Persephone
and Demeter; from that point on Hecate is Persephone's
BFF.
• Zeus sends his mother, Rhea, down to broker a deal
with Demeter.
• It's decided that Persephone only has to spend part of
the year with Hades in the underworld.
• (Note: the number of months is different in various
myths, and sometimes it relates to the number of
pomegranate seeds that Persephone eats.)

15. • Demeter reluctantly agrees with this, but says that when
Persephone is in the underworld, nothing on earth will
grow.
• And that, is where the seasons come from.
*BROKER – a person who helps other people to
reach agreements and to make deals.