Hecate

Hecate/

Pantheon: Olympian

  

 

 

 

^{There was a fane sacred to Hecate in the precincts of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, where the eunuch priests, megabyzi, officiated. Hesiod records that she was among the offspring of Gaia and Uranus, the Earth and Sky. In Theogony he ascribed to Hecate such wide-ranging and fundamental powers, that it is hard to resist seeing such a deity as a figuration of the Great Goddess, though as a good Olmpian Hesiod ascribes her powers as the “gift” of Zeus:}

 

“Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honoured above all.
He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the
unfruitful sea. She received honour also in starry heaven, and is
honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods…. The son of Cronos
did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea”.

Her gifts to humans are all-encompassing, Hesiod tells: 

“Whom she will she greatly aids an advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the assembly whom her will is distinguished among the people. And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will. Good is she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents. And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so she will. She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock. The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less”.

 

Hecate was carefully attended:

“For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great honour comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favourably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her”.

 

Hesiod emphasizes that Hecate was an only child, the daughter of Asteria, a star-goddess who was the sister of Leto, the mother of Artemis and Apollo. Grandmother of the three cousins was Phoebe the ancient Titaness who personified the moon. Hecate was a reappearance of Phoebe, a moon goddess herself, who appeared in the dark of the moon. 

His inclusion and praise of Hecate in Theogony is troublesome for scholars in that he seems fulsomely to praise her attributes and responsibilities in the ancient cosmos even though she is both relatively minor and foreign. It is theorized that Hesiod¡¯s original village had a substantial Hecate following and that his inclusionof her in the Theogony was his own way to boost the home-goddess for unfamiliar hearers.

 

As her cult spread into areas of Greece it presented a conflict, as Hecate¡’s role was already filled by other more prominent deities in the Greek pantheon, above all by Artemis, and by more archaic figures, such as Nemesis. 

There are two versions of Hecate that emerge in Greek myth. The lesser role integrates Hecate while not diminishing Artemis. In this version, Hecate is a mortal priestess who is commonly associated with Iphigeneia and scorns and insults Artemis, eventually leading toher suicide. Artemis then adorns the dead body with jewelry and whispers for her spirit to rise and become her Hecate, and act similar to Nemesis as an avenging spirit, but solely for injured women. Such myths where a home deity sponsors or ¡®creates¡¯ a foreign one were widespread in ancient cultures as a way of integrating foreign cults. Additionally, as Hecate¡¯s cult grew, her figure was added to the later myth of the birth of Zeus as one of the midwives that hid the child, while Cronus consumed the deceiving rock handed to him by Gaia. 

The second version helps to explain how Hecate gains the title of the “Queen of Ghosts” and her role as a goddess of sorcery. Similar to totems of Hermes¡ªherms¡ª placed at borders as a ward against danger, images of Hecate, as a liminal goddess, could also serve in such a protective role. It became common to place statues of the goddess at the gates of cities, and eventually domestic doorways. Over time, the association of keeping out evil spirits led to the belief that if offended Hecate could also let in evil spirits. Thus invocations to Hecate arose as the supreme governess of the borders between the normal world and the spirit world. 

The transition of the figure of Hekate can be traced in fifth-century Athens. In two fragments of Aeschylus she appears as a great goddess. In Sophocles and Euripides she has become the mistress of witchcraft and the Keres. 

Eventually, Hecate¡¯s power resembled that of sorcery. Medea, who was a priestess of Hecate, used witchcraft in order to handle magic herbs and poisons with skill, and to be able to stay the course of rivers, or check the paths of the stars and the moon. 

Implacable Hecate has been called “tender-hearted”, a euphemism perhaps to emphasize her concern with the disappearance of persephone, when she addressed Demeter with sweet words at a time when the goddess was distressed. She later became Persephone’s minister and close companion in the Underworld.  

Although she was never truly incorporated among the Olympian deities, the modern understanding of Hecate is derived from the syncretic Hellenistic culture of Alexandria. In the magical papyri of Ptolemaic Egypt, she is called the she-dog or bitch, and her presence is signified by the barking of dogs. She sustained a large following as a goddess of protection and childbirth. In late  imagery she also has two ghostly dogs as servants by her side. 

In modern times Hecate has become a prevalent figure in feminist-inspired Neopagan religions, and a version of Hecate has been appropriated by Wicca and other modern magic-practising traditions. 

Hesiod considered Hecate to be a daughter, with Leto, of Perses and Asteria, two pre-Olympian Titans. As in most cultures with multi-generational deities, the preceding Titans were originally the only deities worshipped by the earlier Greek cultures while the later Olympians were the deities worshipped by later invaders who conquered Greece Some readers of mythography find elements of cultural history reflected in myth: as Hecate was one of the only Titans who kept power and status after the Titans lost their war with the Olympians¡ª she was always regarded as having great favor with Olympian Zeus and it seems likely that Hecate’s cult was so strong that it could not be suppressed by the invading new religions.As with many ancient mother- or earth-goddesses she remained unmarried, had no regular consort, and often is said to have reproduced via parthenogenesis.

 

 

Element: Earth

Sphere of Influence: Abundance and Magic

Preferred colors: Green, Black, Silver, Red Henn

Associated symbol: Knife, Torch

Animals associated with: Raven, Owl , Snake, Frog, Dog

Best day to work with: Wednesday

Best Moon phase: New Moon

Best time to work with: Midnight

Strongest around Samhain

Suitable offerings: Honey, Pomegranate

Associated Planet: Moon, Mercury

 

In another aspect she is the mother of many monsters, such as Scylla, who represented the dreaded aspects of nature that elicited fear as well as awe.

Chthonian (Earth/Underworld goddess)

Crataeis (the Mighty One)

Enodia (Goddess of the paths)

Antania (Enemy of mankind)

Kurotrophos (Nurse of the Children and Protectress of mankind)

Artemis of the crossroads

Propylaia (the one before the gate)

Propolos (the attendant who leads)

Phosphoros (the light-bringer)

Soteira (“Saviour”)

Prytania (invincible Queen of the Dead)

Trioditis (gr.)
Trivia (Latin: Goddess of Three Roads)

Kl¨ºidouchos (Keeper of the Keys)

Tricephalus or Triceps (The Three-Headed)

 

  

Goddess of the crossroads

Hecate had a special role at three-way crossroads, where the Greeks set poles with masks of each of her heads facing in different directions.

The crossroad aspect of Hecate stems from her original sphere as a goddess of the wilderness and untamed areas. This led to sacrifice to assure safe travel into these areas. This role is similar to lesser Hermes, that is, a god of liminal points or boundaries.

Hecate is the Greek version of Trivia “the three ways”  in Roman mythology. Eligius in the 7th century reminded his recently converted flock in Flanders “No Christian should make or render any devotion to the gods of the trivium, where three roads meet, to the fanes or the rocks, or springs or groves or corners”.

Hecate was the goddess who appeared most often in magical texts such as the Greek Magical Papyri and curse tablets, along with Hermes.

 

 Goddess of sorcery

In the so-called “Chaldean Oracles” that were edited in Alexandria, she was also associated with a serpentine maze around a spiral, known as Hecate’s wheel (the “Strophalos of Hecate”, verse 194 of Isaac Preston Cory’s 1836 translation). The symbolism referred to the serpent’s power of  rebirth, to the labyrinth of knowledge through which Hecate could lead mankind, and to the flame of life itself: “The life-producing bosom of Hecate, that Living Flame which clothes itself in Matter to manifest Existence” (verse 55 of Cory’s translation of
the Chaldean Oracles).

The goddess of sorcery or magic is Hecate’s most common modern title.

 

 Queen of ghosts

Queen of Ghosts is a title associated with Hecate due to the belief that she can both prevent harm from leaving, but also allow harm to enter from the spirit world Hecate thus has a role and special power in graveyards and at crossroads She guards the “ways and paths that cross”. Her association with graveyards also played a large part in the idea of Hecate as a lunar goddess.The leaves of the black poplar are dark on one side and light on the other, symbolizing the boundary between the worlds. The yew has long been associated with the
Underworld.

 

 Animals

The bitch is the animal most commonly associated with  Hecate. She was sometimes called the ‘Black bitch’ and black dogs were once sacrificed to her in purification rituals. At Colophon in Thrace, Hecate might be manifest as a dog. The sound of barking dogs was the first sign of her approach in Greek and Roman literature.  

The frog, significantly a creature that can cross between two elements, also is sacred to Hecate.As a triple goddess, she sometimes appears with three heads-one each of a dog, horse, and bear or of dog, serpent, and lion.  

Ii was asserted in Malleus Malificarum (1486) that Hecate was evered by witches who adopted parts of her mythos as their goddess ofsorcery. Because Hecate had already been much maligned by the late Roman period, Christians found it easy to vilify her image.  Thus were all her creatures also considered “creatures of darkness”; however, the history of creatures such as ravens, night-owls, snakes, scorpions, asses, bats, horses, bears, and lions as her creatures is not always a dark and frightening one. (Rabinovich 1990)

 

  

Plants and Herbs

The yew, cypress, hazel, black poplar, cedar, and willow are all sacred to Hecate. The yew has strong associations with death as well as rebirth. A poison prepared from the seeds was used on arrows, and yew wood was commonly used to make bows and dagger hilts. The potion in Hecate’s cauldron contains ‘slips of yew’. Yew berries carry Hecate’s power, and can bring wisdom or death. The seeds are highly poisonous, but the fleshy, coral-colored ‘berry’ surrounding it is not.  

Many other herbs and plants are associated with Hecate, including garlic, almonds, lavender, thyme, myrrh, mugwort, cardamon, mint, dandelion, hellebore, yarrow and lesser celandine. Several poisons and hallucinogens are linked to Hecate, including belladonna, hemlock, mandrake, aconite (known as hecateis), and the opium poppy. Many of Hecate’s plants were those that can be used shamanistically to achieve varyings states of consciousness.

 

  

Places

Wild areas, forests, borders, city walls and doorways, crossroads, and graveyards are all associated with Hecate at various times.

 

 

It is often stated that the moon is sacred to Hecate. This is argued against by Farnell (1896, p.4): 

Some of the late writers on mythology, such as Cornutus and Cleomedes, and some of the modern, such as Preller and the writer in Roscher‘s Lexicon and Petersen, explain the three figures as symbols of the three phases of the moon. But very little can be said in favour of this, and very much against it. In the first place, the statue of Alcamenes represented Hekate ¦¥¦Ð¦É¦Ð¦Ô¦Ñ¦Ã¦É¦Ä¦É¦Á, whom the Athenian of that period regarded as the warder of the gate of  his Acropolis, and as associated in this particular spot with
the Charites, deities of the life that blossoms and yields fruit. Neither in this place nor before the door of the citizen’s house did she appear as a lunar goddess. We may also ask, why should a divinity who was sometimes regarded as the moon, but had many other and even more important connexions, be given three forms to mark the three phases of the moon, and why should Greek sculpture have been in this solitary instance guilty of a frigid astronomical symbolism, while Selene, who was obviously the moon and nothing else, was never treated in this way? With as much taste and propriety Helios might have been given twelve heads.

However in the magical papyri of Greco-Roman Egypt there survive several hymns which identify Hecate with Selene and the moon, extolling her as supreme Goddess, mother of the gods. In this form, as a threefold goddess, Hecate continues to have followers in some neopagan religions.

 

 

Festivals

Hecate was worshipped by both the Greeks and the Romans who had their own festivals dedicated to her. According to Ruickbie (2004:19) the Greeks observed two days sacred to Hecate, one on the 13th of August and one on the 30th of November, whilst the Romans observed the 29th of every month as her sacred day.

 

 

Artemis

 

In Greek mythology, Artemis [(Greek: (nominative) Ἄñôåìéò, (genitive) ἈñôÝìéäïò)] was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the goddess of forests and hills and was often depicted as carrying a bow and arrows. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her. 

 

Her later association with the moon is a popular idea which has little foundation. She became associated with Selene, goddess of the moon, and was sometimes depicted with a crescent moon above her head.

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the gods and one of the oldest (Burkert 1985, 149). In later times, she became associated with the Roman goddess Diana and with the Etruscan goddess, Artume. 

Artemis, the goddess of hunting and the keeper of forests and hills, was worshipped throughout the Hellenic world. Her best known cults were in the island of Delos (her birthplace); in Attica at Brauron and Mounikhia (near Piraeus); and in Sparta. She was often depicted in paintings and statues in a forest setting, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a deer.  

She gradually displaced Selene (the titaness of the moon) as goddess of the moon. 

 

  

In Ionia the “Lady of Ephesus“, a goddess whom Hellenes identified with Artemis, was a principal deity. Her temple at Ephesus (an ancient Greek city located in western part of Turkey), one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was probably the best known center of her worship apart from Delos. In Acts of  the Apostles, the Ephesian metalsmiths who feel threatened by Paul’s preaching of the new faith, jealously riot in her defense, shouting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:28 KJV). 

Athenian festivals in honor of Artemis include Elaphebolia, Mounikhia, Kharisteria, Brauronia; the festival of Artemis Orthia was observed in Sparta.

 

Pre-pubescent Athenian girls young Athenian girls approaching marriageable age were sent to the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron to serve the Goddess for one year. During this time the girls were known as arktoi, or little she-bears. A myth explaining this servitude relates that a bear had formed the habit of regularly visiting the town of Brauron, and the people there fed it, so that over time the bear became tame. A young girl teased the  bear, and, in some versions of the myth it killed her, while in other versions it clawed her eyes out. Either way, the girl’s brothers killed the bear, and Artemis was enraged. She demanded that young girls “act the bear” at her sanctuary in atonement for the bear’s death.  

Virginal Artemis was worshipped as a fertility/childbirth goddess in some places, assimilating Ilithyia, since, according to some myths, she assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin. During the Classical period in Athens, she was identified with Hecate. Artemis also assimilated Caryatis (Carya). 

 

Artemis asthe Lady of Ephesus

  

At Ephesus, her temple became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. There the Lady whom Greeks associated with Artemis through interpretatio Graeca was worshipped primarily as a mother goddess, akin to the Phrygian goddess Cybele, in an ancient sanctuary where her cult image depicted the “Lady of Ephesus” adorned with multiple rounded breastlike protuberances on her chest. They had been traditionally interpreted as multiple accessory breasts, or as sacrificed bull testes, as some newer scholars claimed, until excavation at the site of the Artemision in 1987-88 identified the multitude of tear-shaped amber beads that had adorned her ancient wooden xoanon. 

 

 

Epithets

As Aeginaea, she was worshiped in Sparta; the name means either huntress of chamois, or the wielder of the javelin (áéãáíÝá). She was worshipped at Naupactus as Aetole; in her temple in that town there was a statue of white marble representing her throwing a javelin. This “Aetolian Artemis” would not have been introduced at Naupactus, anciently a place of Ozolian Locris, until it was awarded to the Aetolians by Philip II of Macedon. Strabo records another precinct of “Aetolian Artemos” at the head of the Adriatic. As Agrotera, she was especially associated as the patron goddess of hunters. In Athens Artemis was often associated with the local Aeginian goddess, Aphaea. As Potnia Theron, she was the patron of wild animals; Homer used this title. As Kourotrophos, she was the nurse of youths. As Locheia, she was the goddess of childbirth and midwives. She was sometimes known as Cynthia, from her birthplace on Mount Cynthus on Delos, or Amarynthia from a festival in her honor originally held at Amarynthus in Euboea. She was sometimes identified by the name Phoebe, the feminine form of her brother Apollo’s solar epithet Phoebus. 

The ancient Spartans used to sacrifice to her as one of their patron goddesses before starting a new military campaign.

Various conflicting accounts are given in Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto.

An account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma (the mainland) or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto. But the island of Delos (or possibly Ortygia) disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there.

The childhood of Artemis is not embodied in any surviving myth: the Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. A poem of Callimachus — the goddess “who amuses herself on mountains with archery” — imagines some charming vignettes: at three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus, while sitting on his knee, to grant her six wishes. Her first wish was to remain chaste for eternity, and never to be confined by marriage. She then asked for lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her chariot, and nymphs to be her hunting companions, 60 from the river and 20 from the ocean. Also, she asked for a silver bow like her brother Apollo. He granted her wishes. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbol was the silver bow and arrow.

 

Artemis and Actaeon

She was once bathing in a vale on Mount Cithaeron, when the Theban prince and hunter Actaeon stumbled across her. One version of this story says that Actaeon hid in the bushes and spied on her as she continued to bathe; she was enraged to discover the spy, and turned him into a stag which was pursued and killed by his own hounds. Alternatively, Actaeon boasted that he was a better hunter than she and Artemis turned him into a stag and he was eaten by his hounds.

 

 

Artemis and Adonis

In some versions of the story of Adonis, Artemis sent a wild boar to kill the youth as punishment for the hubristic boast that he was a superior to the goddess in hunting. In others, she killed him for revenge. Adonis was a favorite of Aphrodite so Artemis killed him to get back at Aphrodite for the death of Hippolytus, a favorite of Artemis.

 

 

Siproites

A Cretan, Siproites, saw Artemis like Actaeon and was changed by her into a woman. The complete story does not survive in any mythographer’s works, but is mentioned offhand by Antoninus Liberalis, suggesting that the story was current.

 Orion

Orion was a hunting companion of the goddess Artemis. In some versions of his story he was killed by Artemis, while in others he was killed by a scorpion sent by Gaea. In some versions, Orion tried to rape one of her followers and she killed him. In one version, Orion tried to rape Artemis herself and she killed him in self-defense. According to Hyginus (quoting the Greek poet Istrus) Artemis once loved Orion and wanted to marry him, but was tricked into killing him by her brother Apollo who was protective of his sister’s maidenhood.

 

 

Other stories

 

Callisto

 

Tizian‘s
Diana and Callisto

Daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia. She was one of Artemis’s hunting attendants. As a companion of Artemis, Callisto took a vow of chastity. Zeus appeared to her disguised as Artemis, or in some stories Apollo, gained her confidence, then took advantage of her (or raped her, according to Ovid). As a result of this encounter she conceived a son, Arcas. Enraged, Hera or Artemis changed her into a bear. Arcas almost killed the bear, but Zeus stopped him just in time. Out of pity, Zeus placed Callisto the bear into the heavens, thus the origin of Callisto the Bear as a constellation. Some stories say that he placed both Arcas and Callisto into the heavens as bears, forming the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major constellations.

 

 

Iphigenia and the Taurian Artemis

Artemis punished Agamemnon after he killed a sacred stag in a sacred grove and boasted that he was a better hunter. When the Greek fleet was preparing at Aulis to depart for Troy to begin the Trojan War, Artemis becalmed the winds. The seer Calchis advised Agamemnon that the only way to appease Artemis was to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. In some version, the sacrifice goes through as planned (with Agamemnon killing his daughter), and the act results in his own death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. In another version, Artemis snatches Iphigenia from the altar and substitutes a deer. Iphigenia is then transported to the Crimea and appointed as priestess in the goddess’s Tauric temple, where strangers were offered as human sacrifice. 

 

Niobe

A Queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, Niobe boasted of her superiority to Leto because while she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven boys and seven girls, Leto had only one of each. When Artemis and Apollo heard this impiety, Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, and Artemis shot her daughters, who died instantly without a sound. Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them, though according to some versions a number of the Niobids were spared (Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, killed himself or was killed by Apollo. A devastated Niobe was turned to stone by Artemis as she wept, or committed suicide.Some myths say that her tears formed the river Achelous. Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes to stone, so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods themselves entombed them.

 

 

Otus andEphialtes

The Gigantes Otus and Ephialtes were sons of Poseidon. They were so strong that nothing could harm them. One night, as they slept, Gaea whispered to them, that since they were so strong, they should be the rulers of Olympus. They built a mountain as tall as Mt. Olympus, and then demanded that the gods surrender, and that Artemis and Hera become their wives. The gods fought back, but couldn’t harm them. The sons even managed to  kidnap Ares and hold him in a jar for thirteen months. Artemis later changed herself into a deer and ran between them. The Aloadae, not wanting her to get away because they were eager huntsmen, each threw their javelin and simultaneously killed each other.

 

The Meleagrids

After the death of Meleager, Artemis turned his grieving sisters, the Meleagrids into guineafowl that Artemis loved very much. 

 

Chione

Artemis killed Chione for becoming too proud and vain after having an affair with Apollo. 

 

Atalanta and Oeneus

Artemis saved the infant Atalanta from dying of exposure after her father abandoned her. She sent a female bear to suckle the baby, who was then raised by hunters.

 

Among other adventures, Atalanta participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, which Artemis had sent to destroy Calydon because King Oeneus had forgotten her at the harvest sacrifices. In the hunt, Atalanta drew the first blood, and was awarded the prize of the skin. She hung it in a sacred grove at Tegea as a dedication to Artemis.

 

 

Trojan War

Artemis favored the Trojans during the ten-year war with the Greeks. She came to blows with Hera, when the divine allies of the Greeks and Trojans engaged each other in conflict. Hera struck Artemis on the ears with her own quiver, causing the arrows to fall out. As Artemis fled crying to Zeus, Leto gathered up the bow and arrows which had fallen out of the quiver. (Homer, Iliad 21,470 ff)

 

Artemis may have been represented as a supporter of Troy because her brother Apollo was the patron god of the city and she herself was widely worshipped in western Anatolia in historical time.

 

 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis

Diana

The goddess Diana was very highly worshipped in ancient Rome. Her greek counterpart, fell under the name Artemis. Diana in Roman worship, was known as well as a maiden huntress, protector of all that is wild and free. This is virtually the same context that the greek Artemis fell under. However, as centuries past and ancient Rome grew, so did the followings of the goddess Diana.

Diana no longer was classed simply as a maiden huntress, but grew to the status of motherhood. By the birth of her daughter Ariadia. Then her path grew as well, to become known as the Queen of Witches.

 

( This during the famous witch hunts, falling between the 15th and 17th centuries. )
Diana became the mistress of majick. The teacher of spells, healing, and at the same time still holding her status as the protectress of all things wild.

 

For more information of the goddess Diana; highly recommended ‘Ways of the Stega’ by, Raven Grimmasi. As well as books by the authors; Leland, Frazier, and Janet & Stewart Farrar.

Demeter

The Greek earth goddess par excellence, who brings forth the fruits of the earth, particularly the various grains. She taught mankind the art of sowing and ploughing so they could end their nomadic existence. As such, Demeter was also the goddess of planned society. She was very popular with the rural population. As a fertility goddess she is sometimes identified with Rhea and Gaia.

In systematized theology, Demeter is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of Zeus by whom she became the mother of Persephone. When Persephone was abducted by Hades, lord of the underworld, Demeter wandered the earth in search of her lost child. During this time the earth brought forth no grain. Finally Zeus sent Hermes to the underworld, ordering Hades to restore Persephone
to her mother. However, before she left, Hades gave her a pomegranate (a common fertility symbol). When she ate from it, she was bound to spend a third of the year with her husband in the infernal regions. Only when her daughter is with her, Demeter lets things grow (summer). The dying and blossoming of nature was thus connected with Demeter. 

 

In the Eleusinian mysteries, Demeter and Persephone were especially venerated. When she was looking for her daughter, in the shape of an old woman called Doso, she was welcomed by Celeus, the king of Eleusis (in Attica). He requested her to nurse his sons Demophon and Triptolemus ‘. To reward his hospitality she intended to make the boy Demophon immortal by placing him each night in the hearth, to burn his mortal nature away. The spell was broken one night because Metanira, the wife of Celeus, walked in on her while she was performing this ritual. Demeter taught the other son, Triptolemus, the principles of agriculture, who, in turn, taught others this
art. In Demeter’s honor as a goddess of marriage, women in Athens, and other centers in Greece, celebrated the feast of Thesmophoria
(from her epithet Thesmophoros, “she of the regular customs”). Throughout Classical times members of all social strata came from
all parts of the Mediterranean world to be initiated in and celebrate her Mysteries at Eleusis. 

 

In ancient art, Demeter was often portrayed (sitting) as a solemn woman, often wearing a wreath of braided ears of corn. Well-known is the statue made by Knidos (mid forth century BCE). Her usual symbolic attributes are the fruits of the earth and the torch, the latter presumably referring to her search for Persephone. Her sacred animals were the snake (an earth-creature) and the pig (another symbol of fertility). Some of her epithets include Auxesia, Deo, Chloe, and Sito. The Romans equated her with the goddess Ceres.