Demeter

DemeterGoddess of Harvest

By: Lily Mainhardt

My Name is Demeter…

I am also known to many Romans as Ceres.

I am the goddess of the harvest and grain.

My Powers…

I have the power to control the harvest and the plant growth.

I am able to cross between barriers, but when I do, I would transform and become an old woman, called Doso.

My emotions connect with the weather and the plants

When I am sad, the plants and harvest are dead and there is a drought.

When I am happy, everything is alive and green and everything is good.

Relatives…

My father is Cronus and my mother is Rhea.

My daughter is Persephone.

My brother and son-in-law is Hades.

Persephone’s father is Zeus. I was never married but I did have an affair with him.

My brothers are Zeus, Poseidon, Hades.

My sisters are Hestia and Hera.

Major Accomplishments:

I taught humans how to sow and plow their crops.

I gave people fruits and vegetables, and also various grains.

The Abduction of Persephone… One day while Persephone was gathering wild flowers she was abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld where the dead live. Distraught when I couldn’t find her, I wandered around trying to find out what had happened to her. I met Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, who told me that she had heard Persephone calling out one day, and suggested that I go and talk to Helios, the God of the Sun, to find out if he had seen what had happened in his daily course across the sky. Helios told me who had abducted my daughter, and I went off to complain to Zeus, who was not only Persephone's father but me and Hades' brother. Zeus refused to help me, so I quit from my role as goddess. Without me no crops could grow, and the resulting famine threatened the extinction of the human race.

Eventually my brother said that Hades would have to let Persephone go. When Persephone was reunited with me, I asked if she had eaten anything while she was in the underworld. Persephone admitted she had eaten a pomegranate seed. Because of this, she now spends half of each year in the underworld as the wife of Hades, and the other half of the year with me. While Persephone is in the underworld, I get very depressed and refuses to allow crops to grow until I gets my daughter back again. This myth explains the changing of the seasons.

Resources

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/d/demeter.html

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Demeter.html

http://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Demeter/demeter.html