Hi guys!
Welcome to my channel.
I’m telling you history
and mythology here.
In this video,
I’m going to tell you
about Demeter.
In ancient Greek religion
and mythology,
Demeter is the goddess
of the harvest and agriculture,
presiding over grains
and the fertility of the earth.
She is one of the
Twelve Olympian gods
that live on Mount Olympus.
Because she was the goddess
of the harvest, she was very
important to the farmers and
peasant people of Greece.
Let’s begin!
In epic poetry
and Hesiod's Theogony,
Demeter is the Corn-Mother,
the goddess of cereals
who provides grain for bread
and blesses its harvesters.
Some of the earliest accounts
of Demeter's relationships
to other deities
comes from Hesiod's Theogony.
In it, Demeter is described
as the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.
Her grief over
her daughter Persephone
– who has to spend one-third of the year
with her husband Hades
in the Underworld –
is the reason
why there is winter;
her joy when she gets her back
coincides with the fertile spring
and summer months.
Demeter is usually portrayed
as a fully-clothed and
matronly-looking woman,
either enthroned
and regally seated
or proudly standing
with an extended hand.
She wore a crown
and carried a torch
or sheaves of wheat.
When Demeter was traveling
she rode a golden chariot
pulled by dragons;
containing her daughter Persephone,
who is almost always
in her vicinity.
The attributes of Demeter
are a sheaf of grain,
a conical headdress,
a scepter, a torch,
and a sacrificial bowl.
The torch is often depicted
in connection with Demeter
because of her persistent search
for Persephone.
Animals that were
sacred to Demeter
included the serpent,
gecko, and pig.
She was identified with the
Roman goddess Ceres.
She revealed to man
the art of growing
and using corn.
Demeter is not generally portrayed
with any of her consorts;
the exception is Iasion,
the youth of Crete
who lay with her
in a thrice-ploughed field,
and was sacrificed afterwards
by a jealous Zeus
with a thunderbolt.
Hesiod expanded on the
basics of this myth.
According to him,
the liaison between Demeter
and Iasion took place
at the wedding of
Cadmus and Harmonia in Crete.
Demeter, in this version,
had lured Iasion away
from the other revelers.
Hesiod says that
Demeter subsequently
gave birth to two sons,
Philomelus and Ploutos.
Next, Demeter’s brother Poseidon
forced himself upon her
(once transformed into a stallion),
and the goddess, once again,
became pregnant
with two children:
Despoina, a nymph,
and Arion, a talking horse.
But, I’ve already told this myth
in the previous video about Poseidon.
Finally, Demeter
became Zeus’ fourth wife.
From their union,
Demeter’s most well-known
child was born,
Persephone.
Persephone was the
goddess of springtime
and vegetation.
Together,
Demeter and Persephone
watched over the world's
seasons and plants.
One day,
the god Hades took Persephone
to the Underworld
to make her his wife.
Demeter became very sad.
She refused to help
the crops grow and
there was a great famine in the world.
Demeter's search for
her daughter Persephone
took her to the palace of Celeus,
the King of Eleusis
in Attica.
She assumed the
form of an old woman,
and asked him for shelter.
He took her in,
to nurse Demophon
and Triptolemus,
his sons by Metanira.
To reward his kindness,
she planned to
make Demophon immortal;
she secretly anointed the boy
with ambrosia and laid him
in the flames of the hearth,
to gradually burn away
his mortal self.
But Metanira walked in,
saw her son in the fire
and screamed in fright.
Demeter abandoned the attempt.
Instead,
she taught Triptolemus
the secrets of agriculture,
and he in turn taught them
to any who wished to learn them.
Thus,
humanity learned how to plant,
grow and harvest grain.
Eventually,
Zeus said that Persephone
could return to Mount Olympus,
but had to spend
four months each year
in the Underworld with Hades.
These four months are
when nothing grows during winter.
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See you next time.
Bye!
