Gentle queen of the harvest, Mother of the
fertile land.
dark are my sorrows, as i wait to see the
sun, upon Persephone's face.
When my beloved returns, from the depths of
hades, I shall wake my fertile powers,
I shall cheer my heart, by warming the lands.
Then, shall I move again, to the rythmm, to
the dance of life.
My mourning will go, and my powers will flow,
freed from the cold.
the wheel I shall turn, the land I shall bless,
with plentiful growth, with blossoms galore.
Demeter, the Ancient Greek goddess of harvest,
of grains, of agriculture.
The bearer of food, lady of the grain, the
bringer of laws, she of the green, the great
mother of the land, who taught mankind the
art of sowing and plowing.
Demeter was one of the six children of Cronus
and Rhea, and the second oldest.
born after Hestia, but before Hera, Hades,
Poseidon, and Zeus.
Like almost all of her siblings, she was swallowed
after, and later rescued from the belly of
their father, by zeus.
The goddess is usually shown as a mature-looking,
fully-clothed, and majestic woman, wearing
a crown of flowers, and carrying with her,
a sheaf of wheat, or some ears of corn.
Her sacred symbols were a scepter, and a torch.
While her sacred animals were a snake, and
a pig.
With the king god, Zeus, Demeter had a bautiful
daughter, Persephone, whom she loved so dearly.
Thus, when persephone was abducted by the
underworld god, hades, Demeter griefed intensely
over her daughter's absence.
Her grief over Persephone, who had to stay
one-third of the year, in the underworld,
with her husband Hades, is said to be the
reason why there is the cold winter.
The time, when Demeter retreats from the world
in sorrow, neglecting her duties to mankind.
While her joy, whenever persephone returns
from the underworld, marks the return of spring,
and summer.
The time Demeter throws off her mourning,
and blesses the fertile lands, with growth,
and harvest.
The fertility goddess, had very few other
consorts, aside zeus.
With the mortal Iasion, she bore Ploutos,
the god of wealth, and Philomelus, the patron
of plowing.
While with Poseidon, she bore the nymph, Despoena,
and the talking horse, Arion.
