Homeric Hymn to Demeter

 

Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Painter: Attributed to the Persephone Painter
Museum Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


The roles of Demeter and Persephone in Greek religion (including the rites at Eleusis)

Demeter is the Greek goddess of agriculture and she was the daughter of the deities Cronus and Rhea. Later on, Demeter conceived a child with her bloodily related brother Zeus god of the sky(the father of gods and men)¹and gave birth to the dual deity Persephone (goddess of the underworld). The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is the story about Demeter and Persephone and it clearly shows the roles of both of them.

 In the Hymn Persephone is kidnapped by her uncle Hades(god of the underworld) with her awareness of her father Zeus. When Demeter found out about this she was very displeased with Zeus and searched for Persephone in doing so came across the city of Eleusis where she took the form of an old lady. She took the role as the nanny to King and Queen's( Celeus and Metanira) son Demophon and tried to make him immortal by putting him in the fire which burns Mortality but was caught by the queen in the process and was accused of trying to commit murder. Demeter's actions signify her motherly love and grieving process as she doesn't want others to lose their children as she did. But angered by these accusations Demeter reveals her true self and orders the people to build a temple and worship her. Due to her frustrations, she stopped all crops from growing which affected the other gods because prayers stopped because humans had nothing to offer to the gods. Her actions after her daughter's kidnaping signify her anger and how determined she is to get her daughter back. It can also be seen as the motherly love because after Persephone's kidnapping the earth cracked, crops died and the weather changed signifying the change in seasons. These changes show the emotions of Demeter in losing her daughter. 

 As Zeus becomes concerned with dying crops and the decrease in prayers he decides to tell Hades to let Persephone out of the underworld. But Hades feeds her a pomegranate fruit of the underworld without her awareness of the effects of doing so because "if one at in the land of the dead, one remains in the lad of the dead"²

When Persephone returns from the underworld as shown in the image above Demeter is waiting for her daughters on the far right with her sceptre. In her return, the land starts to flourish and the weather starts to change over signifying the importance of change in seasons as it shows the change in Demeter's emotions. Since Persephone is a part of the underworld and married to Hades. Persephone spent the "third portion of the year in the realms of dark mist underneath"(Line 446)³ and and "two thirds in the company of her mother and the other immortals"(Line 447)³

The Eleusis mysteries were a cult for Demeter and Persephone held every year and "was most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece"⁴. The Eleusis mystery group had a three-day festival called the Thesmophoria⁵ which was a female cult that worshipped the daughter and mother




Artist: Mary Macgregor



The content, themes, and style of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and

The content of the Homeric hymn is closely related to the theme of motherhood and the seasonal weather changes. The Homeric Hymn is about Demeter losing her daughter Persephone who was given to Hades by Zeus(Persephone's father). The story follows as Demeter deals with losing a loved one It also tells the story of Persephone and how she became Hade's wife and the queen of the underworld. 

As written in the hymn to Demeter it is clear that Demeter holds a lot of love for her child Persephone. The seasons and the motherhood of Demeter are closely related themes. When Demeter first found out about her daughter's kidnapping she looks all over for her and with her emotion of sorrow and anger which lead to the crops dying and it became dark according to the Greece it was the time of "autumn and winter"⁶ which are the rainy seasons. When Persephone returns from the underworld after 6 mounts Demeter was overjoyed and it was during the summer season signifying love and reunion. Even when Persephone returns to her mother two-thirds of the year the season seems to my summer and bright and Demeter "Straightaway sent up the harvest from the land with its rich clods of earth. And all the wide earth with leaves and blossoms was laden." (line 471 - 473)³.but on the other third of the time the weather that of the winter season which is a way of showing Demeter's emotions.

Another theme that seems to come up significantly within Greek mythology is the transition from maidenhood to motherhood and the main idea that is attached to this theme is that women need men to make something of themselves. This theme is especially significant in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter when Persephone gets married to Hades "only after she is with Hades she is granted the power"( 365-369)³. This is one of the reasons why Demeter and Persephone enjoy each other company where they can act like mother and daughter. 

The style of the poem the Homeric hymn to Demeter is that of an iambic pentameter which is a certain style of writing well known used by William Shakespeare. The Hymn was written by Homeric which to this day is unknown if it was one person or a group of people.  In the "7th bc"⁷ the hymn was performed as a play by bards from village to village. And the story would be changed by the bards to match their demographic. 




Author: ‘The Return of Persephone’, by Frederic, Lord Leighton
 


Any connections between the religious practices and the Hymn



Since Demeter was the goddess of agriculture she can control crop growth and food resources. When she found out Persephone was taken by Hades and Zeus she was frustrated. On top of this frustration when we got accused of attempted murder by the Queen of Eleusis we became even angrier which resulted in her demands to build a temple to worship her and she also made the agriculture of the land diminish which affected both the gods and the people. The people who worshipped the gods had stopped since they had nothing to offer to the gods and which meant that the gods didn't get their prayers." The seasons halted and living things stopped growing and died"⁸ which meant that everything had stopped developing even the seasons. Since the hymns were done by the people to show gratitude for the gods and since the gods had the power to mould the word when the prayers stop the gods will lose their power. Zeus understood that if this continued all living things were going to get extinct even the gods so he told Hades to send Persephone back. If this was not done all the religious practices and prayers that were done for the gods would have been over. But after the return of Persephone from the underworld, all the lands suffering from agriculture went away and started to flourish and the seasons went to normal as summer approached. 





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