Why the Demeter+Persephone Myth is My New Favourite; Or, My Thoughts, Have Some

[skypirateb]

Okay so the last few weeks in my Comparative Mythology paper we've been looking at the Eleusinian Mysteries and the myth of Demeter and Persephone (specifically the Homeric Hymn to Demeter). And so naturally I have lots of Thoughts on the whole thing.

Be warned: Given the nature of my flist, I'm assuming at least a passing knowledge with Greek myth.

• First off, for the uninitiated amongst you (teehee), the Eleusinian Mysteries were The cult in the ancient world. EVERYONE got in on this. The requirements were that you could speak Greek and that you hadn't ever murdered. That's it. Everyone could get in: slaves, freemen, non-Greeks, &c. &c. &c. There were two components to being initiated: the Lesser Mysteries and the Greater Mysteries. You had to be initiated into the Lesser Mysteries first, in a ceremony that took place in the heart of Athens in the springtime. The ceremony to initiate people into the Greater Mysteries took place in autumn at Eleusis. We know very little about the Mysteries because the secrets were closely guarded. We know of at least one case where someone was put on trial for supposedly revealing secrets of the Mysteries, and Aeschylus got into hot water for using props in one of his plays similar to those used in the initiation rituals. Naturally, later Christian writers were quick to demonise the mysteries and spread rumours and gossip about them. Being initiated into the Mysteries meant that you were under the protection of Demeter and that you would go to a blessed afterlife. It was HUGELY important and only fell out of favour with the rise of Christianity in the late Roman era.
  
  
• With that bit of cultural background out of the way, let's talk about the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. The Homeric Hymns are called so because they are written in the same style as The Iliad and The Odyssey and were written later than the accepted dates for Homer and Hesiod. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is our primary source for the myth of Demeter and Persephone. You know how it goes, so I won't expand on that here. The bit you may not know is where Demeter quits Olympus and retreats to Eleusis. She disguises herself as an old woman and is given refuge in the palace, where she nurses the infant prince Demophon. Every night she anoints him ambrosia and bathes him in fire to burn away his mortality. Stunned by her son's growth spurt, the queen Metaneira spies on the goddess and is horrified. She pulls Demophon out of the fire and he loses his chance to become immortal. This is a stripped down version, but you get the idea. This episode at Eleusis is at least part of the basis for the Eleusinian Mysteries.
  
  
• So about the hymn itself. Oh man, SO MANY THOUGHTS. There is SO MUCH packed into this myth. First of all, we have the puzzle of Demeter and Persephone. Both are female gods associated with fertility. Why do we have two? And two females at that? Pairings of fertility gods aren't that uncommon in the ancient Near-Eastern and Mediterranean cultures, but they are always a male/female pair. Not only that, if you actually read the hymn, you'll notice it seems like two parallel stories: one about a Dying and Rising God, and one about a Disappearing God (more on that in a minute). This has lead people to conclude that Demeter and Persephone actually come from two different mythic traditions that have warped and coalesced into one. This is further supported by their names: Demeter is certainly Indo-European, while Persephone is one big linguistic puzzle.
  
  
• Now, about these mythic archetypes. The Dying and Rising God (henceforth D&RG) is ALL OVER the Mediterranean and Near-Eastern mythologies, the Disappearing God (henceforth DG) less so. The basic structure of the D&RG story is that, for whatever reason, a god goes down to the Underworld, triggering a period of infertility on Earth, before rising back to the upper world and restoring nature to its full glory. These myths are typically associated with seasonal cycles: brief, regular periods of infertility. The DG archetype is similar but significantly different. Here, the god gets pissed off for whatever reason and quits the heavens and goes into hiding, causing the natural order to collapse in on itself. They are eventually lured out and placated and the Circle of Life is restored. These stories are associated with famine: that is, an extended period of infertility where life itself is very much in danger. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter contains BOTH archetypal stories: Persephone being the D&RG, Demeter being the DG. Note that it is ONLY when Demeter quits Olympus in a raeg that everything grinds to a halt.
  
  
• An intriguing aspect of this myth, in comparison with the others, is how human it is. Demeter goes through the very human experience of grieving after a lost child. When she goes to Eleusis, she does so disguised as an old woman, she eats only a mix of water, barley, and pennyroyal (called kykeon), and she refuses any gifts or honours. On top of this, the hymn is from a female perspective. Tied into this is a reflection of Greek marriage customs: when the girl was of age (13-14, basically as soon as she started menstruation), suitors were able to approach the girl's father and ask for her hand. The mother and daughter had NO say in who the girl married, and men did not generally marry until their late 20s or early 30s. So it goes in the myth: Hades approaches Zeus to ask for a wife, Zeus says "Here have this spare daughter I'm not using", forgets to pass the memo onto Demeter, and the match is made. While gods don't really have an age, there is still a generational gap between Hades and Persephone. I have to admit, it was only when I realised the parallel with Greek marriage customs that the whole "Oh but Zeus knew all along~!" aspect to the story really made sense. This story is not just All About The Human Experience, it's All About The Female Experience in particular.
  
  
• Another thing I find simply fascinating about this (and that erethesunrises will undoubtedly adore) is that Hades is not actually painted as bad and evil. Read the speech he makes to Persephone when Hermes comes to collect her from the Underworld (it's here at line 360). He does the right thing by her. He feeds her a pomegranate seed, but he does not, as some translations insist, force it upon her. He tricks her to 1UP Demeter, but this isn't expanded on at all. The whole thing is actually frustratingly vague. Meanwhile, Zeus is more or less condemned for orchestrating the whole thing. The fact that Hades kidnapped her is obviously troubling, but he is not BLAMED for the incident. Zeus is. HOW INTERESTING! That's not to say that Hades IS blameless (kidnapping is, after all, a terrible way to propose), just that his actions are portrayed a lot more ambiguously compared to Zeus'. How much does that say about how the Greeks imagined the two gods?
  
  
• Finally, let's look at how Persephone represents agricultural fertility. It's actually not as clear-cut as you may have been lead to believe. The hymn says specifically that Persephone returns in the spring. Okay. However, this doesn't align with the Greek agricultural year. Grain was actually planted and harvested in autumn: it was too hot to grow anything during the summer months. So... What's the deal? If Demeter isn't allowing growth when Persephone goes to the Underworld (ie. in winter), then what's with the weird alignment to the agricultural year? It could be that Persephone represents the general growth of spring, but it still makes more sense for her to disappear in summer, when the grain was kept in underground silos to protect it from the heat. It's a question we don't have an answer for, but it's an interesting tidbit that's interesting to know.

I could go on and on and ON, but this post is far too long as it is. Feel free to discuss things in the comments, ask me questions, &c. Let's get some dialogue going.