Demeter And Persephone Notes

The New Golden Bough/Dying & Reviving God, 283.

I. Demeter & Persephone

 A. Reflects the decay & revival of vegetation

  1. Identical myths

     a. Syrian- Aphrodite & Adonis

     b. Phrygian- Cybele & Attis

     c. Egyptian- Isis & Osiris

  2. Story

     a. goddess mourns the loss of a loved one

     b. the lost personifies the vegetation

     c. more especially the corn

     d. the lost one dies in winter to revive in the spring.

  3. The Lost One

     a. Greek fancy embodies it as the tender & pure form of a dead daughter bewailed by her sorrowing mother

     b. Oriental imagination figured the loved & lost one as a dead lover or as a dead husband lamented by his leman or his wife.

II. The Hymn to Demeter

 A. Historical facts

  1. Oldest literary document to narrate the myth

  2. Homeric

  3. Critics Assign to 7th Century

 B. Object of Poem

  1. Explain the origin of the Eleusain mysteries

  2. Complete silence of the poet as to Athens & the Athenians

  3. In after ages "they" took a conspicuous part in the festival

  4. Probable the hymn was composed in the far off time when Eleusis was still a pretty independent state.

 C. Hymn reveals to us the conception which the writer entertained of the character & functions of the two goddesses.

  1. Their natural shapes stand out sharply enough under the thin veil of poetical imagery.

  2. Youthful Persephone Plucking Flowers

   a. Roses & Lilies

   b. Crocuses & Violets

   c. Hyacinths & narcissuses

   d. In a Lush Meadow

  3. Pluto, Lord of The Dead

   a. Earth gapes; Issues from the abyss

   b. carried her off on his golden car.

   c. She is to be his bride in the gloomy underworld

  4. Demeter- Sorrowing Mother

   a. Yellow tresses veiled in a dark mourning mantle.

   b. Sought Persephone over land & sea

   c. Learns from Phoebus her daughters fate.

   d. Withdrew in high dungeon from the gods

   e. Took up her abode at Eleusis

   f. She then presents herself to the king's daughter

   g. Guised as an old woman, sitting sadly under the shadow of an Olive tree beside Maiden's well.

   h. The Damsels come to draw water for their father's house.

   i. goddess suffers not the Seed to grow

   j. Vowed never to set foot on Olympus, nor

   k. let the corn sprout till her lost daughter should be restored to her.

   l. Even the Rarian plain near Eleusis lay bare.

   m. Zeus in alarm commands Pluto to disgorge his wife.

   n. Pluto smiles & obeys, but not before giving her the seed of a pomegranate to eat, so that she is forced to return

   o.Zeus judges that 2/3 with her mom, 1/3 with husband (sometimes halvzies)

  D. The Return

   1. Daughter returns to sunshine

   2. Gladly her mother receives her

   3. Demeter blankets the Earth in Corn

   4. Demeter then presents this sight to:

     a. Prince of Eleusis

     b. Triptolemus

     c. Eumolpus

     d. Diocles

     e. The King Celeus

   5. Demeter then reveals her sacred rites and mysteries

  E. The End.- Bard's Speech

   1. "Blessed is the mortal man who has seen these things, but he who has had no share of them in life will never be happy in death when he has descended into the darkness of the grave."

   2. "Ends the hymn with a pious prayer to Demeter & Persephone that they would be pleased to grant him a livelihood in return for his song.