Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion

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Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 14 mars 2018
Publié dans: A marble statue of Demeter, National Roman Museum, Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter Persephone-Kore at Selinunte, Sicily, 6th century BC., Demeter, National Roman Museum, Senza categoria, Walter Burkert (1985) Greek Religion, Harvard University Press, 1985. Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, 1962. An illustrated book of Greek myths retold for children. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

A marble statue of Demeter, National Roman Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter Persephone-Kore at Selinunte, Sicily, 6th century BC.

Demeter
Goddess of agriculture, harvest, fertility and sacred law.

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter
Demeter Altemps Inv8546.jpg

A marble statue of Demeter, National Roman Museum
Other names Sito, Thesmophoros
Abode Mount Olympus
Symbol Cornucopia, wheat, torch, bread
Festivals Thesmophoria
Personal information
Consort Iasion, Zeus, Oceanus, Karmanor, Poseidon and Triptolemus
Children Persephone, Despoina, Arion, Plutus, Philomelus, Eubuleus, Chrysothemis, and Amphitheus I
Parents Cronus and Rhea
Siblings Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Chiron
Roman equivalent Ceres
Part of a series on
Ancient Greek religion
Laurel wreath
Laurel wreath fa13.gif Hellenismos portal

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter(/dɪˈmiːtər/; Attic: Δημήτηρ Dēmḗtēr, pronounced [dɛːmɛ́ːtɛːr]; Doric: Δαμάτηρ Dāmā́tēr) is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. Her cult titles include Sito (Σιτώ), « she of the Grain »,[1] as the giver of food or grain,[2] and Thesmophoros (θεσμός, thesmos: divine order, unwritten law; φόρος, phoros: bringer, bearer), « Law-Bringer », as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society.[3]

Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear BMycenean Greek tablets of c. 1400–1200 BC found at Pylos, the « two queens and the king » may be related with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.[4][5]

Her Roman equivalent is Ceres.[6]

Etymology

It is possible that Demeter appears in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents (AR Zf 1 and 2, and KY Za 2), all three apparently dedicated in religious situations and all three bearing just the name (i-da-ma-te on AR Zf 1 and 2).[7] It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in a Linear B (Mycenean Greek) inscription (PY En 609); the word 𐀅𐀔𐀳, da-ma-te, probably refers to « households ».[8][9] On the other hand, 𐀯𐀵𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊, si-to-po-ti-ni-ja, « Potnia of the Grain », is regarded as referring to her Bronze Age predecessor or to one of her epithets.[10]

Demeter’s character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name meter (μήτηρ) derived from Proto-Indo-European*méh₂tēr (mother).[11] In antiquity, different explanations were already proffered for the first element of her name. It is possible that Da(Δᾶ),[12] a word which corresponds to Ge (Γῆ) in Attic, is the Doric form of De (Δῆ), « earth », the old name of the chthonic earth-goddess, and that Demeter is « Mother-Earth ».[13] This root also appears in the Linear B inscription E-ne-si-da-o-ne, « earth-shaker », as an aspect of the god Poseidon.[14][15] However, the dā element in the name of Demeter is not so simply equated with « earth » according to John Chadwick.[16][17]

The element De– may be connected with Deo, an epithet of Demeter[18] probably derived from the Cretan word dea (δηά), Ionic zeia (ζειά)—variously identified with emmer, spelt, rye, or other grains by modern scholars—so that she is the Mother and the giver of food generally.[19][20]Wanax (wa-na-ka) was her male companion (Greek: Πάρεδρος, Paredros) in Mycenaean cult.[21] The Arcadian cult links her to the god Poseidon, who probably substituted the male companion of the Great Goddess ; Demeter may therefore be related to a Minoan Great Goddess(Cybele).[22]

An alternative Proto-Indo-European etymology comes through Potnia and Despoina, where Des-represents a derivative of PIE *dem (house, dome), and Demeter is « mother of the house » (from PIE *dems-méh₂tēr).[23]

Agricultural deity

Didrachme from Paros island, struck at the Cyclades and representing Demeter

A Greek fresco depicting the goddess Demeter, from Panticapaeumin the ancient Bosporan Kingdom (a client state of the Roman Empire), 1st century AD, Crimea.

According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, Demeter’s greatest gifts to humankind were agriculture, particularly of cereals, and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife.[24] These two gifts were intimately connected in Demeter’s myths and mystery cults. In Homer’s Odyssey she is the blond-haired goddess who separates the chaff from the grain.[25] In Hesiod, prayers to Zeus-Chthonios (chthonic Zeus) and Demeter help the crops grow full and strong.[26] Demeter’s emblem is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among the barley.[27]

In Hesiod‘s Theogony, Demeter is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. At the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, Demeter lured Iasion away from the other revelers. They had intercourse in a ploughed furrow in Crete, and she gave birth to a son, Ploutos.[28] Her daughter by Zeus was Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.[29]

Festivals and cults

Main articles: Eleusinian Mysteries and Thesmophoria

Demeter’s two major festivals were sacred mysteries. Her Thesmophoria festival (11–13 October) was women-only.[30] Her Eleusinian mysteries were open to initiates of any gender or social class. At the heart of both festivals were myths concerning Demeter as Mother and Persephone as her daughter.

Mythology

Demeter and Persephone

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter Persephone-Kore at Selinunte, Sicily, 6th century BC.

Demeter rejoiced, for her daughter was by her side.

Demeter’s virgin daughter Persephone was abducted to the underworld by Hades. Demeter searched for her ceaselessly, preoccupied with her loss and her grief. The seasons halted; living things ceased their growth, then began to die.[31]Faced with the extinction of all life on earth, Zeussent his messenger Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back. Hades agreed to release her if she had eaten nothing while in his realm; but Persephone had eaten a small number of pomegranate seeds. This bound her to Hades and the underworld for certain months of every year, either the dry Mediterranean summer, when plant life is threatened by drought,[32] or the autumn and winter.[33] There are several variations on the basic myth. In the Homeric hymn to Demeter, Hecate assists in the search and later becomes Persephone’s underworld attendant.[34] In another, Persephone willingly and secretly eats the pomegranate seeds, thinking to deceive Hades, but is discovered and made to stay. Contrary to popular perception, Persephone’s time in the underworld does not correspond with the unfruitful seasons of the ancient Greek calendar, nor her return to the upper world with springtime.[35] Demeter’s descent to retrieve Persephone from the underworld is connected to the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Demeter and her daughter Persephone were usually called:[36]

  • The goddesses, often distinguished as « the older » and « the younger » in Eleusis.
  • Demeters, in Rhodes and Sparta
  • The thesmophoroi, « the legislators » in the Thesmophoria.
  • The Great Goddesses, in Arcadia.
  • The mistresses in Arcadia.[37]

In Mycenaean Pylos, Demeter and Persephone were probably called « queens » (wa-na-ssoi).[5]

The myth of the capture of Persephone seems to be pre-Greek. In the Greek version, Ploutos (πλούτος, wealth) represents the wealth of the corn that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (pithoi). Similar subterranean pithoiwere used in ancient times for funerary practices. At the beginning of the autumn, when the corn of the old crop is laid on the fields, she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at this time the old crop and the new meet each other.[38]

According to the personal mythology of Robert Graves,[39] Persephone is not only the younger self of Demeter,[40] she is in turn also one of three guises of the Triple Goddess – Kore (the youngest, the maiden, signifying green young grain), Persephone (in the middle, the nymph, signifying the ripe grain waiting to be harvested), and Hecate (the eldest of the three, the crone, the harvested grain), which to a certain extent reduces the name and role of Demeter to that of group name. Before her abduction, she is called Kore; and once taken she becomes Persephone (‘she who brings destruction’).[41]

Demeter at Eleusis

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

Eleusinian trio: Persephone, Triptolemos, and Demeter, on a marble bas-relief from Eleusis, 440–430 BC

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. The myth has several versions; some are linked to figures such as Eleusis, Rarusand Trochilus. The Demophon element may be based on an earlier folk tale.[42]

Demeter and Poseidon

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

Roman copy after a Greek original from the 4th century BC, from the National Roman Museum

Demeter and Poseidon‘s names appear in the earliest scratched notes in Linear B found at Mycenae and Mycenaean Pylos; e-ne-si-da-o-ne (earth-shaker) for Poseidon, and si-to-po-ti-ni-ja, who is probably related with Demeter.[43] Poseidon carries frequently the title wa-na-ka (wanax) in Linear Binscriptions, as king of the underworld, and his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne indicates his chthonic nature. In the cave of Amnisos (Crete) Enesidaon is related with the cult of Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth.[44] She was related with the annual birth of the divine child.[45] During the Bronze Age, a goddess of nature, dominated both in Minoan and Mycenean cult, and Wanax (wa-na-ka) was her male companion (paredros) in Mycenean cult.[44]She and her paredros survived in the Eleusinian cult, where the following words were uttered :  » Mighty Potnia bore a strong son »[46] However, there is no evidence that originally the name of Potnia was Demeter.

Tablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for « the Two Queens and Poseidon » (« to the Two Queens and the King » :wa-na-ssoi, wa-na-ka-te). The « Two Queens » may be related with Demeter and Persephone, or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods.[5] An exception is the myth of isolated Arcadia in southern Greece. Despoina, is daughter of Demeter and PoseidonHippios, Horse-Poseidon. These myths seem to be connected with the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north during the Bronze age. Poseidon represents the river spirit of the underworld and he appears as a horse as it often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and she bears one daughter who obviously originally had the form or the shape of a mare too. Demeter and Despoina were closely connected with springs and animals, related to Poseidon as a God of waters and especially with Artemis, the mistress of the animals and the goddess of, among others, the Hunt.

Demeter as mare-goddess was pursued by Poseidon, and hid from him among the horses of King Onkios, but could not conceal her divinity. In the form of a stallion, Poseidon caught and covered her. Demeter was furious (erinys) at Poseidon’s assault; in this furious form, she is known as Demeter Erinys. But she washed away her anger in the River Ladon, becoming Demeter Lousia, the « bathed Demeter ».[47] « In her alliance with Poseidon, » Karl Kerenyi noted,[48] « she was Earth, who bears plants and beasts, and could therefore assume the shape of an ear of grain or a mare. » She bore a daughter Despoina (Δέσποινα: the « Mistress »), whose name should not be uttered outside the Arcadian Mysteries,[49] and a horse named Arion, with a black mane and tail.

In Arcadia, Demeter’s mare-form was worshiped into historical times. Her xoanon of Phigaleia shows how the local cult interpreted her: a Medusa type with a horse’s head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water.[50]

The second mountain, Mt. Elaios, is about 30 stades from Phigaleia, and has a cave sacred to Demeter Melaine [« Black »]… the Phigalians say, they accounted the cave sacred to Demeter, and set up a wooden image in it. The image was made in the following fashion: it was seated on a rock, and was like a woman in all respects save the head. She had the head and hair of a horse, and serpents and other beasts grew out of her head. Her chiton reached right to her feet, and she held a dolphin in one hand, a dove in the other. Why they made the xoanon like this should be clear to any intelligent man who is versed in tradition. They say they named her Black because the goddess wore black clothing. However, they cannot remember who made this xoanon or how it caught fire; but when it was destroyed the Phigalians gave no new image to the goddess and largely neglected her festivals and sacrifices, until finally barrenness fell upon the land.

— Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.42.1ff.

Titles and functions

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

Demeter, enthroned and extending her hand in a benediction toward the kneeling Metaneira, who offers the triune wheat (c. 340 BC)

Demeter’s epithets show her many religious functions. She was the « Corn-Mother » who blesses the harvesters. Some cults interpreted her as « Mother-Earth ». Demeter may be linked to goddess-cults of Minoan Crete, and embody aspects of a pre-Hellenic Mother Goddess.[51] It is possible that the title « Mistress of the labyrinth », which appears in a Linear B inscription, belonged originally to Sito (« [she] of the grain »), the Great Mother Demeter and that in the Eleusinian mysteries this title was kept by her daughter Persephone (Kore or Despoina).[52] However, there is no evidence that the name of Potnia in Eleusis was originally Demeter. Her other epithets include:

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

Triptolemus, Demeter and Persephone by the Triptolemos-painter, c. 470 BC, Louvre

  • Aganippe(« the Mare who destroys mercifully », « Night-Mare »)
  • Potnia (« mistress ») in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Hera especially, but also Artemisand Athena, are addressed as « potnia » as well.
  • Despoina (« mistress of the house »), a Greek word similar to the Mycenean potnia. This title was also applied to Persephone, Aphroditeand Hecate.
  • Thesmophoros (« giver of customs » or even « legislator »), a role that links her to the even more ancient goddess Themis,[3] derived from thesmos, the unwritten law.[53] This title was connected with the Thesmophoria, a festival of secret women-only rituals in Athens connected with marriage customs.
  • Erinys (« implacable »),[54] with a function similar with the function of the avenging Dike(Justice), goddess of moral justice based on custom rules who represents the divine retribution,[55] and the Erinyes, female ancient chthonic deities of vengeance and implacable agents of retribution.
  • Chloe (« the green shoot »),[56] that invokes her powers of ever-returning fertility, as does Chthonia.
  • Chthonia (« in the ground »), chthonic Demeter in Sparta.[57]
  • Anesidora (« sending up gifts from the earth ») applied to Demeter in Pausanias 1.31.4, also appears inscribed on an Attic ceramic a name for Pandora on her jar. There was a temple of Demeter under this name in Phlius in Attica.[58][59][60]
  • Europa (« broad face or eyes ») at Livadeia of Boeotia. She was the nurse of Trophonios to whom a chthonic cult and oracle was dedicated.[61]
  • Kidaria in the mysteries of Pheneos in Arcadia[62] where the priest put on the mask of Demeter kept in a secret place. It seems that the cult was connected with the underworld and with an agrarian magic.[63]

Demeter might also be invoked in the guises of:

  • Malophoros (« apple-bearer » or « sheep-bearer », Pausanias 1.44.3)
  • Lusia (« bathing », Pausanias 8.25.8)
  • Thermasia (« warmth », Pausanias 2.34.6)
  • Achaea, the name by which she was worshipped at Athens by the Gephyraeans who had emigrated from Boeotia.[64][65]

Theocritus, wrote of an earlier role of Demeter as a poppy goddess:

For the Greeks Demeter was still a poppy goddess
Bearing sheaves and poppies in both hands.— Idyll vii.157

In a clay statuette from Gazi (Heraklion Museum, Kereny 1976 fig 15), the Minoan poppy goddess wears the seed capsules, sources of nourishment and narcosis, in her diadem. « It seems probable that the Great Mother Goddess, who bore the names Rhea and Demeter, brought the poppy with her from her Cretan cult to Eleusis, and it is certain that in the Cretan cult sphere, opium was prepared from poppies » (Kerenyi 1976, p 24).

Cult places

Giacobbe Giusti, Demeter

Azes coin in India, with Demeter and Hermes.

Major cults to Demeter are known at Eleusis in Attica, Hermion (in Crete), Megara, Celeae, Lerna, Aegila, Munychia, Corinth, Delos, Priene, Akragas, Iasos, Pergamon, Selinus, Tegea, Thoricus, Dion (in Macedonia)[66] Lykosoura, Mesembria, Enna(Sicily), and Samothrace.

An ancient Amphictyony, probably the earliest centred on the cult of Demeter at Anthele(Ἀνθήλη), which lay on the coast of Malis south of Thessaly. This was the locality of Thermopylae.[67][68]

After the « First Sacred War », the Anthelan body was known thenceforth as the Delphic Amphictyony[67]

Demeter of Mysia had a seven-day festival at Pellené in Arcadia.[69] Pausanias passed the shrine to Demeter at Mysia on the road from Mycenae to Argos but all he could draw out to explain the archaic name was a myth of an eponymous Mysius who venerated Demeter.[citation needed]

Genealogy

[hide]Demeter’s family tree [70]
Uranus Gaia
Uranus’ genitals Cronus Rhea
Zeus Hera Poseidon Hades DEMETER Hestia
    a [71]
     b [72]
Ares Hephaestus
Metis
Athena [73]
Leto
Apollo Artemis
Maia
Hermes
Semele
Dionysus
Dione
    a [74]      b [75]
Aphrodite

Consorts and children

  1. Zeus
    1. Persephone
  2. Poseidon
    1. Despoina
    2. Arion
  3. Iasion
    1. Plutus
    2. Philomelus
  4. Karmanor
    1. Eubuleus
    2. Chrysothemis
  5. Triptolemus
    1. Amphitheus I
  6. Oceanus
    1. Dmia[76]

Portrayals

  • Demeter was frequently associated with images of the harvest, including flowers, fruit, and grain. She was also sometimes pictured with her daughter Persephone.
  • The Black Demeter, a sculpture made by Onatas.
  • Demeter is not generally portrayed with a consort: the exception is Iasion, the youth of Crete who lay with Demeter in a thrice-ploughed field, and was sacrificed afterwards by a jealous Zeus with a thunderbolt.
  • Demeter is assigned the zodiac constellation Virgo the Virgin by Marcus Manilius in his 1st century Roman work Astronomicon. In art, constellation Virgo holds Spica, a sheaf of wheat in her hand and sits beside constellation Leo the Lion.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. Jump up^ Σιτώ. Cf. σῖτος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  2. Jump up^ Eustathius of Thessalonica, scholia on Homer, 265.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b Themis was an ancient Greek goddess, embodiment of divine order, law. She was the organizer of the communal affairs and she evoked the social order: Finley, The World of Odysseus, rev. ed. Viking Press. (1978:78 note 82)
  4. Jump up^ John Chadwick, The Mycenean World. Cambridge University Press, 1976.
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b c « Wa-na-ssoi, wa-na-ka-te, (to the two queens and the king). Wanax is best suited to Poseidon, the special divinity of Pylos. The identity of the two divinities addressed as wanassoi, is uncertain « : George Mylonas (1966) Mycenae and the Mycenean age » p.159 :Princeton University Press
  6. Jump up^ Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.
  7. Jump up^ Y. Duhoux, « LA > B da-ma-te = Déméter? Sur la langue du linéaire A, » Minos 29/30 (1994-1995): 289–294.
  8. Jump up^ Y. Duhoux and A. Morpurgo-Davies, Companion to Linear B, vol. 2 (2011), p. 26. But see Ventris/Chadwick,Documents in Mycenean Greek p.242: B.Dietriech (2004):The origins of the Greek religion Bristol Phoenix Press. p.172
  9. Jump up^ « da-ma-te ». Deaditerranean. Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. « PY 609 En (1) ». DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo. University of Oslo.
  10. Jump up^ Inscription MY Oi 701. « si-to-po-ti-ni-ja ». Deaditerranean. Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. « The Linear B word si-to ». Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of Ancient languages. « MY 701 Oi (63) ». DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo. University of Oslo. Cf. σῖτος, Σιτώ.
  11. Jump up^ Online Etymology Dictionary « mother »
  12. Jump up^ Δᾶ in Liddell and Scott.
  13. Jump up^ Online Etymology Dictionary « Demeter »
  14. Jump up^ Adams, John Paul, Mycenean divinities – List of handouts for California State University Classics 315. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  15. Jump up^ R. S. P. Beekes. Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 324.
  16. Jump up^ Chadwick, The Mycenaean World, Cambridge University Press, 1976, p. 87) « Every Greek was aware of the maternal functions of Demeter; if her name bore the slightest resemblance to the Greek word for ‘mother’, it would inevitably have been deformed to emphasize that resemblance. […] How did it escape transformation into *Gāmātēr, a name transparent to any Greek speaker? » Compare the Latin transformation Iuppiter and Diespiter vis-a-vis *Deus pater.
  17. Jump up^ Δημήτηρ. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; An Intermediate Greek–English Lexiconat the Perseus Project.
  18. Jump up^ Orphic Hymn 40 to Demeter (translated by Thomas Taylor: « O universal mother Deo famed, august, the source of wealth and various names ».
  19. Jump up^ Compare sanskr. yava, lit. yavai, Δά is probably derived from δέFα :Martin Nilsson, Geschichte der Griechischen Religion, vol. I (Verlag C.H.Beck) pp 461-462.
  20. Jump up^ Harisson ,Prolegomena, p.272
  21. Jump up^ Dietrich, p.181
  22. Jump up^ Nilsson, 1967:444
  23. Jump up^ Frisk, Griechisches Etymological Woerterbuch. Entry 1271
  24. Jump up^ Isocrates, Panegyricus 4.28: « When Demeter came to our land, in her wandering after the rape of Kore, and, being moved to kindness towards our ancestors by services which may not be told save to her initiates, gave these two gifts, the greatest in the world — the fruits of the earth, which have enabled us to rise above the life of the beasts, and the holy rite, which inspires in those who partake of it sweeter hopes regarding both the end of life and all eternity ».
  25. Jump up^ Odyssey 5.499
  26. Jump up^ Hesiod Works and Days, 465
  27. Jump up^ Graves, Robert (1960). Greek Gods and Heroes. Dell Laurel-Leaf.
  28. Jump up^ Odyssey 5.125; Theogony 969 ff.
  29. Jump up^ Hesiod, Theogony 912; Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2); Pausnias, Description of Greece8.37.9
  30. Jump up^ Benko, Stephen, The virgin goddess: studies in the pagan and Christian roots of mariology,BRILL, 2004, note 111 on pp. 63 – 4, and p. 175.
  31. Jump up^ Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951, pp.232 – 41 and notes 784 – 98.
  32. Jump up^ As in Burkert, Greek Religion (Harvard, 1985) p. 160.
  33. Jump up^ As in Porphyry
  34. Jump up^ Homer Hymn to Demeter, trans. Gregory Nagy, lines 50 – 60, 438 – 440.
  35. Jump up^ Graf, « Demeter » in Brill’s New Pauly
  36. Jump up^ Martin Nilsson (1967) Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion pp.463, 477
  37. Jump up^ Pausanias.Description of Greece 5.15.4, 5, 6
  38. Jump up^ gpr Martin Nilsson, Greek Popular Religion.pp 48-50
  39. Jump up^ Graves’ work on Greek myth was often criticized; see The White Goddess#Criticism and The Greek Myths.
  40. Jump up^ The idea that Kore (the maiden) is not Demeter’s daughter, but Demeter’s own younger self, was discussed much earlier than Graves, in Lewis Richard Farnell (1896), The Cults of the Greek States, volume 3, p.121.
  41. Jump up^ Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. Penguin, 1990. ISBN 0-14-001026-2. 24. pp.94–95.
  42. Jump up^ Nilsson (1940), p. 50: « The Demophon story in Eleusis is based on an older folk-tale motif which has nothing to do with the Eleusinian Cult. It is introduced in order to let Demeter reveal herself in her divine shape ».
  43. Jump up^ George Mylonas (1966), « Mycenae and the Mycenean world « . p.159. Princeton University Press
  44. ^ Jump up to:a b Dietrich pp. 181-185
  45. Jump up^ Dietrich pp. 141
  46. Jump up^ Dietrich:166-167
  47. Jump up^ Other ritually bathed goddesses were Argive Hera and Cybele; Aphrodite renewed her own powers bathing herself in the sea.
  48. Jump up^ Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951:185.
  49. Jump up^ « In Arcadia she was also a second goddess in the Mysteries of her daughter, the unnameable, who was invoked only as ‘Despoina’, the ‘Mistress' » (Karl Kerenyi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter(Princeton University Press) 1967:31f, instancing Pausanias, viii.37.9.
  50. Jump up^ L. H. Jeffery (1976). Archaic Greece: The Greek city states c. 800-500 B.C. (Ernest Benn Limited) p 23 ISBN 0-510-03271-0
  51. Jump up^ A Linear A inscription can tentatively be read as DA-MA-TE (KY Za 2), which is possibly the name of the Mother Goddess. [1]
  52. Jump up^ R.Wunderlich (1975),The secret of Creta.Souvenir Press Ltd.London p 319
  53. Jump up^ L. H. Jeffery (1976). Archaic Greece: The Greek city states c. 800-500 B.C. (Ernest Benn Limited) p. 42 ISBN 0-510-03271-0
  54. Jump up^ Pausanias 8.25.50
  55. Jump up^ C.M. Bowra (1957), The Greek Experience(1957:87, 169).
  56. Jump up^ Pausanias 1.22.3.
  57. Jump up^ Pausanias 3.14.5
  58. Jump up^ Anesidora: inscribed against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum, B.M. 1881,0528.1, from Nola, painted by the Tarquinia painter, ca 470–460 BC (British Museum on-line catalogue entry)
  59. Jump up^ Hesychius of Alexandria s.v.
  60. Jump up^ Scholiast, On Theocritus ii. 12.
  61. Jump up^ Pausanias.Guide to Greece.9.39.2-5
  62. Jump up^ Pausanias 8.13.13
  63. Jump up^ Martin Nilsson (1967).Die Geschichte der Griechiesche Religion Vol. I pp 477-478.
  64. Jump up^ Herodotus, v. 61; Plutarch Isis et Osiris p. 378, d
  65. Jump up^ Smith, William (1867). « Achaea (1) ». In Rachel, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston. p. 8.
  66. Jump up^ Cohen, A, Art in the Era of Alexander the Great: Paradigms of Manhood and Their Cultural Traditions, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 213. Googlebook preview
  67. ^ Jump up to:a b L. H. Jeffery (1976) Archaic Greece: The City States c. 700–500 BC. Ernest Benn Ltd., London & Tonbridge pp. 72, 73, 78 ISBN 0-510-03271-0
  68. Jump up^ The Parian marble. Entry No 5: « When Amphictyon son of Hellen became king of Thermopylae brought together those living round the temple and named them Amphictyones; [2]
  69. Jump up^ Pausanias, 7. 27, 9.
  70. Jump up^ This chart is based upon Hesiod‘s Theogony, unless otherwise noted.
  71. Jump up^ According to Homer, Iliad 1.570–579, 14.338, Odyssey 8.312, Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.
  72. Jump up^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
  73. Jump up^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 886–890, of Zeus’ children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena « from his head », see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84.
  74. Jump up^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus’ severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
  75. Jump up^ According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione (Iliad5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
  76. Jump up^ Hesychius of Alexandria, s. v.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com