Demeter

Demeter, the Roman Ceres, is the goddess of grain, agriculture, and the fruitful earth — the giver of the cultivated life that distinguishes civilization from savagery. Her name was understood as 'Earth Mother', and the seasons of growth and dearth were told as her story.

When Hades carried off her daughter Persephone to the underworld, Demeter's grief withered the whole earth, until Zeus arranged that the maiden should return for part of each year — the myth of the seasons, the seed buried and reborn. In her search Demeter came to Eleusis and there founded the Eleusinian Mysteries, the most revered of all Greek rites, which promised the initiated a blessed lot beyond death. Her cult joined the mystery of the grain to the mystery of the soul's own descent and return.

Epithets

• Thesmophoros Θεσμοφόρος — bringer of law and order
• Karpophoros Καρποφόρος — the fruit-bearer
• Chloe Χλόη — of the green shoots
• Sito Σιτώ — of the grain
• Eleusinia Ἐλευσινία — of Eleusis
• Achaea Ἀχαία — the grieving, mourning Persephone