Demeter得墨忒耳

Origins

Daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She taught humans to farm and so to settle — for the Greeks, civilisation began with a grain of wheat.

Sacred symbols

Ear of wheatTorchPoppyCornucopia

Myths

The taking of Persephone

As her daughter gathered flowers in a meadow the earth split open and Hades carried her off in a chariot drawn by black horses. Demeter searched nine days and nights with a torch in her hand, then in her grief let nothing grow, and humankind began to starve.

Pomegranate seeds and the seasons

Persephone had eaten a few pomegranate seeds in the underworld, so each year she must spend part of it there. When she returns, everything grows; when she leaves, winter comes — and that is why there are seasons.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

During her search she became nurse to the royal house of Eleusis, disguised as an old woman, and each night held the baby prince in the fire to burn away his mortality — until the queen walked in. She revealed herself, ordered a temple built, and founded the most secret rites of ancient Greece.

Relationships with the other gods

• FeudZeus

  The daughter he gave away

  Brother and sister, and parents of Persephone. Zeus promised the girl to Hades without telling her mother. When Demeter learned the truth she left Olympus and let the harvest fail, until the king of the gods gave in — one of the very few times he was forced to.

• FeudPoseidon

  The mare and the stallion

  While Demeter was searching for her daughter, Poseidon would not leave her alone. She hid among a herd as a mare; he became a stallion and forced himself on her, and she bore the talking horse Arion. In Arcadia she was worshipped in her rage as "Demeter the Fury."