Reading for Thursday January 24, 2002

Price p. 25-58; 97-100

Lane and MacMullen 4.3-4.10 (pp. 54-63)

Norlin Reserve: Homeric Hymn to Demeter or at

http://users.erols.com/nbeach/demeter.html

Probably composed between 650-550 BC by an unknown poet, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter honors the Greek goddess of grain Demeter and her daughter Kore ("maiden") or Persephone. The poem tells of the abduction of Kore/Persephone by Hades, god of the underworld and the struggle of her mother Demeter to win her daughter back. After a sojourn among mortals at Eleusis during which, disguised, Demeter attempts and fails to immortalize a human child, the goddess uses her power over grain to create a famine on earth. The gods, disturbed over their loss of sacrifices from humankind, capitulate. Persephone is allowed to return to her mother, but has been tricked by Hades into eating a pomegranate seed in the underworld. This causes her to be at least partially committed to the realm of Hades each year.

The poem closes with Demeter's founding of the "Eleusinian Mysteries." The Hymn thus offers a mythical explanation for the founding of what later became the most famous ancient mystery cult. The pride of the city of Athens, the Mysteries at Eleusis survived until the site was destroyed in 395 AD. These mysteries involved an initiation rite which all Athenians underwent. After fasting and sacrificing a pig to Demeter in the sea, they traveled 30km to Eleusis by foot. On their journey they were taunted by those already initiated who mocked them with ritualized insults. Once in Eleusis, the initiates drank a grain based beverage and participated in a communal ceremony which involved the revelation of some secret object (perhaps simply an ear of wheat) with an impressive light show. Initiates claimed to have experienced the god in their ritual and to have attained some window onto immortality.

As you read, try to connect myth with cult. Remember that the myth was probably created to explain / describe the ritual(s) associated with Eleusinian worship. Remember too that the cult was formed to fulfill some social function. Keeping these things in mind, ask yourselves:

Questions

1. How does the Hymn reflect the ancient female experience? Would you say the picture is accurate? Is it a picture which applies to female experience today?

2. Does Demeter seem more human or divine to you? What does the myth tell us about mother / daughter relationships then and now?

3. What Chthonic (earthly / underworld) qualities do you see in Demeter? What Olympian (heavenly) qualities? What about Persephone?

4. How might the patterns in the myth reflect the annual crop cycle?

5. What ritual elements from Demeter's cult and mysteries at Eleusis show up in the Hymn?

6. Why does Demeter try to make Demophoön immortal? Why does she fail? What does this tell us about what Demeter can do for humans?

7. How does Demeter's anger affect mortals? Immortals? What does this demonstrate about the links between mortals and immortals?

8. What does the pomegranate seed signify? Why might it matter than Persephone eats the seed in Hades?