Demeter is a Greek goddess associated with vegetation, fertility, and harvest. Her daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades, causing the cycle of seasons. In Roman mythology, she is known as Ceres. There are various cultural references to Demeter and Ceres, including in music and astronomy.
In Greek mythology, Demeter – along with Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus – is one of the children of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. She is considered the patroness of vegetation, fertility and the harvest, and her counterpart in Roman mythology is Ceres, from whose name the word cereal derives. Demeter is connected to the Eleusinian mysteries, religious rites that were celebrated in Eleusis in honor of Demeter.
Demeter’s children are Persephone with Zeus, called Proserpina in Roman mythology, and Arion with Poseidon. The best-known story about Demeter concerns the abduction of her daughter Persephone – also called Kore – by Hades. Helios, the sun god, saw Persephone abducted and told Demeter about it. In grief, he left Olympus to seek her daughter, and he lost his interest in the growth of living beings, and the world became cold and barren.
Demeter finally convinced Zeus to intervene, because he saw that Demeter needed to return to Olympus for the Earth to regain its fecundity. But her judgment was that Hades should give up Persephone unless he somehow consented to her presence in the underworld.
It turns out that Hades tricked Persephone into eating pomegranate and since she ate four seeds – the amount varies according to the accounts – even when it was returned to her mother, she must remain in the underworld for four months of the year. Then, every year, his mother’s heart breaks and she withdraws her attention again, and this explains the cycle of planting, harvesting and then the season of desolation before the return of spring and new growth.
This myth is told in Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s melodrama Perséphone with a text by French author André Gide. Stravinsky considered it a symphonic ballet. There are several paintings of the myth, including “The Return of Persephone” by Lord Frederic Leighton.
Ceres is the name of the largest main-belt asteroid, the first asteroid discovered, as well as an ovoid feature on the surface of Venus called Ceres Corona. The asteroid Ceres was discovered on New Year’s Day 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. Demeter is the name of an earthquake prediction satellite, and there is also a Demeter Corona on Venus.
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