Introduction

For Unit 4 you are reading The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. “Homer” was most likely not an actual, historical person. Rather, “Homer” was a name attributed to a collection of poetic texts written between the 8th and 5th centuries BCE. The most famous of these texts are The Iliad and The Odyssey, but Homeric authorship is also attributed to a number of other texts, including hymns to all the major Olympian gods. Many of these hymns are incomplete and fragmentary because they did not survive well the transmission from the ancient world to today. But the Hymn to Demeter is in pretty good shape. Written probably in late 7th or early 6th century BCE, it tells the story of Hades’ rape of Persephone and Demeter’s search for her missing daughter. Please consider the following questions as you read this text:

What themes about marriage and familial relationships do you see in this text?

How do women have power? How do goddesses have power?

In what way is this an aetiological myth?

Homeric Hymn to Demeter Trans. Gregory Nagy (2018):

I begin to sing of Demeter, the holy goddess with the beautiful hair.
And her daughter [Persephone] too. The one with the delicate ankles, whom Hādēs
seized. She was given away by Zeus, the loud-thunderer, the one who sees far and wide.
Demeter did not take part in this, she of the golden double-axe, she who glories in the harvest.(5)She [Persephone] was having a good time, along with the daughters of Okeanos, who wear their waistbands slung low.
She was picking flowers: roses, crocus, and beautiful violets.
Up and down the soft meadow. Iris blossoms too she picked, and hyacinth.
And the narcissus, which was grown as a lure for the flower-faced girl
by Gaia [Earth]. All according to the plans of Zeus. She [Gaia] was doing a favor for the one who receives many guests [Hādēs].
(10) It [the narcissus] was a wondrous thing in its splendor. To look at it gives a sense of holy awe
to the immortal gods as well as mortal humans.
It has a hundred heads growing from the root up.
Its sweet fragrance spread over the wide skies up above.
And the earth below smiled back in all its radiance. So too the churning mass of the salty sea.(15) She [Persephone] was filled with a sense of wonder, and she reached out with both hands
to take hold of the pretty plaything.² And the earth, full of roads leading every which way, opened up under her.
It happened on the Plain of Nysa. There it was that the Lord who receives many guests made his lunge.
He was riding on a chariot drawn by immortal horses. The son of Kronos. The one known            by many names.
He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot,
(20) And drove away as she wept. She cried with a piercing voice,
calling upon her father [Zeus], the son of Kronos, the highest and the best.
But not one of the immortal ones, or of human mortals,
heard her voice. Not even the olive trees which bear their splendid harvest.
Except for the daughter of Persaios, the one who keeps in mind the vigor of nature.
(25) She heard it from her cave. She is Hekatē, with the splendid headband.
And the Lord Helios [Sun] heard it too, the magnificent son of Hyperion.
They heard the daughter calling upon her father, the son of Kronos.
But he, all by himself, was seated far apart from the gods, inside a temple, the precinct of many prayers.
He was receiving beautiful sacrificial rites from mortal humans.
(30) She was being taken, against her will, at the behest of Zeus,
by her father’s brother, the one who rules many and who receives many guests,
the son of Kronos, the one with many names. On the chariot drawn by immortal horses.
So long as the earth and the star-filled sky
were still within the goddess’s [Persephone’s] view, as also the fish-swarming sea
[pontos], with its strong currents,
(35)as also the rays of the sun, she still had hope that she would yet see
her dear mother and that special group, the immortal gods.
For that long a time her great mind was soothed by hope, distressed as she was.
The peaks of mountains resounded, as did the depths of the sea [pontos],
with her immortal voice. And the Lady Mother [Demeter] heard her.
(40) And a sharp pain seized her heart. The headband on her hair
she tore off with her own immortal hands
and threw a dark cloak over her shoulders.
She sped off like a bird, soaring over land and sea,
looking and looking. But no one was willing to tell her the truth [etētuma],
(45) not one of the gods, not one of the mortal humans,
not one of the birds, messengers of the truth [etētuma].
Thereafter, for nine days did the Lady Demeter
wander all over the earth, holding torches ablaze in her hands.
Not once did she take of ambrosia and nectar, sweet to drink,
(50) in her grief, nor did she bathe her skin in water.
But when the tenth bright dawn came upon her,
Hekatē came to her, holding a light ablaze in her hands.
She came with a message, and she spoke up, saying to her:
“Lady Demeter, bringer of the seasons, giver of splendid gifts,
(55) which one of the gods who dwell in the sky or which one of mortal humans
seized Persephone and brought grief to your dear heart?
I heard the sounds, but I did not see with my eyes
who it was. So I quickly came to tell you everything, without error.”
So spoke Hekatē. But she was not answered
(60) by the daughter of Rhea with the beautiful hair [Demeter]. Instead, she [Demeter]
joined her [Hekatē] and quickly
set out with her, holding torches ablaze in her hands.
They came to Hēlios, the seeing-eye of gods and men.
They stood in front of his chariot-team, and the resplendent goddess asked this question:
“Helios! Show me respect [aidōs], god to goddess, if ever
(65) I have pleased your heart and mind in word or deed.
It is about the girl born to me, a sweet young seedling, renowned for her beauty,
whose piercing cry I heard resounding through the boundless air,
as if she were being forced, though I did not see it with my eyes.
I turn to you as one who ranges over all the earth and sea [pontos]
(70) as you look down from the bright sky with your sunbeams:
tell me without error whether you have by any chance seen my dear child,
and who has taken her away from me by force, against her will,
and then gone away? Tell me which one of the gods or mortal humans did it.”
So she spoke. And the son of Hyperion answered her with these words:
(75) “Daughter of Rhea with the beautiful hair, Queen Demeter!
You shall know the answer, for I greatly respect you and feel sorry for you
as you grieve over your child, the one with the delicate ankles. No one else
among all the immortals is responsible [aitios] except the cloud-gatherer Zeus himself,
who gave her to Hādēs as his beautiful wife.
So he gave her to his own brother. And he [Hādēs], heading for the misty realms of darkness,
(80) seized her as he drove his chariot and as she screamed out loud.
But I urge you, goddess: stop your loud cry of lamentation: you should not
have an anger without bounds, all in vain. It is not unseemly
to have, of all the immortals, such a son-in-law as Hādēs,
the one who makes many tombs [sēmata].
(85) He is the brother [of Zeus], whose seed is from the same place. And as for honor,
he has his share, going back to the very beginning, when the three-way
division of inheritance was made.³
He dwells with those whose king he was destined by lot to be.”⁴
So saying, he shouted to his horses, and they responded to his command
as they swiftly drew the speeding chariot, like long-winged birds.
(90) And she [Demeter] was visited by grief [akhos] that was even more terrifying than before:
it makes you think of the Hound of Hādēs.
In her anger at the one who is known for his dark clouds, the son of Kronos,
she shunned the company of gods and lofty Olympus.
She went away, visiting the cities of humans, with all their fertile landholdings,
shading over her appearance, for a long time. And not one of men,
(95) looking at her, could recognize her. Not one of women, either, who are accustomed to
wear their waistbands low-slung.⁵
Until, one day, she came to the house of bright-minded Keleos,
who was at that time ruler of Eleusis, fragrant with incense.⁶
She sat down near the road, sad in her dear heart,
at the well called Parthenion [the Virgin’s Place], where the people of the settlement used to draw water.
(100) She sat in the shade, under the thick growth of an olive tree,
looking like an old woman who had lived through many years and who is
deprived of giving birth and of the gifts of Aphrodite, lover of garlands in the hair.
She was like those nursemaids who belong to kings, administrators of proper conduct,
and who are guardians of children in echoing palaces.
(105) She was seen by the daughters of Keleos, son of Eleusinos,
who were coming to get water, easy to draw [from the well], in order to carry it
in bronze water-jars to the dear home of their father.
There were four of them, looking like goddesses with their bloom of adolescence:
Kallidikē, Kleisidikē, and lovely Dēmō.
(110) And then there was Kallithoē, who was the eldest of them all.
They did not recognize her [Demeter]. Gods are hard for mortals to see.
They [the daughters] stood near her and spoke these winged words:
“Who are you, and where are you from, old woman, old among old humans?
Why has your path taken you far away from the settlement? Why have you not
drawn near to the palace?
(115) There, throughout the shaded chambers, are women
who are as old as you are, and younger ones too,
who would welcome you in word and in deed.”
So she spoke.⁸ And the Lady Goddess spoke with the following words:
“Dear children! Whoever women you are among the female kind of humans,
(120) [‘I wish you pleasure and happiness from our relationship, starting now’]. I shall tell you.
It is not unseemly,
since you ask, for me to tell you truly
Dōsō⁹ is my name. It was given to me by my honored mother.
But that was then. I am from Crete, having traveled over the wide stretches of sea
against my will. Without my consent, by force, by duress,
(125) I was abducted by pirates. After a while,
sailing with their swift ship, they landed at the harbor of Thorikos.
There the ship was boarded by women
of the mainland, many of them. They [the pirates]
started preparing dinner next to the prow of the beached ship.
But my heart did not yearn for food, that delight of the mind.
(130) I stole away and set out to travel over the dark earth of the mainland, fleeing my
arrogant captors. This way, I stopped them
from drawing any benefit from my worth without having paid the price.
That is how I got here, in the course of all my wanderings. And I do not know
what this land is and who live here.
(135) But I pray to all the gods who abide on Olympus that you be granted
vigorous husbands and that you be able to bear children,
in accordance with the wishes of your parents. As for me, young girls, take pity.
To be honest about it, what I want is for you to name for me a house to go to,
the house of someone, man or woman, who has beloved children to be taken care of.¹⁰
I want to work for them,
(140) honestly. The kind of work that is cut out for a female who has outlived others her own age.
I could take some newborn baby in my arms,
and nourish him well. I could watch over his house.
I would make his bed in the inner recesses of well-built chambers,
the royal bed. And I could see to a woman’s tasks.”
(145) So spoke the goddess. And she was answered straightaway by the unwed maiden,
Kallidikē, the most beautiful of the daughters of Keleos:
“Old Mother, we humans endure the gifts the gods give us, even when we are grieving over what has to be.¹¹
They [the gods] are, after all, far better than we are.
What I now say will be clear advice, and I will name for you
(150) the men who have the great control, divinely given, of honor here:
the men who stand at the forefront of the people and who protect the citadel of the settlement
with their wise counsel and their straight judgements.
And then there are the wives too: of sound-minded Triptolemos, of Dioklos,
of Polyxenos, of faultless Eumolpos as well,
(155) of Dolikhos, and of our splendid father [Keleos].
The wives of all of these manage the palace.¹²
Of these women, not a single one of them, when they first look at you,
would deprive you of honor, the way you look, and turn you away from the palace.
Rather, they will receive you. For, right now, you look like the gods.
(160) If you wish, wait for us, while we go to the palace of our father
and tell our mother, Metaneira with the low-slung waistband,
all these things from beginning to end, in the hope that she will tell you
to come to our house and not to seek out the houses of others.¹³
She has a treasured son, growing up in the well-built palace.
(165) He was born late, after many a prayer for the birth of a son: a great joy to his parents.
If you nourish him to grow till he reaches the crossing-point of life, coming of age,
I can predict that you will be the envy of any woman who lays eyes on you.
That is how much compensation she [Metaneira] would give you in return for raising him.”
So she [Kallidikē] spoke. And she [Demeter] nodded her assent. So they,
(170) filling their splendid jars with water, carried it off, looking magnificent.
Swiftly they came to the great palace of their father, and quickly they told their mother
what they saw and heard.¹⁴ And she told them
quickly to go and invite her [Demeter] for whatever wages, no limits,
and they, much as deer or heifers in the season of spring
(175) prance along the meadow, satiating their dispositions as they graze on the grass,
so also they, hitching up the folds of their lovely dresses,
dashed along the rutted roadway, their hair flowing
over their shoulders, looking like crocus blossoms.
They found the illustrious goddess sitting near the road, just the way
(180) they had left her. Then they led her to the dear palace of their father.
She was walking behind them, sad in her dear heart.
She was wearing a veil on her head, and a long dark robe [peplos]
trailed around the delicate feet of the goddess.¹⁵
Straightaway they came to the palace of sky-nurtured¹⁶ Keleos.
(185) They went through the hall, heading for the place where their mistress, their mother,
was sitting near the threshold of a well-built chamber,
holding in her lap her son, a young seedling. And they ran over
to her side. She [Demeter] in the meantime went over to the threshold and stood on it,
with feet firmly planted, and her head
reached all the way to the ceiling. And she filled the whole indoors with a divine light.
(190) She [Metaneira] was seized by a sense of reverence, by a holy wonder, by a blanching fear.
She [Metaneira] yielded to her [Demeter] the chair on which she was sitting,
and she told her to sit down.
But Demeter, the bringer of seasons, the giver of splendid gifts,
refused to sit down on the splendid chair,
but she stood there silent, with her beautiful eyes downcast,
(195) until Iambē, the one who knows what is worth caring about [kednon] and what is not,
set down for her
a well-built stool, on top of which she threw a splendid fleece.¹⁷
On this she [Demeter] sat down, holding with her hands a veil before her face.
For a long time she sat on the stool, without uttering a sound, in her sadness.
And she made no approach, either by word or by gesture, to anyone.
(200) Unsmiling, not partaking of food or drink,
she sat there, wasting away with yearning for her daughter with the low-slung waistband,
until Iambē,¹⁸ the one who knows what is dear and what is not, started making fun.
Making many jokes, she turned the Holy Lady’s disposition in another direction,
making her smile and laugh and have a merry heart.
(205) Ever since, she [Iambē] has been pleasing her [Demeter] with the sacred rites.
Then Metaneira offered her [Demeter] a cup, having filled it with honey-sweet wine.
But she refused, saying that it was divinely ordained that she not
drink red wine. Then she [Demeter] ordered her [Metaneira] to mix some barley and water
with delicate pennyroyal, and to give her [Demeter] that potion to drink.
(210) So she [Metaneira] made the kukeōn¹⁹ and offered it to the goddess, just as she had ordered.
The Lady known far and wide as Dēō²⁰ accepted it, for the sake of divine law.²¹
Then well-girded Metaneira spoke up in their midst:
“Woman, I wish you pleasure and happiness.  I speak this way because
I think you are descended not from base parents
but from noble ones. You have the look of holiness in your eyes,
(215) and the look of good grace, just as if you were descended from kings,
who uphold the laws of the gods [themistes].
We humans endure the gifts the gods give us, even when we are grieving
over what has to be.
The yoke has been placed on our neck.
But now that you have come here, there will be as many things that they give to you as they give to me.
Take this little boy of mine and nourish him. He is late-born, and it was beyond my expectations
(220) that the immortals could have given him to me. I prayed many times to have him.
If you nourish him to grow till he reaches the crossing-point of life, coming of age,
I can predict that you will be the envy of any woman who lays eyes on you.
That is how much compensation I [Metaneira] would give you in return for raising him.”
Then Demeter, with the beautiful garlands in her hair, addressed her:
(225) “Woman, I wish you good grace back, and then some. May the gods give you good things.
With positive intentions, I will take your little boy as you tell me to.
I will nourish him, and I do not expect that, through the inadvertence of her nursemaid,
he would perish from a pestilence or from the Undercutter.²²
I know an antidote²³ that is far more powerful than the Woodcutter;²⁴
(230) I know a genuine remedy for the painful pestilence.”
Having so spoken, she took the child to her fragrant bosom,
in her immortal hands. And the mother [Metaneira] rejoiced in her mind.
(233) And so it came to pass that the splendid son of bright-minded Keleos,
(234) Dēmophōn,²⁵ who was born to the one with the beautiful waist, Metaneira,
(235) was nourished in the palace, and he shot up [anedrame] equal [īsos]
to a superhuman force [daimōn],
(236) not eating grain, not sucking from the breast. But Demeter
(237) used to anoint him with ambrosia, as if he had been born of the goddess,
(238) and she would breathe down her sweet breath on him as she held him to her bosom.
(239) At nights she would conceal him within the power source [menos] of fire,
as if he were a smoldering log,
(240) and his dear [philoi] parents were kept unaware. But they marveled
(241) at how full in bloom he came to be, and to look at him was like looking at the gods.²⁶
Now Demeter would have made him ageless and immortal
if it had not been for the heedlessness of well-girded Metaneira,
who went spying one night, leaving her own fragrant bedchamber,
(245) and caught sight of it [what Demeter was doing]. She let out a shriek and struck her two thighs,²⁷
afraid for her child. She had made a big mistake in her mind.
Weeping, she spoke these winged words:
“My child! Demophon! The stranger, this woman, is making you disappear in a mass of flames!
This is making me weep in lamentation [goos]. This is giving me baneful anguish!”
(250) So she spoke, weeping. And the resplendent goddess heard her.
Demeter, she of the beautiful garlands in the hair, became angry at her [Metaneira].
She [Demeter] took her [Metaneira’s] dear little boy, who had been born to her mother in the palace,
beyond her expectations,—she took him in her immortal hands and put him down on the floor, away from her.²⁸
She had taken him out of the fire, very angry in her heart,
(255) and straightaway she spoke to well-girded Metaneira:
“Ignorant humans! Heedless, unable to recognize in advance
the difference between future good fortune [aisa] and future bad.
In your heedlessness, you have made a big mistake, a mistake without remedy.
(259) I [Demeter] swear by the implacable water of the Styx,²⁹ the witness of
oaths that gods make, as I say this:
(260) immortal and ageless for all days
(261) would I have made your dear [philos] little boy, and I would have given him honor
[tīmē] that is unwilting [a-phthi-tos].³⁰
(262)But now there is no way for him to avoid death and doom.³¹
(263) Still, he will have an honor [tīmē] that is unwilting [a-phthi-tos], for all time,
because on my knees
(264) he had once sat and slept in my arms.
(265) At the right season [hōrā], every year,
(266) the sons of the Eleusinians will have a war, a terrible battle among each other.
(267) They will do so for all days to come.³²
I am Demeter, the holder of honors.  I am the greatest
boon and joy for immortals and mortals alike.
(270) But come! Let a great temple, with a great altar at its base,
be built by the entire population.  Make it at the foot of the acropolis and its steep walls.
Make it loom over the well of Kallikhoron,³³ on a prominent hill.
And I will myself instruct you in the sacred rites so that, in the future,
you may perform the rituals in the proper way and thus be pleasing to my mind.”
(275) So saying, the goddess changed her size³⁴ and appearance,
shedding her old age, and she was totally enveloped in beauty.
And a lovely fragrance wafted from her perfumed robes.
The radiance of her immortal complexion
shone forth from the goddess. Her golden hair streamed down her shoulder.
(280) The well-built palace was filled with light, as if from a flash of lightning.
She went out of the palace, and straightaway her [Metaneira’s] knees buckled.
For a long time she [Metaneira] was speechless. She did not even think of
her treasured little boy, to pick him up from the floor.
But his sisters heard his plaintive wailing,
(285) and they quickly ran downstairs from their well-cushioned bedrooms. One of them
picked up the child in her arms, clasping him to her bosom.
Another one rekindled the fire. Still another one rushed, with her delicate feet,
to prop up her mother as she was staggering out of the fragrant room.
They all bunched around the little boy, washing him as he gasped and spluttered.
(290) They all kept hugging him, but his heart could not be comforted.
He was now being held by nursemaids who were far inferior.
All night they prayed to the illustrious goddess,
trembling with fear. And when the bright dawn came,
they told Keleos, who rules far and wide, exactly what happened,
(295) and what the goddess Demeter, the one with the beautiful garlands in the hair, instructed them to do.
Then he [Keleos] assembled the masses of the people, from this end of the public
place to the other,
and he gave out the order to build, for Demeter with the beautiful hair, a splendid temple,
and an altar too, on top of the prominent hill.
And they obeyed straightaway, hearing his voice.
(300) They built it as he ordered. And the temple grew bigger and bigger,
taking shape through the dispensation of the superhuman force [daimōn].³⁵
When the people had finished their work and paused from their labor,
they all went home. But golden-haired Demeter
sat down and stayed there [in the temple], shunning the company of all the blessed ones [the gods].
She was wasting away with yearning for her daughter with the low-slung waistband.
(305) She made that year the most terrible one for mortals, all over the Earth, the nurturer of many.
It was so terrible, it makes you think of the Hound of Hādēs. The Earth did not send up
any seed. Demeter, she with the beautiful garlands in her hair, kept them [the seeds]
covered underground.
Many a curved plow was dragged along the fields by many an ox—all in vain.
Many a bright grain of wheat fell into the earth— all for naught.
(310) At this moment, she [Demeter] could have destroyed the entire population of mortal humans
with harsh hunger, thus depriving of their honors
the dwellers of the Olympian abodes— [the honors of] sacrificial portions of meat for
eating or for burning,³⁷
if Zeus had not noticed with his mind, taking thought in his heart
First, he sent Iris, with the golden wings, to summon
(315) Demeter with the splendid hair, with a beauty that is much loved.
That is what he told her to do. And she obeyed Zeus, the one with the dark clouds,
the son of Kronos,
and she ran the space between sky and earth quickly with her feet.³⁸
She arrived at the city of Eleusis, fragrant with incense,
and she found in the temple Demeter, the one with the dark robe.
(320) Addressing her, she spoke winged words:
“Demeter! Zeus, the one who has unwilting [a-phthi-ta] knowledge, summons you
to come to that special group, the company of the immortal gods.
So then, come! May what my words say, which come from Zeus, not fail to be turned
into action that is completed.”
So she spoke, making an entreaty. But her [Demeter’s] heart was not persuaded.
(325) After that, the Father sent out all the other blessed and immortal gods.
They came one by one,
they kept calling out to her, offering many beautiful gifts,
all sorts of honors that she could choose for herself if she joined the company of the
immortal gods.
But no one could persuade her in her thinking or in her intention [noēma],
(330) angry as she was in her heart, and she harshly said no to their words.
She said that she would never go to fragrant Olympus,
that she would never send up the harvest of the earth,
until she saw with her own eyes her daughter, the one with the beautiful looks.
But when the loud-thunderer, the one who sees far and wide, heard this,
(335) he sent to Erebos [Hādēs] the one with the golden wand, the Argos-killer [Hermes],³⁹
so that he may persuade Hādēs, with gentle words,
that he allow holy Persephone to leave the misty realms of darkness
and be brought up to the light in order to join the daimones [the gods in Olympus],
so that her mother may
see her with her own eyes and then let go of her anger.
(340) Hermes did not disobey, but straightaway he headed down beneath the depths of the earth,
rushing full speed, leaving behind the abode of Olympus.
And he found the Lord inside his palace,
seated on a funeral couch, along with his duly acquired bedmate,
the one who was much under duress, yearning for her mother, and suffering from
the unbearable things
(345) inflicted on her by the will of the blessed ones.⁴⁰
Going near him [Hādēs] and stopping, the powerful Argos-killer said to him:
“Hādēs! Dark-haired one! King of the dead!
Zeus the Father orders that I have splendid Persephone
brought back up to light from Erebos back to him and his company,
so that her mother
(350) may see her with her own eyes and let go of her wrath and terrifying rage.
against the immortals. For she [Demeter] is performing a mighty deed,
to destroy the tribes of earth-born humans, causing them to be without life,
by hiding the Seed underground—and she is destroying the honors
of the immortal gods.⁴¹ She has a terrifying anger, and she refuses
(355) to keep company with the gods. Instead, far removed, she is seated inside
a temple fragrant with incense. She has taken charge of the rocky citadel of Eleusis.”
So he spoke. Hādēs, King of the Dead, smiled
with his brows,⁴² and he did not disobey the order of Zeus the King.
Swiftly he gave an order to bright-minded Persephone.
(360) “Go, Persephone, to your mother, the one with the dark robe.
Have a kindly disposition and feeling in your breast.
Do not be too upset, excessively so.
I will not be an unseemly husband to you, in the company of the immortals.
I am the brother of Zeus the Father. If you are here,
(365) you will be queen of everything that lives and moves about,
and you will have the greatest honors in the company of the immortals.
Those who violate justice will get punishment for all days to come
those who do not supplicate your power with sacrifice, performing the rituals in a
reverent way, executing perfectly the offerings that are due.”
(370) So he spoke. And high-minded Persephone rejoiced.
Swiftly she set out, with joy. But he [Hādēs]
gave her, stealthily, the honey-sweet berry of the pomegranate to eat,
peering around him.⁴³ He did not want her to stay for all time
over there, at the side of her honorable mother, the one with the dark robe.
(375) The immortal horses were harnessed to the golden chariot
by Hādēs, the one who makes many tombs.
She got up on the chariot, and next to her was the powerful Argos-killer,
who took reins and whip into his precious hands
and shot out of the palace [of Hādēs]. And the horses sped away eagerly.
(380) Swiftly they made their way along the long journey. Neither the sea
nor the water of the rivers nor the grassy valleys
nor the mountain peaks could hold up the onrush of the immortal horses.
High over the peaks they went, slicing through the vast air.
He came to a halt at the place where Demeter, with the beautiful garlands in the hair,
(385) was staying, at the forefront of the temple fragrant with incense.
When she [Demeter] saw them,
she rushed forth like a maenad⁴⁴ down a wooded mountainslope.
[387-400]⁴⁵
(401) But when the earth starts blossoming with fragrant flowers of springtime,
flowers of every sort, then it is that you must come up from the misty realms of darkness,
once again, a great thing of wonder to gods and mortal humans alike.
But what kind of ruse was used to deceive you by the powerful one,
the one who receives many guests?”⁴⁶
(405) She [Demeter] was answered by Persephone, the most beautiful:
“So then, Mother, I shall tell you everything, without error.
When the messenger came to me, the swift Argos-killer,
with the news from my father, the son of Kronos, and from the other dwellers in the sky,
that I should come from Erebos, so that you may see me with your own eyes
(410) and let go of your wrath and terrifying rage against the immortals,
then I sprang up for joy, but he, stealthily,
put into my hand the berry of the pomegranate, that honey-sweet food,
and he compelled me by force to eat of it.
As for how it was that he [Hādēs] snatched me away, through the plans of the son of Kronos,
(415) my father, and how he took me down beneath the depths of the earth,
I will tell you and relate in order, as you ask.
We were, all of us, going along the lovely meadow, I and
Leukippē, Phainō, Elektra, Ianthē,
Melitē, Iakhē, Rhodeia, Kallirrhoē,
(420) Mēlobosis, Tykhē, and flower-faced Okyrrhoē,
Khrysēis, Ianeira, Akastē, Admētē,
Rhodopē, Ploutō, and lovely Kalypsō,
Styx, Ourania, and lovely Galaxaura.
Also Pallas [Athena], the one who rouses to battle, and Artemis, who delights in arrows.
(425) We were playing and gathering lovely flowers in our hands,
an assortment of delicate crocus, iris, and hyacinth,
rosebuds and lilies, a wonder to behold,and the narcissus, which is grown, like the crocus, by the wide earth.⁴⁷
I was joyfully gathering the flowers, and then the earth beneath me
(430) gave way, and there it was that he sprang out, the powerful lord who receives many          guests.
He took me away under the earth in his golden chariot.
It was very much against my will. I cried with a piercing voice.
These things, grieving, I tell you, and they are all alēthea.”
In this way did the two of them spend the whole day, having like minds,⁴⁸
(435) and they gladdened greatly each other’s heart and mind,
hugging each other, and their hearts ceased having grief.
They received joy from each other, and gave it.
Then Hekatē approached them, the one with the splendid headband.
And she welcomed back the daughter of holy Demeter with many embraces.
(440) And from that day forward, the Lady [Hekatē] became her [Persephone’s]
attendant and substitute queen.
Then the loud-thundering Zeus, who sees far and wide, sent to them a messenger,
Rhea with the beautiful hair, to bring Demeter, the one with the dark robe,
to join the company of the special group of gods. And he promised honors
that he would give to her [Demeter], which she could receive in the company
of the immortal gods.
(445) He [Zeus] assented that her daughter, every time the season came round,
would spend a third portion of the year in the realms of dark mist underneath,
and the other two thirds in the company of her mother and the other immortals.
So he spoke, and the goddess [Rhea] did not disobey the messages of Zeus.
Swiftly she darted off from the peaks of Olympus
(450) and arrived at the Rarian Field,⁴⁹ the life-bringing fertile spot of land,
in former times, at least. But, at this time, it was no longer life-bringing, but it stood idle
and completely without green growth. The bright grain of wheat had stayed hidden underneath,
through the mental power of Demeter, the one with the beautiful ankles. But, from this point on,
it began straightaway to flourish with long ears of grain
(455) as the springtime was increasing its power. On the field, the fertile furrows
began to be overflow with cut-down ears of grain lying on the ground, while the rest of   what was cut down was already bound into sheaves.
This happened the moment she [Rhea] arrived from the boundless aether.
They [Demeter and Rhea] were glad to see each other, and they rejoiced in their hearts.
Then Rhea, the one with the splendid headband, addressed her [Demeter]:
(460) “Come, child, Zeus the loud-thunderer, the one who sees far and wide, is summoning you
to come to the company of that special group of gods. And he promised honors
that he would give you, which you could receive in the company of the immortal gods.
He [Zeus] assented that your daughter, every time the season comes round,
would spend a third portion of the year in the realms of dark mist underneath,
(465) and the other two thirds in your company and that of the other immortals.
He has assented to all this with the nod of his head.⁵⁰
So come, my child! Obey! Do not be too
stubborn in your anger at the dark-clouded son of Kronos.
Straightaway make the harvest grow, that life-bringer for humans.”
(470) So she spoke, and Demeter, she with the beautiful garlands in her hair, did not disobey.
Straightaway she sent up the harvest from the land with its rich clods of earth.
And all the wide earth with leaves and blossoms
was laden. Then she went to the kings, administrators of natural laws,
and she showed them—to Triptolemos, to Diokles, driver of horses,
(475) to powerful Eumolpos and to Keleos, leader of the people [laoi] —
she revealed to them the way to perform the sacred rites, and she pointed out the
ritual to all of them⁵¹
the holy ritual, which it is not at all possible to ignore, to find out about, or to speak
out. The great awe of the gods holds back any speaking out.
(480) Blessed [olbios] is he among earthbound mortals who has seen these things.
But whoever is uninitiated in the rites, whoever takes no part in them,
will never get a share [aisa] of those sorts of things [that the initiated get],
once they die, down below in the dank realms of mist.
But when the resplendent goddess finished all her instructions,
they [Demeter and Persephone] went to Olympus, to join the company of the other gods.
(485) And there they abide at the side of Zeus, who delights in the thunderbolt.
Holy they are, and revered.  Blessed is he whom they,
being kind, decide to love among earth-bound mortals.
Straightaway they send to such a man, to reside at his hearth, in his great palace,
Ploutos [Wealth personified], who gives riches to mortal humans.
(490) But come, you goddesses, who have charge of the people of Eleusis, fragrant with incense.
and of Paros the island and rocky Antron.
Come, O Lady resplendent with gifts, queen Dēō [Demeter], bringer of seasons
both you and your daughter, the most beautiful Persephone.
Think kindly and grant, in return for this song, a rich means of livelihood that suits the heart.
(495) And I will keep you in mind throughout the rest of my song.

Footnotes

[ back ] 1. This name designates both the god of the underworld and the underworld itself.

[ back ] 2. As we shall now see, the narcissus is the trigger for the “trap door.”

[ back ] 3. On the division of the world, to be shared by the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hādēs, see Iliad 15.189-191.

[ back ] 4. That is, with the dead.

[ back ] 5. Different locales had different traditions about where Demeter was first recognized and where her cult and her Mysteries were first established.

[ back ] 6. Eleusis is the locale of the Eleusinian Mysteries; both Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries were eventually appropriated by the polis of Athens.

[ back ] 7. That is, the polis of Eleusis.

[ back ] 8. Evidently the oldest sister was speaking on behalf of the others as well.

[ back ] 9. The name suggests somebody who is a ‘giver of gifts’.

[ back ] 10. The textual transmission is garbled here, and my translation of this line is tentative (the key, I propose, is in the connections with lines 149-150).

[ back ] 11. The ‘gifts of the gods’ can be good fortune or bad fortune, making people rejoice or grieve. This theme is relevant to the ad hoc name of Demeter at line 122.

[ back ] 12. All this is an exercise in religious hindsight. The temple of “today” is the palace of “yesterday,” the age of heroes. The priest of “today,” descended as he is from an influential aristocratic family, is the king of “yesterday.” At a complex cult-center or “temple” like that of Eleusis, which is run by an accretive hierarchy of hereditary priesthoods, the religious hindsight requires that the accretion of priestly offices in the temple be retrojected as an aggregation of kings in the “palace,” who are also the cult-heroes in the “temple.” Notice that, although Kallidikē promises Demeter a catalogue of the kings, what she says turns out to be a catalogue of queens, who are named in terms of their husbands. The husbands are in the foreground, but the wives in the background are the ones who manage the palace. The kings are all special cult-heroes connected with the worship of Demeter. Triptolemos, the primeval Plowman, is a local hero of Athens. Dioklos is a local hero of Megara (according to Megarean tradition, he was the Megarean ruler of Eleusis who was expelled by the Athenian hero Theseus: Plutarch Theseus 10; the Megarean character in Aristophanes Acharnians 774 swears by him as a cult-hero). We know less about Polyxenos, but here too we have evidence for his cult in symbiosis with the cult of Demeter; keeping in mind the theme of god-hero antagonism, I note that poluxenos ‘he who has many guests’ is a conventional epithet of Hādēs. As for Eumolpos ‘he who sings and dances well’, he is the hero-ancestor of the ultimately dominant priestly family at the cult-center of Eleusis; he represents the most current tradition in Eleusis itself. Dolikhos was a cult-hero connected with the Eleusinian Games (Richardson commentary p. 199). Keleos seems to be a figure parallel to Eumolpos (cf. Richardson commentary p. 303).

[ back ] 13. Note the roles of the father and the mother.

[ back ] 14. Again, note the roles of the father and the mother.

[ back ] 15. Note the diametrical oppositions between Demeter and the girls, both in movement and in appearance. In the cult of Demeter, such diametrically opposite movements and appearances are suitable for ritual re-enactment, in song and dance, by ensembles of specially-chosen girls and women.

[ back ] 16. An epithet appropriate to kings, reflecting a myth-pattern that connects royal sovereignty with dew from the sky.

[ back ] 17. We know from other sources that such a stool with a fleece on it was a “prop” for the purification ritual at Eleusis.

[ back ] 18. Iambē, as we shall now see, is a personification of the iambic tradition, which reflects a ritual discourse that provokes laughter and thereby promotes fertility. This discourse, which makes fun of its targets, is often obscene in nature. The obscenity, it goes without saying, is ritual obscenity.

[ back ] 19. The name of a ritual potion in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

[ back ] 20. Another name for Demeter.

[ back ] 21. The hosia is whatever can be considered specific to the sphere of humans, not gods, in a ritual. For example, hosia is when humans take a drink at a ritual, whereas the god involved does not. From the standpoint of myth, however, when the ritual is founded, the god has to show the way by doing it first, so that humans will have precedent. In such a case, the god does it “for the sake of hosia” (cf. Richardson commentary p. 225).

[ back ] 22. With reference to the cutting of roots: this riddling euphemism designates extracts that serve as ingredients for magic potions.

[ back ] 23. Literally, an ‘anti-cutting’.

[ back ] 24. Apparently the same threat as the Undercutter.

[ back ] 25. Literally, ‘he who shines for the dēmos’.

[ back ] 26. Commentary in Nagy, Best of the Achaeans, pp. 181–182.

[ back ] 27. With downturned palms: a ritual gesture, described also in the Iliad.

[ back ] 28. In other versions, Demeter just leaves the baby in the fire, letting him perish right then and there (cf. Richardson commentary 244).

[ back ] 29. Styx (the word stux conveys the nervous reaction of recoiling at something that is chillingly ice-cold) is a river in Hādēs, and the gods swear by it when they guarantee the absolute truth of what they are saying.

[ back ] 30. Commentary in Nagy, Best of the Achaeans, p. 184.

[ back ] 31. In the present version of the Demeter myth, Metaneira’s mistake thus causes the boy’s eventual death. In other versions, as already mentioned, it causes the boy’s immediate death in the fire.

[ back ] 32. This refers to a ritual mock-battle at Eleusis, a quasi-athletic event known as the Ballētus, which was officially held on a seasonally-recurring basis to compensate for the death of the baby cult-hero Demophon. This mock-battle seems to have been the ritual kernel of a whole complex of events known as the Eleusinian Games (cf. Richardson commentary p. 246). Parallels: the Nemean and the Isthmian Games, pan-Hellenic athletic events, were held on a seasonally-recurring basis to compensate for the deaths of the baby cult-heroes Archemoros and Melikertes respectively.

[ back ] 33. Meaning: ‘the beautiful place of dancing’.

[ back ] 34. Gods are larger-than-life-size.

[ back ] 35. I see here a veiled reference to the ultimate development of the entire religious complex of Eleusis.

[ back ] 36. The meaning of this word is opaque; it probably conveys some mythological theme of anthropogony.

[ back ] 37. There were two ways of offering meat to the gods: as portions to be set aside and eaten (e.g. by the priests) or to be burned on the altar. The gods give vegetation to humans, who give their meat-offerings to the gods. If humans get no vegetation in order to sustain their life, the gods cannot get meat-offerings to sustain their tīmē.

[ back ] 38. Her golden wings are on her heels.

[ back ] 39. Hermes was the killer of a monster called Argos, who was himself a Hermetic figure. The form argos conveys swiftness and brightness, and the form Argei-phontēs may well convey both ‘Argos-killer’ and ‘he who kills with swiftness and brightness’.

[ back ] 40. The text of lines 349–350 is garbled, and the translation here is merely an approximation.

[ back ] 41. Commentary on lines 351–354 in Nagy, Best of the Achaeans, pp. 186–187.

[ back ] 42. This is conventionally said about a “knowing” smile: Hādēs knows more than he lets on.

[ back ] 43. Hādēs is acting furtively (Richardson commentary p. 277).

[ back ] 44. Maenads are frenzied devotees of Bacchus = Dionysus.

[ back ] 45. These lines are incomplete: the gaps in the text are caused by a tear in the manuscript (the Hymn to Demeter is preserved in only one medieval manuscript). The reconstructed context: Persephone also runs to her mother. Demeter finds out that Persephone has eaten of the pomegranate that had been offered her by Hādēs. It is determined that Persephone must therefore stay in Hādēs for one-third of the year, even though she may spend the other two-thirds with her mother.

[ back ] 46. Demeter is asking Persephone this question.

[ back ] 47. As we know from external sources, both the crocus and the narcissus are sacred to Demeter and Persephone.

[ back ] 48. It is a religious principle that Demeter and Persephone, on the occasion of their mother-daughter reunion, are “like-minded.”

[ back ] 49. A cult-place associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries and with the myth about the first plowing. Demeter is here, at the time: see lines 457–458.

[ back ] 50. There is a lacuna in the first part of this line.

[ back ] 51. Editors tend to skip the next line, which repeats the names of some, but not all, of the recipients of Demeter’s revelation of sacred mysteries.