For Unit 4 you are reading The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. “Homer” was most likely not an actual, historical person. Rather, \u201cHomer\u201d 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\u2019 rape of Persephone and Demeter\u2019s search for her missing daughter. Please consider the following questions as you read this text:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n What themes about marriage and familial relationships do you see in this text? I begin to sing of Demeter, the holy goddess with the beautiful hair. [ back <\/a>] 1.<\/strong>\u00a0This name designates both the god of the underworld and the underworld itself.<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 2.<\/strong>\u00a0As we shall now see, the narcissus is the trigger for the \u201ctrap door.\u201d<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 3.<\/strong>\u00a0On the division of the world, to be shared by the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and H\u0101d\u0113s, see Iliad<\/em> 15.189-191.<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 4.<\/strong>\u00a0That is, with the dead.<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 5.<\/strong>\u00a0Different locales had different traditions about where Demeter was first recognized and where her cult and her Mysteries were first established.<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 6.<\/strong>\u00a0Eleusis is the locale of the Eleusinian Mysteries; both Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries were eventually appropriated by the polis<\/em> of Athens.<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 7.<\/strong>\u00a0That is, the polis<\/em> of Eleusis.<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 8.<\/strong>\u00a0Evidently the oldest sister was speaking on behalf of the others as well.<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 9.<\/strong>\u00a0The name suggests somebody who is a \u2018giver of gifts\u2019.<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 10.<\/strong>\u00a0The 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).<\/p>\n [ back <\/a>] 11.<\/strong>\u00a0The \u2018gifts of the gods\u2019 can be good fortune or bad fortune, making people rejoice or grieve. This theme is relevant to the ad hoc<\/em> name of Demeter at line 122<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong>
\nHow do women have power? How do goddesses have power?
\n<\/em><\/strong>
\nIn what way is this an aetiological myth?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nHomeric Hymn to Demeter <\/em>Trans. Gregory Nagy (2018):<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nAnd her daughter [Persephone] too. The one with the delicate ankles, whom H\u0101d\u0113s
\nseized. She was given away by Zeus, the loud-thunderer, the one who sees far and wide.
\nDemeter 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.
\n<\/span>She was picking flowers: roses, crocus, and beautiful violets.
\n<\/span>Up and down the soft meadow. Iris blossoms too she picked, and hyacinth.
\nAnd the narcissus, which was grown as a lure for the flower-faced girl
\n<\/span>by Gaia [Earth]. All according to the plans of Zeus. She [Gaia] was doing a favor for the one who receives\u00a0many guests [H\u0101d\u0113s].
\n(10) It [the narcissus] was a wondrous thing in its splendor. To look at it gives a sense of holy awe
\n<\/span>to the immortal gods as well as mortal humans.
\nIt has a hundred heads growing from the root up.
\n<\/span>Its sweet fragrance spread over the wide skies up above.
\nAnd the earth below smiled back in all its radiance. So too the churning mass of the salty sea.<\/span>(15) She [Persephone] was filled with a sense of wonder, and she reached out with both hands
\nto take hold of the pretty plaything.2<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> And the earth, full of roads leading every which way, opened up under her.
\nIt happened on the Plain of Nysa. There it was that the Lord who receives many guests made his lunge.
\n<\/span>He was riding on a chariot drawn by immortal horses. The son of Kronos. The one known\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 by many names.
\nHe seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot,
\n<\/span>(20) And drove away as she wept. She cried with a piercing voice,
\ncalling upon her father [Zeus], the son of Kronos, the highest and the best.
\nBut not one of the immortal ones, or of human mortals,
\nheard her voice. Not even the olive trees which bear their splendid harvest.<\/span>
\nExcept for the daughter of Persaios, the one who keeps in mind the vigor of nature.
\n(25) She heard it from her cave. She is Hekat\u0113, with the splendid headband.
\nAnd the Lord Helios [Sun] heard it too, the magnificent son of Hyperion.
\nThey heard the daughter calling upon her father, the son of Kronos.
\nBut he, all by himself, was seated far apart from the gods, inside a temple, the precinct of many prayers.
\nHe was receiving beautiful sacrificial rites from mortal humans.
\n(30) She was being taken, against her will, at the behest of Zeus,
\nby her father\u2019s brother, the one who rules many and who receives many guests,
\nthe son of Kronos, the one with many names. On the chariot drawn by immortal horses.
\nSo long as the earth and the star-filled sky
\nwere still within the goddess\u2019s [Persephone\u2019s] view, as also the fish-swarming sea
\n[pontos<\/em>],\u00a0with its strong currents,
\n(35)as also the rays of the sun, she still had hope that she would yet see
\nher dear mother and that special group, the immortal gods.
\nFor that long a time her great mind was soothed by hope, distressed as she was.
\nThe peaks of mountains resounded, as did the depths of the sea [pontos<\/em>],
\nwith her immortal voice. And the Lady Mother [Demeter] heard her.
\n(40) And a sharp pain seized her heart. The headband on her hair
\nshe tore off with her own immortal hands
\nand threw a dark cloak over her shoulders.
\nShe sped off like a bird, soaring over land and sea,
\nlooking and looking. But no one was willing to tell her the truth [et\u0113tuma<\/em>],
\n(45) not one of the gods, not one of the mortal humans,
\nnot one of the birds, messengers of the truth [et\u0113tuma<\/em>].
\nThereafter, for nine days did the Lady Demeter
\nwander all over the earth, holding torches ablaze in her hands.
\nNot once did she take of ambrosia and nectar, sweet to drink,
\n(50) in her grief, nor did she bathe her skin in water.
\nBut when the tenth bright dawn came upon her,
\nHekat\u0113 came to her, holding a light ablaze in her hands.
\nShe came with a message, and she spoke up, saying to her:
\n\u201cLady Demeter, bringer of the seasons, giver of splendid gifts,
\n(55) which one of the gods who dwell in the sky or which one of mortal humans
\nseized Persephone and brought grief to your dear heart?
\nI heard the sounds, but I did not see with my eyes
\nwho it was. So I quickly came to tell you everything, without error.\u201d
\nSo spoke Hekat\u0113. But she was not answered
\n(60) by the daughter of Rhea with the beautiful hair [Demeter]. Instead, she [Demeter]
\njoined her [Hekat\u0113] and quickly
\nset out with her, holding torches ablaze in her hands.
\nThey came to H\u0113lios, the seeing-eye of gods and men.
\nThey stood in front of his chariot-team, and the resplendent goddess asked this question:
\n\u201cHelios! Show me respect [aid\u014ds<\/em>], god to goddess, if ever
\n(65) I have pleased your heart and mind in word or deed.
\nIt is about the girl born to me, a sweet young seedling, renowned for her beauty,
\nwhose piercing cry I heard resounding through the boundless air,
\nas if she were being forced, though I did not see it with my eyes.
\nI turn to you as one who ranges over all the earth and sea [pontos<\/em>]
\n(70) as you look down from the bright sky with your sunbeams:
\ntell me without error whether you have by any chance seen my dear child,
\nand who has taken her away from me by force, against her will,
\nand then gone away? Tell me which one of the gods or mortal humans did it.\u201d
\nSo she spoke. And the son of Hyperion answered her with these words:
\n(75) \u201cDaughter of Rhea with the beautiful hair, Queen Demeter!
\nYou shall know the answer, for I greatly respect you and feel sorry for you
\nas you grieve over your child, the one with the delicate ankles. No one else
\namong all the immortals is responsible [aitios<\/em>] except the cloud-gatherer Zeus himself,
\nwho gave her to H\u0101d\u0113s as his beautiful wife.
\nSo he gave her to his own brother. And he [H\u0101d\u0113s], heading for the misty realms of darkness,
\n(80) seized her as he drove his chariot and as she screamed out loud.
\nBut I urge you, goddess: stop your loud cry of lamentation: you should not
\nhave an anger without bounds, all in vain. It is not unseemly
\nto have, of all the immortals, such a son-in-law as H\u0101d\u0113s,
\nthe one who makes many tombs [s\u0113mata]<\/em>.
\n(85) He is the brother [of Zeus], whose seed is from the same place. And as for honor,
\nhe has his share, going back to the very beginning, when the three-way
\ndivision of inheritance was made.3<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nHe dwells with those whose king he was destined by lot to be.\u201d4<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nSo saying, he shouted to his horses, and they responded to his command
\nas they swiftly drew the speeding chariot, like long-winged birds.
\n(90) And she [Demeter] was visited by grief [akhos<\/em>] that was even more terrifying than before:
\nit makes you think of the Hound of H\u0101d\u0113s.
\nIn her anger at the one who is known for his dark clouds, the son of Kronos,
\nshe shunned the company of gods and lofty Olympus.
\nShe went away, visiting the cities of humans, with all their fertile landholdings,
\nshading over her appearance, for a long time. And not one of men,
\n(95) looking at her, could recognize her. Not one of women, either, who are accustomed to
\nwear their waistbands low-slung.5<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nUntil, one day, she came to the house of bright-minded Keleos,
\nwho was at that time ruler of Eleusis, fragrant with incense.6<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nShe sat down near the road, sad in her dear heart,
\nat the well called Parthenion [the Virgin’s Place], where the people of the settlement used to draw water.
\n(100) She sat in the shade, under the thick growth of an olive tree,
\nlooking like an old woman who had lived through many years and who is
\ndeprived of giving birth and of the gifts of Aphrodite, lover of garlands in the hair.
\nShe was like those nursemaids who belong to kings, administrators of proper conduct,
\nand who are guardians of children in echoing palaces.
\n(105) She was seen by the daughters of Keleos, son of Eleusinos,
\nwho were coming to get water, easy to draw [from the well], in order to carry it
\nin bronze water-jars to the dear home of their father.
\nThere were four of them, looking like goddesses with their bloom of adolescence:
\nKallidik\u0113, Kleisidik\u0113, and lovely D\u0113m\u014d.
\n(110) And then there was Kallitho\u0113, who was the eldest of them all.
\nThey did not recognize her [Demeter]. Gods are hard for mortals to see.
\nThey [the daughters] stood near her and spoke these winged words:
\n\u201cWho are you, and where are you from, old woman, old among old humans?
\nWhy has your path taken you far away from the settlement? Why have you not
\ndrawn near to the palace?
\n(115) There, throughout the shaded chambers, are women
\nwho are as old as you are, and younger ones too,
\nwho would welcome you in word and in deed.\u201d
\nSo she spoke.8<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> And the Lady Goddess spoke with the following words:
\n\u201cDear children! Whoever women you are among the female kind of humans,
\n(120) [\u2018I wish you pleasure and happiness from our relationship, starting now\u2019]. I shall tell you.
\nIt is not unseemly,
\nsince you ask, for me to tell you truly
\nD\u014ds\u014d9<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> is my name. It was given to me by my honored mother.
\nBut that was then. I am from Crete, having traveled over the wide stretches of sea
\nagainst my will. Without my consent, by force, by duress,
\n(125) I was abducted by pirates. After a while,
\nsailing with their swift ship, they landed at the harbor of Thorikos.
\nThere the ship was boarded by women
\nof the mainland, many of them. They [the pirates]
\nstarted preparing dinner next to the prow of the beached ship.
\nBut my heart did not yearn for food, that delight of the mind.
\n(130) I stole away and set out to travel over the dark earth of the mainland, fleeing my
\narrogant captors. This way, I stopped them
\nfrom drawing any benefit from my worth without having paid the price.
\nThat is how I got here, in the course of all my wanderings. And I do not know
\nwhat this land is and who live here.
\n(135) But I pray to all the gods who abide on Olympus that you be granted
\nvigorous husbands and that you be able to bear children,
\nin accordance with the wishes of your parents. As for me, young girls, take pity.
\nTo be honest about it, what I want is for you to name for me a house to go to,
\nthe house of someone, man or woman, who has beloved children to be taken care of.10<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nI want to work for them,
\n(140) honestly. The kind of work that is cut out for a female who has outlived others her own age.
\nI could take some newborn baby in my arms,
\nand nourish him well. I could watch over his house.
\nI would make his bed in the inner recesses of well-built chambers,
\nthe royal bed. And I could see to a woman\u2019s tasks.\u201d
\n(145) So spoke the goddess. And she was answered straightaway by the unwed maiden,
\nKallidik\u0113, the most beautiful of the daughters of Keleos:
\n\u201cOld Mother, we humans endure the gifts the gods give us, even when we are grieving over what has to be.11<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nThey [the gods] are, after all, far better than we are.
\nWhat I now say will be clear advice, and I will name for you
\n(150) the men who have the great control, divinely given, of honor here:
\nthe men who stand at the forefront of the people and who protect the citadel of the settlement
\nwith their wise counsel and their straight judgements.
\nAnd then there are the wives too: of sound-minded Triptolemos, of Dioklos,
\nof Polyxenos, of faultless Eumolpos as well,
\n(155) of Dolikhos, and of our splendid father [Keleos].
\nThe wives of all of these manage the palace.12<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nOf these women, not a single one of them, when they first look at you,
\nwould deprive you of honor, the way you look, and turn you away from the palace.
\nRather, they will receive you. For, right now, you look like the gods.
\n(160) If you wish, wait for us, while we go to the palace of our father
\nand tell our mother, Metaneira with the low-slung waistband,
\nall these things from beginning to end, in the hope that she will tell you
\nto come to our house and not to seek out the houses of others.13<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nShe has a treasured son, growing up in the well-built palace.
\n(165) He was born late, after many a prayer for the birth of a son: a great joy to his parents.
\nIf you nourish him to grow till he reaches the crossing-point of life, coming of age,
\nI can predict that you will be the envy of any woman who lays eyes on you.
\nThat is how much compensation she [Metaneira] would give you in return for raising him.\u201d
\nSo she [Kallidik\u0113] spoke. And she [Demeter] nodded her assent. So they,
\n(170) filling their splendid jars with water, carried it off, looking magnificent.
\nSwiftly they came to the great palace of their father, and quickly they told their mother
\nwhat they saw and heard.14<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> And she told them
\nquickly to go and invite her [Demeter] for whatever wages, no limits,
\nand they, much as deer or heifers in the season of spring
\n(175) prance along the meadow, satiating their dispositions as they graze on the grass,
\nso also they, hitching up the folds of their lovely dresses,
\ndashed along the rutted roadway, their hair flowing
\nover their shoulders, looking like crocus blossoms.
\nThey found the illustrious goddess sitting near the road, just the way
\n(180) they had left her. Then they led her to the dear palace of their father.
\nShe was walking behind them, sad in her dear heart.
\nShe was wearing a veil on her head, and a long dark robe [peplos<\/em>]
\ntrailed around the delicate feet of the goddess.15<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nStraightaway they came to the palace of sky-nurtured16<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> Keleos.
\n(185) They went through the hall, heading for the place where their mistress, their mother,
\nwas sitting near the threshold of a well-built chamber,
\nholding in her lap her son, a young seedling. And they ran over
\nto her side. She [Demeter] in the meantime went over to the threshold and stood on it,
\nwith feet firmly planted, and her head
\nreached all the way to the ceiling. And she filled the whole indoors with a divine light.
\n(190) She [Metaneira] was seized by a sense of reverence, by a holy wonder, by a blanching fear.
\nShe [Metaneira] yielded to her [Demeter] the chair on which she was sitting,
\nand she told her to sit down.
\nBut Demeter, the bringer of seasons, the giver of splendid gifts,
\nrefused to sit down on the splendid chair,
\nbut she stood there silent, with her beautiful eyes downcast,
\n(195) until Iamb\u0113, the one who knows what is worth caring about [kednon<\/em>] and what is not,
\nset down for her
\na well-built stool, on top of which she threw a splendid fleece.17<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nOn this she [Demeter] sat down, holding with her hands a veil before her face.
\nFor a long time she sat on the stool, without uttering a sound, in her sadness.
\nAnd she made no approach, either by word or by gesture, to anyone.
\n(200) Unsmiling, not partaking of food or drink,
\nshe sat there, wasting away with yearning for her daughter with the low-slung waistband,
\nuntil Iamb\u0113,18<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> the one who knows what is dear and what is not, started making fun.
\nMaking many jokes, she turned the Holy Lady\u2019s disposition in another direction,
\nmaking her smile and laugh and have a merry heart.
\n(205) Ever since, she [Iamb\u0113] has been pleasing her [Demeter] with the sacred rites.
\nThen Metaneira offered her [Demeter] a cup, having filled it with honey-sweet wine.
\nBut she refused, saying that it was divinely ordained that she not
\ndrink red wine. Then she [Demeter] ordered her [Metaneira] to mix some barley and water
\nwith delicate pennyroyal, and to give her [Demeter] that potion to drink.
\n(210) So she [Metaneira] made the kuke\u014dn<\/em>19<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> and offered it to the goddess, just as she had ordered.
\nThe Lady known far and wide as D\u0113\u014d20<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> accepted it, for the sake of divine law.21<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nThen well-girded Metaneira spoke up in their midst:
\n\u201cWoman, I wish you pleasure and happiness.\u00a0 I speak this way because
\nI think you are descended not from base parents
\nbut from noble ones. You have the look of holiness in your eyes,
\n(215) and the look of good grace, just as if you were descended from kings,
\nwho uphold the laws of\u00a0the gods [themistes]<\/em>.
\nWe humans endure the gifts the gods give us, even when we are grieving
\nover what has to be.
\nThe yoke has been placed on our neck.
\nBut now that you have come here, there will be as many things that they give to you as they give to me.
\nTake this little boy of mine and nourish him. He is late-born, and it was beyond my expectations
\n(220) that the immortals could have given him to me. I prayed many times to have him.
\nIf you nourish him to grow till he reaches the crossing-point of life, coming of age,
\nI can predict that you will be the envy of any woman who lays eyes on you.
\nThat is how much compensation I [Metaneira] would give you in return for raising him.\u201d
\nThen Demeter, with the beautiful garlands in her hair, addressed her:
\n(225) \u201cWoman, I wish you good grace back, and then some. May the gods give you good things.
\nWith positive intentions, I will take your little boy as you tell me to.
\nI will nourish him, and I do not expect that, through the inadvertence of her nursemaid,
\nhe would perish from a pestilence or from the Undercutter.22<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nI know an antidote23<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> that is far more powerful than the Woodcutter;24<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\n(230) I know a genuine remedy for the painful pestilence.\u201d
\nHaving so spoken, she took the child to her fragrant bosom,
\nin her immortal hands. And the mother [Metaneira] rejoiced in her mind.
\n(233) And so it came to pass that the splendid son of bright-minded Keleos,
\n(234) D\u0113moph\u014dn,25<\/sup><\/strong><\/a> who was born to the one with the beautiful waist, Metaneira,
\n(235) was nourished in the palace, and he shot up [anedrame<\/em>] equal [\u012bsos<\/em>]
\nto a superhuman force [daim\u014dn<\/em>],
\n(236) not eating grain, not sucking from the breast. But Demeter
\n(237) used to anoint him with ambrosia, as if he had been born of the goddess,
\n(238) and she would breathe down her sweet breath on him as she held him to her bosom.
\n(239) At nights she would conceal him within the power source [menos<\/em>] of fire,
\nas if he were a smoldering log,
\n(240) and his dear [philoi<\/em>] parents were kept unaware. But they marveled
\n(241) at how full in bloom he came to be, and to look at him was like looking at the gods.26<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nNow Demeter would have made him ageless and immortal
\nif it had not been for the heedlessness of well-girded Metaneira,
\nwho went spying one night, leaving her own fragrant bedchamber,
\n(245) and caught sight of it [what Demeter was doing]. She let out a shriek and struck her two thighs,27<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nafraid for her child. She had made a big mistake in her mind.
\nWeeping, she spoke these winged words:
\n\u201cMy child! Demophon! The stranger, this woman, is making you disappear in a mass of flames!
\nThis is making me weep in lamentation [goos<\/em>]. This is giving me baneful anguish!\u201d
\n(250) So she spoke, weeping. And the resplendent goddess heard her.
\nDemeter, she of the beautiful garlands in the hair, became angry at her [Metaneira].
\nShe [Demeter] took her [Metaneira\u2019s] dear little boy, who had been born to her mother in the palace,
\nbeyond her expectations,\u2014she took him in her immortal hands and put him down on the floor, away from her.28<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nShe had taken him out of the fire, very angry in her heart,
\n(255) and straightaway she spoke to well-girded Metaneira:
\n\u201cIgnorant humans! Heedless, unable to recognize in advance
\nthe difference between future good fortune [aisa<\/em>] and future bad.
\nIn your heedlessness, you have made a big mistake, a mistake without remedy.
\n(259) I [Demeter] swear by the implacable water of the Styx,29<\/sup><\/strong><\/a> the witness of
\noaths that gods make, as I say this:
\n(260) immortal and ageless for all days
\n(261) would I have made your dear [philos<\/em>] little boy, and I would have given him honor
\n[t\u012bm\u0113<\/em>] that is unwilting [a-phthi-tos<\/em>].30<\/sup><\/strong><\/a>
\n(262)But now there is no way for him to avoid death and doom.31<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\n(263) Still, he will have an honor [t\u012bm\u0113<\/em>] that is unwilting [a-phthi-tos<\/em>], for all time,
\nbecause on my knees
\n(264) he had once sat and slept in my arms.
\n(265) At the right season [h\u014dr\u0101<\/em>], every year,
\n(266) the sons of the Eleusinians will have a war, a terrible battle among each other.
\n(267) They will do so for all days to come.32<\/sup><\/strong><\/a>
\nI am Demeter, the holder of honors.\u00a0 I am the greatest
\nboon and joy for immortals and mortals alike.
\n(270) But come! Let a great temple, with a great altar at its base,
\nbe built by the entire population.\u00a0 Make it at the foot of the acropolis and its steep walls.
\nMake it loom over the well of Kallikhoron,33<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> on a prominent hill.
\nAnd I will myself instruct you in the sacred rites so that, in the future,
\nyou may perform the rituals in the proper way and thus be pleasing to my mind.\u201d
\n(275) So saying, the goddess changed her size34<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> and appearance,
\nshedding her old age, and she was totally enveloped in beauty.
\nAnd a lovely fragrance wafted from her perfumed robes.
\nThe radiance of her immortal complexion
\nshone forth from the goddess. Her golden hair streamed down her shoulder.
\n(280) The well-built palace was filled with light, as if from a flash of lightning.
\nShe went out of the palace, and straightaway her [Metaneira\u2019s] knees buckled.
\nFor a long time she [Metaneira] was speechless. She did not even think of
\nher treasured little boy, to pick him up from the floor.
\nBut his sisters heard his plaintive wailing,
\n(285) and they quickly ran downstairs from their well-cushioned bedrooms. One of them
\npicked up the child in her arms, clasping him to her bosom.
\nAnother one rekindled the fire. Still another one rushed, with her delicate feet,
\nto prop up her mother as she was staggering out of the fragrant room.
\nThey all bunched around the little boy, washing him as he gasped and spluttered.
\n(290) They all kept hugging him, but his heart could not be comforted.
\nHe was now being held by nursemaids who were far inferior.
\nAll night they prayed to the illustrious goddess,
\ntrembling with fear. And when the bright dawn came,
\nthey told Keleos, who rules far and wide, exactly what happened,
\n(295) and what the goddess Demeter, the one with the beautiful garlands in the hair, instructed them to do.
\nThen he [Keleos] assembled the masses of the people, from this end of the public
\nplace to the other,
\nand he gave out the order to build, for Demeter with the beautiful hair, a splendid temple,
\nand an altar too, on top of the prominent hill.
\nAnd they obeyed straightaway, hearing his voice.
\n(300) They built it as he ordered. And the temple grew bigger and bigger,
\ntaking shape through the dispensation of the superhuman force [daim\u014dn<\/em>].35<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nWhen the people had finished their work and paused from their labor,
\nthey all went home. But golden-haired Demeter
\nsat down and stayed there [in the temple], shunning the company of all the blessed ones [the gods].
\nShe was wasting away with yearning for her daughter with the low-slung waistband.
\n(305) She made that year the most terrible one for mortals, all over the Earth, the nurturer of many.
\nIt was so terrible, it makes you think of the Hound of H\u0101d\u0113s. The Earth did not send up
\nany seed. Demeter, she with the beautiful garlands in her hair, kept them [the seeds]
\ncovered underground.
\nMany a curved plow was dragged along the fields by many an ox\u2014all in vain.
\nMany a bright grain of wheat fell into the earth\u2014 all for naught.
\n(310) At this moment, she [Demeter] could have destroyed the entire population of mortal humans
\nwith harsh hunger, thus depriving of their honors<\/em>
\nthe dwellers of the Olympian abodes\u2014 [the honors of] sacrificial portions of meat for
\neating or for burning,37<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nif Zeus had not noticed with his mind, taking thought in his heart<\/em>
\nFirst, he sent Iris, with the golden wings, to summon
\n(315) Demeter with the splendid hair, with a beauty that is much loved.
\nThat is what he told her to do. And she obeyed Zeus, the one with the dark clouds,
\nthe son of Kronos,
\nand she ran the space between sky and earth quickly with her feet.38<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nShe arrived at the city of Eleusis, fragrant with incense,
\nand she found in the temple Demeter, the one with the dark robe.
\n(320) Addressing her, she spoke winged words:
\n\u201cDemeter! Zeus, the one who has unwilting [a-phthi-ta<\/em>] knowledge, summons you
\nto come to that special group, the company of the immortal gods.
\nSo then, come! May what my words say, which come from Zeus, not fail to be turned
\ninto action that is completed.\u201d
\nSo she spoke, making an entreaty. But her [Demeter\u2019s] heart<\/em> was not persuaded.
\n(325) After that, the Father sent out all the other blessed and immortal gods.
\nThey came one by one,
\nthey kept calling out to her, offering many beautiful gifts,
\nall sorts of honors that she could choose for herself if she joined the company of the
\nimmortal gods.
\nBut no one could persuade her in her thinking or in her intention [no\u0113ma<\/em>],
\n(330) angry as she was in her heart, and she harshly said no to their words.
\nShe said that she would never go to fragrant Olympus,
\nthat she would never send up the harvest of the earth,
\nuntil she saw with her own eyes her daughter, the one with the beautiful looks.
\nBut when the loud-thunderer, the one who sees far and wide, heard this,
\n(335) he sent to Erebos [H\u0101d\u0113s] the one with the golden wand, the Argos-killer [Hermes],39<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nso that he may persuade H\u0101d\u0113s, with gentle words,
\nthat he allow holy Persephone to leave the misty realms of darkness
\nand be brought up to the light in order to join the daimones<\/em> [the gods in Olympus],
\nso that her mother may
\nsee her with her own eyes and then let go of her anger.
\n(340) Hermes did not disobey, but straightaway he headed down beneath the depths of the earth,
\nrushing full speed, leaving behind the abode of Olympus.
\nAnd he found the Lord inside his palace,
\nseated on a funeral couch, along with his duly acquired bedmate,
\nthe one who was much under duress, yearning for her mother, and suffering from
\nthe unbearable things
\n(345) inflicted on her by the will of the blessed ones.40<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nGoing near him [H\u0101d\u0113s] and stopping, the powerful Argos-killer said to him:
\n\u201cH\u0101d\u0113s! Dark-haired one! King of the dead!
\nZeus the Father orders that I have splendid Persephone
\nbrought back up to light from Erebos back to him and his company,
\nso that her mother
\n(350) may see her with her own eyes and let go of her wrath and terrifying rage.
\nagainst the immortals. For she [Demeter] is performing a mighty deed,
\nto destroy the tribes of earth-born humans, causing them to be without life,
\nby hiding the Seed underground\u2014and she is destroying the honors<\/em>
\nof the immortal gods.41<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> She has a terrifying anger, and she refuses
\n(355) to keep company with the gods. Instead, far removed, she is seated inside
\na temple fragrant with incense. She has taken charge of the rocky citadel of Eleusis.\u201d
\nSo he spoke. H\u0101d\u0113s, King of the Dead, smiled
\nwith his brows,42<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> and he did not disobey the order of Zeus the King.
\nSwiftly he gave an order to bright-minded Persephone.
\n(360) \u201cGo, Persephone, to your mother, the one with the dark robe.
\nHave a kindly disposition and feeling in your breast.
\nDo not be too upset, excessively so.
\nI will not be an unseemly husband to you, in the company of the immortals.
\nI am the brother of Zeus the Father. If you are here,
\n(365) you will be queen of everything that lives and moves about,
\nand you will have the greatest honors in the company of the immortals.
\nThose who violate\u00a0justice will get punishment for all days to come
\nthose who do not supplicate your power with sacrifice, performing the rituals in a
\nreverent way, executing perfectly the offerings that are due.\u201d
\n(370) So he spoke. And high-minded Persephone rejoiced.
\nSwiftly she set out, with joy. But he [H\u0101d\u0113s]
\ngave her, stealthily, the honey-sweet berry of the pomegranate to eat,
\npeering around him.43<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> He did not want her to stay for all time
\nover there, at the side of her honorable mother, the one with the dark robe.
\n(375) The immortal horses were harnessed to the golden chariot
\nby H\u0101d\u0113s, the one who makes many tombs.
\nShe got up on the chariot, and next to her was the powerful Argos-killer,
\nwho took reins and whip into his precious hands
\nand shot out of the palace [of H\u0101d\u0113s]. And the horses sped away eagerly.
\n(380) Swiftly they made their way along the long journey. Neither the sea
\nnor the water of the rivers nor the grassy valleys
\nnor the mountain peaks could hold up the onrush of the immortal horses.
\nHigh over the peaks they went, slicing through the vast air.
\nHe came to a halt at the place where Demeter, with the beautiful garlands in the hair,
\n(385) was staying, at the forefront of the temple fragrant with incense.
\nWhen she [Demeter] saw them,
\nshe rushed forth like a maenad44<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> down a wooded mountainslope.
\n[387-400]45<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\n(401) But when the earth starts blossoming with fragrant flowers of springtime,
\nflowers of every sort, then it is that you must come up from the misty realms of darkness,
\nonce again, a great thing of wonder to gods and mortal humans alike.
\nBut what kind of ruse was used to deceive you by the powerful one,
\nthe one who receives many guests?\u201d46<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\n(405) She [Demeter] was answered by Persephone, the most beautiful:
\n\u201cSo then, Mother, I shall tell you everything, without error.
\nWhen the messenger came to me, the swift Argos-killer,
\nwith the news from my father, the son of Kronos, and from the other dwellers in the sky,
\nthat I should come from Erebos, so that you may see me with your own eyes
\n(410) and let go of your wrath and terrifying rage<\/em> against the immortals,
\nthen I sprang up for joy, but he, stealthily,
\nput into my hand the berry of the pomegranate, that honey-sweet food,
\nand he compelled me by force to eat of it.
\nAs for how it was that he [H\u0101d\u0113s] snatched me away, through the plans of the son of Kronos,
\n(415) my father, and how he took me down beneath the depths of the earth,
\nI will tell you and relate in order, as you ask.
\nWe were, all of us, going along the lovely meadow, I and
\nLeukipp\u0113, Phain\u014d, Elektra, Ianth\u0113,
\nMelit\u0113, Iakh\u0113, Rhodeia, Kallirrho\u0113,
\n(420) M\u0113lobosis, Tykh\u0113, and flower-faced Okyrrho\u0113,
\nKhrys\u0113is, Ianeira, Akast\u0113, Adm\u0113t\u0113,
\nRhodop\u0113, Plout\u014d, and lovely Kalyps\u014d,
\nStyx, Ourania, and lovely Galaxaura.
\nAlso Pallas [Athena], the one who rouses to battle, and Artemis, who delights in arrows.
\n(425) We were playing and gathering lovely flowers in our hands,
\nan assortment of delicate crocus, iris, and hyacinth,
\nrosebuds and lilies, a wonder to behold,and the narcissus, which is grown, like the crocus, by the wide earth.47<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nI was joyfully gathering the flowers, and then the earth beneath me
\n(430) gave way, and there it was that he sprang out, the powerful lord who receives many\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 guests.
\nHe took me away under the earth in his golden chariot.
\nIt was very much against my will. I cried with a piercing voice.
\nThese things, grieving, I tell you, and they are all al\u0113thea<\/em>.\u201d
\nIn this way did the two of them spend the whole day, having like minds,48<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\n(435) and they gladdened greatly each other’s heart and mind<\/em>,
\nhugging each other, and their hearts ceased having grief.
\nThey received joy from each other, and gave it.
\nThen Hekat\u0113 approached them, the one with the splendid headband.
\nAnd she welcomed back the daughter of holy Demeter with many embraces.
\n(440) And from that day forward, the Lady [Hekat\u0113] became her [Persephone\u2019s]
\nattendant and substitute queen.
\nThen the loud-thundering Zeus, who sees far and wide, sent to them a messenger,
\nRhea with the beautiful hair, to bring Demeter, the one with the dark robe,
\nto join the company of the special group of gods. And he promised honors
\nthat he would give to her [Demeter], which she could receive in the company
\nof the immortal gods.
\n(445) He [Zeus] assented that her daughter, every time the season came round,
\nwould spend a third portion of the year in the realms of dark mist underneath,
\nand the other two thirds in the company of her mother and the other immortals.
\nSo he spoke, and the goddess [Rhea] did not disobey the messages of Zeus.
\nSwiftly she darted off from the peaks of Olympus
\n(450) and arrived at the Rarian Field,49<\/a><\/sup><\/strong> the life-bringing fertile spot of land,
\nin former times, at least. But, at this time, it was no longer life-bringing, but it stood idle
\nand completely without green growth. The bright grain of wheat had stayed hidden underneath,
\nthrough the mental power of Demeter, the one with the beautiful ankles. But, from this point on,
\nit began straightaway to flourish with long ears of grain
\n(455) as the springtime was increasing its power. On the field, the fertile furrows
\nbegan to be overflow with cut-down ears of grain lying on the ground, while the rest of\u00a0\u00a0 what was cut down was already bound into sheaves.
\nThis happened the moment she [Rhea] arrived from the boundless aether.
\nThey [Demeter and Rhea] were glad to see each other, and they rejoiced in their hearts.
\nThen Rhea, the one with the splendid headband, addressed her [Demeter]:
\n(460) \u201cCome, child, Zeus the loud-thunderer, the one who sees far and wide, is summoning you
\nto come to the company of that special group of gods. And he promised honors
\nthat he would give you, which you could receive in the company of the immortal gods.
\nHe [Zeus] assented that your daughter, every time the season comes round,
\nwould spend a third portion of the year in the realms of dark mist underneath,
\n(465) and the other two thirds in your company and that of the other immortals.
\nHe has assented to all this with the nod of his head.50<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nSo come, my child! Obey! Do not be too
\nstubborn in your anger at the dark-clouded son of Kronos.
\nStraightaway make the harvest grow, that life-bringer for humans.\u201d
\n(470) So she spoke, and Demeter, she with the beautiful garlands in her hair, did not disobey.
\nStraightaway she sent up the harvest from the land with its rich clods of earth.
\nAnd all the wide earth with leaves and blossoms
\nwas laden. Then she went to the kings, administrators of natural laws,
\nand she showed them\u2014to Triptolemos, to Diokles, driver of horses,
\n(475) to powerful Eumolpos and to Keleos, leader of the people [laoi<\/em>] \u2014
\nshe revealed to them the way to perform the sacred rites, and she pointed out the
\nritual to all of them51<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
\nthe holy ritual, which it is not at all possible to ignore, to find out about, or to speak
\nout. The great awe of the gods holds back any speaking out.
\n(480) Blessed [olbios<\/em>] is he among earthbound mortals who has seen these things.
\nBut whoever is uninitiated in the rites, whoever takes no part in them,
\nwill never get a share [aisa<\/em>] of those sorts of things [that the initiated get],
\nonce they die, down below in the dank realms of mist.
\nBut when the resplendent goddess finished all her instructions,
\nthey [Demeter and Persephone] went to Olympus, to join the company of the other gods.
\n(485) And there they abide at the side of Zeus, who delights in the thunderbolt.
\nHoly they are, and revered.\u00a0 Blessed is he whom they,
\nbeing kind, decide to love among earth-bound mortals.
\nStraightaway they send to such a man, to reside at his hearth, in his great palace,
\nPloutos [Wealth personified], who gives riches to mortal humans.
\n(490) But come, you goddesses, who have charge of the people of Eleusis, fragrant with incense.
\nand of Paros the island and rocky Antron.
\nCome, O Lady resplendent with gifts, queen D\u0113\u014d [Demeter], bringer of seasons
\nboth you and your daughter, the most beautiful Persephone.
\nThink kindly and grant, in return for this song, a rich means of livelihood that suits the heart.
\n(495) And I will keep you in mind throughout the rest of my song.<\/p>\nFootnotes<\/strong><\/h3>\n