9.
Demeter:
Goddess of Grain,
Nurturer and Mother
DEMETER THE GODDESS
Demeter, Goddess of Grain, presided over bountiful harvests. The
Romans knew her as Ceres—to which our word cereal is related. She
was described in the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter” as “that awesome
goddess, with her beautiful hair...and her gold sword”^1 (probably
poetic license for a sheaf of ripe wheat, which was her main symbol).
She was portrayed as a beautiful woman with golden hair and
dressed in a blue robe, or (most commonly in sculpture) as a mat-
ronly, seated figure.
Part of Demeter’s name, meter, seems to mean “mother,” but it is
not altogether clear what the “de-” or earlier “da-” refers to. She was
worshipped as a mother goddess, specifically as mother of the grain,
and mother of the maiden Persephone (the Roman Proserpina).
Demeter’s life began in the same dismal fashion as Hera’s. She
was the second child born to Rhea and Cronos, and the second to
be swallowed by him. Demeter was the fourth royal consort of Zeus
(Jupiter) who was also her brother. She preceded Hera, who was
number seven and the last. Out of this union came Zeus and De-
meter’s only child, their daughter Persephone, with whom Demeter
was linked in myth and worship.
The story of Demeter and Persephone—beautifully told in the
long Homeric “Hymn to Demeter,” centers around