188 i Flora Unveiled
There follows a lengthy interlude in which Demeter travels to Eleusis and establishes her
temple there. At Eleusis, Demeter continues to mourn for her daughter. To exact revenge,
she refuses to make the seeds sprout from the soil, and, as a result, famine spreads through-
out the world. Struggling to survive, the people stop making gifts and sacrifices to the gods.
To restore the normal order, Zeus sends Hermes to the underworld to convince Hades to
release Kore and allow her to return to the surface. Hades reluctantly agrees, but, just as she
is leaving, Hades ensures her return with one final trick. In the “Hymn to Demeter,” Kore
tells her mother what happened after she learned of her release:
Then I leapt for joy, but he stealthily put in my mouth a food honey- sweet, a pome-
granate seed, and compelled me against my will and by force to taste it. ^14Having tasted the seed, Kore is now obliged to spend one third of every year (the win-
ter) underground with Hades, returning to the surface each spring. Upon returning to
the surface, Kore is referred to by her adult name, Persephone, indicating that her maid-
enhood is over. In the fall, she again becomes Kore in anticipation of her return to the
underworld.
Hades tricks Kore twice, the first time with a beautiful flower, the symbol of virginity;
the second time, after she has become his bride, with a seed, the symbol of fertility. The
blood- red juice of the pomegranate suggests menstruation. The reproductive cycle of flower-
ing plants thus serves as a metaphor for the female reproductive cycle, from her flower- like
life as a virgin to her fruit- like life as a wife and mother.^15
Demeter’s ultimate power over crops (and, indirectly, the well- being of the Olympian
gods) establishes her as the primary vegetation deity of Greece. It was Demeter who first
taught the boy, Triptolemos, how to plant and harvest grain, considered by the Greeks to be
the foundation of civilization. With the help of Demeter and Persephone, Triptolemos flew
all over Greece in a winged chariot, sowing grain and educating his fellow Greeks in the art
of cereal cultivation (Figure 7.3).
Figure 7.3 Triptolemos seated in his winged chariot, flanked by Demeter (left) and Kore (right).
Krater from Agrigentro, Sicily; Museo Archeologico, Palermo.