Demeter/Ceres

Pantheon**: Greek/Roman**

## Information

Demeter is the primordial Corn Mother. She is not an Earth goddess; she is very specifically the spirit of cultivation and crops. Greek goddess of the fertile soil and agriculture and an important aspect of the Goddess. As a goddess of nature, Demeter also represents women, marriage, harmony and health. She controls the seasons, the dying of the earth in winter and its rebirth in spring. She is acknowledged in the spring and autumn equinox celebrations, just as she was worshiped in ancient times.

*De* refers to divinity, as in *deity*, *dei*, or *deva*; *Meter* is literally Mother, and so Demeter is the “Divine Mother” or the “Deified Mother.” Another theory is that her name derives from *deai*, the Cretan word for *barley*, and thus her name would mean “Barley Mother.” Barley was among the very first grains cultivated in that region and frequently the most successful; Crete was a particularly early area of cultivation. Demeter’s myth credits her as being the founder, inventor, and promulgator of agriculture. She is a very great and powerful goddess.

According to myth, Demeter is the daughter of Cronos and Rhea, and the sister of Zeus and Poseidon. In an incestuous union with Zeus, she bore a daughter, Kore, “the maiden,” also known as Persephone. Hades, the god of the underworld, lusted after Kore, and Zeus promised the maiden to him without telling Demeter.

Hades raped Kore and kidnapped her to his underworld kingdom. When Demeter learned of this, she went into profound mourning, donning black clothing and searching nine days for her daughter. On the tenth day she encountered Hecate, the patron goddess of witchcraft, who had heard Kore cry out. The two went to Helios, who had witnessed the abduction. Upon hearing the entire story from Helios, Demeter went into a rage. She resigned from the company of the gods and neglected her duties. Crops failed and famine spread throughout the lands. The situation grew worse and worse, but Demeter could not be persuaded to act.

Finally, Hermes succeeded in convincing Hades to let Kore go. But the crafty god of the underworld tricked Kore into eating part of a pomegranate before she left; this partaking of food in the underworld doomed her to spend at least part of her time with Hades forever. A compromise was struck: each year she would spend six months above the earth, six months below. The coming and going of Kore is signalled by the equinoxes. Demeter was so grateful to have her daughter back at least part of the year that she initiated mankind into her mysteries and taught him agriculture, symbolized by corn. Many of the secret rites of her cults were practised only by women, because of their power to bring forth life. In Attica, the rituals were performed by both men and women.

The myth for which Demeter is now most famous involves the abduction of her daughter, Persephone, but it is only one of a wide canon of myths in which she features. She was a tremendously important goddess, an ancient indigenous spirit of Greece incorporated into the Olympian pantheon. Instead of residing in Olympus, however, Demeter preferred to live on Earth.

Demeter was a goddess of the masses and the elite. She presided over Mysteries, most famously the Mysteries of Eleusis near Athens, where she was venerated alongside Persephone. She was venerated with her daughter, Despoena, in Arcadian Mysteries and presided over the Mysteries at Lerna, one of the entrances to Hades.

Demeter and Kore were sometimes considered as two aspects of the Corn Mother and were called the “Two Goddesses” or the “Great Goddesses.” Sacrifices of fruit, honey cakes, bulls, pigs and cows were made to them.

Demeter is a great magician with a particular talent for transformation. She bestows healing, fertility, protection, and prosperity. There is virtually nothing she can’t do for those she loves. If she is angry, she punishes by causing insatiable hunger.

The Romans identified Demeter with Ceres, their goddess of the earth, and incorporated Demeter’s aspects into their own goddess. The concept of the earth goddess who governs the fertility of the earth exists around the world.

**Manifestations:** Demeter is a shape-shifter and can take any form. Famous manifestations are as a horse, hag, or beautiful woman with golden hair resembling a field of ripe wheat.

**Iconography:** Demeter is depicted as a beautiful, regal, mature woman holding wheat in one hand and poppies in the other. Snakes writhe around her. Sometimes she is portrayed as a horse-headed woman, as in the votive image set inside the cave where Demeter once mourned for Persephone. The image is described as a seated woman’s body with a horse’s head and mane holding a dove and dolphin. Snakes emerge from her head.

Demeter Melaina is the path of Black Demeter, black as the fertile earth: she is the prototype for at least several Black Madonnas.

**Attribute:** Torch; ear of wheat; scythe (lost while searching for Persephone); basket

**Sacred plants:** Barley, wheat, grains in general, poppies, pomegranates; pennyroyal; Vitus agnus-castus; entheogenic and visionary plants; oak trees

**Creatures:** Pigs, horses, snakes, grasshopper, crane

**Number:** 8

**Sacred days:** The women-only Thesmophoria honored Demeter and Persephone. Some scholars date this festival to the Stone Age. Her Eleusinian Mysteries were inaugurated in approximately 1500 BCE and lasted until 396 CE. Other festivals dedicated to Demeter include the Chloeia (festival of sprouting grain), the Haloa (a harvest festival), and the Thalysia (a thanksgiving festival).

**Offerings:** Do not give her wine; Demeter drinks mint-flavored barley water. She accepts wreaths of grain; votive pigs; images of women carrying piglets; foccacce bread in the shape of genitals

**See also:** Arion; Ascalaphus; Baubo; Black Madonna; Despoena; Hades; Hekate; Hydra; Mentbe; Olympian Spirits; Persephone; Poseidon

## Appearances in Modern Media

From Dawn of GodsFrom Fate Grand OrderFrom Blood of ZeusFrom HadesFrom Rage of BahamutFrom Shin Megami Tensei IV ApocalypseFrom Age of IshtariaFrom Kamihime ProjectFrom Destiny Child
## Ceres

**Origin:** Italy

Ceres is the original Corn Mother, Goddess of Grain. Scholars now believe grains were first cultivated for the purpose of brewing beer, not baking bread, and so Ceres is also a goddess of intoxication. She presides over the fertility and abundance of plants, people, and animals.

Ceres may or may not be the same spirit as the mysterious, primordial goddess Car. Her name is believed to derive from a root word meaning “growth.” Related words include kernel, cereal, and cerveza (beer).

Ceres, the Italian Corn Mother, eventually became profoundly identified with Demeter and has become somewhat subsumed by that Greek goddess. Often the name Ceres is used when Demeter is intended. The two were originally distinct spirits. Because she was identified with Demeter, her associations with Proserpina were eventually emphasized, but Ceres was originally venerated alongside Liber and Libera, with whom she shared a temple in the Circus Maximus. Her constant companion is Tellus Mater, Mother Earth.

Ceres is literally an earthy goddess, beloved by the masses. She was a highly significant and respected spirit: the Sibylline Prophesies recommended an annual fast honouring Ceres to ensure an abundant harvest and avoid famine. She is also a spirit of healing and dream divination.

Farmers traditionally offered Ceres the first harvested stalk of grain.

**Iconography:** Ceres usually holds a stalk of wheat in her left hand and a basket or bowl of fruit in her right.

**Animals:** Sow (pigs were kept in underground enclosures in her shrines; sleeping among them allegedly produced healing dreams)

**Feast**: Her primary festival, the Cerealia, was celebrated around the full moon in April; it was a seven-day festival featuring games and processions; another festival, the Ambarvalia, was celebrated around 29 May.

**Sacred sites:** Many shrines were rededicated to the Virgin Mary. The Roman Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin is built over Ceres’ temple. Her temple in Apulia, Italy, was rededicated to the Madonna of the Wheat Stalk.

**Offerings:** Grains; baked goods; beer (in Spanish: cerveza); wine; honey; salt; incense; images of pigs, traditionally silver and gold pigs; wear a charm bracelet featuring pig charms to signal your devotion; images of pregnant animals

**See Also:** Car; Keres; Liber; Libera; Proserpina; Sybil; Tellus Mater

## Appearances in Modern Media

From Rangers of OblivionFrom Puzzle & DragonFrom Kamihime Project
## Information Source

Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses by Judika Illes

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca by Rosemary Guiley