Dear Classical Wisdom Reader, 

It is one of the most ancient myths from the ancient world... a father arranges a marriage, without the consent or knowledge of either mother or daughter. When the groom steals the girl away, the mother is devastated... and seeks revenge. Her wrath is so destructive... a compromise must be made. 

Of course I’m talking about the Goddess of the Harvest, Demeter and her daughter, the Queen of the underworld, Persephone. 

But how did this myth of Demeter and Persephone relate to the lives of normal ancient women? Why did it resonate so deeply? 

And what does its veneration tell us about the power of these ancient women... about how much they had... and how much they lost? 

Classical Wisdom Members, please make sure to read Chapter One of Mary Naples’ excellent new Ebook, “The Cult of the Captured Bride” and join us on Tuesday, April 18th at 12:30pm EST, for a Members Only Roundtable Discussion with Mary. 

Members, please make sure to register here.

We’ll discuss the myth, the trends from the Neolithic and Bronze to the Classical era, why it was so important that Demeter was from Crete… and whether the relationships between mothers and daughters… and husbands and wives… have changed?

We have put the first section of the chapter we will discuss from “The Cult of the Captured Bride” below. 

Read on to discover this essential myth and why it was so important...

All the best,

Anya Leonard

Founder and Director

Classical Wisdom and Classical Wisdom Kids

P.S. Prefer the tangible to the digital? You can purchase Mary’s new book (including beautiful illustrations) on Amazon here: 

CHAPTER ONE: THE MYTH—THE HOMERIC HYMN TO DEMETER

by Mary Naples

Mythology, in modern parlance, may imply unbelievable or exaggerated stories, however the term is used here to refer to stories of deep and abiding cultural significance. While not all myths are associated with religion, most religions have some myth or story associated with them that make ritual meaningful for its adherents.

Evoking early agrarian rituals which celebrated the primal mysteries of birth, death, and resurrection, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter has the distinction of being amongst humankind’s first literary compositions honoring agricultural renewal and the great mother goddess tradition. Thought to have been composed contemporaneously with Homer’s epics, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter was penned in the seventh century BCE and is one of a series of thirty-three Homeric hymns which honor individual deities.  

They are called Homeric, not because they were composed— or sung— by the poet known as Homer, but because they employ the same meter used in the epics: dactylic hexameter or six feet per line. These Homeric Hymns were originally sung as prayers and while there is no record of a specific performance of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter—hereafter referred to as the Hymn— most scholars agree that a portion of the Hymn was likely sung at the cult festivals honoring Demeter.

There are twenty-two adaptations of Demeter’s myth, but the Hymn is considered to be of the greatest antiquity and for this reason, thought to be closest to the cult practice of the Thesmophoria. In a nod to its primordial origins, some aspects of the Hymn invoke the Thesmophoria; meaning that the Thesmophoria was practiced before the Hymn was composed. In a causality that may appear contrary to modern-day sensibilities, scholars now believe that portions of the myth were used as justification for some of the rituals in the Thesmophoria. That being the case, the ritual is thought to have preceded the mythology. 

One example of where mythology is a reflection of history in the Hymn is when Demeter tells of her forceful abduction from Crete:

With her pre-Hellenic attributes, Demeter is one of the oldest of the Olympian gods with origins dating back to the Minoan Crete (3000 BCE- 1500 BCE) goddess cults. As a hypothesized matricentric society, Crete was the cultural mainspring of the Mediterranean until it was overpowered by the Mycenaeans (1600 BCE-1100 BCE).

As is often the case when one culture subsumes another, the invader gods raped or married the indigenous goddesses replacing matricentric elements with patriarchal ones. By rewriting the mythology, the Mycenaeans provoked the systemic suppression of goddess worship. This eventually gave rise to a cultural shift that would encompass the widespread denigration of women aptly demonstrated by the overarching rape myths. 

The Story of Demeter and Persephone

One of the oldest of these myths is recounted in the Iliad and serves as antecedent action leading up to the events in the Hymn. In an effort to reassure the long-suffering Hera that he prefers her above all others, the almighty Zeus proceeds to tell her about his sexual exploits, naming his sister, Demeter, in his labyrinthine list of conquests. But there is more to the story than that. In the Odyssey, Calypso tells of how Demeter made love to the Cretan youth Iasion:

Thus, the god of sky and thunder jealously struck Iasion dead with a thunderbolt. In another tradition, after striking Iason dead, he rapes his sister Demeter. Demeter and Zeus never married. Zeus would have been husband to hundreds if he had married everyone he raped.  

The product of that rape was Persephone. Persephone, initially known by the generic name, Kore or maiden, is famously abducted, and it is this story we will focus on. Predictably for this hyper-patriarchal culture, it is only after the rape/marriage that she is given the name, Persephone, thus an identity. The Hymn’s opening stanza refers to Persephone’s abduction and the dark bargain made by Zeus and Hades without the knowledge or approval of Demeter:

Make no mistake, his being an absentee father did not stop Zeus from arranging the marriage of his daughter to his brother, Persephone’s uncle—Hades, lord of the underworld. 

Unaware that her life was soon to change irrevocably, a fresh-faced and carefree Persephone (Kore) wearing the flowing robes of a young maiden was picking flowers in a lush and fragrant meadow with her girlfriends. In her basket were the first flowers of the season: pale roses, violet-hued crocuses, blue irises, and finally, the yellow and white daffodils known in antiquity as narcissus. But narcissus was different from the other flowers: 

Upon plucking the narcissus, the pastel-blue sky turned dark with menace. Then all at once, the earth cleaved open and in a horse-drawn chariot, a bearded and grim-faced Hades savagely sprang out, seizing the young girl to be his wife in the underworld: 

Common in primitive forms of justice, her cries summoned witnesses to the crime. In her commentary of the Hymn, noted Helenist scholar Helene Foley asserts that even in Deuteronomy 22.24-27 it is made clear that a woman who is raped is not held responsible if she cries out in protest. This convention is evident as well in Greek literature when, in Euripides’ Ion, Creusa cries with rage against Apollo, and again in Trojan Women when an incredulous Hecuba asks if any Spartan heard Helen’s cries for help upon her “abduction.” 

Persephone’s screams by themselves, however, were not for witnesses alone. Because of the sheer violence of the act, she cried for her all-powerful father to intercede: “...calling on her father, the son of Kronos highest and best.”

As the progeny of the supreme god and ruler on Mount Olympus, who could blame her for thinking that Zeus would right the grievous wrong done and rescue her?  But the almighty, all-seeing, all-knowing, ever-vengeful Zeus was deaf to his daughter’s wretched screams: “not one of the immortals or of humankind heard her voice…”

His indifference, however, was only half of it. Being orchestrator for the depraved match, he was as culpable as Hades for Persephone’s torment, yet remained patently unmoved throughout her ordeal.  

Though her father was unaffected by her cries, the planet was not and came to her aid by alerting her mother. 

In direct contrast to an indifferent Zeus, for nine long days and nights, an inconsolable Demeter with torch in hand wandered the earth in search of her beloved daughter. 

Finally, on day ten, a primordial deity, Hecate—a pre-Olympian Titan goddess associated with earth and fertility rituals—informed Demeter of Persephone’s rape.  Although she heard Persephone’s cries, Hecate was unable to see who brutalized her: “For I heard a voice but did not see with my eyes who he was.” Because his rays allow him to see the entirety of the universe in the daytime, the two goddesses seek the guidance of another pre-Olympian Titan god, the sun god, Helios. 

That Demeter enlisted the help of two Titan deities in her search for Persephone is significant, as the Titans were the generation before the Olympians and had opposed the rule of Zeus. Helios augustly reveres “mighty Demeter” and declares it was,

Worth mentioning, in the Hymn and most versions of the myth, Persephone and Hades produce no offspring. Alas, the dark bargain made between Zeus and Hades is a misbegotten one. Furious at Zeus for making the perfidious match, Demeter withdrew from her home on Mount Olympus. Instead “she went among the cities and fertile fields of men,” finally settling in Eleusis, an area to the west of Athens, well-known for its cultivable land. 

Disguising herself as an old woman, she sat near the Maiden’s Well where she met three daughters of King Keleos—son of Eleusis—who treated her kindly. They took Demeter home to meet their mother, Metaneira. Although imitating an aged woman, upon entering Demeter’s celestial glow filled the room. When offered a chair, the goddess refused to sit, until Iambe —a servant—brought her a stool to sit on. She refused food and drink, yet despite being despondent over the loss of her beloved daughter, Demeter found solace in the lighthearted banter of Iambe,

Fasting and imitating Iambe’s light-hearted banter are two ways the citizen-wives honor Demeter in the ritual. 

Ultimately, Metaneira allowed Demeter to nurse Metaneira’s newborn son, Demophoon. In order to steal a mortal from the lord of the underworld—the way he stole a daughter from her— it was Demeter’s goal to make Demophoon immortal. By making Demophoon immortal she hoped to do the same for all mortals, thus robbing Hades of his flourishing enterprise.

Modern audiences might feel that placing an infant in a smoldering fire could endanger the newborn’s life, but such was not the case in Greek mythology where fire is often used as a means of immortalizing humans.  For example, the hero Heracles was apotheosized by being incinerated alive on his own funeral pyre, while Thetis used fire when she unsuccessfully endeavored to make her son, Achilles, immortal.  

Under Demeter’s care Demophoon thrived and grew miraculously fast—like a god. But things changed when one night Metaneira witnessed Demeter place her son in a glowing fireplace. Upon seeing her son incinerated, Metaneira screamed-–as any mortal mother would.  Tossing off the vestiges of old age and rising to her full celestial prominence, Demeter threw Demophoon from the flames to the ground howling:

Due to the deep indignity Demeter suffered at the hands of the mortals, she ordered the Eleusinians to build her a grand temple on a rising hill with attendant rites to conciliate her enraged spirit.

All the same, Demeter found no comfort with her grand temple, nor did she find solace with faithful adherents celebrating and making sacrifices to appease her fractured heart. Notwithstanding the high honors befitting a goddess, Demeter still mourned the loss of her daughter.

 Illustrating Demeter's resemblance to mortal women

Until one day, at long last, she realized her true strength lies in her fertility. So, she stopped the seasons and the fertile earth became a barren wasteland, “the ground released no seed, for bright-crowned Demeter kept it buried.” In fact, the image of the earth becoming a desolate and barren wasteland would have been all too familiar to the Greeks whose terrain, frequently craggy, dry and mountainous, was oftentimes inhospitable to cultivation. The menacing presence of a furious Demeter must have loomed large in the psyche of the Greeks who lived in fear of drought and famine. “She would have destroyed the whole mortal race by cruel famine and stolen the glorious honor of gifts and sacrifices from those having a home on Olympus.” 

A previously indifferent Zeus was troubled that the planet he shepherded was withering away. Make no mistake, the fate of humankind was of no concern to the ever self-indulgent Zeus. Instead, he was worried that starving humans would be less likely to offer adequate sacrifices and other gifts to himself and the other divine inhabitants on Mount Olympus. So Zeus pleaded with Demeter to make the earth abundant once again. But she would not relent until the release of Persephone. Finally, Zeus interceded with Hades on Demeter’s behalf and ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother in the light of her earthly domain. Ever-obsequious, Hades adhered to Zeus’s request but not before luring Persephone into eating a pomegranate seed. The mere act of eating in the underworld binds Persephone to Hades as his wife for a few months out of every year.

A Myth For Their Time 

Did the parable of the kidnapped bride ring true for women living in ancient Greece? Living under their husbands’ patriarchal thumbs, women had become accustomed to being out of the loop regarding the marriages of their daughters. As such, it was not unusual for fathers to bargain with prospective sons-in-law about the fates of their daughters without the knowledge or consent of either mothers or daughters. The truth is that the commodification of women set up more meaningful relationships between fathers and their sons-in-law, rather than between husbands and wives. 

In her book titled Women in Ancient Greece, Classical Studies lecturer Sue Blundell posits:

When young girls were torn from their natal homes at twelve to fifteen years of age and forced to marry strangers twice or three times their senior a fine line existed between rape and marriage. In an institution exploitative to its core, the rationale for pubescent brides was that, like livestock, the earlier they began breeding, the more offspring they could produce within their reproductive lives.

Once married, in a social system called viralocal or patrilocal residence, young girls were forced to reside in their new husbands’ homes which could be a great distance from their natal homes. Hence, having contact with their birth family was often a rare occurrence. That being the case, for all intents and purposes, the girls were symbolically dead to their families. Consequently, Demeter’s sense of powerlessness against the abduction, and the suffering that ensued at the loss of her daughter, could resonate for most mothers.  

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