West has proposed that the word Demeter, initially Damater, could be a borrowing from an Illyrian deity attested in the Messapic goddess Damatura, with a form dā- ("earth", from PIE *dʰǵʰ(e)m-) attached to - matura ("mother"), akin to the Illyrian god Dei-paturos ( dei-, "sky", attached to - paturos, "father"). John Chadwick also argues that the dā element in the name of Demeter is not so simply equated with "earth". Liddell & Scott find this "improbable" and Beekes writes, "there is no indication that means "earth", although it has also been assumed in the name of Poseidon found in the Linear B inscription E-ne-si-da-o-ne, "earth-shaker". It is possible that Da ( Δᾶ), a word which corresponds to Gē ( Γῆ) in Attic, is the Doric form of De ( Δῆ), "earth", the old name of the chthonic earth-goddess, and that Demeter is "Mother-Earth".
In antiquity, different explanations were already proffered for the first element of her name. ĭemeter's character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name meter ( μήτηρ) derived from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *méh₂tēr (mother). On the other hand, 𐀯𐀵𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊, si-to-po-ti-ni-ja, " Potnia of the Grain", is regarded as referring to her Bronze Age predecessor or to one of her epithets. It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in a Linear B ( Mycenean Greek) inscription ( PY En 609) the word 𐀅𐀔𐀳, da-ma-te, probably refers to "households". It is possible that Demeter appears in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents ( AR Zf 1 and 2, and KY Za 2), all three apparently dedicated in religious situations and all three bearing just the name ( i-da-ma-te on AR Zf 1 and 2). ĭemeter was often considered to be the same figure as the Anatolian goddess Cybele, and she was identified with the Roman goddess Ceres. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a religious tradition that predated the Olympian pantheon, and which may have its roots in the Mycenaean period c. Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. Her cult titles include Sito ( Σιτώ), "she of the Grain", as the giver of food or grain, and Thesmophoros ( θεσμός, thesmos: divine order, unwritten law φόρος, phoros: bringer, bearer), "giver of customs" or "legislator", in association with the secret female-only festival called the Thesmophoria. Because Persephone had eaten food from the Underworld, she could not stay with Demeter forever, but had to divide the year between her mother and her husband, explaining the seasonal cycle, as Demeter does not let plants grow while Persephone is gone. Zeus, to avert the disaster, ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother. In response, Demeter neglected her duties as goddess of agriculture, plunging the earth into a deadly famine, where nothing would grow, causing mortals to die. Demeter searched everywhere in order to find her missing daughter to no avail, until she was informed that Hades had taken her to the Underworld. When Hades, the king of the Underworld, wished to make Persephone his wife, he abducted her from a field while she was picking flowers, with Zeus' leave. One of the most notable Homeric Hymns, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, tells the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades and Demeter's search for her. Like her other siblings but Zeus, she was swallowed by her father as an infant, and rescued by Zeus.īy her brother Zeus she became the mother of Persephone, a goddess of fertility. In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Although she is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, marriage, and had connections to the Underworld. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter ( / d ɛ ˈ m iː t ər/ Attic: Δημήτηρ Dēmḗtēr Doric: Δαμάτηρ Dāmā́tēr) is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food and the fertility of the earth.
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