Demeter

Goddess of grain, the harvest, and the gift of cultivated wheat. The *Homeric Hymn to Demeter* tells how Hades seized her daughter Persephone, how Demeter wandered as the old nurse at Eleusis, and how her grief withheld the seed from the furrows until Zeus brokered a compromise — Persephone returns each spring. From Eleusis came the Mysteries that promised the initiate a better lot in death.

Associated Places