\paperw3990 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \cf7 Demeter, known to the Romans by the name of Ceres, belonged to the first generation of the gods of Olympus, like her brothers \b \cf15 \ATXht8 Zeus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , \b \cf15 \ATXht1 Hades\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , and \b \cf15 \ATXht5 Poseidon\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 and her sisters \b \cf15 \ATXht3 Hera\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 and \b \cf15 \ATXht10818 Hestia\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 . Thus she was the daughter
of\cf0 \b \cf15 \ATXht10332 Cronus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , who swallowed her, and\b \cf0 \ATXht11800 \cf15 Rhea\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , \i alter ego\i0 of\b \ATXht10335 \cf15 Cybele\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 and\b \ATXht10700 \cf15 Gaea\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , all of who
m were identified with the Great Mother. While Gaea represented the primordial element and Rhea the power of generation, Demeter was the divinity of cultivated land and the goddess of grain. With the gift of agriculture and the foundation of\cf0 \cf7 ci
vilization, Demeter also laid down the rules by which humanity should live and, as a consequence, its laws.\par
In her dual aspect as Rhea-Demeter, the Orphic legends refer to her union with Zeus, which resulted in the birth of \b \cf15 \ATXht11100 Kore
\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 or\cf0 \b \cf15 \ATXht11617 Persephone\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , Demeter's only child according to the classical tradition.\par
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In legend, as in her cult, Demeter was closely bound to her daughter \b \cf15 \ATXht11617 Persephone
\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , who was abducted by Hades. In her desperate search for her daughter, \b \cf15 \ATXht1020 Demeter\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 left \b \cf15 \ATXht11507 Olympus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 and renounced her divine functions, with the result that the earth g
rew barren and ceased to yield fruit until her daughter was returned to her, at least for part of the year. The ancients saw this myth as an implicit allusion to the cycles of nature, to the seasons, the harvests, and, in particular, the produce of the e
arth which spent part of the year hidden beneath its surface before blossoming and bearing fruit. There were also references (to which attention was drawn in more than one philosophical text and, in all probability, in the Mysteries as well) to the desti
ny of the human being, whose body, buried under the ground like Persephone, did not prevent the soul from attaining immortality in a continuous cycle of death and rebirth.\par
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The central core of the legend of Demeter, whose significance was revea
led only to initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries, was supplemented over the course of time by various secondary myths, such as that of her rape by \b \cf15 \ATXht5 Poseidon\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 . Another legend relates that Demeter fell in love with\b \ATXht10901 \cf15 Iasion\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 and bore him a son called\b \cf0 \ATXht11628 \cf15 Plutus\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 (Wealth).\par
All the myths, however contradictory, are in agreement that she had no husband and that Demeter bore her children outs
