Demeter

Demeter is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She is the goddess of grain, whose gift made farming possible, and she is honoured in the harvest festivals of Greece.

Her best-known myth is told in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Hades, with the approval of Zeus, carried her daughter Persephone down to the underworld. Demeter searched for nine days, then learned the truth from Helios, and in grief disguised herself as an old woman and came to Eleusis, near Athens. There she tried to make the baby prince Demophon immortal, and when his mother interrupted, she revealed herself and asked for a temple.

Meanwhile she let the earth stop producing grain. Zeus had to send Hermes to fetch Persephone back. Because Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds, she had to return to the underworld for part of each year, and the seasons are the result: Demeter's grief in winter, and her joy in spring.

At Eleusis she and Persephone were honoured in the Eleusinian Mysteries, the most important secret initiation rite in Greece, which promised a better fate after death.