Demeter & Persephone



Demeter & Persephone

Demeter
	Demeter celebrates the Mother-Daughter Bond. Human civilization is based on agriculture, in Greece presided over by Demeter. The Eleusinian mystery religion centered on her worship and on reverence for her lost daughter. Persephone was mown down and torn from her mother exactly as the sheaf in Demeter's hand is reaped from the bosom of Mother Earth. Although Demeter rescues her daughter from the underworld, she bequeaths winter dark and cold as a sign of her grief. Demeter of Cnidus, British Museum, c. 333 BCE
$32~
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		Persephoné: Greek Queen of the Underworld
		6-1/4" tall , Resin stone aggregate.
		“Holy Maiden of the Springtime meadow… Pale Queen of Hades’ realm.” Persephoné’s legend forms the basis of the rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries: Koré is abducted by Hades to be his bride in the Underworld. Demeter goes on strike so that humans are starving. Demeter bargains with Zeus, setting the terms: Kore may return if She has not eaten. But Hades has persuaded Kore to eat three pomegranate seeds. She is reunited with Her mother in the Spring, but must return to Hades in the Fall. Many interpretations of this myth exist. Some see it as an ancient justification for patriarchal bride capture. Others see it as a Greek retelling o the Sumerian myth of Inanna’s Descent. Some see it as a metaphor for the existence of seasons, or for the grain that must lie in the Winter earth in order to sprout in the Spring. Indeed, one of the revealed mysteries of the Eleusinia is that an ear of wheat lies at the heart of the Mystery. Cicero says of the Mysteries that: “We have grasped the basis not only for living with joy but also for dying with a sweeter hope.”
		Her Necromanteum (“oracle of the dead”), was where pilgrims went to seek answers from beyond the veil of life. Discovered in 1958 by Prof. Sotiris Dakaris, this oracle dates from the 14th century BCE. It was considered to be the actual entrance to the Underworld. The original of this figure was cast from molds unearthed at the Necromanteum itself. --Morning Glory Zell
		$30~
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