Persephone was the daughter of Zeus. She was the goddess of Springs. Zeus decides to give his daughter, that is Persephone, to this brother Hades. Hades is the god of the underworld. Although Zeus doesn’t bother to inform Persephone or even his wife, Demeter. Zeus is the king of the gods while his wife is the goddess in charge of agriculture. One day when Persephone is collecting some flowers with her friend, Hades comes from the underground unannounced. He comes with a set of horses, captures Persephone and goes with her to the underground (Campbell 2018). Persephone tries to scream but her screams falls on deaf ears. Hades goes with her to the underground. Two beings hear the scream. One of these is the Hecate, the god in charge of witchcraft and Helios, the god of the sun. Demeter hears her daughter scream but she is too far to know what was happening (Spence 2018). The cry terrifies Demeter so much. She tries to enquire from the people around about what had happened. No one seems to know what had occurred. After investigating for long without any success, she decides to ask the goddess of the sun about what had transpired (Gahlin 2017). Because she stays above the earth, Helios saw everything that happened. She narrates to Demeter what had happened. From the information, Demeter learns that Zeus had given Persephone away and that Hades had gone with her to the underworld. Therefore, the fate of Persephone was being captured by the god of the underworld with the consent of her father, Zeus.
Demeter is in so much pain after losing her daughter. The search for her daughter took her to Eleusis. After arriving here, the sisters to Demophon find her sitting on a rock. These sisters ask her who she was and what she was doing there. She told them that she had been captured by slaves and sold there. She informed them that she had luckily escaped from the slave masters. Demophon’s sisters are empathetic and they invite her to their home. They also happened to tell Demeter that their parents had a little child but they were too old to take care of the child. After learning this, Demeter promises that she will help the old parents with raising Demophon (Parkinson 2016). True to her word, she offers to help the parents raise Demophon. As a way of demonstrating her gratitude to the family, Demeter decides to make Demophon immortal. While performing the ritual of making Demophon immortal, Demophon’s mother saw her holding the baby over a fire. She interrupted the process which made it to fail.
Why does Demeter demand a ritual at Eleusis? What is the purpose of the ritual?
Demeter intends to demonstrate her gratitude to parents and siblings of Demophon due to the kind gesture that they had extended to her (Bard 2015). She decides to perform a ritual that would make the young child Desmond immortal. According to Demeter, this would be a great way of rewarding the family for the kind gesture that they had extended to her. As indicated above, the sole purpose of the ritual was to make Demophon immortal. It is worth noting that Demeter was the goddess of fertility. Due to this she was aware of the process that could be carried to make an in individual immortal. Although this was the case, Demophon’s parents and siblings were not aware that she was a goddess. In addition, Demeter had not informed them of the ritual that she wanted to carry out and the conditions of the ritual. It is therefore not a wonder that Demophon’s mother interrupts the ritual rendering it unsuccessful.
Explain the relevance of this myth to agricultural communities.
As indicated earlier, Demeter was the goddess of agriculture and fertility. After she lost her daughter to Hades, she becomes so irritable to the extent that she almost doesn’t think of anything else apart from her daughter (Bunson 2014). Due to the anguish that she is going through, she often curses the ground so that it would not produce any harvest. Such a move is very important in the agricultural communities. Most of the foods that people consume is usually as a result of agriculture. The move by Demeter to curse the ground therefore led to great famine all over the land. This led to great outcry as hungry people are unproductive and lack the appropriate energy and nutrients to support life. The myth helps us understand the theories that the early Egyptian communities put forward to help explain the famine and drought. The myth seems well calculated but it is obvious that it is just that, a myth. In the modern days, scientists have studied the dynamics of famine and drought. This understanding has led to establishment of appropriate coping mechanisms.
To what extent do the ‘charter’ and ‘ritual’ theories of myth help us to understand the myth of Demeter?
Myths are used to explain social norms and other phenomena in the society. Charter theorists help us understand how the ancient communities used myths to explain what was happening at the time. In the modern age, science has provided us with scientific ways of explaining phenomena and other happenings of the society. Therefore, myths have become less popular with time. Although this is the case, it is worth noting that there are still some communities who use certain myths to explain the status quo (Bagnall and Cribiore 2015). The myth of Demeter was developed to help the ancient Egyptian communities understand how things were happening and the reason for it (Pinch 2018.). When there was famine and drought, then the myth of Demeter, who was a goddess of fertility was developed. People were made to believe that the famine was as a result of a curse that the goddess of fertility had imposed on the ground. In the modern days, we know that myths are just but false explanations of phenomena.
References
Bagnall, R.S. and Cribiore, R., 2015. Women’s letters from ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800. University of Michigan Press.
Bard, K.A., 2015. An introduction to the archaeology of ancient Egypt. John Wiley & Sons.
Bunson, M., 2014. Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt. Infobase Publishing.
Campbell, J., 2018. Primitive mythology (Vol. 1). Joseph Campbell Foundation via Publish Drive.
Gahlin, L., 2017. Egypt: Gods, Myths and Religion: A Fascinating Guide to the Mythology and Religion of Ancient Egypt, and to the Awe-inspiring Temples, Tombs and Treasures of the World’s First Great Civilization. Hermes House.
Parkinson, R.B., 2016. Ancient Egypt and the Near East: Archive Orientalni, 84, p.445.
Pinch, G., 2018. Magic in Ancient Egypt: Revised Edition. sat, 3, p.043900.
Spence, L., 2018. Myths and legends of ancient Egypt. Charles River Editors via Publish Drive.
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