The Myth of Demeter | From Persephone's Disappearance to the Birth of the Seasons

One spring day, a girl picking flowers in a field suddenly vanishes. Demeter, the goddess who cared for grain and the earth, was that girl's mother.

What Demeter does after her daughter disappears, and what consequences her choices bring upon the entire earth, is the heart of this story. Following the second Homeric Hymn, we'll also look at why the seasons came to be divided as they are today.

Only Two Heard the Scream

As Persephone was gathering flowers in the field, the ground split open and Hades appeared, seizing her and carrying her off. Startled, Persephone screamed, but the only ones who heard her were Hecate and the sun god Helios.

Hades placed Persephone in his golden chariot and headed straight for the underworld. Demeter heard only her daughter's voice echoing from somewhere, with no idea at all of what had happened.

Nine Days of Searching, the Truth Heard on the Tenth

From the moment she heard her daughter's scream, Demeter grieved, tearing at her hair. For nine days afterward she wandered in search of her daughter, torch in hand, neither eating nor drinking. She touched neither ambrosia nor nectar.

On the tenth day, Hecate appeared before Demeter and told her that her daughter had been abducted. The two went together to ask Helios, and Helios revealed that Zeus had already decided to give Persephone to Hades as his wife.

Learning that her daughter's marriage had been decided without a single word of consultation with her, Demeter flew into a great rage at Zeus. And she resolved to leave Olympus.

Turning Her Back on the Gods, Heading to Eleusis

Having left Olympus, Demeter concealed herself in the form of an old woman and wandered from place to place until she arrived at Eleusis. Those she met by the well were the daughters of Keleos, the local king.

Demeter called herself Doso and told a fabricated tale of having fled from pirates. The girls believed the story completely and took her home, entrusting her with the care of their mother Metaneira's infant son, Demophon.

This choice—to enter a stranger's household as a nurse while hiding her identity—soon leads to an entirely different event.

The Night Demeter Tried to Make Demophon Immortal

Having taken charge of Demophon, Demeter performed secret rites each night. She anointed the child with ambrosia and placed him in the fire of the hearth, seeking to make him immortal by gradually burning away his mortal body.

Metaneira, who had watched the child grow astonishingly faster than his peers during the day, happened to witness this scene one night and cried out in shock. The ritual was broken on the spot, and Demophon was left without gaining immortality.

Interrupted, Demeter raged, casting off the form of the old woman and revealing her true divine form. She then demanded that the people of Eleusis build a temple for her. The disguise she had begun while concealing her daughter ends this way, and Demeter now chooses to hide who she is no longer.

The Earth Stands Still: A Famine Even the Gods Could Not Fix

Even after the temple was built, Demeter's sorrow did not subside. Seeds could not sprout beneath the soil, and the fields withered as they were. As humans began to starve, the sacrifices offered to the gods ceased as well.

Zeus first sent Iris to persuade Demeter, but it was no use. He then sent the gods one by one, offering gifts to turn her heart, but Demeter would not bend: she declared she would not restore fruitfulness to the earth until she saw her daughter with her own eyes.

Hermes Brings Persephone Back—and the Pomegranate Seed

In the end, Zeus sent Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back. Hades reluctantly complied, but he handed Persephone sweet pomegranate seeds and had her eat them.

Persephone later says she was made to eat them against her will. This moment—putting the food of the underworld in her mouth—soon returns as a decisive question at the mother and daughter's reunion.

What Was Revealed When Mother and Daughter Met Again

Seeing her daughter again, Demeter rushed toward Persephone like a Maenas darting down a wooded mountainside. But the joy was brief: Demeter immediately asked her daughter whether she had eaten anything in the underworld.

Persephone confessed that she had eaten the pomegranate seeds Hades had given her. Since the rule was fixed that one who had tasted the food of the underworld could not return entirely to the world above, the two now had to settle how much of each year Persephone would spend beside Hades, and the rest beside Demeter and the gods.

Exactly how many months the division amounts to differs slightly from one version of the tale to another. But the broad outline—that Persephone would spend part of the year with Hades and the rest with her mother on earth—is common to every telling of the story.

The Daughter Returns, the Earth Revives

Around this time, Rhea, the mother of Zeus, came to Demeter in person to deliver this agreement. Demeter accepted it, and only then did shoots rise again in the withered fields and every tree grow lush with leaves. The earth was covered in flowers and foliage in an instant.

Having regained her daughter, Demeter taught her secret rites to Triptolemos, Diokles, Eumolpos, and Keleos of Eleusis. This was the beginning of what would later be called the Eleusinian Mysteries. What exactly those rites contained has been handed down to this day as something not to be spoken of or pried into carelessly.

The flow in which the earth comes back to life each time Persephone returns to the world above, and pauses briefly each time she departs to Hades' side, is also a story of how one goddess's grief and relief set the entire cycle of grain in motion.

Figures Who Carry the Story Forward

The story of the daughter taken to the underworld and made to eat the pomegranate seed is covered in more detail in the myth of Persephone. About the god of the underworld who took Persephone, you can learn more in the myth of Hades.

The story of the king of the gods who brokered this entire agreement can be found in the myth of Zeus, and how all the Olympian gods connect to one another in the genealogy of the Greek gods.