Some have suggested that the abduction of Persephone and mourning of Demeter may have been re-enacted then, in the style of a mystery play. The priest then possibly announced the birth of a divine son. This was followed by dancing and sacrifice. Like agricultural rituals in other cultures, the mysteries equated rebirth in nature with possible rebirth for human beings. Practical benefits of the rites were believed to include better crops; and more importantly, participation in the mysteries was thought to guarantee a better life after death what kind of afterlife has remained unclear.
The initiation process was thought to mitigate somehow the experience of death, and to suggest that death is not an evil but is something good. Sophocles said about the initiates: "Thrice blessed are those mortals who have seen these rites and thus enter into Hades: for them alone there is life, for the others all is misery. At the least the mysteries promised the participant a better fate, perhaps a changed, heightened consciousness.
Rape of Proserpina, by Charles de Lafosse, Rape of Proserpina, by Peter Paul Rubens, Detail of Bernini's Rape of Persephone, Rape of Persephone, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Persephone Holding Pomegranate, Terracotta Figurine Contemporaneous Resource.
Hades smiled grimly and immediately obeyed Zeus the king. He ordered Persephone to return with a loving heart to her mother; but he also told her that he was not an unworthy husband for her, since he was the full brother of her father Zeus and that while she was with him she would rule as his queen, a great goddess.
Those who did not propitiate her power by performing holy rites and sacrifices would find eternal retribution. Persephone Eats of the Pomegranate. Joyous Persephone jumped up quickly. But according to the poet of the Hymn Hades secretly gave his wife the fruit of the pomegranate to eat to ensure the fulfillment of his words to her as her husband; she should not remain the whole year above with her mother Demeter but would rule with him below for part of the time.
He then yoked his immortal horses to his golden chariot, which Persephone mounted. Hermes took the reins, and in no time at all they came to a halt in front of the temple where Demeter waited. At the sight of her daughter, Demeter rushed out of the temple with the passion of a maenad, and Persephone leaped down from the chariot and ran to meet her mother, throwing her arms around her neck.
Immediately Demeter sensed some treachery and asked if Persephone had eaten any food in the Underworld. If she had not, she would live with her father Zeus and mother Demeter above, but if she had eaten anything, she would live a third part of the year in the Underworld and the other two thirds in the upper world. With the burgeoning spring she would wondrously rise again from the gloomy region below.
Demeter ended by asking by what trick Hades has deceived her. Persephone said that she would tell the truth.
Then Persephone painfully described how Hades carried her off, despite her screams. Their mutual grief was soothed by their loving and tender embraces. Hecate arrived and affectionately shared their joy.
Demeter Restores Fertility to the Earth. Zeus sent Rhea to lead Demeter back among the gods with the following message. He promised to grant Demeter the honors among the immortals that she would choose, and he consented that her daughter live a third part of the year below and the other two thirds above, with her mother and the other gods.
Demeter obeyed. She miraculously caused fruit to spring up from earth that had previously been barren, and the whole land blossomed with flowers. Demeter Establishes Her Eleusinian Mysteries. In light of Callimachus' learned, ubiquitous allusions to Homeric Hymns elsewhere in his own, one might anticipate that his Hymn to Demeter would make especially heavy use of its Homeric precursor. But this is not die case. It is telling that N. Hopkinson in his commentary on the hymn , though occasionally pointing to the Homeric Hymn in individual notes, omits it entirely from both his "Index of Subjects" and "Index ofPassages Discussed.
Richardson, TAe HomericHymn to Demeter Oxford "The influence of the Hymn, certain or probable, may be detected or suspected in many places in Greek literature. But its popularity was clearly greatest in the Hellenistic period. Hymn toDemeter Cambridge For these echoes are not always distinct or obvious.
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