of Myths Fertility I 10/17/11:
Demeter and Related Myths
-Gaea is mother earth and is the beginning female fertility
-no one Greek Goddess cotrolled all fertility
-aphrodite (human sexuality)
-artemis (wild animals)
- Hera (mearriage, family)
-Hestia (family)
-Demeter (agricultural fertility)
Demeter
o Her daughter is Persephone, father being Zeus. She is a virgin.
She was abducted by Hades as she was playing in a meadow
Helius (the sun) who can see everything tells Demeter who took
her daughter
Demeter is angry at Zeus because he let it happen, and she leaves
Olympus disguised as a mortal
Demeter ends up taking care of a mortal infant prince,
Demophoon, and she wants to make him hers.
Demeter is caught trying to make Demophoon immortal by
burning him in the fire
Demeter then withdraws her power from land the of which she was
staying and nothing grows anymore; drought, plague
Persephone eats a pomegranate seed that Hades offers, and because
of that, she must stay with Hades and Demeter eventually accepts
that and restores growth to the crops in the lands
o Kore means girl or Persephone.
o Kykeon a spicey beer
o Hierophant = shower of the sacred things
o Anaktoron = place of the king
-Sometimes in Egyptian myth, there will be incest.
-Isis and Osiris, are brothers and sisters and is also husband and wife.
Chapter 11: Death Lecture
To greeks, the place of death is boring and nothing goes on there, BUT, you arent
being punished at all.
The soul is the breathe, and when you die, your soul leaves the body.
Greeks await prper burial rites so that they can properly enter Hades and then live
there