The grain goddess, Demeter, was a full sister to Zeus and an Olympian deity in her own right. However, as an agricultural goddess her destiny was more closely bound to the earth than to the celestial regions of Olympus. Demeter instituted the Eleusinian Mysteries, a religious cult that apparently believed in reincarnation. Just as the grain springs up every year after its harvest and wintry death, so the members of this cult believed that the human soul would be reborn after the body's death.
Demeter had one daughter, Persephone or Core, whom she adored. Zeus had fathered the girl, and she was strikingly beautiful. The god of the underworld, Hades, desired her. And one day as she was picking flowers Persephone wandered away from her companions to pick a strange but lovely narcissus plant. As she stooped down the earth yawned at her feet and Hades rode out from the bowels of the earth and abducted her. Demeter was heartsick at the loss and searched everywhere for her daughter in vain. After nine days of hunting she found Helios, the sun god, who told her what had happened. Hades had taken the maiden to be his queen, while Zeus had consented to it.
Demeter in her anger abandoned Olympus and came to live on the earth disguised as a crone. She arrived at Eleusis and was taken into the home of Prince Celeus and his wife Metaneira, where she was allowed to nurse their son Demophoon. In return for their hospitality Demeter decided to make the infant immortal by secret rites. Metaneira, however, grew suspicious and burst in upon Demeter as she was burning away the baby's mortal parts. The mother screamed and her son died. Demeter then revealed herself as the goddess, scolding Metaneira and ordering that a temple be built in her honor at Eleusis. The temple was constructed to be Demeter's dwelling place.
Still brooding about her daughter's loss, the goddess laid a curse on the earth that caused every plant to wither. Since nothing would grow, the lands became desolate and inhospitable to life. Zeus started to worry and finally sent Hermes down to the netherworld to fetch Persephone back to her mother. It was decreed, however, that if she partook of any food in the kingdom of the dead she would have to return. Persephone had languished in Hades' realm, eating nothing and grieving. But as Hermes arrived she took a bite of a pomegranate that Hades had given her and swallowed some of the seeds. When Hermes delivered Persephone to her mother, Demeter was saddened to learn that Hades now had a permanent claim on her daughter. Yet, Persephone was allowed to remain with Demeter for eight months of a year even if she had to spend the other four in the underworld. This then was the reason why the earth was barren in winter—Demeter was sorrowing for her lost daughter.
