Editing Demeter (section)

===On the Greek mainland===
[[File:Marble Statue of Demeter.jpg|thumb|[[Demeter of Knidos]], [[Hellenistic]] marble sculpture, around 350 BC]]
Tablets from Pylos of {{circa|1400|1200}} BC record sacrificial goods destined for "the Two Queens and Poseidon" ("to the Two Queens and the King":''wa-na-ssoi'', ''wa-na-ka-te''). The "Two Queens" may be related to Demeter and Persephone or their precursors, goddesses who were no longer associated with Poseidon in later periods.<ref name="Mylonas159"/> In Pylos ''potnia'' (mistress) is the major goddess of the city and "wanax " in the tablets has a similar nature with her male consort in the Minoan cult.<ref name="Dietriech181"/> Potnia retained some chthonic cults, and in popular religion these were related to the goddess Demeter. In Greek religion ''potniai''(mistresses) appear in plural (like the Erinyes) and are closely related to the Eleusinian Demeter.<ref>Dietrich, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TZVsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 pp. 189-190].</ref>

Major [[cult (religion)|cults]] to Demeter are known at Eleusis in Attica, Hermion (in Crete), [[Megara]], Celeae, [[Lerna]], [[Aegila]], [[Munychia]], [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]], [[Delos]], [[Priene]], [[Agrigento|Akragas]], [[Iasos]], [[Pergamon]], [[Selinus]], [[Tegea]], [[Thoricus]], Dion (in Macedonia)<ref>Cohen, A, Art in the Era of Alexander the Great: Paradigms of Manhood and Their Cultural Traditions, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 213. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nX8F_ZV83vUC&pg=PA213 Google book preview]</ref> [[Lycosura|Lykosoura]], [[Mesembria (Zone)|Mesembria]], [[Enna]], and [[Samothrace]].

Probably the earliest [[Amphictyony]] centred on the cult of Demeter at [[Anthele]] (Ἀνθήλη), lay on the coast of [[Malis (region)|Malis]] south of Thessaly, near Thermopylae.<ref>L. H. Jeffery (1976) ''Archaic Greece: The City States c. 700–500 BC''. Ernest Benn Ltd., London & Tonbridge pp. 72, 73, 78 {{ISBN|0-510-03271-0}}</ref><ref>The Parian marble. Entry No 5: "When [[Amphictyon]] son of [[Hellen]] became king of Thermopylae brought together those living round the temple and named them ''Amphictyones''; [http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/faqs/q004/q004008.html]</ref>

Mysian Demeter had a seven-day festival at Pellené in Arcadia. The geographer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] passed the shrine to Mysian Demeter on the road from Mycenae to [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] and reports that according to Argive tradition, the shrine was founded by an Argive named [[Mysius]] who venerated Demeter.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:7.27.9 7.27.9].</ref>[[File:Whitehead Coins of the Punjab Museum Plate XI Azes Demeter and Hermes.jpg|thumb|center|[[Azes]] coin in [[India]], with Demeter and [[Hermes]], 1st century BC]]
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===="Saint Demetra"<span class="anchor" id="Saint Demetra"></span>====
[[File:Saint Demetra.jpg|thumb|180px|The statue of Saint Demetra, [[Fitzwilliam Museum]]]]

Even after [[Theodosius I]] issued the [[Edict of Thessalonica]] and banned [[paganism]] throughout the [[Roman Empire]], people throughout [[Greece]] continued to pray to Demeter as "Saint Demetra", [[patron saint]] of [[agriculture]].<ref name="Keller-1988">{{Cite journal |last=Keller |first=Mara Lynn |date=1988 |title=The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone: Fertility, Sexuality, and Rebirth |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25002068 |journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=27–54 |jstor=25002068 |issn=8755-4178}}</ref> Around 1765–1766, the antiquary [[Richard Chandler (antiquary)|Richard Chandler]], alongside the architect [[Nicholas Revett]] and the painter [[William Pars]], visited Eleusis and mentioned a [[Caryatids of Eleusis|statue of a caryatid]] as well as the [[folklore]] that surrounded it, they stated that it was considered sacred by the locals because it protected their crops. They called the statue "Saint Demetra", a saint whose story had many similarities to the myth of Demeter and Persephone, except that her daughter had been abducted by the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] and not by [[Hades]].<ref name="Cosmopoulos-2015">{{Cite book |last=Cosmopoulos |first=Michael B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BPkKCgAAQBAJ&dq=Saint+Demetra+of+Eleusis&pg=PA35 |title=Bronze Age Eleusis and the Origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-36823-7 |pages=35 |language=en |author-link=Michael Cosmopoulos}}</ref> The locals covered the statue with flowers to ensure the fertility of their fields.<ref name="Sharma-2005">{{Cite book |last=Sharma |first=Arvind |author-link=Arvind Sharma |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k6YrsMcVqS4C&pg=PA47 |title=Goddesses And Women In The Indic Religious Tradition |date=2005 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-12466-0 |pages=47 |language=en}}</ref> This tradition continued until 1865,<ref name="Keller-1988" /> when the statue was forcibly removed by [[Edward Daniel Clarke]] and donated to the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref name="Cosmopoulos-2015" /><ref name="Sharma-2005" /> The statue is now located in the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]], the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/65755|title=Upper part of a caryatid: GR.1.1865|website=[[Fitzwilliam Museum|The Fitzwilliam Museum]]|publisher=[[University of Cambridge|The University of Cambridge]]|access-date=23 September 2024}}</ref>