Editing Demeter (section)

===="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>