Editing Eleusinian Mysteries (section)

==Demeter and Persephone==
{{Further|Demeter}}
[[File:Great Eleusinian Relief.jpg|thumb|[[Triptolemus]] receiving wheat sheaves from [[Demeter]] and blessings from [[Persephone]], [[Great Eleusinian Relief]], 5th-century BC relief, [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]]]]
The Mysteries are related to a myth concerning [[Demeter]], the goddess of agriculture and fertility as recounted in one of the [[Homeric Hymns]] (c. 650 BC). According to the hymn, Demeter's daughter [[Persephone]] (also referred to as ''Kore'', "maiden") was assigned the task of painting all the flowers of the earth. Before completion, she was seized by [[Hades]], the god of the [[Greek underworld|underworld]], who took her to his underworld kingdom. Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter. Because of her distress, and in an effort to coerce [[Zeus]] to allow the return of her daughter, she caused a terrible [[drought]] in which the people suffered and starved, depriving the gods of sacrifice and worship. As a result, Zeus relented and allowed Persephone to return to her mother.<ref>[[Helene P. Foley|Foley, Helene P.]], The Homeric "Hymn ro Demeter". Princeton University Press, 1994. Also Vaughn, Steck. ''Demeter and Persephone''. Steck Vaughn Publishing, 1994 {{ISBN?}} {{page?|date=November 2023}}</ref>

According to the myth, during her search Demeter traveled long distances and had many minor adventures along the way. In one she taught the secrets of [[agriculture]] to [[Triptolemus]].<ref>Smith, William. ''A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography Vol. II''. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2006.</ref> Finally, by consulting Zeus, Demeter reunited with her daughter and the earth returned to its former verdure and prosperity: the first spring.

Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the [[Moirai|Fates]] that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds (either six or four according to the telling), which forced her to return to the underworld for some months each year. She was obliged to remain with Hades for six or four months (one month per seed) and lived above ground with her mother for the rest of the year. This left a long period of time when Demeter was unhappy due to Persephone's absence, neglecting to cultivate the earth. When Persephone returned to the surface, Demeter became joyful and cared for the earth again.

In the central foundation document of the mystery, the Homeric ''Hymn to Demeter'' line 415, Persephone is said to stay in Hades during winter and return to her mother in the spring of the year: "This was the day [of Persephone's return], at the very beginning of bountiful springtime."<ref>''The Homeric Hymns'' translated by Jules Cashford, Penguin Books, 2003, p. 24.</ref>

Persephone's rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life and the symbol of eternity of life that flows from the generations that spring from each other.<ref>Similar ideas appear in many ancient agricultural societies: in the cult of [[Adonis]] in [[Phoenicia]], the cult of [[Osiris]] in [[Egypt]] and the cult of [[Ariadne]] in [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[Crete]]. Also in [[China]]: "There in the buried seed, the end of life is connected with a new beginning": ''The I Ching or book of changes'', transl. Richard Wilhelm p. 45</ref>

However, a scholar has proposed a different version,<ref>Smith, 2006.</ref> according to which the four months during which Persephone is with Hades correspond to the dry Greek summer, a period during which plants are threatened with drought.<ref>Greene, William C. "The Return of Persephone". ''Classical Philology''. University of Chicago Press 1946. pp. 105&ndash;106</ref>