Editing Demeter (section)

===As a poppy goddess===
[[File:Mycenae gold ring.jpg|thumb|Drawing of a gold ring found at Mycenae showing a seated goddess bearing three poppy seedcases]]
[[Theocritus]] described one of Demeter's earlier roles as that of a goddess of poppies:
{{poemquote|For the Greeks, Demeter was still a poppy goddess
Bearing sheaves and poppies in both hands.|''Idyll'' vii.157}}

[[Karl Kerényi]] asserted that poppies were connected with a Cretan cult which was eventually carried to the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]] in [[Classical Greece]]. In a clay statuette from Gazi,<ref>Heraklion Museum, Kerényi 1976, fig. 15.</ref> the [[Poppy goddess|Minoan poppy goddess]] wears the seed capsules, sources of nourishment and narcosis, in her diadem. According to Kerényi, "It seems probable that the Great [[Mother Goddess]] who bore the names [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]] and Demeter, brought the [[poppy]] with her from her Cretan cult to Eleusis and it is almost certain that in the Cretan cult sphere [[opium]] was prepared from poppies."<ref>Kerényi 1976, p. 25.</ref>