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A votive plaque known as the Ninnion Tablet depicting elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries, discovered in the sanctuary at Eleusis (mid-4th century BC). The Eleusinian Mysteries (Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, romanized: Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece.
Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of fertility, flowers, and spring, loves flowers and can make them grow with a single touch of her finger. Persephone is a very beautiful, kind-hearted goddess girl, as well as extremely considerate and understanding. She has pale skin and frizzy red hair, and often wears a yellow chiton.
Zeus, it is said, permitted Hades, who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to abduct her as her mother Demeter was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to Hades. Persephone was gathering flowers, along with the Oceanids, and the goddesses Pallas Athena and Artemis, as the Homeric Hymn says, in a field when Hades came to abduct her ...
Thus, Demeter, in her sadness, neglects to nourish the earth for the months that Persephone is gone, only doing so when she returns, until the process repeats again. These episodic periods became the winter and spring seasons, with the "death" and "rebirth" of Persephone being allegorical for the cycle of life and the experience of all beings. [9]
In fragment 52, Demeter stays at Eleusis and mourns the loss of her daughter Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades, and Baubo makes her laugh through an act of anasyrma. [11] In other sources such as the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the role of cheering Demeter up is filled by a slave named Iambe, who does so by making jokes. [12]
Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter Persephone-Kore at Selinunte, Sicily, 6th century BC. Demeter's daughter Persephone was abducted to the Underworld by Hades, who received permission from her father Zeus to take her as his bride. Demeter searched for her ceaselessly for nine days, preoccupied with her grief.
According to ancient Greek mythology, Kore (Ancient Greek: κόρη), whose name translates to "Maiden", was the first born daughter of Demeter. Following the abduction of Kore by the Underworld God, Hades, Demeter went in desperate search for her lost daughter, who would later come to be known as Persephone (Ancient Greek: Περσεφονη). [5]
The relief is made of Pentelic marble, and it is 2,20 m. tall, 1,52 m. wide, and 15 cm thick. [4] It depicts the three most important figures of the Eleusianian Mysteries; the goddess of agriculture and abundance Demeter, her daughter Persephone queen of the Underworld and the Eleusinian hero Triptolemus, the son of Queen Metanira, [3] [4] in what appears to be a rite. [1]