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Demeter seems to have accompanied Dionysus when he descended into the Underworld to retrieve his mother Semele in order to visit her now married daughter, and perhaps lead her back to the land of the living for the remainder of the year. [149] [150] In many vases from Athens Dionysus is seen in the company of mother and daughter. [151]
One particularly distinctive epithet she bore was Demeter Melaina (Ancient Greek: Δημητηρ Μελαινα), meaning “Black Demeter” and referring to an Arcadian version of her mythology. The ancient Greek travel writer Pausanias records a myth where, whilst searching for her lost daughter Kore, Demeter was pursued by the god Poseidon .
Writing during the second century A.D., Pausanias spoke of Demeter as having two daughters; Kore being born first, before Despoina was born, with Zeus being the father of Kore and Poseidon as the father of Despoina. Pausanias made it clear that Kore is Persephone, although he did not reveal Despoina's proper name.
He had many affairs with goddesses and mortals, such as his sister Demeter and Leto, mortals Leda and Alcmene, and more. [27] His symbols include the thunderbolt, eagle, oak tree, bull, scepter, and scales. Hera: Juno: Queen of the gods and the goddess of marriage, women, childbirth and family. The youngest daughter of Cronus and Rhea.
As a matron Demeter carries a queen-like presence and is one of the main objects of attention in the pantheon. [1] [6] The description from what Pausanias gathered indicated that Demeter would have held a torch in right hand and her left laying on the Despoina statue, both of whom would share a throne and a footstool made out of a block of marble.
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.
Demeter and Metanira, detail of an Apulian red-figure hydria, Antikensammlung Berlin (1984.46) In Greek mythology, Metanira (/ ˌ m ɛ t ə ˈ n aɪ r ə /; Ancient Greek: Μετάνειρα Metáneira) or Meganira [1] was a queen of Eleusis as wife of King Celeus. She was the daughter of Amphictyon, the king of Athens. [2]
In Greek mythology, Persephone, daughter of Demeter (goddess of the harvest), was abducted by Hades (god of the dead), and taken to the underworld as his queen. The myth goes on to describe Demeter as so distraught that no crops would grow and the "entire human race [would] have perished of cruel, biting hunger if Zeus had not been concerned" (Larousse 152).