#5: Notes for the Hymn to Demeter by Ruben Harutunian & Ben Everett

1. Background:

• The Hymn to Demeter was most likely written in the seventh century b.c.e.
• The Hymn is a foundational text for the religious group/cult called the Eleusinian Mysteries:

The rites were mysterious and celebrated at seasonal festivals; The festivals included fasting/drinking/loosening of normal boundaries of accepted behavior; Although anyone could be in the cult, initiation was a necessary aspect of the religion;

• The Hymn offers a female perspective of the world

Women were especially targeted by the cult (Demeter = Goddess of Fertility/Agriculture/Seasons)

• At the time the Hymn was written, Athens was moving from an aristocracy (rule of powerful families) to a democracy

The state promoted and sponsored the practice of the Eleusinian Mysteries as a way of appeasing the masses and curbing social unrest; Women were particularly encouraged to participate because in the new Athens - dominated by masculinity - their lives and interests were not taken into consideration

1. Women in Greek Culture:

• Women lived separately from men within the household
• A girl's ties to her family would be abruptly severed upon marriage and the girl would often never see her family after marriage; The disruption of a mother/daughter bond was, therefore, very violent - This effect is dramatized in the Hymn by the story of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone
• Within the household, women had a certain amount of power/responsibility, such as mourning, burial, and maintenance of the household in the absence of men - When political power was invested in a few great households, such power had a political significance); Within a democracy, the power of women within the culture was significantly diminished

1. Text:

• The Hymn to Demeter tells the story of Demeter and it recounts the story of Demter and Demophoön

The Hymn contains two separate-but-related mother/child relationships: The framing tale of Demeter and Persephone - symbolizing a mother/daughter relationship - and the interpolated tale of Demeter and Demophoön - an etiological tale of the Eleusinian Mysteries

• Before Persephone is allowed to leave Hades to see her mother, she swallows a pomegranate seed, which ensures that she will return to Hades

The pomegranate seed is symbolic of virginity because after eating the seed, Persephone is no longer just a daughter; she's a woman/queen and belongs, partly, to her husband

There is a discrepancy between Persephone's and Hades's version of the story of the pomegranate seed: According to Persephone, Hades duped her into eating the, but Hades's version of the story insists that Persephone knew what she was eating

Persephone's version of the story illustrates a girl's unwillingness to anger/hurt her mother, while Hades's story shows a girl's desire to become wife and have a husband

Also, Persephone's version of the story - told to Demeter -includes resistance to the seed, whereas the speaker/narrator makes no mention of resistance - This discrepancy once again illustrates Persephone's torn nature: part of her wants to be with her mother, while another part of her wants to be with Hades

• Persephone is abducted while looking for a narcissus flower

A narcissus flower looks like an ejaculating phallus, which highlights the importance of the phallus to Greek culture - According to Herodatus, the phallus was the touchstone of Hellenistic and Ancient Greek identity

The Greek word for "abduct" is "harpazo," which also means "to rape/to abduct" - This detail highlights the violence of Persephone's and Demeter's separation and is interesting given Persephone's searching for a phallic symbol at the time of the abduction

1. Cult/Religion

• Demeter is blind to her daughter's abduction
• Demeter takes care of Demophoön as her own child and wants to raise him to be immortal
• Demeter explains how to honor her

Demeter's blindness is equivalent to the cult's followers' inability to see many of the rites and secret rituals of the religion

Demophoön symbolizes Demeter's followers and the Eleusinian Mysteries offer "everlasting honor" and the feeling of "sleeping in [Demeter's] arms"

Demeter's instructions for religious worship in her name, such as "build me a great temple and beneath it an altar" and "to give her a drink of barley-meal and water mixed with tender pennyroyal" served as an instruction manual for the cult's followers

To Demeter's followers, the Hymn to Demeter served as a foundational text for the Eleusinian Mysteries and Demeter's instructions to the people of Eleusis were interpreted as "awful mysteries not to be transgressed, violated or divulged" and these instructions.