[1] The form "demesne" is an Anglo-French spelling of the Old Fr.
_demeine_ or _demaine_, belonging to a lord, from Med. Lat.
_dominicus_, _dominus_, lord; _dominicum_ in Med. Lat. meant
_proprietas_ (see Du Cange). From the later Fr. _domaine_, which
approaches more nearly the original Lat., comes the other Eng. form
"domain," which is chiefly used in a non-legal sense of any tract of
country or district under the rule of any specific sovereign state,
&c. "Domain" is, however, the form kept in the legal phrase "Eminent
Domain" (q.v.).
DEMETER, in Greek mythology, daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of
Zeus, goddess of agriculture and civilized life. Her name has been
explained as (1) "grain-mother," from [Greek: deai], the Cretan form of
[Greek: xeiai], "barley," or (2) "earth-mother," or rather "mother
earth," [Greek: da] being regarded as the Doric form of [Greek: le]. She
is rarely mentioned in Homer, nor is she included amongst the Olympian
gods.
The central fact of her cult was the story of her daughter Persephone
(Proserpine), a favourite subject in classical poetry. According to the
Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_, Persephone, while gathering flowers on the
Nysian plain (probably here a purely mythical locality), was carried off
by Hades (Pluto), the god of the lower world, with the connivance of
Zeus (see also PROSERPINE). The incident has been assigned to various
other localities--Crete, Eleusis, and Enna in Sicily, the last being
most generally adopted. This rape is supposed to point to an original
[Greek: ieros lamos], an annual holy marriage of a god and goddess of
vegetation. Wandering over the earth in search of her daughter, Demeter
learns from Helios the truth about her disappearance. In the form of an
old woman named Deo (= the "seeker," or simply a diminutive form), she
comes to the house of Celeus at Eleusis, where she is hospitably
received. Having revealed herself to the Eleusinians, she departs, in
her wrath having visited the earth with a great dearth. At last Zeus
appeases her by allowing her daughter to spend two-thirds of the year
with her in the upper world. Demeter then returns to Olympus, but before
her final departure from earth, in token of her gratitude, she instructs
the rulers of Eleusis in the art of agriculture and in the solemnities
and rites whereby she desires in future to be honoured.
Those who were initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis found a deep
meaning in the myth, which was held to teach the principle of a future
life, founded on the return of Persephone to the upper world, or rather
on the process of nature by which seed sown in the ground must first die
and rot before it can yield new life (see MYSTERY). At Eleusis, Demeter
was venerated as the introducer of all the blessings which agriculture
brings in its train--fixed dwelling-places, civil order, marriage and a
peaceful life; hence her name _Thesmophoros_, "the bringer of law and
order," and the festival _Thesmophoria_ (q.v.). J. G. Frazer takes the
epithet to mean "bearer of the sacred objects deposited on the altar";
L. R. Farnell (_Cults of the Greek States_, iii. 106) suggests "the
bringer of treasure or riches," as appropriate to the goddess of corn
and of the lower world; others refer the name to "the law of wedlock"
([Greek: thesmos lektroio], Odyssey, xxiii. 296, where, however, D. B.
Monro translates "place, situation"). At Eleusis also, Triptolemus
(q.v.), the son of Celeus, who was said to have invented the plough and
to have been sent by Demeter round the world to diffuse the knowledge of
agriculture, had a temple and threshing-floor.
In the agrarian legends of Iasion and Erysichthon, Demeter also plays an
important part. Iasion (or Iasius), a beautiful youth, inspired her with
love for him in a thrice-ploughed field in Crete, the fruit of their
union being Plutus (wealth). According to Homer (_Odyssey_, v. 128) he
was slain by Zeus with a thunderbolt. The story is compared by Frazer
(_Golden Bough_, 2nd ed., ii. 217) with the west Prussian custom of the
mock birth of a child on the harvest-field, the object being to ensure a
plentiful crop for the coming year. It seems to point to the
supersession of a primitive local Cretan divinity by Demeter, and the
adoption of agriculture by the inhabitants, bringing wealth in its train
in the form of the fruits of the earth, both vegetable and mineral. Some
scholars, identifying Iasion with Jason (q.v.), regard Thessaly as the
original home of the legend, and the union with Demeter as the [Greek:
ieros gamos] of mother earth with a health god. Erysichthon ("tearer up
of the earth"), son of Triopas or Myrmidon, having cut down the trees in
a grove sacred to the goddess, was punished by her with terrible hunger
(Callimachus, _Hymn to Demeter_; Ovid, _Metam._ viii. 738-878). Perhaps
Erysichthon may be explained as the personification of the labourer, who
by the systematic cultivation and tilling of the soil endeavours to
force the crops, instead of allowing them to mature unmolested as in the
good old times. Tearing up the soil with the plough is regarded as an
invasion of the domain of the earth-mother, punished by the
all-devouring hunger for wealth, that increases with increasing produce.
According to another view, Erysichthon is the destroyer of trees, who
wastes away as the plant itself loses its vigour. It is possible that
the story may originally have been connected with tree-worship. Here
again, as in the case of Iasion, a conflict between an older and a
younger cult seems to be alluded to (for the numerous interpretations
see O. Crusius _s.v._ in Roscher's _Lexikon_).
It is as a corn-goddess that Demeter appears in Homer and Hesiod, and
numerous epithets from various sources (see Bruchmann, _Epitheta
Deorum_, supplement to Roscher's _Lexikon_, i. 2) attest her character
as such. The name [Greek: Ioulo] (? at Delos), from [Greek: ioulos],
"corn-sheaf," has been regarded as identifying the goddess with the
sheaf, and as proving that the cult of Demeter originated in the worship
of the corn-mother or corn-spirit, the last sheaf having a more or less
divine character for the primitive husbandman. According to this view,
the prototypes of Demeter and Persephone are the corn-mother and harvest
maiden of northern Europe, the corn-fetishes of the field (Frazer,
_Golden Bough_, 2nd ed., ii. 217, 222; but see Farnell, _Cults_, iii.
35). The influence of Demeter, however, was not limited to corn, but
extended to vegetation generally and all the fruits of the earth, with
the curious exception of the bean, the use of which was forbidden at
Eleusis, and for the protection of which a special patron was invented.
In this wider sense Demeter is akin to Ge, with whom she has several
epithets in common, and is sometimes identified with Rhea-Cybele; thus
Pindar speaks of Demeter [Greek: chalkokrotos] ("brass-rattling"), an
epithet obviously more suitable to the Asiatic than to the Greek
earth-goddess. Although the goddess of agriculture is naturally inclined
to peace and averse from war, the memory of the time when her land was
won and kept by the sword still lingers in the epithets [Greek:
chrysaoros] and [Greek: xiphephoros] and in the name Triptolemus, which
probably means "thrice fighter" rather than "thrice plougher."
Another important aspect of Demeter was that of a divinity of the
under-world; as such she is [Greek: chthonia] at Sparta and especially
at Hermione in Argolis, where she had a celebrated temple, said to have
been founded by Clymenus (one of the names of Hades-Pluto) and his
sister Chthonia, the children of Phoroneus, an Argive hero. Here there
was said to be a descent into the lower world, and local tradition made
it the scene of the rape of Persephone. At the festival Chthonia, a cow
(representing, according to Mannhardt, the spirit of vegetation), which
voluntarily presented itself, was sacrificed by three old women. Those
joining in the procession wore garlands of hyacinth, which seems to
attribute a chthonian character to the ceremony, although it may also
have been connected with agriculture (see S. Wide, _De Sacris
Troezeniorum, Hermionensium, Epidauriorum_, Upsala, 1888). The striking
use of the term [Greek: demetreioi] in the sense of "the dead" may be
noted in this connexion.
The remarkable epithets, [Greek: Erinys] and [Greek: Melaina], as
applied to Demeter, were both localized in Arcadia, the first at
Thelpusa (or rather Onkeion close by), the second at Phigalia (see W.
Immerwahr, _Die Kulte und Mythen Arkadiens_, i. 1891). According to the
Thelpusan story, Demeter, during her wanderings in search of Persephone,
changed herself into a mare to avoid the persecution of Poseidon. The
god, however, assumed the form of a stallion, and the fruit of the union
was a daughter of mystic name and the horse Areion (or Erion). Demeter,
at first enraged, afterwards calmed down, and washed herself in the
river Ladon by way of purification. Demeter "the angry" ([Greek:
erinys]) became Demeter "the bather" ([Greek: lousia]). An almost
identical story was current in the neighbourhood of Tilphossa, a
Boeotian spring. In the Phigalian legend, no mention is made of the
horse Areion, but only of the daughter, who is called Despoina
(mistress), a title common to all divinities connected with the
under-world. Demeter, clad in black (hence [Greek: melaina]) in token of
mourning for her daughter and wrath with Poseidon, retired into a cave.
During that time the earth bore no fruit, and the inhabitants of the
world were threatened with starvation. At last Pan, the old god of
Arcadia, discovered her hiding-place, and informed Zeus, who sent the
Moirae (Fates) to fetch her out. The cave, still called Mavrospelya
("black cave"), was ever afterwards regarded as sacred to Demeter, and
in it, according to information given to Pausanias, there had been set
up an image of the goddess, a female form seated on a rock, but with a
horse's head and mane, to which were attached snakes and other wild
animals. It was clothed in a black garment reaching to the feet, and
held in one hand a dolphin, in the other a dove. The image was destroyed
by fire, replaced by the sculptor Onatas from inspiration in a dream,
but disappeared again before the time of Pausanias.
Both [Greek: melaina] and [Greek: erinus], according to Farnell, are
epithets of Demeter as an earth-goddess of the under-world. The first
has been explained as referring to the gloom of her abode, or the
blackness of the withered corn. The second, according to Max Muller and
A. Kuhn, is the etymological equivalent of the Sanskrit Saranyu, who,
having turned herself into a mare, is pursued by Vivasvat, and becomes
the mother of the two Asvins, the Indian Dioscuri, the Indian and Greek
myths being regarded as identical. According to Farnell, the meaning of
the epithet is to be looked for in the original conception of Erinys,
which was that of an earth-goddess akin to Ge, thus naturally associated
with Demeter, rather than that of a wrathful avenging deity.
Various interpretations have been given of the horse-headed form of the
Black Demeter: (1) that the horse was one of the forms of the
corn-spirit in ancient Greece; (2) that it was an animal "devoted" to
the chthonian goddess; (3) that it is totemistic; (4) that the form was
adopted from Poseidon Hippios, who is frequently associated with the
earth-goddess and is said to have received the name Hippios first at
Thelpusa, in order that Demeter might figure as the mother of Areion
(for a discussion of the whole subject see Farnell, _Cults_, iii. pp.
50-62). The union of Poseidon and Demeter is thus explained by
Mannhardt. As the waves of the sea are fancifully compared to horses, so
a field of corn, waving in the breeze, may be said to represent the
wedding of the sea-god and the corn-goddess. In any case the association
of Poseidon, representing the fertilizing element of moisture, with
Demeter, who causes the plants and seeds to grow, is quite natural, and
seems to have been widespread.
Demeter also appears as a goddess of health, of birth and of marriage;
and a certain number of political and ethnic titles is assigned to her.
Of the latter the most noteworthy are: [Greek: Panachaia] at Aegium in
Achaea, pointing to some connexion with the Achaean league; [Greek:
Achaia],[1] "the Achaean goddess," unless it refers to the "sorrow" of
the goddess for the loss of her daughter (cf. [Greek: Achea] in
Boeotia); and, most important of all, [Greek: Amphiktyonis], at Anthela
near Thermopylae, as patron-goddess of the Amphictyonic league,
subsequently so well known in connexion with the temple at Delphi.
The Eleusinia and Thesmophoria are discussed elsewhere, but brief
mention may here be made of certain agrarian festivals held in honour of
Demeter.
1. _Haloa_, obviously connected with [Greek: halos] ("threshing-floor"),
begun at Athens and finished at Eleusis, where there was a
threshing-floor of Triptolemus, in the month Poseideon (December). This
date, which is confirmed by historical and epigraphical evidence, seems
inappropriate, and it is suggested (A. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen_,
p. 365 foll.) that the festival, originally held in autumn, was
subsequently placed later, so as to synchronize with the winter
Dionysia. Dionysus, as the god of vines, and (in a special procession)
Poseidon [Greek: phytalmios] ("god of vegetation") were associated with
Demeter. In addition to being a harvest festival, marked by the ordinary
popular rejoicings, the Haloa had a religious character. The [Greek:
aparchai] ("first fruits") were conveyed to Eleusis, where sacrifice was
offered by a priestess, men being prohibited from undertaking the duty.
A [Greek: telete] ("initiatory ceremony") of women by a woman also took
place at Eleusis, characterized by obscene jests and the use of phallic
emblems. The sacramental meal on this occasion consisted of the produce
of land and sea, certain things (pomegranates, honey, eggs) being
forbidden for mystical reasons. Although the offerings at the festival
were bloodless, the ceremony of the presentation of the [Greek:
aparchai] was probably accompanied by animal sacrifice (Farnell,
Foucart); Mommsen, however, considers the offerings to have been pastry
imitations. Certain games ([Greek: patrios agon]), of which nothing is
known, terminated the proceedings. In Roman imperial times the ephebi
had to deliver a speech at the Haloa.
2. _Chloeia_ or _Chloia_, the festival of the corn beginning to sprout,
held at Eleusis in the early spring (Anthesterion) in honour of Demeter
Chloe, "the green," the goddess of growing vegetation. This is to be
distinguished from the later sacrifice of a ram to the same goddess on
the 6th of the month Thargelion, probably intended as an act of
propitiation. It has been identified with the _Procharisteria_
(sometimes called _Proschaireteria_), another spring festival, but this
is doubtful. The scholiast on Pindar (Ol. ix. 150) mentions an Athenian
harvest festival _Eucharisteria_.
3. _Proerosia_, at which prayers were offered for an abundant harvest,
before the land was ploughed for sowing. It was also called
_Proarcturia_, an indication that it was held before the rising of
Arcturus. According to the traditional account, when Greece was
threatened with famine, the Delphic oracle ordered first-fruits to be
brought to Athens from all parts of the country, which were to be
offered by the Athenians to the goddess Deo on behalf of all the
contributors. The most important part of the festival was the three
sacred ploughings--the Athenian [Greek: hypo polin], the Eleusinian on
the Rharian plain, the Scirian (a compromise between Athens and
Eleusis). The festival itself took place, probably some time in
September, at Eleusis. In later times the ephebi also took part in the
Proerosia.
4. _Thalysia_, a thanksgiving festival, held in autumn after the harvest
in the island of Cos (see Theocritus vii.).
5. The name of Demeter is also associated with the _Scirophoria_ (see
ATHENA). It is considered probable that the festival was originally held
in honour of Athena, but that the growing importance of the Eleusinia
caused it to be attached to Demeter and Kore.
The attributes of Demeter are chiefly connected with her character as
goddess of agriculture and vegetation--ears of corn, the poppy, the
mystic basket (_calathus_) filled with flowers, corn and fruit of all
kinds, the pomegranate being especially common. Of animals, the cow and
the pig are her favourites, the latter owing to its productivity and the
cathartic properties of its blood. The crane is associated with her as
an indicator of the weather. As a chthonian divinity she is accompanied
by a snake; the myrtle, asphodel and narcissus (which Persephone was
gathering when carried off by Hades) also are sacred to her.
In Greek art, Demeter is made to resemble Hera, only more matronly and
of milder expression; her form is broader and fuller. She is sometimes
riding in a chariot drawn by horses or dragons, sometimes walking,
sometimes seated upon a throne, alone or with her daughter. The Demeter
of Cnidus in the British Museum, of the school of Praxiteles, apparently
shows her mourning for the loss of her daughter. The article GREEK ART,
fig. 67 (pl. iv.), gives a probable representation of Demeter (or her
priestess) from the stone of a vault in a Crimean grave.
The Romans identified Demeter with their own Ceres (q.v.).
See L. Preller, _Demeter und Persephone_ (1837); P. R. Forster, _Der
Raub und die Ruckkehr der Persephone_ (1874), in which considerable
space is devoted to the representations of the myth in art; W.
Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_ (1884); J. E. Harrison,
_Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_ (1903); L. Dyer, _The
Gods in Greece_ (1891); J. G. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.),
ii. 168-222; L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_ (4th ed., by C.
Robert); O. Kern in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_, iv. pt. 2
(1901); L. Bloch in Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_; O. Gruppe,
_Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_, ii. (1907); L. R.
Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, iii. (1907); article "Ceres" by
F. Lenormant in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquites_.
(J. H. F.)