Demeter (Roman Ceres) represented Mother Earth, and thus was closely associated with agriculture and all operations of tillage and bread-making.

The character of Hera was what the poets supposed should be the attributes of the Queen of heaven; that of Leto, what should distinguish a disinterested housewife; that of Hestia, what should mark the guardian of the fireside; that of Demeter, what should show supreme benevolence and thrift; that of Athene, what would naturally be associated with wisdom, and that of Aphrodite, what would be expected from a sensual beauty.

The Roman custom, under which the state consulted Etruscan sages in certain emergencies and the government accordingly took steps to secure the traditional transmission of Etruscan lore in the noble families of Etruria, as well as the permission of the secret worship of Demeter, which was not immoral and was restricted to women, may probably be ranked with the earlier innocent and comparatively indifferent adoption of foreign rites.

[Footnote b: Demeter is [Greek Gae-mhaetaer], Mother Earth.]

The Eleusinia, collecting together, as it did, all the prominent elements of mythology, furnishes, in its dramatic evolution through Demeter and Dionysus, the highest and most complete representation of ancient faith in both of its developments.

And first as an epos of sorrow: though centring in the earthly Demeter, yet its movement does not limit itself by the remembrance of her nine days' search; but, in the torch-light procession of the fifth night, widens indefinitely and mysteriously in the darkness, until it has inclosed all hearts within the circuit of its tumultuous flight.

If Demeter was the wanderer, he was the conqueror and centre of all triumph.

But most certainly the Greeks gave a profound spiritual meaning to the Eleusinia, as also to the mystic connection of Demeter with Dionysus.

Demeter was thus necessary to Dionysus,as Dionysus to Demeter; and if in remembrance of him the sepulchral walls were covered with scenes associated with festivity,in remembrance of her there must needs be a skeleton at every feast.

Demeter was thus necessary to Dionysus,as Dionysus to Demeter; and if in remembrance of him the sepulchral walls were covered with scenes associated with festivity,in remembrance of her there must needs be a skeleton at every feast.

Isis was supposed to have introduced wheat into Egypt, Demeter into Greece, and the Emperor Chin-Wong into China, about 3000 B.C.

She stepped upon Sicilian grass, Demeter's daughter, fresh and fair, A child of light, a radiant lass, And gamesome as the morning air.

Now look, this road holds holiday to-day: For banded brethren solemnise a feast To richly-dight Demeter, thanking her For her good gifts: since with no grudging hand Hath the boon goddess filled the wheaten floors.

[Sings] O rich in fruit and cornblade: be this field Tilled well, Demeter, and fair fruitage yield!

Demeter-Triptolemos et Kore.

SEE Maupassant, Guy de. DEMETER-TRIPTOLEMOS ET KORE, Banque Nationale de Grece.

They were celebrated at the village of Eleusis, near Athens, and were dedicated to Demeter.

See Demeter.

CABI`RI, certain mysterious demonic beings to whom mystic honours were paid in Lemnos and elsewhere in Greece, in connection with nature-worship, and especially with that of DEMETER and DIONYSUS (q. v.).

ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES, rites, initiation into which, as religiously conducive to the making of good men and good citizens, was compulsory on every free-born Athenian, celebrated annually at Eleusis in honour of Demeter and Persephone, and which lasted nine days.

ELEUSIS, a town in ancient Attica, NW. of Athens, with a temple for the worship of Demeter, the largest in Greece; designed by the architect of the PARTHENON (q. v.).

EUMOLPUS, the founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries, alleged to have been a priest of Demeter or Ceres.

IACHUS, the son of Zeus and Demeter, and the solemn name of Bacchus in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

PELOPS, in the Greek mythology the grandson of Zeus and son of Tantalus, who was slain by his father and served up by him at a banquet he gave the gods to test their omniscience, but of the shoulder of which only Demeter in a fit of abstraction partook, whereupon the gods ordered the body to be thrown into a boiling caldron, from which Pelops was drawn out alive, with the shoulder replaced by one of ivory.

they ask: and, looking about, as usual, for a primal initiator, they attribute what they do to a primal being, the Corn Spirit, Demeter, or to Zeus, or to Baiame, or Manabozho, or Punjel.