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102-477: Cronus , also spelled "Cronos" or "Kronos", was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans in Greek mythology. Cronos may also refer to: Cronus In Ancient Greek religion and mythology , Cronus , Cronos , or Kronos ( / ˈ k r oʊ n ə s / or / ˈ k r oʊ n ɒ s / , from Greek : Κρόνος , Krónos ) was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans ,
204-586: A Linear B ( Mycenean Greek ) inscription ( PY En 609); the word 𐀅𐀔𐀳 , da-ma-te , probably refers to "households". On the other hand, 𐀯𐀵𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 , si-to-po-ti-ni-ja , " Potnia of the Grain", is regarded as referring to her Bronze Age predecessor or to one of her epithets . Demeter's character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name meter ( μήτηρ ) derived from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *méh₂tēr (mother). In antiquity, different explanations were already proffered for
306-417: A Greek interpretation, but not necessarily an Indo-European one. Demeter was frequently associated with images of the harvest, including flowers, fruit, and grain. She was also sometimes pictured with her daughter Persephone. However, Demeter is not generally portrayed with any of her consorts; the exception is Iasion , the youth of Crete who lay with her in a thrice-ploughed field and was killed afterward by
408-492: A cave to mourn and to purify herself. She was consequently depicted with the head of a horse in this region. A sculpture of the Black Demeter was made by Onatas . In the earliest conceptions of Demeter she is the goddess of grain and threshing, however her functions were extended beyond the fields and she was often identified with the earth goddess ( Gaia ). Some of the epithets of Gaia and Demeter are similar showing
510-532: A central theme being the mistreatment of the poor by the rich during festival-time. In the dialogue, Cronus rejects the Hesiodic tradition of him eating his children and then being overthrown, and instead claims that he peacefully abdicated the throne in favour of his youngest son Zeus, although he still resumes rulership for seven days each year (his festival) in order to remind humanity of the plenteous, toil-free and luxuriant life they enjoyed under his reign before
612-421: A company of Curetes , armored male dancers, shouted and clapped their hands to make enough noise to mask the baby's cries from Cronus. Other versions of the myth have Zeus raised by the nymph Adamanthea , who hid Zeus by dangling him by a rope from a tree so that he was suspended between the earth, the sea, and the sky, all of which were ruled by his father, Cronus. Still, other versions of the tale say that Zeus
714-493: A creature capable of dethroning Zeus. Hera did so, and thus Typhon came to be. Cronus was said to be the father of the wise centaur Chiron by the Oceanid Philyra , who was subsequently transformed into a linden tree. The god consorted with the nymph, but his wife Rhea walked on them unexpectedly; in order to escape being caught in bed with another, Cronus changed into the shape of a stallion and galloped away, hence
816-473: A field while she was picking flowers, with Zeus' leave. Demeter searched everywhere to find her missing daughter to no avail until she was informed that Hades had taken her to the Underworld. In response, Demeter neglected her duties as goddess of agriculture, plunging the earth into a deadly famine where nothing would grow, causing mortals to die. Zeus ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother to avert
918-588: A form of agrarian magic. Theocritus described one of Demeter's earlier roles as that of a goddess of poppies: For the Greeks, Demeter was still a poppy goddess Bearing sheaves and poppies in both hands. Karl Kerényi asserted that poppies were connected with a Cretan cult which was eventually carried to the Eleusinian Mysteries in Classical Greece . In a clay statuette from Gazi,
1020-477: A free path. RV 6 .47.4 varṣmāṇaṃ divo akṛṇod he cut [> created] the loftiness of the sky. This may point to an older Indo-European mytheme reconstructed as *(s)kert wersmn diwos "by means of a cut he created the loftiness of the sky". The myth of Cronus castrating Uranus parallels the Song of Kumarbi , where Anu (the heavens) is castrated by Kumarbi . In the Song of Ullikummi , Teshub uses
1122-409: A horse's head holding a dove and dolphin, perhaps to symbolize her power over the Underworld, the air, and the water. The cult of Demeter in the region was related to Despoina , a very old chthonic divinity. Demeter shares the double function of death and fertility with her daughter Persephone. Demeter and Persephone were called Despoinai (the mistresses) and Demeters . This duality was also used in
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#17327935836361224-633: A jealous Zeus with a thunderbolt. Demeter is assigned the zodiac constellation Virgo, the Virgin, by Marcus Manilius in his 1st-century Roman work Astronomicon. In art, the constellation Virgo holds Spica, a sheaf of wheat in her hand and sits beside constellation Leo the Lion. In Arcadia, she was known as "Black Demeter". She was said to have taken the form of a mare to escape the pursuit of her younger brother, Poseidon, and having been raped by him despite her disguise, she dressed all in black and retreated into
1326-483: A new plant arises from buried seed. This was most likely a belief shared by initiates in Demeter's mysteries, as interpreted by Pindar : "Blessed is he who has seen before he goes under the earth; for he knows the end of life and knows also its divine beginning." In Arcadia Demeter had the epithets Erinys (fury) and Melaina (black) which are associated with the myth of Demeter's rape by Poseidon. The epithets stress
1428-529: A quite similar position in Egyptian mythology as the father of the gods Osiris , Isis , Seth and Nephthys as Cronus did in the Greek pantheon. This equation is particularly well attested in Tebtunis in the southern Fayyum : Geb and Cronus were here part of a local version of the cult of Sobek , the crocodile god. The equation was shown on the one hand in the local iconography of the gods, in which Geb
1530-625: Is mentioned in the Sibylline Oracles , particularly in book three, wherein Cronus, 'Titan,' and Iapetus , the three sons of Uranus and Gaia, each receive a third of the Earth, and Cronus is made king overall. After the death of Uranus, Titan's sons attempt to destroy Cronus's and Rhea's male offspring as soon as they are born. However, at Dodona , Rhea secretly bears her sons Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades and sends them to Phrygia to be raised in
1632-618: Is related to "horned", assuming a Semitic derivation from qrn . Andrew Lang 's objection, that Cronus was never represented horned in Hellenic art, was addressed by Robert Brown, arguing that, in Semitic usage, as in the Hebrew Bible , qeren was a signifier of "power". When Greek writers encountered the Semitic deity El , they rendered his name as Cronus. When Hellenes encountered Phoenicians and, later, Hebrews, they identified
1734-462: Is that Rhea and Cronus were given names of streams: Rhea from ῥοή (rhoē) "river, stream, flux" and Cronus from χρόνος (chronos) "time". Proclus (5th century), the Neoplatonist philosopher, makes in his Commentary on Plato's Cratylus an extensive analysis of Cronus; among others he says that the "One cause" of all things is "Chronos" (time) that is also equivalent to Cronus. In addition to
1836-700: Is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture , presiding over crops , grains , food , and the fertility of the earth. Although Demeter is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld . She is also called Deo ( Δηώ Dēṓ ). In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the Titans Rhea and Cronus , and sister to Hestia , Hera , Hades , Poseidon , and Zeus . Like her other siblings except Zeus, she
1938-437: Is the mother and the giver of food generally. This view is shared by British scholar Jane Ellen Harrison , who suggests that Démeter's name means Grain-Mother , instead of Earth-Mother . An alternative Proto-Indo-European etymology comes through Potnia and Despoina , where Des- represents a derivative of PIE *dem (house, dome), and Demeter is "mother of the house" (from PIE *dems-méh₂tēr ). R. S. P. Beekes rejects
2040-548: The Edict of Thessalonica and banned paganism throughout the Roman Empire , people throughout Greece continued to pray to Demeter as "Saint Demetra", patron saint of agriculture . Around 1765–1766, the antiquary Richard Chandler , alongside the architect Nicholas Revett and the painter William Pars , visited Eleusis and mentioned a statue of a caryatid as well as the folklore that surrounded it, they stated that it
2142-641: The Great Mother Rhea - Cybele who was worshipped in Crete and Asia Minor with the music of cymbals and violent rites. It seems that poppies were connected with the cult of the Great Mother. In epic poetry and Hesiod 's Theogony , Demeter is the Grain-Mother, the goddess of cereals who provides grain for bread and blesses its harvesters. In Homer 's Iliad , the blonde Demeter with
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#17327935836362244-631: The Minoan poppy goddess wears the seed capsules, sources of nourishment and narcosis, in her diadem. According to Kerényi, "It seems probable that the Great Mother Goddess who bore the names Rhea and Demeter, brought the poppy with her from her Cretan cult to Eleusis and it is almost certain that in the Cretan cult sphere opium was prepared from poppies." In an older tradition in Crete
2346-402: The "queens" (wa-na-ssoi). Both Homer and Hesiod, writing c. 700 BC, described Demeter making love with the agricultural hero Iasion in a ploughed field during the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia . According to Hesiod, this union resulted in the birth of Plutus . According to Diodorus Siculus , in his Bibliotheca historica written in the 1st century BC, Demeter and Zeus were also
2448-480: The "sickle with which heaven and earth had once been separated" to defeat the monster Ullikummi , establishing that the "castration" of the heavens by means of a sickle was part of a creation myth , in origin a cut creating an opening or gap between heaven (imagined as a dome of stone ) and earth enabling the beginning of time ( chronos ) and human history. A theory debated in the 19th century, and sometimes still offered somewhat apologetically, holds that Κρόνος
2550-577: The Athenian rhetorician Isocrates , Demeter's greatest gifts to humankind were agriculture which gave to men a civilized way of life, and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife. These two gifts were intimately connected in Demeter's myths and mystery cults. Demeter is the giver of mystic rites and the giver of the civilized way of life (teaching the laws of agriculture). Her epithet Eleusinia relates her with
2652-637: The Blessed , having been released from Tartarus by Zeus. This version of Cronus's fate is also found in Pindar . In a fragment of an Orphic cosmogony, Zeus intoxicates Cronus with honey, sending him to sleep, and then castrates him. In a Libyan account related by Diodorus Siculus (Book 3), Uranus and Titaea were the parents of Cronus and Rhea and the other Titans. Ammon, a king of Libya , married Rhea (3.18.1). However, Rhea abandoned Ammon and married her younger brother Cronus. With Rhea's incitement, Cronus and
2754-762: The Cyclopes who gifted him his thunderbolts. In a vast war called the Titanomachy , Zeus and his older brothers and sisters, with the help of the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes, overthrew Cronus and the other Titans. Afterwards, many of the Titans were confined in Tartarus . However, Oceanus , Helios , Atlas , Prometheus , Epimetheus , and Astraeus were not imprisoned following the Titanomachy. Gaia bore
2856-551: The Eleusinian mysteries, however at Sparta Eleusinia had an early use, and it was probably a name rather than an epithet. Demeter Thesmophoros (law-giving) is closely associated to the laws of cereal agriculture. The festival Thesmophoria was celebrated throughout Greece and was connected to a form of agrarian magic. Near Pheneus in Arcadia she was known as Demeter- Thesmia (lawfull), and she received rites according to
2958-440: The Greeks considered Cronus merely an intermediary stage between Uranus and Zeus, he was a larger aspect of Roman religion . The Saturnalia was a festival dedicated in his honour, and at least one temple to Saturn already existed in the archaic Roman Kingdom . His association with the "Saturnian" Golden Age eventually caused him to become the god of "time", i.e., calendars, seasons, and harvests—not now confused with Chronos ,
3060-610: The Homeric "Mother Earth arοura " who gave the gift of cereals ( zeai or deai ). Most of the epithets of Demeter describe her as a goddess of grain. Her name Deo in literature probably relates her with deai a Cretan word for cereals. In Attica she was called Haloas (of the threshing floor) according to the earliest conception of Demeter as the Corn-Mother. She was sometimes called Chloe (ripe-grain or fresh-green) and sometimes Ioulo (ioulos : grain sheaf). Chloe
3162-575: The Illyrian god Dei-paturos ( dei- , "sky", attached to - paturos, "father"). The Lesbian form Dō- may simply reflect a different colloquial pronunciation of the non-Greek name. Another theory suggests that the element De - might be connected with Deo , an epithet of Demeter and it could derive from the Cretan word dea ( δηά ), Ionic zeia ( ζειά )—variously identified with emmer , spelt , rye , or other grains by modern scholars—so that she
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3264-726: The Judaeo-Christian week is called in Latin Dies Saturni ("Day of Saturn"), which in turn was adapted and became the source of the English word Saturday . In astronomy , the planet Saturn is named after the Roman deity. It is the outermost of the Classical planets (the astronomical planets that are visible with the naked eye). In Greco-Roman Egypt, Cronus was equated with the Egyptian god Geb , because he held
3366-532: The King": wa-na-ssoi , wa-na-ka-te ). The "Two Queens" may be related to Demeter and Persephone or their precursors, goddesses who were no longer associated with Poseidon in later periods. In Pylos potnia (mistress) is the major goddess of the city and "wanax " in the tablets has a similar nature with her male consort in the Minoan cult. Potnia retained some chthonic cults, and in popular religion these were related to
3468-539: The Linear B inscription E-ne-si-da-o-ne , "earth-shaker". John Chadwick also argues that the dā element in the name of Demeter is not so simply equated with "earth". M. L. West has proposed that the word Demeter, initially Damater , could be a borrowing from an Illyrian deity attested in the Messapic goddess Damatura , with a form dā- ("earth", from PIE *dʰǵʰ(e)m- ) attached to - matura ("mother"), akin to
3570-530: The Olympians took over. During antiquity, Cronus was occasionally interpreted as Chronos , the personification of time. The Roman philosopher Cicero (1st century BC) elaborated on this by saying that the Greek name Cronus is synonymous to chrónos (time) since he maintains the course and cycles of seasons and the periods of time, whereas the Latin name Saturn denotes that he is saturated with years since he
3672-546: The Pessinuntian Mother of the gods; ... the ancient Eleusinians Actaean Ceres; ... and the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning, honour me with the worship which is truly mine and call me by my true name: Queen Isis. Alongside the rest of her siblings, with the exception of her youngest brother Zeus, she was swallowed as a newborn by her father due to his fear of being overthrown by one of his children; she
3774-510: The Roman deity Saturn . In an ancient myth recorded by Hesiod 's Theogony , Cronus envied the power of his father, Uranus , the ruler of the universe. Uranus drew the enmity of Cronus's mother, Gaia , when he hid the gigantic youngest children of Gaia, the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires and one-eyed Cyclopes , in Tartarus , so that they would not see the light. Gaia created a great stone sickle and gathered together Cronus and his brothers to persuade them to castrate Uranus. Only Cronus
3876-514: The Semitic El , by interpretatio graeca , with Cronus. The association was recorded c. 100 AD by Philo of Byblos ' Phoenician history, as reported in Eusebius ' Præparatio Evangelica I.10.16. Philo's account, ascribed by Eusebius to the semi-legendary pre- Trojan War Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon , indicates that Cronus was originally a Canaanite ruler who founded Byblos and
3978-450: The Titans", and in another poem (476 BC), Pindar has Cronus released from Tartarus and now ruling in the Isles of the Blessed , a mythical land where the Greek heroes reside in the afterlife: Those who have persevered three times, on either side, to keep their souls free from all wrongdoing, follow Zeus's road to the end, to the tower of Cronus, where ocean breezes blow around the island of
4080-567: The Underworld by Hades . At the Aventine, the new cult took its place alongside the old. It did not refer to Liber, whose open and gender-mixed cult played a central role in plebeian culture as a patron and protector of plebeian rights, freedoms and values. The exclusively female initiates and priestesses of the new " greek style " mysteries of Ceres and Proserpina were expected to uphold Rome's traditional, patrician -dominated social hierarchy and traditional morality . Unmarried girls should emulate
4182-413: The ages, highest of the gods, queen of the shades, first of those who dwell in heaven, representing in one shape all gods and goddesses. My will controls the shining heights of heaven, the health-giving sea winds, and the mournful silences of hell; the entire world worships my single godhead in a thousand shapes, with divers rites, and under many a different name. The Phrygians, first-born of mankind, call me
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4284-507: The altar were called "ompniai" and in Attica the goddess was known as Ompnia (related to corns). These cakes were oferred to all gods. In some fests big loafs ( artoi ) were offered to the goddess and in Boeotia she was known as Megalartos (of the big loaf) and Megalomazos (of the big mass, or big porridge). Her function was extended to vegetation generally and to all fruits and she had
4386-419: The blessed, and flowers of gold are blazing, some from splendid trees on land, while water nurtures others. With these wreaths and garlands of flowers they entwine their hands according to the righteous counsels of Rhadamanthys , whom the great father, the husband of Rhea whose throne is above all others, keeps close beside him as his partner. Prometheus Lyomenos ( Prometheus Unbound ), an undated lost play by
4488-453: The care of three Cretans. Upon learning this, sixty of Titan's men then imprison Cronus and Rhea, causing the sons of Cronus to declare and fight the first of all wars against them. This account mentions nothing about Cronus either killing his father or attempting to kill any of his children. In Hesiod's Theogony , and Homer's Iliad , Cronus and his Titan brothers are confined to Tartarus, apparently forever, but in other traditions Cronus and
4590-548: The chastity of Proserpina, the maiden; married women should seek to emulate Ceres, the devoted and fruitful mother. Their rites were intended to secure a good harvest and increase the fertility of those who partook in the mysteries. Beginning in the 5th century BCE in Asia Minor , Demeter was also considered equivalent to the Phrygian goddess Cybele . Demeter's festival of Thesmophoria was popular throughout Asia Minor, and
4692-441: The classical period ( Thesmophoroi , Double named goddesses ) and particularly in an oath: "By the two goddesses". In the cult of Phlya she was worshipped as Anesidora who sends up gifts from the Underworld. In Sparta, she was known as Demeter- Chthonia (chthonic Demeter). After each death the mourning should end with a sacrifice to the goddess. Pausanias believes that her cult was introduced from Hermione , where Demeter
4794-408: The darker side of her character and her relation to the dark underworld, in an old chthonic cult associated with wooden structures (xoana). Erinys had a similar function with the avenging Dike (Justice). In the mysteries of Pheneus the goddess was known as Cidaria . Her priest would put on the mask of Demeter, which was kept secret. The cult may have been connected with both the Underworld and
4896-416: The deed was done, Cronus cast his sickle into the waves, and it was concealed under the island of Corfu , which had been noted since antiquity for its sickle-like shape, and gave it its ancient name, Drepane ("sickle"). While Hesiod seems to imply Cronus never set them free to begin with, Pseudo-Apollodorus says that after dispatching Uranus, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes and set
4998-533: The disaster. However, because Persephone had eaten food from the Underworld, she could not stay with Demeter forever, but had to divide the year between her mother and her husband, explaining the seasonal cycle as Demeter does not let plants grow while Persephone is gone. Her cult titles include Sito ( Σιτώ ), "she of the Grain", as the giver of food or grain, and Thesmophoros ( θεσμός , thesmos : divine order, unwritten law; φόρος , phoros : bringer, bearer), "giver of customs" or "legislator", in association with
5100-433: The divine descendants of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age until he was overthrown by his son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus . According to Plato , however, the deities Phorcys , Cronus, and Rhea were the eldest children of Oceanus and Tethys . Cronus was usually depicted with a harpe , scythe , or sickle , which
5202-478: The dragon Campe to guard them. He and his older sister Rhea took the throne of the world as king and queen. The period in which Cronus ruled was called the Golden Age , as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone did the right thing, and immorality was absent. In some authors, a different divine pair, Ophion and Eurynome , a daughter of Oceanus, were said to have ruled Mount Olympus in
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#17327935836365304-469: The earliest Amphictyony centred on the cult of Demeter at Anthele (Ἀνθήλη), lay on the coast of Malis south of Thessaly, near Thermopylae. Mysian Demeter had a seven-day festival at Pellené in Arcadia. The geographer Pausanias passed the shrine to Mysian Demeter on the road from Mycenae to Argos and reports that according to Argive tradition, the shrine was founded by an Argive named Mysius who venerated Demeter. Even after Theodosius I issued
5406-528: The early age of the Titans. Rhea fought Eurynome and Cronus fought Ophion, and after defeating them they threw them into the waves of the ocean, thus becoming rulers in their place. After securing his place as the new king of gods, Cronus learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own children, just as he had overthrown his father. As a result, although he sired the gods Demeter , Hestia , Hera , Hades , and Poseidon by Rhea, he devoured them all as soon as they were born to prevent
5508-558: The end of the Second Punic War . The cult originated in southern Italy (part of Magna Graecia ) and was probably based on the Thesmophoria, a mystery cult dedicated to Demeter and Persephone as "Mother and Maiden". It arrived along with its Greek priestesses, who were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil intention". The new cult
5610-414: The epithets eukarpos (of good crop), karpophoros (bringer of fruits), malophoros (apple bearer) and sometimes Oria (all the fruits of the season). These epithets show an identity in nature with the earth goddess. The central theme in the Eleusinian Mysteries was the reunion of Persephone with her mother, Demeter when new crops were reunited with the old seed, a form of eternity. According to
5712-527: The first element of her name. It is possible that Da ( Δᾶ ), a word which corresponds to Gē ( Γῆ ) in Attic, is the Doric form of De ( Δῆ ), "earth", the old name of the chthonic earth-goddess, and that Demeter is "Mother-Earth". Liddell & Scott find this "improbable" and Beekes writes, "there is no indication that [ da ] means "earth", although it has also been assumed in the name of Poseidon found in
5814-585: The form of a snake, explaining the origin of the symbol on Hermes ' staff. Their daughter is said to be Persephone, whom Zeus, in turn, mates with to conceive Dionysus . According to the Orphic fragments, "After becoming the mother of Zeus, she who was formerly Rhea became Demeter." There is some evidence that the figures of the Queen of the Underworld and the daughter of Demeter were initially considered separate goddesses. However, they must have become conflated by
5916-702: The goddess Demeter. In Greek religion potniai (mistresses) appear in plural (like the Erinyes) and are closely related to the Eleusinian Demeter. Major cults to Demeter are known at Eleusis in Attica, Hermion (in Crete), Megara , Celeae, Lerna , Aegila , Munychia , Corinth , Delos , Priene , Akragas , Iasos , Pergamon , Selinus , Tegea , Thoricus , Dion (in Macedonia) Lykosoura , Mesembria , Enna , and Samothrace . Probably
6018-463: The goddess of childbirth, who was involved with the annual birth of the divine child. Elements of this early form of worship survived in the Eleusinian cult, where the following words were uttered: "the mighty Potnia had born a strong son." Tablets from Pylos of c. 1400 – c. 1200 BC record sacrificial goods destined for "the Two Queens and Poseidon" ("to the Two Queens and
6120-614: The half-human, half-equine shape of their offspring; this was said to have taken place on Mount Pelion . Two other sons of Cronus and Philyra may have been Dolops and Aphrus, the ancestor and eponym of the Aphroi, i.e. the native Africans . In some accounts, Cronus was also called the father of the Corybantes . Cronus is featured in one of the works of satirical writer Lucian of Samosata , Saturnalia , where he talks with one of his priests about his festival Saturnalia, with
6222-473: The heart of both festivals were myths concerning Demeter as the mother and Persephone as her daughter. In the Roman period, Demeter became conflated with the Roman agricultural goddess Ceres through interpretatio romana . The worship of Demeter has formally merged with that of Ceres around 205 BC, along with the ritus graecia cereris , a Greek-inspired form of cult, as part of Rome's general religious recruitment of deities as allies against Carthage, towards
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#17327935836366324-467: The help of the wind separates the grain from the chaff. Homer mentions the Thalysia a Greek harvest-festival of first fruits in honour of Demeter . In Hesiod, prayers to Zeus-Chthonios (chthonic Zeus ) and Demeter help the crops grow full and strong. This was her main function at Eleusis , and she became panhellenic. In Cyprus , "grain-harvesting" was damatrizein . Demeter was the zeidoros arοura ,
6426-428: The identity of their nature. In most of her myths and cults, Demeter is the "Grain-Mother" or the "Earth-Mother". In the older chthonic cults the earth goddess was related to the Underworld and in the secret rites (mysteries) Demeter and Persephone share the double function of death and fertility. Demeter is the giver of the secret rites and the giver of the laws of cereal agriculture. She was occasionally identified with
6528-416: The islands of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them; for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. The poet Pindar , in one of his poems (462 BC), wrote that although Atlas still "strains against the weight of the sky ... Zeus freed
6630-424: The local version. Demeter's emblem is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among the barley. In addition to her role as an agricultural goddess, Demeter was often worshipped more generally as a goddess of the earth, from which crops spring up. Her individuality was rooted to the less developed personality of Gaia (earth). In Arcadia Demeter Melaina (the black Demeter) was represented as snake-haired with
6732-566: The monster Typhon to claim revenge for the imprisoned Titans. Accounts of the fate of Cronus after the Titanomachy differ. The most popular account is that found in the Iliad , Hesiod's Theogony , and Apollodorus, all of which state that he was imprisoned with the other Titans in Tartarus. In two papyrus versions of a passage from Hesiod's Works and Days , however, Kronos rules over the Isle of
6834-455: The myth of Persephone and Adonis in many ways mirrors the myth of Cybele and Attis . Some late antique sources syncretized several "great goddess" figures into a single deity. For example, the Platonist philosopher Apuleius , writing in the late 2nd century, identified Ceres (Demeter) with Isis, having her declare: I, mother of the universe, mistress of all the elements, first-born of
6936-651: The name "Kronion". A star ( HD 240430 ) was named after him in 2017 when it was reported to have swallowed its planets. The planet Saturn , named after the Roman equivalent of Cronus, is still referred to as "Cronus" (Κρόνος) in modern Greek. "Cronus" was also a suggested name for the dwarf planet Pluto , but was rejected and not voted for because it was suggested by the unpopular and egocentric astronomer Thomas Jefferson Jackson See . Demeter In ancient Greek religion and mythology , Demeter ( / d ɪ ˈ m iː t ər / ; Attic : Δημήτηρ Dēmḗtēr [dɛːmɛ́ːtɛːr] ; Doric : Δαμάτηρ Dāmā́tēr )
7038-470: The name Cronus, portraying the deity as a great ruler over others within the aeons . During the Renaissance , the identification of Cronus and Chronos gave rise to " Father Time " wielding the harvesting scythe. H. J. Rose in 1928 observed that attempts to give the name Κρόνος a Greek etymology had failed. Recently, Janda (2010) offers a genuinely Indo-European etymology of "the cutter", from
7140-589: The name, the story of Cronus eating his children was also interpreted as an allegory to a specific aspect of time held within Cronus's sphere of influence. As the theory went, Cronus represented the destructive ravages of time which devoured all things, a concept that was illustrated when the Titan king ate the Olympian gods—the past consuming the future, the older generation suppressing the next generation. The Gnostic text Pistis Sophia (3rd–4th century) references
7242-425: The other Titans made war upon Ammon, who fled to Crete (3.71.1–2). Cronus ruled harshly and Cronus in turn was defeated by Ammon's son Dionysus (3.71.3–3.73) who appointed Cronus's and Rhea's son, Zeus, as king of Egypt (3.73.4). Dionysus and Zeus then joined their forces to defeat the remaining Titans in Crete, and on the death of Dionysus, Zeus inherited all the kingdoms, becoming lord of the world (3.73.7–8). Cronus
7344-537: The other imprisoned Titans are eventually set free by the mercy of Zeus. Two papyrus versions of a passage of Hesiod's Works and Days mention Cronus being released by Zeus, and ruling over the heroes who go to the Isle of the Blessed; but other editions of Hesiod's text make no mention of this, and most editors agree that these lines of text are later interpolations in Hesiod's works. And they live untouched by sorrow in
7446-491: The parents of Dionysus. Diodorus described the myth of Dionysus' double birth (once from the earth, i.e. Demeter, when the plant sprouts) and once from the vine (when the fruit sprouts from the plant). Diodorus also related a version of the myth of Dionysus' destruction by the Titans ("sons of Gaia "), who boiled him, and how Demeter gathered up his remains so that he could be born a third time (Diod. iii.62). Diodorus states that Dionysus' birth from Zeus and his older sister Demeter
7548-558: The playwright Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 455 BC), features a chorus composed of freed Titans as witnesses of Prometheus's freeing from the rock, perhaps including Cronus himself, although the now freed Titans are not individually identified. In one version of Typhon's origins, after the defeat of the Giants , Gaia in anger slandered Zeus to Hera, and she went to Cronus. Cronus gave his daughter two eggs smeared with his own semen and told her to bury them underground, so that they would produce
7650-420: The potnia of the labyrinth da-pu-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja . Poseidon was often given the title wa-na-ka ( wanax ) in Linear B inscriptions in his role as King of the Underworld, and his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne indicates his chthonic nature. He was the male companion (paredros) of the goddess in the Minoan and probably Mycenean cult. In the cave of Amnisos , Enesidaon is associated with the cult of Eileithyia ,
7752-502: The prophecy. When the sixth child, Zeus , was born, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save them and to eventually get retribution on Cronus for his acts against his father and children. Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus in Crete , and handed Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, also known as the Omphalos Stone, which he promptly swallowed, thinking that it was his son. According to one Roman author, when Rhea presented
7854-600: The root *(s)ker- "to cut" (Greek κείρω ( keirō ), cf. English shear ), motivated by Cronus's characteristic act of "cutting the sky" (or the genitals of anthropomorphic Uranus). The Indo-Iranian reflex of the root is kar- , but Janda argues that the original meaning "to cut" in a cosmogonic sense is still preserved in some verses of the Rigveda pertaining to Indra 's heroic "cutting", like that of Cronus resulting in creation: RV 10 .104.10 ārdayad vṛtram akṛṇod ulokaṃ he hit Vrtra fatally, cutting [> creating]
7956-503: The secret female-only festival called the Thesmophoria. Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries , a religious tradition that predated the Olympian pantheon and which may have its roots in the Mycenaean period c. 1400 –1200 BC. Demeter
8058-452: The son of Misor and inventor of writing. While the Greeks considered Cronus a cruel and tempestuous force of chaos and disorder, believing the Olympian gods had brought an era of peace and order by seizing power from the crude and malicious Titans, the Romans took a more positive and innocuous view of the deity, by conflating their indigenous deity Saturn with Cronus. Consequently, while
8160-458: The swaddled rock to him, Cronus asked her to nurse the infant one last time before he swallowed him. Rhea pressed her breast against the rock, and the milk that was sprayed across the heavens created the Milky Way galaxy. Cronus then ate the rock. Rhea kept Zeus hidden in a cave on Mount Ida, Crete . According to some versions of the story, he was then raised by a goat named Amalthea , while
8262-739: The time of Hesiod in the 7th century BC. Demeter and Persephone were often worshipped together and were often referred to by joint cultic titles. In their cult at Eleusis, they were referred to simply as "the goddesses", usually distinguished as "the older" and "the younger"; in Rhodes and Sparta , they were worshipped as "the Demeters"; in the Thesmophoria, they were known as "the thesmophoroi" ("the legislators"). In Arcadia they were known as "the Great Goddesses" and "the mistresses". In Mycenaean Pylos, Demeter and Persephone were probably called
8364-460: The unrelated embodiment of time in general. Nevertheless, among Hellenistic scholars in Alexandria and during the Renaissance , Cronus was conflated with the name of Chronos , the personification of " Father Time ", wielding the harvesting scythe. As a result of Cronus's importance to the Romans, his Roman variant, Saturn, has had a large influence on Western culture . The seventh day of
8466-477: The vegetation cult was related with the deity of the cave. During the Bronze Age, a goddess of nature dominated both in Minoan and Mycenean cults. In the Linear B inscriptions po-ti-ni-ja (potnia) refers to the goddess of nature who was concerned with birth and vegetation and had certain chthonic apects. Some scholars believe that she was the universal mother goddess. A Linear B inscription at Knossos mentions
8568-433: Was associated with Hades . In a local legend a hollow in the earth was the entrance to the underworld, by which the souls could pass easily. In Elis she was called Demeter- Chamyne (goddess of the ground), in an old chthonic cult associated with the descent to Hades. At Levadia the goddess was known as Demeter- Europa and she was associated with Trophonius , an old divinity of the underworld. The oracle of Trophonius
8670-459: Was considered sacred by the locals because it protected their crops. They called the statue "Saint Demetra", a saint whose story had many similarities to the myth of Demeter and Persephone, except that her daughter had been abducted by the Turks and not by Hades . The locals covered the statue with flowers to ensure the fertility of their fields. This tradition continued until 1865, when the statue
8772-421: Was depicted as a man with attributes of Cronus and Cronus with attributes of Geb. On the other hand, the priests of the local main temple identified themselves in Egyptian texts as priests of "Soknebtunis-Geb", but in Greek texts as priests of "Soknebtunis-Cronus". Accordingly, Egyptian names formed with the name of the god Geb were just as popular among local villagers as Greek names derived from Cronus, especially
8874-485: Was devouring his sons, which implies that time devours the ages and gorges. The Greek historian and biographer Plutarch (1st century AD) asserted that the Greeks believed that Cronus was an allegorical name for χρόνος (time). The philosopher Plato (3rd century BC) in his Cratylus gives two possible interpretations for the name of Cronus. The first is that his name denotes κόρος (kóros), "the pure" ( καθαρόν ) and "unblemished" (ἀκήρατον) nature of his mind. The second
8976-469: Was famous in the antiquity. Pindar uses the rare epithet Chalkokrotos (bronze sounding). Brazen musical instruments were used in the mysteries of Demeter and the Great-Mother Rhea - Cybele was also worshipped with the music of cymbals. In central Greece Demeter was known as Amphictyonis (of the dwellers-round), in a cult of the goddess at Anthele near Thermopylae (hot gates). She
9078-416: Was forced to regurgitate his children through Gaia's cunning and Zeus's might. Cronus disgorged first the stone that he had swallowed instead of Zeus, followed by Zeus's siblings. The stone was then placed by Zeus at Pytho on Mount Parnassus . In other versions of the tale, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the children. After freeing his siblings, Zeus released the Hecatoncheires and
9180-598: Was forcibly removed by Edward Daniel Clarke and donated to the University of Cambridge . The statue is now located in the Fitzwilliam Museum , the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. Demeter's two major festivals were sacred mysteries . Her Thesmophoria festival (11–13 October) was women-only. Her Eleusinian mysteries were open to initiates of any gender or social class. At
9282-476: Was installed in the already ancient Temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera , Rome's Aventine patrons of the plebs ; from the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter's temple at Enna, in Sicily , was acknowledged as Ceres' oldest, most authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognized as Proserpina, Roman equivalent to Persephone. Their joint cult recalls Demeter's search for Persephone after the latter's abduction into
9384-498: Was later freed when Zeus made Cronus disgorge all of his children by giving him a special potion. Demeter is notable as the mother of Persephone, described by both Hesiod and in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as the result of a union with her younger brother Zeus. An alternate recounting of the matter appears in a fragment of the lost Orphic theogony, which preserves part of a myth in which Zeus mates with his mother, Rhea , in
9486-511: Was often considered to be the same figure as the Anatolian goddess Cybele , and she was identified with the Roman goddess Ceres . Demeter may appear in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents ( AR Zf 1 and 2, and KY Za 2), all three dedicated to religious situations and all three bearing just the name ( i-da-ma-te on AR Zf 1 and 2). It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in
9588-565: Was raised by his grandmother, Gaia. One Cretan myth relates how Cronus once went to Crete himself, and Zeus, in order to hide from his father, transformed himself into a snake, and changed his nymph nurses, Helice and Cynosura into bears, who later became the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor respectively. In another myth, Cronus transformed the Curetes into lions, but Rhea made them her sacred animals and yoked them in her chariot. According to Hesiod, once Zeus had grown up, Cronus
9690-412: Was said to be the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon. According to Pausanias, a Thelpusian tradition said that during Demeter's search for Persephone, Poseidon pursued her. Demeter turned into a horse to avoid her younger brother's advances. However, he turned into a stallion and mated with the goddess, resulting in the birth of the horse god Arion and a daughter "whose name they are not wont to divulge to
9792-430: Was somewhat of a minority belief, possibly via conflation of Demeter with her daughter, as most sources state that the parents of Dionysus were Zeus and Persephone, and later Zeus and Semele. Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) describes Demeter as the second daughter of Cronus and Rhea , and the sister of Hestia , Hera , Hades , Poseidon , and Zeus . In Arcadia, a major Arcadian deity known as Despoina ("Mistress")
9894-402: Was subsequently deified. This version gives his alternate name as Elus or Ilus , and states that in the 32nd year of his reign, he emasculated, slew and deified his father Epigeius or Autochthon "whom they afterwards called Uranus". It further states that after ships were invented, Cronus, visiting the 'inhabitable world', bequeathed Attica to his own daughter Athena , and Egypt to Taautus
9996-428: Was swallowed by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus. Through her brother Zeus, she became the mother of Persephone , a fertility goddess and resurrection deity . One of the most notable Homeric Hymns , the Homeric Hymn to Demeter , tells the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades and Demeter's search for her. When Hades, the King of the Underworld, wished to make Persephone his wife, he abducted her from
10098-452: Was the goddess of young corn and young vegetation and "Iouloi" were harvest songs in honour of the goddess. The reapers called Demeter Amallophoros (bringer of sheaves) and Amaia (reaper). The goddess was the giver of abundance of food and she was known as Sito (of the grain) and Himalis (of abundance ). The bread from the first harvest-fruits was called thalysian bread ( Thalysia ) in honour of Demeter. The sacrificial cakes burned on
10200-416: Was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father. In Athens , on the twelfth day of the Attic month of Hekatombaion , a festival called Kronia was held in honour of Cronus to celebrate the harvest, suggesting that, as a result of his association with the virtuous Golden Age, Cronus continued to preside as a patron of the harvest . Cronus was also identified in classical antiquity with
10302-400: Was the patron goddess of an ancient Amphictyony . Thermopylae is the place of hot springs considered to be entrances to Hades , since Demeter was a chthonic goddess in the older local cults. The Athenians called the dead "Demetrioi", and this may reflect a link between Demeter and the ancient cult of the dead, linked to the agrarian belief that a new life would sprout from the dead body, as
10404-609: Was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the sickle and placed him in ambush. When Uranus met with Gaia, Cronus attacked him with the sickle, castrating him and casting his testicles into the sea. From the blood that spilled out from Uranus and fell upon the earth, the Gigantes , Erinyes , and Meliae were produced. The testicles produced a white foam from which the goddess Aphrodite emerged. For this, Uranus threatened vengeance and called his sons Titenes for overstepping their boundaries and daring to commit such an act. After
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