Demeter Demeter is an influential mother and corn goddess with numerous temples in ancient Greece, with a major temple at the town of Eleusis (about 10 miles from Athens). Her daughter by Zeus is Persephone or Kore (“the Girl”), who also personifies corn. Together, Demeter and Persephone are deities of agriculture and growth.
Demeter is usually depicted holding sheaves of corn. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter links her to the Eleusinian Mysteries. In this hymn Kore (Persephone) is abducted by Hades to the underworld. As the corn crop suffers Demeter searches for Kore until Zeus decrees that Kore must spend one part of the year with Demeter and another part with Hades.
This is often cited as an example of how story tellers mythologize the natural cycles of seed-time, vegetation, harvest and subsequent storage in underground containers. Demeter is also portrayed as sorrowful because of Persephone’s sad fate.
In Italy Demeter is often identified with Ceres.
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