Feb 7, 2012 ... Images: Vostok : JPG (22 k) ...... Clark (McClelland), former ScO, Ground Test
Astronaut), Space Shuttle Fleet, .... PHILLIP K DICK'S ANDROIDS ...

8-19-12 -  note:  while working on this page, it turned on a favorite internet radio show titled  ET HEALING, which is on every two weeks on Thursday evenings on bbsradio.com .  This particular show I listened to was from August 2, 2012 if any of you would like to listen to it yourself.  The topic was  MASCULINE HEALING.  The ET said that masculine healing of negative energies, which also includes women with negative masculine energies is going to be taking place within the next three years.  It is so synchronistic with the following dream.

8-19-12   DREAM

 - I was in the country somewhere in a house that had a basement.  There was more than one room.

I had collected books about forest lore, books that w ere tall and narrow, and some Native stories printed on brown paper.

There was a woman living with me - who was a motherly figure.  She wanted to go to the library and get more books and I was willing, but the car was parked almost 1/2 mile away and for me that seemed like a long distance, so I put it off, perhaps hoping that someone else would come along with another vehicle and give us a ride.

A tall dark haired man, with dark beard, mustache, dressed like a cowboy, came up and he was in a rutting mood.

The older woman had gone to the basement, and I sent the man downstairs, knowing what he would try, and I tried locking him down there so he would leave me alone.

Then an old short Native Man came and knew what had been done, and he bent over listening to the floor, through a tall empty wicker basket, and all he said was, "Star Mother'.  and groaned.

I heard the tall, dark haired  man call for help and said he needed newspaper and I knew it was to soak up blood.

All I had was the brown paper Indian stories, so I slid them down into an opening in the floor.

He was outraged that it was all I had. 

All of a sudden, the tall, dark haired man appeared in the doorway, clutching his right side with his hands and I knew that the older woman had hurt him.

He cried out,, "Star Mother!"

I told him to lay down, and he lay down on the floor, clutching his right side with his right arm, and he folded his left arm over himself to clutch his right arm to his side.

and I opened my eyes, glad to be alive.

NOTE:  I immediately looked on the internet for stories of the STAR MOTHER

The Rape of the Daughter of the Mother Earth (Klekabusk

The Star Mother Myth

The Rape of the Daughter of the Mother Earth

THIS STORY ALSO FITS THE STORY OF THE KIDNAPPING AND  RAPE OF DEMETER'S  (CERES) DAUGHTER (PERSEPHONE) BY HADES IN THE UNDERWORLD

IT ALSO FIT THE ADAM AND EVE STORY OF THE BIBLE.

In ancient Greek religion and myth, Demeter (/diˈmiːtər/; Attic Δημήτηρ Dēmētēr. Doric Δαμάτηρ Dāmātēr) is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. Her cult titles include Sito (σίτος: wheat) as the giver of food or corn/grain^[1] and Thesmophoros (θεσμός, thesmos: divine order, unwritten law) as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society.^[2]

Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sanctity of marriage, the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of circa 1400-1200 BC found at Pylos, the "two mistresses and the king" are identified with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.^[3] Her Roman equivalent is Ceres.

The earliest attested form of Demeter's name is Da-ma-te, written in Linear B (Mycenean Greek). Her character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name meter (μήτηρ) derived from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (mother).^[4] In antiquity, different explanations were already proffered for the first element of her name. It is possible that Da (Δᾶ) (which became Attic De (Δῆ)), is the Doric form of Ge (γῆ), "earth"; the old name of the chthonic earth-goddess and Demeter is "Mother-Earth".^[5] This root also appears in the Linear B inscription E-ne-si-da-o-ne, "earth-shaker", as an aspect of the god Poseidon.^[6] However, the dā element is not so simply equated with "earth" according to John Chadwick.^[7]

The element De- may be connected with Deo, a surname of Demeter^[8] probably derived from the Cretan word dea (δηά), Ionic zeia (ζειά) meaning "barley", so that she is the Corn-Mother and the giver of food generally.^[9] Arcadian cult to Demeter links her to a male deity (Greek: Paredros), who accompanied the Great Goddess and has been interpreted as a possible substitution for Poseidon; Demeter may therefore be related to a Minoan Great Goddess.^[10]

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).^[11]

 Agricultural deity

According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, Demeter's greatest gifts to humankind were agriculture, particularly of cereals, and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife.^[12] These two gifts were intimately connected in Demeter's myths and mystery cults. In Homer's Odyssey she is the blond-haired goddess who separates the chaff from the grain.^[13] In Hesiod, prayers to Zeus-Chthonios (chthonic Zeus) and Demeter help the crops grow full and strong.^[14] Demeter's emblem is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among the barley.^[15]

In Hesiod's Theogony, Demeter is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. At the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, Demeter lured Iasion away from the other revelers. They had intercourse in a ploughed furrow in Crete, and she gave birth to a son, Ploutos.^[16] Her daughter by Zeus was Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.^[17]

Festivals and cults

Demeter's two major festivals were sacred mysteries. Her Thesmophoria festival (October 11 - 13) was women-only.^[18] Her Eleusinian mysteries were open to initiates of any gender or social class. At the heart of both festivals were myths concerning Demeter as Mother and Persephone as her daughter.

July 13, festival of Demeter.(Greek)

Myths

 Demeter and Persephone

Demeter's virgin daughter Persephone was abducted to the underworld by Hades. Demeter searched for her ceaselessly, preoccupied with her loss and her grief. The seasons halted; living things ceased their growth, then began to die.^[19] Faced with the extinction of all life on earth, Zeus sent his messenger Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back. Hades agreed to release her if she had eaten nothing while in his realm; but Persephone had eaten a small number of pomegranate seeds. This bound her to Hades and the underworld for certain months of every year, either the dry Mediterranean summer, when plant life is threatened by drought,^[20] or the autumn and winter.^[21] There are several variations on the basic myth. In the Homeric hymn to Demeter, Hecate assists in the search and later becomes Persephone's underworld attendant.^[22] In another, Persephone willingly and secretly eats the pomegranate seeds, thinking to deceive Hades, but is discovered and made to stay. In all versions, Persephone's time in the underworld corresponds with the unfruitful seasons of the ancient Greek calendar, and her return to the upper world with springtime. Demeter's descent to retrieve Persephone from the underworld is connected to the Eleusinian Mysteries.

In Mycenaean Pylos, Demeter and Persephone were potniai (the mistresses). In classical Greece, they were invoked as tō theō ('the two Goddesses')^{[citation needed]} or despoinai ('the Mistresses').^[23]. The myth of the rape of Persephone seems to be pre-Greek. In the Greek version Ploutos (πλούτος, wealth) represents the wealth of the corn that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (pithoi). Similar subterranean pithoi were used in ancient times for funerary practices and Pluto is fused with Hades, the King of the underworld. During summer months the Greek Corn-Maiden (Kore) is lying in the corn of the underground silos, abducted by Hades (Pluto) as it is described in Theogony. Kore is fused with Persephone, the Queen of the underworld. At the beginning of the autumn, when the corn of the old crop is laid on the fields she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at this time the old crop and the new meet each other.^[24]

According to the personal mythology of Robert Graves,^[25] Persephone is not only the younger self of Demeter,^[26] she is in turn also one of three guises of the Triple Goddess — Kore (the youngest, the maiden, signifying green young grain), Persephone (in the middle, the nymph, signifying the ripe grain waiting to be harvested), and Hecate (the eldest of the three, the crone, the harvested grain), which to a certain extent reduces the name and role of Demeter to that of group name. Before her abduction, she is called Kore; and once taken she becomes Persephone ('she who brings destruction').^[27]

 Demeter at Eleusis

Demeter's search for her daughter Persephone took her to the palace of Celeus, the King of Eleusis in Attica. She assumed the form of an old woman, and asked him for shelter. He took her in, to nurse Demophon and Triptolemus, his sons by Metanira. To reward his kindness, she planned to make Demophon immortal; she secretly anointed the boy with ambrosia and laid him in the flames of the hearth, to gradually burn away his mortal self. But Metanira walked in, saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright. Demeter abandoned the attempt. Instead, she taught Triptolemus the secrets of agriculture, and he in turn taught them to any who wished to learn them. Thus, humanity learned how to plant, grow and harvest grain. The myth has several versions; some are linked to figures such as Eleusis, Rarus and Trochilus. The Demophon element may be based on an earlier folk tale.^[28]

 Demeter and Poseidon

Demeter and Poseidon's names are linked in the earliest scratched notes in Linear B found at Mycenaean Pylos, where they appear as DA-MA-TE and PO-SE-DA-O-NE in the context of sacralized lot-casting.^{[citation needed]}

In the myths of isolated Arcadia in southern Greece, Despoina (Persephone), is daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios, Horse-Poseidon. These myths seem to be connected with the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north during the Bronze age. Poseidon represents the river spirit of the underworld and he appears as a horse as it often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and she bears one daughter who obviously originally had the form or the shape of a mare too. Demeter and Despoina were closely connected with springs and animals, related to Poseidon as a God of waters and especially with the mistress of the animals Artemis who was the first nymph.^[29]

Demeter as mare-goddess was pursued by Poseidon, and hid from him among the horses of King Onkios, but could not conceal her divinity. In the form of a stallion, Poseidon caught and covered her. Demeter was furious (erinys) at Poseidon's assault; in this furious form, she is known as Demeter Erinys. But she washed away her anger in the River Ladon, becoming Demeter Lousia, the "bathed Demeter".^[30] "In her alliance with Poseidon," Karl Kerenyi noted,^[31] "she was Earth, who bears plants and beasts, and could therefore assume the shape of an ear of grain or a mare." She bore a daughter Despoina (Δέσποινα: the "Mistress"), whose name should not be uttered outside the Arcadian Mysteries,^[32] and a horse named Arion, with a black mane and tail.

In Arcadia, Demeter's mare-form was worshiped into historical times. Her xoanon of Phigaleia shows how the local cult interpreted her: a Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water.^[33]

Titles and functions

Demeter's epithets show her many religious functions. She was the "Corn-Mother" who blesses the harvesters. Some cults interpreted her as "Mother-Earth". Demeter may be linked to goddess-cults of Minoan Crete, and embody aspects of a pre-Hellenic Great Goddess. Her other epithets include:

• Aganippe ("the Mare who destroys mercifully", "Night-Mare")

• Potnia ("mistress") in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Hera especially, but also Artemis and Athena, are addressed as "potnia" as well.

• Despoina ("mistress of the house"), a Greek word similar to the Mycenean potnia. This title was also applied to Persephone, Aphrodite and Hecate.

• Thesmophoros ("giver of customs" or even "legislator"), a role that links her to the even more ancient goddess Themis,^[2] derived from thesmos, the unwritten law.^[34] This title was connected with the Thesmophoria, a festival of secret women-only rituals in Athens connected with marriage customs.

• Erinys ("implacable"),^[35] with a function similar with the function of the avenging Dike (Justice), goddess of moral justice based on custom rules who represents the divine retribution,^[36] and the Erinyes, female ancient chthonic deities of vengeance and implacable agents of retribution.

• Chloe ("the green shoot"),^[37] that invokes her powers of ever-returning fertility, as does Chthonia.

• Chthonia ("in the ground"), chthonic Demeter in Sparta.^[38]

DEMETER

• Anesidora ("sending up gifts from the earth") applied to Demeter in Pausanias 1.31.4, also appears inscribed on an Attic ceramic a name for Pandora on her jar.^[39]

• Europa ("broad face or eyes") at Lebadaea of Boeotia. She was the nurse of Trophonios to whom a chthonic cult and oracle was dedicated.^[40] Europa was a Phoenecian princess who Zeus abducted, transformed in a white bull, and carried her to Creta.

• Kidaria in the mysteries of Pheneos in Arcadia ^[41] where the priest put on the mask of Demeter kept in a secret place. It seems that the cult was connected with the underworld and with an agrarian magic.^[42]

Demeter might also be invoked in the guises of:

• Malophoros ("apple-bearer" or "sheep-bearer", Pausanias 1.44.3)
• Lusia ("bathing", Pausanias 8.25.8)
• Thermasia ("warmth", Pausanias 2.34.6)
• Achaea, the name by which she was worshipped at Athens by the Gephyraeans who had emigrated from Boeotia.^[43][44]

• Poppy goddess:

Theocritus, wrote of an earlier role of Demeter as a poppy goddess:

For the Greeks Demeter was still a poppy goddess

Bearing sheaves and poppies in both hands. — Idyll vii.157

In a clay statuette from Gazi (Heraklion Museum, Kereny 1976 fig 15), the Minoan poppy goddess wears the seed capsules, sources of nourishment and narcosis, in her diadem. "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 certain that in the Cretan cult sphere, opium was prepared from poppies" (Kerenyi 1976, p 24).

Consorts and children

Persephone

In a Linear B (Mycenean Greek) inscription on a tablet found at Pylos dated 1400–1200 BC, John Chadwick reconstructs the name of a goddess *Preswa who could be identified with Persa, daughter of Oceanus and finds speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone.^[4] Persephonē (Greek: Περσεφόνη) is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. The Homeric form of her name is Persephoneia (Περσεφονεία,^[5] Persephonēia). In other dialects she was known under variant names: Persephassa (Περσεφάσσα), Persephatta (Περσεφάττα), or simply Korē (Κόρη, "girl, maiden").^[6] Plato calls her Pherepapha (Φερέπαφα) in his Cratylus, "because she is wise and touches that which is in motion". There also the forms Perifona (Πηριφόνα) and Phersephassa (Φερσέφασσα). The existence of so many different forms shows how difficult it was for the Greeks to pronounce the word in their own language and suggests that the name has probably a pre-Greek origin.^[7]

An alternative etymology is from φέρειν φόνον, pherein phonon, "to bring (or cause) death".^[8]

Another mythical personage of the name of Persephione is called a daughter of Minyas and the mother of Chloris, a nymph of spring, flower and new growth.^[8] The Minyans were a group considered autochthonous, but some scholars assert that they were the first wave of Proto-Greek speakers in the second milemnium BC.^[9]

The Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who used the dialectal variant Proserpinē (Προσερπίνη). Hence, in Roman mythology she was called Proserpina, a name erroneously derived by the Romans from proserpere, "to shoot forth"^[10] and as such became an emblematic figure of the Renaissance.^{[citation needed]}

At Locri, perhaps uniquely, Persephone was the protector of marriage, a role usually assumed by Hera; in the iconography of votive plaques at Locri, her abduction and marriage to Hades served as an emblem of the marital state, children at Locri were dedicated to Proserpina, and maidens about to be wed brought their peplos to be blessed.^[11]

[edit] Nestis

In a Classical period text ascribed to Empedocles, c. 490–430 BC,^[12] describing a correspondence among four deities and the classical elements, the name Nestis for water apparently refers to Persephone: "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus. And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears."^[13]

Of the four deities of Empedocles's elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo—Nestis is a euphemistic cult title^[14]—for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was euphemistically named simply as Kore or "the Maiden", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld.

[edit] Titles and functions

The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her character as Queen of the lower world and the dead, or her symbolic meaning of the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a vegetation goddess is Kore and in Arcadia she was worshipped under the title Despoina "the mistress", a very old chthonic divinity. Plutarch identifies her with spring and Cicero calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields. In the Eleusinian mysteries her return is the symbol of immortality and hence she was frequently represented on sarcophagi.^[8]

In the mystical theories of the Orphics and the Platonists, Kore is described as the all-pervading goddess of nature^[15] who both produces and destroys everything and she is therefore mentioned along or identified with other mystic divinities such as Isis, Rhea, Ge, Hestia, Pandora, Artemis, and Hecate.^[16] The mystic Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysos, Iacchus, or Zagreus.^[8]

[edit] Epithets

As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names.^[17] However it is possible that some of them were the names of original goddesses:

• Despoina (dems-potnia) "the mistress", (literally "the mistress of the house") in Arcadia.
• Hagne, "pure", originally a goddess of the springs in Messenia.^[18]
• Melindia or Melinoia (meli, "honey"), as the consort of Hades, in Hermione. (Compare Hecate, Melinoe)^[17]
• Melivia^[17]
• Melitodes^[17]
• Aristi cthonia, "the best chthonic".^[17]

As a vegetation goddess she was called:^[18][19]

• Kore, "the maiden".
• Kore Soteira, "the savior maiden" in Megalopolis.
• Neotera, "the younger " in Eleusis.
• Kore of Demeter Hagne, in the Homeric hymn.
• Kore memagmeni, "the mixed daughter" (bread).

Demeter and her daughter Persephone were usually called:^[18][19]

• The goddesses, often distinguished as "the older" and "the younger" in Eleusis.
• Demeters, in Rhodes and Sparta
• The thesmophoroi, "the legislators" in the Thesmophoria.
• The Great Goddesses, in Arcadia.
• The mistresses in Arcadia.^[20]
• Karpophoroi, "the bringers of fruit", in Tegea of Arcadia.

[edit] Origins of the cult

The myth of the rape of the vegetation goddess is probably Pre-Greek. The place of the abduction is different in each local cult. The Homeric hymn mentions the Nysion (or Mysion), probably a mythical place which didn’t exist in the map. The locations of this mythical place may simply be conventions to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past.^[19][21] Demeter found and met her daughter in Eleusis, and this is the mythical disguise of what happened in the mysteries.^[22]

Persephone is an old chthonic deity of the agricultural communities, who received the souls of the dead into the earth, and acquired powers on the fertility of the soil under which she reigned. The earliest depiction of a goddess who may be identified with Persephone growing out of the ground, is on a plate from the Old-Palace period in Phaistos. The goddess has a vegetable-like appearance, and she is surrounded by dancing girls between blossoming flowers. The association with the flower-picking Persephone and her companions is compelling.^[23][24][25]On the Minoan ring of Isopata, four women are performing a dance between flowers in a field, and a smaller figure, the goddess herself appears floating in the air.^[26]

In the Homeric poems Persephone is the real ruler of the underworld, the terrible "Queen of the Shades",^[27] and Hades doesn't have authorities on the souls of the dead. In some forms Hades appears with his chthonic horses. The myth of the rape of Kore was deriven from the idea that Hades catches the souls of the dead like his booty, and then carries them with his horses into his kingdom. This idea is vague in Homer, but appears in later Greek depictions, and in Greek folklore. "Charos" appears with his horse and carries the dead into the underworld.^[28][29]

The cults of Persephone and Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries and in the Thesmophoria were based on very old agrarian cults. An earlier agrarian procession leaded by a priest, is depicted on a Minoan vase from the end of the New-Palace period.^[30] Ancient cults like age-old cults of the dead, worship of animal headed gods, and rituals for the new crop, had their position in Greek religion because they were connected with daily or seasonal tasks and concecrated by immemorial practices. The powers of animal nature fostered a belief in nymphs, and in gods with human forms and the heads or tails of animals. In the Arcadian cults, it seems that Demeter and Persephone were the first from a series of daemons with the same nature. Terracotta figures with animal-headed gods or daemons and a procession of women with animal masks have been discovered at the temple of Despoina at Lycosura.^[18] These cults seem to go back to the Mycenean period. The cult center of Mycenea dated from the 13th century BC, contained numerous big idols with faces painted in a terrifying mask-like manner, and a fresco represented a priestess or goddess with ears of corn in her hand.^[31]

A lot of ancient beliefs were based on initiation in jealously guided mysteries (secret rites) because they offered prospects after death more enjoyable than the final end at the gloomy space of the Greek Hades. It seems that such religious practices were introduced from Minoan Crete,^[32][33] Similar practices appear also in the Orient. However the idea of immortality which appears in the syncretistic religions of Near East did not exist in the Eleusinian mysteries at the very beginning.^[34][35]

[edit] Orient-Minoan Crete

In the Near eastern myth of the primitive agricultural societies, every year the fertility goddess bore the "god of the new year", who then became her lover, and died immediately in order to be reborn and face the same destiny. Similar cults of resurrected gods appear in the Orient in the cults of Attis, Adonis and Osiris,^[36] In Minoan Crete, the "divine child" was related with the female vegetation divinity Ariadne who died every year.^[37] The Minoan religion had its own characteristics. The cult was aniconic, the principal deities were female, and they appeared in epiphany called chiefly by ecstatic sacral dances, by tree–shaking and by baetylic rites.^[38]

The daemons were a part of the religious system. They were considered divine, and they were connected with gods or goddesses of hunting. In the Minoan seals or jewellerry, are depicted animal-headed daemons^[39] or hybrid-creatures. Some of these depictions seem similar with Oriental depictions, especially with the well-known Babylonian daemons. A young Minotaur is depicted on a seal from Knossos.^[40] Depictions of daemons between lions, of men between daemons, and processions of daemons, appear also in Mycenean seals and jewllerry, and in Phigalia of Arcadia.^[41]

.

The most peculiar feature of the Minoan belief for the divine, is the appearance of the goddess from above in the dance. Dancing floors have been discovered besides "vaulted tombs", and it seems that the dance was ecstatic. Homer keeps in memory the dancing floor which Daedalus built for Ariadne in the remote past.^[42] On the gold ring from Isopata, four women in a festal attire are performing a dance between blossoming flowers. Above a much smaller and differently dressed figure floating in the air seems to be the goddess herself, appearing amid the whirling dance.^[26] An image plate from the first palace of Phaistos, seems to be very close to the mythical image of the Anodos (ascent) of Persephone. Two girls dance between blossoming flowers, on other side of a similar but armless and legless figure which seems to grow out of the ground. The goddess is bordered by snake lines which give her a vegetable like appearance and also recall the arrangement of snake tubes which have been found in Minoan and Mycenean sunctuaries. She has a large stylized flower turned over her head, and the resemblance with the flower picking Persephone and her companions is compelling^[23] The depiction of the goddess is similar with later images of "Anodos of Pherephata". On the Dresden vase Persephone is growing out of the ground, and she is surrounded by the animal-tailed agricultural gods Silenoi.^[43] It seems that in Crete there were festivals designated in a way corresponding to the later Greek types of festival names.^[23] An agrarian procession is depicted on the "Harversters Vase" or Vase of the Winnowers' from the last phase of the New-palace period, (LM II), which was found in Hagia Triada. Men are walking by two with their tools-rods on their shoulders. The leader is probably a priest with long hair carrying a stick, and dressed in a priestly robe with a fringe. A group of musicians participate singing, and one of them holds the Egyptian instrument sistrum.^[30][44]

The Minoan vegetation goddess Ariadne was closely connected with the cult of the divine child, and with the "cult of the tree". This was an exstatic and orgiastic cult, which seems to be similar with the relative in the Syrian cult of Adonis,.^[45] Kerenyi suggests that the name Ariadne (derived from ἁγνή, hagne, "pure"), was an euphemistical name given by the Greeks to the nameless "Mistress of the labyrinth" who appears in a Mycenean Greek inscription from Knossos in Crete. The Greeks used to give friendly names to the deities of the underworld. Cthonic Zeus was called Eubuleus, "the good councelor", and the ferryman of the river of the underworld Charon, "glad" .^[29] Despoina and "Hagne" were probably euphimistic surnames of Persephone, therefore he theorizes that the cult of Persephone was the continuation of the worship of a Minoan Great goddess. The labyrinth was both a winding dance-ground and in the Greek view a prison with the dreaded Minotaur at its centre.^[46][47] It is possible that some religious practices, especially the mysteries were transferred from a Cretan priesthood to Eleusis, where Demeter brought the poppy from Crete.^[48] Besides these similarities, Burkert notifies that up to now we don’t know to what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenean religion.^[49] It seems that the Minoan vegetation goddess Ariadne was absorbed by more powerful divinities.^[50] She survived in Greek folklore as the consort of Dionysos, with whom she was worshiped in some local cults. In the Anthesteria Dionysos is the "divine child".

In the historical times the Minoan "cult of the tree", was almost forgotten. It existed in some local cults like the cult of the vegetation goddess Helena Dendritēs (dendron, "tree") in Rhodes, and a cult of Artemis in Peloponnese. In this cult Artemis is hanged from a tree, just like Ariadne in Greek mythology, who was hanged from a tree when she was abandoned by Theseus.^[51]

[edit] Mycenean Greece

It seems that the Greek deities began their career as powers of nature, but then they were given other functions and attributes by the worshippers.^[50] The powers of animal nature fostered a belief in nymphs, whose existence was bound to the trees or the waters which they haunted, and in gods with human forms and the heads or tails of animals. The ancient gods with tails of animals who stood for primitive bodily insticts, were considered to protect the flocks and herds, and some of them survived in the cult of Dionysos (Satyrs and Seilinoi) and Pan (the goat-god). Such figures were believed to give help to men who watched over crops and herds, and later they were below the Olympians.^[52]

There is evidence of a cult in Eleusis from the Mycenean period,^[53] however there are not sacral finds from this period. The cult was private and we don’t have any information about it. Besides the names of some Greek gods in the Mycenean Greek inscriptions, appear also names of goddesses, like "the divine Mother" (the mother of the gods) or "the Goddess (or priestess) of the winds", who don’t have Mycenean origin.^[22] In historical times Demeter and Kore were usually referred to as "the goddesses" or "the mistresses" (Arcadia) in the mysteries.^[19] In the Mycenean Greek tablets dated 1400-1200 BC, the "two mistresses (potniai) and the king" are mentioned. John Chadwick believes that these were the precursor divinities of Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.^[54] In the discovered cult centre of Mycenea, the inner room contained a fresco depicting a goddess wearing a boar’s tusk. The subterranean House of the Idols, contained clay figures of coiled snakes, and numerous big and strange idols with faces painted in a terrifying mask-like manner. Close stands the House of Frescoes, and the fresco in the main room represented a priestess or goddess with ears of corn in her hand.^[31]

Persephone was conflated with Despoina, "the mistress", a chthonic divinity in West- Arcadia.^[33] The megaron of Eleusis, is quite similar with the "megaron" of Despoina at Lycosura.^[22] The names Demeter and Kore are Greek, and this probably indicates that the Greeks adopted these divinities during their wandering, and that they were later fused with local divinities in the ancient cults.^[55] The Arcadian cults come from a more primitive religion, and evidently the religious beliefs of the first Greek-speaking people who entered the region, were mixed with the beliefs of the indigenous population. Most of the temples were built near springs, and in some of them there is evidence of the existence of a fire, which was always burning. At Lycosura, a fire was burning in front of the temple of Pan (the goat-god).^[18] In Eleusis in a ritual one child "pais" initiated from the herth. The name pais (the divine child) appears in the Mycenean inscriptions.,^[22] and the ritual indicates the transition from the old funerary practices to the Greek cremation.^[56]

The two goddesses, were closely related with the springs and the animals. At Lycosura on a marble relief on the veil of Despoina appear figures with the heads of different animals obviously in a ritual dance, and some of them hold a flute. These could be hybrid creatures or a procession of women with animal-masks.^[57] Similar processions of daemons, or human figures with animal-masks appear on Mycenean frescoes and goldrings .^[58][59] It seems that Demeter and Kore, were the first from a series of daemons with the same nature, just as Artemis was the first of the nymphs.^[18]

Demeter and Persephone, were the two Great Goddesses of the Arcadian mysteries. Despoine was one of her surnames just as the surname of Persephone Kore.^[60] Her name was not allowed to be revealed to the not initiated, and she was daughter of Demeter, who was united with the god of the storms and rivers Poseidon Hippios (horse).^[61] In northern European folklore, the river spirit of the underworld appears frequently as a horse. The union of the fertility goddess with the beast which represents the masculine fertility, is an old Near Eastern myth, which appears in many primitive agricultural societies. The ritual copulation in Minoan Crete was related with moon-goddesses like Europa and Pasiphae, but this cult was almost forgotten by the Greeks. It survived in the myths of the hybrid-creature Minotaur, and of the abduction of the Phoenecian princess Europa by the white bull. (Zeus)^[37] The animal-headed gods were depicted in the local cults of isolated Arcadia, or in Crete in the depiction of the dog-headed Hecate.^[62] The animal masks were substituted by masks representing human faces, as it appears in the temple of Artemis Orthia at Sparta. Dancing girls used these masks during the annual "vegetation ritual ".^[63]

The Minoan "cult of the tree" appears also in Mycenean seals and jewellerry, however we don’t know if this cult in Greece was similar with the Minoan. A dinstinctive feature on Minoan gold rings is a large imposed tree, set apart as sacred. The deity appears in dance beneath the tree. Generally it is fig and olive trees which seem to be depicted^[64] Later the cult of Dionysos was closely associated with trees, specifically the fig tree, and some of his bynames exhibit this, such as Endendros or Dendritēs (dendron, "tree").^[65] According to Pherecydes of Syros, the second element of his name is derived from nũsa, an archaic word for "tree".^[66] It is possible that the meaning of tree was re-interpreted to the name of the mountain Nysa, the birthplace of Dionysos, according to the axis mundi of Indo-European mythology .^[67] In Greek mythology Nysa is a mythical mountain with unknown location.^[21] Nysion (or Mysion), the place of the abduction of Persephone was also probably a mythical place which didn’t exist in the map, a magically distant chthonic land of myth which was intended in the remote past.^[19]

[edit] Greek mythology

[edit] Abduction myth

Persephone used to live far away from the other deities, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In the Olympian telling, the gods Hermes and Apollo had wooed Persephone; but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the Olympian deities.^[68] The story of her abduction by Pluto against her will, is traditionally referred to as the Rape of Persephone. It is first mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony.^[69] Zeus, it is said, advised Pluto (Hades) who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to carry her off, as her mother Demeter, was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to Hades. Persephone was gathering flowers with Artemis and Athena, the Homeric hymn says—or Leucippe, or Oceanids—in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth.. Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, searched for her all over the earth with torches. In most versions she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and in the depth of her despair she causes nothing to grow. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered the place of her abode. Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.^[70]

Hades indeed complied with the request, but first he tricked her giving her a kernel of a pomegranate to eat. She ate four seeds, which correspond to the dry summer months in Greece. It was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Persephone was released by Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, but she was obliged to spend four months of a year in the underworld, and the remaining two thirds with the gods above.^[70] The various local traditions place Persephone's abduction in a different location. The Sicilians, among whom her worship was probably introduced by the Corinthian and Megarian colonists, believed that Hades found her in the meadows near Enna, and that a well arose on the spot where he descended with her into the lower world. The Cretans thought that their own island had been the scene of the rape, and the Eleusinians mentioned the Nysian plain in Boeotia, and said that Persephone had descended with Hades into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the rape in Attica, near Athens, or near Eleusis.^[70]

The Homeric hymn mentions the Nysion (or Mysion), probably a mythical place which didn’t exist in the map. The locations of this mythical place may simply be conventions to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past.^[19] Before Persephone was abducted by Hades, the shepherd Eumolpus and the swineherd Eubuleus, saw a girl being carried of into the earth which had violently opened up, in a black chariot, driven by an invisible driver. Eubuleus was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld when Persephone was abducted by Plouton. His swine were swallowed by the earth along with her, and the myth is an etiology for the relation of pigs with the ancient rites in Thesmophoria,^[71] and in Eleusis.

In the hymn, Persephone returns and she is reunited with her mother near Eleusis. Demeter as she has been promised established her mysteries (orgies) when the Eleusinians built for her a temple near the spring of Callichorus. These were awful mysteries, which were not allowed to be uttered. The uninitiated would spent a miserable existence in the gloomy space of Hades, after death. ^[72]

In some versions, Ascalaphus informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were reunited, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for some months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an origin story to explain the seasons.

In an earlier version, Hecate rescued Persephone. On an Attic red-figured bell krater of ca 440 BC in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter.^[73]

The tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda introduces a goddess of a blessed afterlife assured to Orphic mystery initiates. This Macaria is asserted to be the daughter of Hades, but no mother is mentioned.^[74]

[edit] Pluto-Interpretetion of the myth

In the myth Pluto abducts Persephone to be his wife and the queen of his realm.^[75] Pluto (Πλούτων, Ploutōn) was a name for the ruler of the underworld; the god was also known as Hades, a name for the underworld itself. The name Pluton was conflated with that of Ploutos (Πλούτος Ploutos, "wealth"), a god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because Pluto as a chthonic god ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest.^[75] Plouton is lord of the dead, but as Persephone's husband he has serious claims to the powers of fertility.^[76]

In the Theogony of Hesiod Demeter was united with the hero Iasion in Crete and she bore Ploutos, who can make everyone rich.^[69] This union seems to be a reference to a hieros gamos (ritual copulation) to ensure the earth's fertility.^[76] This ritual copulation appears in Minoan Crete, in many Near Eastern agricultural societies, and also in the Anthesteria^[77]

Nilsson believes that the original cult of Ploutos (or Pluto) in Eleusis was similar with the Minoan cult of the "divine child", who died in order to be reborn. The child was abandoned by his mother and then it was brought up by the powers of nature. Similar myths appear in the cults of Hyakinthos (Amyklai), Erichthonios (Athens), and later in the cult of Dionysos.^[78]

The Greek version of the abduction myth, is related with the corn which was the most important and rare in the Greek environment, and the return (ascent) of Persephone was celebrated at the autumn sowing. Pluto (Ploutos) represents the wealth of the corn that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (pithoi), during summer months. Similar subterranean pithoi were used in ancient times for burials and Pluto is fused with Hades, the King of the realm of the dead. During summer months, the Greek Corn-Maiden (Kore) is lying in the corn of the underground silos, in the realm of Hades and she is fused with Persephone, the Queen of the underworld. At the beginning of the autumn, when the seeds of the old crop are laid on the fields, she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at that time the old crop and the new meet each other. For the initiated this union was the symbol of the eternity of human life that flows from the generations which spring from each other.^[79][80]

[edit] Elysion

Hesiod refers to the island of the "happy dead"^[81] and it is the Elysion, where according to an old Minoan belief, the departed could have a different, but happier existence. This was a land at the western extremity of the river that surrounded earth where sun rested at night in order to be reborn in the morning. The Egyptians believed that they would be reborn if they followed the course of the sun and later that they would spend there a happy eternity. ^[82] Elysion is probably counterpart with Eleusis, the city of the Eleusinian mysteries, and it may have been offered like a reward to the initiated. The Greeks believed that only the beloved of the gods could exist there.^[83] Pindar in some fragments speeks for the immortality of the souls, which may spent in Elysion a happy eternity.^[84] In Odyssey Homer carries the old belief to the ideal island for mortals Scheria, the imaginary perfect world that was offered to the future emigrants. This island, which the tradition relates with Elysion, became the lost dream of the Greek world.^[85]

[edit] The Arcadian myths

From L-R, Artemis, Demeter, Veil of Despoina, Anytus, Tritoness from the throne of Despoina at Lycosura. National Archaeological Museum of Athens

The primitive myths of isolated Arcadia seem to be related with the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north-east during the bronze age. Despoina, (the mistress) the goddess of the Arcadian mysteries, is the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios (horse), who represents the river spirit of the underworld that appears as a horse as often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and from the union she bears the horse Arion and a daughter who originally had the form or the shape of a mare. The two goddesses were not clearly separated and they were closely connected with the springs and the animals. They were related with the god of rivers and springs; Poseidon and especially with Artemis, the Mistress of the Animals who was the first nymph.^[2] According to the Greek tradition a hunt-goddess preceded the harvest goddess.^[86] In Arcadia Demeter and Persephone were often called Despoinai (Δέσποιναι, "the mistresses") in historical times. They are the two Great Goddesses of the Arcadian cults, and evidently they come from a more primitive religion.^[19] The Greek god Poseidon probably substituted the companion (Paredros, Πάρεδρος) of the Minoan Great goddess .^[87] in the Arcadian mysteries.

[edit] Queen of the Underworld

Seated goddess, probably Persephone on her throne in the underworld, Severe style ca 480–60, found at Tarentum, Magna Graecia (Pergamon Museum, Berlin)

Persephone held an ancient role as the dread queen of the Underworld, within which tradition it was forbidden to speak her name. This tradition comes from her conflation with the very old chthonic divinity Despoina (the mistress), whose real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated to her mysteries.^[61] As goddess of death she was also called a daughter of Zeus and Styx,^[88] the river that formed the boundary between Earth and the underworld. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic queen of the shades, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead, along with her husband Hades.^[89] In the reformulation of Greek mythology expressed in the Orphic Hymns, Dionysus and Melinoe are separately called children of Zeus and Persephone.^[90] Groves sacred to her stood at the western extremity of the earth on the frontiers of the lower world, which itself was called "house of Persephone".^[91]

Her central myth served as the context for the secret rites of regeneration at Eleusis,^[92] which promised immortality to initiates.

[edit] Cult of Persephone

Persephone was worshipped along with her mother Demeter and in the same mysteries. Her cults included agrarian magic, dancing, and rituals. The priests used special vessels and holy symbols, and the people participated with rhymes. In Eleusis there is evidence of sacred laws and other inscriptios^[22]

Cult of Demeter and the Maiden is found at Attica, in the main festivals Thesmophoria and Eleusinian mysteries and in a lot of local cults. These festivals were almost always celebrated at the autunn showing, and at full-moon according to the Greek tradition. In some local cults the fests were dedicated to Demeter.

[edit] Thesmophoria

Kore, daughter of Demeter, celebrated with her mother by the Thesmophoriazusae (women of the festival). Acropolis Museum, Athens

Thesmophoria, were celebrated in Athens, and the festival was widely spread in Greece. This was a festival of secret women-only rituals connected with marriage customs and commemorated the third of the year, in the month Pyanepsion, when Kore was abducted and Demeter abstained from her role as goddess of harvest and growth. The ceremony involved sinking sacrifices into the earth by night and retrieving the decaying remains of pigs that had been placed in the megara of Demeter, (trenches and pits or natural clefts in rock), the previous year. These were placed on altars, mixed with seeds, then planted.^[93] Pits rich in organic matter at Eleusis have been taken as evidence that the Thesmophoria was held there as well as in other demes of Attica.^[94] This agrarian magic was also used in the cult of the earth-goddesses potniai (mistresses) in the Cabeirian, and in Knidos.^[95]

The festival was celebrated in three days. The first was the "way up" to the sacred space, the second the day of festing when they ate pomegranate seeds and the third was a meat fest in celebration of Kalligeneia a goddess of beautiful birth. Zeus penetrated the mysteries as Zeus- Eubuleus^[93] which is an euphemistical name of Hades (Chthonios Zeus).^[17] In the original myth which is an etiology for the ancient rites, Eubuleus was a swineherd who was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld when Persephone was abducted by Plouton. His swine were swallowed by the earth along with her.^[71]

[edit] Eleusinian mysteries

The Eleusinian trio: Persephone, Triptolemus and Demeter on a marble bas-relief from Eleusis, 440-430 BC. National Archaeological Museum of Athens

The Eleusinian mysteries was a festival celebrated at the autumn sowing in the city Eleusis. Inscriptions are referring to "the Goddesses" accompanied by the agricultural god Triptolemos probably son of Ge and Oceanus .^[96] and "the God and the Goddess" (Persephone and Plouton) accompanied by Eubuleus who probably led the way back from the underworld.^[97] The myth was represented in a cycle with three phases: the "descent", the "search", and the "ascent", with contrasted emotions from sorrow to joy which roused the mystae to exultation. The main theme was the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother Demeter.^[79] The festival activities included dancing, probably across the Rharian field, where according to the myth the first corn grew.

At the beginning of the fest the priests filled two special vessels and poured out, the one towards the west, the other towards the east. The people looking both to the sky and the earth shouted in a magical rhyme "rain and conceive". In a ritual a child initiated from the herth (the divine fire). It was the ritual of the "divine child" who originally was Ploutos. In the Homeric hymn the ritual is connected with the myth of the agricultural god Triptolemos^[56] The high point of the celebration was "an ear of corn cut in silence", which represented the force of the new life. The idea of immortality didn't exist in the mysteries at the beginning, but the initiated believed that they would have a better fate in the underworld. Death remained a reality, but at the same time a new beginning like the plant which grows from the buried seed.^[22] In the earliest depictions Persephone is an armless and legless deity, who grows out of the ground.^[98]

[edit] Local cults

Local cults of Demeter an Kore existed in Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily, Magna Graecia, and Libya.

• Attica:^[19]
  • Athens, in the mysteries of Agrae. This was a local cult near the river Ilissos. They were celebrated during spring in the month Anthesterion. Later they became an obligation for the participants of the “great” Eleusinian mysteries. There was a temple of Demeter and Kore, and an image of Triptolemos.^[99]

Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter Persephone at Selinunte, Sicily 6th century BC

• • Piraeus: The Skirophoria, a festival related with the Thesmophoria.
  • Megara: Cult of Demeter thesmophoros and Kore. The city was named after its megara .^[100]
  • Aegina: Cult of Demeter thesmophoros and Kore.
  • Phlya, near Koropi, in the mysteries of Phlya: These have very old roots, and were probably originally dedicated to Demeter Anesidora, Kore, and Zeus- Ktesios, who was the god of the underground stored corn. Pausanias mentions a temple of Demeter-Anesidora, Kore Protogone, and Zeus Ktesios. The surname Protogonos, indicates a later Orphic influence. It seems that the mysteries were related with the mysteries of Andania in Messene.^[101]
• Boeotia:
  • Thebes, which Zeus is said to have been given to her as an acknowledgement for a favour she had bestown to him.^[102] Pausanias records a grove of Cabeirian Demeter and the Maid, three miles outside the gates of Thebes, where a ritual was performed, so called on the grounds that Demeter gave it to the Cabeiri, who established it at Thebes. The Thebans told Pausanias that some inhabitants of Naupactus had performed the same rituals there, and had met with divine vengeance.^[103] The Cabeirian mysteries were introduced from Asia Minor at the end of the archaic period. There is not any information of the older cult, and it seems that the Cabeiri were originally wine- daemons. Inscriptions from the temple in Thebes mention the old one Cabir, and the new one son (pais), who are different.^[101] According to Pausanias, Pelarge the daughter of Potnieus, was connected with the cult of Demeter in the Cabeirian (potniai).^[95]
  • A fest in Boeotia, in the month Demetrios (Pyanepsion), probably similar with the Thesmophoria.
  • Thebes: Cult of Demeter and Kore in a fest named Thesmophoria but probably different. It was celebrated in the summer month Bukatios.^[19][104]
• Peloponnese (except Arcadia)^[19]
  • Hermione : An old cult of Demeter Chthonia, Kore, and Klymenos (Hades). Cows were pushed into the temple, and then they were killed by four women. It is possible that Hermione was a mythical name, the place of the souls.^[17]
  • Asine: Cult of Demeter Chthonia. The cult seems to be related with the original cult of Demeter in Hermione.^[17]
  • Lakonia: Temple of Demeter Eleusinia near Taygetos. The fest was named Eleuhinia, and the name was given before the relation of Demeter with the cult of Eleusis.
  • Lakonia at Aigila: Dedicated to Demeter. Men were excluded.
  • near Sparta: Cult of Demeter and Kore, the Demeters (Δαμάτερες, "Damaters"). According to Hesychius, the fest lasted three days (Thesmophoria).
  • Corinth: Cult of Demeter, Kore and Pluton.^[17]
  • Triphylia in Elis: Cult of Demeter, Kore and Hades.^[17]
  • Pellene: Dedicated to the Mysian Demeter. Men were excluded. The next day, men and women became naked.
  • Andania in Messenia (near the borders of Arcadia): Cult of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Hagne. Hagne, a goddess of the spring, was the original deity before Demeter. The temple was built near a spring.
• Arcadia^[18]
  • Pheneos : Mysteries of Demeter Thesmia and Demeter Eleusinia. The Eleusinian cult was introduced later. The priest took the “holy book’’ from a natural cleft. He used the mask of Demeter Kidaria, and he hit his stick on the earth, in a kind of agrarian magic. An Arcadian dance was named kidaris.
  • Pallantion near Tripoli: Cult of Demeter and Kore.
  • Karyai: Cult of Kore and Pluton.^[17]
  • Tegea: Cult of Demeter and Kore, the Karpophoroi, "Fruit givers".
  • Megalopolis: Cult of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Kore Sotira, "the savior ".
  • Mantineia: Cult of Demeter and Kore in the fest Koragia.^[105]
  • Trapezus: Mysteries of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Kore. The temple was built near a spring, and a fire was burning out of the earth.
  • near Thelpusa in Onkeion: Temple of Demeter Erinys (vengeful) and Demeter Lusia (bathing). In the myth Demeter was united with Poseidon Hippios (horse) and bore the horse Arion and the unnamed. The name Despoina was given in West Arcadia.
  • Phigalia: Cult of the mare-headed Demeter (black), and Despoina. Demeter was depicted in her archaic form, a Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin.^[106] The temple was built near a spring
  • Lycosura,
    Main article: Despoina
    Cult of Demeter and Despoina. In the portico of the temple of Despoina there was a tablet with the inscriptions of the mysteries. In front of the temple there was an altar to Demeter and another to Despoine, after which was one of the Great Mother. By the sides stood Artemis and Anytos, the Titan who brought up Despoine. Besides the temple there was the hall where the Arcadians celebrated the mysteries^[107][108] A fire was always burning in front of the temple of Pan (the goat-god), the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks. In a relief appear dancing animal-headed women (or with animal-masks) in a procession. Near the temple have been found terracotta figures with human bodies, and heads of animals.^[18]
• Islands
  • Paros: Cult of Demeter, Kore and Zeus-Eubuleus.^[17]
  • Amorgos: Cult of Demeter, Kore and Zeus-Eubuleus.^[17]
  • Delos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus. Probably a different fest with the name Thesmophoria, celebrated in a summer month (the same month in Thebes). Two big loafs of bread were oferred to the two goddesses. Another fest was named ‘’Megalartia’’.^[19][104]
  • Mykonos: Cult of Demeter, Kore and Zeus-Buleus.
  • Crete : Cult of Demeter and Kore, in the month Thesmophorios.
  • Rhodes: Cult of Demeter and Kore, in the month Thesmophorios. The two goddesses are the Damaters in an inscription from Lindos
• Asia Minor
  • Knidos: Cult of Demeter, Kore and Pluton.^[17] Agrarian magic similar with the one used in Thesmophoria and in the cult of the potniai (Cabeirian).^[19]
  • Ephesos : Cult of Demeter and Kore, celebrated at night-time.^[109]
  • Priene: Cult of Demeter and Kore, similar with the Thesmophoria.^[19]
• Sicily
  • Syracuse: There was a harvest festival of Demeter and Persephone at Syracuse when the grain was ripe (about May).^[110]
  • A fest Koris katagogi, the descent of Persephone into the underworld.^[19]
• Magna Graecia
  • Epizephyrian Locri: A temple associated with childbirth; its treasure was looted by Pyrrhus.^[111]
  • Archaeological finds suggest that worship of Demeter and Persephone was widespread in Sicily and Greek Italy.
• Libya
  • Cyrene: Temple of Demeter and Kore^[19]

[edit] Ancient literary references

• Homer:
  • Iliad:
    • "the gods fulfilled his curse, even Zeus of the nether world and dread Persephone." (9, line 457; A. T. Murray, trans)
    • "Althea prayed instantly to the gods, being grieved for her brother's slaying; and furthermore instantly beat with her hands upon the all-nurturing earth, calling upon Hades and dread Persephone" (9, 569)
  • Odyssey:
    • "And come to the house of Hades and dread Persephoneia to seek sooth saying of the spirit of Theban Teiresias. To him even in death Persephoneia has granted reason that ..." (book 10, card 473)
• Hymns to Demeter^[112]
  • Hymn 2:
    • "Mistress Demeter goddess of heaven, which God or mortal man has rapt away Persephone and pierced with sorrow your dear heart?(hymn 2, card 40)
  • Hymn 13:
    • "I start to sing for Demeter the lovely-faced goddess, for her and her daughter the most beautiful Persephoneia. Hail goddess keep this city safe!" (hymn 13, card 1)
• Pindar^[112]
  • Olympian:
    • "Now go Echo, to the dark-walled home of Phersephona."(book O, poem 14)
  • Isthmean:
    • "Aecus showed them the way to the house of Phersephona and nymphs, one of them carrying a ball."(book 1, poem 8)
  • Nemean:
    • "Island which Zeus, the lord of Olympus gave to Phersephona;he nodded descent with his flowers hair."(book N, poem 1)
  • Pythian:
    • "You spendlor-loving city, most beautiful on earth, home of Phersephona. You who inhabit the hill of well-built dwellings."(book P, poem 12)
• Aeschylus^[112]
  • Libation bearers:
    • Electra:"O Phersephassa, grant us indeed a glorious victory!" (card 479)
• Aristophanes^[112]
  • Thesmophoriazusae:
    • Mnesilochos:"Thou Mistress Demeter, the most valuable friend and thou Pherephatta, grant that I may be able to offer you!" (card 266)
• Euripides^[112]
  • Alcestis:
    • "O' you brave and best hail, sitting as attendand Beside's Hades bride Phersephone!" (card 741)
  • Hecuba:
    • "It is said that any of the dead that stand beside Phersephone, that the Danaids have left the plains to Troy." (card 130)
• Bacchylides^[112]
  • Epinicians:
    • "Flashing thunderbolt went down to the halls of slender-ankled Phersephona to bring up into the light of Hades." (book Ep. poem 5)
• Vergil^[113]
  • The Aeneid:
    • "For since she had not died through fate, or by a well-earned death, but wretchedly, before her time, inflamed with sudden madness, Proserpine had not yet taken a lock of golden hair from her head, or condemned her soul to Stygian Orcus." (IV.696-99)

[edit] Modern reception

In 1934, Igor Stravinsky based his melodrama Perséphone on Persephone's story. In 1961, Frederick Ashton of the Royal Ballet appropriated Stravinsky's score, to choreograph a ballet starring Svetlana Beriosova as Persephone.

Persephone also appears many times in popular culture. She has been featured in a variety of young adult novels, such as "Persephone"^[114] by Kaitlin Bevis. "The Goddess Test" by Aimee Carter, and "Abandon" by Meg Cabot.

SALVADOR DALI'S DREAM CAUSE
BY A FLIGHT OF BEES AROUND A
POMOGRANTE

the native stories about 'star mother'

1. Lakota Astronomy

   www2.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/lakota.htmCached - Similar

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   Among the Lakota, there are many interesting myths and legends which are used to .... the place where one can find the hole from which Fallen Star's mother fell. ... Ray, eds., Earth and Sky: visions of the cosmos in Native American folklore, ...
   

2. Mysteries of Native American Myth and Religion - Google Books Result

   books.google.com/books?isbn=1430310731...Gary R. Varner - 2007 - History - 256 pages
   “...in her old home the star-mother forgot her earth- husband, but the son could ... are found in the Bad Lands, 146 MYSTERIES OF NATIVE AMERICAN MYTH ...
   

3. They Dance in the Sky: Native American Star Myths - Ray A ...

   books.google.com › ... › United States › Native American

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   Rating: 4 - 3 reviews
   

   Native American stories using the night sky. Includes descriptions of the tribes in the region and then retellings of several of their star myths. At the end of each ...
   

4. Artistry in Native American Myths - Google Books Result

   books.google.com/books?isbn=0803277857...Karl Kroeber - 1998 - Literary Criticism - 292 pages
   One person was sitting there, Ko-ko-mik'-e-is,† the Sun's wife, Morning Star's mother. She spoke to Scarface kindly, and gave him something to eat. "Why have ...
   

5. Albert B. Reagan (1981-1936) Papers - Brigham Young University

   files.lib.byu.edu/ead/XML/MSS250.xml?CISOROOT=/EAD...Cached

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   American author and historian who did research on Native Americans in the ..... Star Husbands - An Indian Myth A West Coast Indian Myth The Star Mother Myth ...
   

6. Native American Myths and Beliefs - Google Books Result

   books.google.com/books?isbn=1448859921...Tom Lowenstein, Piers Vitebsky - 2011 - Juvenile Nonfiction - 144 pages
   Morning Star's mother, the Moon, and his father, the Sun, welcomed Feather Woman. For a long ... NATIVE AMERICAN MYTHS BELIEFS AND. 126 127 128 129 ...

Glossary | Starstruck Comics

JaneMeredith.com > The Goddess

1. Loud Ninja Games: Who Are The Chuhuac?

   loudninjagames.blogspot.com/2012/03/who-are-chuhuac.htmlCached

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   Mar 6, 2012 – ... world of Sherawl by a great Star Mother who laid her celestial eggs on the world where she would ... This myth and archaeological evidence would indicate that the species is not native to the planet but rather was seeded or ...
   

2. Origin of the Heavenly Bodies | NZETC

   nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BesAstro-t1-body-d1-d2.htmlCached

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   by E Best - Cited by 51 - Related articles
   This myth is given in the form of a genealogical table:— .... higher Maori teaching, but looks like one of the many popular unorthodox myths so common among the natives. ... Te Ahuru is the Hine-te-Ahuru already referred to, the Star Mother.

*************

8-19-12  DREAMS -  I was sitting in an office waiting room, to see a doctor or dentist, and was waiting and waitiing and waiting and never got called because evidentlyy - he/she wasn't even there.

In the office where I sat, I had all my journal noteoboks with me to keep busywith, and I could hear a radio blasting away news in a darkened office off to the side.

I decided to go in that office and hsut off the radio and when I went to that office, off on the side was the office where all the drugs were kept.  That light was on and the drugs had been rummage through andn most of them were on the floor.

I turned around to leave the office and a skinny kid came in and I told him, "We have to callt he cops, there's been a robbery."

He said, "Dn't touch anything, "i'm security."

I decided to go see my boss down the hall and tell her what happened.

When I got into the officek, there were people laying all over the floor, doing exactly what I don't know, but I steped over them carefully and some of them were grabbing at my pant suit legs to stop me and pull me down n the flolor with them.

I managed to get to the other end of the office but my boss wasn't there.  She had gone into a side office with some other bosses, and instead of closing the door, they had sheets taped to the door opening, a white one, a green one, anda  blue one.

There was a girl sitting on a sofa at the end of the office - she had what I call a wizened face - very diminuitive face with huge brown eyes that were way too big for the face.

She said to me, "They are all in the office, trying to decide who is going to get laid off if and when we go to battle."

She continued talking and I could see her mouth moving animatedl, but I could no longer hear her and I knew I was awake.

So I opened my eyes.

Twice someone started to talk to me in my ear, but it sounded like a foreign language and I couldn't understand it.

I closed my eyes again, and was back in the dream.

Now I went to my bosses office and it turned out to be Dr. Dorian Lord from One Life to Live TV show.

The other woman with her in the office was  ____   from  The Golden Girls

Both of them had their hair wrapped in silk scarves, held on with gold safety pins to keep their hair neat hwile they worked.

A third desk in the office didn't have anyone sittintg there, so I promoted myself, and up tmy dream journals down on that desk.  

I was now carrying with me a gift plant that had a three foot doll attached to it that looked like a dancing fairy or oangel.  I told Dr. Lord that it was an anniversary gift - I had been there 10 years.

Her response was, "I never got a gift and I've been here since 1941.

I had to tell her what I knew, but assumed she already knew it because she was the head boss and she amde the decisions.

NOTE:  DORIAN LORD HAS BEEN IN MY DREAMS  34 TIMES, NOT COUNTING THIS ONE - SO NOW IT 35.

i ONLY HAD ONE DREAM WITH THE GOLDEN GIRLS, BUT IT WAS AN IMORTANT ONE

STRUGGLING WITH 11:11 and LIFE BEYOND

BARBARA GARRICK WAS THE WIZENED FACED WOMAN IN THIS DREAM AND SHE WAS ALSO IN THE STRUGGLING WITH 11:11 DREAM, LISTED ABOVE.

STRUGGLING WITH 11:11 - PART II

and

LIFE BEYOND

compiled by Dee Finney

STRUGGLING WITH 11:11 - PART I

STRUGGLING WITH 11:11 - AARON'S ROD - ARK OF THE COVENANT

DREAMS OF THE GREAT EARTHCHANGES - MAIN INDEX

CHURCH OF THE HOLY GRAIL

The Music Playing is titled 'To The Beyond II - by Enya'

THE RETURN OF THE FEMININE

compiled by Dee Finney