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Demeter

The Mother of the Harvest

Domain: Agriculture & Seasons
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Earth
Relics of Power: Golden Wheat Sickle

Speak with Demeter

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Greeks

Region

Greece & the Mediterranean

Period

8th c. BC – 4th c. AD

The Olympian gods were worshipped by the city-states of ancient Greece, from Athens to Sparta, which raised them temples such as the Parthenon. Reigning atop Mount Olympus, they presided over every aspect of life and were celebrated in festivals like the Olympic Games. Homer and Hesiod fixed their myths, which shaped all of Western culture.

The Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus, and the Panathenaea celebrated Athena in Athens. The Eleusinian Mysteries initiated the faithful into the secrets of Demeter and Persephone, while crowds consulted Apollo's oracle at Delphi.

At a glance

Demeter is the Greek goddess of grain, harvest and cultivated land, daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of Zeus. The Homeric Hymn addressed to her tells of the abduction of Persephone and the founding of the rites of Eleusis, the Mysteries that, according to the hymn itself, gave initiates a better lot after death.

16 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Wheat sheaves, sickle, torch, cornucopia and the poppy

Family

Parents

Cronus Rhea

Siblings

Hestia Hera Hades Poseidon Zeus

Demeter

Unions

Zeus PoseidonIasion

Children

PersephonePloutosArionDespoina

Genealogy according to Hesíodo, Teogonia 453–457, 912–914 e 969–974; Pausânias 8.25.5–7 e 8.42.1

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Demeter. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Hesíodo / Hesiod, Teogonia / Theogony. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Hesíodo / Hesiod, Works and Days. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece, part Pausanias1B. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece, part Pausanias1C. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece, part Pausanias8B. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1935. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece, part Pausanias8C. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1935. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece, book 9 (Boeotia). translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1935. read
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, book 1. translation: James George Frazer, Loeb, 1921. read

Studies

Karl Kerényi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter. Bollingen Series LXV.4, Pantheon Books, 1967.
Helene P. Foley, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Princeton University Press, 1994.
Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1896–1909.
Theoi Project, Demeter. Aaron J. Atsma, 2000–2017. open
Wikipedia, Demeter (Etymology; iconography; cults). Wikimedia Foundation (consulted 14/10/2026), 2026. open
Wikipedia, Eleusinian Mysteries. Wikimedia Foundation (consulted 14/10/2026), 2026. open
Wikipedia, Thesmophoria. Wikimedia Foundation (consulted 14/10/2026), 2026. open
Wikipedia, Cerealia. Wikimedia Foundation (consulted 14/10/2026), 2026. open
Wikipedia, Ceres (Roman mythology). Wikimedia Foundation (consulted 14/10/2026), 2026. open
Wikipedia, Demeter of Knidos. Wikimedia Foundation (consulted 14/10/2026), 2026. open
Wikipedia, Dion, Pieria. Wikimedia Foundation (consulted 14/10/2026), 2026. open
Wikipedia, Karl Kerényi. Wikimedia Foundation (consulted 14/10/2026), 2026. open

Name and epithets

The Greek name Δημήτηρ (Dēmētēr; in the Doric dialect Δαμάτηρ, Dāmātēr) has mētēr, "mother", as its second element. The first element is disputed.

In the ancient sources

Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Demeter, 7th cent. BC. Archaic narrative of Persephone's abduction, Demeter's search, her reception at Eleusis, the famine imposed on mortals and the institution of the rites.

The myths

The abduction of Persephone and the barren earth. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Persephone gathers flowers on the plain of Nysa when Hades carries her off with Zeus' consent.

Worship and archaeology

In the Homeric Hymn, the cult of Demeter at Eleusis arises from the goddess's own command: after the episode of Demophoon she orders a temple and an altar to be built on a hillock above the well Callichorus and promises…

How the god was depicted

The Homeric Hymn describes the goddess with veiled head and dark cloak, torches in her hands during the search, and, when she reveals herself, with golden tresses over her shoulders and a light that fills the house.

What scholars debate

The origin of the name: earth or grain?. The first element of Δημήτηρ divides scholars. The reading "Mother Earth", which associates dā- with a name for the earth, is rejected as improbable by Liddell and Scott, and Bee…

After antiquity

At Rome, Demeter was identified with Ceres; the goddess's name was synonymous with grain and, by extension, with bread, and from it derives the word "cereal".

Did you know?

According to the Homeric Hymn, it was Iambe who, with many a quip and jest, made Demeter smile and laugh when she came to the house of Celeus, neither eating nor drinking.

Codex relic

Golden Wheat Sickle. A ceremonial sickle that makes fields sprout in barren soil or condemns the land to perpetual famine.

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