Demeter

In Greek mythology Dêmêtêr ( Greek :"mother-earth" ) is the goddess of grain and fertility. She is invoked as the "bringer of seasons " in the Homeric hymns , a subtle sign that she was worshipped long before the Olympian gods and goddesses arrived in the Greek mythos. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter has been dated to sometime around the Seventh Century BC. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the long enduring Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon. The Roman name for Demeter is Ceres , from whom the word "cereal" is derived.

Demeter is easily confused with Gaia or Rhea , and with Cybele . The goddess's epithets reveal the span of her functions in Greek life. Demeter and Kore ("the maiden") are usually invoked as to theo ('"The Two Goddesses"), and they appear in that form in Linear B graffiti at Mycenaean Pylos in pre- clasical times.

According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates , the greatest gifts which Demeter gave were cereal (also known as corn in modern Britain) which made man different from wild animals; and the Mysteries. The central myth of Demeter, which is at the heart of the Eleusinian Mysteries is her relationship with Persephone , her daughter and own younger self.