Chapter 10: Demeter And Related Myths

Question 1

What did the Greeks believe drove the pattern of renewal seen in plant and animal life; creation of new offspring?

Answer 1

Female power

Question 2

What was associated with divine female beings?

Answer 2

Fertility of the soil, the reproductive capacities of wild animals and the sexual attraction between man and woman

Question 3

What was Demeter often known as?

Answer 3

The Great Mother or the Great Goddess

Question 4

What does the -meter of Demeter mean?

Answer 4

Mother

Question 5

What was Persephonê?

Answer 5

She was a parthenogenesis which is an unmarried virgin

Question 6

What is the significance of Demeter and Persephonê?

Answer 6

They are often regarded as two aspects of a single figure; the Two Demeters or the Two Goddesses. They represented the permanently fertile earth and the seasonal giver of grain

Question 7

Who abducted Persephonê?

Answer 7

Hades

Question 8

Who were the four daughters of Celeus?

Answer 8

Callithoe, Callidice, Demo and Clisidice

Question 9

Who was the wife of Celeus?

Answer 9

Metaneira

Question 10

What was the name of the son of Metaneira and Celeus?

Answer 10

Demophoon

Question 11

What is Persephone known as?

Answer 11

Kore which means daughter or girl

Question 12

Who saw Hades take Persephone?

Answer 12

Helius

Question 13

What did Demeter do to the son of Metaneira?

Answer 13

She was in the process of burning away his humanity so he would become immortal but Metaneira saw and freaked out so she took off and left the child mortal

Question 14

How much time does Persephone spend in the mortal world and in the darkness below?

Answer 14

She spends two thirds of the year with Demeter and one third of the year with Hades

Question 15

What does the myth of Demeter offer a mythical explanation for?

Answer 15

The presence of death in the world. There can never be a world without death and there cannot be death without life

Question 16

What were the Eleusinian Mysteries?

Answer 16

It is one of the most famous cults of the ancient world. They originally began as an agrarian festival designed to present the growth of grain.

Question 17

Who were the families in charge of the Eleusinian Mysteries?

Answer 17

The Eumolpids and the Kerykes

Question 18

To whom did Demeter teach her secret rites?

Answer 18

Triptolemus

Question 19

What items did Inanna have to give up when she went to the Underworld?

Answer 19

She gave up her crown, earrings, beads around her neck, brooches at her breast, girdle of birthstones around her waist, bangles on her wrists and ankles and her dress

Question 20

What happened to Inanna after she sat on the throne of the underworld?

Answer 20

She was turned into a side of meat, green with decay and hung on a stake

Question 21

Who rescued Inanna?

Answer 21

Clay people made from the dirt under the nail of Enki

Question 22

Who took the place of Inanna?

Answer 22

Dumuzi

Question 23

Who was Cybele?

Answer 23

She was known as the Great Mother

Question 24

How was Agdestis born?

Answer 24

Cybele was asleep on a rock when Zeus chanced upon her. She resisted him until he spilled his seed on the rock which became pregnant

Question 25

What did Dionysus do to Agdestis?

Answer 25

He made Agdestis drunk and when he was asleep he made a noose of braided hair and slipped it over his feet and genitals. When he awoke he ripped the genitals from his body.

Question 26

What grew from the blood of Agdestis’ genitals?

Answer 26

A fruited pomegranate tree

Question 27

How did Nana become pregnant and what happened to her?

Answer 27

She plucked a pomegranate from the tree that sprung from the blood of Agdestis and became pregnant from that. Her father was disgraced and locked her up but Cybele saved her.

Question 28

What was the name of Nana’s child?

Answer 28

Attis

Question 29

What happened to Attis after King Midas made him marry his daughter?

Answer 29

Agdestis was furious that his son had been taken away from him and drove all the wedding guests mad. Attis took Agdestis’ flute and flung himself down the foot of a pine tree. He then ripped off his genitals and died from blood loss

Question 30

What tree grew from the grave of Attis and his maiden?

Answer 30

An almond tree

Question 31

What was the name of Celeus and Metaneira’s child?

Answer 31

Demophoon