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The Role Of Demeter In Greek Mythology

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Greek mythology are not just stories told but also stories that teach people from right and wrong. Although Demeter is best known for being the goddess of harvest, she is also known for having an act of destruction and showing the role of women in society.

Demeter was the daughter of Titans, Rhea and Cronus. Demeter had 5 siblings: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hestia and Hades. Demeter was the goddess of harvest. Demeter and Zeus gave birth to a girl named Persephone. One day Persephone was picking flowers in Sicily, when she caught Hades eye. Hades immediately fell in love with her beauty. Hades approaches Persephone and asks for her hand in marriage but she rejects him. But that does not stop Hades, he asks Zeus if he may have Persephone as his wife and rule the …show more content…

"Winter reigned during the spring season that year. The rains ceased, and the sun dried the grain in the fields. Nothing grew on the barren, lifeless earth." (47 Wise). Zeus tries to get Demeter to restore the Earth but she refuses. She says that until she has Persephone that the Earth will continue to die. Zeus realizes that he must get Persephone back to her mother and sends a message to Hades that he wants Persephone back. When the message gets to Hades, Persephone is eager to go back. Hades does not like the idea of not having her to himself, so he manipulates Persephone into having a meal with him before she goes. She agrees to have seven pomegranate seeds. Demeter and Persephone meet for the first time since she left to the Underworld when Demeter asks Persephone if she ate something in the Underworld. When she reveals that she had seven pomegranate seeds, Demeter panics. Demeter tells her that once you eat something from the Underworld you must stay there. But Hermes informs them that because Persephone only eat seven pomegranate seed that she would only dwell in the Underworld for seven months of the year and the other five months return to her mother, Demeter. So every year

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