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The Eleusinian Myth

Demeter and her daughter Persephone — known as ‘the two goddesses’ — were the prominent deities associated with the famous Eleusinian Mystery cult, celebrated for over a millennium until the end of the 4th century A.D.

“For those who were initiated into the mysteries of Demeter, an identification was made between the resurrection of the new corn and the promise of new life beyond death.”

The foundational myth of these mysteries explained the annual decay and regrowth of vegetation with a particular emphasis on the wheat crops. Moreover, for those who were initiated into the mysteries of Demeter, an identification was made between the resurrection of the new corn and the promise of new life beyond death.

Parallels in the Garden of Eden

The entrapment of Persephone, who was snatched away by death the very moment she picked the narcissus flower parallels the Genesis account of Eve, who being unable to resist the forbidden fruit, brought death into the garden of paradise.

After learning the truth concerning Persephone’s abduction from the all-seeing sun, Demeter cursed the earth. When the LORD God discovered Eve’s ‘marriage’ with death, he also cursed the earth.

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17–19)

Demeter’s curse rendered the earth totally infertile, and the oxen ploughed the fields in vein. Plough and furrow represent the male and female principles, and infertility indicates a frustration between the sexes.

Insight into the mystery of death

The barren earth is mirrored by Demeter’s transformation into an old women. This is a highly significant point because her re-transformation back into a beautiful goddess provides us with the key to explaining why Persephone was released from Hades despite the fact that she had eaten the food of death, and by rights, should of been bound to death for ever.

Parallel with Isis at Byblos

The episode of Demeter in Eleusis is paralleled in Plutarch’s (46 - 121 A.D) account of Isis in Byblos.

Osiris was trapped inside a chest by the evil Set, and cast adrift upon the Nile and eventually floated out to sea. The chest washed up on the shore of Byblos in Lebanon and became entangled in the roots of a young tree. Over time the tree grew around the chest encasing it with it’s trunk, and was finally chopped down to become the central pillar of the royal palace (Footnote: Axis-Mundi).

The goddess Isis came to Byblos searching for her lost husband, and disguised as an old women, she became the nurse maid to the baby prince. At night she placed the boy in a fire to burn away his mortality, and transforming herself into a swallow, flew around the central pillar containing the body of Osiris, while chirping loudly (This mad symbolism has it’s counterpart in the welsh myth of Lleu and Blodeuwedd. When Lleu (who is the Welsh version of the Iris Lugh) is slain, he is transformed into an eagle and sits on top of an oak tree, dropping maggots and rotting flesh to a hungry sow — the female transformed — down below).

Isis is discovered by the queen, the boy dies, and the goddess reveals her true identity, as in the Eleusinian myth.

The Immortal Boy

Achilles was likewise made immortal by his mother Thetis, who burned him in a fire and rubbed ambrosia into his body. Achilles father Peleus interrupted the refining process before it was complete, and Achilles ankle bone was left badly burned. The damaged ankle was replaced with another belonging to the giant Damysos, a fast runner, whose ability Achilles inherited. This ankle remained his one vulnerable spot, and he was finally killed by Paris, who shot him in the heel with an arrow (Footnote: Foot Wound).

Insight into the mystery of rejuvenation

The unveiling, or rather rejuvenation, of Demeter, symbolizes the removal of the curse upon the barren earth — which was in need of divine fertilization — made possible through the death (and spontaneous rebirth) of the mortal/immortal child Demophoon. In the myth, the true association between Demeter’s metamorphosis and Demophoon’s death is disguised, probably to keep the uninitiated in a state of ignorance.

According to the Genesis account, the curse upon the earth was only an aspect of the total curse of death and separation from God, but in the Eleusinian Mysteries it occupied center stage due to the cult’s agricultural emphasis. However, the initiate was not unaware of the transcendent implications.

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