   In Greek mythology, '''Demeter''' (; Attic  ''Dēmētēr''. Doric   ''Dāmātēr'') is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons (personified by the Hours). Her common surnames are  Sito (: wheat) as the giver of food or corn/grainEustathius of Thessalonica, scholia on Homer, 265. and Thesmophoros (, ''thesmos'': divine order, unwritten law) as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society. Themis was an ancient Greek goddess, embodiment of divine order,law. She was the organizer of the communal affairs and she evoked the social order: Finley, ''The World of Odysseus'', rev. ed. Viking Press. (1978:78 note 82) Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sanctity of marriage, the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of circa 1400-1200 BC found at Pylos, the &quot;two mistresses and the king&quot; are identified with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.John Chadwick, ''The Mycenean World''. Cambridge University Press, 1976. Her Roman equivalent is Ceres.  == Etymology ==  The earliest attested name of Demeter, written in Linear B (Mycenean Greek) is ''Da-ma-te''. Her character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name ''meter'' ('''') derived from PIE &quot;mater&quot; (mother).[ Online Etymology Dictionary &quot;mother&quot;] In antiquity, different explanations were already proffered for the first element of her name. It is possible that ''Da'' ('''') (which became Attic ''De'' ('''')), is the Doric form of ''Ge'' (''''); the old name of the chthonic earth-goddess and Demeter is &quot;Mother-Earth&quot;.[ Online Etymology Dictionary &quot;Demeter&quot;] This root also appears in the Linear B inscription ''E-ne-si-da-o-ne'', &quot;earth-shaker&quot;, as an aspect of the god Poseidon.[ Adams, John Paul, ''Mycenean divinities''] List of handouts for California State University Classics 315, retrieved 7 March 2011. The element ''De'' may be connected with ''Deo'', a surname of DemeterOrphic Hymn 40 to Demeter (translated by Thomas Taylor: &quot;O univeral mother Deo famed, August, the source of wealth and various names&quot;. probably derived from the Cretan word ''deai'' (''''), Ionic ''zeai'' ('''') meaning &quot;barley&quot;, so that she is the Corn-Mother and the giver of food generally.Martin Nilsson, ''Geschichte der Griechischen Religion'', vol. I (Verlag C.H.Beck) pp 461-462. However, the ''dā'' element is not so simply equated with &quot;earth&quot; according to John Chadwick:Chadwick, ''The Mycenaean World'', Cambridge University Press, 1976, p. 87) &quot;Every Greek was aware of the maternal functions of Demeter; if her name bore the slightest resemblance to the Greek word for 'mother', it would inevitably have been deformed to emphasize that resemblance. [...] How did it escape transformation into ''*Gāmātēr'', a name transparent to any Greek speaker?&quot;  Compare the Latin transformation ''Iuppiter'' and ''Diespiter'' vis-a-vis ''*Deus pāter''. Silver double-edged axe from Arkalochori (Heraklion Museum).Also golden double-edged axe in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts: ''Bulletin of the Museum Fine Arts Boston'' '''57''' (1959 p 5ff The incription shows the in Linear B acquainted ''da''.F.Scachermeyer (1964):''Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta''.W.Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart. p 344 The interpretetion ''Ida-mata'' (mother goddess Ida),from the mountain Ida  is not generally accepted.Interpretetion N.Buphidis (1958)''Eph.arch 1953/54'' (1958) p 64 ff. Caratteli interpreted it as ''i-da-ma-na'':Caratelli (1957) ''Minos V.On the hieroglyphic script of Arkalochori&quot; p 172f For ''-damate'' there is an analogue structure in the name of Rhadamanthus ,(''ra-da-ma-tu''), the representative and judge of Elysion (the Island of the Dead), which seems a counterpart to Eleusis, the city of the Eleusinian mysteries.Such inscriptions often record dedications to deities and as with Linear B syllabic inscriptions they were followed by certain ideograms that identified particular offerings, including cereals, figs, wine, and oil. The Linear A ideogram referring to cereals is speculatively connected with the syllabic word ''da-me''.Tablets from Hagia Triada HT 86a,HT 95: Peruzzi (1959) ''Word XV ''pp 317,318ff .''Based on joining of tablet-fragments by means of Ernest Bennet''F.Schachermeyer (1964), ''Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta'', Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart pp 254, 266.--&gt;  Another suggtion for an etymology comes through Potnia and Despoina, both related goddesses, which suggest a Protoeuropean etymology. &quot;De&quot; is a derivative form of the PIE &quot;dems&quot; (House, dome), and Demeter is probably a relative word interpreted as &quot;mother of the house&quot; (from PIE *dems-mater). Frisk.Griechisches Etymological Woerterbuch. Entry 1271    Besides the uncertain etymologies it seems that Demeter took the place of the Minoan Great Goddess and Poseidon substituted the male god who accompanied her (Greek ''paredros''); they are identified in Arcadian cult.Nilsson 1967:444  Pausanias I 31,4- III 14,5 This can explain the name Demetrioi that the Athenians gave to the dead, and probably reflects an ancient cult of the dead, linked to the agrarian-belief that a new life would sprout from the dead body, as a new plant arises from buried seed. This was probably a belief shared by initiates in Demeter's mysteries, as interpreted by Pindar: &quot;Happy is he who has seen what exists under the earth, because he knows not only the end of life, but also his beginning that the Gods will give&quot;. In antiquity Demeter was also ''zei-doros arura'', the Homeric &quot;Mother Earth arura&quot; who gave the gift of cereals (''zeai'' or ''deai'').Martin Nilsson, (1967), ''Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion'', C.F.Beck Verlag Munchen,  pp 462, 466, 675-676.--&gt;  ==Greek mythology==  Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter [[Persephone-Kore at Selinunte, Sicily 6th century BC]]  In some of the earliest accounts Demeter was triune goddess representing the Virgin (Kore), the Mother (Pluto &quot;Abundance&quot;), and the Crone ('Persephone the Destroyer'), representing the cycle of birth, life, and death. In later legends, the name Pluto was transferred to the god of the underworld, and elements of Kore and the name Persephone became associated as her daughter.Walker, B. G. The Woman's Encycloped of Myths and Secrets, pg 218-219   Another aspect of Demeter, was known as the Aganippe &quot;the Mare who destroys mercifully&quot;, a black winged horse worshiped by certain cults. In this aspect her idols (such as one found in Mavrospelya, the Black Cave, in Phigalia) she was portrayed as mare-headed with a mane entwined with Gorgon Snakes.Walker, B. G. The Woman's Encycloped of Myths and Secrets, pg 219 This aspect was also associated with Anion (or Arion) whom Heracles rode, who later inspired tales of Pegasus.Walker, B. G. The Woman's Encycloped of Myths and Secrets, pg 413, 780 Aganippe became associated with a spring, where Pegasus was born according to one legend, and the nymph of the same name.  Demeter as an agricultural goddess appears rarely in the epic poetry. In Homer's ''Odyssey'' she is the blond-haired goddess who is separating the chaff from the grain.''Odyssey'' 5.499 The harvesters must pray to Zeus-Chthonios (chthonic Zeus) and Demeter so that the crop will be full and strong.Hesiod ''Works and Days'', 465 In the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod she is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. At the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, Demeter lured Iasion away from the other revelers. They proceeded to have intercourse in a ploughed furrow in Crete; she later gave him a son, Ploutos.''Odyssey'' 5.125; Theogony 969 ff.   Persephone, Queen of the underworld, is daughter of Zeus and Demeter.Hesiod, ''Theogony'' [ 912];[ ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'' (2)]; Pausnias, ''Description of Greece'' [ 8.37.9] The myth of the rape of Persephone seems to be pre-Greek. In the Greek version Ploutos (πλούτος, wealth) represents the wealth of the corn that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (''pithoi''). Similar subterranean ''pithoi'' were used in ancient times for funerary practices and Pluto is fused with Hades, the King of the underworld. During summer months the Greek Corn-Maiden (Kore) is lying in the corn of the underground silos, abducted by Hades (Pluto) as it is described in Theogony. Kore is fused with Persephone, the Queen of the underworld. At the beginning of the autumn, when the corn of the old crop is laid on the fields she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at this time the old crop and the new meet each other.[ Martin Nilsson, ''Greek Popular Religion.'' ] pp 48-50  In the primitive myths of isolated Arcadia in southern Greece Despoina (Persephone), is daughter of Demeter and Poseidon ''Hippios'', Horse-Poseidon. These myths seem to be connected with the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north during the Bronze age. Poseidon represents the river spirit of the underworld and he appears as a horse as it often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and she bears one daughter who obviously originally had the form or the shape of a mare too. Demeter and Despoina were closely connected with the springs and the animals. They were related with the God of the waters Poseidon and especially with the mistress of the animals Artemis who was the first nymph. Martin NIlsson (1967).''Die Geschichte der Griechischen Religion''.V.H.Beck Verlag.Munchen pp 479-480  == Corn mother at Eleusis ==  According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, the greatest gifts which Demeter gave were cereal (also known as corn in modern Britain), the cultivation of which made man different from wild animals and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife.Isocrates, ''Panegyricus''[ 4.28]: &quot;When Demeter came to our land, in her wandering after the rape of Kore, and, being moved to kindness towards our ancestors by services which may not be told save to her initiates, gave these two gifts, the greatest in the world — the fruits of the earth, which have enabled us to rise above the life of the beasts, and the holy rite, which inspires in those who partake of it sweeter hopes regarding both the end of life and all eternity&quot;.  In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, dated to about the seventh century BC,Nilsson, Martin P. (1940). [ ''Greek Popular Religion'']. p. 45: &quot;We have a document concerning the Eleusinian cult which is older and more comprehensive than anything concerning any other Greek cult, namely, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter composed in Attica before Eleusis was incorporated into the Athenian state, not later than the end of the seventh century BC. We know that the basis of the Eleusinian Mysteries was an old agrarian cult celebrated in the middle of the month Boedromion (about October) and closely akin to the Thesmophoria, a festival of the autumn sowing celebrated by the women not quite a month later. I need not dwell upon this connection, which is established by internal evidence as well as by direct information.&quot; she is invoked as the &quot;bringer of seasons&quot;, a subtle sign that she was worshipped long before she was made one of the Olympians.  She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon.  Demeter's emblem is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among the barley.  == Titles and functions == , Demeter and Persephone by the Triptolemos-painter, ca 470 BC., Louvre]] The goddess's epithets reveal the span of her functions in Greek life. Demeter was the &quot;Corn-Mother&quot; who blesses the harvesters. Howeverk, some cults interpreted her as &quot;Mother-Earth&quot;. Demeter and Kore, &quot;the Maiden&quot;, are usually invoked as ''to theo'', &quot;the two Goddesses&quot;. In certain cults they were called ''Despoine'', the &quot;Mistresses&quot;.Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 5.15.4. They appear in that form in Linear B (Mycenean Greek) inscriptions at Mycenaean Pylos in pre-classical times, as ''potniai'', &quot;the mistresses&quot;, and they are connected with Poseidon.   Demeter is easily confused with Gaia or Rhea, and with Cybele, all of them embodying aspects of the pre-Hellenic Great Goddess. A connection with the goddess-cults of Minoan Crete is quite possible. Similar with Hittite ''išhaššara'',&quot;lady&quot; or &quot;mistress&quot;.Palmer sees -me as an PI possesiv-pronoun and interprets it as &quot;my lady&quot;  similar with the Hittite ''išhaššaraŝamiŝ''.The name does not seem to have PIE origin,compare Ishara-Ishtar:F.Schachermeyer (1964).''Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta''.W.Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart. p 263 It is possible that the title mistress of the labyrinth that appears in a Linear B inscription belonged originally to Sito,the Great Mother Demeter and in the Eleusinian mysteries this title was kept by her daughter Persephone (Kore or Despoina).R.Wunderlich(1975),''The secret of Creta''.Souvenir Press Ltd.London p 319--&gt;    In various contexts, Demeter is invoked with many epithets, which offer clues to her roles:  *Aganippe (&quot;the Mare who destroys mercifully&quot;, &quot;Night-Mare&quot;)  *The Crone, Persephone the Destroyer. Representing her role as bringer of death. The name was later transferred to her daughter.  *The Virgin, Kore. Representing her role as bringer of life. The name was later associated with her daughter Persephone.  *Potnia (&quot;mistress&quot;) in the ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter''. Hera especially, but also Artemis and Athena, are addressed as &quot;potnia&quot; as well.  *The Mother, Pluto (&quot;Abundance&quot;) representing her role as long life and harvest. The name was later transferred onto a separate god of the underworld, who married her daughter Persephone.  *Despoina (&quot;mistress of the house&quot;), a Greek word similar to the Mycenean ''potnia''. This title was also applied to Persephone, Aphrodite and Hecate.  *Thesmophoros (&quot;giver of customs&quot; or even &quot;legislator&quot;), a role that links her to the even more ancient goddess Themis, derived from ''thesmos'', the unwritten law.L.H. Jeffery (1976). ''Archaic Greece: The Greek city states c.800-500 B.C'' (Ernest Benn Limited) p. 42 ISBN 0-510-03271-0This title was connected with  the Thesmophoria, a festival of secret women-only rituals in Athens connected with marriage customs.    *Erinys (&quot;implacable&quot;),Pausanias 8.25.50 with a function similar with the function of the avenging Dike (Justice), goddess of moral justice based on custom rules who represents the divine retribution, C.M. Bowra(1957), ''The Greek Experience''(1957:87, 169).  and the Erinyes, female ancient chthonic deities of vengeance and implacable agents of retribution.  *Chloe (&quot;the green shoot&quot;),Pausanias 1.22.3. that invokes her powers of ever-returning fertility, as does Chthonia.  *Chthonia (&quot;in the ground&quot;), chthonic Demeter in Sparta.Pausanias 3.14.5   *Anesidora (&quot;sending up gifts from the earth&quot;) applied to Demeter in Pausanias 1.31.4, also appears inscribed on an Attic ceramic a name for Pandora on her jar.Anesidora: inscribed against her figure on a white-ground ''kylix'' in the British Museum, B.M. 1881,0528.1, from Nola, painted by the Tarquinia painter, ''ca'' 470–460 BC ([ British Museum on-line catalogue entry])  *Europa (&quot;broad face or eyes&quot;) at Lebadaea of Boeotia. She was the nurse of Trophonios to whom a chthonic cult and oracle was dedicated.Pausanias.''Guide to Greece''.9.39.2-5 Europa was a Phoenecian princess who Zeus abducted, transformed in a white bull, and carried her to Creta.  *Kidaria in the mysteries of Pheneos in Arcadia Pausanias 8.13.13where the priest put on the mask of Demeter kept in a secret place. It seems that the cult was connected with the underworld and with an agrarian magic.Martin Nilsson (1967).''Die Geschichte der Griechiesche Religion'' Vol. I pp 477-478. Demeter might also be invoked in the guises of: *Malophoros (&quot;apple-bearer&quot; or &quot;sheep-bearer&quot;, Pausanias 1.44.3) *Lusia (&quot;bathing&quot;, Pausanias 8.25.8) *Thermasia (&quot;warmth&quot;, Pausanias 2.34.6) *Achaea, the name by which she was worshipped at Athens by the Gephyraeans who had emigrated from Boeotia.Herodotus, v. 61;Plutarch ''Isis et Osiris'' p. 378, d  *Poppy goddess:  Theocritus, wrote of an earlier role of Demeter as a poppy goddess: :''For the Greeks Demeter was still a poppy goddess'' :''Bearing sheaves and poppies in both hands.'' — ''Idyll'' vii.157  , Vatican Museum, Rome, Italy. Demeter and Ceres sometimes are identified in art holding a tuft of grain.]]  In a clay statuette from Gazi (Heraklion Museum, Kereny 1976 fig 15), the Minoan poppy goddess wears the seed capsules, sources of nourishment and narcosis, in her diadem. &quot;It seems probable that the Great Mother Goddess, who bore the names Rhea and Demeter, brought the poppy with her from her Cretan cult to Eleusis, and it is certain that in the Cretan cult sphere, opium was prepared from poppies&quot; (Kerenyi 1976, p 24).  In honor of Demeter of Mysia a seven-day festival was held at Pellené in Arcadia.Pausanias, 7. 27, 9. Pausanias passed the shrine to Demeter at Mysia on the road from Mycenae to Argos but all he could draw out to explain the archaic name was a myth of an eponymous Mysius who venerated Demeter.  Major sites for the cult of Demeter were not confined to any localized part of the Greek world: there were sites at Eleusis, in Sicily, Hermion, in Crete, Megara, Celeae, Lerna, Aegila, Munychia, Corinth, Delos, Priene, Akragas, Iasos, Pergamon, Selinus, Tegea, Thorikos, Dion, Lykosoura, Mesembria, Enna, and Samothrace.  She was associated with the Roman goddess Ceres. When Demeter was given a genealogy, she was the daughter of Cronos and Rhea, and therefore the elder sister of Zeus. Her priestesses were addressed with the title Melissa.  Demeter taught humankind the arts of agriculture: sowing seeds, ploughing, harvesting, etc. She was especially popular with rural folk, partly because they most benefited directly from her assistance, and partly because rural folk are more conservative about keeping to the old ways. Demeter herself was central to the older religion of Greece. Relics unique to her cult, such as votive clay pigs, were being fashioned in the Neolithic. In Roman times, a sow was still sacrificed to Ceres following a death in the family, to purify the household.  == Demeter and Poseidon ==  Demeter and Poseidon's names are linked in the earliest scratched notes in Linear B found at Mycenaean Pylos, where they appear as DA-MA-TE and PO-SE-DA-O-NE in the context of sacralized lot-casting.  In one myth, Poseidon once pursued Demeter, the Earth Mother, in her archaic form as a mare-goddess. She resisted Poseidon, but she could not disguise her divinity among the horses of King Onkios. Poseidon became a stallion and covered her. She bore a daughter Despoina (: the &quot;Mistress&quot;), whose name should not be uttered outside the Arcadian Mysteries,&quot;In Arcadia she was also a second goddess in the Mysteries of her daughter, the unnameable, who was invoked only as 'Despoina', the 'Mistress'&quot; (Karl Kerenyi, ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter''(Princeton University Press) 1967:31f, instancing Pausanias, viii.37.9. and a horse named Arion, with a black mane and tail.The title ''Despoine'' was also given to Persephone.  In Arcadia, Demeter was worshiped in her archaic form into historical times. Her ''xoanon'' of Phigaleia shows how the local cult interpreted her: a Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water.L.H. Jeffery (1976). ''Archaic Greece: The Greek city states c.800-500 B.C'' (Ernest Benn Limited) p 23 ISBN 0-510-03271-0 Most of these are symbols of the Minoan Great Goddess.    == Demeter Erinys: Vengeful Demeter == Outraged by Poseidon, Demeter was literally furious (''Demeter Erinys'') at the assault, but washed away her anger in the River Ladon, becoming ''Demeter Lousia'', the &quot;bathed Demeter&quot;.Other ritually bathed goddesses were Argive Hera and Cybele; Aphrodite renewed her own powers bathing herself in the sea. &quot;In her alliance with Poseidon,&quot; Karl Kerenyi noted,Kerenyi, ''The Gods of the Greeks'', 1951:185. &quot;she was Earth, who bears plants and beasts, and could therefore assume the shape of an ear of corn or a mare.&quot; In her period of eclipse, the Grain Goddess brought desiccation and death to the croplands of which she was the patroness. Pausanias explicitly connects the neglect of her festival with the barrenness of Phigalia. The rites at Phigaleia noted by Pausanias remained local; by contrast, the specifically Eleusinian mythic theme of Demeter and Persephone, accounting in another way for the annual eclipse of Demeter, was given the widest conceivable currency through the Eleusinian Mysteries that celebrated and recreated it, and passed into the mainstream tradition, as it was carried by literary sources.  == Demeter and Persephone ==    , (1891).]] The central myth of Demeter, which is at the heart of the Eleusinian Mysteries, is her relationship with Persephone, her daughter.  Demeter had a large scope of abilities. Besides being the goddess of the harvest, she also controlled the seasons, and because of that she was capable of destroying all life on earth. In fact, her powers were able to influence Zeus into making Hades bring her daughter Persephone up from the underworld. Persephone became the goddess of the underworld when Hades abducted her. She had been picking flowers, when a great chasm opened up behind her and Hades rode out in a chariot and took her. Life came to a standstill as the depressed Demeter searched for her lost daughter, wandering the Earth night and day.Karl Kerenyi, ''The Gods of the Greeks'' 1951:232-41 recounts in detail this often-referred-to cluster of myths, with citations in classical authors, notes 784-98.  Finally, Zeus could not put up with the dying earth and forced Hades to return Persephone by sending Hermes to retrieve her. Hades agreed, but said he could send her up only if she had not eaten any food in the underworld. Before Persephone was released, she had eaten a number of pomegranate seeds (the number varies in various versions; one, three, four, or even seven according to the telling), which forced her to return for four months each year.  According to some modern writers such as Walter Burkert, this corresponds with the dry Mediterranean summer, during which plant life is threatened by drought.Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' (Harvard, 1985) p. 160. Winter, autumn, and spring by comparison have heavy rainfall and mild temperatures in which plant life flourishes.  However the ancient commentary by Porphyry did not understand the myth in this way and saw Persephone's descent as connected with the autumn and winter months.  It was during her trip to retrieve Persephone from the underworld that she revealed the Eleusinian Mysteries.  In an alternate version, Hecate rescued Persephone. In other alternative versions, Persephone was not tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds but chose to eat them herself. In the latter version it is claimed that Ascalaphus, one of Hades' gardeners, claimed to have witnessed her do so, at the moment that she was preparing to return with Hermes. Regardless, the result is the occurrence of the unfruitful seasons of the ancient Greek calendars. Persephone's return made spring.  According to the personal mythology of Robert Graves,Graves' work on Greek myth was often criticized; see The White Goddess#Criticism and The Greek Myths#Reception. Persephone is not only the younger self of Demeter,The idea that Kore (the maiden) is not Demeter's daughter, but Demeter's own younger self, was discussed much earlier than Graves, in Lewis Richard Farnell (1896), [ ''The Cults of the Greek States'', volume 3, p.121.] she is in turn also one of three guises of the Triple Goddess — Kore (the youngest, the maiden, signifying green young grain), Persephone (in the middle, the nymph, signifying the ripe grain waiting to be harvested), and Hecate (the eldest of the three, the crone, the harvested grain), which to a certain extent reduces the name and role of Demeter to that of groupname. Before Persephone was abducted by Hades, an event witnessed by the shepherd Eumolpus and the swineherd Eubuleus (they saw a girl being carried of into the earth which had violently opened up, in a black chariot, driven by an invisible driver), she was called Kore. It is when she is taken that she becomes Persephone ('she who brings destruction'). Hecate was also reported to have told Demeter that she had heard Kore scream that she was being raped.Graves, Robert. ''The Greek Myths''. Penguin, 1990. ISBN 0-14-001026-2. 24. pp.94–95.  == Demeter's stay at Eleusis ==  : Persephone, Triptolemos and Demeter, on a marble bas-relief from Eleusis, 440–430 BC.]]  Demeter was searching for her daughter Persephone (also known as Kore). Having taken the form of an old woman called Doso, she received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the King of Eleusis in Attica. He asked her to nurse Demophon and Triptolemus, his sons by Metanira.  As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon as a god, by coating and anointing him with ambrosia, breathing gently upon him while holding him in her arms and bosom, and making him immortal by burning his mortal spirit away in the family hearth every night. She put him in the fire at night like a firebrand or ember without the knowledge of his parents.  Demeter was unable to complete the ritual because his mother Metanira walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not understand the concept and ritual.  Instead of making Demophon immortal, Demeter chose to teach Triptolemus the art of agriculture and, from him, the rest of Greece learned to plant and reap crops. He flew across the land on a winged chariot while Demeter and Persephone cared for him, and helped him complete his mission of educating the whole of Greece in the art of agriculture.  Later, Triptolemus taught Lyncus, King of the Scythians the arts of agriculture but he refused to teach it to his people and then tried to murder Triptolemus. Demeter turned him into a lynx.  Some scholars believe the Demophon story is based on an earlier prototypical folk tale.Nilsson (1940), p. 50: &quot;The Demophon story in Eleusis is based on an older folk-tale motif which has nothing to do with the Eleusinian Cult. It is introduced in order to let Demeter reveal herself in her divine shape&quot;.  == Children ==   *Persephone (by Zeus) *Despoina (by Poseidon) *Arion (by Poseidon) *Plutus (by Iasion) *Philomelus (by Iasion) *Eubuleus (by Karmanor) *Khrysothemis (by Karmanor) *Amphitheus I (by Triptolemus)  == Portrayals ==  *Demeter was usually portrayed on a chariot, and frequently associated with images of the harvest, including flowers, fruit, and grain. She was also sometimes pictured with her daughter Persephone.  *The Black Demeter, a sculpture made by Onatas.  *Demeter is not generally portrayed with a consort: the exception is Iasion, the youth of Crete who lay with Demeter in a thrice-ploughed field, and was sacrificed afterwards – by a jealous, and envious Zeus with a thunderbolt, Olympian mythography adds, but the Cretan site of the myth is a sign that the Hellenes knew this was an act of the ancient Demeter.   