Demeter was the goddess of
fertility. She protected the field and the corn and looked also after flowers and fruits.
Demeter had a daughter with Zeus,
Persephone. They were
strongly connected and often she gets mentioned in connection with
Demeter. Her symbols were the narcissus, the poppy and the crane.
But
somehow Hades, the god of the underworld, fell in love with
Persephone and kidnapped her. Demeter mourned a long
time and, as she knew from the sun god Helios that it was Hades who had
taken away her daughter, she went on strike. Then she left the Olympus and disregard all
her task. Soon the earth got infertile. She worked as a usual women for
the King Keleus of Eleusis. Nothing bloomed, nothing grew and a lot of
necessary things were missing.
At that point Zeus ordered to release
Persephone from the underworld. However, she was still connected with the
underworld through a pomegranate Hades gave her and had to spend half a year on the Olympus and the other half in the underworld.
The Beginning / Gods of the Olympus / Smaller Gods
