Magic line loaf pans
West has proposed that the word Demeter, initially Damater, could be a borrowing from an Illyrian deity attested in the Messapic goddess Damatura, with a form dā- ("earth", from PIE *dʰǵʰ(e)m-) attached to - matura ("mother"), akin to the Illyrian god Dei-paturos ( dei-, "sky", attached to - paturos, "father"). John Chadwick also argues that the dā element in the name of Demeter is not so simply equated with "earth". Liddell & Scott find this "improbable" and Beekes writes, "there is no indication that means "earth", although it has also been assumed in the name of Poseidon found in the Linear B inscription E-ne-si-da-o-ne, "earth-shaker". It is possible that Da ( Δᾶ), a word which corresponds to Gē ( Γῆ) in Attic, is the Doric form of De ( Δῆ), "earth", the old name of the chthonic earth-goddess, and that Demeter is "Mother-Earth". In antiquity, different explanations were already proffered for the first element of her name. ĭemeter's character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name meter ( μήτηρ) derived from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *méh₂tēr (mother). On the other hand, ??????, si-to-po-ti-ni-ja, " Potnia of the Grain", is regarded as referring to her Bronze Age predecessor or to one of her epithets. It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in a Linear B ( Mycenean Greek) inscription ( PY En 609) the word ???, da-ma-te, probably refers to "households".
It is possible that Demeter appears in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents ( AR Zf 1 and 2, and KY Za 2), all three apparently dedicated in religious situations and all three bearing just the name ( i-da-ma-te on AR Zf 1 and 2). One of the most notable Homeric Hymns, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, tells the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades and Demeter's search for her.ĭemeter was often considered to be the same figure as the Anatolian goddess Cybele, and she was identified with the Roman goddess Ceres. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a religious tradition that predated the Olympian pantheon, and which may have its roots in the Mycenaean period c. Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. Her cult titles include Sito ( Σιτώ), "she of the Grain", as the giver of food or grain, and Thesmophoros ( θεσμός, thesmos: divine order, unwritten law φόρος, phoros: bringer, bearer), "giver of customs" or "legislator", in association with the secret female-only festival called the Thesmophoria. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter ( / d ɪ ˈ m iː t ər/ Attic: Δημήτηρ Dēmḗtēr Doric: Δαμάτηρ Dāmā́tēr) is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over grains and the fertility of the earth.