Homeric Hymns

“The divine one walked behind them, / Sorrowing in her heart, her head veiled, dark robe / Eddying around her slender, sacred feet.”

Demeter is tormented by the loss of her daughter, Persephone. Without Persephone, Demeter’s identity as a mother is abruptly stolen from her. Therefore, she chooses to abandon her patronage over mothers. Yet, her goddess identity cannot be completely negated, and it shows at her exposed feet.

“Demeter, bringer of seasons, giver of bright gifts,

Declined to touch the couch in all its splendor,

But stood there stubborn, lovely eyes averted.

Then shrewd Iambe set a well-built stool out,

And draped a fleece the shade of silver.

Sitting on this, Demeter pulled her veil

Over her face and sat in quiet sorrow.”

When Demeter crosses the threshold into the mortal home, she resolves to give up her divine nature and connection to motherhood in its entirety. She undergoes a fall from grace and honor, from the immortal world to the mortal (though she doesn’t completely lose her divinity) to. Denied the couch, Demeter is treated as an older, mortal woman.

“I am revered Demeter. From me is given / The greatest help and joy to gods and mortals.”

In an act of rage, Demeter reclaims her goddess identity and reveals her true goddess form. She resolves to find Persephone, embracing her ties to motherhood. But she forgoes her patronage over agriculture and fertility by starting a famine.